CincyBillsFan

And as others have pointed out you don't want to play an NFL team that was humiliated on national TV the week before. The Chargers were losing to the Raiders 63 - 7 at one point. That is as bad as the Denver loss to Miami. In hindsight it's not surprising LA came out fired up. Collinsworth alluded to the fact that at practice he observed a Charger team chomping at the bit to knock the Bills off. The Bills were negative 3 on TO's and had a lot of penalties at critical times. That they still won is a great sign. Had they done this in 3 previous games we SHOULD have won (Jets, Pats & Broncos) Buffalo would be sitting at 12 - 3 and on the verge of locking up the #1 seed.

Agree. Also I saw a couple of comments on Allen needing to work on his "long ball". By my count Allen threw 3 deep passes yesterday with one intercepted at the opponents 42 yard line leading to a charger FG, one went for a Bills TD and the other set the Bills up for a TD. So 3 deep shots resulting in a 14 - 3 Bills run. Seems like the deep shots are just fine.

Two things can be true: Brown is much better then last year when he was awful but he is still playing at an average level.

There was a view where the camera pulled back and there were 5 or 6 Bills between the 30 - 40 yard line shadowing events. There was NO way the Chargers were going to score on that play. The reason they even completed a couple of pitches inside their own 40 was that the Bills were not committing their players. In fact it was a very good design by the Bills special team coach.

Great observation.

I believe Allen set an amazing NFL record tonight with his 3 total TD's giving him 40 for the season. Allen has now had 40 or more TD's in FOUR straight seasons. No QB has ever done that before. And Allen did it this year in 15 games and last year he did it in 16 games.

The worst think about the Brown penalty was that he didn't need to do it. Allen got the pass off to Cook quickly on that play.

104 QB rating and 3 TD's and leading the game winning FG drive is "subpar"? Really?

Yes he did.

The O line penalties were brutal. On that one drive after the Chargers had cut the lead to 21 - 16 the line had 2 bad penalties in a row that cancelled Allen throws for 1st downs. Had we gone down and scored a TD that drive it would have likely been game over.

The Chargers only TD came after his fumble that gave them the ball at our 32. The worst thing about that fumble is that he was going backwards losing yards before he coughed it up.

Catches like that downfield at the boundary make a huge difference.

We need to see more catches like that by Bills WR's.

Very insightful - a great interview. It also reinforces my sense that we're looking at a very different Allen then the one we saw through the first 10 games. The whole concept of "low positive" is gone. I could be wrong but I doubt that Allen discovered that idea on his own. Low positive sounds like something the Bills organization introduced him to in their efforts to transform his style of play.

It's another reason to give Brady credit for this new and long overdue way to use Allen in an offensive game plan.

When I watch the highlights of Cooks big runs I often see one or even two Cowboys shadowing Allen even after he handed off the ball. The Cowboys really were terrified of Allen and overcompensated big time to contain him.

It's possible only those inside the building at One Bills Drive can say for sure.

I agree that Allen & Dorey were close and that Allen supported Dorsey being hired as OC. But IMO that is a long way from Allen demanding that Dorsey be hired. I believe that for a number of reasons this was Beans & McD's preferred option and decision The obvious things that I have seen are Allen's emotions under Dorsey and after Dorsey was fired. They have significantly changed as has his style of play. I read the transcript of the McD NFL channel interview and it was clear that McD was setting the strategic direction of the Bills offense and how Allen was expected to play going forward. In order for Bean to properly manage the Bills CAP (pushing Allen's money out) he would have been very supportive of this idea as he will increasingly depend on Allen having a long career (> 10 years) playing at an elite level. Again, I don't think McD was calling plays or sweating the details of each offensive game plan but by all accounts he was setting the strategic goals for the offense and those included curbing certain aspects of how Allen played the game. Dorsey was trying to execute against McD's strategic vision of how the Bills should play offense and handle Allen. My guess is that McD/Bean abandoned their restrictions on Allen running and other aspects of their offensive operation in the face of not making the playoffs and keeping their jobs. Perhaps Pegula played a role here? But even if their jobs were safe I credit McD & Bean to be astute enough to be flexible when it was obvious their goal for Allen & the Offense wasn't working.

That was my initial understanding to but the comments from McD during the pre- season and during the season made me think that McD wanted Dorsey and that Allen at most had veto power. This is a very different thing then Allen advocating for Dorsey. My sense from McD's comments is that he wanted an OC who was on the same page as he was with respect to how to use Allen and how the offense might compliment his defense. I believe that the clear change in Allen's playing style during this season when Dorsey was in charge, changes that were telegraphed by McD in interviews during the off season, was Dorsey trying to run the offense with McD/Bean demanding that Allen be exposed to less hits. After Dorsey was let go and Allen had one of his signature runs against the Jets he jumps up and screams enthusiastically "I'm f#### back!". It was clear to me that Allen was chaffing under the Dorsey/McD restrictions he was asked to operate under. We all saw that Allen was joyless and seemed to have the weight of the world on his shoulders trying to execute the O according to the McD/Dorsey plan. Then Dorsey is gone and McD has a come to Jesus moment and Allen is allowed to return to his old style of play and now he's smiling and acting like the Josh Allen of old. The evidence of this is plain to see and overwhelming.

Some context please - wasn't Allen and Dawkins the ONLY Bills players that were on the field for EVERY offensive snap in the sauna like conditions where almost every other Bills player spent time on the sideline suffering heat stroke? When Allen missed on that pass it was near the end of the game and one can only guess how little he had left in the tank at that point.

Actually that was not the narrative. The narrative was that among the top teams contending for a Super Bowl the Bills were deficient in their O line and play makers. That beyond Diggs the Bills had a lot of average to below average talent in the offensive skill positions. No one is calling an "average" NFL player a bum. But hen you compare the Bills WR group to say Miami's, or the Eagles, or Dallas or the 49's or the Bengals you get an idea of what the narrative was. The other part of the narrative was that the Bills focused a disproportionate amount of their FA resources and draft capitol over the last 5 years trying to build an elite D. This has led to what many of us think is a talent deficiency on the offensive side of the ball when COMPARED to other top playoff contenders.

Yep this is a great point. It's downright devious to fake like you're going to run a play knowing full well you're not going to run a play. How dishonest and unsportsmanlike can you get.

So spread out over 14 games the practical reality is that they all have about the same number of INT's.

Allen did not hand pick Dorsey to be the OC. At most he gave the thumbs up to the PROMOTION from within. Everything we've heard over the last month swirling around the McD controversy is that McD was the guy who most likely pushed for Dorsey to be promoted. He saw it as a chance to better coordinate his idea of the offense/defense playing complimentary football. And the Bills win's over Miami & KC were also signature wins.

But he is a bit of a turnover machine.