Mikie2times

I think we made it the first read in many situations today and it let to a lot of consistency in moving the ball.

McDermott has shown something today has hasn't before in just pure aggressiveness. Most of this is predetermined. It's been clear anything even close on 4th down and we are going. Then compliments so far to Josh utilizing his check downs. He's almost going there as a primary read, it's given us consistency moving the ball. Obviously the defense is playing lights out as well, but the two concepts above are really good to see. These are things we could be better at that have hurt us in this and previous years.

I have watched a few games recently (happened in Bears game tonight) where a play is ruled one way on the field. It appears obvious the coach will challenge and win. Instead of allowing this process to take place the refs decide to overturn the original call preventing the coaches challenge from occurring and changing the ruling on the play. In both cases a few things were clear. The initial ruling on the field was not being debated by the officials. An outside entity was instructing the official to change the initial call. Play by play announcers commented "it looks like New York or the eye in the sky stepped in on that one". In both instances I will say it enhanced the quality of the game as it prevented a challenge that shouldn't have to occur, that said, did I miss something? At what point did the NFL say they would have booth reviews in real time along with coaches challenges?

Sort of makes you wonder how a scrambling improvising QB like Josh might do with some targets who are taller than 6 feet. It almost seems like Josh is a QB made for larger body WR's that can be especially devastating in scramble drills. Outside of Knox, Gabe is next and we saw his RZ success last year and now this year. Sanders is a still a good player and will get time but Gabe brings something different and we need that right now.

Sure we are somewhat due for some regression to the mean, but it's not that black and white in my view. No point in commenting further on this one. Go Bills!! Big win, huge game next week.

Honestly, I think if anything that stat shows why so many on the board are concerned. We feast in games where we get ahead and the offense becomes one dimensional. We look like a different team when that's not the case. It's just part of what makes this team feel so polarizing at times. I think this one does mean something, but it's not good.

Is anybody who thinks DB's will be tackling WR's left and right actually watch college football? I'm a tick short of 40, in 20+ years of watching college football consistently I have never seen a player tackled nor a discussion regarding increasing the length of PI in CFB because of the way defensive players are reacting. About the best argument anybody has posted is the athletes are better, that's why it will happen. About the most you would see is more physical DB play on downfield contested balls which I'm perfectly fine with. No NFL caliber players is going to just concede a guaranteed penalty over an uncertain outcome. They're too competitive and the game is too instinctual for this to even take place. Do you think in the New England game that Diggs would have been tackled on his dropped pass if this rule is in place? He clearly beat is man and the ball hit his hands. Regardless of the rule, to alter the outcome of that play the DB would of had to take his legs out diving at the last second vs just letting it play it out. Which could involve a bad pass or a drop, heck, maybe even an INT. Get a grip people, nobody is getting tackled, they couldn't even if they wanted to do it.

This….👍👍👍 Half the distance really pisses me off.

Ya, I don't get it. I've watched a dumb amount of CFB this year and every year. You see similar things across both leagues as far as how DB's react to certain situations. You see more physical play close to the end zone or when a player is out of position. You aren't seeing the intent of stopping a pass with a penalty. You're seeing an honest attempt to stop a pass and in some situations that means more contact will occur. I just don't understand how people can think players can react the way they're discussing. It is very hard for a DB to even disengage his man to defend a pass to another WR because in his mind his responsibility is to defend his man. It's instincts when he comes off his man based on the eyes of a QB. He is using instincts to react and this all occurring based on where the QB's head and eyes are, the ball isn't even out yet. Tons of players can't even do this. To think they could allow the ball to come out, then consciously shift from defender mode to tackle drill, be in close enough proximity to even accomplish that. Again, you can't prove this to anybody who disagrees. If it was so easy to accomplish I would really think college teams would find ways to use it as a competitive advantage by.

I would love examples, I haven't seen this once all season It's your opinion, your examples don't give it any merit, I could easily explain why every situation you're describing is completely different. That said we could do this all day. I'm holding my ground on somebody showing a streaking WR being tackled at the ankles in a college football game. I think if it's such a guaranteed outcome in the NFL, we would see it occasionally. I don't feel you go from never to all the time from CFB to NFL in this area, but again, all are entitled to an opinion on this. It's not something that can be answered so no point in trying. Some good points to both sides on this subject.

I can't trust egregious and not egregious with these guys. It would put us right back to a indisputable vs disputable and they don't get that right with unlimited time and slow motion.

That's the spirit of the rule, but I don't think the rule can be fairly applied and I also don't think the rule alters play. If anybody can recall a moment watching a college game where this occurred, I can't and I've watched a disgusting amount of college football.

No, maybe cut him, that's about all you could do. Still, Norman literally got ejected. Eddie R was bad, yes, but a certain amount of manhood has to be lost when you get stiff armed like that. That's the stuff that changes a man.

What was worse..... Eddie R's miss on Chad? or Henry's stiff arm on Norman?

Most of you are probably aware of this but in college football pass interference is a 15 yard penalty. I like that it's a 15 yards penalty. I do not trust the referees ability to judge PI in real life and do not want the risk of a penalty being called that is undetermined in length. If you object I imagine it's most likely out of the fear defenders will start tackling open WR's downfield. I used to think that way, never happens. I can count on one hand how many times I have seen a clearly defeated college player decide that committing a penalty is better than not committing one. No player can react that logically with something so instinctual, in real time, and those speeds. It NEVER happens. 15 Yards, good idea, bad idea?

2019, first playoff game against Houston. We come out and run a QB sweep with multiple pulling lineman, the play goes for 50+. We run it one more time, if Cody Ford doesn't miss his assignment we win the game. Fast forward to 2021, we still haven't seen the play called again.

I'm not asking for the hook, but I don't apologize for being harsh on either of them right now. Imagine if you were underperforming at work and you told your boss either of the following: "I have been really good in the past" "Remember how bad it was before I got here" I don't see either being a viable excuse. It's both of their jobs to be good and we should hold them to that standard as we have when they have been good (I don't think fans have been short to praise either). Lets see how we finish this year and then lets see what we do in the offseason. Nobody with a sane mind is calling for them to be fired.

Dominant like last year or balanced and dominant?

We have built a very good team no doubt. I'm discussing balance more than anything. Poor OL play or leads do not resolve our lack of a RB ground game or our ability to stop the better teams who can run the football. These issues have plagued us each of the last 3 years and since the start of our run. Is this something we have to address or not?

I don't see that fixing everything

I wanted to evaluate if this team is built the correct way. As an example, the Run In Shoot is a heralded system littered with statistical champions that has won exactly zero championships in college or professional football. That said, it appeared like it could be the right way for a long time until it was clear it wasn't. Was the no huddle offense the right way? We did win a lot with it, but we also never won a Super Bowl (I'm not saying it wasn't the right way, but it did have consequences playing that brand of football, good and bad). Say you're excellent at assembling the right talent for the vision you have, as the Oilers were, as Polian was, as Beane and McDermott seem to be, it might still get you nowhere if you have the wrong vision. Offense To start off, evaluating this with Josh Allen makes it very hard. He accounts for a massive portion of our run game and also generates a lot of yards in broken plays. At times common sense needs to prevail. Would anybody question since the start of the Josh Allen playoff era we have not had a consistent or successful running game with our RB's? Our actual rushing stats don't matter to me. Those include Josh, which is why it makes it hard. But you can see it, taste it, hear it. We have had no consistent run game with our RB's since the start of the Josh Allen playoff era. We also know Daboll is very tilted toward the passing game sometimes even to the extent that we just give up on the conventional ground game all together. We have spent heavily in players geared to develop the passing attack and have for years. In sum, our vision on offense seems to be very clear. We are ok complimenting our QB driven run game with our RB's and being a predominantly passing team. Defense We have a decided advantage against the pass vs the rush in just about every stat conceivable. Our first pick of the Beane era was a DB, our 1st round MLB was certainly known for his range and length. Our DL selections have been dominated by pass rush guys first with very little focus on players better suited to stop the run. In yards per rush allowed since 2019, we have the ranked 19th/24th and 7th this year. In yards per pass allowed since 2019 we have ranked 3rd/9th and 1st this year. Advantage passing defense. Again, at times common sense needs to prevail. It would certainly appear like we have focused on building a defense that is very focused against the pass. KC Link? While this is a passing league, it is not common to find comparable teams to the way we have been built. The only team I can think of with a similar profile as ours is Kansas City. In fact if you look at the year KC won the Super Bowl in 2019 they were about as close to a clone as any team has been to the 2020 Bills (so far the most successful version of this team), KC was 2nd that year in passing yards per attempt, 5th in passing yards per attempt allowed and 29th yards per rush allowed. Compare that to the 2020 Bills at 3rd/9th/24th respectfully. It starts to make you wonder, did we build the team in the form of KC to begin with or did we build the team to compete against them? No Balance On defense, 50% of our games since 2019 have involved 100+ yard outputs by the opposing offense and we are a .500 team in those games, 1-3 this season. Since our first playoff run in 2019, the Bills are 12-12 when they allow over 100 yards rushing on defense and 20-4 when they don't. On offense the Bills are 7-11 when they rush for under 100 yards, and 25-5 when they rush for over 100 yards. The running game does REALLY matter to our success, if nothing else in painting a statistical picture of what we have seen. If you can run on us we are most likely involved in a competitive game. If we abandon the run or can't run, we most likely are involved in a competitive game. In all likelihood both of these things are probably occurring at the same time. By these standards we will be involved in enough very competitive games that we have a ceiling over our head. Yes, we rank 7th in rushing yards per attempt this year and yes, our defense is the best it's ever been this year, but that should scare you even more as we have allowed two 200+ rushing efforts against us this year. Last year it was the same. Like Josh Allen and the offense, our defensive success can be hard to evaluate at times. What we do to teams when we are ahead makes it difficult to evaluate how good we are in situations when the game is competitive. We destroy teams when we know the pass is coming. So I like our 7th rating in rushing yards per attempt this year, but I'm certainly not going to become disillusioned into thinking we have a high caliber rush defense. Too many brutal thrashings have occurred in the last 3 years for me to ever consider that to be true. Almost as if we are watching an option team against us. In Sum I don't want to depend on Josh Allen having an MVP season for us to have a chance. He is still growing and I can't imagine what he could look like with some competency out of his RB driven run game. I also don't feel we can depend on our defense to hold up against teams that are good in the run game. It rarely does. Yes, KC won a Super Bowl but they're largely a soft team by my estimation and most certainly an outlier of SB champions. Very few teams that are poor on either side against the rush have ever won a Super Bowl. Most have some degree of balance or at least respect the notion of balance. A lot of the pieces are already in place for this team. I'm curious what we do after the season is over. Does Beane and McDermott stay with Daboll which makes our offensive direction unlikely to change? Do we look at some OL that are not pass centered and go after some mass in the middle? This is a potential Super Bowl team. The talent level is very high, but we are certainly capable of screwing that up if the vision isn't correct. I would like to see more balanced football.

I agree completely and noticed the same pattern, but I also notice the pattern of us getting absolutely shredded on the ground. This defense is built for pass only football on both sides of the ball. At some point our leadership needs to see that balance in this game matters.

Probably best to build a defense that doesn't require more than the allotted number of players on the field to be in the box to stop what is known to be coming. I don't blame Poyer or Hyde for that or the heart of the Bills defense.

People are pissed and I get it, but please don't defend this question. This defense isn't failing to stop the run because of effort. We have no interior mass. We are built as a pass defense only. Poyer and Hyde have been studs for us for awhile and always leave everything on the field. It was a classless look at me question trying to get the goat of two guys minutes removed from a devastating loss. If anybody should be asked that question it should have been the HC or the GM for the way this team is built. Not a couple DB's.

This also isn't the end of the clip, Hyde keeps talking as he walks off the podium in disgust of the question. He never goes Jerry Springer mode, but he was talking well after Poyer had left the frame completely.