Virgil

One of the toughest parts about writing these is not knowing what the Bills plan was going in. There are so many plays where you assume one player missed their assignment, when maybe they were the one who reacted first to cover up for someone else. That thought typically keeps my perspective in check and I try to only focus on the end results of the play or a specific engagement between players. Regardless, it's tough to not give into the eyeball test. With that being said, I lead into #1 of our Jets scrimmage results. 1 - Klein - I was really impressed with Klein's game in place of Edmunds as he made multiple plays that stood out. One of my biggest complaints about Edmunds is that he doesn't make those game changing plays often enough to make me want the team to commit to him long term. On the very first series of this game, Klein almost made one of those plays. He crept up to the line after the ball was snapped, getting lost in the mass of blockers and making White think the middle of the field was open. As White set to throw, Klein stepped back into his zone and almost had an interception off his hands. With Edmunds, I feel like he would have stayed in the zone the whole time, discouraging the pass in the first place. Same end result, but Klein had the bigger play opportunity. Beyond that, Klein has some amazing solo tackles in space, and shot the gap with speed for a tackle for a loss. Klein played like a missile waiting for his target and I honestly hope to see more of him at MLB. 2 - Brieda - My fantasy team be damned; it's hard to not love the 3 headed monster we saw yesterday. Brieda caught a beautiful pass on a wheel route for the first touchdown and then showed power and speed for a rushing touchdown later. He didn't get a lot of carries, but he made the most of them, possibly showing Motor and Moss that their spots in the split aren't secured. Speaking of Motor, he was frustrating with his unassisted fumble, but also finally executed an outside zone run play (CALL THOSE MORE DABOLL). Overall, everyone got a rushing touchdown, but Brieda set the tone early and hopefully gets to see more touches. I also loved that Josh had him at the podium for the post game, while taking ownership for their turnovers (even if Allen's interception hit the ground. I mean, seriously?!) 3 - Allen - Anyone else get the vibe that he just didn't care about coverage in this game and wouldn't be denied. He threw up multiple balls that just gave his receivers a chance. This was seen most with Diggs, even calling the same play back to back. Their chemistry is undeniable and they feed off each other. With Diggs great play, comes Allen confidence, and then everyone else benefits. All had some beautiful passes, but also kept the fire on the sidelines when forced to punt. If there is a sugar-high Josh, this was "Don't ***** with me" Josh. He also had a really nice run that was negated by a BS holding call against Dawkins. Allen had some misses and wasn't perfect, which I only say because he is capable of it, but he was overall the MVP candidate we know he can be. 4 - Holding hands are daughters and sons And their faiths are falling down, down, down, down I have wished for so long How I wish for you today 5 - GABE! - I don't think I realize how much I love watching this kid play until he showed up big in this game. I get that Sanders can squeak open deep, but Davis just straight blew by his cover guy and the safety. Davis also showed great concentration on a deep ball that was tipped around. I don't care how many snaps it cuts into for Sanders (who made an amazing one handed catch against PI), we are a better team when Davis is taking the top off defenses and keeping them honest. I don't know what the snap counts were, but Daboll needs to keep it going. Also, Davis had a few good blocks to help the run game, something Sanders also struggles with. 6 - Secondary - What else can you say except, Mike White is going to need trauma counseling after this game. Every single starting defensive back recorded a turnover, which the defensive line helped with tipped passes at the line. Of all the interceptions, Tre's may have been my favorite. Similar to Klein's almost interception earlier in the game, Tre was shadowing a mid zone and another player. However, once White released the ball, Tre showed off his closing speed and acted like the deep safety, pulling in the pick easily. Everyone played a part in this game and Wallace played phenomenally, laying some hits in the process. Poyer's interception at the goal line was the final punch in the stomach and it was just a great day overall as they slammed the book shut on the ascending Mike White story. 7 - McKenzie in Motion - It's hard to wonder how much the Bills pay attention to the online criticism, because the McKenzie motion sweep was back on display in this game again, even scoring a Touchdown off it. As said all week, it's not that the play is unstoppable, but it's just one more thing the defense has to think about before pinning their ears back and going after Josh. McKenzie also had a great return game today, almost breaking one. Just another example of the 2020 gang getting involved again. 8 - Pass Protection - I can't say that I watched each offensive lineman in this game, but I did notice the extra help Daboll gave the front line. We kept one or two guys in extra to block on a good majority of the snaps, which led to more time in the pocket. There was one breakdown play where a free DB came in from the strong size and neither Knox or the HB chipped him. I don't know how Allen didn't see him coming, but it was a solid hit on him that none of us want to see. Regardless of how it happened, the pass protection was there and Allen put up over 300 yards easily. On a side note, it also felt like the receivers were getting deep quicker than normal. There were a few plays where Allen threw it up and I was surprised to see how far downfield out guys got already. 9 - Defensive Line - I'm really curious to see the snap counts for this game, and possible where they lined up, as it was tough to keep track of for this game. It looked like Oliver, who also played a statless great game, was lined up on the end a few times. AJ seemed to have his snap count increased, and potentially at the expense of Groot. Again, I'm not sure what the strategy was and it's hard to complain with the outcome. We tipped quite a few passes, but pressure was mediocre. Boogie absolutely leveled a guy in the backfield, which was my highlight of the 4th quarter. What I found the most interesting was when we decided to blitz. It seemed like we sent extra pressure on 2nd down the most, but had some 3rd and longs where we only sent 3. Again, I can't argue with the result, but I was surprised we didn't go after White earlier more often. Side note, anyone disagree with the flag against AJ for roughing? I don't know what he could have done differently on that play. 10 - McD - While there is no excuse for last weeks debacle, you have to give McD credit for having his team ready this game. McD didn't mince words all week to the press and called people out as needed. Allen was pissed, Diggs had swag, and the trio ran angry. Poyer and Hyde had the secondary jumping and Klein was shot out of a cannon. I know we played the Jets, but as we've learned these past few weeks, there are no easy wins. We have a decent stretch of games coming up against teams that show promise. McD needs to keep this going if we want to secure the one seed. On to the Colts and the surprisingly solid Wentz and Pittman is sneaking up the receiving stat boards. Star being out against Taylor, arguably the best active RB in the game right now, but we are still the better team and need to get it done at home. Go Bills!

No, it’s vengeance

What was your evaluation of him destroying their rb in the backfield in the 4th?

Honestly, I would actually like to see more games with Klein at MLB. He made more eye popping plays in this game than I’ve seen Edmunds make in a while.

Correct. I don’t think about them. Max Jones hasn’t played us and we straight up owned them last year. We have the better team and they are playing an equally easy schedule. Mac Jones can’t run and our defense is better. So yes, I don’t think about them

I don’t

http://igetiptv.com/ You can do a one day trial if interested and they take PayPal, in case you’re worried about sharing your data. Because of legalities, I’m just going to talk about how it works “in theory”. 1 - Download IPTV Smarters to your device. I went with an android TV box, but I know others use a firestick. I know the box has more firepower and I wanted to cover the bases. 2 - Go to http://igetiptv.com/ and pick your plan. They will email you a login and password 3 - you’ll have access to tv channels, video on demand, and movies. The TV Channels are for across the world and county. You can make channels you aren’t interested hide in the parental control are. Now, for the cool part “in theory”. When you select CBS, you can pick from and CBS across the country, including Buffalo. It also has every single premium station, and sports tickets, and PPV. I’ve compared quality to streaming on NFL network and can’t see a difference. Again, you can get this for $65 for the entire year, plus the one time hardware cost. Some recommend using a VPN, but I believe those have a 80mb limit. I honestly don’t know much about them. Again, this is all a cool theory and I’ve had it for about a week. I can only speak to what legally comes down. Feel free to PM me for questions. I’m not a reseller or anything like that. Also, if you already use this type of service and found something cheaper or better, let me know Take a look at http://igetiptv.com/. $65 versus $144

How much you paying and what provider? I thought so too. But honestly, the sites make it seem more complicated than it is. I was setup and good to go in 20 min.

I guess I've been living in a cave, but I just recently heard about IPTV. I won't get into all the details of it, as I'm not sure if it'll be a TOS violation, but I've found the entire process to be very easy. Right now, I've looked at an Android box for $40 and yearly service for $60 per. Besides price, I haven't seen any real differences between the different providers. Anyone been doing this for a bit that has recommendations or do's and don'ts?

Why is Sweeny lining up wide at all? That also makes no sense to me. Sweeney should be the final check down when the rest of the play breaks down

He couldn't cut back. There was a defender right behind him that would have hit him immediately. Also, that hole was a mirage as our line was being pushed around, not creating it. The Colts play didn't have someone trailing him and the line controlled the blocking. Not the same thing. Dawkins got blown up and the play was outside zone. I think the real issue is, why is our offensive lineman running to make blocks at the next level in the middle of the field when the play is to the outside. Seems like miscommunication or poor execution

3 - I agree on overall deep balls, even though we didn't try any against the Jags. I'm moreso talking about the deep crossing routes where the boys would toe tap the sideline. That play is gone 7 - If that's the case, then let someone else run that play. Isn't that what we drafted Stevenson for?

That's what I'm saying though. When did they catch up to us? I feel like we stopped running our scheme in anticipation of people shutting us down. The Chiefs game was the only one where our normal play wasn't working, and I would say that was more the offensive line not protecting Josh.

. I wonder if the frustration is coming from the playcalling and adjusting to a different scheme. He knows what they can do, and he's running plays that aren't working as well

Like many of you, I am both frustrated and perplexed by our offensive performance this season. While I understand the need to evolve schemes before the league catches up to you, I can't quite figure out when that happened to us. We were able to move the ball just fine at the end of last season, were good against the Colts, played a good defense in windy conditions against the Ravens, and then puttered against the Chiefs. In the Chiefs game, I don't know that they "figured us out" so much as the matchup wasn't in our favor and we just had the wrong plan. More so, I think about the Ravens offense. They dominate the regular season and flop in the playoffs. I get needing to make a change for the playoffs and practicing that in parts of the season, but the Ravens usually stick with what works during the regular season for the past few years. So with that, why did we effectively change our scheme that was apparently working? Here are my questions? 1 - With Gabe Davis leading us in Red Zone TDs last season, why is he no longer in those packages as much? While I understand Sanders new role in the offense, red zone packages are typically different 2 - Do we have a runningback problem or an offensive line problem? Additionally, where is the extra eligible blocking receiver? Teams are rarely stacking the box against us, which means it's 5 vs 4 on the line. If we bring in an additional OL as an eligible receiver, then it's 6 vs 4. That should be more than enough to get decent yards on each run play. However, what percentage of our run plays come from the shotgun versus Josh under center. Are we too obvious when we call a rushing play? Is it possible that both Motor and Moss suck, or is the offensive line that bad? I mean, these are NFL talented players who can't win a 5 vs 4 matchup? I argue that alone seems illogical. With that, for me, I believe it is our lack of creative scheme. I think about our rushing attack before and after Greg Roman. The man had a system out of the shotgun that couldn't be touched and we torched the league in rushing. Why is that not something we can somewhat emulate? 3 - Even with other teams playing two safeties deep, the deep crossing routes shouldn't be effected by this as much. If the safety does shade over, then the seam down the middle should be free. Josh rolling out and hitting someone deep on the sideline was a majority of our highlights last season, but I can't think of more than a few times we've hit that play or even tried. 4 - Is it me, or did we move the pocket with Josh more last season? 5 - I understand that teams are more consistently double covering Diggs, but that typically doesn't take affect until he's more than 10 yards down field? What happened to the quick stutter-step routes that got him going early in games that brought the safeties up? Our best games are when we fed Diggs and Beasley early, forcing the defense to react, and then killed them deep with throws to Davis and whoever else. 6 - While Sanders has made some great plays for us, it feels to be at the expense of the other receivers. Is this intentional or is really just the only person getting open? 7 - Where the hell is the McKenzie sweep plays? We would at least keep the defense on their guard with those plays and creep towards the LOS, but nothing this year. 8 - When Josh went off on the sidelines against the Dolphins, who was he yelling at? It looked like he was targeting his offensive line. Has that relationship soured a bit? I'm not saying they are tanking in response, but the tension is real. Josh has not looked relaxed all season. That's all I got. I'm as frustrated as Josh is and I equally see the articles about him not taking the check-downs, but I also believe there is more to it. I don' t have answers, just wanted to put the thoughts out there and see if anyone had similar thoughts or answers.

The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if his relationship with the offensive is breaking. He absolutely lost it on them in the Dolphins game and they’ve gotten progressively worse

I found this really surprising. They eyeball test made me think he wouldn't even be close to his stats last year and his swagger just isn't there. Not sure the point, except for those who focus on numbers.

Trust me, don't

One thing I noticed, they gave up so many good seat options in how they setup the lower middle. They had walking and standing areas where they could’ve had good seats. Anything that should be 30-40 rows back between the 30’s didn’t exist. I really hope the Bills don’t follow that model

This! Great pick-up and I noticed the same thing. I wish they would have put Diggs in the slot more and let him just abuse that safety in coverage

That songs is just brutal I know it's a remake, but damn

Mods, I honestly didn't know what else to call this or where to put it. I won't be able to write my random thoughts post this week. I apologize as I know there are a few who look forward to that weekly post. Other have posted similar threads and did an excellent job. I recommend taking a look. My apologies Edit - many are assuming this is because they lost and I’m upset about it. That is not the case. I am pissed they lost, but I’ve written plenty of these after a bad loss. Other things, that I don’t feel like sharing came up, and I don’t want to half ass it. Also, my seats made a lot of things difficult to see, so I don’t even know if my notes are accurate. All things I didn’t think I had to go into, but apparently some look for the negative

Maybe I’m salty because I’ve put some decent money into attending games this year. Maybe I’m breaking the cardinal rule of not posting when you are angry. Either way, it’s ridiculous the ROI this year. You can argue the relevance of fans investment in a team, but I argue that the fans are why the team is here and why the players get paid. When I think about the cost of tickets for the home opener, how many fans travelled to the Titans game, and the minimum 50% of the stands being fans for the Jags game, the product this team puts on the field is pathetic. I’m honestly starting to believe that the lack of fans in the stadium helped the team last year. I’m not saying it’s the reason we lose, but it’s not helping. I wish there was a better way to show our displeasure. I honestly hope the fans start to boo them more at home to start a game, or just something. Seeing the fans walk out of the stadium today after that pathetic performance, I would hope for a refund check straight from the coaches and players. But again, I’m super salty right now

Yup, unpopular opinion. I’m not saying he didn’t run for his life, but the interceptions were unforgivable.

Exactly. I had two more games planned this season and I’m going to save my money. Between this and the Steelers game, they can go ***** themselves