GASabresIUFan

Or maybe there were external limitations such as wind and game plan. The wind made deep passes nearly impossible for half the game. Also the weakness of AZ defense seems like it was covering short and intermediate passes as our players were open all game in that area. Bill Walsh taught everyone 40 years ago to take what the defense gives you. While Brady isn’t running the West Coast offense exactly, many elements of that offense are clearly on display. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Brady is using Allen like Walsh used Steve Young. As to grading, I didn’t start at A+ and not work out way down. I looked at all the factors such as catch% - 87%. YAC % 39%, TDs 2, zero penalties, zero drops, zero fumbles, 7 - 1st downs. All these are nearly perfect scores or in the extremely high % in their category. The only “low” score was yards, but even that wasn’t an issue given the game plan and wind conditions. Add the excellent blocking by the group and you get an A+. Frankly to compare this WR group performance to the career day of a single player no longer here, who played in a difference offense with a different OC in different weather conditions is silly. It’s lacks context and honestly is irrelevant. I’d give Davis a A+ for his performance that day, but how did the other wideouts do? How many drops, missed passes, how many penalties? If I remember correctly the Bills still lost that game. It was stated that they didn’t impact the game. Really? They accounted for 50% of the TDs, and 43% of the team’s yards from scrimmage. This was a nearly flawless performance. PS If total yards is the most important factor then Allen needs to be downgraded as well, yet @Kirby Jackson gave him an A+. After all he only threw for 232 yards. He also had a very costly fumble, missed a wide open MVS on a deep throw, and on the fumble he got sacked because he failed to get the ball out quickly to an open receiver. While Josh was Josh this was far from his best game as a pro. However it was an efficient and mostly well played effort where he made good decisions with the ball except the fumble. Sometimes yards aren’t the biggest factor.

This Josh leap is right up there with one of my favorite college plays. https://www.dallascowboys.com/video/throwback-thursday-herschel-walker-runs-over-bill-bates-379706 The irony is when Herschel went to Dallas, Bates (the Tenn player he runs over) was playing for the Cowboys.

Shakir

However, that still included feeding Diggs 75 times (398 yards) from week 11 through the playoffs (compared to Shakir only 36 times - 438 yars). That necessity is now gone and as the weeks go by I suspect Shakir's role will continue to grow. If it doesn't shame on Brady and the Bills. The guy had 30 yards of YAC in his 3 catches for 42 yards on Sunday, the other 4 receivers combines had 29 yards after the catch.

I think you are underestimating Shakir’s future with the Bills. He went from bit player in year 1 to starting slot receiver in year 2. Targets went from 20 to 45. The governor on his upside was feeding the Diggs monster. Now in year 3, I think you’ll see him grow into Josh’s security blanket. Beasley had targets of 106, 107 & 112 in his 3 season averaging about 10 yards a catch. Shakir averages over 15 yards. I expect him to have 80 - 90 targets this season.

That’s a cap savings of about 1.5 million this season

That was Gabe's career day and he gets a gold star. Different offense and different OC and and it's completely irrelevant to our discussion. Please don't avoid the question. What were our WR group supposed to do on Sunday that they didn't do? The only thing missing was a HR ball and that clearly wasn't in the game plan as Josh only threw two deep balls because of the wind. One of the deep balls was caught by Coleman on a excellent side line grab and the other was a missed throw by Josh. Again what more were they supposed to do?

Inactive.

Yes we are and they deserve it. They can only run the routes that Brady and the offense dictates. They ran their routes, got open, caught 87% of their targets, added 59 yards after the catch, didn't fumble or drop passes, picked up 7 1st downs on 12 catches and added 2 TDs. They also blocked well and had zero penalties. What the f... more are they supposed to do? Please tell us. This isn't fantasy football and Brady doesn't run an offense that feeds any particular player. His goal is to make it hard on defenses to stop the offense even if they try to take away any one receiver/TE/RB and give Josh the easiest reads to complete passes and move the chains. We had 4 sustained drives of 50 yards or more and scored 4 TDs.

I was thinking about this as well and if what the Bills and GB are doing works, then plug and play WRs will come into vogue. The Chiefs have cycled through a ton of WRs in this era. You might say they already do what the Bills are now doing except their passing offense runs through Kelce. I will say that Rice, despite recent legal issues, is beginning to look like Mahomes' go to receiver. IMHO, Shakir is headed to that designation for the Bills.

I think people are finally grasping what Allen, McD and Brady are trying to accomplish this season and if it continues to work it could lead the Bills back to at least a division championship and Josh to the MVP. I can see the headlines now; "Allen dominate despite a lack of receivers." All the while our receivers collectively catch 80% of their targets and put up over 3000 yards, put no one wideout puts up 1000 yards for the season, but Shakir and Coleman come close. What a novel concept throw to the open guy rather than feed a prima donna.

and I answered you. At 4 straight bad games you may consider benching him. However, by asking when to consider benching him, implies that you think a benching maybe appropriate sooner than later. I doubt Torrence gets benched at all. We lived through Brown's development, including some very bad games and McD will give Torrence that same opportunity. PS: The guys behind him have even less real game NFL experience than he does unless they elevate Clapp into the lineup. Right now Anderson, who is playing Jumbo TE, is the 6th OL, like Edwards was last year.

You kinda of did. Isn't that what "sending O'Cyrus to the bench" means?

Talk about overreaction. If he continues to play at this level after 4 games, you may make a change, maybe. The kid has earned the benefit of the doubt. It’s the friggin NFL, everyone has bad games.

@Alphadawg7 I agree with you on the wideouts. What more were they supposed to do? They caught 12 of 14 targets for 152 yards or 12.67 yards per catch with 2 TDs. That’s an 86% catch % converting 7 1st downs. The big miss was on Josh not on MVS. They blocked well and made some huge plays in the game include Coleman’s catch on the side line and Shakir’s TD. They also had 59 yards of YAC, 30 of which belonged to Shakir. These guys can only do what they are asked to by the game plan. They didn’t run many deep routes. So what! If they get 1st downs every other catch and continue to sustain drives, the Bills will win a ton of football games. I agree A+

Bills 27 - 17. Miami maybe short both of their RBs, that makes their boom or bust offense one dimensional and plays into Buffalo’s hands. Their D is also just ok. Both O’s are better than both D’s, but the Bills have the better D and the healthier O and better O. Bills by ten.

I know Miami is the chic pick, but their O got handled pretty well by the Jax D. The Fish had 11 drives in the game and only one real TD drive. They hit on one long play for the 2nd TD. They had 4 punts in the game, failed on 4th down twice and missed a FG. They made two field goals otherwise. Outside of the Hill play, they had 2 sustain drives of 70 yards plus. All the other drives were all 40 yards or less. Compare to the Bills. We had 6 scoring drives in our 9 possessions including 4 TDs. We also had two sustained drives of 70+, but also scoring drives of 51 and 60. Miami has a boom or bust offense. If their RBs are out, the Bills can attack more like they did in the 2nd half on Sunday and fortunately for the Bills, we have Benford and Douglas at CB.

At half time the announcers were discussing the time of possession hugely in favor of the Cards (20:56 to 9:54). The funny thing is that by the end of the game Buffalo "won" the possession battle 30:30 to 29:30. Other than the kickoff TD, the Bills basically destroyed the Cards in the second half. Couple of late thoughts after looking at the box score. 3rd Downs: Only 3-9 on 3rd down and 9 penalties for 65 yard (admittedly 1 was BS). We need to be better on 3rd down and Torrance needs to play better.

So how about those WRs. Isn’t nice to have WRs who actually catch the ball when thrown to them? 12 catches on 14 targets for 152 yards and 2 TDs. Admittedly most were short to intermediate passes, but the YAC was excellent across the board. Josh hit on 1 of 2 deeper passes and MVS was open on the miss but Josh miss fired on the throw. It’s one game but the everyone eats philosophy is off to a very good start. People throughout many threads have talked about our lack of an elite receiver that D coordinators want to stop. Well the week 1 answer to that question was Kincaid. That didn’t exactly work for the Cards. They stopped Kincaid, but got beaten by everyone else. So who will Miami try to stop week 2? I don’t think it matters. Our offense runs through Josh. He is now free to hit the open guy. That should scare the he.. out of the NFL.

Did you read the snap count before posting? Oliver 82%, Rousseau 79%, Jones 74%. - Those guys are and have been the primary starters, but even they rotate out 20-25%. Epenesa 62%, Miller 48%, Johnson 21%, Carter 11%, & Toohill 18%. This what a rotation looks like. Your best players play the most, but subs play consistently with some playing more than others. This is opposed to the DB’s where Douglas, Benford, Rapp and Hamlin each played 100% of the D snaps.

This is a little off topic, but does anyone know the name of the genius on the NFLNetwork who said on the Sunday preview show that Murray would have 400 yards with Harrison grabbing 218 yards against the Bills?

Well I answered my own question pretty quickly. I went to https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/201809160buf.htm and found that Josh actually completed passes to 10 different receivers in his 2nd NFL game and 1st start. We lost 31-20 to LAC, but Josh was 18/33 for 245 1 TD and 2 Ints. The receivers were McCoy (4/4 29 yds), Chris Ivory (1/2 30 yds), Marcus Murphy (1/5 7 yds), Zay Jones (2/3 63 yds), Robert Foster (2/3 30 yds), Clay (2/3 29 yds), Pat DiMarco (1/1 24 yds), Benjamin (2/3 19 yds & a TD), Logan Thomas (1/1 7 yds) and Jason Croom (2/4 7 yds). Honestly I have no memory of Marcus Murphy and Pat DiMarco.

Turf toe not 100% Does anyone have any idea on whether the 9 receivers is a Bills record?

I hoped that they would have gone for it. The plusses are the extra 3 forcing the Cards to score a TD and maybe a little confidence for Bass. The minuses are by making the field goal, you forced Bass to kick into the wind on both the field goal and on the new kickoff which almost proved to be a disaster a second time. Add that by making the 3 yards you probably take significantly more time off the clock and or get them to burn their TOs. All in all, I wish they had gone for it.

When was the last time a Bills QB completed passes to 9 different receivers? Has it ever happened before?