Bob in STL

Seems like Allen is held to a different standard than those in his draft class and even the QBs in the years prior. I think he will answer his critics by winning.

Great photos by the OP. Yes, I grew up in the 60s-70’s. Loved the AFL and still have the AFL football cards and a few old team photos from the time. I really think part of the charm of the AFL and NFL pre merger was the scarcity of the product. Sunday games, fewer teams, the switch from 12 to 14 games, you got your info from newspapers ( Buffalo had two), radio, magazines. A Bills highlight show once a week on local TV. Of course the players were different too, many of them worked another job in the offseason, few were training year round. The players as a whole were definitely more reserved/modest, one only need watch the old films to see that. I definitely like the stripped down coverage and there seemed to be more clarity on the rules and calls ... today everything is over blown, over-analyzed, and almost every call on the field open for debate. In comparison, Less is more. The AFL was a catalyst for Pro football’s growth. Once the leagues started stealing players that really led to the fast merger. Monday Night Football was probably the thing that took the NFL popularity to the next level. As for all this stuff about older fans knowing more about football and rebuilds than younger fans I think that is total BS. Todays fans know a ton of information, stats, fantasy leagues, social media, endless talk shows and highlights, streaming and restreaming, blogs, tweets, forums, etc, etc. etc.

Just another NFL "judgement call" that went against us. Some do, some don't. You can probably call something on every play. So many rules are subject to interpretation by the ref, this is one of them. Baby Huey was certainly over officious that day.

Then why has no one picked him up? His terrible blocking, less than mediocre receiving skills, and below average running ability just might have something to do with it.

Let’s not forget he spent the week in concussion protocol with limited snaps. The Titans defense is very good. The pick looks more like the receiver giving up on the play than anything else. Pass protection today was again spotty. Oh, and he won again. B+.

The table jumpers are either usually high, drunk, stupid, or maybe all of the above. I have a problem with the supporters in the crowd that record it and cheer them on. Nothing you can do usually but I taught my kids about accountability by association. The people watching are standing around recording it and cracking jokes while this poor dumb guy is planted into the ground. One girl runs up to him, not to help, but to record it on her phone. Just wrong behavior on so many levels.

Yes. In an emergency he could move to RT. The Bills have had several TE's that had to spend some time playing tackle. Paul Costa in the 60's and Paul Seymour in the 70's come to mind.

tough road game … our QB did not even get a full week of practice. Defense was great again. Special teams cleaned up their act. Offense did just enough. The bye is at the right time, we need to get healthy and get ready for the tough stretch ahead.

he is improving. Sure the Pats* game was a step back for him but overall he is getting better. He has a strong arm, he is extremely athletic and can run, he has strong leadership skills … he just needs to clean up the turnovers and not try to do it all.

Yes, that is a simple way to look at it. I am sure "the creator" was very busy fixing football games that day.

It’s high time for a turnover free game by the Bills. We need to run more and control the clock and the line of scrimmage. Better specials teams play is a must. This is is a very big game and the result could strongly influence the wild card picture by the end of the season.

If it makes you feel better so be it. No doubt the relationship between Ralph, Wade, and Butler had crumbled but you completely dismiss that a beat up veteran Bills team, playing in hostile road environment, against a team on the rise was winning the game with just seconds left. Wade choked and left time on the clock. Players on the Kickoff Team blew their assignments. The lateral was an illegal forward pass. The best Evidence is the thrower was behind the line, the receiver was over it. No amount of review can change the optics. No way the ref should have ruled it any other. The ref blew the call and that’s all there is.

I was a great football player. A monster. Knee injuries shortened by career or I may have gone even further. https://www.buffalobills.com/video/afl-focus-tom-sestak-435218

I lived in St Louis when Bill Bidwell was the owner. He was quite possibly the worst owner in NFL history. Anything good that ever happened to the Cardinal franchise in Arizona (because nothing good ever did on St Louis) happened after he stepped down. Out of respect to him I wont get into the many issues, none of that matters. Ralph is a Hall of Fame member. He did things in the early AFL days that kept the league viable or there would be no AFL survival and merger. He kept the Bills in Buffalo when he could have made TONS of money elsewhere. He supported small markets and voted NO on every single relocation. He cared about FANS. Even today Buffalo benefits from his philanthropy. These things are well documented.

Belichick has been there for 20 years. Most of his staff has been there a long time. His details and discipline are entrenched. Because of longevity and consistency his teams practice fine details and situations that other coaches don’t have time to do. The Pats* even practice their rule stretching pick plays, their holding without getting called, and how to draw holding. He saw we have a rookie ST coach and he went after him. He will probably do it again.

Sick of Allen? No way. I think we have a great prospect here. Let’s get him help and coach him up.

He speed is average and his hands are bad. He runs lazy routes and is rarely open. Watch him live in the stadium and you see he really sucks away from the ball. He has no compete, he is not smart, and he does not work hard. He can’t play special teams either. This is his third season and he still has no football sense. On the 3rd interception he really needed to play DB and knock the ball down. In a post game interview he said something like this “I knew I could not catch it, I thought it might be for someone behind me so I let it go”. We have Foster and Duke Williams, let’s try one of them.

No bad list can be complete without Zay Jones and Lee Smith. Zay is not good. He needs to go get the ball but he waits for it to come to him. Three year vet and he still did not know to turn into a DB on the poorly throw ball that picked. All around bad player.

Totally disagree with 3. The defender may have been able to defend the play or at least cover it for a short gain. It is not the job of the referee to guess what would have happened, only to review what did happen. Are officials reluctant to overturn pass interference challenges? Perhaps they fear all penalties will be challengeable next? This crew did a very spotty job IMO.

I’ll catch the replays later this week. Yes, JA was frazzled all day by the Pats* defense.

Seeing it live with no replay, the pass looked to be ahead of the receiver that was held up. The receiver looked to be hooked by the face mask. The ref closest to the infraction called it. The back judge came running in to change the call to uncatchable. They may not have even been considering the same receiver on that call. I thought there was illegal hands to face, or holding, or pass interference- something. Our receiver appeared obstructed from his route from my view. Similarly, the pick play. The Pats* have been doing this forever. There had no contact, just obstruction. The Pats* player even stuck out his leg to pick off our DB. Again, they pick with touching you, which is still s pick but they take advantage of the refs ability to see things in real time. Thete were holding calls on us that were questionable. Morse got flagged for nothing, the Pats* DL sold the call by raising his arms. I did not see the holding, or the flag, on the the JA helmet hit. There were two other face mask calls by the Pats* that were not called. One against Josh Allen. Going back to their first super bowl were they held Marshall Faulk in the backfield or at the line of scrimmage, to keep him out of the passing game. This team will take whatever the refs will give them. The play on the edge of the rules and they have for a very long time.

From what I recall from being at the game and seeing the whole field. 1. Sacks- The sacks we gave up were a team effort. First the blocking was bad and JA was confused, then when there was time there was hardly anyone open. Finally, there were a few times where JA was running around looking but not seeing the open man - holding the ball way too long. 2. Refs - as usual the Pats* had the benefit of the calls. Pass interference was let go, flags were picked up. There were times when the Pats* had penalties and the Bills were also flagged. Each of these times hurt the Bills and helped the Pats*. The helmet hit to JA being the worst. The pick play, and getting away with it, is an example of Patriot influence on the rules. It may be a new rule, but no ref is going is going to overturn a pass interfere call, or non call. It will be a rare event, they don’t want their judgement on penalties questioned. 3. Coaching - Daboll was completely out coached in the first half. When he appeared to put in the correct adjustments at halftime the Pats* answered by taking out JA. Special teams was completely out coached on the blocked punt. The players did not know what to do, Bellichick took advantage of a first year ST coach. Time outs by the Bills were wasted by lack of preparation, confusion, and the end to challenge key plays (see refs). Even the pre game charade played by Bellichick’s son show you the Pats* were looking for any and every edge. 4. Talent - Buffalo was just as much talent, and maybe even better young talent. However players like Zay Jones and Smith (TE) strike me as liabilities. Would like to see more Knox and Sweeney and Singletary in the future. As good as Gore is, not having Shady or Singletary just makes things harder on JA. We need more impact players on offense and much less of Smith and Jones. The Defense was outstanding and made Brady look pedestrian yesterday.

Yes, there were lots of them all over the stadium hanging out in small groups. Like 2 to 3. From what I can tell most of the fans are Canadians who pull for the front runners. I had two in the sears right next to me, a young married couple from Syracuse. I met another from Brazil of all places. I saw young some young kids wearing Pats* gear with parents wearing Bills gear. Then there are the real New Englanders, they have that air of superiority and you can hear their accents when they brag.

I was at the game. Pretty poor game by Josh but the overall gameplay by the offense was not good and execution was lacking. Too many passes, especially early. We needed more Gore. If he can’t carry a bigger load then we need Singletary back ASAP. I sure wish we had McCoy. Allen was responsible for several sacks by holding the ball too long. The pass blocking was not consistent and they had trouble with blitzes. There were times when he had time to throw but no one was open or he failed to find the open man. The WRs were not good. Zay Jones is not a good player. Smith at TE was a disaster. So the sacks and the picks were mostly a team effort.

Tremaine was excellent today. Bellichick did did not expose him as some feared. The Sal Mariano’s scouting assessment story from last week was way off.