PoundingDog

I've said before that the Bills are good enough - talent and coaching wise - to beat bad teams on their schedule to get into the playoffs. What really matters is to peak for the playoffs. Great players thrives on those higher stakes games. That's why I still believe on this Bills team, Allen is the one (and only one) on this team because he's consistent in putting up good , sometimes great, performances in the playoffs. A lot of other things are in play during the regular season, though. Every year is different, even for a player who has been in your system. #1, find out what you have. For the Bills, there is a lot. Cook, Davis, Carter, Benford, Williams, Von might be pleasant surprises where as a lot of others like O-Line, Rapp, Epenesa, Rousseau, Johnson, Bernard, Coleman etc. are what you expect at the beginning of the season. Allen in my eye took a step forward. #2 find out what you DONOT have. Clearly reliable X receiver tops the list. To me, Kincaid is a disappointment based on expectation. Safety-wise, no one emerged to be THAT play-maker that they hoped for. #3 finding solutions to improve your team. That means player acquisition - less likely in general in-season, player development, and scheme adjustments to maximize player strength or cover up weakness. The Bills were high flying in the past like the Ravens now. Then all kinds of problems showed up near the end of the season into the playoffs, scraping by teams. To be honest, I like the position the team is at. Pretty good record but lost to some good teams, therefore kind of flying under the radar a bit, and the team overall remembers who they are. But internally, they have a lot going on that has obvious, even likely, improvements in a lot of areas. Von Miller, Carter, Coleman, Davis, Integration of Cooper, each of which could play big down the road. I still hope that Bishop may get on the field after the bye to have a then rookie Milano impact in 2017. Speaking of Milano, I really don't see him being a meaningful contributor this year.

I'll add the different run schemes also depend on what kind of O-Linemen we have. Ostroski said in his show he prefers Gap Run because he does not have to hold the block very long. So that plays into against the opposing defense as well. If you face a star D Tackle like Simmons of the Titans, an O-lineman (or linemen) firing off the ball will likely have better success to initially knockoff him for a second; if the RB hit the hole right then, your job is done. But given time, the good D tackle will probably recover and close the crease.

First time this season the Bills play a team with more than 2 wins.

Come on now people start to compare Ray Davis to McCoy, who in my mind is close to borderline HoF. Ray Davis is better with Gap Run scheme because, as we see it clearly in 7 games that he excels at finding and hitting (tight) creases quickly and decisively with power. Cook is better at Zone scheme where he is excellent in reading the defense in depth and finding the best space, which in theory often leads to bigger runs. Most team run blocking do both and this year, noticeably, Cook is getting better at Gap Runs. None of them is Thurman Thomas or even McCoy at this stage. I do think in Bills offense, you probably expect big plays coming from Allen's passing so Davis's running style fits the overall offensive strategy better: steady average 3-5 yard per run, very few negative plays, occasionally breaking tackles for 10+ yards, Emmit Smith lite. The defense will have a light box because they want to play 2 deep to take away the big play from Allen.

That's what I was looking at. Is it a PI?

Coleman wasn't ready and Allen had no angle to lead Coleman.

I think there will be adjustment to catching balls from Allen, for anyone.

I'd take Coleman and Carter then any other 1 receiver available in the draft. Carter is a player

No. That's what I saw. First drive, 3rd and 1. 99% the time they would run to get the 1st down. And they tried the new toy Cooper.

Go back to Basics! Run the ball. Then do pass off the run. You have faced the Jets. Don't abandon the run too quickly

About 44 minute ish they started talking about Cooper. Speed wise he does look like losing a step. Technic for getting open wise, he's not. And he can still do contested catches - 10" hand, same as Hopkins and Diggs. I also want to point out that people assume Josh is a top QB and Cooper is an established start veteran WR so they can hit right away. Not always so. Especially for downfield boundary connections -- we really don't believe it will be like Cooper gets open and out runs his defender by 3 -4 yards kind of open -- it takes some time and work to get the timing and body language for precise connection. With the whole training camp, on those long plays, Josh and Hollins, Josh and MVS really have not worked out, and I'm talking about plays where Hollins and MVS did get separation. Realistically I expect Allen and Cooper get into sync towards the end of the season and are primed for the playoff. Isn't that we all wanted? There is no trophy handed out in November and December.

I guess we have to disagree on that. 1) you know Cooper's history, but so far this season he is seen as losing a step by most accounts + age of 30. 2) how Cooper plays in Bills system and the chemistry with Josh are all unknown. Again, until you show them in real games, almost all coaches will stick to what they know of you. Of course they will have a backup plan now based the projection what Cooper might do in Bills uniform. I remember 2 years ago when the Bills played the Chiefs at Arrowhead where Spagnola kept blitzing Allen for great success in the first half ... until ... Allen hit Davis and Diggs for long TDs. Then not a single blitz the rest of the game. That's how the NFL coaches do - I'll add good coaches do and adjust.

NFL is the real "show me you can do it" world. Until the Bills burn them, there is no doubt they will stick to what they know the best way to defend us. So the burden is really on Allen plus Cooper AND Coleman to make them pay. I include Coleman because I anticipate defense may shade the deep safety to Cooper more and see if Coleman can beat his man somewhat consistently.

Not sure the Bills are looking to go high priced 30+ year old WR route after Diggs. Cooper is a rental in my opinion. If he costs around 10 million range, they may listen but I doubt that's what he has in mind. They will draft another WR high (first 2 rounds) next year for sure.

I have been saying this for awhile now. Good organization, good front office/coaches builds a good culture, solid roster, prepares the team well, and they win a high percentage of games in regular season. In the playoff, every team falls in that category, and generally no new invention that surprises people. The difference is made by those who can play "above the scheme" and how many of those guys you have. That's what HOF level guys make a difference. Go look at superbowl winners, how many teams won a superbowl without those type of guys? ------ 0! The Chiefs have a minimum of 3 during Mahomes time. Hill will be the 4th when he was there. Plus Reid will be a HOF coach whenever he calls quits. Rams in their lucky year had Donald, Stafford (to be borderline HOF), Von, and Kupp who played at HOF level that year. In Tom Brady's superbowl year with the Bucs, they had a few playing at that level, including Mike Evans. The Bills have 1. That's why Beane tried Von but he has not been a factor for us due to injuries. Who else is playing towards a HoF career? You then look at other failed contenders in recent years. Ravens, Bengals. None of them measure up to the Chiefs. It's pretty depressing when you look at it this way. The hope is Kelce and Jones are aging out very soon. Then may bring down the superbowl bar lower, giving us contending teams more of a chance.

Another reason I think McDermott said what he said yesterday about welcoming Cooper is that I don't think the "everyone eats" mantra is going to change. Cooper will eat, and may indeed eat more than anyone else. But that would be because he opens more and maybe the #1 read option for more plays, not because you do it to pop up his number or to make him happy. Ultimately what we need is that in critical situations he can be that open option for Josh.

I will taper some expectations on Cooper, just like McDermott was probably doing yesterday when asked. Is there any WR brought in mid season for Josh that worked out great right away, or even later? Diggs, Beasley, John Brown all had full camp to work out the details with Josh. Benjamin didn't quite work out even though he became the go-to guy, partly due to Josh being a rookie. Beasley and Brown came back a couple of years ago and didn't do anything, maybe they were really washed at that time. Having Cooper learning the playbook is one thing; building chemistry with Josh is another, and that might take awhile. Chances are Josh's first INT (I know it's a taboo to even say it, like you don't mention it when someone has a no hitter going on) this season will likely be on targeting Cooper at some point.

The simple fact that opposing defense now will put their best CB or bracketing with a safety on Copper instead of any current Bills receivers makes the Bills receiving corp better. We'll see what happens if teams don't do that and what consequence it will be in those instances. Last year there are cases Diggs is not the focal point for defense towards the end of the year.

Steelers too. But it's obvious Steelers are at the bottom of Browns' preferred trade partner list.

It just might be age and experience thing for general public in forum like this. That's pretty much management 101. You look out for the collective group of all your people because you want every one of them feel important and their contribution is meaningful for the overall success, especially speaking in front of them or publicly. You don't bend over to anyone at least on surface, remember Belichick used to call out Brady in front of the whole team time after time for his mistakes. BUT everyone knows who is more important, the paycheck is usually a good indicator what management really thinks.

Mack Hollins got the most snap last night. Think about it. Mack Hollins, a recongnized ST player in the league and played that role for the Bills. Cooper will play the X whenever he steps on to the field in Bills uniform. That will push Coleman into Hollins' role, with Hollins rotating in to spell either one. That is the ideal scenario. In the short term though, Hollins may still get more snaps than Coleman. I actually wondered about the 2 TDs Hollins had so far: all from cover 0 defensive look in mid redzone where Hollins lined up inside. Coleman would flourish in those scenarios, being that he's better receiving skills than Hollins, just needing to build up the mental part of the game like reading the defenses. Last night the final Josh throw that went off Hollins hand would have a better chance being caught by Coleman. I don't think Cooper is HOF worthy. That's why I said he's not at Von's level. What I mean is that he is going to play at a HOF level for the Bills (winning one-on-one at a very high rate, beating double teams at some critical moments), not very likely now that he's 30 and so far this year not even on par with what he has done in the past. What he can provide is to draw enough attention from defense to the outside so our main weapons in the middle can operate with more open room. Beane and Co. had hoped MVS would give us that ...

The move is certainly eying for the playoffs. We can beat the bad teams, including Jets, without Cooper. And prior to the Ravens game, everyone, not just us Bills fan, were singing "everyone eats" praises. But Ravens' game really showed us and scared Beane and company. I don't think the Texans' game meant that much because that game was more on Josh and there were people open downfield that he simply missed. The kind of defense and personnel we saw in Baltimore is likely what we are going to see in the playoff. It became clearer to guys in high places at OBD: this Bills D might be good enough, with a number of young guys stepping up and Von being more like Von himself. Now the Bills D is not like Chiefs D who can actually win a playoff game for them, but our offense might have a lot more potential under the new balanced formula if we have just one guy (not mulitple guys) who can be a real threat outside to compliment our D. We need more regular on-schedule kind of offensive threat, like Keon Coleman's 49 yard TD play against the Texans. Allen's off schedule heorics like big passing plays the Jets game are not sustainable. Thus the gamble of a 3rd pick to pick up Cooper now. This is not Rams' pickup of Von at the trade deadline 3 years ago. Cooper does not have that level of pedigree. The key elements for our offense remain to be the development of guys like Keon, unlocking the potential of Kincaid (fairly disspointed so far) and Cooper can help that. Overall I think Josh has taken a step forward in my eyes - more level headed, and the running game is now a serious threat. We need the ability to get that 3rd and 5 completion when you have to pass against a top passing defense.

So would the Bills better off retaining Diggs now that had to trade for Cooper?

On a side note, you wonder why Josh does not get a chance to do what Rodgers did in those situations. We have Coleman now who can, and more likely will as he get used to NFL, do what Lazard is able to do. Collins is not it - some contact at catching point and his mechanics if off.