WideNine

Pittsburgh has a knack for finding good WRs. Our team is just too much for them. They've protected Pickett with shorter routes, but he has stood in there with the heat coming. They have something to build on. Still like crushing them.

He has time. The Bills are great at developing their pipeline of young talent... shows today. The curve varies for each player. The coaching staff is good at bringing them along at the right pace.

That was so.......... meh. Tossed the remote back to my wife and said you can watch whatever else you want midway through the 2nd qtr. Checked back later on that snoozer, only to see the glacial effort was into OT. Just really bad football. Felt like a low-scoring preseason game with crappy backup QBs.

Folks seem to forget Morse was out and we had a backup center Van Roten snapping and yeah, he had some bad exchanges. Just saw a poster caught that detail playing catch-up.

Still does not make sense considering Von normally lines up as a wide end and just beats his man inside/outside or straight up bull rush. ...wait PFF. Ok I get it now

I did consider that. Still feel Allen has the edge and I know that breaks that rule. Just can't get past the strong feeling that if our defense did not crap the bed with KC pinned deep with only 13 ticks left... we would have beaten the Rams. Just matchup-wise felt we were a better team. Pure homerism... I know. That is why I am a Bills fan.

My point was how do we measure QB greatness. I don't think it is skills alone as Rogers gets the MVP nod all the time with his stats, but has the penchant of coming up small in big games. My personal take is the ability to lead their respective teams to championships and win those head-to-head competitions against those QBs challenging the narrative. For now Mahomes has the edge, but there are a lot of young QBs nipping at his heels. Allen may be the closest to getting past the KC wall and grabbing a championship.

Mahomes is a great QB. He leads Allen now in Championships and in head-to-head matchups. I know the argument could be made that last year's finale result cannot be blamed on Allen- true. A lot of young guns out there and IMO how many championships and head-to-head victories is the QB "goat" measuring stick. The rest are moral victories to salve wounded pride. Allen is closing in and his objectives are clear. He does not strike me as a person who is OK with moral victories or hollow accolades given for just participating in big games.

Vegas does not agree with this take. Consistency: Playing in an oven with most of our backups and then the backups to the backup players. Playing in a downpour the next week where they finally shook off the Miami miasma in the 2nd half. This has the makings of a get healthy game if the offense can avoid the mental mistakes and we adjust more quickly through the 2nd qtr. Halftime adjustments have been pretty effective on both sides of the ball for the most part. It will be interesting to see who they trot out for the 3-receiver sets. Expect we will see a lot more Gilliam and 12 personnel.

Don't most of us fit that bill? My daughter used to root for the team with the "prettiest uniform", but outside of those takes

Well that bolded part worked. A more cautious take would be to see if Tre gets back to 100% when he takes the field. He is still in his prime, and there are better outcomes than years past for these injuries, but if he has lost a step it could be a consideration. Next man up has been a consistent theme this season, so I don't think we have the luxury of assuming we will end up with too many DBs on the bench.

We usually roll out 2-deep safeties so yes both our corners get help, but they are playing well too. I think the Bills hit on these two. They have both had clean breakups and a few close dpi's. Elam is more physical when playing press and coming up in run support. Benford is smooth and natural mirroring receivers in and out of breaks. I can get teams avoiding the deeper shots with our safeties back there, but think the real testament is how often teams to prefer to attack Taron in the slot than test our two young DBs underneath. That whole secondary did a great job of bottling both Hill and Waddle who excel at taking quick short/intermediate passes and turning them into long gainers. When we get White back Frazier is going to have some options.

Poyer said in his post game presser that he was playing with Lamar's eyes (paraphrasing) and that he is sure Lamar would want that pass back. To me that not only reaffirms Poyer was playing the ball, but also that he was baiting Lamar to make that throw. I thought the Ravens' DBs were getting there early throughout the game without making a play on the ball and not getting the DPIs. If I was a Ravens fan, I am not sure officiating is where I would look for answers with their string of late game collapses.

I prefer they don't get too forensic with flagging the trenches. That's just me. There are more than a few times our guys get that hold on DL players that beat them... just enough for Allen to take off. So many teams are lining up their talented speed rushers in that wide 9 look outside the right tackles. Brown is long and pretty athletic, but those RTs get beat like a drum week in and week out. Brown has his share of whiffs too. They have a tough job. Just not sure I want every one of those flagged. I think refs are looking at how long and how blatant.

Yep. There was one helmet driven into Allen's chin pretty early. A bit later there was also the flying knee "thing" when Allen went into his slide that I thought was very avoidable. The scales ended up getting balanced.

I am with you about the smaller dollar donations. I don't give a lot of thought to those and just figure I am paying it forward - karma and all.

I serve on one now and it has state and federal guidance/oversight - you have to submit and be granted approval from the Secretary of the State office, and we have to file taxes each years where "book cooking" is a bit far-fetched at least in my experience with smaller non-profits. Of course folks should keep in mind that there are several different types of non-profit organizations and not all are charitable or provide a lot of insight into their sources of income or spend. https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/private-foundations/types-of-foundations For the charitable non-profits I have worked with there is a lot of volunteerism, but I have not personally seen nafarious/malicious mismanagement. Just some incompetence by well-meaning individuals in over their heads. For the one I serve on now. We have outside CPAs to manage the books/tax filings, we keep expenses in line with state and federal guidance for anything per diem related and account for them, file the appropriate tax forms for employees, have fixed expense categories that are easly justified, and we are expected to present a transparent P&L at the end of each fiscal year which we post for members to review. We set a goal of keeping a baseline budget of X number of months of operation expenses for disruptions (like Covid) and at the end of each year determine if we are running in the red or in the black and adjust expeditures or fundraising to keep a balanced budget. Well-meaning folks looking to donate to charities should just do a bit of due-dilligence before committing funds to any venture if they care about how the funds are going to be used.

I currently do, what's the question? Just curious.

It's a long season, but the Dolphins leadership definitely took the short view of what to do when facing off against our Bills. There is no way that all-clear decision was made by one outside guy. This has the kind of stink that now is going to overshadow their whole season where if they handled it correctly, could have better set them up for the long haul.

I am a bit tired of seeing the "Milano slamming his head into the turf" exaggeration. Milano shoved him while turning away and Tua fell backwards and hit his own head in the turf. QBs get "the shove" after a throw many times and go down and make contact with the turf. Allen has played a few of those up to draw late hit flags... a few times it has worked. Most QB's after those don't go full bobble-head concussed unless there are already some underlying issues. This was hardly head-hunting by Milano. It was the "meh" hit followed by the extreem effect on Tua that made me think concussion right out of the gate...and not his first one either.

Also once someone has a few concussions a love tap can cause another. Seen this in hockey for years. Hard to penalize a player or think it is malicious when hitting the boards or the ground just comes with the game. Now Wilkins trying to take Knox's head off on a blindside tackle yes. Shameful how Miami handled this. Not a person on this board believed the back spasm narrative.

I keep hearing this selective theme regarding losing close games. It is true that last year we either buried teams or struggled when it was a close battle, but the prior season we won plenty of close contests. 27 - 24 Indy Wild Card 31 - 28 Miami 35 - 32 Rams 30 - 23 Raiders 24 - 21 NE In 2021 we won most games by wide margins. The close ones we lost were: Lost to the goat in Tampa in OT. Lost to the Titans on the goal line... QB sneak stuffed. Covid Dawkins steamrolled and Allen slipped. Lost a crap game of competing field goals against Jags. Lost a close game in a wind storm against NE where they ran all day and Mac threw a total of 3 passes. Lost a close one against KC in OT where offense did not see the field and prevent D got us into that mess. The close losses or burying teams seemed more indicative to me of a defense that thrived rushing the passer and forcing 3 and outs against teams where our leads forced them to be one dimensional and struggled against the others. Beane went out and bolstered our d-line and prioritized DBs in the draft. I am not a fan of Frazier's prevent zone defense in close games, or when defending 3rd and forever... and would also like to see more balanced effective rushing attack to keep play action viable and Allen upright, but I don't see enough "bad" coaching to join those trying to manufacture that narrative. Overall, we just need our very good team to get healthier.

I lived in MN when the Vikings' Korey Stringer died of heat stroke during a muggy summer training camp. So I guess this hits home a bit for me. The NFL has done some things, but needs to do more. I love the game, but where they can make changes that protect players without killing the game... why not? Folks easily forget: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2529508-korey-stringers-sacrifice-and-the-battle-to-stop-football-heat-stroke-deaths

Agree. Allen made one of his biggest leaps the year he kept bringing this team back in the 4th quarter. Last year playoff at KC I dare anyone to say he was not clutch. I think both Daboll and Dorsey were a bit pass happy and this team got better with a more balanced attack last year. We brought in Kromer for the OL because he is so good at scheming up runs and run blocking. They need to tap him and get his input. The OL is pretty dinged up right now, but we will see if they start pivoting to a more balanced offensive attack.

Perhaps folks should send some helpful material to the Dolphins office...