Virgil

That's what I get for blindly listening the the commentators I mean....yeah? I just don't expect a lot from the guy. He's exactly what you'd expect him to be and really doesn't do anything special except throw crucial INT's on the last drive. If we allow the game to rest on the shoulders of Anderson, we are in way more trouble than I realized.

Call me a bad fan, but I was dreading this game all week. I didn't know what outcome I would see, but I knew it was going to be one of two. Either we kept in close for a while and ended up getting blown out, or we would have our typical Bills hope game where we find a way to give it away at the end. Well, it seems that I got a little of both. I'm not going to look for moral victories here as this is a NFL football team and it's all about the Win's and Losses. 1 - Shady - I've said this a few times now, but I think Ivory is the better runner for this team. Yes, Shady is faster and shiftier in space, but he's not getting into space much and his lack of decisive attacks to the line is costing him yards. I'm also noticing more and more that Shady isn't even breaking arm tackles. Ivory may not have the big runs, but he hits the hole hard with a few solid gains. He's a more punishing rusher and is better suited for our offense. 2 - 3rd and 8 before Halftime - This is the punt in the snow game against the Colts last year. I can't understand this play call here. We aren't going to beat the Pats with field goals and 8 yards isn't insurmountable. Well, maybe in this offense. Either way, even with gaining no yards, you're still in field goal range. These are the kinds of plays that make me want to say ***** the process. We want to build a culture and turn some heads, play to win. 3 - The Glorious Hits - I've complained about broken tackles in previous weeks, but not today (minus Stanford's whiff on 3rd and long) Not only were we tackling well, but we were laying the wood on the Pats. And yes, it felt really good. Brady took some shots today, none more beautiful than when he tried to lay a block. But we were all over the place today and punishing the Pats players. These guys showed up today and were fired up. A lot of Patsies are going to need an ice bath later. 4 - He didn't teach you how to win, he taught you how not to lose. That's nothing to be proud of. You're playing not to lose, Josh. You've got to risk losing. You've got to risk everything. You've got to go to the edge of defeat. That's where you want to be, boy - on the edge of defeat. 5 - Wide Receivers - This might be the very first time I'm not calling out the Wide Receivers in a loss. These guys were ready to play as well and Kelvin looked like he actually care out there. Penalty or not, his block was awesome. His catch over Gilmore put a smile on my face. And on the botched snap after Hyde punt return, Zay was wide open in the endzone. These guys were getting separation and making catches. Best game for them all season. 6 - Defensive Line - I've never claimed to know much about the X's and O's of football. I know as much as anyone who's watched games for 20+ years and plays Madden. However, I'm curious about the defensive line alignment. In the games where we seemed to get the most pressure, we'd spread the lineman out or overload one side. In this game, even when the Pats ran and empty formation, we kept the guys tight and centered. As a result, we didn't have a great pass rush today. Even on 3rd and long, we're only rushing 3 and Hogan burns us for a big play. Obviously, the lack of pass rush didn't cost us the game, but I'm curious to understand the strategy behind this. 7 - We've earned it - Watching the game, it's infuriating to see the opposing defenses stack the box and press our receivers because they know we can't throw the ball downfield. On almost every 3rd down play, they dare us to beat them and we failed to live up to it. It's happened all season long and we've brought it on ourselves. But when we do it to other teams, they expose us with a quick pass or break contain. It's beyond frustrating. 8 - Overall Defense - If our defense quit at any part in this game, I would almost understand and give them a pass. These guys had a great game plan with the bend but don't break, and held the highest powered offense in check for most of the game. You can't blame them for getting gassed or realizing their efforts are futile with the lack of offensive support To keep the Pats out of the endzone through 3 quarters isn't a moral victory, it's a straight up victory. Hats off to McDermott for having this side of the ball ready. And I promised I wouldn't write a thought about Milano again, but I may have a man crush. He almost had a game changing pick 6 too. 9 - Special Teams - Hausch and Hyde aside, this unit is making too many mistakes week in and week out. I didn't want to go after the coaching, but someone has to own putting these guys out there. Botches punts, almost fumbles on kick off's. It's just too scary to watch what should be an entry level area of the game. 10 - Daboll - I'm done. If the Browns can fire their offensive coordinator today, so can we. I'm sick of the excuses for this guy. He's accomplished nothing at any level. The fact that there are numerous NFL players that single-handedly have more touchdowns than our entire offense combined is a joke. 9 quarters since we've scored an offensive touchdown. We are absolutely wasting a fantastic defense. I don't care about the talent level. There are less talented teams out there doing more. I watch other games every Sunday and no one is anywhere near as bad as we are. Daboll gets creative for an opening drive, but then just falls apart as the game goes on. Yes, this gets a second paragraph. Negative plays, the inability to counter a defensive scheme, play to our teams strengths, and overall put together multiple drives is more than enough reason. Our offensive line isn't terrible. Our running backs aren't terrible. Our wide receivers, at least today, weren't terrible. How many games do we have to keep watching this dumpster fire before we make a change. I didn't want him hired and I don't take pleasure in calling for a man's job halfway through the season, but there's absolutely zero hope or signs of life. The man needs to go.

I wasn’t going to take this post seriously, but then saw the bold.....

If he’s practice squad eligible, I’d sign him. I don’t know the details, but if they were considering giving him a look as a starter and still cut him, it can’t be good.

No offense but, how hard did you search?

I would be pissed if we took Oliver. We’ve spent enough on defense and that’s not what’s losing games for us. We are 3rd in the league in sacks. We have to score points.

I think the game offense is still at least 50% Daboll. I’m not blaming it all on Anderson. 25% turnovers and bonehead plays Didn’t he start the season on the sideline and the go to the booth later? I noticed that too I’m just getting tired of beating the same dead horses. It’s getting harder, trust me

I think that if we aren’t at least a top 20 offense and top 5 defense next year, it could change. But yes, I think the Pegulas want continuity.

I think this was McDermotts plan, yes. But I don’t think it was that specific. Whoever didn’t fit the process had to go, salary cap be damned. Build the defense first, offense second.

Before he broke his back, he was well on his way to being a top 10 QB. They tore up the league that year. He’s absolutely worth it and I don’t see a fall back.

I don't blame them for giving up. They get no rest between drives. The offense kept giving the ball back in great position. And Luck got the ball out quick to neutralize the pass rush. They've earned a bad game

Peterman. Just so we can all play a drinking game and get hammered by the coin toss when he throws 5 pick 6's

These are the posts that I dread writing. The ones where the game was a snoozefest from the opening kickoff and it makes you want to look at the season as a whole, not just for the game. But, I shall do my best to find 9 things to talk. The struggle is real. 1 - Ivory - Let's start this off with a positive and talk the running game. I said a few weeks ago that I think this offense is better suited to have Ivory be the lead back and today made me feel more of the same. The rushing attack was strong enough where, if it were a close game, could have been a difference maker in helping put it away. But alas, in typical Bills fashion under McDermott, we were out of the game by halftime and the rushing attack was only used to ensure the Colts didn't all out blitz the entire game. I'm not advocating that we need to trade McCoy, but I don't think we'd be as bad off as previous years if we did with Ivory leading the way. 2 - Offensive Line - As everyone tried to pinpoint the reasons for our debacle of an offense, I think this was another week where the offensive line did good enough. There were some whiffed blocks, one by Dawkins that comes to mind, but overall they gave enough time to make throws and opened up good rushing lanes. For something I thought would be a huge liability heading intot the season, I personally cannot single out the offensive line as reason for our offensive woes. 3 - Anderson - Anderson played about as well as you'd expect for a guy who's been on the team for 10 days. For those hoping for an Osweiler type performance, we aren't that team. If it weren't for some stupid plays by Clay and Benjamin, this game might have been closer and allowed us to keep a balanced attack. But, we are who we thought we were and he had to force some throws that ended in interceptions. The first one was a good play by the defense. The rest, well the turnovers at that point didn't matter as you knew we weren't coming back. However, one thing I will say, our WR's looked a little bit more like WR's in this game, including Benjamin. Is that a compliment to them stepping up or the throws our previous QB's were missing? 4 - I know it hurts. That's life. If nothing else, It's life. It's real, and sometimes it *****in' hurts, but it's sort of all we have. 5 - Defensive Lines - Like against Rodgers and the Packers, the defensive line was neutralized by a QB who knows how to read a blitz and get the ball out quickly. After a few series of that, the blitz was almost useless and McDermott stopped sending them. This isn't to say that our defense was shredded by Luck, as he only threw for around 150 yards and his starting field position was pretty great all game. But our defensive line was not it's recent normal self and basically a non-factor. 6 - Linebackers - This week was a step back for our young LB's as Edmunds was out of position quite a few times and Milano got eaten up on rushing plays. Mack had a field day swinging out of the backfield or bouncing rushes to the outside. It was almost comical how bad our rush defense was abused. By a certain point, you wondered if they futility of our offense finally got to them. 7 - Daboll - I'm going to say this very carefully as I still believe Daboll is a terrible coordinator, but I think he had a better plan today. You take away the Clay fumble, Benjamin penalty, and some drops, the offense actually moved until the fire left the team. You can call out more where the talent failed in this game than the playcalling. With that being said, an offense that can't score touchdowns, even in garbage time is an overall junk and a good offensive coordinator gets more with less. But it's hard to put a lot on a coordinator who had a QB who didn't play for almost 2 years and just saw the playbook until 10 days ago. 8 - McDermott - I've seen a lot of good threads today about our overall performance and I figured I'd talk about them here. Why do we have so much dead cap space and the amount of blow-out losses we have stand out. Truth is, good or bad, this is his plan. This is what got him hired. He wanted his guys and created the dead space. If in two years, we are winning, competitive team playing for the division crown consistently, then all is good. The defense seems to have found it's way overall. But what signs are there to believe that our offense will follow suit? That's what keeps me up at night. We have no reason to believe that he can hire a quality offensive coordinator, scout a QB, or manage both of them in a game. While I hate to see us change up regimes, and I'm not saying we will, but next season will be starting with almost 90 mil spent on FA's and solid draft positioning. If we aren't solidly competitive, at least 8-8 with close games, I wonder how long this lasts. 9 - Trade Deadline - I know we don't have a lot of cap space this year, but I will go on record saying that if there is any chance that Cooper or Carr is available, I think you absolutely need to pull that trigger. I would be willing to give up a 1st round pick as well. Carr has proven to be a more than capable starting QB. Allen needs at least a year of watching. If Allen takes the job, then you'll still get value for Carr or Allen in trade. We can't keep living in this Anderson/Peterman world. Both or either of those guys makes our team immediately better. Carr played with a broken back last year and that team is more checkout than any other team in the NFL. I figured Gruden would destroy that team. I'm just surprised at how bad it was. 10 - Next week against the Pats - Please let's just smack Marsha around a little bit. After the typical "are the Pats done" conversation to start the season, they are back to 5-2 and handling business. I expect a bunch of quick passes that slows down our defense, no support on offense, and then our typical 20+ point loss. I'm sorry for the lack of depth this week, but that's just the state of the team. I could pick out certain players and certain plays, but this was just one of our lackluster efforts that makes you wonder if this team can ever string it all together. Either way, I'll see you all next week. Go Bills!

Troll

If you are sold on either Allen or Carr, there’s no reason not to make this happen. You’ll get better value back from one of them in two years

Between 180-220

If this is real, then I'll make this simple. You give them whatever the ***** they want! You don't hesitate. I don't know how you work it in capwise, but you make it happen. Carr was on the verge of being a top 5 QB IMO before be BROKE HIS BACK. He was rushed back and now plays for a team that is completely checked out. Oh, as for Allen, big deal. If he pans out, trade the worst of the two in a few years. You can solve your QB, maybe even your WR problem immediately. You do this and we are 3-3, and can make the playoffs this year. Do it. Allen doesn't make a dime and if he pans out, you are in a Brees situation with San Diego. You can't have enough starting quality QB's on your roster, especially when you are the Bills

I admit that he was a top choice for me as OC. The offense in San Diego was strong with him as HC, but I guess it always will be with a pro bowl QB.

This is my argument for coordinators. Scheme some easy throws, build confidence, everything gets better

Couldn’t agree more. Who had the pick six in this game? Not the Bills? Who blocked the punt? Not the Bills. They are crap. Should’ve had 10 sacks and pitched the shutout

I don’t....I mean, he’s a guy after all. He does have dreamy eyes though. No, no...this is wrong. Do you think he likes me too? I can’t. I just.....

As I think about where we are this season, I think about what we could have done differently in the offseason. There weren’t really a plethora of offensive lineman or WR’s we missed on. We could have drafted differently, but I’m not writing off our rookies. To me, with our current situation, I wish we would have signed Teddy Bridgewater. He only threw for 3k yards, but I think he would do well in our current scheme with this defense. I think he wins this game today. Also, he took a one year deal for 5 mil, which was a steal. Yes, hindsight is 20/20, but I think Allen gets his time on the bench to learn and we are somewhat serviceable on the field.

I can see you in the corner of the room. It’s weird. Please stop

Everyone wants a Hopkins

I think McCloud probably earned it in practice. They gave him a second chance today and that was all she wrote for him. The formations? I addressed that with the Ref’s