Beck Water

I think the Yinzers have a right to be concerned about their organization. 2 SB appearances and 1 win is arguably underperforming for a decade of Prime Big Ben. On the other hand, for the last 6 years, Tomlin has been dealt a bum hand at the most important position (QB). They tried to address it in the later rounds 2x hoping they could get a guy who would grow into the job behind Roethlisberger (Dobbs, Rudolph). They tried to address it in the 1st (Pickett). They tried to address it by signing a former great (Wilson). So it's certainly not all on Tomlin, but it also hasn't been Enough. I understand the concerns that McDermott is good, but maybe not good enough, but this nonsense folks toss around as though they could pluck just about anyone out of anywhere and do as well, let alone better is wearing my last nerve.

McDermott wasn't dealing with the kind of injuries Babich has been dealing with. Yes, Milano - same. But c'mon, we've also had 3 games without our MLB, 3 different games without BOTH our starting safeties AND 2 of those without a starting CB in addition..... I think it's a push, myself. I think there are times when Babich has called a more aggressive and attacking defense, and times when McDermott might have called a better defense. One thing I like is that they actually change the scheme a bit to match the personnel on the field. Leslie Frazier was 100% "Next Man Up, nothing changes". Babich is "you know what, I'm not going to expect Cam Lewis, Cole Bishop, and Kaiir Elam to play the same zone with the same connectedness and precision as my starters did. Let's man up and eat!" That has been a fair point for a while. McDermott's insistence on a DL rotation means we can't really go fo the gusto in great players, because we have to be able to resource enough players that are 'starter' quality vs having a big talent dropoff.

I know, right? Before the season the prevailing mood around here was to piss and moan about how the season was gonna suck because we hadn't done enough to replace our losses at WR, safety and CB and then injuries at LB. So now we're 12-3., locked up the division with 5 weeks to go, and it's all McDermott's fault ? Some people are never happy

According to wunderground, chance of precip is 85% at 11 am but falls to 24% by 1 pm....so hopefully not downpouring during the game.

Too bad it didn't work out for Denver

Wow, what a putrid game. Did the Rams offense just leave it all out on the field against the Bills? They scored 44 points against the Bills, now they've played 3 games where they scored a total of 44 points - in ALL THREE GAMES. I guess that's a 4 game average of 22 points a game, but Wow.

?

I love punts and can't get enough of them - when it's the Bills opponent doing the punting.

7 punts and a TOD, are you freakin' kidding me? Might be our Josh is right when he says Division games, you throw out the record, they're always tough

Yeah, the back end of the Bills D is designed to be 7 guys moving as one. When you're playing 4 backups (one of them 3rd string and out of position) out of 7 as the Bills did against NE, it's a problem. Lions, 3 out of 7 but Milano still de-rusting and of course went out and so did his backup. On One Bills Live segment discussing the NE game with Greg Cosell , he expressed surprise that the Bills were playing Cover 0 and using pressure. Brown pointed out that it was probably that with so many of their starters in the secondary out, they needed to play man to minimize communication issues in the coverage. I don't think it was the chip on his shoulder that was missing, I think it was a chunk on his chest. I thought Bernard came back from his pec injury very quickly. 2 games then back at 100% of the snaps, Are You Kidding Me? I think he probably needed about 4 just to heal up and then another 2-4 to come back to strength. That would match with your "much better over the last month or so" observation.

Please...Make It Stop

Thank you very much, that's clear now.

He was never seen wearing a splint in pressers or video around the facility. But Allen just confirmed he played with a broken bone in his L hand in an interview. I would guess the glove was specially constructed to provide splinting. And maybe he wore a splint when the cameras weren't on?

I wasn't a fan of his play with the Bills either, but he is making plays for Houston.

That's what Kurt Warner settled on and it turned him from a guy who got benched in St Louis for fumbling 6 times in Week 1 (Warner had a broken hand as well), to a guy who had a career renaissance with Zona in 2008 2009 I'm sure having gotten comfortable with the glove and not wanting to make a switch the last couple weeks is a factor, but both things can be true; like I said, I don't see that as an ordinary glovie.

But is that Williams, or is that the design of the called play? Allen did the same kind of things his first years in the league. I have archived posts suggesting that Devin Singletary be equipped with an orange fiberglass pole topped with a flag, like the Syracuse fire hydrants, so that Allen could better find him for a checkdown that could gain 10 yds.

He's had the same girl since HS

A sensible post. Why Bernard hasn't looked as good this season: 1) the line, especially DaQuon. Ya know how Edmunds finally looked like a decent player in 2022 before leaving for the Bears? Direct relationship to the departure of Star "No longer Shining" Lotulelei and replacing him with Daquan "Damn! So that's what good 1T play looks like" Jones. Only Daquan has not been the same player this year after returning from his torn pec last season. If the DL isn't keeping the LB clean, the LB look worse 2) Who is playing next to him? Dodson was a physically limited LB who knew what he was supposed to do and whose liabilities in the pass game were overcome by bringing Poyer in and playing a form of dime on passing downs. Williams may be a good tackler, but he's still learning to read the offense and decide what he ought to do. It makes a difference. Milano knows what he's supposed to do but he's still scraping the rust off. 3) torn pec for Bernard, takes a while to come back from and frankly I think he rushed it, but I think 1) and 2) are more important. Who is in front of you and who you're playing next to makes a huge difference to the OL and to the front 7.

But didn't you just do the math and determine that Buffalo's DL is actually larger and heavier on average than KC's DL, with one large "outlier" in both cases? The reason Phillips has decent penetration into the opponents backfield (but leaves the Bills vulnerable to the run) is that he gets upfield "too soon", he doesn't maintain his gap integrity to stop the run. That's been the "double edged sword" of BigJ9797 as a 3TDT all along. Having Phillips in the backfield while the OL is free to block the LBs at the 2nd level in a run play does not help the LBs

I mean, if the FO says "we want you to sit these guys", what's the coach gonna do, say "hell no, I'm playing them, they give us the best chance to win" "Yes Grasshopper, we know. Sit them". Rumor had it that's exactly what went down with Ryan and Whaley and Pegula, Rex said "hell no I'm playing Taylor, I want to win" Pegula said "you are not going to risk an aggrevated injury" and Rex said "fire me then". That was the rumor.

I can't say he's a crazy good candidate, but that wasn't my point. Many here at the time thought we were in for a huge letdown on D when Pettine was hired away and publicly speculated that he was just interviewing for practice and wouldn't take the Browns job if offered. After all, he was going from a 6-10 team that many saw as "on the rise" (and that did have a winning record the next year) to a 4-12 tire fire. Spoiler Pettine did take the job, making the point that there are only 32 of those jobs in the world.

I will say, we needed some higher level of team prep like that leading up to some of the games we've played. Yeah, I thought Allen injured his shoulder in the Detroit game, it could be the sort of thing where it got a little dinged and then aggravated vs. NE. I'm hoping it's just muscle soreness and he's re-habbing diligently to work it out.

Players don't, no. But FO and coaches can make personnel decisions and coaches can make scheme and play calling decisions that make a win less probable. Example 2016, when the Bills sat Tyrod Taylor for the final game of the season because he had a pulled groin and they didn't want his salary to injury guarantee if he aggrevated it (and, they didn't want a worse draft position if they won)

I don't see the Patriots tanking. Mayo is trying to show to ownership that he can be the man. Drake Maye is trying to show the coaches he can be the QB. They're picking like 2nd overall right now? Not sure 2nd or 3rd matters. The Jets....that's an interesting question. They're picking what, 7th to 9th? I can see where tanking would help them, but Rodgers isn't gonna want to go out that way.