Virgil

Writing the first thoughts of the season shouldn't feel like this and I apologize for the quality, not to say that they are usually high quality anyways. First off, I was at the game where it was raining and I couldn't really use my phone to take notes, so most of this is from memory. Second, it was hard to keep myself at the game until the end and if Allen didn't come in, I probably would have left in the 3rd. I've never left a game before the last 4 minutes, and that includes today, so I say that as an example of just how bad today was. With that, here we go. 1 - Baltimore Fans - If I go to a game, I like to comment on the atmosphere. The Bills fans absolutely represented today and we were out early. Walking by the main Ravens lot, I was shocked at how empty it was at 10am. Rain or not, even the local bars were fairly empty. When I did make my way to the busier areas, I saw just as many Bills tailgates as I did Ravens. It was surprising to see but reminded me how great a fan base we have and how we deserve better. Waiting in line to get into the stadium and at our seats, the Ravens fans were pretty tame and I never felt unwelcome. Even a few fans said how impressed they were with the Bills fan presence. 2 - Offensive Line - As for the team, I figured I'd start with the only pleasant surprise of the game. I was expecting the QB's to have zero time to throw as the Ravens usually played with one safety deep and stacked the box. For the most part, Peterman and Allen had enough time to throw and the offensive line wasn't the reason for the poor passing game. Now, they didn't create big holes for the running game, but that didn't seem to be in the gameplan early anyways (more on that later). Overall, they were fine. 3 - Defensive Line - I understand that one of the main keys to a strong defense is being able to get pressure with your front 4 and we just spent a ton of money in FA on our line, but I still don't know what I saw today from them. First off, why was Yarburough out there so much. In the first few drives, he was out there for the majority of the snaps and opposite of Lawson no less. Where was Murphy and Hughes as our bookends getting pressure because Star and Kyle are eating up the middle? I know that Murphy was on a snap count, but we put very little pressure on Flacco and even let him slide around inside and out of the pocket easily. You just can't give Flacco that kind of time. If that's what almost 20 mil in upgrades gets us, then we might want to hold onto our receipt. 4 - “Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!” 5 - Benjamin - I didn't have a personal opinion when we traded for KB and don't feel like we've seen enough of him to know what we have. We know he's playing for a new deal in a period where WR's are getting paid well. He showed flashes again the Panthers and then we didn't showcase him after that. With that being said, today was not a good day for him. I don't know if he's just slow or didn't care today, but he looked like he could care less about being on that field. He didn't look back for the ball on a few plays. His fight for the ball was lackluster at best and he dropped Allen's would be first NFL touchdown. Overall, I didn't like what I saw from him at all today against a Raven's team that was missing their top DB. He should have been featured and helped Peterman in his start but was instead more disappointment 6 - Peterman - Peterman now has a full 4 quarters of stats to his resume and it isn't pretty. He had throws that were behind receivers, executed plays where he forced it to his first read, even though the play was clearly blown up, and made some beautiful passes directly to Ravens receivers. Oh yeah, and he didn't execute a single first down in the first half; something only down twice before in the NFL (Peterman loves making history like that). I was all for Peterman starting this game. I'll admit that. He looked good in the Panthers game and with the 3rd stringers. But we all said that we needed to wait and see what he'd look like again against a real NFL defense. Well, we saw it. I want to preach patience and remember that it's only his second year and only has prepped as a starter for a few weeks. But overall, he's historically bad when he's in there. We can say it's Daboll, the rain, or even the WR's, but I have to believe that anyone else gets at least a first down in the half. It's nothing personal, but you simply can't be that bad. 7 - Special Teams - The failed recovery of the muffed punt summed up the entire game for me. We couldn't even fall on a ball correctly. The first missed field goal was well short and I don't know if it was tipped or not. We almost had one returned to the house on us and then we fumbled a snap. It takes a team effort to lose this badly and all 3 facets of the team contributed. 8 - Overall Defense - I'm more upset with the play of our defense than anything else. This was supposed to be our strength and we weren't going up against world beaters. I didn't expect a big win, but I didn't expect to give up more than 20 points. Not only was there little pressure, but had so many breakdowns in coverage that you'd forget we had an entire preseason to prepare for this game. We weren't ready and our scheme was highly ineffective. The middle of the field was left open again with a soft zone, we got thrown all over in a rainy contest, and we dropped some sure interceptions, maybe even pick 6's. You can't even say that the defense gave up because the offense wasn't supporting them either. We were down 14 immediately after some poor penalties and breakdowns in coverage. Just a pathetic display. 9 - Daboll - I'm going to be upfront here and say that I wasn't happy with the hiring of Daboll. I don't see what he's done to earn the jobs he's had. His offenses have ranked near the bottom of whatever league he was in, but somehow it respected by the big name coaches. With that being said, I feel like I can summarize his play calling by pointing out that he was sending his 2nd and 3rd string TE's deep on plays and actually took shots at them. Let me repeat again that we didn't get a first down in the first half. Our first one came in the 3rd on a busted play. The Ravens stacked the box and dared us to beat them. As a Bills fan, I want to be wrong about him. As someone who looks at his track record and what I saw today, I'm not optimistic. I'm looking forward to the All-22 to see if it's more QB than scheme, but Peterman was as much Daboll's choice as he was McDermott's. 10 - McDermott - As a head coach, you are the voice of the team and expected to support your players. I know it frustrates the media when he gives bland answers and refers to the tape. On the flip side, he's also the window to the team for the fans who pay to see the team. His lack of comments and overall stoic demeanor about a historic loss in a season opener was bothersome to me. I'm NOT saying his job is in jeopardy, even though I know people will copy and paste just this next piece, but a performance like this is what can get a coach or GM fired. At the end of the day, McDermott had an entire off-season to prepare, draft, and sign players to create a final product on the field. He made the choice to start Peterman and mentally align the players. He failed in every single component of the game. When we were beaten by the Pats 56-10, it was to a superior team and that game was at least 21-7 at one point. We didn't look like we had any right to be on the same field as the Ravens, who were without their staring DB, TE, and missed the playoffs last year. To me, this is the worst loss in the history of the franchise on that merit alone. If I told you that our offensive line would be about average in the game and still told you the end result, would you believe me? We had 3 blowouts last season and he was able to pull the team together and this was a road game. Even for those thinking this would be a rebuilding year, we didn't get spanked this hard during our 3-13 season. Next week we have the Chargers and I don't even know what to expect anymore. Hopefully we can get some momentum from the crowd and some decent weather. Allen has to start going forward or I think McDermott risks losing the team. He's now butchered naming a starting QB twice in two seasons. Rebuilding or not, you have to find victories in defeat to build on. There weren't any today. Go Bills!

Allen is warming up on the sideline

This worries me. He was our Gaines replacement and we were a far worse defense without Gaines on the field.

Wtf?!

I’ll be by in about 45

Power plant is right near the harbor and they have a dueling piano bar called “howl at the moon” that’s pretty legit. They sell jungle juice in large bowls for the ladies....or me

Anything going on before the game?

He was all about the money and we just gave him a new deal. When healthy, he’s great, but he can be very hit or miss. Also, for all of our offensive line woes, LT hasn’t really been one of them. I still agree with trading him.

Hey, we’re all having a party later. When you get there, just hang out. We’ll show up later. We promise

24/20 489 yards. 7tds, -5 ints. 8 tackles, 2 punts inside the 20, 1 pancake block

I’ll be there

Bills 16 Ravens 13

I was more hyped for the 3rd preseason game than I am for the season opener. It’s hard when you know your starting QB isn’t the future, although I agree it’s the right decision. Just knowing we are in year two of our “rebuild” makes it hard to get excited because most of our future probably isn’t on the team yet on offense. Outside of Josh Allen and Dawkins, I’m not sure who will fill out the rest of our entire offense in two years. Defensively, I’m more intrigued as we are a lot closer there. However, Edmunds needs time and is vital to a McDermott defense. Overall, expectations are low and excitement is more about football being back than Bills football success

I just don't get this, I really don't. Are the Jets and Dolphins really that much better than us? They have very similar schedules and I just don't see where they made huge offseason upgrades. I'd argue the Dolphins could be worse now. Last season I wondered how bad Derek Carr's back affected him, but if that was a step back, I could see Oakland being a trainwreck. Either way, I don't mind being overlooked, but I just can't see us as the worst team in the league.

Can we close and vault this thread. It depresses me

F5

If you want a Kiko Alonso jersey, I know a guy who sells them from his car for jaw dropping deals

His redemption would be amazing if he blew out the Chargers

Colts game in OT

I’m feeling the Bills clench. Waiting for the inevitable smack back into reality to crush any preseason hype this morning.

Listen, I’ve asked nicely. Please stop mentioning Tolbert on here. The PTSD is strong and I can’t keep off the bottle if this continues.

That’s where Mack comes into play. If the offers are the same, Mack pry gets to choose because his agent has to inform the teams he’s willing to sign the extension first

I wonder if Webb comes back. If we are going to carry 2 QB’s, he makes sense for special teams and WR

I don't know why this mad me laugh so hard

Can that 12 mil be rolled over? I never understood how that works? If not, I don't think we have anyone where it would make sense to extend or rework for future cap relied. Benjamin would make sense, but I'm not giving him a new contract yet until I see something