Maine-iac

My point was that when we are not in a close game they open up the offense more, albeit against a defense that is playing not to lose. Now if you are going to use that logic then when we play conservative in the second half and the other team is running it down our throats or Fales is throwing for 300 yards on us it's hard to argue that we should be scoring a lot. Then you mention we are 6th in the league in rushing and Shady 4th both numbers which have nothing to do with scoring or specifically second halves. If you take Taylor's rushing stats away we certainly aren't 6th in the league and outside of McCoy's second half TD against the Colts Shady isn't scoring and is in no way carrying the offense. This is my last post here with this. Taylor is conservative. Dennison and McDermott are conservative. The best case scenario for the three is a healthy KB and WR's that Taylor trusts throwing the ball to. The next scenario is drafting a QB. Can't argue with that. If you think McDermott and Dennison playing a rookie QB is going to get you 400 points you may end up disappointed.

Yet the game we are losing, they bring Taylor back in and score 17 points in the second half. When we are predictably running and only throwing on third and long to a this group of pass catchers it's too easy to stop. If the game is close they play it conservative. It isn't going to matter who the QB is. If we had a better QB we might hit on a few more 3rd and longs. If we had a better 0C we might be better at running the ball. If we had better WR's that wouldn't hurt either. There's a number of different ways to improve upon the situation. Either way there's no doubt in my mind if we are in close games or winning and Dennison is still the 0C we will see a lot of this.

Yet only lost 2 of those games. Both to the Pats. We scored a ton of points in the second half of the Chargers game. Having nothing to do with QB's do you see what I'm getting at? We have the lead and they run and we haven't been running particualarly well. Even less so when they predict we will be running. Then we end up in 3rd and 12 and people complain about a check down. New QB or Taylor back it makes little difference if we are winning games I think you will see the same type of thing next year. If the defense is even better and the running game hits it's stride again then hopefully we are winning more games and we run it out in the second half better.

I know it will seems as though I'm out and out disagreeing with you and I'm not. I will however ask that you look at Buffalo's stats, then go to recieving and look down that list. You have Charles Clay and then you have what? Essentially nobody. Not taking away from Thompson. I've been impressed with him. I am by no means saying Taylor can not be improved upon but from a "helping your QB" standpoint the Bill's did Taylor no favors. To their credit Mathews and KB got injured but essentially I'm saying I look at that list of receivers and say what did they expect?

By that token the final Miami game last year was of much the same ilk last year as this year and like you said two different outcomes. Belichick says you can and will make a mistake or two in each game. The secrect is not making too many. Being Buffalo we often get an assist from the refs so we are already behind the 8 ball. McDermott does seem to have the discipline aspect under much better control. Hughes might be the best example of that. I think he only went nuts once this year which must be a record for him.

Definately on defense I would. Rex couldn't stop the run or the pass. McDermott seems very good at pass coverage and until trading Dareus we were good at stuffing the run also. The key is always keeping points off the board. Can we stop the run well enough to make that work? This is where that Dareus trade may bite us in the butt, this year anyways.

We scored 100 more points last year and still won less games. It's amazing what a defense that makes a few more stops will do for you. We could be even better next year.

Then we have the case of Tyrod Taylor, whom Buffalo benched this week. Taylor actually ranked 10th in conversion rate (42.4 percent) even though he had the fourth-highest need yards (8.7). His ALEX dropped to -0.1 this season, ranked 29th. We've seen this continued change in Taylor's game. In his first season with Buffalo, his ALEX was +4.5, which ranked second in the NFL. It dropped to +2.3 in 2016, but still good enough for seventh in the league, and he was better at converting plays. Taylor's conversion rate was actually a career best this year, but alas he is benched after the Bills allowed 81 points in two losses. A big problem this year was the massive changes at wide receiver. Taylor was targeting running back LeSean McCoy more than anyone on third down, and those 16 targets produced a -10.9 ALEX. In 2016, Taylor's go-to targets on third down were deep threats Marquise Goodwin (+6.2 ALEX) and Sammy Watkins (+7.1 ALEX). Both of those receivers, as well as Robert Woods (+1.4 ALEX), are in the NFC West this year. http://www.footballoutsiders.com/alex/2017/2017-alex-midseason-report

It's funny this is the same team that scored 399 points last year but couldn't win 9 games. While the defense wasn't night and day all season it was much better enough of the time. A team with a good defense always has a chance.

Yes and no. Brady started that game and our defense was giving him hell. He sat at the half if I remember right and we were already leading 17-6. It's true they had nothing to play for but they still marched Brady out there and I still enjoyed watching that defense thrash him. Hacket was terrible. The running game was aweful which was probably the most surprising part because Jackson and Spiller had been so good with Gailey. The players on that offense probably would have been a much better fit for Dennison. This coaching staff with that team might have been an 11 or 12 win team. thread merged

Just in case he ever reads this forum. Special thread just for him.

Faler almost threw for 300 on us.

notice they let the clock run. that pass dropped at 2:01

You say that like he plays all 11 positions. Come on now.

We are going to give up 300 yards to Fales .................. all Tyrod's fault.

soft coverage, well ok, but non-existent tackling has got to stop.

watching this 4th qtr defense is making me sick

Tolbert just trucked Timmons. Zay Jones caught a pass. Stars are aligned today.

Great blocking Mills. Does McCoy have any positive runs? So many third and longs.

Lofton calling the game.

From his rookie year. I don't think he did well in Rex's system but who did? Preston Brown was drafted in the third round out of Louisville in 2014 and was expected to be a backup behind the starting trio of Kiko Alonso, Brandon Spikes, and Nigel Bradham. A season-ending injury to Alonso, however, meant he was pushed into the starting lineup sooner than expected and tallied 94% of the team’s defensive snaps on the year, the highest percentage on the Bills’ defense. Grading out 15th overall among 4-3 outside linebackers, Brown’s season mark of +3.9 was held down by a pair of poor performances. Looking past those two games (Week 1 and Week 16, both ends of the season, understandable for a rookie), Brown notched a +11.5 grade over the other 14 contests. There are two clear strengths to Brown’s game: the first is as a coverage defender and the second as a pure tackler. Posting impressive numbers when in coverage, he allowed just 0.57 yards per coverage snap, which was third-best for all off-ball linebackers and his +3.6 coverage grade came in 11th among all 4-3 OLBs and ILBs combined. The moments he showed some struggle in coverage were nearly all down to over-aggressiveness in reacting up to the run first and having trouble getting back to find his zone. Certainly a fixable issue. https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/secret-superstar-buffalo-bills All of this said, I thought that Ragland had his job until the injury. He seems solid but replaceable. I don't think we have his replacement now.

I hope they are careful. McDermott seems great at drawing up coverage. That said I remember the days with Schobel and Denney and all the other undersized misfits and getting destroyed week after week. We already have issues stopping the run. Brown might not be great in coverage like Keuchly and Keuchly is a really good LB but I still like Brown.

Just my opinion. I stand by it though. In the right system I'm sure he makes a ton of tackles but he's not going to knock guys down. Actually looking at it they are 21 in giving up yards and giving up almost 25 ppg. I don't know the Redskins enough to speak to why they are horrible on defense but that doesn't speak well to how good Brown is.

I think they were right when they said Poz was a chaser. So was Zach Brown. Great numbers but tackling everyone 5 yards down the field. Brown will blow up the rb behind the line of scrimmage twice as much as either of those guys. Poz and Zach might have a touch more speed, maybe a little more coverage ability but in a zone scheme and wanting someone who can stick his nose in there and make a tackle I'd take Preston.

Romo is carrying Brady's jock again today. I have to suffer through a lot of Patriots games. I've seen enough Brady to know he's not as accurate as he used to be and that Pats defense is not the same without Hightower. Lucky for the Pats the competition is pretty weak this year. Romo's still talking him up like every miss is on purpose and the greatest throw ever.