Giuseppe Tognarelli

The Steelers might get lucky... again. They've been winning a lot of games that way.

The Browns are self-destructing. Furthermore, a total lack of killer instinct, worse than the Bills. They better not give the Steelers this game.

The Steelers have a huge amount of momentum. We want them to lose whenever possible. They are a problem.

I think you need to look up the definition of trolling! That term gets thrown around on here for anything people disagree with. It's okay to just disagree without calling the person a troll or insulting them (not saying you did the latter, btw). No trolling intended!

I'll reply to you and @BringBackOrton at the same time. In my mind, kicker is just something I'd take care of right off the bat to make sure I got a great one. It's not that I think a kicker is more valuable than a quarterback. I would just start with a kicker because that at least gives me some baseline of competence. Admittedly, I realize that the nuances in my thinking might not be obvious. ☺

Can we not do the "please stop" thing as if this is some kind of a bizarre contention? Great kickers make big kicks, which makes a difference toward wins and losses. It's hard to mask a bad kicker. I don't have a chance to do the research right now, but I'd wager if you looked back across the league this season, you'd see MANY outcomes that would have been different if a guy had made a kick or kicks.

I don't understand this comment. If the Bills had, for example, Justin Tucker on Sunday, they would be 7-2.

Obviously, I disagree. Another poster made the point that the Patriots have historically made it a point to have a great kicker. I think it's "criminally" underlooked. Kickers often have a greater impact on the outcome of games than any other single position, save quarterback, in my opinion. The difference between a great kicker and a "whatever's left" kicker is probably 2 games per year, I would think.

Kickers win games though.

I don't know. If you put Mahomes behind the worst line in football, with no skill position talent to speak of, would he really be successful?

Is that really true at this point? Hasn't the issue blown over to a large extent? I don't think it would cause major issues at this point.

It's amazing how ferociously Murph and Tasker defend Daboll when the offense is putting up these point totals.

I've been giving this some thought. If you were starting from scratch with a football team, where would you begin as GM? Would you go for a quarterback first? Build the lines and go from there? Load up on skill position players and hope for the best? My initial thought is that I'd prioritize positions in this order: OL K/P QB DL CB WR TE RB LB S I think a team with a dominant offensive line and kicking game can get a lot done in terms of ball control and dictating the pace of games, so that's why I would make sure I have those in place before I insert a young quarterback. I could be widely panned as wrong in my thinking, but I'm curious as to what philosophies we have on the board in terms of positional importance. Ultimately, it's about Ws.

It'll still pretty much be a night game because they'll be under the lights within an hour of kickoff

Football is about minimizing Josh Allen? ?

They won't look at it that way, unfortunately. They don't dread that four-game stretch the way we do.

Oh my gosh. People are still saying this? The Browns are not a joke.

I'm so glad that others are calling out McBeane on their non-football priorities. It's a huge problem.

You're not looking deeply enough. The Bills are consistently going for it (and failing) because Hauschka doesn't have the range to make routine NFL kicks. How the administration gave him an extension in spite of this is very concerning; it seems to be an extension given in an effort to spark his confidence or in recognition of his leadership, which are both pathetic reasons to extend. The Bills would have been 12 points better today with a good kicker. They would have won the game with a good kicker. And then there's the eyeball test. He's not making kicks as well as he used to. His leg is weak (you see it on kickoffs, too), and he's kicking nervous. Balls don't have the power and direction they used to. It feels like every FG is an adventure. Everyone says the kicker isn't hugely important, but they usually swing 1-2 games per year. Name one position other than QB that is that crucial to wins and losses. I wish I had been wrong in the offseason when I complained about this issue and pretty much begged for a change. I thought it would cost the Bills games, and sure enough it is.

We would have put up 28 today with a good kicker...

The fact that you're getting "laughing" reactions to this is mind-boggling. With a good kicker, we're 12 points better today. We abstained from field goals twice and turned it over on downs each time because Hauschka doesn't have the range anymore. Hauschka is a major, major weakness on this football team.

Exactly. That appears to be why he was extended. Unacceptable. Completely unacceptable.

It's reasonable to pencil in losses in games in which we will be underdogs, yes. By the same token, we should pencil in wins the next two games and against the Jets. That puts us at 9-7.

Here's how I see it... We need to win the next two. We should win the next two. We'll be 8-3, and then we will be underdogs in the next four. By the same token that we should win the next two, we should lose those four. We might end up 8-7 and hoping to beat the Jets to go 9-7 and squeak into the playoffs. Disappointing. Issues: Hauschka Run defense Allen playing too "in control"/soft and not hitting the deep ball. Where's the passion on the sidelines we used to see? It's like he's trying to stay "within himself" and be too careful.

Let's not forget that we turned it over on downs twice in field goal range because we know our kicker isn't good anymore.