WideNine

Hack just needed to dribble that to the 5 not boot it into the stands. Team needs to settle down.

Hero ball... rearing its head. Your team is ahead play like it.

Run it down their throat... then Knox deep.

Pringle pops the ball to us... thank you.

KC was ball'n hard to stop the run keying on our RB and FB.... Not counting on Allen. OL blocking with some attitude.

Ack.... slide Josh!

Chance to watch a lot more teams and other games today. Came away thinking perhaps we B word too much about our Bills. Saw more than enough sketch QB plays from notables around the league and porous defenses from teams that have offensive punch but lack balance, or great defensive efforts wasted on lackluster offenses. It's a matchup league, but with so many rookies and retread QBs behind center it is hard to gage the strength of many teams including ours. Arizona looked beatable facing a rookie QB in SF Lance. Murray is far less accurate having to operate in the pocket than when he gets outside... still ridiculously quick on draws and such but credit the Niner defense for keeping them in the game so long. Good test today with two established clubs in the Bills and KC.

Hill is one of those quick twitch guys that will juke Levi and Taron out of their jocks. I'd keep White on him with help close by.

This. And we have been more solid against the run with our front 4... although teams may break off a run or two. If it is a game against in the elements, running and stopping the run will factor more heavily. But like a lot of folks have already mentioned jamming Kelce and knocking him off his timing and routes, defending him and Hill and forcing Mahomes to hold the ball so our rush gets to him... Similar to how they took Diggs away from Allen. You take away a QB's first and second read and things get uncomfortable.

Thanks bud.... rhetorical question. Yeah I was going to put the link up too. But assumed that was the facepalm (phone keeps auto-correcting this to faceplate) Nice.

Facepalm perhaps because there is already a post for this a few threads below this one. Folks just have to look for it before starting another....

I recall he drove us down the field multiple times, but Houston had a good scheme using a shallow zone across the end zone to defend those drag routes that have been money. We settled for field goals. In the second half the Bills adjusted to hitting plays just outside the end zone and walking those in, a great fake dive and wide open Knox, and threw in some RPO. IMO elements had less to do with punching it in than adjustments made to counter how they were goaltending in the end zone.

A return or two without a block in the back penalty would be nice.

I cannot really decide because with the right game plan there are a lot of players that can contribute more than last year. I am thinking on defense that Star has his coming out party. He has played great this year, but this game he gets the recognition as being the missing cog in our DL gears last year. I said earlier in the year that changing fan perception was mostly in Star's wheelhouse and he has done just that. Gone out and slapped some shut-up on us folks who were down on him. Love being wrong if it unleashes the beast up the middle flushing Mahomes into the waiting arms of the rest of the DL. On offense, I am going to go with the trenches again and say that Spencer Brown injects some much needed attitude into that right side of the line both in pass pro and opening up running lanes. Bold prediction is that he draws a penalty or two because of that nasty dog in him, but if that helps purge the punching bag syndrome our OL has had at the hands of KC, then so be it. He is tied in my mind with Knox, who will feed off of the play action.

That is part of it - our defense was pretty porous last year against the run so either we tried to stop the run and still give up 1st downs just a bit more slowly, or defend against the chunk plays through the air. Either resulted in a "L" after the game. I am not sure why so many fans get their undies in a bunch as soon as someone mentions running the ball and miss the point when they say we were not successful running the ball. As the clip indicated, you do not necessarily have to be successful running the ball, it just has to be effective enough to force defenses to not ignore it as an option on any particular play so it slows down the pass rush and opens up routes by freezing safeties. Sure we tried to run the ball, but anyone that looked at our run/pass balance would see how heavily slanted it was last season. Not only that, but by using so many empty set pass plays as soon as we went away from that and trotted out our personnel used on running plays we signaled to defenses to cheat their efforts to stopping the run. So some of the issues with running were certainly on the OL, but some was how predictable we were being with our personnel packages.

I think that worked early when teams were all following the same formula of blitzing Allen with 5 (or more) and playing simple man or simple zones or one safety high. Allen could use the pre-snap motion to see who was covering whom or whether they were going to use zone or a mix of zone and man. When teams began to pin their ears back rushing 4 they found there are a lot of ways to confuse Allen and make him hold the ball longer using 7 defenders off the ball. Not only that, but DL player did not have to respect their gap assignments and could just go all out on their pass rush. I like Dabs, but I think he was a bit slow to digest the data that clearly showed we played our best ball and had the best completion percentages when operating out of the 11 personnel and incorporate that into more balanced game plans. He clearly loves to be creative with his offensive play calls, but there are times you have to accept what the data is telling you and be creative within that structure. There is a lot he can still do out of that 11 personnel package and he has even thrown in some 12 personnel with a fullback. I like what he has done this year and I think it will help Allen stay upright, gets our offensive line off its heels from time to time so they can pound on a DL instead of just getting punched in the mouth, and will help limit the jailbreaks.

Already do because I like their model and hope they can continue to build on it - I hesitate to post too much of their content here, but if we use it as teasers I think we should avoid the wrath of copyright. It was folks posting snips from them last season that got me curious enough to invest in the subscription.

With the Chiefs struggling to stop the run and the way we ran the ball in a downpour. I am not too concerned with our Bills handling the elements.

Coaching too. Allen was a raw product, a diamond in the rough compared to some like Mahomes and Herbert - so how fast a rookie QB hits the ground running may not be quite a fair comparison with Allen coming out of Wyoming after only getting a JUCO offer and those groomed in HS and college programs like Texas Tech and Oregon. Most NFL scouts worth their salt knew that it was going to take time and an organizational investment to see Allen reach his potential - I think we have scratched the surface and he still has room to grow applying the right touch and mechanics on each throw, recognizing defenses and willing to be patient and take what they are giving up underneath. He puts in the work and has proven that he can defy the experts and can overcome bad habits and develop good muscle memory to be amazing. You have to like what he was able to do in the WNY elements, and I never expected a kid that big to be able to move like he does or be able to beat LBs to the sticks or pylon... The NFL has some very good young QB talents and we have one of them.

I think we have more balance this year on both sides of the ball. If we can be physical and run it and Allen hits the quicker routes and outlets underneath we will be more successful getting into an early rhythm and our reshuffled OL will have a better shot at protecting him. Longer possessions and good field position will also spell our front 4 DL rotation so they can ball out when they are out there and make Mahomes more uncomfortable than last time. That right side of the OL will be interesting to see who gets the starting nod. I am not as concerned with the magic 30, just want us to be up by 2 scores late in the 4th and in control with Allen taking the play clock down to 5 seconds each snap. Would love it if our defense was finally able to put a lid on their offense. Sure, I love the deep shots when Allen is able to hit them. Those often come when teams get more desperate and send more guys to try to get to your QB leaving WRs in man coverage or just single-high looks. Hope that is the situation we find our offense in later in this game. I hate predictions, but feel like this will be a close game where ball security and field position will be more important - we have been a bit fortunate in our bounces when we have lost the handle on the football this year. Not to steal the swagger from our "D", but they have to prove their metal against the best to be considered the best. Beating up on offenses with few weapons and rookie QBs is just what they are supposed to do - I am looking forward to seeing if they RISE to this challenge.

We didn't win that first game so sacrificing run defense was not a winning strategy either. We simply lost by less - so perhaps it was less embarrassing, but the net result was the same. Giving up all those rushing yards also meant the clock kept ticking while our offense cooled its heels on the sideline staring at a losing score on the board and KCs defense was well-rested to pin their ears back and rush Allen. We need to stop their rush mainly with our front 4 and also bring pressure with those same packages without having to pull guys out of coverage. We need to be able to run on their defense to keep them from dropping 7 into coverage, to keep the chains moving, our defense fresh, the pressure off of Allen, and keep the ball out of Mahomes hands. KC forces our team to play solid complimentary football. We do that and we have the best shot of winning. This could be one of the closer games we have had with KC so Special Teams and turnovers could decide it.

...outside of the poor overall team effort in the Pittsburgh opening game, Allen has already won one offensive MVP. The other two games our offense put up 35 and 40 while we pitched shutouts. I would say he has elevated his game plenty. The rest of the offense has to show up, particularly the nastier more physical OL we started to see glimpses of against the Texans. We need them to pass protect better and open some holes for our runners.

Looking through this thread, this may be simpler if you ask what isn't wrong with him.

This and not sure what he may have thought he heard. The easiest way to keep personal decisions... you know - PERSONAL, is to not shout them from the roof tops on public media. If you do, and some folks take issue with your opinions, then you probably need to spend more time contemplating discretion than getting salty that there are folks out there that will publicly disagree with you. Other than his personal takes, which I didn't really need to know in the first place and could have easily been handled behind the 4 walls of OBD, I like Beas as a Bill and as a player - tough as nails and damn reliable.

I am the same way - have to see it done once first before the positivity can kick into gear. In our first meeting last year they ran all over us - the spin on that was that the Bills focused on taking away the pass. My take is that we sucked last year stopping the run even when we stacked the box against obvious run formations so our coaching staff just picked our poison. We are much improved in that area with Star and Zimmer manning the middle and better gap discipline. In our second meeting I felt like we tried to divide the baby trying to balance our run and pass defense. The net result was that we were good at neither - Kelce released off the line freely without anyone jamming him or challenging his route and Hill was making guys look silly with RAC and the middle of the field felt like it was always open with Mahomes using his eyes to move Edmunds off the spots he needed to be to defend passing lanes. The biggest factor perhaps is that we could not generate a thing against their patchwork offensive line with our front 4 and Mahomes had all day to comfortably operate. No disrupted timing on routes, all day to throw, porous run defense on short yardage made for a long day for our defense. When we got more desperate and sent 5 after Mahomes he did what Josh does and found the guy open in man coverage or the gaps in zone and ate our lunch. New year with a different team with some new pieces on both sides and a better commitment to slowing the rush with 11 personnel and feeding Zackin Singlemoss and leveraging Knox more. We could flip the script, but they are going to be stacking the box and balling hard to get us out of that run balance early to push Allen and Daboll into pass-only mode that is more suited to their defensive strengths.