DabillsDaBillsDaBills

I don't hate the play design. I hate the decision to go for a fake punt on a 4th and 2 from the 45 down 24-3 in the 2nd half. Why go for a fake when the opponent is going to be on high alert watching for a fake? Just run a play with the offense and leave it up to your $250 million QB (who is worth every penny)

In the context of the game the Henry stiff arm didn't even happen. There were offsetting penalties. Not to mention it would've only been a 4 yard gain anyway 2nd & 4 at BUF 44 (6:03 - 2nd) D.Henry left end ran ob at BUF 40 for 4 yards (M.Hyde).Penalty on BUF-Q.Jefferson, Defensive Offside, offsetting, enforced at BUF 44 - No Play.Penalty on TEN-B.Jones, Offensive Holding, offsetting. In terms of raw embarrassment I'd say the Norman stiff arm is worse. In terms of impact to the game it's Eddie R no question. Jets were up 24-13 with 10 minutes left and that play was 4th and goal. Stop it and the Bills have a (small) chance to win. The TD ended the game.

FWIW we were flagged for OPI in the Chiefs game. The penalty was declined though 3rd & 10 at KC 40 (8:41 - 3rd) (Shotgun) J.Allen pass incomplete short left to C.Beasley. Penalty on BUF-E.Sanders, Offensive Pass Interference, declined.

Assuming this is a private conversation that I was getting honest answers I would ask 1) What are your thoughts on unvaccinated players? Specifically Lotulelei and Beasley 2) If you were the GM for a different team, would you rather hire Daboll or Frazier as your Head Coach (or neither)? 3) Do the Bills have a process to involve stat guys with in game decisions such as coach challenges, 4th downs, and 2 pt conversions? What is that process and how much input do these guys have?

Not sure how it turned out to be the right call when we gave up an 11 play 6 minute drive and allowed a FG to turn it into a 3 score game. We ultimately lost the game, in no small part due to that terrible decision

4-1 with the loss to TB probably gets us in 99%+ of the time, but I don't think it's a mathematical guarantee. If Ravens, Titans, Chiefs, Patriots win their divisions and Bengals, Chargers, Colts win out then we'd be eliminated. I'm sure there's more fringe scenarios that would leave us eliminated given how many teams are 6-6 or better along with the Bills mediocre conference record.

Due to his contract restructuring there actually is harm to cut him right now. This season his active cap hit is 7.6mm and his dead cap would be 9.5mm. We'd be....shooting ourselves in the foot... if we released him right now. In 2022 his active cap hit is 9.4mm and if he's released we take on 5.1mm dead cap. 4.3mm in cap savings if we release him then. If we wait one more year until 2023 Star has an active cap of 9mm and no dead cap at all. 9mm in cap savings for that year. I'm guessing we'll release him in 2022 for the 4+mm savings.

Fair enough. Just rustles my jimmies a little bit when we get coach speak about "Mills gives us the best chance to win" when he, objectively, does not. There's reasons to start Mills over TT. He's not a proven quantity yet and does have a higher ceiling. The Texans should want to evaluate him over the rest of the season to see if he's the QB of the future. If he continues to go winless the Texans improve their draft standing and can draft a new QB if they want. I'm interested to see how loyal Culley will be to Mills. If he goes out there and Nathan Peterman's it up, will he pull him and go back to Tyrod?

Not really sure how 0-6 Davis Mills gives the Texans a better chance to win than the 2-4 Tyrod Taylor. I know W/L is a team stat, but TT has better QB stats too. Mills is a 3rd round pick with 1 quality start under his belt (vs Patriots - although they still lost the game). His other 5 starts are varying degrees of awful (Houston was down 38-0 vs Rams before he racked up some garbage time stats). I doubt even TT could complain about getting benched for Herbert. Getting benched for Mills though? Yikes

During this last game I only saw Josh complaining to the refs after legitimate roughing the passer penalties went uncalled, or when the Patriots plainly jumped offside and it was not called. The Pats had 2 plays where the defender drove him into the ground with their full weight on top of him. Those 100% should have been penalties and were not called. His complaining may have helped lead to the (borderline) late hit they called on the Patriots later in the game. The announcers freaked out and said it was a bad call, but I thought it was a good one. Josh was clearly half a yard out of bounds by the time the defender initiated contact. Who knows if the refs call that or not without Josh complaining earlier.

We don't just have a top 3 QB. We have a top 3 QB on a rookie contract. 12 wins should have been the floor for this team. Having a QB that's around even league average on a rookie contract is a gigantic advantage in today's NFL. The Eagles won a SB with Wentz on a rookie contract. The Rams made the SB with Goff on a rookie contract. Josh is so much better than either of those guys and we're only a bubble playoff team at week 13 of the season. What is this team going to look like when Josh's 10mm cap hit turns into 40+mm?

Ouch buddy. When you're trying to twist the stats at least own up to it. When you say 5 plays or less* that would mean the 5 play Punt drive wouldn't count. Punt (3 plays) Punt (3 plays) TD (3 plays) FG (9 plays) Punt (3 plays) Punt (4 plays) Punt (5 plays) FG (14 plays) Punt (3 plays) *fewer

I find it more than a little ironic that you keep mentioning that 6 of 9 possessions were 5 plays or less. That includes the 3 play 69 yard TD drive that had the most important play of the game. In normal weather conditions holding a team to 240 yards and 14 points would be an exceptionally good game. In the exceptional weather conditions last night, with the opponent running on 95%+ of the plays, allowing 240 yards and 14 points (with 0 forced turnovers) is bad.

You're mixing the teams up The Bills were the team that recovered a ST turnover and scored on a short field The only Bills turnover was by the offense (Breida's fumble) that NE recovered at their own 31

I'm not saying it's some vast conspiracy. Incompetence is normally the answer, and there were definitely mistakes made here. Whether it was Bills coaches, the refs, ESPN, or the Bills players. If there was a serious injury the refs should've blown the play dead immediately If it was a minor injury the Bills players/coaches should've been smart enough to know the player had to limp off (or carried off by teammates) to avoid a 4th timeout and subsequent runoff after the play clock reset If there was an injury there's a mistake in either the boxscore or by the announcers. Unless both Dodson and Milano were both hurt at the same time

222 rushing yards sounds bad because it is bad. Teams lose 85%+ of the time when allowing that many rushing yards. In the last 3 extreme weather games in Buffalo (Ravens playoff game and Colts snow game) the 14 points that the Patriots offense scored is the most by any offense

46 carries for 222 yards 3 pass attempts In terms of offensive play calls this was one of the most lop-sided games in NFL history. They had 30+ straight running plays. I knew they were going to run the ball, my mom knew they were going to run the ball, all 70k+ people in the stadium knew they were going to run the ball, but apparently the Bills DEF and coaches were surprised by it. The Patriots having any sort of running success in that scenario should be an embarrassment to the defense and coaches.

It very much does matter. As long as an O-linemen engages with the defender within 1 yard of the LOS they are allowed to push them downfield as far as they want. I can't really tell from these computer generated dots if Williams engages the defender within 1 yard. NFL rulebook below (emphasis added): ECTION 3 - INELIGIBLE PLAYER DOWNFIELD ARTICLE 1. LEGAL AND ILLEGAL ACTS On a scrimmage play during which a legal forward pass is thrown, an ineligible offensive player, including a T-formation quarterback, is not permitted to move more than one yard beyond the line of scrimmage before the pass has been thrown. Item 1. Legally Downfield. An ineligible player is not illegally downfield if, after initiating contact with an opponent within one yard of the line of scrimmage during his initial charge: (a) he moves more than one yard beyond the line while legally blocking or being blocked by an opponent (b) after breaking legal contact with an opponent more than one yard beyond the line of scrimmage, he remains stationary until a forward pass is thrown (c) after losing legal contact with an opponent more than one yard beyond the line of scrimmage, he is forced behind the line of scrimmage by an opponent, at which time he is again subject to normal blocking restrictions for an ineligible offensive player. Note: If an ineligible offensive player moves beyond the line while legally blocking or being blocked by an opponent, an eligible offensive player may catch a pass between them and the line of scrimmage.

That's the whole point though. We don't know when (or even if) Dodson went down. We don't even know if it was Dodson or Milano. If Dodson went down with an injury around 1:20 then the refs did everything correctly. I find it potentially fishy for these reasons: 1) Refs blew their whistles for an injury 30 seconds after the play 2) No replay was ever shown 3) Boxscore says the injury was to Dodson. Announcers said it was Milano As far as McDermott yelling at the refs, I'm not entirely confident he would understand the 4th timeout and time implications in the heat of the moment. Even if something untoward did happen it's probably a moot point. The Bills would've needed to score a TD in the final ~25 seconds going into the wind

I will agree that Josh has played hero ball, at times, this year. I also agree that it has put us in bad positions and potentially cost us games. The 4th down play last night, in a vacuum, is about the farthest thing you can get from hero ball. It was 4th and 14 from the 18 yard line and the Patriots brought an all out blitz. Targeting the end zone vs going for a 1st down would have about the same chance of success (pretty slim). Beasley was not wide open when Allen was forced into making a decision on where to throw the ball.

The whole sequence in the last 2 minutes was bizarre. ESPN had a lengthy commercial break for the 2 minute warning and when we got back to the game a Patriots player was suddenly "hurt". They cut to commercial again and then we had our 4th down play. I think OP is complaining about the sequence that I have bolded below: 1st & 10 at NE 19 (1:55 - 4th) One-yard difference on change of possession. R.Stevenson right tackle to NE 21 for 2 yards (H.Phillips). (0:21 - 4th) Timeout #3 by BUF at 01:50. 2nd & 8 at NE 21 (1:50 - 4th) R.Stevenson up the middle to NE 23 for 2 yards (E.Ankou). BUF-T.Dodson was injured during the play. (1:18 - 4th) Timeout #4 by BUF at 01:23. Extra timeout granted due to injury inside 2:00. (0:44 - 4th) Timeout #2 by NE at 00:44. 3rd & 6 at NE 23 (0:43 - 4th) M.Jones kneels to NE 19 for -4 yards. 4th & 10 at NE 19 (0:01 - 4th) (Run formation) PENALTY on NE, Delay of Game, 5 yards, enforced at NE 19 - No Play. 4th & 15 at NE 14 (0:00 - 4th) M.Jones kneels to NE 10 for -4 yards. The broadcast never showed a Bills player down with an injury after the 2nd down play. They refs let 30 seconds run off the clock before blowing their whistles, at which point there was a lengthy discussion and they said that play was stopped due to a Bills injury and there would be a 4th TO charged to the Bills. The announcers said that Milano was injured (but again, never showed a replay). Boxscore says that Dodson was injured. My big question is why did they let 30 seconds run after the 2nd down play before blowing whistles for a (phantom?) injury?

Posters throw the term "hero ball" around way too much on these boards. That 4th down play was the opposite of hero ball. "Hero ball" would have been Allen trying to dodge the unblocked blitzer on his own, scrambling around, and then heaving up a prayer or trying to run for it on his own. In the face of an all out blitz Allen stood his ground in the pocket and threw it a fraction of a second before being sacked. He made a mistake in who he threw it too (or maybe the wind took it), but that's not hero ball at all.

If not now, then when? Having a top 5 QB on a rookie contract is a gigantic advantage for constructing a roster. If Beane can't build a superbowl contending roster while Josh has a 10mm cap hit - what makes you think he'll be able to build one in the future when Josh has a 40mm cap hit?

Anyone that's watched the NFL should know that refs only overturn yardage spots if there is concrete evidence to do so. In a replay where you literally can't see Mac Jones or the ball there's a 0% chance that it would be overturned. Completely wasted timeout that loomed large by the end of the game.

I think there's plenty of blame to go around. Trying to decide if the offense or defense deserves more blame is rather like picking between a giant douche and a turd sandwich. Sure, the defense gave up "only" 14 points, but in those weather conditions that's a lot. Comparable games would be Ravens playoff game and the Colts snow game. 14 points is the most scored by any offense in those 3 games.