CincyBillsFan

Smith & others are why I only watch espn's live game telecasts - their stable of experts is anything but. But you're 100% correct. As a Bucs fan it was painful to watch Haskins "run" with the ball. He had no desire or skill at it. It must have given Meyer ulcers to see the "safe" rushing yardage Haskins would pass on in order to push the ball downfield through the air. Did you see any QB ever run the read option with less enthusiasm? I bet Peyton Manning after his injury could have done it better. As an aside my biggest worry if I drafted Haskins would be his mobility in the pocket and his ability to buy time. There's no doubt that when he is able to stand tall & still in the pocket he's a formidable passing QB, but under pressure? That will be Haskins big test at the next level.

Good questions and I don't know the answer to them but I'll make a guess. Maybe he was trying to first locate then steal the signs in the first half for use in the 2nd half. And it would be pretty simple for Belicheck to throw a hand signal out to somebody on his defense indicating a run or pass. There is that 15 second period after they turn off the helmet mics. This is when Bill could be signalling his D. Just getting a run versus a pass right would be huge for any pass rush & coverage. Imagine being able to ignore the play fake as a safety or if you're a D lineman teeing off on the snap knowing it's not going to be a run. Frankly I'm still amazed at how much pressure NE got on Goff for the ENTIRE game. Where did that come from? Did Bill figure out McVay's signals and was he able to just let his D know it's a pass or run. That would be huge.

I agree 100% to this. My guess is Bill had someone watch every LA game to find out how McVay singled in stuff after they turn the helmet mics off. They captured everything McVay does and compared it to what then happened on the field. They then assembled a cheat sheet IDing the key signals McVay used and gave Bill a full report. Hell it might be as simple as where McVay stands on the sideline or who McVay stands next to. What awes me is the attention to detail this kind of activity represents. But the question is would anyone call this cheating? IMO it's not. In fact it's really no different then a LB tipped off about which way a run is going because film study showed that the blocking FB tipped things off by leaning slightly. Or a DB who is tipped off by the way a receiver stands when the ball is coming out quick to him.

Bingo. Hogan is on the field to block first, catch the ball 2nd. In almost every long run by a Pats RB you can see Hogan downfield effectively blocking a safety or corner. I suspect that the NE Offensive staff could tell you how many yards over the course of a season Hogan's blocks ADD to a RB's run. And I would guess we would be both surprised and impressed by that number. This is what blows my mind about our hatred of Belicheck & NE - we need to stop hating them and start demanding that the Bills organization embrace & mimic their style. Hogan has a role to play. It's clearly defined by the NE staff and he's doing it. And Hogan will stay on the field & on the team until NE either finds someone who can do it better or they change their scheme so they don't need what Hogan does. But for now Hogan is doing what they want him to do to and it help's them win football games. Belicheck has a system and he sticks to it come hell or high water and the results are there for all to see.

There was a BIG argument in my family because I rooted FOR the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Beyond thinking that we Bills fans spend way to much time & energy hating on a team that we don't follow here's my reasoning for rooting for the pats on Sunday: * I admire excellence. And the Pats are a great football team with a great coach & great QB. Yea it hurts to say that at some level but it is what it is. * I don't root for CARPETBAGGERS. I won't root for a team that screwed over it's community and fans to chase LA gold. It wasn't so long ago that we were facing this same calamity as evil folks were trying to move the Bills to LA or God forbid TORONTO! So I don't "hate" the pats. The only team I truly hate and will NEVER root for are the Baltimore Ravens. And the reason - this is the ultimate low life trashy carpetbag franchise on Earth. What they did to Cleveland who have the 2nd best NFL fans on earth (Bills fans are the BEST) can NEVER be forgiven. * And unlike others in my family and on 2BD I was hoping the Pats made it to the SB and won the game. You want to know why? How much sweeter will it be next year when we sweep the DEFENDING SB Pats and knock them from the top of the Eastern Division. I don't want the 2019 Bills to be remembered as the team that stomped on the corpse of a NE franchise that had lost in the 1st round of the playoffs the previous year - I want to be known as the team that ENDED the Pats SB run.

In fact I just looked up the stats and Goff was sacked 4 times and was hit 12 more times on 38 passes - which is getting walloped once on every three throws. Compare that to Brady who was hit like once on 90 throws going into the SB. In fact you could argue that Brady didn't exactly set the world on fire likely due to the ability of the Rams to make things uncomfortable for him in the pocket. Tying this all back to Buffalo - It's interesting to point out that Allen was under the type of pressure Goff faced yesterday in EVERY SINGLY game he played. If the Bills can improve the O-line to at least let Allen get a little bit more comfortable in the pocket the sky's the limit as to what we might see next season.

I'm a little surprised that folks are saying Goff had a lot of time to throw yesterday. My observations, possibly influenced by a beer & food coma, was that Goff was harassed all game by the NE defense. In fact I kept thinking that this is what QB's look like when the pocket collapses in their face and they're running for their life. Funny how that all important metric called ACCURACY seems to flounder when D-line man are knocking a QB down.

To be fair I would add Goff's O-line to that list to - they didn't exactly do their jobs given that the LA QB was hit on 40% of his drop-backs! Ditto for the LA O coaches who didn't exactly adjust to what NE was doing to them.

At this point NEITHER Goff or Mcvay is overrated. They just played in a Superbowl which is something that more then 90% of the NFL's QB's & coaches weren't able to do this year. The fact that they lost the Super Bowl doesn't really tell us much about how good both these guys are. And as Buffalo Bill's fans we should understand this better then most people. IMO it wasn't Gurly's "injury" that messed with the Rams offense but the loss of their outstanding slot receiver Cupp. Since this guy went down it seemed like the Rams O lost their rhythm.

Doesn't matter. If I wasted time worrying about every move the Bills have made the last 10 years on draft day I would be crying in my beer over the fact that the Bills failed to draft a team of pro-bowl players! I sort of get the "wrong Josh" obsession as the Bills had a bimodal choice to make between Josh Allen & Josh Rosen last year. But in the year that Mahomes came out? Whose to say if the Bills stayed pat in that draft they would have picked him? I don't remember a lot of the "experts" predicting that Mahomes would be an MVP QB in year 2 of his career. If there were he would have been the #1 pick in the 2017 draft.

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Two things that I remember most during my college years attending Bills games at the newly opened Rich Stadium in the 1970's: * Women invading the men's room to take over the stalls as their kidney's overcame any disgust they might have harbored and * diehard fans not wanting to miss the 2nd half KO peeing in cups and setting them on the floor.

Congratulations, Mahomes had an awesome year. Of course it has nothing to do with the Bills except that KC is in the same conference. I do look forward to a couple of Bills versus KC layoff games featuring the two best young QB's in the league.

I love both hires - so what if they're young. For crying out loud the LA Rams are being coached by a toddler and they're in the Super Bowl! But I especially liked the Dorsey hire. My guess is this guy is looking forward to developing Allen as the kid has everything Newton had but as others have noted is a lot more coachable and willing to learn. As others have pointed out this is Dorsey's job to ride right to OC. And I like when an assistant coach has that kind of professional motivation to succeed. He'll work just as hard as Allen, which is saying something, in the off season to get this right. Should be fun to see the energy these two young coaches bring to the offense.

It's obvious that great minds think alike!

Super 3: Jets 16 - 7 over Baltimore. Younger posters can't appreciate how intense the old NFL/AFL rivalry was. It was pure hatred and seeing Joe Willie knock the arrogant NFL on it's ass for the first time was priceless. Super Bowl 4: KC 23 - 7 over the Vikings. Like I said there was pure hatred between the NFL & AFL and by the time this game rolled around the arrogant NFL panty waists were saying the Jets win was a one off fluke. Well KC shoved that notion right down the throat of the NFL. After that the merger happened and football hasn't been as fun since. Super Bowl 25: Giants 20 - 19 over the Bills. Do people remember how exciting it was leading up to the SB that year? We were in the big game! I remember heading out to the Allen Street bars that Saturday night and the atmosphere in the city was ELECTRIC. Yes it was a devastating loss and people blame Norwood but IMO the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the Bills coaches. Had they given Thurman the ball 25 times he would have been MVP and the Bills would have won that game by 17 points. Super Bowl 28: Dallas 30 - 13 over the Bills. For one glorious half it looked like we might not only get that monkey off our backs but then throw it to the ground and stomp it dead. But it wasn't to be. Instead of ending one of pro footballs most amazing runs with a SB win the Bills crawled back to Buffalo in ignominy. Today folks will point to Thurman's fumble as the pivotal moment when we lost that game but not me. I place the blame on Marv Levy's ultra conservative play-calling towards the end of the 1st half with the Bills in the Cowboys red zone leading 10 - 6. We should have been throwing passes into the end zone and trying to go up 17 - 6. What the hell did we have to lose? Instead Marv played it safe and IMO lost us the momentum in that game.

On the face of it aiming only at the numbers on the uniform is dumb given the many different types of passes thrown by NFL caliber QB's. Just off the top of my head it would be profoundly inaccurate (or stupid) for a QB to aim for the numbers of his 6 ft 6 inch WR being guarded by a 5 ft 10 in inch DB in the end zone. I would think throwing the ball up high where his receivers height advantage could be used most effectively is the most ACCURATE pass in that situation. Think about that spectacular pass Allen threw to Foster to convert a 3rd & 13 out of his end zone against Miami in their first meeting. The Throw was a laser beam deliberately put about a foot out of bounds so only Foster could catch it with his HANDS. Aiming a pass for the number on Fosters Jersey would probably have resulted in an INT instead of a first down. I would submit that half or more of an NFL's QB's throws are not intended for the numbers on the jersey.

I tend to side with those saying we should wait & see about Clay. His contract is not going to break the bank this year and even if someone (either Crooms or a FA) move ahead of him on the depth chart you still need at least 2 solid TE's. If Allen & Clay work together through training camp and the pre-season we may be surprised at how well they start to click. There were a couple of issues in play this year that limited Allen & Clay's effectiveness: * Clay was hurt and not playing at 100% * As a rookie Allen was less comfortable throwing check down passes which will cost a TE catches. This should improve next year as Allen & his TE's work with the offensive staff to figure how best to deploy the dump off receivers when Allen himself can gain 20 yards running the ball. My guess is they'll work to spread things out a bit when the pocket breaks down allowing Allen the option of running or passing by keeping his running lanes open. You saw this a bit at the end of the season where on some of Allen's big runs, Clay was about 20 yards along side him and Allen would fake a throw to him freezing the safety. Check out the Miami game for this. * Allen did not take a lot of snaps with the first team O during pre-season. IMO this really limited Allen's timing & anticipation with his receivers and timing definitely seemed to be an issue between Allen & Clay. This can be worked on and it would likely be fixed this off season. * I suspect that Clay and the other TE's were a lot more involved in pass protection then normal due to the Bill's O-line struggling at times. Quicker throws and a better pass blocking O-line should allow more early TE releases on pass plays which will lead to more 10 - 15 yard completions right over the middle. One thing I noticed about Clay that impressed me was that even in his last game the guy was excited when the Bills made a good play. He never looked like a guy just going through the motions. I remember how KB seemed not to care but Clay always seemed to care. It just feels to me like Clay is a team player and the Bills are probably better with him on the squad then not on it.

To say this is a tad premature is like saying it get's cold in the winter in Buffalo. I mean seriously can't this guy go cover some basketball? We've yet to have the draft and the Bills are loaded down with enough cap space to make King Midas jealous. And last I looked we haven't even signed a first free agent yet. Is it me or does espn get leas relevant every year?

While the NFC SB streak versus the AFC at that time is interesting IMO it is not very relevant to the question of the Buffalo Bills 4 straight SB losses. My point was that it didn't matter whether the AFC was strong or weak during this time as the Bills were loaded with future HOF players and would have been an elite team in the NFC during that 4 year stretch. I again point to the fact that during those 4 years the Bills/NFC regular season record, which equaled a full season of play, was 14 - 2. This included beating a number of NFC playoff/SB teams. In fact it's not hard to project that had the Bills actually needed to win those 2 season ending losses against NFC teams they might have gone 16 - 0 during that period! Remember how in one of those losses the bills SECOND TEAM lost in OT to a Detroit squad that needed to win the game to make the playoffs. In fact given the Bills record against NFC teams during their SB run I believe they may have gone to at least 3 SB's in a row (1990, 1991, 1992 seasons). How effective do you think Dallas & Washington would have been playing at Rich Stadium in January for the NFC championship game?

I remember arguing with a friend that the Bills going to 4 straight SB's was an amazing achievement. He countered that it wasn't such a big deal because they played in the weaker AFC. That bothered me so I did a little research and proved my friend wrong and showed just how WEIRD those Bills SB teams were. The bottom line is that had the Bills played in the NFC they still might have gone to 4 straight SB's and lost every one of them to an AFC team - my proof: During the 4 years the Bills went to the SB their inter-conference record against the NFC was an astonishing 14 - 2! And this included beating a lot of NFC playoff teams! This also included beating, ON THE ROAD, two teams (Giants & Cowboys) that would go on and beat them that year in the SB! Looking even closer the two losses were season ending games in which Buffalo HAD ALREADY clinched the home field advantage throughout the playoffs! The Bills rested many of their starters in what were to Buffalo, meaningless games. The ONLY plausible explanation for the Bills SB losses is that someone put a hex on them.

This is a good observation WideNine and let me provide another: remember against the LA Chargers when Allen threw that horrible wheel route pass to Demarco who had to make a circus catch to grab it? He was wide open and people rightly criticized Allen for that pass and have used it as an example of his "inaccuracy". Now fast forward to after Allen returned from injury and was playing the Dolphins in Miami. Remember how he had perfect touch on the same pass to Demarco on the wheel route that went for 30+ yards. That's what I like about the kid - he learns from his mistakes and improves on what he doesn't do so well.

I'm also one of those that remember Lamonica which means I'm getting old. But that was a TRADE. The Bills had Lamonica on the team with a perfect opportunity to properly evaluate him. In the case of Mahomes we're talking about the Bill's making a trade with KC for draft position. Did the Bills even know that the Chiefs were taking Mahomes? And during the 2017 draft period it was hardly unanimous that Mahomes was going to be a good NFL QB. Even the Chiefs thought he needed work as they created a situation where Mahomes, unlike this years Rookie QB class, was not expected to start and had the luxury of sitting him behind Smith. But your Lamonica point makes me wonder if the Bills even got that one wrong. I mean his fame as a QB was that he was the mad bomber who threw the long ball very well. And in Oakland he had Warren Wells & Fred Bilitnikoff to throw the ball to. Had the Bills kept Lamonica are we all that sure he would have had near the success in buffalo that he had in Oakland?

I think the more relevant question is whether you have watched where MOST of his passes ended up.

This tells me that in addition to a commendable spirit of wanting to constantly improve Allen watched the playoff games and desperately wanted to be out there with the Bills. This guy is going to do whatever it takes to get Buffalo over the hump next season. And for the record some of the best position coaches in Football are the guys who ALMOST made it. Like others have noted, for the life of me how is this a bad thing? These naysayers appear to want Allen to just give up and self declare that he's a bust. That way we can move up in this years draft and take Haskins or the OK baseball player. It just seems nuts to me and an awful way to root for a team.