PoundingDog

Pressure is key. I watched last night's game and can't help to think the reason Lions made Jackson looked pedestrian is the pressure they were able to put on him - it is the same when Leslie Frazier (when he was Bills DC) blitzed Jackson which at the time seemed like a crazy idea with Lamar's legs. Look back now the issue of the Bills defense dealing with Lamar and Tua, I will say the finger points directly at pressure on QB. The good thing is we spent big in DL. The bad things is with injuries, suspensions, and rookies learning, we got little return so far.

The chance of him being picked up into an active roster is reasonably high though. He can contribute right away in playing ST.

Looking back, can't imagine we traded up in the top 10 to get a bust instead of a HoF like Evans, exactly the stuff for a 17 year draught. Not even picking up a gold nugget like a blind squirrel may. Mahomes showed up in KC with Hill, Kelce, and Jones already on the roster. Allen had none with the Bills. I also think Hill will get in for sure, but may not be first ballot.

Imagine Josh Allen at the center with Moore and Cook behind him in I formation. Allen can run himself one direction or pitch to Moore or Cook who depends on the defense in front him, pitch to the other out wide guy. Of course we don't need to show that now, maybe only in the playoffs.

Thurman has the logical answer. I'll also add he's older now. Look t Joey's brother in San Fran this year! I noticed after Bills last field goal to go up by 2 scores with 22 seconds left, the Bills came on D with their top unit and Bosa played all 3 snaps and I cringed when Bosa made a diving tackling attempt. I guess the 13 seconds has a long lasting effect on McDermott and Babich. Or maybe they overheard Tyreek Hill telling Tua & teammates about his 13 second story.

I'm not sure 70% is what they had in mind for Bosa in regular season. I can see that number in the playoffs. To me, you want to keep his snap count to be around 50% or below in regular season, or in absolute terms, about 30 snaps a game. Watch his brother who was getting 50+ snap counts until his injury. Solomon is something worth watching the next 3 games. He's a run liability out there. When the PED guys are back, they probably need to ship out someone from DL group. Solomon is high on that list.

I think Bosa's snap count is way too high; and I thought Rousseau should be the guy leading DE snap counts, maybe he's dealing with something. Walker only got 19 snaps but I expect the number to increase. Hope the upcoming Saints game, we kind of semi-sit Bosa, maybe just use him on 3rd downs.

The Bills should be looking into it and maybe they can learn something to avoid that. It's in Bosa's gene, bro!

We've seen the best of Oliver. We've seen probably the best Bosa can give us. Rousseau is what he is. DaQuan is given over extended playing time - I call it unsustainable reps for the entire season. What do we have on DLine, the key area of defensive improvement in 2025? So the hope is the PED guys as well as banking on the improvement of Walker and Sanders (both got fair size of playing time). I'm not going to comment on Hoecht, in theory he should but no one knows if he's the same guy without taking PED. I do think improvement of Walker and Sanders can be expected, especially during the bye week when they get a break from game week preparation and look back on what they learned and focus on are for improvement. Not big jumps but it is relatively easy for D-Line to get to used what to look for keys across the O-Linemen in front of you. Backend, you hope for Bishop to gain more confidence and be more decisive in triggering his action. I do believe for CB2 they will rotate in Hairston once he's ready to play.

I have a different take on the how it is so far so good for the Bills. It has nothing to do with Chiefs, Chargers, etc. We won all the games. That's what really counts. We have flaws, especially on defense that even the players can see. That means you are motivated to look for improvement. Unlike some years of the past we started season scoring at will while shutting people out at the same time. Human nature says just do what you are doing with no incentives to seek new heights (and often not look hard the underneath problems that became a bigger issue later on). We are nowhere near full strength and a lot of unsettled areas --- pointing to D-Line, CB2, even safety etc. Some major evaluation needs to happen in the bye week. To me, Eagles, Indys, maybe the Chargers are ready to play the superbowl NOW. The thing is superbowl is NOT going to be played right now and we learned the lesson the past few seasons.

We know Josh is a reliable self driven athlete. I say reliable to mean he sets a realistic goal and has an actual plan and follows thru. QB mechanics improvement dominated his early years. Recently he has shifted more to the mental part of the game for improvement. Last couple of years, he has set ball security (2024) and pre-snap read (2025) as his top priorities. At least to me, I see noticeable improvement of his game. MVP is an acknowledgement from NFL community. Cover 1 had a couple episodes detailing Allen's change in diagnosing plays. He follows thru a play's read sequence 1, 2, 3... whichever is open in the progression, he throws the ball. He no longer skips some open reads for a bigger (usually more exciting and maybe more risky) option later on. We'll see how the pre-snap improvement will play out this year. Supposedly if he does make improvement in that area, he can change his read sequences at the LOS on top of changing plays entirely. Those improvement has direct impact to his low INTs: he does not force the ball on an option any more; he selects the easier options which means less intercept-able throws. In the past on third down, Allen always threw the ball pass the 1st down marker (and we loved that because in the drought we hated QBs threw short of the marker). Now he trusts his decisions and throw some safer passes that the receivers have a good chance of making it pass the 1st down marker.

Can't have the right hand holding the scythe?

This reminds me something like Olympic 5000 meter runs. 12.5 laps. You don't win the race in lap 1 or 4. The key is to stay in the first group. We are no longer a team fighting to get into the first group any more. Conserve your energy, adjust your body while running so you bring yourself to optimal condition for the final 200 meter kick. For those who have true championship ambitions, positioning in the first group is important before the final kick. And that's what the Bills are in. Just an observation: in those 5000 meter races, I don't remember someone leading the race from the beginning to end.

Buffalo Plus podcast after TNF. And those are TV anchor guys, not just some bloggers.

That's exactly McDermott should show the team every Moday starting the week.

There are reports that Ed still walks with a slight limp - without the boot. I'd not dress him this Sunday.

I don't think the Bills will play offense like Miami. Like the Chiefs, we can't afford Hill type receivers unless we hit one in the low 1st round onwards. I feel our passing offense can evolve into TE centric because the talent we have with there; Hawes is arguably the best rookie for us thus far. A creative OC should be able to leverage Cook, Kincaid, Knox and Hawes into an offense on its own. That said, I do think we need some shots downfield from time to time and that maybe Josh's doing (for not willing to risk a lesser percentage play when there as a higher percentage check donw available). I also feel the O-Line is not as stout as last year for whatever reason and Josh is trusting them a bit less. Maybe they can send Moore downfield a few times.

Tua is a much better QB than Fields and the Dolphins team is built around Tua skillset. The same can't be said for the Jets. Glenn is still trying to figure who his team is like who he wants to keep, who needs to go. Bottomline the Dolphins are a better team than the Jets; hence harder for the Bills to deal with. Right now, I just want to deal with them as they come.

How many times we, including pundits, said that of the Chiefs in the past, like they barely squeezed by the Raiders etc. Oh they surely would lose against better teams. Yet they went on to Superbowls and continued to go to the AFC championship game 7, 8 years in a row. My advice is stop worrying about how the Bills measure up on paper against teams. You know the Bills are one of the top superbowk challengers. One game at a time just like the players do.

The point of Bills 2025 look more and more like the Chiefs of the past few years crossed my mind yesterday watching the game. Gone are the days we get out of the gate emptying our bullets killing teams by 3 or 4 TDs, making everyone talking about how good we are. We are just doing enough in the name of winning this game, not to show how great we are and that in large part is Josh Allen's maturity, and maybe the coaching staff. Are we really that good, or not that good? Well, regular season, especially early season is NOT the place to find out. What matters is health, improving and hopefully we peak at the right time.

My friend who works for a sports agency (low level) says it is Cook's timing to the hole that makes him special. Those creases that open and close very fast and Cook has the knack to hit them at the exact time. Davis does not do that.

I now pay more attention to Cook than ever on how he does it. I do like what Herbstreit said that you just need a small crease for Cook to get thru. Somehow Cook is able to make himself small to go thru the small gaps very very fast. It aligns with his vision superbly. Then of course, the speed in open field. Last night there are a couple of runs he nearly break to the house.

I see some improvement in Tua's game actually. In the past, he's never able to get out of the grasp of Tre or Bosa for the potential sacks. Not saying he's Mahomes, Allen level of slippery, but he now surprises people now and then in that department. The bottom line is he's tier 2 QB. For him, it manifests that when you get pressure on him, getting him off his spot in the pocket, he's prone to make inaccurate throws and INTs like the one Bernard got last night. Look at Bills Dolphins game history, the lopsided games when he played poorly are always we are able to put pressure on him. Yesterday we could not put consistent pressure - I should use the word any pressure for long stretch of time, to move him even off the spot. Converting that many 3rd downs against us is an achievement 67%, almost Chiefs like. Remember the Ravens never even faced that many 3rd downs when they moved the ball on us. But when they did, we "limited" them to convert 54%.

Bernard is a good player, worth getting a second contract. Very cerebral. There is reason why he's the co-captain and calling plays. But he's not someone the opposing offenses will game-plan for "we can't let him beat us." His size and the fact O-Lineman, FBs, some TEs getting hands on him can take him out of the play most of the time means he needs a strong D-Line to keep him clean to be effective (most MLBs are that way but Bernard more so). The Bills have a bunch guys like that. Milano (better shedding blocks though), even the new Shaq Thompson who is another undersized LB but flashed instincts and made Milano like plays. Beane and McDermott took a swing at a guy who, like a raw Josh Allen, has all the raw talent to be a superstar on defense in MLB position but missed (or you can say got a ground ball single barely made out of infield); he's now wearing the Bears jersey.

Not saying Smauels can't make that play if he's on the field. But It ain't broke, don't fix it.