Richard Noggin

The tone of your post, unfortunately, is NOT the norm. I 100% agree that the team is NOT playing well, and that I don't see easy answers moving forward. I booed the hell out of McDermott's decision to kick that FG today, and I'm definitely pissed at how soft the team looks. People can post anything they want, of course. No one gets to tell you how to be a fan. But so many indulge hyperbolic negativity and fatalism, and do so repeatedly, and for what? It's kind of lame.

I have season tickets with my Sicilian mother (who taught me how to care too much about football), and therefore spend every home game at the stadium trying in vain to use humor and perspective to disrupt her old world fatalistic frustrations. In truth, it's exhausting. Then I come here and see the same s#!t: people falling over themselves to be more right about how bad the team truly is and how lost the season is. Is there some prize I'm unaware of for predicting their demise? I don't disagree that right now the Bills are playing bad football. But there are 7 games left and the Bills still control their destiny. What's fun about whining and declaring the end is near?

They looked like loose stool today. But the irony of posters waving white flags in mid-November while simultaneously calling the team soft is, well...it's just what the internet is for.

It is getting more and more difficult to remain emotionally invested in the NFL; which is maybe a good thing? I'm 43 now, so I was in 7th grade when the Bills (SB XXV) first broke my heart (I remember the AFCCG two years prior breaking my family's hearts, but I wasn't yet fully invested). The majority of memories over the next 30 years are punctuated by pain. And I'm thankful for the life lessons this legacy has taught me. This resilience has served me well through multiple recessions, crises, and personal reconstructions. But the current state of officiating, combined with Goodell's ongoing legacy of an absolute rejection of accountability and transparency across many scandals and crises, including the COVID pandemic, has me questioning the fundamental on-field/competitive realities in ways I resisted up until now.

You're really carrying the toughness torch tonight, innit. It's okay for people to come at the sport from different perspectives. We don't all have to think like Mike Vrabel from the comfort of our computers. Football is a rough game, no doubt. And talking about it causes many people, you included, to project their own baggage/experiences onto their analyses. Just be confident in your own toughness and let the weaker members of the Bills flock be. Or better yet, protect them from the ugliness you've so obviously been party to.

I once got hit by and then run over by my own Subaru which I was trying to stop with only my body. And to be honest, afterwards, lying there bloody and bashed, chest heaving, looking up at the clouds and blue sky, I felt VERY alive. Does that count?

It's just not that simple.

And they SHOULD pay that man. Which will require some tightening of the purse for the rest of the position group.

Might I suggest a solution?

I've been struggling with how to phonetically spell out his pronunciation here, but let me try: Beeyooz. The Buffalo Beeyooz. Say it fast. I'm close to it.

That tweeted workout video is from March 2021, no? Yes, he absolutely looks LEAN (way too lean to play the o-line), but I wonder if that's not a) what happens quickly to certain linemen when they stop their insane NFL caloric regimens (they're not all naturally 300+ pounders) and b) intentional (weight loss) to allow for a faster rehab by putting significantly reduced strain on the joint(s) and muscles involved. Rehabbing at 270 has to be less painful, faster, and safer than at 330 (Osemele's listed weight). He could have theoretically spent the next seven or eight months bulking up gradually to get above 300. Just a thought on possible recovery strategy.

The bolded is in large part how I see things...in that I watch opposing offenses run motions and play-actions and bootlegs and half-field reads (not to mention simple slants and swings) to get their QBs in rhythm and to get ahead of the chains on early downs. Yet it just doesn't seem like the Bills have been scheming those kinds of QB-friendly plays on early downs, despite the OL struggles. Daboll needs to script an opening sequence of plays that gets Allen and the entire offense going. Get Diggs involved (the way we did last season when they needed a spark), get the pocket moving, get people in motion, and get the damned ball out of Allen's hands. Let his playmakers carry the load for a change (and I don't mean with WR screens against press-man).

THIS felt like a huge indictment of our o-line players and coaches as it unfolded without catastrophe for the Titans.

So in this example, can we, as fans, ever know what's causing this SNAFU? Is Allen screwing up the pre-snap protection calls? Is Morse to blame (centers often set protections)? Is it the result of "replacement" guards (Ford was the opening day starter, mind you) and a lack of "chemistry"? Or is it poop coaching? What's the effing malfunction here?

LOVE seeing Chicago persevere tonight. No guarantees they hold, but damn they should be proud of their resilience.

Seeing Chicago overcome those nightmare penalties is fun. It's like every team versus the NFL.

Just happened again. Absolutely horrendous, game-changing penalties. It's infuriating even when it's not my team getting jobbed.

We've all watched the Bills offense fall into these ruts where pre-snap motion disappears, where the pocket is never moved, where play-action is non-existent... I think back to the Cardinals game last year, during that abysmal 3rd quarter, when we were just dropping back repeatedly and the o-line was getting smoked. It wasn't until Mckenzie got on the field again and ran some sweep action that the offense woke up. Daboll seems to want every game to ideally be like that 49ers game where Josh just surgically picks apart a defense while standing flat-footed in the pocket all day/night. But our offense, and really any offense, has to keep defenses off-balance with motion and play-action and various looks to continually work.

That's the WORST kind of feedback following a loss. And I'm not here to poke holes in Griffin's observations.

Rare case where most agree with the "Get Er Done!" sentiment. Which of course means the Bills don't have a chance at him falling to us in the waiver claim order.

It's happening again on MNF. The refs are absolutely too involved in the games. It's pervasive.

It's okay to admit when your team is wrong. I know we don't think that way these days, in so many phases of life, but it's okay to admit when your team is wrong.

That would require Daboll to call plays based on the flow of the game in real time. The Buffalo offense does NOT seem to run plays in organic sequences based on what's immediately happening on the field. Daboll seems to be an overthinker when it comes to play-calling, overlooking obvious and immediate adjustments in favor of premeditated plans.

He was CLEARLY limping on the play (on replay), favoring the braced right leg. At first glance, however, I also saw him just NOT react to the snap, but then on replay I saw him visibly hobbling after his man as the play ended. Did he get hurt? Did he act hurt to cover his ass? Is our suspect depth absolutely decimated right now? Is life worth living? I'm not sure what to do...

I found Taiwan Jones to be especially below average today on STs (penalties included), which is especially frustrating when our most all-around effective RB leaves the game and we're suddenly left with just Singletary at the position. McD MUST reevaluate his gameday roster management, given the lack of positionally-valid TEs and RBs compared to other teams. No opponent respects the Buffalo offense as a multi-faceted attack. The league has caught up to our formations and tendencies. The O-LINE NEEDS HELP OUT THERE! You can't be so predictable based on formation + down-and-distance when your offensive linemen are physically overmatched. Those players need the play calls and sequencing to help them at least have a fighting chance against their individual opponents. Now we're even being blitzed again. So the Bills are currently incapable of successfully attacking ANY of the schemes they're facing. This suggests a fundamental regression.