Richard Noggin

I find the losses to be LESS impactful in the midst of such a dominating run. Actually now, I expect the Bills to lose next week as well. Two-week skids are a thing. As long as they close out strong against the dregs of the AFCE, then whatever. It only matters how they perform in the playoffs now. This is the main contention most Bills fans have with McD once we're in the playoffs. His bend-don't-break defense only works if your offense is playing LIGHTS-OUT and/or if you get some timely stops or turnovers. The D-line needs to be more effectively disruptive, and our guys just have NOT been disruptive enough outside the Chiefs game. (And the Chiefs O-line is bad.) McVay's offense absolutely torched our D all day. And the Bills offense stumbled enough in the first half (which has been a problem) to cost them in the end.

It becomes a cap management thing, though. The retreads and free agent backups tend to cost a bit against the cap, while still not really being likely to string together a bunch of wins. So why not build up the pipeline with drafted talent (within reason) who might be just as successful or even more so, while still providing value due to low AAV and even potential to be traded or compensatory pick value if signed away.

Drafting a developmental QB should be seen as smart cap management tbh. Grab a guy on day 2 or 3 who hopefully fills your backup QB position at a crazy savings for 2-4 years. That's just smart roster building, when executed. Trubisky ain't exactly doing Allen's homework for him and piping in the answers on game days. Come on. Might even bring out yet another level of leadership in JA17 to have another talented young QB on the roster.

Let's not overcomplicate this position group evaluation: Mitchell Trubisky is HOT GARBAGE. With the exception of his 2nd season (and to a lesser extent, his 4th and final season) in Chi, with Nagy calling the shots (and providing easy answers in general and defined reads in the RPO game), the guy has had a serious issue with pulling the darn trigger. His years away from Nagy's/Reid's system (years 1 & 5-7) have shown him to be similar to Tyrod Taylor: athletic, conservative, reluctant. His time in Pittsburgh really seemed to illustrate this point, with Kenny Pickett providing the anticipatory confidence/aggression (despite limited arm talent) to inject at least some life into that offense. Please replace Trubisky ASAP or at least bring in some developmental talent. Thank you.

So **nudging you** are you going to tell him?

Then we're trusting Douglas to mark Williams all game? Or bracketing him while singling St. Brown? They both move around so much pre-snap which complicates things. And #9 is continually emerging as their most dangerous receiving threat. St. Brown is an excellent chain mover, no doubt. But Williams is becoming more of a potential problem imho. Like if Jaylen Waddle was a few inches taller.

I think you're actually stating something different than your intention here. If you say a team won BY a certain number of points, you're actually highlighting the point differential. What we see here would suggest those Giants teams won the last two playoff games of each of those seasons BY a margin of 20 points each. Which would be outright dominance, rather than the close, one-score games they actually won. Semantics 🧐

I'm glad you at least found value in his early work, as I certainly did. For 4 or 5 years now I only get to watch roughly half the season on a TV with audio (season tix), and on those weeks I turn down the broadcast volumes or socialize with friends or what have you to actively avoid the shrill and repetitive and unsophisticated corporate narratives that nearly all broadcasts shove down our throats. Collinsworth screeches when he whispers. Collinsworth's voice is grating when he sings a lullaby. Collinsworth's self-satisfied whine is at least as unpleasant as Tom Brady's insecure shrillness, but the broadcast vet has had many more years to workshop his TV impression of a real human being who likes and studies sports activities with at least a shred of humor. Agreed here. All I ever want is someone who will translate what's happening in real time into an authentic NFL language. Watch the same screen I'm watching and tell me what you're picking up on pre-snap and post-snap and whatnot. Point out in-game trends and adjustments. Speak candidly. So, you know, I want something I will only get even a glimpse of (in brief little quips) from the Mannings.

Milano was supposed to be on a pitch count, and was meant to play on 1st and 2nd downs. They admitted he got a few more snaps than they had intended. Dude's an ELITE coverage (and blitzing) LB but came off the field on every 3rd down they could sub him out. That's a pitch count in my book I guess.

Back in March I agreed with the emphasized critique: Rapp WAS wild. (see next quote) Since he's donned the Guardian Cap, he seems to have turned an unpredictable weakness -- being an irresponsible, head-down friendly fire scud missile -- into a relative strength, with more controlled and impactful physicality. (see next quote) Dude was a wildcard, but did flash a bit as 2023 went along. Now he's kind of awesome, and I don't think a comparison to a younger Poyer is at all off base. And remember, Poyer had Hyde out there with him for years. Love to see it. Difficult play to pull off these days, to be honest. Props to Rapp for harnessing his violence. Reminds me a lot of Poyer with respect to style and strengths. More of a strong safety for sure.

Disagree in part because of what @Einstein's Dog shares below (responsibility to always look for ways to improve his team). But also disagree because Hyde already has the first hand trust and respect of MANY or even MOST (?) of the locker room. Also important to consider that in the scenario where he returns, Hyde would be on a pitch count of sorts for a number of weeks. Probably mostly in on specific down-and-distances/personnel packages, at least for a while. Like that extra dime DB that has gone from Ingram (among others) to mainly Lewis lately. So he wouldn't be simply benching Hamlin. Also, film review doesn't lie. If Hamlin is late on some run reads/fits and taking bad downhill angles, as it looks like lately to me, then you know his coaches and teammates (at LEAST in the DB room) are aware of that. That's all IF, of course. I'm no expert nor am I pretending to be by streaming my own film breakdowns. Frankly, we miss SO much at the stadium. We also see SO much. But we're not getting clear and comprehensive replays on the scoreboards or any kind of discernible audio over the PA system, so we're just vibing from play to play without much reflection or narration.

15+ years of playoff drought gave rise to a hopeless rust belt binge drinking display on gamedays; the tailgate WAS the spectacle. So many millennials and Xers don't even remember a good portion of the actual games they attended during the drought. Or so I'm told... That place was really something in the 80s. Can only imagine what it was like in the 70s.

Agree on the positive perception of Hollins' personality, and therefore disagree that he's actually all that weird at all. He's eccentric about a bunch of stuff, no doubt. Portrays a commendable contrariety to cultural norms, but does not come off as weird to me in that he conveys no awkwardness or discomfort while doing so. Actually seems really composed and likeable, quite frankly. More of an oddball than a weirdo. Guess I just read the word "weird" with a pejorative/creepy connotation. Semantics.

Man I loved that show for a short time in my youth. Formative influence on my id-driven early adulthood (late childhood), no doubt.

We know it was at least a door left partially open between Hyde and Beane (with some comments to that end), and that door has not yet been publicly closed by either party. Stranger things have happened. Feels like we've actually seen a fair amount of this sort of late season 30-something vet signing across the league (and with the Bills specifically) for a little while now.

Brady has really meshed with Kromer, among other offensive assistant coaches. You can probably attribute some of that to McDermott's longstanding and now kinda prescient desire to field a balanced offense capable of running the ball (specifically with zone concepts) downhill. He let Daboll run the show in a slightly or hugely different manner for a couple years there, but his vision for winning football has come back into favor this season especially. Think Detroit, Philly, Buffalo.

Exactly. Offensive players aren't technically allowed to "grab" any part of a defender's body, especially from behind. The (really long, like down to his waist almost) hair that was briefly grabbed in this case is just distracting people from basic rules.

Took you that long to attain Pro Bowl nihilism lol? He's definitely been SO much more fundamentally sound and responsible with his helmet placement on tackles since suffering the concussion that caused him to don the Guardian Cap. He's really been a plus starter as the season has progressed. Any sports awards voting schema that includes fans can be nothing more than this.

Whatever continues to push Josh Allen and his teammates towards ending the season with a win. If it's an NFL MVP award, so be it. If it's getting snubbed for that same award, also fine with me. There is only one goal for the remainder of Allen's career, and that is winning championships. The rest is important to the guys in most cases (contract accelerators, FA values, etc.), but still only secondary, tertiary, quaternary, and so on when compared to team success. That also gets people paid (on the roster, the coaching staff, and in the front office).

Twiiter post a little while back had a quote like "2017 Steelers locker room must have had airborne CTE" LOL Diontae Johnson another victim?

Agreed on the division opponents and playing a team for a 3rd time. Also agreed on Nix. His smallish hands had all kinds of trouble earlier in the season during a rain game. Like puzzling ball handling issues for an NFL QB. Curious to see how he'd handle the ball in 20 degrees with 10-15 mph winds and flurries.

Thanks for this. I've appreciated some of Simms' analysis in past. But also the podcast/radio space requires a high volume of content, so it's not always A-grade analysis or terribly novel/insightful. Before I give it a genuine go, is this one presenting stuff for even alert Bills fans to chew on?

Tackling by hair has nothing to do with a blocker grabbing any part of a defender. It's legal to tackle by hair, and we know that. It's NEVER legal to grab a defender at all, much less by the hair as he runs past you. Thankfully the refs missed it. That's holding.