CincyBillsFan

Ignore this new angle the bitter Allen hating deadenders are throwing out. Remember how it was that he wasn't working out in the off season; or that he was making to many commercials; or that he was going to to many golf courses; or drinking to much; or dating Hollywood starlets, etc, etc, etc. Then after week one Allen was regressing, he couldn't control his impulses he was destined to play on a sugar rush in every game. He was careless with the ball. But after 4 straight games in which Allen has played good to great and in which he has been phenomenally productive and careful with the ball these people have to come up with new reasons to trash Allen. The two most recent are: * Allen isn't a big enough cheerleader on the sideline and doesn't get in the faces of his teammates enough - you know "leadership" stuff. * Allen doesn't audible out of run plays enough. Trust me, even if Allen leads the Bills to a Super Bowl win these people will come out of the woodwork with their criticisms at the first sign of trouble.

Nuanced! Oh please. The only "nuance" I see is that you're going after Allen from a different perspective. The fact is that if you were to list the top 10 reasons why the Bills lost to the Jags on Sunday Allen not changing a couple of running plays based on pre snap looks would not be one of them. So yea I guess it is nuanced. Legit criticism of Allen is fine. But you people come up with the weakest, least relevant and flat out strangest stuff to go after Allen with. And then when Bills fans on a Bills message board push back and call you guys out we're labeled "homers" or that we view any criticism of Allen as "sacrilege".

There are all sorts of reasons the run game can get blown up. The alt 22 reviews conclusion on Allen was: "Allen played terrific and really wasn't to blame at all for any of our passing struggles." What part of Allen played terrific do you have hard time understanding?

Oh please. This is utter garbage. Throwing out Allen's contract as reason that he should never screw up (if he even did screw up) pre snap calls is ridiculous. Claiming that because Allen makes more money then the entire coaching staff means he should do the coaching to? This is either trolling or crazy talk. Allen is a bargain from a contract standpoint. He's what the 10th highest paid QB while easily being the 2nd best QB in the NFL. Judas Priest.

What part of this alt 22 review did you not understand? -As far as the passing game, Joe said that Allen played terrific and really wasn't to blame at all for any of our passing struggles. He said there have been times in the past where he's seen Allen turn down easy completions, but in this game he was executing his reads the way they were designed and manipulating the pocket well. -He blames several of our stalled drives on skill players. Cook dropping a pass on the first drive, Knox dropping a pass on a 3rd down, Davis dropping a pass on a 2nd down, all of these he says the pass catcher definitely should have come down with them. He also blames Diggs for the interception after watching a few replays. He says the ball was a tad underthrown but it went 70 yards in the air and Diggs gets both hands on it - that's a situation where he says Diggs simply has to win the catch

I suspect it's a big reason.

We are definitely in the class of KC & the Eagles. If we played them this Sunday they would be close games that could go either way. I agree that TODAY on October 9 we are not in the same class as SF. No one in the NFL is. But that is also a completely irrelevant fact as what you are today rarely turns out to be what you are in week 17. Did you notice that at home Tua threw 2 INT's against the Giants? December Tua, if he's still playing, may not be nearly as formidable as September Tua has been.

As were last season's AFC conference championship runner ups.

I disagree with your basic assertion that after only 5 games you can make the conclusions you're making: * Your 1st point about the Bills having their worst 5 game record since 2018 is deeply misleading and implies that we have a problem here. But to suggest that "3 - 2" is meaningfully worse then "4 - 1" is disingenuous. * And what do you think your comparison will look like after next weeks game? In both 2020 & 2021 we were 4 - 2 after 6 games. Are you thinking we will lose to the Giants on Sunday night keeping us from being 4 - 2? * Sure at this point last season our big wins over the Rams & Titans looked impressive. But both wins looked a hell of a lot less impressive at the end of the season. The rest of your argument is beneath even the minimum standards of a message board. The one thing any football fan knows is that if transitive properties don't apply to football games they sure as hell don't apply to comparisons across multiple seasons.

Yesterday was a lost battle in a long war. We won't know the outcome until after the season.

Fine but the bottom line is that the last thing the Jags wanted was for the Bills to score as quickly as they did. Allen and the O needed to be unleashed much earlier in the game then it was.

Whether a pass first/run second approach will work best for Allen and the offense will only be seen in the fullness of a season. So far Allen has tossed a couple of red zone TD's using this approach. One game, particularly one as weird as yesterday, isn't enough data to decide one way or another. I also think the point in the season impacts the decision. Late in the season when a division title is on the line or in the playoffs it makes more sense for Allen to be more reckless in his runs. During the 1st half the season? I'm not so sure. Baltimore is going through the same thing but in more extreme fashion with Jackson. They're trying to get him to be pass first/run second. You could argue that their two losses this season was because of that. And while Jackson is a better runner but not as good of a passer as Allen it's clear that the Ravens are concerned about the long term viability of Jackson if he continues as a run first/pas second QB. After all Jackson has been injured towards the end of the last two seasons effectively eliminating Baltimore's chances at making the playoffs one year or advancing in the layoffs the next season.

I think Allen has bought into the idea that he can't operate with a run first, pass 2nd mind set as he has the last few years. Check out a play from the Dolphins game where Allen is running towards the LOS and has a real chance to get the 1st down with his legs but decides to pass the ball to Shakir (I think) who was running a crossing pattern. The pass would ave been a bigger gainer then the run and of course would have sparred Allen the hit. Of course the pass which was perfectly placed was dropped which is another story.

Agree. Take last years 55 yard TD shot to Diggs in the home NE game. Allen read the one on one coverage BEFORE THE SNAP and made the quick decision to go to Diggs. Yesterday on the long pass to Diggs that was intercepted Allen seemed to look first at shorter throws that would get the 1st down on 3rd & 15. He was also under pressure in the pocket. He saw Diggs breaking free more then 50 yards downfield and made a great throw putting the ball on Diggs hands. A great play by the DB robed the Bills of a 1st and goal at the 5. No on is going to convince me that when you consider all the factors involved - the play call, where Allen looks first, the pass protection and then the throw, this wasn't a great pass by Allen that should have been a 50 yard strike to the 5. IMO there are posters on 2BD who have a completely warped understanding of how hard it is to make these throws that far downfield.

What evidence do you have that Allen is "afraid" t run? That's pretty harsh considering that the entire Bills organization and 99% of the media spent the off season claiming that Allen's career would be short if he kept running. It's clear that they have coached the running out of Allen to some extent. Whether this is wise or not remains to be seen. One game doesn't tell the story. Look at it this way, the Bills are 3 - 2 and in the thick of the AFC race for a 4th straight Division Title and home field advantage through the playoffs. It is going to be a long & brutal season of attrition. But the only injury that would eliminate the Bills as a playoff team would be for Allen to go down for an extended period of time. For the Bills Super Bowl window to remain open for the next decade Allen must stay healthy over the long haul. He can't go the way of Cam Newton because the Bills are going to have to keep extending his contract far into the future to free up money.

Those were not garbage time points the game was still in doubt. Garbage time points are when you're trailing 34 - 3 and score two late TD's to make it 34 - 17.

I saw it on multiple replay's and Diggs should have made that catch.

Has any team blown the high 1st round pick for QB while in the same draft getting the steal of the decade? What an incredible turn of events for Lynch and the 49's. One thing SF has to do though is redo BP's contract soon before the end of this year if they can. Right now he is the most underpaid player in the NFL.

IMO those were not poor throws but great throws. The first was completed for a 50 yard gain and the second should have been caught for another 50 yard gain. I don't know what football you're watching but in the NFL games I see 50 plus air yard completions are rare and more often missed then completed.

This is a great point. To be fair they paid a steep price and there were real questions about CMC's durability but in hindsight that trade was a home run for the 49's. CMC is the difference in that offense. If Elam is a bust and we've already traded away Cody Ford & Bogie Bashum and not resigned Edmunds then maybe Bean/McD overvalue 1st & 2nd round picks. That is what it will cost to get an impact player in a trade. I just don't see us parting with higher end draft capital though it worked out great for Diggs.

At least 3 of those 3rd downs were not converted because of dropped passes. What the hell was Allen supposed to do about that? And if they convert those it's 8 out of 12 conversions which is 67% and quite good. And for the record down 18 - 7 in the 4th quarter Allen did put on his cape and led the Bills to 2 quick TD's making some great plays and overcoming multiple penalties in doing it. Unfortunately our injury ravaged D was gassed and unable to stop the Jags that last possession. I agree. But the D contributed to this by allowing the Jags to go on long, field position changing drives that kept the Bills O sitting on the sidelines. And when they finally got back in the game they often had terrible field position. And yes the O had problems today but IMO it had nothing to do with Allen. I may view Allen's play through rose colored glasses but I have the feeling that without him our offense would be downright terrible and unwatchable. That it's Allen's amazing talent that puts lipstick on what is otherwise an ugly pig.

It's possible for two things to be true: 1) The D were warriors today and did almost everything humanly possible under the circumstances and 2) The failure of the D to get the Jags off the field created a negative feedback loop on an offense that got off to a slow start. The O was cursed with bad field position all game and struggled to find any rhythm because the D had very few clean stops. Even the 2 forced fumbles came at the end of long, time consuming drives.

This is corny even from a high school football standpoint. Do you really believe what you're saying here or is this just another way for you guys to come at Allen after a disappointing loss?

Why not? Mahomes having two rings is exactly why you compare what he does on the sideline to what Allen does on the sideline. You complain about Allen not jumping around and screaming at the offensive players to get them fired up so I point out that Mahomes, who is the best QB in the NFL, basically does exactly what Allen does on the sideline - sit there and talk to a coach and watch the big screen to see how the D is doing.

The offense was uneven today. Good at times bad at other times. But Allen was very good for almost the entire game. The first 2 three & outs were the direct result of dropped passes. Later, penalties and more dropped passes spoiled chances for the offense to get it's bearing. But in the end Allen balled out and got the Bills within 5 points. If the D could have made a stop the Bills would have had the ball back with 2 minutes to play needing a TD to win. And while the D played like warriors today especially considering the injuries they also could not get off the field because they allowed to many 3rd & long conversions. Twice they had the Jags in 3rd and long from the Jags 5 yard line and allowed them to convert and flip the field. The D allowed the Jags to go on long, time consuming drives that while not giving up points kept the offense on the sideline and put Allen & company in terrible field position. I believe we started 4 drives from inside our own 10 yard line. Against the Jet's Allen's mistakes led directly to the loss. What's concerning about this game was that we lost in spite of Allen playing well and putting up big numbers. BTW, I counted about at least 7 Allen wow plays today. He made enough big plays.