Richard Noggin

A lot of posters on this board would privately hope to be this lucky by age 46. Tommy Doyle is still only 26! Has earned over $3M in 4 years in the league. Probably went to college entirely for free. At face value, that all sounds pretty LUCKY.

Brady's scheme with Buffalo, to date, obviously hasn't been designed to feature a particular WR/target consistently, week-over-week. So the "everyone eats" mantra has been touted instead, and for the most part, I appreciate that approach. However, doesn't it seem like anything the Bills have really wanted to do in the passing game, generally, philosophically, like any ways they've intended to utilize specific targets, has either been anticipated by defenses and shut down, or just hasn't worked. I'm thinking of Harty and Samuel each of the last two years, respectively, being that motion/sweep guy, or screen guy, and also of Davis and Coleman, respectively, being that sideline/contested catch guy, and even Kincaid being much of anything to fear/respect. The obvious fits haven't "fit" in the passing game. Brady's real successes have come from isolating Ty Johnson in the passing game one week, and Dawson Knox another week, and often from Allen just making plays and finding Shakir (along with some flashes by the rookie Coleman and decent skinny posts by Hollins). Something still seems to be missing from the passing game, if we're looking for things to flag. It's gotta be the downfield threat, or lack thereof. Right?

I recall a lot of noise suggesting Hall left on less-than-amicable terms. Not necessarily open hostility, but there was talk of him feeling passed-over and also maybe not aligned with McDermott's vision for offense? His going to Jacksonville WAS a lateral move following the Bills' promotion of a different offensive coach, after all. Agree with the bolded to an extent. Allen definitely took a huge step forward with respect to on-field maturity/decision-making. But the Bills also seemed unwilling OR UNABLE to leverage all this intentional offensive physicality and balance into aggressive shot plays for the majority of the season. Part of that might have been the lack of WRs who could reliably get behind defenses. Part of that might have been Allen missing a handful of those plays when they were there. Part of that might have been conservative coaching philosophy. Difficult for us to see it clearly. *agree completely on the tight ends. The duo of Knox and Kincaid should be a menace in some way each week. Knox and Allen have always had a decent chemistry, and Kincaid is now entering year three. Time to see it on a consistent basis. **does anyone still have lingering questions about Brady's passing concepts? Route concepts and spacing? Curious if our smarter contributors can weigh in on this point. ***SUPER unpopular question: is Josh Allen kinda relatively meh at those ULTRA FAST/RPO type decisions post-snap? Seems like he's not with the Elite level guys on quick game/option-heavy plays. With Daboll he had some obvious success for stretches with a shotgun, spread, quick passing attack, but in 2020, defenses were far less muddled and variable and away game crowd noise didn't exist...I don't know

Even Robert Foster legitimately flashed in the second half of Allen's rookie season. Guys with that extra gear and knack for getting behind a defense had historically performed well with Allen...until things changed. The Bills WR depth chart got gradually worse, no doubt, and right as defensive coordinators learned to put a bit of a lid on the deep ball. Hence the offensive pendulum swinging back to balance and blah blah. But you still need at least that deep threat to compete against the best. And the Bills need to get it back to complement their balanced, physical attack. To continue to evolve.

Almost sounds like rather than a DK Metcalf (as many are hoping for), a Tyler Lockett type is more specifically valuable to Josh Allen (given the OP's logic). Excellent deep speed/extra gear and enough sneaky nuance to repeatedly get behind (and then stack or simply outrun) DBs, with near-elite ball tracking. Very similar RAS to Desean Jackson's, believe it or not. That's the John Brown mold, just a little bigger and healthier and more athletic overall, innit?

Keeping Cooper should have ZERO impact on drafting a Day One WR. Having drafted Kincaid and Coleman YoY should have more impact on that decision tbh. Unfortunately, neither has shown more than occasional flashes of ability so far. But signing a 30-year old Cooper shouldn't be considered anything more than a one year stop gap on the boundary. Still gotta stock the pipeline behind him. Harmon strikes me as the perfect odd-front DE/DT. So much length and leverage. Even fronts like the Bills, Rams, Lions, Eagles, Bengals, etc., run, often rely on narrower, more specific/specialized position fits, whereas flexible odd fronts like the Steelers, Chiefs, Patriots, Packers, etc., can more easily find roles for tweeners and freaks. His comp on BR is Daquan Jones, so 1T isn't crazy. But in general I agree that he could be more dominant kicked out a gap or two wider on many snaps.

Our coaches simply don't have baked-in answers in the gameplan against KC in the playoffs, compared to what they go up against. Our coaches are worse. Our team seems less prepared to capitalize on the actual game conditions. They need to adjust to their opponent.

Turns out that boring, physical offense was the answer, and they were too reluctant to be boring. Cook and Co. was the key, and the Bills failed to adjust to their tush push being neutralized. Conservative football, no 2-pt conversions, could have overcome the slanted and favorite-ing calls we had to endure.

Isn't Codrington always active when healthy? He's the starting punt returner.

What do you mean "MAYBE codrington is active"?

At 36 years old, can he REALLY play CB? Or even S for that matter, while we're at it? DBs, more than ANY other position on the field, rely on quick feet, loose hips, and acceleration. Not sure those are the traits that stick around well as one embarks upon the back half of his 30s. (The rare and celebrated exceptions to this are testaments to the difficulty and physical demands of the position.)

Because they won every game I attended? (Obviously every fan who attended a home game this season can say the same.)

Pizza and wings from Good Guys in NT for our crew

I do. I'm good at enjoying things. The Bills crushed my adolescent heart repeatedly throughout the 90s. Not sure I can even be hurt anymore. Time to visit some of that angst and pain upon those Missouri swine tomorrow.

Seems like we have NO answers for why the Ravens went away from their bread and butter offensive attack. Except ball handling by a QB who hates the cold. The Bills actually DARED Lamar to stand back in the pocket and pick them apart. Some of those snaps, time-to-throw, were egregiously extended. The Bills were intentionally willing to let a pocket Lamar do his thing. Anything to prevent him from breaking out of containment. Outrageous snap-to-throw times. Smart to force Lamar into drop-back situations instead of scrambling situations, overall. Might have negatively influenced the quality of some of his most obvious throws, including the fading/nose-diving flat pass to Andrews that gets fumbled and dropped as je backpedals to adjust.

I can't imagine a world where Diggs actively accepts weekly target shares that range from nearly zero to double digits, but mostly result in negligible active involvement. Maybe repeatedly feeding Diggs on simple routes would help Allen get going against top defenses, such as the last two weeks, but Diggs' presence overall was more toxic than any potential benefit I can superimpose over this current HIGHLY synchronized offensive attack.

Yes, the Ravens were a super tough matchup, except that they didn't do to Buffalo almost ANYTHING they did to Pittsburgh. There was (effectively) ZERO zone-read, multiple-option ball handling in the backfield. Lamar's hands were COLD is the only justification. He did have two turnovers that were out of character. And must have been worried about more. Because we got the most vanilla version of the Ravens offense I've seen all season. The Ravens WERE pretty great, but just didn't translate that greatness onto the COLD field of the divisional round. I guess. Seriously, they leveraged almost none of the built-in advantages of having Henry AND Jackson. It was bizarre.

I do not consider this question, ever. Diggs is just WRONG about how championship teams are assembled and optimized, because he only allows for ONE vision of offensive roster-building and game-planning. NO ONE NEEDS a noisy, awesome, gritty, competitive ELITE-type WR who disappears in the playoffs. He DID suffer from having substandard WR talent around him as the years progressed, and there was the 13 seconds debacle. But otherwise, Diggs himself did not live up to his own standards when it mattered most.

Will be a real shame for visiting teams to have better facilities at the new Highmark Stadium. Probably will have hot water across the street. End of an era.

He clearly didn't think it was a PERFECT situation for him here. I think the same thing happened in Buffalo that had already happened in Minnesota: Diggs didn't want to be a part of a run-heavy (or even balanced) offense, especially when there was a WR1B (Thielen) competing for the reduced target share. Pretty sure he's been open about that shift in philosophy he didn't agree with. Might have coincided with Stefanski leaving for Cleveland? Similarly, once Daboll left Buffalo, Diggs understood that there was no more shield against McDermott's vision for physical, mistake-free, complimentary football. You know, WRs blocking in the run game. Unselfish football. Again, he knew he didn't fit with the HC's (new OC's) vision. (Might have also witnessed the worst stretch of Josh Allen's career, on and off the field, and decided the kid was too distracted and immature to turn it around.) Nice to see how wrong Diggs was about the Bills and about Allen.

There are legitimate questions about McDaniels as a leader and as a developer of QBs. That being said (lol), I've always respected his commitment to fielding physical offenses that run the ball and utilize the short passing game as an extension of that rushing attack. He's obviously been the OC for some VERY successful offenses/teams, and we all know the easy way to discredit his contributions to those successful seasons...but he's always struck me as a clever, ultra-competitive, worthy foe. (Totally possible that he's too intolerable and unyielding to work with today's players; I'd think that's where the HC and all the assistants could help to round out the workplace/meeting room culture.)

Was Lamar so affected by the cold (not sure how much he mentions his hands in the episode) that the Ravens offensive gameplan almost entirely scrapped any additional ball handling? Didn't see much of their scary zone-read, option-heavy attack with Lamar as the point guard in the backfield. None of that stuffing the ball into a back's chest, riding with him, and then pulling it out again. (Sounds hawt as I read that again...)

I had forgotten about this game, especially with respect to Glenn's D getting GOT by the Bills more than once...was it like 26 seconds remaining when we got the ball? I was at that game. ROWDY environment in the endzone/corner nosebleeds.

Lamar is a dude. If you love football, or even just sports in general, you can't dislike this guy. I've tried. It won't stick.