CincyBillsFan

If Lattimore was a high school football player he would be running sprints tomorrow for that weak attempt to recover that fumble.

Watching tonight's game provides all the answers to your questions: * I've seen wide open receivers for both teams multiple times tonight. I saw 1 wide open Bill downfield the last 2 Bills games. * Tonight 2 Commander WR's made toe tapping catches within inches of the sideline. An expected catch by an NFL WR. The last 2 games I've seen 3 different Bills WR's unable to keep their feet in bounds on virtually the same passes. All 3 would have converted 3rd downs and extended drives. As others have pointed out in the absence of Palmer, Brady & Allen do not trust the WR's to make plays downfield. BTW, against the Falcons, Allen hit Palmer for downfield completions of 18 & 52 yards on their first 2 possessions before Palmer left with an injury.

BTW, has anyone else noticed how 2 different Washington WR's have made toe tap catches within inches of the sideline. That is expected from NFL boundary WR's.

As Peter, Paul & Mary would say "Only if you lay it between the lines".

Only the NFL can call something "expedited" when siting on my fat @$$ drinking a beer I had already seen the replay showing he didn't make it a minute before the ref made it official.

And with the failure of their opening scripted drive this game is going to get ugly for the Commanders.

No one is denying Allen's involvement in picking a WR. That's a given. What some of us dispute is the notion that Allen worked hard to get Coleman picked over other options. The argument that we needed someone like Coleman was sound and I'm sure Bean & Allen talked about the need for a big bodied boundary receiver who could turn 50/50 catches into 80/20 ones. My disagreement is with the idea that Allen exerted pressure on the Bills scouting staff and GM to take a guy that they didn't really want and they drafted Coleman to keep Allen happy. IMO the evidence is that Bean & Co. selected the guy that they believed best fit their need within the framework of the draft capital they were willing to part with. Allen was asked to sign off and he did. As an aside, I'm not ready to write Coleman off yet. I've seen enough flashes over the last 20 games to believe that he might still develop into the high end WR they thought they drafted. I have this feeling that Coleman's story is not done yet.

Again, this is what you would expect from Allen who at that moment in time knew that the Bills were drafting Coleman. It's the classy and constructive thing to do but doesn't support the idea that Allen facilitated this pick over any others. I am convinced that if Bean had shown Allen tape of McConkey and then told Allen that was who they were drafting Allen would also have been supportive and sent Ladd a text before the official selection. Do you really think Allen would have said "hell no, I want Coleman" if Bean went up to him before the draft and told him the Bills were going to try to jump up in the 1st round to grab one of the stud WR's that were available?

Like you I had unrealistically high expectations. In any given season we should not be falling for the hype that places our team in the Super Bowl with the number one seed. The realistic expectation this season was that the Bills would win their division and win a playoff game or two. I'm actually more connected now then I was at the start of the season. The Bills future is now an undiscovered country and I'm curious as to which way the season will go.

Check this catch out yesterday by a Colts WR. Do you think Danny Dimes appreciates this?

By saying that Allen is the primary reason the Bills have been to the playoffs 6 straight seasons, have won 5 straight division titles and have been a leading SB contender the last 5 seasons is not the same thing as saying Allen is the "savior" and is "perfect". Clearly no NFL QB is perfect or even close to being perfect throughout an entire season. And those of us defending Allen have never said he was. But you are deluding yourself if you think that this team minus Allen would have had near the success it has had over the last 6 seasons. And yes McD & Bean are good at their jobs. The question has always been are they good enough?

He made one like it to Kincaid yesterday. The 3 sideline throws he's made over the last 2 games that went incomplete because the WR's couldn't get both feet in bounds was vintage Allen, particularly the throw to Shakir on 3rd & 10 against the Falcons. The 19 yard TD strike to Knox on 3rd & 13 in the Atlanta game was vintage Allen as was the opening play 50 yard strike to Palmer.

You answered your own question - Hollins had a knack for making those big off script receptions that you get with a guy like Allen at QB. And Cooper was a dangerous boundary WR who had big catches in several critical Bills games. Sure, the Bills WR's last season were not great, they were at best average. But last season the WR room was better then it has been this season and that is the crux of the problem.

Cooper made some remarkable, big time NFL catches along the sidelines in some of the Bills biggest games last season. He was clearly better on the boundary then any Bills WR this season. Hollins had a knack for making big catches on the off script plays that are a big part of Allen's lethality. He was clearly better at this then Moore, Shavers or Samuel. It remains to b seen how good Palmer is at this. Coleman played much better last season (before the injury) then he's played this season. He has clearly regressed and/or they are asking to do different things. Johnson was a dangerous 3rd back at catching passes downfield last season. The only downfield throw to him this year resulted in a dropped TD pass against the Ravens. Only Shakir & Kincaid have matched last seasons receiving production.

If this is true and I'm not convinced that it is, then it relates to the idea that to win a Super Bowl you have to navigate a very long season and you can't get to high or to low. Allen may be deliberately tempering his emotions to achieve a more consistent high level performance over the long haul. We fans have been crying about how every season is the same: 11 - 13 wins, #2 or 3 seeding, initial playoff victory or 2 and then a loss to the Chiefs or Bengals, next season, repeat the process again. For 5 straight seasons we and more importantly the Bills organization have seen this play out. It really is the football version of the movie "Groundhog Day". I am of the opinion that this off season they thought long and hard about how to break the cycle and one of their ideas was to convince Allen's to moderate his passion. There is no need risking big hits by jumping over tacklers or attempting to run them over. In fact the whole offense is playing a more restrained, deliberate style. Sure part of it is due to the lack of WR talent but it looks like a plan to me. The only time they departed from this was in the 4th quarter against the Ravens when it was their ONLY chance to win the game. In the losses to the Pats & Falcons, the Bills were close enough to believe they could eke out wins without Allen putting the cape on. And they were almost right. Until recently the Eagles were adopting a similar strategy but they have the advantage of having explosive WR's allowing them to switch to a more pass oriented offense on demand. If the Bills could get that one WR who would fill that role they might be able to make this more cautious approach work. After all Mahomes over the last few seasons has been a very different regular season QB then what he is in the playoffs where his clearly turns the passion up big time.

But McD's defenses failed in the playoffs far more often then either the offensive minded Colts or defense obsessed Pats did. In fact with the exception of the first Baltimore playoff game McD playoff defenses have been terrible.

It's consistent with the Bills lode managing Allen. Their lack of success in critical short yardage situations this season forced them to bring the play back sooner then I suspect they wanted to. At the risk of beating a dead horse what we're seeing is entirely by design and the resulting awkwardness is the players adjusting and the fact that this offensive approach will always seem a bit herky - jerky.

Like I've been saying - all of this is entirely by design and I suspect that Brady/McD would say that Allen played great within the confines of the system they want to run. The way the offense is designed and the care with which the Bills are managing injuries strikes me as an organization that has broken the season up into parts with the goal of not wearing themselves out before the playoffs. We are in the first part where the goal is to stay near the top of the seeding while staying fresh. The last couple of seasons has seen a battered & beat up Bills team run out of gas in the playoffs. What we're seeing now is a direct response to that. Only time will tell if this is the right way to go.

It was load management easing him back in from the injury. Next week you will see a lot more snaps with Kincaid on the field.

One other point. Against Atlanta and against Carolina today Allen fired 3 great passes to WR's at the boundary that just missed being in bounds. I believe all 3 would have resulted in 3rd down conversions had they been caught. I am very confident that Diggs & Davis catch those 3 passes keeping their feet in bounds. I watch a lot of football, both NFL & college, and the good WR's make those catches. In fact last season Cooper made a couple of those kinds of catches at critical moments. We are 7 games into the season and I can't recall a Bills skill player making an exceptional catch. Maybe the Coleman snag of that batted ball against the Ravens but where I often see multiple WOW catches made in almost every NFL game the lack of those kinds of catches in Bills games goes a long way towards explaining the passing game struggles. Thankfully, Shakir has had a couple of elite RAC moments or we would really be in trouble throwing the football.

What we are seeing is by design. if they limit the TO's and offensive penalty's and play decent D they will win the game. The two game losing streak featured a lot of bad offensive penalties, 5 TO's and terrible defense. The goal is to stay at or near the top of the AFC/Division standings through game 10 then go on a run fully unleashing Allen. Allen and the passing game looks off because I'm not convinced Allen has entirely bought in. No matter what Allen says he seems to be the type of player that treats every game as the Super Bowl. Allen is a sprinter, not a cross country runner. He's trying but he's uncomfortable playing with an engine governor engaged. Today, Allen was great within the scheme that Brady & McD want - 3 TD's, NO TO's & a QB rating of 108, a dominating offensive performance courtesy of Cook & the running game (the Bills only punted once through 3 quarters scoring on the other 7 possessions) Contributing to the odd look in the passing game is the inability of the WR's to make plays downfield or routinely get separation. This is true on structured and more concerning unstructured plays. With the exception of Shakir's nifty run after catches there is no credible WR threat on this team. And Kincaid, our biggest downfield threat, was out against Atlanta and was on a pitch count today (only in on 14 snaps). Throw in the fact that Samuel has been hurt and missed games and practices limiting his work with Allen, Coleman has underwhelmed, Moore is a gadget player at best and Shavers is a blocker who is at best a practice squad receiver and the Bills passing offense will look off. But there is reason for optimism. An Allen/Palmer connection was developing and he's shown that he might be that deep boundary receiver desperately needed. I expect Kincaid to get fully healthy and as teams do everything in their power to stop Cook, Allen's runs & passing will become more productive. And I do expect Bean to make a move and bring in a legit #1 WR. Last season our offense really took off after Cooper was added even though he himself didn't post big numbers his presence forced teams to defend the Bills differently.

Kincaid was limited today and according to a poster on another thread he was only on the field for 14 snaps. Palmer being out leaves the Bills without a downfield WR passing attack. Allen's 2 throws to the sideline were vintage Allen throws and missed by inches being completions. Outside of twp bad throws he seemed pretty accurate to me. I do think he's not trusting his WR's and he's not fully trusting the O line on pass plays. The play where he got sacked on the first FG drive in which Dawkins took the wrong guy has been happening a lot lately. Then you had the play were Allen sneaks for the 1st down getting a 1st & goal only to see it come back on an inexcusable mistake by the WR's not lining up correctly. I agree that there is a mental component here. When you almost never see separation it starts to drain the brain. On the positive side Allen finished with a QB rating of 108 and the offense piled up over 400 yards. There was one play where Coleman did not come back to the ball and again let a DB get by him to knot down and almost intercept the pass. This has to shake a QB's confidence in a receiver. All I could think of is that Diggs or Davis would have taken a couple of steps towards Allen to catch that ball for a decent gain. It's NFL receiving 101 and it's not being done by a couple of our WR's.

They also were load managing his return from injury. This is very frustrating to fans but hopefully over the fullness of a season it will pay off.

No.

It allowed Bishop to play faster IMO.