Richard Noggin

Only name that made sense there, yeah.

Nothing to do with Pats for me. Teams are going to rise and fall. There will be fierce competition. Sucks that Vrabel's in the division with a rising star at QB, but the league doesn't stand still. For me, it's a Bills-specific, organizational lack of optimization and innovation. From roster management, to opponent-specific gameplans, to player execution. McD should always call the defense, no matter what. And he should leave alone Kromer, Brady, and Allen (and Cook) to come together and turn the offense into a point maximization machine who can also control the game once they get ahead. Probably our WR coach has been hot trash since Hall left (ignoring the room he's working with). But something ain't being maximized there. Might have something to do with QB coaching, too. Allen isn't exactly his very best right now. My angst is usually more about the offense. With our running game, it's absolutely soul-crushing that the Bills can't/don't threaten defenses deep and intermediate. Their deep balls are handoffs to Cook or RAC throws to Shakir. Defenses must be cheating up like crazy (pre- and/or post-snap). Been the case in the playoffs for years.

The real kicker is that the Bills came out against Atlanta seemingly, finally committed to attacking deep and intermediate with Palmer, only to have him get injured on an illegal/scummy hip drop tackle just as he was grooving.

Clark?

How many times was Mahomes illegally granted a fresh 25 second play clock just because he raised the roof?

Nope, he was step away from being contacted when he turfed it. Gutless and conservative. But smart, I guess.

Some platooning, but also some different nickel and dime looks, methinks. I truly wish the broadcast announcers/commentators would just watch the monitor that shows the same frame fans at home are following, and comment on what they see regarding Xs and Os and personnel and schemes and whatnot. Forget all the coach cutaways and fan scans and backstories and all that, and just talk to us about the football contest underway. Analyze the football game itself. Please. I was initially aghast at only 14 snaps, then realized he was limited/questionable all week, AFTER a week off. So let's hope he's fresh for next week. And utilized HEAVILY.

Fundamentally, yeah. They have holes. But they can feast on bad or mediocre offenses, and at least hurry up good offenses.

Little habits and tweaks you introduce in private practice, in the offseason, then in the Spring and Summer, dozens and hundreds of times, which might at first make it HARDER to come down with the ball, but over time will win you a slight advantage on each contested ball overall, at least those where DBs are clocking your eyes and hands in anticipation of an approaching pass. Imagine how much of this hand-fight tinkering goes on for offensive linemen, for example. Throwing feints or holding back all together; It's like fencing, or boxing, or even hockey faceoffs. So many individual engagements in large part determined by eyes and hands (and of course feet).

Would be a LOT louder if the entire stadium just clapped instead of twirling those stupid handkerchiefs. Like, how do the towels help the players on the field?

Obviously.

He's flawed against the run in the eyes of most, but there's no question that he brings elite pass rush juice and can almost always find another gear when it's on the line. Not unlike TJ Watt, for example. Probably less physical, but that's splitting hairs.

Was it Davonte Adams who was recently highlighted in-game for just this trait? Late eyes/hands? Such a cool nuance.

Fair. So maybe there are specific offenses/QBs who tend to lean on the back-shoulder/underthrow enough that DBs need to get their heads around when the WR eyes flash and/or the arms raise...gotta be opponent-specific techniques for each game. Some savvy WRs DON'T tip off the pass's arrival clearly enough (with eyes or arms) for the DB to respond in time, while others definitely do. Some QBs (Tua) don't have the arm strength to get it deep enough if thrown too late in the route, so the DBs have to anticipate an underthrow...

Tom Brady used to turf the ball without ANY effort to make it look catchable or valid, so long as some RB or TE was within 5 yards. He was shameless about it.

Honestly I'd reverse this argument entirely. It's the guys in trail position who are closing on the WR while the (ostensibly underthrown) pass approaches and the WR throttles down to adjust, causing the DB to contact him without playing the ball... Whereas if that same DB turns his head sooner while still sprinting to catch up, he's able to get his hands up (and even leave his feet) to legitimately play the ball in spite of contact. Face-guarding is a penalty if it involves contact while the ball is in the air. Gotta turn your head...OR somehow maintain just enough separation (difficult to do with back shoulders and underthrows) while reading the WR's eyes and arms for when to swat. Please don't use this thirsty plagiarism machine. It just amalgamizes so many online posts by people who do AND don't know what they're talking about. Plus it drains a Finger Lake in doing so. Let's talk to one another without bringing venture capital-forced products into this.

An objective view of the Pats v Bills game should emphasize that the Bills played terribly, the refs shaved hard with one-sided calls early, and even dumb luck seemed one-sided...and still the Pats escaped with a one-score win. It took a LOT to lose that game by 3, including REALLY bad offensive play. While the loss of Ed Oliver, presumably for most/all of the season, is just more of that unlucky brutality, the Bills will be a different team (for the better) when they face New England again. Who among us would swap coaching staffs with the Pats straight-up?

I've never attributed the hesitance/confusion/happy feet to self-preservation, as Allen is always a dawg even when he's out of sync, but there is definitely something(s) interfering with his rhythm and success as a passer for 3-4 weeks consecutively. Smells to me like the passing concepts are just not working, whether that's personnel-related or scheme-based, or both. Really is a repetitive shame that we don't get to see Josh Allen in his prime with dangerous receiving weapons (outside of like 2-3 seasons with Smoke Brown, Beasley, and Diggs and Davis). Even that group proved to be limited once we got to the point in the playoffs where the Chiefs/Bengals are allowed to mug everyone. So it's been unfortunate to watch the beastiest QB ever not have a beasty WR who just elevates when needed (outside of 13 seconds). This is why I wanted Ben Johnson to replace McD, so we could finally just go all-in on JA17 and attack teams relentlessly. Not unlike Daboll did overall, except his running game couldn't dictate and his OL were always pass blocking a TON. Something is badly missing from the Bills passing game, and it's probably talented WRs and an OC who can scheme up advantageous matchups for his best guys (Kincaid and Cook, mostly). **was nice to see McD's LBs mugging the A-gaps pre-snap today, like old times, even if one of those looks got chewed up for a nice inside run gain. I feel like that dude just needs to seize the defense and leave Brady alone forever. Either it works or we learn a lot about Brady and Co.'s limitations.

This take has been coming up more and more. And I have a hard time disagreeing with it. The best coaches empower their guys to go out there and play aggressively. McD like to pretend he wants his guys playing aggressively, but the play calls on offense don't often align with that mantra. They just want to run and convert 3rd downs and not turn the ball over. Like if they had never let Tyrod Taylor go. Like they're more worried about the opposition than the opposition is about them. So fundamentally conservative. So fundamentally boring. Players need to have fun out there. Players need to feel like the coaches believe in them.

The first few games of the season, I kept pointing out (in real life) how Allen was frequently and masterfully stepping UP in the pocket and often THROUGH the pocket between OC and LG, or LG and LT. It was amazing how natural it was for him time and again. He was moving forward and usually finding a throw or a few yards. Then something changed around about the Saints game (and definitely the Pats game), usually the point in the season where DCs have enough film to make opponent-specific adjustments. Now Allen seems downright jumpy and out of sync. Not diagnosing Ds or setting protections pre-snap as well as he should. Throwing off-platform and inaccurately. Indecisive/in-between in his decisions. But we've seen this before. He can be streaky. He can be frazzled. Remember how many seasons we spent watching the first few offensive snaps so closely to determine if Allen was psyched-out OR dialed-in? Like which Allen are we getting today? Gotta call the first drive like a 2-minute drill to start with a positive play, even if it's a short pass. Then maybe follow it up with a designed QB run to get Allen some contact and shake him out of his own head. I don't think #17 looked fully present and in control today until about the time he was pulled from the game.

Well thanks to THIS thread the cover's blown.

The water table somewhere in this country was lowered, however slightly, by this specific LLM query and response.

And that was just this season.

I'd like to assume sarcasm here, but it's difficult to tell where you're coming from in an effort to throw shade on Beane (and Wilson?). Other than the major injury last season (your "injury prone" label), Wilson is kind of big or at least plenty big enough (so not "small") by modern LB standards, and he's on a 2nd deal already (so not at all "cheap").

Think the WR/offense take is a bit hyperbolic, in that one personnel upgrade there probably doesn't suddenly catapult the Bills into dynamic deep and intermediate passing success. But that doesn't mean I'm against spending to add there. Have to at least keep trying. I'm hopeful as well that Hairston can gradually upgrade the Bills secondary, but one has to imagine, especially with the Bills difficulty in maintaining edge contain against the run, that teams will run and throw screens right at Hairston. Wonder what that looks like. Tre has at least been tenacious a number of times playing downhill against such plays.