Nextmanup

One thing Terry Pegula has demonstrated multiple times is that contract extensions mean nothing to him. He's more than happy (historically) to buy out Ks when he decides he's done with someone, even if they just recently re-signed. Darcy Regier was the first and there have been several since.

Not to change topics, but what he did to Knox and Morse on that play is a classic example of what Edmunds can't do, or at least doesn't do nearly often enough! Edmunds would be blocked on that play, unable to get off it, and being steered to wherever the blocker wanted to take him, and Josh would still be running.

This is true.

And yet they pulled Josh Allen out of a big QB talent pool that year, and that proved to be the correct choice. The problem is their talent evaluation hasn't been consistent enough. They've made some big mistakes at key positions, and it has directly impacted where the team is at this time.

I have no trouble hiring a new RB coach, whatsoever. I just think this is more or less irrelevant to wins and losses.

I agree with your comments. They all collectively indicate that our coaching let us down in that game, in a huge way. And on a night when we needed them to be their best.

The problem with this plan is that you are assuming Terry Pegula knows what a real football coach looks like and will hire him. Unless you assume Beane stays, McDermott goes, and Beane handles the hire. Not sure that is how it work out. And then we have the problem of finding the "real" head coach. Most of the guys floating around this league are idiots. Mike McCarthy has a SB ring and an impressive resume--he's an idiot and I wouldn't replace McDermott with him, assuming he became available. HOWEVER: it will be interesting to see who gets fired this year and what names go on the market. Or next year. If the right guy came available, it would be fun to consider hiring him. Here's a name: JON GRUDEN. He's available. First, he would be an unpopular hire; second, I suspect he is done doing anything with the NFL, wouldn't want the job. BUT: would you consider him an upgrade over McDermott? Would you float him an offer?

To the OP: You are a baby, relatively speaking. Your pain and misery is slight compared to some of us. You never had to watch us lose 4 Super Bowls in a row, most in embarrassing fashion. You don't remember the '70s, or most of the '80s! LOL HANG IN THERE. You can't just "pick another team". I do agree that wasting a first round draft pick on a defender (let alone a lineman) is sickening...but you have to roll with the punches. Yes, your fandom is something like a curse, but it's one many of us were born into, and once that happens, you can't undo it. That's not how it works. We are all in it together, until we die or this team wins a Super Bowl.

We all do! That was a weird one. Diggs had to change the direction he looked over his shoulder, that may have made it hard to "find" the ball in the air, and I just don't think he saw it until it hit him in the arm! That was at night remember; I wonder what the background of his view looked like. Was he looking at black night sky? Right into a stadium light?

I agree with every word here. For some reason, a lot of Bills fans react to our losses by saying "Stop throwing, run more." The real answer is to throw more, and throw better. I couldn't believe we were running the ball on our first possession against NE, with the wind! Had we gotten a lead, they might have tried to come out of their shell and throw too...and that wouldn't have gone well for them. We didn't push the gas; we tried to beat them at their own game. I know ALL passing was not possible in that game, but we needed to throw more, even with 30 passes in the game.

Interesting info. Didn't know any of that!

In one of our recent games, when Allen was getting mauled, I saw some "all 22" replays from way up over the field. I was amazed at how all 3 or even 4 pass routes were really quite long. Very slow to develop....and that was late in the game once we all knew Josh was getting killed. Wish I could remember which game it was! LOL But seriously, I wanted to kick Daboll in the nuts. This team has to have short and medium routes on every freaking pass play. Rarely do we have the luxury of TIME for Josh to wait in that pocket for long routes to develop! One of the big things that separates Brady from Josh is Bradys' ability to absorb information at the line, pre-snap, like a sponge. It's a big advantage to know what's going to happen (sort of) before it does. Josh struggles with this aspect of his game IMO. It's improved, but it could be better. He also has this tendency to turn around, point towards his own end zone, and run BACKWARDS away from the LOS to evade the first guy getting to him. If it works, so be it...but this has ended up being a 15 yard sack many times, sometimes pulling us out of FG range. Brady is great at knowing, right away, when a play is a bust, and he just throws the ball away. Eat the play rather than have something really bad happen--or getting hit! Josh has gotten much better at this too, but can still improve.

The OP's comments echo what I have been saying here for the last couple of days now. When Josh has time, he makes lots of completions, and we win big. When Josh does not have time, it all goes pear shaped and we might very well lose. GREATLY improving the pass protection of our OL should be MISSION NUMBER ONE for the off-season. The ENTIRE LINE could stand to be changed IMO. How far they go remains to be seen... But we need to use the draft and free agency to make this line look a lot different next year. An improved line = improved Josh Allen, and that's the most important off-season move this franchise can make.

Great memory of Mark. You can watch the onside kick at 3:53 of this video...

You would think you could tell who these guys were based on the fact that their SIGNATURES are on these cards/photos! But man, you can't! God only know what that thing says. It was the same for the last one.

Disagree strongly with the first quoted sentence; strongly agree with the second. "Learning how to rebound" doesn't mean anything. It's just what sports fans say. What we need to do is execute better and string together a few more big plays at critical moments. If Josh hits a few wide open receivers toward the end of the game (we were in the red zone a lot) we win, and this board wouldn't be all doom and gloom. Totally agree that we are not done, and highly likely to make the playoffs still. And YES! Absolutely! If we get in, anything is possible. A lot of simulations have us playing our first game at Tennessee, minus their star RB. OK, that is a very winnable game, and so on.... It's not over yet.

The league is NOT going back to a "run first" type of offense. Not even close. The Bills need to THROW THE BALL MORE. That is what we are made for. Not run. If we do what we do best, and are built for, we will be just fine. Either we can win the Super Bowl this year with a pass-first attack, or somebody else will! You think Indy is gonna win the SB? Think again.

Regarding Clappington "Clap" McClappy: getting the team ready to play games is the type of thing he has traditionally always done well. If he can't even do that sort of thing now, it's not crazy to consider replacing him. Regarding the playoff run: Yes. See my longish post above.

In all fairness, you're just a nabob of positivity...but there is a difference here. You have math on your side. The numbers still say the Bills are a really solid football team. Factors to consider: our losses have been by very small amounts; our wins have been by large amounts; we are 3 or 3.5 point underdog AT TAMPA, which tells you that the rest of the country still thinks we are a really good team, if nothing else. I'm not sure another team in the NFL would enjoy that low a point spread AT TAMPA. And as I have been saying all along since the loss, I DO think we can beat New England given normal weather . They will be able to do more, but so will we, and I think we are the better team as we were last year. I expect us to lose in Tampa, but then win out, and make the playoffs. Once in, even as a very low seed, we will be the team that NO ONE wants to play b/c we haven't been at our best, or anything close to it, for a while. And you never know when a team is going to find its stride at the right time. If we MISS the playoffs, fans should have the right to go off the rails. But until then, hold out some hope and have some faith. Once we are in the playoffs, anything is possible and we could EASILY go on a little run, playing good football at the right time. Nah...if Josh finds the open receiver and makes just 2 or 3 more throws in the Patriots game, we win. I don't put it all on his shoulders; the line was terrible and when Josh is rushed, he panics, and doesn't play at his best. Big improvements to the OL pass blocking will result in big improvements to Josh's game, which is why that has to be Project Numero Uno for the offseason.

No offense, but without the color codes, this information isn't very helpful! (It's easy to just click on the link and go to the website where you can see all that) And I do appreciate you putting this here each week as I usually forget all about it! PS: What garbage games on Thursday and Sunday night! But that Monday night game looks pretty tasty!

Just heard this news and was immediately saddened! RIP Mark. He was a great player, doing his part to help us be a great team back then. Still remember him very well.

By the time of Midway, roughly 6 months later, we had cracked the Japanese code and knew all about their attack plan at Midway! That's why we were able to set a trap for them and that battle went horribly for the Japanese. The Kaga, Akagi, Hiryu, and Soryu went to the bottom of the Pacific in just a few minutes! The Japanese never recovered from that; didn't have the industrial capacity to keep up a protracted arms war with the USA, and they knew that from the very beginning. Just like Germany knew it had to knock out the USSR sooner, rather than later.

It's possible the US carriers were looking for the Japanese fleet, having already known about it. But the traditional "conspiracy theory" is that we knew about the fleet and allowed the attack to happen, but first got the carriers out of harms way so the attack wouldn't be so damaging. I think, ultimately, we should have known they were there, but did not! And it was just good old fashioned incompetence that allowed the attacks to occur. Regarding the sleeping giant...most Americans incorrectly assume the Japanese thought they'd win the war with America in a single attack. Far from the truth. The Japanese were ONLY trying to cripple our Pacific fleet just long enough (6 months was the plan) for them to safely get to the oil producing parts of the Pacific basin (modern Malaysia and parts of Indonesia, mostly) and past American interests in the Philippines. They were just just like Germany later in the war--running out of petroleum and they needed more. They figured if they could remove the US from the war for a solid 6 months, they could get what they needed and establish supply lines from the oil to the Japanese main islands...and then eventually America would go away. That's why the Japanese didn't bother to destroy the fuel dumps and oil reserves at Pearl. They weren't a part of their relatively short term strategy. Of course, had they destroyed those reserves, US ships would have returned to the continental US for refueling, which would definitely have hindered our post-Pearl-attack operations. But the Japanese weren't interested in that as a target. They wanted the carriers, because even in 1941, they knew that was the prize, not aging battleships and battle cruisers like the USS Arizona! It was a super ballsy, super gutsy, super gambling plan--that didn't really work. In December of 1941, Japan had--by far--the most sophisticated carrier military operations in the world, and the Kido Butai did a lovely job at Pearl. It could have been better, and they should have probably gone back for a 3rd and 4th wave of attacks, but you have to admire the attack as a tactical military operation.

And you don't need to be particularly smart. You DO need to be particularly risky and willing to do crazy things most people would not feel comfortable with. And you need to be willing to work like a dog. Like, willing to make your entire life about work. That's my observation after 20+ years working as an attorney with and for extremely wealthy individuals.