P Riv

They have an all star LB Corps, maybe best in the league, and you give us the edge? lol Hightower, van Noy, and Collins probably have more playoff experience than our whole roster and they're the main reason(s) that defense is playing the way it is. Fact is we have Allen and Diggs, they seem to have everything else.

Fair question... I'm just going off the 20+ year trend of how Hoodie builds and coaches his teams. That defense is real, not some statistical smoke and mirrors fakery going on. Anything is possible on any given Sunday, but long term trends indicate the high probability that they will play a certain way. That's what I'm forming a (fan) opinion from. We picked on Hoodie for his bad drafts, letting Brady go, spending lots of cash in free agency to fix the bad drafts, starting a rookie QB, etc. There's no way that will work....lol Well, it appears at this point that he got it right this offseason and our one year reign is now a dog fight with a hungry junk yard dog. It's going to be fun as hell to watch. Agreed, but I don't see the Titans winning this one with so many people missing on offense. It's going to be Hoodie vs Tanneyhill with average weapons, not a good look.

We have more weapons than they do, but we play their defense, not their offense. If this was a Sep game in nice weather we'd have an advantage, but THEY are built for bad weather, we aren't. It's a night game in Dec. outside, running means a lot more than normal. It's going to be a low scoring affair and a slugfest, probably coming down to turnovers, special teams and penalties. We have more weapons, they have Hoodie and McDaniel's against our brain trust. Unfortunately there is much more at stake for us than there is for them. Preseason expectations, recent struggles and criticism, the past domination in our heads, and the game is at our house. If we lose it's big, for them it just doesn't mean as much and I think they feel that too.

This is the toughest test all year, this isn't just another game on the schedule. Hoodie literally built this team to beat us, using our weaknesses against us and building up their ability to handle our strengths. The old Parcells mantra was build a team that can beat up your own division, the rest will take care of itself. Well, we find out next week how playoff ready and capable these Bills are. The potential is there, the will remains to be seen.

Teams put extra DBs on the field and pass rushers to stop our O. When we run its unexpected for the most part and against a pass defense, so the running stats are very misleading. If we ran more, they would most definitely drop in yards per carry and may not even be effective. We can't run effectively on obvious running downs against a team prepared for it, which is why we completely rely on the passing game. Our running game is more of a nuisance or gimmick than a threat.

No, I was referring to this and I should have highlighted: " All of our eggs are in one basket (passing game, JA17 being a superstar). To me, that's pretty one dimensional and fragile. "

So here's what I said almost 4 months ago. Wtf do I know... Lots of Homerism in this thread.

True, Coughlin has his number, too bad he's retired. I remember when Parcells replaced coach Mac of Syracuse fame in NE. I thought that team had some talent on the roster, but then Parcells cut most of them...lol I recall he got rid of Hart Lee Dykes who I watched at "Rich Stadium" as a rookie make some ridiculous catches, then injury, then Parcells, then outta the league.

Interesting take on Parcels. I always looked at it like Parcels never climbed the mountain without "little Bill". Parcels basically fizzled out in Dallas, did little in NE until little Bill showed up at Ass't HC/DC, same thing with the Jets.

Agreed, but Belichick wasn't coaching the offense, that was Charlie Weis. Weis was a brilliant mind by himself and I would say it was him that was responsible for Brady's early development as well as that of Josh McDaniels. Hoodie was responsible for how good they were at complimentary football and the emphasis on special teams that most franchises don't have. It was an outstanding job of coaching, way better than whatever that was last year in a pandemic while in cap purgatory.

Not me, I was just taken back by the idea that the 2001 team wasn't "that" talented when it had 3 HoF'rs on it and other pro-bowl players, all on defense.

Very true, that sold a lot of Buffalo News newspapers back in the day!

Hoodie helped build that defense in 1996 when he coached it in SB 31. Milloy, Law, McGinest, Bruschi and Otis Smith were all starters in a previous SB under Belichick, and to them you can add the talent of Vrabel, Roman Phifer, Terrell Buckly, and Ted Johnson.... That was a great defense, clipped us twice.

Not that talented? They still had the defensive nucleus of the team that went to SB31. That and Ty Law, McGinist, and Seymour are either in the HoF or headed there soon. Their defense that year was incredibly talented. The offense, not so much.

Yes, he paid 12 and 24 (all 3 of them), thats about it.

That was last year, the bills from all those SBs had to get paid. Looked like Hoody on a bargain hunt and empty wallet.

I think Judon may be the only lock at LB for them, who knows with Collins, van Noy, and Hightower. That's a lot of money to tie up in older veterans. I wouldn't be surprised if they keep one, then spend the money on another high priced LB and a CB. I don't see them paying Jackson. They seem more or less set just about everywhere else, so they may just keep their own.

Was it that far below market? In 2018 he was at 10.73% of their cap, Allen is at around 6% of ours.

The Bills roster has 8 guys sucking up 50+% of the cap, Allen is the poster child and fall guy for that. Stephen A is basically saying that if you earn the money, then pull that weight. 8 guys should be responsible for 50% of the reason we win by that line of thinking. Anything less, and they are frauds, also by that line of thinking. I don't subscribe to it, but it does carry some weight and some relevance. This is what we've always had here, the only difference is that we have a legit franchise QB. The fact remains that the front office is not frugal with star contracts and we never have the quality depth that wins championships. How does NE have more talent across the board with more cap space? Look at the contracts in the top and middle of their roster compared to ours. Their's are more of a gradual slide down, where as ours are like dropping off a cliff from top to middle. I think that has been, is, and always will be our Achilles heal.

Nice, 1 out of 32 can't be wrong!

Exactly. I don't know of any team in the league that runs effectively/consistently from the shotgun.

Sounds great, but I'm a skeptic who needs to see it first. .A front running team with that's top heavy with contracts won't be a front runner for long.

Personally I think its mostly scheme, then RB talent, then OL. The scheme drives the type of player you need to run it properly, RB and OL. We used to watch Denver year in year out plug in what seemed like anybody and they could run effectively every year. That scheme that Mike Shanahan used always produced a highly productive running game. I remember lots of trap plays, smashbacks, wham blocks, etc. which required smaller more athletic OL and stocky, tough RBs. His scheme produced something like 8-10 different 1000 yd RBs. I don't think this scheme that we have is capable of being run heavy when it needs to be type of offense. That and we don't have the personnel in place to be able to make it work that way. So to me, all three issues (scheme, RBs, OL) will keep us from being able to run effectively week in week out.

What we want them to do is humbly admit that they played like trash, didn't show up when it counted, and make a commitment to getting in right. I thought that kind of accountability was directly implied, not sure why you choose to assume what you did. If they don't show some resolve, this season is going to be derailed by soft attitude, really nothing else. Whatever changes they choose to make after the season should be interesting, considering we have about 1/3 the cap space available that NE has. 50% of our cap is eaten up by 8-9 players.