PoundingDog

Listen to some shallow X and O on the Tampa game. Extensive discussion on run defense. They think LBs are the worst problem. Carl Jones noted the pattern of motion caused big problems for Bills run defense. To me that's coaching. Babich said many times that "where your eyes should be." Apparently offenses have figured out what the eyes of our second level D eyes are and are taking advantage of it. Lastly I want to echo the statement in the show (when they discussed Bishop's emergence) that coaches want you "to be consistent" not just one flash here and there. This is so true when you look at the path of Cook, Benford, etc. and then look at guys like Epenesa, to further down to guys like Elam (who had a few flashes as a Bills as well). Coleman does have flashes, maybe one flash a game. But that's not nearly enough to be a professional NFL player. https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/bklnightly/episodes/BKL-Nightly-Lets-Talk-Ball-Pass-game-not-fixed--but-better-Run-D-problem-about-the-eyes-e3b6vos/a-acak4ep

So far it seems Sgavers is better against man coverage. There are instances where against zone, he does not know when to sit down and run into coverage. Atlanta game there were a few examples.

Strength (our offense) against strength (their defense). Weakness (our D) against weakness (their O). That's why I'm not buying into playing high risk high reward ball tomorrow. It is likely coming down to who makes less mistake. For example, if we get a turnover from their offense, it might just tilt our strength winning against their strength in terms of scoring. Conversely, if we give them a turnover, it is likely to tilt their weakness winning against our weakness.

There are stats and 6 TDs. But if you look closely, he did have 2 INTs and one really bone-headed. There were a number of passes he outright missed. On top of that, there were many instances, especially at the start of the game where he mis-directed protection that led to defensive guys rushing scotch free at him. I don't know this is even one of his top 10, 15 games of his career. And overall in NFL, will that game be one of the best 100 games by an NFL QB? I certainly think he can play better. To me, his bar is that NE play-off game. And there is a big gap between this game and that game.

Anyone played competitive team sports know this. Your teammates know exactly what you are doing and what you should do. They also know your effort from practice, workout, on game day. In an organization with good culture, everyone is accountable for contribution to winning. Guys get beat in games for sure, but players know there are different level of talent in sports and you are not getting top talent everywhere on one team. What gets people like Dawkins upset is losing due to the lack of effort from someone, on the practice/game field, unless you are on a team with bad culture and guys just care about their own stats only.

100%. There is talent, and there is drive and effort. Very very few (and rare) athletes can get by talent without the other side. Keon is far, far from talented enough to skip on effort. Someone will and can beat you (so perceived you make mistakes) on the field, but you cannot be beat on your effort (that's what coaches are looking for).

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