Richard Noggin

This is why I strongly condemn the Dolphins org in general and the head coach in particular: his comments COMPLETELY ignore the video evidence following the Milano hit. I think he wants to believe that he'd never knowingly put his players in harm's way, and maybe he did NOT in fact see Tua being obviously concussed and wobbly on the field in real time, but he has had NO comment on the replay that the rest of the sports world has seen multiple times? That's some soulless, corporate, litigation mitigation right there.

Tribalism is a powerful influence for many bipedal primates. To defend the Dolphins organization's handling of this situation is understandable, but also ABSOLUTELY DISQUALIFYING! The head coach, who I otherwise really liked, now looks like an absolute buffoon. There is no reasonable counterargument, given the abundance of damning video evidence. The player was concussed in week 3, obviously, and then, predictably, concussed even more severely on a short turnaround in week 4. The video is SO obvious it's infuriating. Coach McDaniel is now complicit in a shameful, dangerous injury cover-up.

It's really helpful to finally have that 1-Tech DT role filled for real. There was ONE game (possibly even two) last season where Star actually flashed in ways we hadn't seen, but had nonetheless been promised was in fact occurring (in unselfish ways, facilitating the successes of his teammates). Difficult for most average "fans" to pick up on. Not unlike the way even most skeptics (including ME) are now seeing Tremaine Edmunds flash on the field, whereas for years we we've been promised he WAS actually Doing His Job well enough to discourage the ball from finding him. I see an upgrade from Star to Jones, AND I see an upgrade from Edmunds to Edmunds.

I agree so hard with any and all DaQuan Jones praise. I've probably posted to that effect each week so far. The guy must suck to play against. The Bills DL, when healthy, is effing scary good. The top-10 includes a variety of complimentary traits and talents. Of course the same (or similar) can probably be said of most position groups minus OL and TE (and maybe RB?).

The voice of the corporate status quo

Micheal Smith on the post-game Amazon broadcast is bringing attention to what everyone knows: this was badly mishandled, everyone knows it, and it needs to be addressed. Miami is showing to be the MOST unethical organization in the league now as a demonstrable pattern. That owner has to go.

Does anyone else (think I know the answer) think Tua is simply NOT an NFL QB? He has some skills, sure, but physically he is unsafe out there. Just unable to protect himself enough to withstand the game's violence. I've never seen a guy get ragdolled by every defender who really gets their hands on him. Almost every season, since college. Would have been better for him to get knocked out of last week's game, which we all know is what actually happened in the alternate reality where the NFL follows its own very important protocols.

I wouldn't take it personally.

I think I actually agree with this paragraph. The RPOs were really bad today.

That's IT. That's the source of the hand injury!

I mean, my eyeballs at least confirmed Josh Allen's testimony on the field. No mistaking that.

So without trying to multiple-quote everyone who fairly respectfully and convincingly CRUSHED my post about the Dolphins having a good defense: Thank you. I've never had such an overwhelmingly negative response to a post, which is saying something. When typing my respect for the Dolphins D, I was guilty of leaning on Flores's defenses from the past couple seasons...which, of course, aside from being irrelevant, ALSO had very little success doing ANYTHING to disrupt the Bills except for one half in the 2nd game last year. So yeah, maybe they are the fool's gold I've thought they were since turning the franchise over to Tua.

Mostly because of the Ravens game? And/or also because the Patriots are terrible, so anything they did against the Phins counts more? I'm always happy to wrong, especially when it means a division foe is actually WORSE than I thought. Keep proving I'm wrong on that point, please. I'm happy to be proven wrong. My take on the Dolphins D is less an "opinion" and more a misguided (I hope) extrapolation from the previous regime applied to this season. By all means, make me look dumb!

Yes, really. We're talking about 2022, now. The Dolphins defense is pretty good.

In my experience, living in Florida during the worst decade (2000s) of Florida/North American tropical systems almost ever, the weather was often calmer the day before a system approached. Energy/moisture gets kind of pulled southward by the thirsty, hungover western half of a crawling tropical system. If Miami is steadily to the northeast of the storm's track, which seems like the case, then that DOES open the door to earlier storm activity as outer belts of disruption are spun north off the system's eastern half (where it's getting/gotten drunk off that warm & sweet Caribbean sea and then projectile vomiting to the north in its counter-clockwise spin). It's like this bipolar nightmare with respect to storm surge/flooding and thunderstorm/rain activity. That being said, what was the question? Edit: upon conducting 5 minutes of google research, the current spaghetti models for Ian have it trending like Charley in 2004. That was a nasty one. Really impacted SW and C Florida. Shouldn't do too much to Miami, though, other than some additional water and wind.

Hopefully a timeshare of Settle, Rousseau, and Basham? More likely is Jones, Bryant, and/or Brewer rotating through that alignment. Admittedly, I don't know squat about where Bryant and Brewer fit best. Settle seems like a guy who can play the 3-tech when he's healthy. Jones seems like a guy who can play anywhere on the line, given his early impact this season. I remember Bryant flashing in preseason. He played a TON.

Agreed. We haven't faced a defense with Miami's quality yet, THIS season. Blitz-heavy defenses gave a younger Josh Allen some trouble. I agree that this problem was fully solved last season. Hopefully that holds true throughout 2022. There was a dicey stretch even last week. It COULD happen. Never forget that effing Jaguars game. I hope he stays that way and punishes them when they bring extra bodies, but also recognizes and adjusts when they don't. They like to muddy up the LOS pre-snap. Mug those gaps.

Maybe lol Guy was a beast, but...

You don't sit at an effing rock concert. Especially a band like The Who. That's just weird. It's not a recital.

That sounds a LOT like what I was saying, so thanks for finding a source to verify.

It's not exactly comforting being down to only Elam, Benford, and Neal on the boundaries (Lewis would be emergency depth outside). Especially when they're also missing such a stalwart safety in Hyde. The Bills have the depth and the system and the coaching to overcome decimation at either cornerback OR safety, but overcoming impactful losses at BOTH positions will stretch credulity. Looking at it from an internal, team perspective: what amazing opportunities to step up and fill in for Jaquan Johnson, and Damar Hamlin, and even Siran Neal and/or Cam Lewis!

I'm intrigued. Is this a socio-economic/demographic/cultural issue of older, wealthier fans or corporate guests or otherwise "tamer" attendees occupying those expensive seats? I've definitely noticed the corners and end zones historically being the best with respect to volume and energy, but on Monday night nearly the entire stadium felt and sounded ENGAGED in the home field cheering process. Those decibels (105/106 on the scoreboard) were impressive for such an "open" structure.

I don't think it's a padding issue. Grass fields, for example can be REALLY effing hard in the winter (especially without sophisticated heating systems). It's an issue of traction/grip, rather than cushioning. Synthetic field surfaces, interacting with synthetic footwear substances under dynamic loads and lateral forces = unpredictable/problematic friction thresholds. Even an invisible, fractional blip of unnatural grip can apply enough force to tear the structural knee straps that otherwise make this bipedal miracle possible.

Pavement, of course, but...you guys had spray painted lines!?

Last week, Cover-1 streamed a podcast specifically highlighting the Bills use of "Shanahan-style" wide zone rushing concepts against the Rams. Which is basically the opposite of "gap-style running plays." This doesn't mean the Bills aren't still using some power, or gap, or pin-and-pull concepts mixed in, but their preferred core identity is wide zone. In the offseason McDermott ONLY interviewed OL coaching candidates steeped in this school, then landed on probably the best zone blocking teacher out there (Kromer, who might have had some early experience in different schemes, and is renowned for his flexible, adaptable approaches, but is nonetheless a zone-heavy guy philosophically). If you've seen evidence that they approached things differently in week one, please share. I like to nerd out on the Xs and Os. I also like to be proven wrong. So fire away.