PoundingDog

I don't know anyone plans for a shoot out game or ball control game to be honest. The term refers to what happens in the game, as in both sides scores a lot, a shoot out, both sides runs a lot but not much scoring, ball control. If one side is not scoring, thee is no shoot out. If the Bills are up, and see Texans not moving the ball, do we say "we are in a shoot out mode so keep throwing often and deep"?

As we stand right now, your statement is correct. But you have to admit the management is trying. They went thru an offense transition to the point where James Cook can carry the offense in addition to the one dimensional Josh Allen passing and running of the past. Objectively speaking, yesterday's game is a good example where the offense shifted reliance to Josh whereas there is plenty of examples this year Cook took the burden. But there are times the offense is not performing well as a whole, both the running and passing. That's when we need the defense to rise up to carry the load. That has not happened, more like never happened since Allen's arrival. They started to invest in bigger D-Line people this year, another sign of change. I'd say they need to invest in bigger LBs as well.

So here is the balance - you want to go all out and let Josh sling the ball all over the place, there is higher chance for a turnover. You want to minimize mistakes then I think it is likely a low scoring game because their D is going to make stops if you expect us to have 8+ play drives to score.

I won't say ball control but play a mistake free game. Houston has trouble scoring so don't gift them with INTs and fumbles, that might be the only way they win.

Josh does Josh things is fun, but not necessarily winning superbowls. We have seen it for many years now, and the coaching staff has seen it many years. I do not subscribe to the theory that McDermott is such a control freak that he wants to do it his way only, even at the sacrifice of not having a chance at a superbowl. If game manager stuff leads to win a superbowl - like Jalen Hurts is doing for the most part for the Eagles, I'd sign up for that in a heart beat, painful to watch or not. Bills with Josh's history and the superbowl history have showed us without a defense, we are not going far in the playoffs. The Bills management - front office and coaches - have failed to build a capable (not dominating) defense so far.

Oliver played one and half a game. Really didn't stop the Ravens running all over us. Hoecht played the role of LB-DE combo and showed exactly what our LBs are missing. Right now Bernard and Milano looked small AND slow on the field. The lack of speed is alarming because they are both on the small side and they used to be able to use their speed to get to the hole or fire outside to meet the ball carriers beating the blockers. Maybe they are dealing with some injuries but it also highlights the lack of quality depth or youth at that position.

When they were 4-0, even though they did not play that well, you say to yourself that they were missing people and had not played up to their best. Full of hope as a legit Superbowl favorite in January. Then the Patriots game happened, and we pushed it aside as a surprise from an upstart team. Deep down, you say we are going to get it back when we go to Foxborough. The Falcons game to me is a sign that this team has serious flaws on defense and offense that we may not overcome like the Ravens game. But we had hopes for the PED guys to change the fortune on defense. Then the 2nd Dolphins game, along with the out-of-season injuries on D. Everywhere I go, football fans were in shock, not just us Bills fans, in the sense that we REALLY could lose to anyone, to the worst teams. And that carried over to this game. I can honestly say I did not have confidence when the game went into the 4th quarter, that we got this. You can clearly see Josh is pressing. He's throwing into tight coverages more like he did in his earlier years in NFL. He's putting his body on the line more like he was 3 years ago. It won't help his MVP cause and longitivity, but to me, it is necessary for this offense to succeed right now. I know Kincaid didn't dress today so we may see the offense to be able to go busting out in the air like this game, probably earlier than McDermott would've liked this season (i.e., not wait until the playoffs) when the running game is not working. But defensively, I just don't think we have a championship caliber squad. Tampa is not some super lethal offense without their top running back and wide receiver. And we had trouble stopping them. It is just a bad combination of not bigger enough to stop people from running between the tackles and not fast enough to go side line to side line. It was a pain for me watching Bernard could not catchup to Mayfield on one of his 3rd conversions. I believe the LB corp is the weakest link of this D and there is no hope of improvement for guys behind them. What I'm afraid is that Josh and company will exhaust themselves to get into the playoffs and then simply burn out on a dud, like that Cincy playoff game, to someone in January.

They shoukd not ask Bosa to play coverage. We've seen enough

When we cannot run the ball ... it's so difficult

The 2 throws to Davis (1 catch) is what the Bills had in mind drafting Coleman. Guys like Hopkins would catch both.

No doubt there is more up and downs to Allen's game this season. This is not to say Allen is not good, just relative - we are comparing him to the very top QBs of the NFL and the all-time greats. He's going to be 30 next year. The running, scrambling will go down more and in-pocket game to increase. It is another area for him to continue to improve (hard to believe for the reining MVP but his in-pocket game does have room to improve).

Depend on what he wants to keep getting involved this season, like Saleh was. Bills could be a stepping stone like how he got the Giants HC job in the first place, after all we do have Allen and the chance of Allen to play some good/MVP type football down the stretch is high, with or without Daboll. But you look good being on the staff, having a hand in it.

Has Daboll taken out full page ads in NYC thanking Giants fans yet?

If you look at it from a strategic viewpoint, they said wanting to bring balance to offense but looked to be swing over to overly depend on James Cook and the passing game is a compliment. That kind of offense needs a compliment of strong defense. That is what the Eagles are doing with great success. And we are at least a year+ away from an Eagles level of defense.