GASabresIUFan

Gabe played 41% of the offensive snaps (23 plays) Palmer played 50% (28) Mecole played 7% (4 snaps) Samuel play 50% (28 snaps) Shakir and Shavers 54% (30 snaps each). I'd say that's a very reasonable amount of snaps for Davis' season debut.

FYI Mecole only had 4 offensive snaps before his "injury."

Over his 81 game career Mecole has had 10 fumbles (only 3 recovered). So about 2 fumbles every 17 games. Codrington over his 21 game career had 3 fumbles (2 recovered). So also about 2 fumbles every 17 games, but Mecole also contributes in the passing game and has more "opportunites" to fumble. I'm not advocating for Mecole to be cut. In fact, I think the opposite. I think McD put him in a terrible position and should have insisted on punt returns be fair caught until he gets back into the swing of things. Prior to yesterday's game, Mecole's last NFL games was 11.5 months ago with KC.

Which is a terrible stat for a kick returner.

Bishop still makes plenty of mistakes, but boy has he improved. How many big plays has he made so far? 10? More?

Terrible fumble at a terrible time. Is this all on Mecole or should McD have told him to just fair catch the punt? I understand he was signed to add a more dynamic presence to the kick return game. He broke one early and then on kick off they avoided him the rest of the game and got burned by Davis. I guess my question is should McD have been more conservative with a guy new the organization and has been out of of football for a while, especially on punt returns where the returner is under more immediate pressure than on a kick off. Given the score and the fact that we'd have had a short field even with a fair catch, I don't think I'd have risked the return in the that situation. Will the Bills cut Mecole over the mistake? I understand they announced he left the game with an injury, but I'm a little skeptical. It feels more like a benching similar to the one Cook received following a bad fumble.

Quick note of passes to the RBs In 4 weeks starting with the NE game and ending with the KC game Josh threw only 9 passes to RBs (only 2 to Cook) for 6 catches for 63 yards and a TD In the last 2 weeks 14 targets, 13 catches for 175 yards and 2 TDs. Cook is 8 for 8 with 90 yards and a TD. Clearly something has changed in the game plan. In the TB game, I loved that we went down field more as well. Having Palmer back clearly helps and Shavers is making a positive impact. Shavers in his limited career has 241 yards on 12 receptions (18 targets - I'll take 2/3 for a boundary receiver) with 2 TDs. Maybe he needs more targets? Hopefully he'll turn out better than Robert Foster (who had 3 100 yard games as a rookie).

Game balls - Bishop, Gabe Davis (yes even with the endzone drop), Ray Davis (he was excellent on the kick returns) and Ty Johnson. I thought Dorian Williams made some nice plays, but outside of Bishop hard to give anyone on the defense a game ball when they allowed Tucker, the 3rd string TB RB, to run all over them. Josh was terrible early and although he had a great statistical games TD wise, I think his decision making, especially early, was awful.

This defense isn't good enough to win in the playoffs. If you can't stop the run, you're not going to win long-term. That said, the Bills are good enough to beat anyone on a given Sunday, but without more consistency on offense and better play stopping the run and getting to the QB, this team as currently constructed isn't good enough to win the SB.

I predict that I have no idea which Bills team will show up. The one that dominated the Chiefs or the one the got punked by Atlanta and Miami.

Deck chairs on the Titanic?

I'm not sure that's true for a contract that is expired. For example with Tre White, he was still under contract and by giving him a June 1 designation the Bills saved about $10 mill (if memory serves). How Milano, Bosa, McGovern etc.. all are on expiring contracts.

So where can the Bills create cap space. 1) Cut Knox. Savings $9.6 mill 2) Restructure, Taron Johnson, Dawkins, and Oliver. All carry dead cap less than their 2026 cap hit but only about $3 mill per player. A restructure likely creates more space 3) Cut Bass - cap savings 2.9 mill 4) Cut Rapp - Cap savings 3.5 5) Cut Samuel - Cap Savings $6.3 6)

Just to warm everyone's hearts, the Bills have 33.221 million in cap committed for next year for the void years of players no longer under contract after this season including Milano ($11.071), Bosa ($7.2), McGovern ($4.805), Jones ($3.724), Epenesa ($2.861) and Ogunjobi ($2.57).

Here is Cooper’s catch to beat PSU.

We have an IU thread on the college board on this site. As to Fisher, he is an amazing player. He had an Int and fumble recovery today. He is a guy who simply makes the plays a team needs to win. I’d love it if he ended up with the Bills. There are a bunch of current Hoosiers who would help the Bills. Sarrett and Cooper at WR, Bond at DB, Fisher at LB, Kamara on the DL, plus Hemby and Black at tough running RB. They’d both be excellent compliments to Cookie.

He is out of the NFL QB mold. Tall, decently mobile, good arm, accurate. His decision making is so much better now than at Cal, but he does make some terrible reads still, such as the late interception against both Oregon and Penn St. What separates him is his ability to shake off the bad plays and immediately lead his team down the field for TDs in both games.

Would be the first one since 1938. Corby Davis. No, I didn’t know it off the top of my head.

My heart is still racing. Penn St was really game. Cooper’s catch was unbelievable. I don’t hate the squib kick to take time off the clock, but it was executed terribly. It needed to be hit harder and deeper. This was always going to be a very tough game against a talented team on the road with nothing to lose and a goal to wreck IUs season.

I need to sit and watch the video, but I often think one of the issues for Brady and the offense is how to best allocate his resources. When I look at the offense I see 5 slots to allocate on every play. Josh and the line are givens, but then Brady has to allocate from there. His best playmakers are Cook, Kincaid and Shakir in that order. His best blockers are Hawes, Gilliam and Knox The best of the rest are Palmer, Johnson, Moore, Coleman, Davis, Samuel and then Shavers. So how do you allocate each play? Do you go heavy to promote the run, do you go 5 wide? How do get Kincaid, Cook and Shakir on the field at the same time? It’s almost an impossible puzzle. I understand why it may be hard for DCs to match up with the Bills, but Brady often has a hard time allocating his resources to maximize success.

Paul Finebaum continues to spend his credibility. I understand being an SEC Homer, but sorry Paul, Texas A&M doesn’t have a better resume than Indiana. Indiana's best win is over 7-1 Oregon on the road by 10 pts. TAM’s best win is at home over 6-2 ND by a pt. indiana’s second best win is also a road win over 6-2 Iowa. TAM’s 2nd best win is over 5-3 LSU also at home. Indiana is 6-0 in conference with a win over 5-3 Ill 63-10 and whose opponents have a 15-17 record. TAM’s 5 conference wins are over teams with a 6-20 conference record including 3 teams that have fired their coaches. Sorry Paul the resume’s aren’t even close.

35-17 good guys, because why not.

My only gripe with Cook this season and it's not on Cook, it's on Brady and Josh, is we need to utilize Cookie more in the pass game. 2 total targets in the last 4 games is unacceptable for your best playmaker. I'd also like to see Cookie get a reduction in carries. IMHO 300+ carries is a good way to destroy your star RB. I'd like to see him top out at 275 with 40 receptions.

Ty Johnson? My favorite anti-Cook posts this off-season were the ones the said Ray Davis was just as good as Cook.

I agree in general. Adding Mathis now and getting him PT brings him up to speed. That said I understand adding Jonathan and Toohill to the PS. Both guys know the system giving them an advantage if they have to be elevated later.