WideNine

I don't know if I would say it is completely dead as everything in the NFL tends to be a cyclical chess match. There was certainly a shift to more 2 and 3-deep zone play and playing off receivers keeping everything in front of you, but that may be changing too Cosell goes into that a bit in this article. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2024/05/23/greg-cosell-nfl-press-coverage-ljarius-sneed-a-j-terrell-joey-porter-jr/73815502007/

They will use him motion which both tells their offense if it he is in man coverage and makes it really hard to jam the release. Also that motion opens the door on jet sweeps or just the horizontal displacement of the defense allowing someone like Kelce to find all the soft spots to sit. We should be familiar with it as it is Miami's bread & butter for their speedsters. There is that durability factor that those smaller guys with lighter frames. They don't tend to hold up over a full season. The outlier being the Cheetah who has a stockier build and has been pretty durable.

I don't like "never", but agree that it is yet to be seen in the big games with KC. They need to do some better self scouting of how their defense will be attacked and we desperately need better luck on the injury front. Last year it was clear we did not have the depth needed around the box with injuries to LBs, DL as well as Taron, Benford, and Douglas who are good at playing down low or coming up to make stops. I think as good as Benford has been for us when healthy he has not been able to suit up for any of our playoff games. KC countered with a lot of heavy 3-TE alignments that took advantage of those mismatches.

Josh's passing TDs were down a bit, but I thought that didn't tell the full story of how the offense as a whole had more run/pass balance and Allen tacked on a lot of those rushing TDs. Allen puts defenders in conflict when he rolls out or he can take it up the gut if the second level opens up. With him taking more outlet options underneath (dumps to Cook or Shakir) for RAC rather than eyes pinned deep waiting for those to open up, it makes those moves even harder to defend. Would rather see the bruising short yardage keepers go to a RB that can get those tough yards and spare him some of that abuse.

It was and is corporate greed plain and simple that took Western supply chains and made them a one-way street from China. A bit late, but our government is finally recognizing the security risks inherent in having everything supplied from a nation that could turn hostile or simply not want to abide by international norms (think 9 dash line). Kind of a "duh" moment. Think if you went to war and could not even put clothes on your soldiers or have parts that you need because you simply do not have a friendly nation to supply them. You can kind of see that play out when the world tries to get Russia to behave via embargos yet China, Iran, and North Korea keep them supplied with weapons. So you know where China stands in regards to keeping the peace and respecting existing borders and folks having the right of self determination and voting for their representatives. They don't and who knows if they ever will play by those rules. There is a lot of push to de-risk US supply chains and in that regard Covid was a needed disrupter and wake up call. Re: the oil industry. They have been dragging down innovation for far too long. China cornered the rare earth market and is pedal to the metal pushing to be the lead on EVs and we are finally racing to catch up. Authoritarian regimes with centralized power can ramp up quickly with the control government has over their business sectors. That cuts both ways, as they can go all in on the wrong direction too. I will always bet on US ingenuity and entreprenual spirit, but we the people have been governed too long with partisan poop-throwing monkeys. They are not exactly an agile bunch.

My disdain for Trump goes back to my formative years in NJ and his constant shenanigans and shady biz. This does not automatically mean I am enamored with Biden or the left side of the isle... folks tend to oversimplify and make that assumption. Some folks just have to blindly follow some leader, but politicians are not Messianic figures and I like to weigh government policies independently. Aesop said we hang the petty thieves and elect the great ones to office... So I view those that aspire to politics with that historical lens. Even the left side of the isle has their share of scheming crooks with intrusive ideologies. Constantly tilting at windmills so they can create layers of bureaucracy for useless agencies to siphon money. Tossing tax dollars at real and manufactured social issues like magic pixie dust. So little accountability. If either side wants to make a difference they could start by not taking money from lobbies intent on keeping our drug prices through the roof.

Yep. Seems to be a lot of media pundits have gone "the sky is falling" route when discussing the Bills not trading the farm to move up for a top boundary receiver. Brady's offense featured a lot more run/pass balance, and hitting their slot receivers and Cook after motioning to create mismatches or clearing out zones. Not to mention how much they were feeding Kincaid and Knox. Pivoting away from boundary plays that were less effective vs the shell defenses and deep safeties and their focus on Diggs to more runs and a better distribution of passes under and around the sticks meant there was less heavy reliance on production from those areas. Allen was able to get the ball out of his hands more on schedule, we kept the chains moving, and the defense was able to get enough time to stay fresh between possessions and play fast. We still took our deeper shots, but what we had was not a bad recipe to sustain success. I also like that there has been more focus on catch radius, hands, and RAC ability with the receivers they have invested in (Shakir, Kincaid, and the book on Coleman should he pan out). Allen will find ways to feed guys the ball if they are money and don't drop it. Now if Cook could just fix his concentration issues. Just some maddening drops on the doorstep. Of course a burner that can take the top off a defense and has great hands would be nice, but KC won without that and Miami has two of them and has not been able to get past us so there is more to the recipe.

This. Professional athletes need to take care of their conditioning which includes rest. During the season Allen scrambles and takes on more tackles than most QBs who may be more slippery and less likely to "lower the horns" and many fans love that about him, but the way he plays demands both conditioning and recovery. You have to trust he has a good handle on both and I would not approach it from a punitive mindset because we have not gotten to the show.... Yet. I would not lay much of our post-season failures at Allen's feet.

Always a tough decision with a player who has been really good for us. Diggs was able to reinvent himself a bit with this club. The Texans made some noise last year who knows how well he will do there. This Org usually holds onto players past their expiration, but when you are working against a thin cap margin you have to be able to retool with cheap rookie deals. Wish him well, just not against us.

Ahhh hell it hurts, but is what it is. Got the game at home and our kicker can't kick and once again we are down to backups of our backups on the defense. But someone summed it up best, it comes down to players making the plays in clutch situations. Oh well guys, perhaps I will start thinking about the draft, but plan to just bury myself in work for the next few weeks and try not to think about this game and another loss to the Chiefs blocking our road to the SB. Just sucks...not much more I can say

He is getting that reputation of the guy who drops critical walk-in TD passes. It's deserved this year and a concentration issue he has got to correct.

Kincaid is such a smart player... Great draft pick. Just say'n

Have wondered if there is going to be a CBA amendment of sorts to expand rosters a bit more. The NFL keeps expanding venues for the $ and I think it is getting harder for teams to keep enough healthy depth. Just interested in seeing if some changes are expected

I don't think there has been much secret sauce and no team has just rolled over and given the Bills anything on this road to the postseason. They have just been so focused and determined... I don't recall a Bills team quite like the makeup of this one and I have been watching my Bills for 40 years. Coaches are putting in the work getting our players ready to step up and play well when needed and coming up with game plans and adjustments that have been effective. Josh has been decisive and in the zone, OL has been blocking hard to the whistle, RBs hitting their gaps and running hard, and our offense as a whole has been executing and stacking reps. No blinking. They are taking care to secure and protect the ball while still taking calculated big play shots. The defense has been disciplined with their rush lanes, but determined to push the pocket and win up front. They have made it a focus to snuff out the runs early before they can get traction. They have have been effective making teams more one dimensional with hard work up front. Our back 7 know where they need to be and are covering to the whistle and tackling well too, so giving up very little RAC when teams do complete a pass. Our STs have shored up their coverage, but we do need that kicking game to be more consistent. Just see a team of guys all doing their 1/11th and committed to working the entire 60 minute of each game - including the last 13 seconds. Wishing each of them much success and a well earned victory. Go Bills!

Texans have been pretty consistent this year too and Stroud has been money. Not sure how they will fair stopping a mobile QB like Lamar. They eeked out a win against the Cardinals, but other than that they have not really run into that many this year and the one game against the Ravens early they lost. Ravens should not be sleeping on them as they seem to be peaking at the right time, but I don't think they pull it off, but you never know. A Cinderella year for both the Texans and the Lions and good to see some fresh clubs make it to the post season.

I have concerns with officiating getting in the way of this game - hope they just let them play. Josh is usually a wild card in my mind for the past season and a half. What Josh shows up to play? But I feel like he is dialed in and I am really glad for his sake as he lifts the energy of the whole offense when he is in the zone. Jones can be a game-wrecker in the middle and I think he is playing on a 1-year deal so basically showcasing his play to either go FA or simply put himself in a great negotiating position. So (as usual) we have to be aware of where he is at and provide some help, but effective running is best way to slow down him pinning his ears back and reeking havoc in the backfield. I do think we have great depth with our defense that has been tested to the max, but we are now very thin at LB and I did not see any roster moves to shore up that depth so that has me a bit nervous - will see what that injury report looks like at the end of the week. Perhaps the biggest ***** in our defensive armor is missing Taron Johnson and I think Pittsburgh realized pretty quickly that Cam Lewis in a tough spot filling in for Taron was our "Waldo" (referring to interviews with those who have worked with our OC Brady and how they said one thing he would always do when game planning was to find a player or players on the defense that they could attack - "where's Waldo" ) Knock on wood, that our strong run defenders on the line play the dominant way that they can as KC has been leaning more on their run game. So yeah, I am just trying to enjoy the ride and enjoy this improbable run this year and keep my Bills OCD mania in a healthy place.

I do appreciate the ray of hope this provides that what should be a great game won't devolve into a flag-fest of epic proportions where we are forced to endure the long delays where his crew huddles together to somehow produce baffling conclusions. His response to criticism regarding his crew's performance during the Eagles game just solidifies my opinion that he is an unapologetic and deeply flawed turd that I was hoping we could flush for the remainder of the season.

Well, those that prostrate themselves before the alter of data analytics can still hope. Perhaps someday in the future they will be suffiently rendered down to enough bits and bytes that they will not actually have to try anything because their predicted performance will be provided in a KPI report.

They are never flawed, just ask them. They just run into anomalies and statical outliers like Josh Allen.

Well it was. Your point regarding dinosaur coaches not being in alignment with empirical analysis. The relevance being let the champions of empirically incomplete and often flawed analysis (pfffft) try to coach an NFL team successfully.

That was sarcasm.

Would like to see pffffft coach an NFL team. Yeah, that would work.

Taron has been relatively healthy for the past few seasons, but yeah this sounds about right. His first few seasons with the Bills... He was an ambulatory magnet.

Thank you JJ!!! Some of us have been preaching that to the analytics choir here to no avail for years. Those tools are just tools (no pun intended)... Coaches look at a lot of other factors when it comes to player evaluation.

My guess is he did not show up for McD's Zoom stretching sessions.