Tanoros

So the defense should have given 0 yards? That’s your stance? Those yardage totals you mention wouldn’t have been enough for points assuming the Miami offense started anywhere from the 20-35 yard line as is typical if not for the turnovers. No one should EVER expect a defense to give up 0 yards. That’s just “ridiculous”. Obviously it’s no so simple as just saying the defense or offense was the worst unit of the two. Both units made mistakes and both made good plays. However, you seem to be taking the stance that the defense shouldn’t allow points regardless of field position, and that take is not based on reality. When a team scores, the vast majority of the time, the scoring is done against the defense (that’s the nature of the game of football). However, it’s not out of question to attribute blame to the offense/special teams when those units give the ball to the opposing team in immediate scoring position. See how I qualify my statements and actually acknowledge both sides of discussion? Those that stand on their high horse and don’t acknowledge both sides of a discussion come across as disingenuous and pushing an agenda, making it much harder to to give that person the benefit of the doubt. It would be wise to acknowledge your point while conceding that it’s not 100% definitive, but rather a point of view based on personal observations (of which you have shared). However, it’s still a point of view and not the definitive truth, and you seem to be forgetting that part.

I wouldn’t call it an excuse, just a reason. For me personally, I don’t watch as many prime time games live anymore (besides Bills games). I usually watch the games in the condensed version, that way I can watch a couple games in the same time as 1 game, getting more bang for my time.

So when the Miami offense is gifted the ball while in position to score a field goal, and the defense doesn’t stop them from scoring the field goal, but prevents the TD, you would attribute more blame to defense for not preventing points or to the offense/special teams that gifted scoring position to the opposing team?

That’s doesn’t look like the face of someone blowing. It looks like the face of someone sucking. It could be a nicotine vape though, doesn’t have to be a marijuana vape, but who knows. It would have been telling to see his exhale to know whether it was nicotine based or marijuana based (nicotine vapes generally create a bigger cloud on exhale).

You misunderstood what I was trying I say. What I’m saying is, counting the field goals against the defense when Miami had a short field, already starting in field goal range. Those points shouldn’t be counted against the defense. What I meant by EPA, was that had Miami NOT had so many short fields, the odds are good that they wouldn’t have scored as many points, meaning our defense would have prevented some of those field goals. It was our offense and special teams that put the defense in positions where the defense is defending while Miami is in scoring position to start. So from my perspective, the defense overall played better than the offense, and reading our posts, it’s come across as if you feel the defense didn’t play as good as the offense (is that correct?). I understand your frustrations about the defense giving up so many long first down conversions (10+ yard conversions) and that equally frustrates me, however, those mistakes (in my opinion) don’t trump the turnovers or short fields that gave Miami an immediate scoring opportunity.

It’s not discounting the points scored, it’s recognizing the fact that the odds are Miami wouldn’t have scored as much if they didn’t have so many short fields (if you need an example read the post about EPA for reference about the truth of that statement).

You can’t count the strip sack fumble return for the Miami offense, so that’s only 24.

Thank you for this very detailed post with references and summaries. I really appreciate the effort you put into this.

It’s really easy to say this now that his is playing while still working to be back at 100%. Did you happen to share this opinion prior to Tre’s injury? Did you mention it here, on this board?

I was thinking the same thing yesterday. Hamlin recovers, and the Bills go on to win a ring for him and the city. That would be an all time historic event for Buffalo and the NFL. Hamlin first, then let’s see what the team decides to do. One thing for sure, we absolutely know we have the right people in the building who will do what’s best for the team/players.

Not saying it makes it any better, but there are careers out there where people do die more often than you’d think not to mention long term disability/ailments. At the end of the day, just as in football, people sign up for this stuff. I can’t ever think of a football player dying from playing football and what we say tonight appears to be a freak occurrence. How many years how football been around? The game is safe than it’s ever been, this game isn’t going anywhere and rightfully so.

I see what your saying and it is frustrating, it seems like other teams have more breakout young guys than us in this McDermott/Beane era. But also, that is the norm for these young guys, come in and improve each year, and most aren’t stars right away. At this point in time, we do need to shift more towards guys who have an impact sooner, but that will be at the expense of something else (athletics traits, or not a position of need, etc). Unless things fall into place perfectly, there will be some give and take. One good thing to consider about developing more guys than we can afford is that we will have seen them in our system and will not be gambling as much as someone in FA from another team.

Spending the money doesn’t guarantee a good player, even more so if that player will fit in the scheme. Drafting and developing is very important, and the team should instead put a priority on offensive positions moving forward in the draft. As hard as defense can be these days, the Bills have s good one, and we all see the major drop off when Edmonds is out. To me, he is the number 1 resign based on age, position, play. He’s stepped up huge this year, and for most of the board him being, “young” and developing has been running joke, yet here we are, he has taking a major step forward. At this point, there is no reason to doubt that he won’t continue to make strides in his overall play. He’s definitely playing with a lot more confidence this year.

I certainly he has the potential to be an elite weapon and I was really hoping to see him or Davis break out into a bonafide elite player this year (or anyone else, but those two seemed to have the highest probability).

Cool turning into that elite player would be amazing and not out of question either. The only thing I see about Cook being a slight issue, is Allen would need to do a better job of looking his way earlier on certain down/distances. Allen tends to look deep first, which is why I would prefer that additional elite weapon to be a wr, preferably a 1B to Digg’s 1A. It would compliment Allen as he plays currently a bit better. However, I believe the more explosive Cook shows himself to be, that should help Allen look his way more often. Hopefully someone emerges down the stretch/playoffs who we can feel good about for next year, but unless someone steps up, I hope we continue our search for another.

Agree, for us to have two #1’s we are going to have to draft and develop for the second. We need contributors on rookies salaries in order to afford everything. As much as I’d love a second #1 wr, more than anything I just want another elite player on the offensive side of the ball. We have Allen and Diggs which is great, but we need one more atleast. With this upcoming draft, I feel like we need to land someone early who can be a major contributor on offense with the ceiling to be elite. I’d even settle for an elite offensive guard. I’d prefer another position, but an elite person on the o-line wouldn’t be horrible. It’s going to be an interesting offseason. Now that things are getting tight, I’m curious to see how Beane handles things and which direction we go.

Completely agree. Allen needs more help on offense. We need one more elite player on offense. Preferably a skill position, but even OL would be fine. Whatever is done, Beane needs to emphasize the offense more. Our best weapon is Allen, so he needs all the help he can get to maximize our teams success. Having an offense that can score points at will, will take pressure off of the defense anyway, forcing the other teams to be more one dimensional.

THIS! I’m in the same spot and questioning playing him. My backup option would be McKinnon. Who has had some big games lately, but he is also a big gamble.

I was able to get ahold of a similar service. Like you, I can watch just about any major sporting event. There are just so many streaming options. I’m excited to see what happens with NFLST on YouTube tv though. I’d like to hope they will be open to reimagining the whole affair. For instance, being able to watch games from an All-22 perspective like Thursday Nights, “Prime Vision”. Hopefully YouTube is willing to create some positive change making the whole ST and football watching experience easier and more enjoyable.

If so, it will be a game that’s nationally televised and available via NFL+. If you have that already, then you will be covered. On a side note, having NFL+ and having the option of watching all of the local games on my phone is awesome. I’ve been able to more flexible and still seeing the games.

Your a very right. In many ways Allen is still a young qb, and finding the right balance between being aggressive and taking the easy stuff is something he still needs to figure out. The way I see it, we have games (a lot this year) where we fail to put drives together because of many compounded reasons (stuff at the line for no gain or little, pre/during play penalty, dropped pass, tough contested drop, and throw away). When we are having these issues, there are plenty of times Allen will look to hit a deep throw, instead of taking the easy stuff and getting a drive going. What I’m getting at, is besides finding the balance in general, I think Allen could benefit from recognizing in game, when it’s time to dial up the aggressiveness or dial it back. Allen has worked hard every offseason to improve, and I expect finding the right balance between being aggressive or not is something he will work on for the rest of his career.

Great post and great perspective. It’s so true how we fans want to find fault or praise from our teams players for our teams success or failures (especially the failures). About your comment of Allen not always taking the easy stuff, but the easy stuff IS there. It’s so true, I feel like this is the one area Allen really needs to find the right balance. Like you said, his aggressiveness is why we see some of his most amazing plays, but that same aggressiveness is the reason some drives stall out. Keeping the chains moving and having short down and distances consistently is a good thing. This season, too many times we’ve found ourselves in 3rd and long (for many reasons). Kurt Warner breaks down the film from the Dolphins game here. It’s a very detailed analysis, and he (Kurt) points out some opportunities for Allen to take the easier stuff. But it’s also cool to see what Allen is seeing and how the plays are drawn up. The breakdown on the TD pass to Hines is especially cool. We ran the same play twice in a row. Once with Singletary and then with Hines. Either way, the subtle difference of Knox’s position and body movement were all the difference in the play being a TD or not (we got lucky on the Hines TD, the LB got sucked forward at the start of the play, losing his angle to the corner of the end zone).

Just because it hasn’t happened doesn’t mean it won’t. I work in construction safety and one of the most common lines is, “I’ve been doing it this way for x years and have never had an issue”….until they do. Safety rules are literally written in blood, and we all know the risks of heat exhaustion or heat stroke, and it’s happened in an NFL training camp. Changes were made to training camp because of it, but changes haven’t found their way to an NFL game. Does someone have to die first? Be seriously injured? At what point is it too much? What I saw against Miami this year was too much. These players want to win too bad, so much so, we have guys like our backup OT Doyle playing on a torn ACL. Imagine how many of them must have had heat exhaustion and were pushing through it? That’s a recipe for disaster, it just takes the perfect heat/humidity index and the right condition within a given persons body, and there could be a serious injury. At a minimum the NFL should evaluate the conditions of the Miami’s feild/sideline and determine if any changes need to be made. They should at least do something, not pretend there isn’t an issue and keep plugging along like nothing.

Our current defensive scheme has become the go to scheme to slow down the high powered offenses. I’m sure McDermott has a hand to play with that, but Frazier is the DC, and the Bills have been a top 10 defense every year with Frazier. Not only does his D play well, other teams have adopted concepts from his D. What is your reason for saying the game is passing him by? 13 seconds? It’s goes without saying having as many injuries as we have had on defense this year is going to cause issues, yet the defense has still looked good even with the injuries.

I thought I remember reading Shakir had elite, “quickness” as in getting up to top speed quickly?