VW82

We've come a lonnng ways from that Chargers game. Good job Tremaine!

Look who's throwing him the ball. How many times do we need to see guys like Hogan, Woods, and Goodwin go light it up elsewhere to figure out that maybe it wasn't always the receiver's fault after all? Zay has been one of our better players on offense this year.

Reminder that CJ Beathard was taken in the 3rd round in 2017. Those guys are available if you know where to look.

Honestly, if Anderson isn't ready to go I'd still rather have Peterman out there than expose Josh to any further humiliation and undue pressure. Allen is the investment that needs to be protected, so let's protect him. Plus, it's not like Josh is giving us a better chance to win right now. The only difference between the two is Bills coaches are dumbing down the offense to ridiculous degrees for Allen, and calling the most vanilla plays ever to minimize risk. They've allowed Peterman to take more risks and it's blown up in their faces in spectacular fashion. Outside of the Minnesota game, the results have been similar: an anemic offense and a bunch of Ls. Allen can come back when he's fully healthy and we're out of the playoff race so the focus can be more on his development rather than just winning.

I think the biggest thing he needs to show, even as a rookie, is that he can occasionally stand in the pocket, feel the rush and maneuver around it without putting his head down and taking off, and find receivers down field for chunk yardage. I'll take the odd bad decision, INT, or sack if he's showing progress in this area. Josh is never going to be Phillip Rivers manipulating coverage at the line, but perhaps he might eventually show signs of being a big play threat with his arm and his legs. Think Jeff George. The concern right now is that outside of the Minnesota game, he really hasn't shown much of anything. Part of that is the game plan - clearly McD and Daboll don't trust him to not lose us the game Peterman-style, and so they've been ultra-conservative with play calling and limiting Josh's reads. I expect that once we're out of the playoff race they'll open things up and let Allen play a little more freely so he can learn from his mistakes.

What in the world did I just read?

The hope at this point has to be that Allen can't go on Sunday and Anderson winds up lighting it up, which puts just enough pressure on the coaching staff to keep Allen out under the cover of the elbow injury / Anderson's success. Best case scenario is he sits through the buy week and comes back for the final six games of the season when we'll inevitably be out of it and the pressure to win is off. Alas, I fear we'll throw him right back to the wolves and people inside and outside of the organization will start to turn on him and blame him for the lost season. He'll press even harder to make plays and win in order to prove everyone wrong, and wind up going further backwards with his already failing fundamentals which will only provide more ammunition for his detractors. Sigh.

If I had to handicap it, I'd say fans are treating him with kid gloves because: 40% investment related (one FRP, two SRPs, Cordy Glenn); 30% "tools" (i.e. big athletic kid, throws super hard, etc.); 30% aww shucks, done good farm boy from a small school that just wants to work hard like those fine folks in Buffalo. But yes, it would seem that Bills fans are grading him on a curve.

I agree there's a lot to like about what McD has done with this team. I'm still a believer. However, most fans care about two things more than everything else put together: the coach and QB. Our coach hand picked our QB, and right now that QB looks like the worst player in all of football (except for maybe his back up who was also hand picked by the coach). It's only natural there will be some backlash. We need to give this team until end of next year to know what we have. Given what we've seen so far, my guess is that we'll have a pretty good, playoff caliber team on our hands. Our defense is already there. But it all comes back to Allen. If McD whiffed on that kid, none of it matters and we'll be on to the next coach.

So first of all, thank you for doing this. It's always appreciated when someone puts in time to go back through the game to isolate a player. That said, some of this analysis was a little rose coloured. That Benjamin throw wasn't just long, it wasn't even in bounds. It wasn't close to catchable. Neither was the throw over the middle to Zay, and it had nothing to do with Zay being held. Josh threw it ~374 MPH into triple coverage. Jerry Rice wouldn't have come down with that. Conversely, there was the throw to the flat in the second half where Josh lobbed it to McCoy when he needed to get it there quickly in order to have a chance for him to make a play. The reason it looked like Josh was making quick decisions is because the plan was for him to take off after his first read. Even the announcers picked up on this. Many of those quick decisions were still bad decisions.

I have to say, if it wasn't for this ongoing mess of a QB situation I'd be 100% on board with McD. He just comes across as a competent football coach and leader. He seems to be building the team the right way (though the execution with certain signings and draft picks, *cough* Allen *cough* Star, has been a little suspect), laying a foundation instead of just collecting talent. I really hope he's able to overcome his QB blind spot, because once that happens he'll be one of the top coaches in the NFL. He already is in most other areas.

I disagree that it's impossible to judge Josh because of his supporting cast. Do we need to factor that in to the analysis? Sure. But there still needs to be an analysis. Goff was also raw and stunk it up. Same with Trubisky. But it wasn't as simple as putting better players around them and all of sudden they were successful. There was a learning curve for both guys. The issue is Josh is considerably further behind either of those players in their rookie years. We're dumbing down the offense to extreme degrees just so Josh can function out there. One read and then he takes off by design. He might be the most raw QB to come into the NFL in 10 years, so it's going to take time and patience. The big thing is that we see him develop in his recognition, decision making, and accuracy. In the midst of making numerous mistakes, is he also making plays? I'm ok with some ill advised throws as long as he's able to move the ball, and learns from his mistakes. So far neither of those things is happening. New teammates will help somewhat, but we need Allen to make a giant leap in football IQ for it to really matter.

Good post though I do believe Lewis was inactive this week, and it wasn't due to injury. There was a whole lot of Phillip Gaines going on today. I'd say we can stand to improve the secondary but I have faith McD will do just that.

I think the personnel and coaching issues are being a little overblown tbh. If there were never any guys open or the pocket was repeatedly breaking down we might have a problem, but that just isn't the case. My biggest concern is that Allen doesn't appear to be making any progress. Where are the positive signs? Where's the big play ability? We got a glimpse of that in the Vikings game (which they clearly no showed), but this was the third straight game where he's done virtually nothing. That can't all be on the coaches and supporting cast. At some point good QBs make something happen. I'm fine with Allen making mistakes as long as he learns from them. But he's repeating the same mistakes over and over again, and there's no play making on his part to offset them.

What the heck, man!? Lol. It's fine to disagree, but you seem to be taking/making this personal. Why? People are allowed to have opinions that differ from yours. How am I spewing BS by mentioning that KB refused to work out with Allen pregame, as reported by the media and confirmed by McD? It would seem to be relevant that he has WRs turning on him in a discussion about Allen's progress and his ability to succeed with this group. Let me ask you, what progress are YOU seeing with him? Why don't you join the discussion and make some points instead of just trolling posters and taking personal shots.

I didn't see improvement either. Ask yourself this: how many of Allen's completions today came in the pocket? He seems to only be able to make a play once the play breaks down, and frequently he's just taking off and running before there's any real pressure. He's actually gone backwards with his pocket presence.

Bills media reported that Kelvin refused to work out with Josh pregame when Allen asked him to work on routes/throws with him. Unreal. That obviously looks terrible for KB but you have to wonder if Josh has already lost the confidence of his receiving core. Those guys aren't the most talented bunch but their QB is definitely making them look a lot worse than they are. For someone like Benjamin who's in a contract year that's probably tough to take.

This isn't about Anderson, it's about what's best for Allen and protecting our investment in him. Again, we're taking a big risk continuing to play Allen and having him perform terribly while the season slips away. These risks include: 1. loss of confidence from teammates and coaching staff. 2. loss of self-confidence from Allen. 3. outside pressure from ownership, media, fans, etc., to label Allen a bust or at least bring in a starting caliber QB to compete next year. 4. increased risk of injury given Allen's poor decision making. The benefits to sitting Allen for a few weeks include: 1. immediately takes the pressure off him and allows him the chance to watch, learn, regroup, and work on some of the fundamentals that have popped back up with increasing frequency the last couple of weeks. 2. Allen won't be blamed for a lost season. McD will take the heat for starting him too early. 3. keeps his confidence intact because now it's a situation where the organization is holding him back as appose to him continuing to fail miserably. 4. when Allen does return, the season will already be down the toilet so he'll have a pressure-free environment with which to work through his issues. Everyone will understand it's all about Allen at that point, and so he'll get more leeway.

You don't need to be in the locker room to get some idea. Again, watch the WRs when Allen screws up a throw (which is often). Their body language tells you everything. It's been getting worse as the season has gone along. Also, use some common sense. Our defense is clearly playoff caliber. We're losing because we can't move the ball, and we can't move the ball because our QB is so limited. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that if there's little to no improvement week to week that eventually players are going to start pointing fingers, and coaches are going to start questioning whether they made the right call with him. We might not be there yet, but we're close. Keep starting him and we'll get there soon if Allen doesn't improve dramatically.

How are we ruining him by sitting him under the cover of an injury? He's at a much greater risk of losing confidence by going right back out there and continuing to stink it up. Teammates and coaches will lose confidence, which is already happening btw. Watch the body language of the WRs. It's pretty tough for a young guy to succeed when his own organization is losing faith. Plus, it sure looks like he could use the time to decompress and regroup, not to mention heal up. Elbow injuries are no joke for QBs.

This is a great point. He's losing the team, and once that happens you're not far away from the QB losing his confidence too. If we continue playing him, and the results don't change Allen will be seen as the reason our season fell apart (him and Peterman),. That's a dangerous position for a young QB, and it will put a lot of pressure on McBeane to bring in a new starting caliber QB in the offseason to compete. Now you're even further undermining Allen's confidence.

Maybe that's the right answer, but there's a risk/reward to both sides of the argument. Right now he has to be dangerously close to teammates completely losing confidence in him. He's been that bad. If that happens you're not that far removed from the player losing his confidence, and once that happens you're in real trouble. Sometimes you have to save the player from himself. Allen is going to get another chance regardless, and everyone would understand if Bills pulled him. McD will take the hit for starting him too early. The downside to sitting him is he loses 2-3 games while we likely squander away the season when he could have been developing. The downside to continue playing him if he doesn't get better fast is you might lose the team, and support for bringing Allen back as the starter next year. He'll be seen as the main reason our season went to crap (which is dangerous because it's true). I'd rather take the loss of 2-3 games development, and take some pressure off the kid. Let him regroup. Let the team and fans see it's not just the QB screwing things up out there. This elbow injury provides a perfect cover 2 (pun intended).

Good post. The thing that worries me the most is that he isn't getting better. He's making the same rookie mistakes he was making in the preseason. That should be a huge red flag for the coaching staff. Our defense is playoff caliber. The problem is we can't move the ball, and that starts with Allen. He's putting the team in such bad positions, and because of that we have to be super conservative with the play calling which only exacerbates the issue. He doesn't have one strength we can lean on right now and build an attack around. Instead, it's all about hiding his many weaknesses and the QB position is too important to be successful like that.

We don't know the extent of Allen's elbow injury yet, but IMO it doesn't matter. This is a perfect opportunity for the Bills to pull him off the field for a few games and let him gain a little perspective. Prior to the injury, Allen was terrible today...again. He was just as likely to get injured running the ball along the sideline and getting drilled by that Houston LB in the first half when he chose not to run out of bounds. He missed multiple open receivers. On 3rd and goal, he ran out of the pocket when there was no pressure, and short sided himself with only one available receiver (Jones) who was covered. Allen didn't seem to understand Houston had a spy on him so he couldn't just run it in. We've seen him do this several times now, including preseason. Peterman's career in Buffalo is over whether he gets cut or not. It's still early, but Josh isn't getting better. He doesn't understand what's happening pre-snap. He has a tendency to run backwards at the slightest hint of pressure. He's frequently wildly inaccurate with his throws. He makes bad decisions. Anderson isn't the perfect solution, but right now he's the best option short-term for the team, and long-term for Allen's development. The kid needs a breather. He needs to watch and learn.

Believe me I'll be first in line to eat crow if it means Josh is figuring it out. 20 years of sh!tty QB play has me a little on the cynical side.