Da webster guy

Well we know crowd noise in Miami is a non-factor, so its a neutral-field type environment. Fins strengths: they have a few good wr's, Fitz will be able to audible unlike last game, they seem to have some decent team chemistry, playing for a new coach and each other after the nation figured they were going for a winless season. Bills strengths: fired up after tough loss last week, better run game, better defense and most of all Josh has that look in his eyes now. The kid isn't letting the Bills lose this one. I think you may see Siran neal rotating in for Taron and KJ rotating in for Wallace and more Shaq in for Murphy (or even Jerry depending on injury) as Frasier tinkers with the mix.

I agree that many are ego driven. In interviews w Daboll he seems to be level headed and open-minded though, like more of a big brother to Josh. Could be wrong. Either way, we had massive turnover on offense from last year to this, and considering we are healthy, its time to see some evolution and more points.

Next man up, here's an idea, stop trying to manage the thread so much and push your pro-schopp narrative. I've been on this board for a long long time and I've never seen such an opinionated control freak. You must be a joy to live with.

Well if we had a kicker who wasn't slumping we'd be 7-2 and be in the top 6 in the league right now. Last year final four in this league were NE, Rams, Saints and KC. All of them lost their last game, as did Indy. Some of them lost to crappy teams too. Some with established franchise QB's, a few hall of famers even. Head coaches Andy Reid, Belichick, Payton, McVay, Reich. All lost. Some of them have lost multiple games in row and are sitting in far worse spots than we are heading to Miami as 6 point favorites and then back home vs Denver where we'll be heavy favorites again. To answer the OP, is the talent there? Sure it is. Is the coaching good enough? Yeah, but they're learning too. Should we expect more from a young qb on an offense with one guy returning from last year? Maybe, but we move the ball OK, just not dynamic yet. Didn't really expect to score tons of points this year, I was just hoping we'd be a little more fun. Josh is like an overtrained dog right now, he doesn't want to make a mistake and get the shock collar so he's a little more timid and hesitant to trust his instincts. Personally I think a long throw on 3rd down is the same as a punt if it gets picked off. I'd open it up more, lose the designed QB runs, stop the empty sets and get this kid developing chem with Singletary on checkdowns/screens, pass protection, whatever. They both need to learn it together.

Well, Brady did throw an awful interception in the endzone to Micah that would have cost them the game if our special teams coach/head coach had prepared our team properly to handle a slot blitzer on a punt. Or at least had the sense to call a timeout. Everybody makes mistakes. Ours might be we play too afraid to make mistakes on offense.

He was open all day on that slant route in man coverage and the curls he does on the third downs all year he gets huge separation obviously. I think he had most 3rd down conversion receptions in the league as of last week. He's the real deal AND he's a quiet, respectful, hard working dude, which is a must on this team.

Remember when Rex fired Roman after we lost because the defense gave up like 40 points so the blowhard figured he'd fire the OC. Roman winning coordinator of the year running that Baltimore O. That same mix of zone reads, misdirection and power-based pulls run out of a million different formations. It's not just Lamar Jackson making that thing go, it's an experienced OC with full reign of all the calls, gameplanning the way he wants. I don't know enough about pro football or Daboll to slam the guy, but being an OC for Tom Brady means about as much to me as Adam Gase coaching Peyton Manning for a year or two. It's a joke of a job and you're there to stay out of the way.

Yes I think it's a combo of this and that Daboll and McD act like it's the end of the world of your QB throws a pick. If we're at mid field and Josh throws a deep pick, it's a punt. These guys are so tight and so conservative it seems like all they care about is squeaking out the win and not developing an offensive machine. Maybe they're coaching for their jobs and the W is all that matters, but to me I want to see our qb and offense get better, that's more important this season. There has to be some middle ground between scoring 15 points a week and hoping to win close, and playing balls out on offense and putting out a fun product for your fans. Not saying we're a boring team, but there's room to push it a little more and stop just trying not to lose.

This is a good breakdown. I don't see our HC or OC as particularly cerebral guys, probably just go for it on gut feeling. HausMoney has won several games for us with long bombs, got us in the playoffs by stealing two games with fantastic, clutch kicks. Facing 4th and 4, I'd have trotted him out too, simply based on his career with us, not his recent struggles. It's not a 60 yarder we're asking him to hit, its 20 yards longer than an extra point. Another interesting analytic would be average rushing yards gained on 3rd down vs a 5 man front in late game situations where it's assumed you'll be passing. Andy Reid does this all the time and it works like a charm. Obvious passing down, less than a minute to go, one (or zero) timeouts. Spread the field, keep your running back in as a blocker on the play before (we'd prob use Gore in this scenario, they'd think he was there to protect) and then on 3rd and 4 you run a draw play up the middle. It may not get you into the end zone, but their pass rushers are convinced its a pass and already upfield on the outside and you only have 3 defenders in the entire middle of the field. Ten yard blast, first down on the 20, run up and spike the ball with 20 seconds left. Two more chances for to try and score TD but your odds of hitting a FG just went WAY up and you get more chances with a new set of downs. Teams freak out about clock and abandon the run when sometimes it's the perfect call. Half the passes you complete the guy ends up getting tackled in bounds anyway. Wish we had some more innovation and experience with game management on our staff.

He's on pace to be a top ten 1200yd receiver and seems to have great hands, durable and has an exceptional knack for 3rd down conversions. We could use another guy like him, but saying he's not a real number one is head scratching. Brown has more yards than Hopkins, Edelman, OBJ etc. on far less targets this season. Maybe a better way to say it is that we could use another reliable, productive receiver like Brownie.

Had 4 in the patriots game alone. Four flags. One guy.

This is sad but true. I wish he would just admit he's a defensive guy and the team leader but hand the entire offense INCLUDING go for it or punt decisions to a qualified offensive coordinator to run that entire side of the ball. McD isn't qualified to run anything tactically on the offensive side. It worked for Marv. If Daboll is that guy then great, McD needs to do what all good CEO's do which is to know your weaknessses, and empower the best people in the world to fill in the holes and let them run it better than you ever could.

Man they really limited his snaps today. Weird.

Yeah Sean should take lessons from Zo on how to handle interviews and talk about his team. It IS possible to provide insight and add some flavor to what you say instead of just spewing off the exact same boring lines over and over every week since August. McD is basically unwatchable at this point.

Foster was a top receiver 2nd half last year, but his failure to adjust to Josh's deep throw was baffling last week. Its like he lost the ball in the lights or didn't know he was targeted. Finally Josh underthrows a deep ball, but he didn't make a play on it, no chance for a catch, pass interference, nothing. Frustrating. We need to have an offense that can hit on these now and then, but Foster seems to be slumping.

That really was an incredible play by Josh, and I think the first dropped pass by Brown all year, the guy has great hands normally.

Yeah you're probably right but I sure liked Chan Gailey for OC. Such a great game caller, great mix of run, pass, gadgets etc. knew when he was going for it on 4th down and called his 3rd down plays with that in mind (wish McD n Daboll could synch on that)

I remember Taron killing people last year before his injury, and he seems to be tackling poorly (or at least inconsistently) this season. I don't know how Siran Neal lost out to Taron after the job he did stepping in those few weeks in Oct. He's an exceptional tackler and punishes people.

Lorax used to play in the trenches as a Dlineman and Olineman, he's turned into a great linebacker. Anything is possible (I compared him to Levon Kirkland in another thread suggesting this) , but I feel like he's grading out well where he is and simply needs to keep plugging in there. He's so fast, it does seem as if he could sometimes be put in a position to have a little more room to operate and utilize his strengths better. Same thing is happening to Quinnen Williams down in NY, pretty steep learning curve when you're going from college trenches to the NFL.

McD is a motivator and a great leader, solid defensive mind. After that he's at the mercy of his OC. Interesting to note that the back shoulder throw to Brown and the long ball attempt to Foster were both plays that we had flags on and thought were free plays. As soon as Brown caught his pass I remember saying it's about time we started to take some chances on 3rd downs and push it downfield, then I heard Brown say after the game we thought it was a free play. Sheesh, can't we just take a few chances for our guys downfield to make some catches? McD and Daboll are surely aware that a vertical passing game is going to be required to win a playoff game. I hope to see us opening up the game a little more each week in preparation for a road playoff game where we're going to need to have intermediate and deep routes in play. Would there be anything safer than a back shoulder throw to big Duke on a 5'10 CB ? If he's not catching it nobody is....

Hammer please pass on a warm thanks to Mark and Pizza Pete. Tell Pete he's inspired a file cabinet pizza bake off amongst some UB students. (what could possibly go wrong?)

Yeah they had a blast. The funny thing about the seat mix up is they actually had better seats than where they ended up sitting, but kept going up higher into the 300's and this one family was like "hey guys there are two seats here next to us you can sit here if you want" they ended up staying there the whole game. The last game he was at was the Colts snow game and they were wandering around at that game too, especially in the 2nd half when it was chaos. Kids.

Yeah he's the kind of kid that will pay it forward for sure.

Wanted to say thanks to whoever took care of my son and his roomate in the Hammers Lot on Sunday. he goes to school at UB and this was his first game going with just a buddy. They went in true teenage style: no gloves, just a hoodie, forgot to bring debit cards (had a little cash), basically zero planning, they just bought tickets late the night before and got up and drove to Orchard Park. They knew enough to go to Hammers Lot and watch the mustard/ketchup fly and walk around to meet people. My son called me this morning and before he talked about the game he said " Dad, there were the nicest people there tailgating, they hooked us up with free ribs which were amazing, and this guy Pizza Joe, he cooks these pizza's in a file cabinet, you can't believe it. And someone shared their wings with us, they had blue cheese in a paint roller tray blah blah...." He went on to tell me that they were kind of screwed up with their seat section and weren't in their ticketed seats up in the 300's but everyone was really helpful and cool and they ended up sitting with this nice family who made room for them etc. Anyway it made me really proud of the Buffalo fans and how great they are. Teenagers need more independence these days, and experiences like that help them to feel confident and get a sense of community that's hard to get sometimes. (it's also good that they froze their asses off when the sun wasn't out, so there's lesson #2). Hats off to the Mafia, thanks for representing.....

He got paid in the offseason, and last year he was impactful. The good news is that he matured and stopped getting a personal foul every game. The bad news is he's lost a half step, but every team has players that are declining and overpaid for their contributions. He's a good locker room guy, works hard and still chases plays down from the backside.