JohnNord

Remember how so many of you wanted to fire the strength and conditioning staff? 🤣 One thing to consider though, I believe that Johnson, Coleman, and Kincaid ended up missing 4-5 weeks with their injuries. So while they didn’t go on IR, they very well could have. Still that puts Buffalo toward the bottom of the list.

Rodgers is pretty banged up and was limping at times yesterday. He will be missing his new LT that had been playing well. He doesn’t have the mobility that Maye has, so if the Bills DL comes to play on Sunday they have a chance at a nice day.

Whoever said “load management” is likely correct. I think they wanted to split the load between two players that are coming off injuries. The logic is that Spector is better against the run and Williams against the pass. Of course, NE saw Spector on the field on 1sr and 2nd down and immediately started throwing at him. It was brutal and they can’t afford to have Spector playing on defense Williams can cover. His problem is that he’s easily fooled by misdirection and play action. He bites easily on fakes which outs him out of position. He does have good closing speed but that extra step leads to a completion and moves the chains.

Beane and McDermott (and probably Aaron Kramer) deserve a ton of credit for sticking with Spencer Brown and realizing his potential . At the end of the 2022 season, many of us wanted a new RT to compete with Brown after a lackluster sophomore season. But Beane stood up for him at the end of the year press conference and he was 100% right. Unfortunately, he did the same for Gabe Davis and Tremaine “he does things that don’t show up on the stat sheet” Edmunds. His loyalty wasn’t really rewarded in those players.

If that’s what you took away from my comment about the Chiefs then you don’t understand. My point was the defense has performed well and better….yes BETTER… than a defense like Houston who some here believe is the second coming of the 1985 Chicago Bears. It was pretty obvious where I was going. Both McDermott and the defense have the potential to perform well against a top contender, so it’s not inconceivable to think they’ll perform better than what we’ve seen over the past few weeks. To your point about the defense, I too have the same concern and the biggest issue is the defensive line. But I think it’s more about individual talent than it is about scheme. McDermott like most defensive coordinators will not be changing his scheme. Especially because all of the returning personnel fit that scheme. But I would not be surprised to see more of a mix between zone and M2M coverage starting in the playoffs.

Where was the back pedal, sir? I said they played a great game against a top offense. Better than Houston did on Saturday, despite Mickie2Times calling them a “great” defense. For that reason, while they’ll never be a “great” defense, not impossible to think they can improve from what we seen on defense over the past few weeks. Insight, consistent and pragmatic. See how that’s done?

This is a really good point that’s often overlooked not just defense but every where on the roster. No one in the preseason took a look at the Bills roster and said “that’s a team that will content for a Super Bowl.” McDermott, Brady and of course the MVP are getting more out of less this season.

Please show me where I said the defense was great? I just thought your analysis was incorrect. I said the game against an undefeated Kansas City was the best the defense has played all season. They pressured Mahomes, confused him with coverage and forced 2 turnovers. They also held Travis Kelce to one of his worst performances ever. Your response would indicate that the defense didn’t play well and that they only won because of Josh. I think we’d all agree this is faaaaaar from the truth. You can be concerned about the defense over the past few weeks, yet still acknowledge that this was a great performance. Instead your analysis is “the defense sucks.” Insightful.

LOL This is such faulty logic that it’s laughable. I’m hoping others will chime in. “If Josh Allen wasn’t such a good QB, the Bills would never get that win” Um… yeah. You don’t usually beat Kansas City with Mitch Trubisky. Even if Allen gets tackled, he still picks ups the first down on 4th down which allows the Bills to bleed the clock. Plus are you saying Buffalo doesn’t score in the red zone after his scramble. Second, Kansas City had the chance to make a quick score and come within an onside kick of winning. That zone defense that you “sucked” ended up coming up a game ending INT The defense does deserve some criticism this season but your analysis shows a massive bias as well as, perhaps, a lack of football acumen.

I think there could be a lot of truth to this. Would like to see Josh work with Cooper as well for the postseason.

Where was the complaining about the scheme when Buffalo’s defense played a key role in beating Kansas City this season? Also bringing up Andy Reid firing is irrelevant. Philly’s defense got actually worse after McDermott left and Reid would go 8-8 and 4-12 before getting the axe. If you want to use yesterday’s game as evidence - who did NE have the most success going after? Spector, Elam, Lewis, Bishop… it’s no coincidence. The argument continues to be whether it’s scheme or talent. It’s a chicken vs. egg argument. This season they were limited with cap space so they brought back Jones and AJ on modest deals and filled depth with their usual veterans. They were also stuck with the Von Miller contract. But the main area to criticize continues to be the defensive line. There’s been multiple premium picks thrown at the DL. The first rounders of Rosseau and Oliver are solid but not consistently elite. AJ Epinesa has a ceiling of a backup pass rusher and doesn’t defend the run well. Boogie Basham was a flat out bust. Then you have DeWayne Carter who despite being being a rookie 3rd rounder, has not looked all that promising as of late. Their big swings have ultimately failed as well. Von Miller’s trajectory plummeted which he blew his ACL. Then there was Star Lotulelei - another big swing signing that failed. By the way, Star’s not the type of the DL you are describing. So I do think there’s a lot of blame you can throw at McDermott and Beane for how they went about building their defensive line. I’m almost certain this offseason will be about rebuilding the trenches. Von, DaQuan, and maybe even AJ will be gone - I’d expect them to go after a much different type of 1TDT that controls the LOS and keeps the LB’s clean. To have a great defense you need to have that one elite player on the DL. This is what the Bills thought they were getting Von. While Rosseau and Oliver have been good in spurs, Buffalo has never had that type of player.

I think this is partially correct. They don’t want to put too much on tape but I also think yesterday they came out very flat. Josh in particular seemed hellbent on hitting a deep shot rather than moving the sticks with shorter passes. It reminded me of the Ken Dorsey offense. Maybe they were trying to get ahead and then pull the starters early? Either way, health is probably going to be more important than any win over the next two weeks.

I’m not talking about wins and losses with Houston. If I was, I’d mention how the “great” defense gave up 30+ points to Will Levis and the Titans in a loss…. Or how a healthy Texans defense was boatraced in a big loss to Minnesota. Oh and by the way, as much as you love trashing the Buffalo defense. Houston gave up the same number of points to a horrible NE team at full strength earlier this season. Besides the only reason I did anything is because you tried selectively using stats to prove their greatness that were heavily weighted by multiple games. Houston’s great defense has a chance to rebound against Baltimore in a few days. Let’s continue this conversation then. I can see the Steelers keeping it close. They are going to need to force turnovers which is possible versus Mahomes. Not sure if Pickens plays, but if he does the entire offense should be Russ throwing moon balls to Pickens or Austin. Whoever is not matched up with McDuffie. KC’s defense is covering for CB2. Joshua Williams really sucks and teams (like Buffalo) can have success throwing at him. Ultimately though, I think KC wraps it all up on Christmas Day. Russ seems to be the type of QB that Spags has success game planning against

Your stats are a bit deceiving. Goff thew 5 INT in one game. That takes ratio to 7 TD and 5 INT. Oh and Houston still lost this game. Allen passed for 131 playing in a game with a broken hand and without his best WR. It still took a band sequence at the end for Buffalo to lose. Jordan Love was working his way back from injury and Houston still lost. So that leaves 1 game against Tua. I don’t think their defense is as “elite” as you. But I guess we'll find out in 3 days against Baltimore. Sure - but I don’t think either of the scenarios happen. Then again, I didn’t think Buffalo would only beat NE by 3 points

Their defense is very much overrated as we saw on Saturday

There’s some truth to this but you’re embellishing the problem by lumping Houston, NE, and even Detroit (with garbage time) in with Baltimore and LA. These defensive performances weren’t close. The problem is the defensive line. They get beat far too often - especially the interior. The Bills defense is built to rush the QB with the front 4. When that doesn’t happen they typically have issues. Even when the Bills do rush the QB they fail to bring them down. The playoffs begin a completely new year, so I’m hoping for the best. Hopefully he doesn’t spell it “defence” like some here.

Just seemed kind of odd because Crowder barely played for Buffalo. In the 4 games he played he didn’t really distinguish himself much

Appreciated his effort? He played in like 4 games with the Bills!

I don’t agree with some of this. Maye beat the blitz a number of times. I also saw Antonio Gibson pick up a blitzing Dorian Williams several times which is probably why Maye was able to find open receivers. As far as Shakir, Allen threw a great pass which went right through his hands. He’s made that play before but it’s not the easiest catch. The second catch in the endzone would have been a crazy grab but the defended was right there and almost came away with the ball. So not the best day for Shakir but it’s not like he dropped an easy pass. Special teams are very bad however.

Only way the sign Douglas or Cooper would be on a short-term one-year contract. I think Benford is probably their biggest priority in the offseason. He’s somewhat under the radar and while a new contract won’t be cheap it will likely be cheaper in 2025 than it would be in 2026. I think Shakir will be next. Rosseau is a question mark IMO. I think they really like him but might be unsure if they want to pay when he’ll get on the open market. It remind me a lot of Tremaine Edmunds. As good as Cook has been I don’t think Beane likes the idea of giving a big contract to a RB. He hasn’t done this before but we’ll see

What bodes well for Babich is how the defense has performed in the second half of games. After multiple slow starts he’s made some changes and found ways to shut down scorings. You this today as they held NE to 7 points after the half. I’m not sure that the issue is play calling as much as it is losing battles on the DL. It starts with the interior DL which has been below average for most of the season and players like AJ Epinesa have been a liability when setting the edge. The pressure has been inconsistent over the past few weeks, so it forced Babich to dial up pressures leaving the defense vulnerable in coverage when the blitzes don’t get there. You saw this a lot today. Overall, I think Babich has been has been pretty solid and that he’s got a lot of room to grow. I think the bigger issue this season is a DL that struggles to win at the line of scrimmage He was the worst player on the defense today. They can’t put him back out there.

Yes I did this exact scenario the other day. If the Colts win out and Denver loses out, the Colts make the playoffs. They have a tiebreaker over Miami and Cincy. It’s all moot though because I think Denver gets in.

Douglas is a zone corner. Since the pass rush has been ineffective, Babich has dialed up some blitzes and coverages which left Douglas to pay M2M over the past few weeks. This never has been his specialty and a reason he struggled against LAR. He started the season much stronger when he could play zone.

I don’t know… I get what you’re saying about coverage. He didn’t get cooked which is good but he also wants playing against top completion. I don’t think can take the penalties out of the equation when evaluating him though. It seems like Elam was playing his man without looking for the football. If he gets his head around it’s probably not a penalty. If this is his rookie year, I’d be somewhat encouraged. But it’s year 3 and he continues to make these mistakes. I think this is why coaches have a hard time trusting him and thus why he doesn’t get much time. Douglas is going to be back very soon but all we can do is hope that Elam can build off these mistakes.

Ulbrich is in contention for WCOTY - Worst Coach of the Year