CincyBillsFan

I saw the Lombardi quote and couldn't believe that someone PAID to follow football got it so wrong. Sure, if you want to criticize Allen say that he was careless with the ball leading to 4 TO's. I would consider this statement debatable but at least it's in the realm of possibility. But to claim that "Josh Allen can't really make a throw" is an incredible thing to say for someone who watched the game. In fact it's so off that you almost have to believe that it's a DELIBERATE LIE designed to reinforce Lombard's dislike of Allen. It was clear to anyone with a TV (maybe Lombardi was following the game on radio?) that Allen was throwing the ball well at times and completing passes left & right. In fact he drove the Bills into scoring position 3 times in the 1st half. I suspect the reason these "experts" can sound so stupid at times and it seems like they weren't watching the same game as us is that in fact they're not watching the same game. They're trying to watch multiple games simultaneously and yea, if you caught Allen's performnce on the one drive where he just missed getting intercepted you might make the kind of statement Lombardi made.

I'm also skeptical about the Bills going 4 - 0 to start the season. I would be thrilled with 3 - 1 start and 2 - 2 would be acceptable. I think the Bills offense will be a work in progress through the first half of the season. IMO, the Giants are a dangerous team at home; the Bengals are much better then people thought and New England is new England.

As others have noted the bickering Bills reached it's height in 1988/1989 - BEFORE they made the Super Bowl run. In fact that 1989 team didn't come close to being as good as their talent warranted in part due to the bickering. I believe that one of the factors that contributed to the Bills going to 4 straight Super Bowls was that they largely stopped bickering and became family during that period.

And this is why Allen will be a great NFL QB IMO. He takes responsibility. If he could have made a better throw, and yes he could have here, he doesn't care what the receiver does if something goes wrong, Allen takes the responsibility. It shows a maturity way beyond his years. And even if Allen makes a perfect throw here and the ball pops up for a pick 6 he would NOT throw Beasley under the bus. The one thing the all-22 won't tell us is if Allen even had an option go anywhere else as long as Beasley was open. It was a 1st down play and the Bills were using these quick hitter passes as a substitute for running the football. I suspect that this was one of those pass plays that's really a "running play". That is throw a quick hit to pick up 5 yards.

Are you watching the Saints/Texans game? Watson just threw two short passes over the middle LOW. This is by design for where they're throwing the ball. It has to be a heater because it's in the middle of the field. A slow throw is picked or deflected. In the picture the THREE Jet defenders look far away but in real speed they are on top of the play. LOW & FAST is the ONLY way to put the ball in there. That was also a running play disguised as a pass. It was 1st down and you hit that quick throw for a 5 yard gain which is a great 1st down pick-up running the ball.

Two early game observations related to the Bills: * have you noticed that BOTH of Watson's throws over the middle have been very low? That's deliberate because they don't want the WR to get blown up and fumble or get hurt and they don't want the ball to bounce off his chest up in the air for an INT. Allen's throw yesterday to Beasley that resulted in a pick 6 was a GOOD throw for that pass play. The pick 6 was purely a fluke. * Did you notice how the announcers said that the 2nd pass completion that was overturned by reply was a DROP by Hopkins and NOT a poor pass (low) by Watson? I bet if Allen threw that pass it would be called "off target - to low". Watching other NFL games can be enlightening.

Today I was listening to the Cowturd show and he indirectly praised Allen. While blasting the Dolphins he pointed out how screwed they were by being in a division with two young QB's - ALLEN & Darnold - who are franchise QB's for the Bills & Jets. I was surprised that he mentioned Allen by name as the Bills franchise QB.

It's his 4th. TN, Det & Jacksonville were the first 3. And as others have noted had Clay hung on to the ball we may be talking about 5 4th quarter comebacks.

Solid analytics there! Sounds reasonable to me. This was true ONLY for the strip sack fumble on the 1st drive. That was careless on Allen's part. As for the fumbled snap: * It was 4th down so falling on the ball would have been exactly the same as losing a fumble. * Allen was unable to fall on the ball because Morse was blown up so bad he was pushed a couple of yards into the backfield into Allen.

I thought the O-line played very well but was rusty at times. Clearly Mitch Morse had to endure a first half baptism by fire as that was the first time he had seen meaningful contact at game speed in over 8 months. Allen had a nice pocket on most of his pass plays and the run blocking in the 4th quarter was outstanding. My favorite O-line play was when on 3rd & 4 during the game winning drive Allen simply took the snap and rumbled to the left for the 1st down. Morse and the linemen on that side all peeled off doing their best best imitation of a classic student body left sweep. It was Lombardi old school!

And just how likely do you think it is that the Bills will repeat yesterday's TO situation 15 more times!? My guess is that the way NFL karma works the Bills may be getting a couple of fortunate bounces going their way soon.

It's proof of their irrational dislike of Allen. Who else DWELLS on those kind of coulda/woulda/shoulda plays? Remember the incomplete dump of pass that Darnold threw when under pressure that hit a Bills LB in the back? That could have been a pick 6. Watch ANY NFL game and you'll have a couple of those kind of passes by EVERY QB out there. These tools are evaluating Allen on EVERY pass he throws. It's crazy.

Great point Rockpile. I remember saying to my son that there should have been TWO dead ball taunting fouls on that play. Overall the refs did a nice job but that miss cost the Bills 3 points.

I guess the accuracy bar for Allen has been raised to 75%. The hot takes during the game are simply an accurate representation of the huge amount of alcohol consumed.

They won because my 6 year old grandson started quoting the announcers word for word in the 2nd half. It culminated in him solemnly saying after we had stopped screaming and high fiving the Bills winning TD pass "did you know Papa that the Bills have scored 17 unanswered points". His dad and I burst out laughing at that.

This is the BEST post I've seen describing the 1st half. I would also add that: * 99 out of 100 times the Jet's pick 6 play would have ended either as a 5 yard Bill's gain or an incomplete pass. That it resulted in a pick 6 is the very definition of a FLUKE PLAY. * The Allen "fumble" on 4th down was likely a direct result of Morse not seeing any contact under game situations during the preseason. It's unreasonable to think a center can just go out and excel in the 1st half of the opening game after missing the entire preseason. Did anyone else notice how much better Morse played in the 2nd half? I mean he looked like a beast out there. I suspect that had Morse gotten in some game reps during the preseason there isn't a fumble on that play.

5% losing Mosley and 95% the Bills, including Dabold, executing properly on offense. Can't folks just accept a thrilling Bills comeback win on the road against a Division rival without looking for excuses as to why they won? Well here's some excuses as to why the Bills didn't blow the Jets out in the FIRST HALF yesterday: * A lot of people are criticizing Dabold's pass happy opening but it worked. The Bills moved the ball right down the field. A blown block by the tackle and Allen not protecting the ball cost the Bills at least 3 & maybe 7 points. * A lot of people claim the Bills lucked out because the Jets missed an extra point & FG! So what! The Jets ONLY TD of the 1st half was a fluke play that 99/100 times would have been either a 5 yard gain or an incomplete pass. * Did anyone consider that the 4th down "fumble" between Allen/Morse was a DIRECT result of Morse not being involved in any contact throughout the preseason? This was his FIRST game of contact football this season. Did you notice how much better Morse played in the 2nd half? I suspect that the 1st half was a problem, including that fluky fumble, because Morse needed to adjust to the speed & physicality of the game. Going forward the Bills will convert that 4th & one 9 times out of 10. * Or how about on 3rd & long Allen makes a nice run to put the Bills in FG range at the Jet's 24 only to see the yards lost on a ticky tacky dead ball taunting penalty against a Bill's O-lineman. * By my count if the breaks/fluke plays had evened out the Bills should have been up 13 - 3 at half! * The narrative that the Bills were lucky to win; that the offense and especially Allen were terrible in the 1st half just doesn't pass the smell test. The Bills had multiple good drives in the 1st half that ended without points because of some fluky stuff that happens in week 1. Throw in a 1/100 fluke pick 6 and you have a 1st half like we saw.

Remember the Monday night game against Cincinnati when Kelly threw THREE INT's in the first quarter! I do because we had a big party at my house loaded with Bills AND Bengals fans and I almost lost my mind. Then James Loften got open a couple of times!

I agree. The #1 stat for assessing a QB's performance is whether they were a major contributor to a VICTORY. And today the answer was a clear yes for Allen. So the A is warranted.

And this is why he will be a great NFL QB. I saw the same look. He will learn from his mistakes and make less of them next week.

It's frustrating to me because it's so nasty and over the top. I know I should ignore them and over the years I have but their attacks on Allen seem completely unhinged.

You make a great point. And I think it came within a hair of working big time for the Bills today. Their rustiness, the last time they had run an all out passing attack was in the 1st quarter of the Carolina preseason game, was enough to create the conditions for a couple of fluky TO's. The truth is that the Bills were moving smartly down the field with the opening KO and also moved the ball well in a couple of other 1st half drives. I would do it again next week against the Giants.

The most frustrating thing about these quotes is that it proves the guy wasn't watching this game and had never actually seen Peterman play. It would have been harsh but probably fair to say Allen wasn't protecting the ball but his passing today was quite accurate, even in the 1st half. He was mostly throwing darts out there and hitting his short passes. As for the Peterman comparison, Allen's 4 TO's were not remotely similar to what you got with vintage Peterman. In fact it would be fair to say that Allen was only responsible for 1 or at most 2 of the TO's. Remember last year how the Bills set an NFL record going 9 straight possessions without a 1st down against the Ravens? That was vintage Peterman. Or check any of Peterman's pick sixes and compare them to the fluky bounce off Beasley's hands pick 6 today. It's hard to to take these ignoramuses seriously. I really don't get the irrational hatred a large segment of the sports media have for Allen. They are rooting for this genuinely decent kid to do poorly. It's sick IMO and says a lot about the bankrupt souls of these petty little creatures...........................Man I feel better now!

And lets not forget the big picture: a ROAD win in the division. Those are a big deal and at the end of the season when we're clawing for a playoff spot how big will this win be? HUGE is my bet. Like others I did not expect the comeback and I was pissed at the turnovers. But there was NOTHING fluky about that comeback. It was like a switch was thrown and the offense EXECUTED. Equally important the defense kept doing what it had been doing all game. In the end this was a quality TEAM win. Oh and one last thing IGNORE the National media (and some local media). After listening to them over the last year I'm convinced they're eating brightly colored mushrooms growing on logs in the forest. It's that or they're simply stupid.

A few thoughts about this game: * The 1st 3 quarters seemed like a weird dream to me. On the one hand the Bills were actually moving the ball & on most of his passes Allen was throwing accurate darts. There were moments when everything we hoped we would see with Allen & the offense was coming true. But then you had 4 bizzare TO's that completely messed things up. IMO only the 1st fumble was on Allen the other 3 were a combination of fluke & bad luck. Hell, Darnold had more balls batted at the line into the air without suffering an INT. And even when Allen put us in FG range with a nice run we had the taunting call that snuffed out that drive. It was like an invisible force field of bad Karma once we reached the Jets 35 yard line. Maybe Thad Brown had a Bills voodoo doll he was stabbing! * While the Offensive troubles were going on the defense played magnificently. But like a lot of games over the last 3 years it was looking like no matter how well the defense played the offense would screw it up and we would lose a close game in which the D largely dominated the opposition. That we were only down 6 - 0 at the half was astonishing. * Then the 3rd quarter got even weirder. The defense softened and the offense yielded a safety to compliment the pick six and the Bills ran ONLY one offensive play through the first 12 minutes of the 3rd quarter! Down 16 - 0 most of us were thinking a final score of 23 - 0 or maybe 30 - 7. * This is where the difference in this Bills team versus others materialized. The offense would catch fire and on their next 3 possessions score 17 unanswered points. Allen would get blisteringly hot completing 8/10 passes for over 100 yards & a TD. Singleterry would show game breaking moves and the Bills O-line would demonstrate that they are a much better unit then last year. Throw in some clutch receiving by Brown, Sweeney & Singleterry and the Bills EARNED the comeback win with a 4th quarter Offensive explosion. * In response the Bills defense smothered the Jets. * IMO Allen's TD pass was under-thrown by design. John Brown is a PRO and when he was streaking down the sideline knowing that he was being single covered HE EXPECTED to get the EXACT pass that Allen gave him. That's why that play looked so smooth. Brown, Beasley & Singleterry are going to have some big games going forward. * And for the record I agree with those who say that despite the score we outplayed the Jets for most of the game. Had Allen not lost that fumble on the 1st drive I believe we may have won the game going away.