ThurmanThomasEnglishMuffin

I don't understand why an additional 15 minute quarter can not be played. No sudden death, no complicated each team gets 'x' possessions. Keep it simple. If two playoff teams get to a tie game, make them play for whole quarter to figure it out. Give the offense/ defense/ ST/ analytics a chance to work it out on the field. The Bills and Chiefs were tied at half time, they were tied at regulation. Play another full quarter.

This is the point. The Bills can take cast offs, UDFA, 7th round picks and make them viable NFL players in the secondary. 2 x 1st round picks, and 2 x 2nd round picks on the DL and almost nothing to show for it. No impact. The OL has hardly been better. Beane passed on Creed Humphrey for Basham. They traded Teller for a sack of donuts, and then continued to trot Ford out there. Bates was sitting on the bench for 3 years.... The OL/DL is the most important part of building a Super Bowl winning team after QB, and this combo of GM/HC is not good at it. Is it talent evaluation or coaching?

Thank you for staying on point. We have an awful lot invested in the DL/LB core and little to show for it. Is it coaching/ scheme or talent evaluation? Something is off. The Bills can take a UDFA and 7th round CB and play ok in the secondary, but cant develop the front 7 with 1st and 2nd round picks.... something is very off. Maybe we have too many DB based coaches and weak DL/LB coaches. Or do we have a GM bad at DL/LB evaluation?....

I moved to Philadelphia in 1999 and lived there until 2009. I saw most of the Andy Reid/ McNabb era in their home market first hand. Reid took a bad and backwards franchise and turned it around in pretty quick time, just like McDermott has here in Buffalo. McDermott and Frazier were a part of those teams btw. He got grilled and beat up in his time with the Eagles. Philadelphia went from bad, to a playoff team, to a team that made 4 consecutive NFC Championship games in a row and lost 3 of them. Reid was terrible at game management, clock management, time outs, challenges (when they became a thing). Reid didn't run the ball enough. Reid put too much on McNabb. He took his lumps. He was an OC with a questionable offense because his GM kept drafting the other side of the ball. He got to a Super Bowl and lost. McDermott looks like the defensive version of Andy Reid. Andy Reid was born of the fires of Philadelphia. He became one of the best HC in the NFL because of it. McDermott may need a better DC, who can get a more aggressive defensive approach to the game than Frazier. Maybe the talent is there but the defense is not responding. We have spent enough draft capital on defense. Reid had Jim Johnson. If Daboll goes, McDermott needs to keep Dorsey in house and develop a more balanced offense, or get an offensive stud OC. The HC creates the environment, the culture, the strategy and vision. McDermott has that, I am sure of it. 4 of 5 seasons the Bills have have gone to the playoffs. He may need stronger assistants, or a better talent evaluator. He has much to learn still. The last game shows us that, but where was his ST coach or DC in making the decisions in the last half minute of the game last Sunday? It sounds like McDermott delegated those responsibilities and his team failed. He refuses to call them out. That is a leader. McDermott is not perfect. At some time a Dungy to Chucky change may be needed, but we are not there yet. The evolution of Reid from busted HC to football genius did not happen over night.

I wouldn't either, but I think CB/ IOL is more of a need. Even if Buffalo goes DL again, is it talent evaluation or coaching that is failing to this point?

The Bills have a defensive minded Head Coach and a former HC as DC. This should mean the Bills have an edge in developing defensive players and having an impact unit, even in the modern NFL. Through their time in Buffalo McDermott and Frazier have done a remarkable job with the secondary, but I think all fans would admit the front 7 (or 6 in our case) has been a weakness. Plenty of pressures but few sacks, terrible against the run. Pressures work against rookies/ backups/ marginal QBs, but the DL has to get home against the best and disrupt those QBs. Leslie Frazier was a DB on the 1985 Chicago Bears Defense. He was a DB coach for Andy Reid for the 2000's era Eagles. He has had many other stops as DC and HC, but his specialty is and has been DBs. McDermott was a S in college and was a DB coach before becoming the DC in Philadelphia. It was a tough task trying to replace Jim Johnson and after two years as DC for the Eagles he was let go. Ron Rivera (another assistant Defensive coach for the 2000's Eagles) brought him in to be DC in Carolina. Frazier and McDermott have coached some great DBs. They have been a part of and have coached some of the best Defenses ever. Guys like Brian Dawkins and Josh Norman played for these coaches. The Bills under this coaching duo have made the most of any DB talent they can get. Poyer was a minor bust for Cleveland, and Hyde was a man with potential but no position in GB. They have become a Pro-Bowl/ All Pro Safety duo in Buffalo. White's stickiness has been maximized in this system. UDFA Levi Wallace has become a solid #2 and will get paid this off-season. 7th round pick Dane Jackson held up well in White's absence. Taron Johnson went from a guy infamous for a football bouncing off his helmet during The Combine to being a top 5-10 nickel DB who has made game changing plays and is a starter. Even EJ Gaines looked solid here. Let's admit it Bills fans, the defensive front 6/7 has been weak. It is worse considering the FA$ and premium draft picks spent there. Let's call 1st and 2nd round picks premium picks. Since Beane has been GM (2018 draft forward) 5 of 8 premium picks have gone to the defensive front, 4/8 have gone to the Defensive Line. That is a very heavy investment. Beane is 2/3 on offense with Allen and Diggs. Ford is a bust. 2018 - 1st round (16th overall) - Tre Edmunds - MLB 2019 - 1st round (9th overall) - Ed Oliver -DT 2020 - 2nd round (54th overall) - AJ Epenesa - DE 2021 - 1st round (30th overall) - Gregory Rousseau - DE 2021 - 2nd round (62nd overall) - Boogie Basham - DE That is 3 x 1sts and 2 x 2nds in 4 years. None of these guys has become a legitimate game changer. I know Rousseau and Basham are rookies, but we see defensive rookies making game changing plays all over the league. Basham wasn't even active in half of the games this year. Ed Oliver, who was selected 9th overall, is developing, but he was 9th overall three years ago! If he has a 1 technique DT who shows up he looks good. It should be the other way around for #9 overall. 1/2 of TBD keeps hoping Edmunds will make an impact play.... keep waiting. Meanwhile LBs drafted in similar spots or later in the same or later drafts make game changing plays all over the field. Milano was a 5th round pick and has made more impact plays than Edmunds as a LB. He is also a converted safety. Beane has also spent stupid amounts of money in FA on Defensive linemen. Star L, Jefferson, Butler, Addison, Murphy. Only Addison has been close to worth the money, and he has been part of some very bad results (Hail Murray as an example) How much FA spending and premium draft picks have to go to fixing the front 6/7 with supposed 'Defensive Minds' at the helm? Is Beane just bad at identifying DL/LB talent, or are our defensive minds, who are DB specialists just bad at getting the most out of talent in those positions? What is more mind boggling is that the 85 bears and the 2000's Jim Johnson Eagles sent crazy blitz packages to be aggressive destructive defenses. Why aren't the Bills doing the same? Our coaches know the DBs are the strength and sit back in a base Nickel, cover 2 safety look, and hope for coverage wins. If the Defensive front 6/7 get a win, all the better, but they usually do not. The strategy with picks and FA$ was sound, but the results are poor. Is it talent evaluation or coaching? It needs to be figured out. Despite all the premium draft picks and all the FA $ spent the Bills have no impact players in the front 7/6. This will not do against Mahomes/ Burrow/ Herbert etc going forward. We can point to GM successes and failures and HC/DC successes and failures. Something is out of sync, and it needs to be fixed. Is Beane finding good talent and the coaches are failing to get the most out of them, or are the coaches getting the most out of failed draft picks and wasteful FA spending?? Let's hear it. There is a clear disconnect in investment and results.

Whoever is lined up across from Chase Young. As he goes, the Bills offense will go.

and kissing loose women from Hoboken with mononucleosis

I gleefully agree

Fin Haven was an incredible read yesterday. Xavien Howard pretty much summed up that zeitgeist. It's a good day to be a Bills fan when one side of the ball wasn't sharp, but the Bills still blew out a divisional rival to the point the fans and some players are having an existential crisis. Jet Nation was also apoplectic after Wilson executed a Peterman special. Great fun.

I have been pretty open about not being thrilled with 2 project OTs in the last draft, but this topic makes me wonder if Mc Beane looked ahead a bit or saw something on tape with Williams. Williams may be good enough to hold down the RT position this year, or maybe even half the year, and the plan is to kick Williams back inside to OG (another area of JAGs at best) and have Brown or Doyle take the RT position. Doyle underwhelmed but Brown was progressing. I wonder if this is the midterm thinking? To be fair, Williams has had some tough draws the last 3-4 games. I thought he would recover some against Miami. Next week won't be any easier with Young and Sweat.

100% agree with you. The best way to beat the Chiefs is to keep Mahomes on the bench. That is about the only place he can't score from. When playing the Chiefs, (or Brady) the best defense is a steady time consuming offense. That almost sounds like good coaching!

which ones, and cite sources.... I'd love to know what talent evaluators still think he is a difference maker. I would genuinely like to know.

And yet, while he was out for most of the second half, there was no appreciable drop off in the defensive performance. He is not a difference maker. 12-13 million for a JAG is pretty pricey. I get it from a roster situation going into next year.

Jerry Hughes is on the last year of his contract. Addison's contract voids 23 days before the 2022 season, with a cap hit of $2million (part of his restructure deal). Basically neither is under contract in 2022. If AJ and Groot can keep improving, very little chance one or both are on the roster in 2022. This should help the cap situation overall and free up some room to resign Taron Johnson and/or maybe Levi Wallace.

Le Croix is a good one, and it's good for our teeth too! 10 years no cavities. I was into a really tightly recued carb diet for about 7 years. (100 grams net of carbs or less) It makes sense because half of my family has insulin resistance. In short we just don't process sugar well and our insulin doesn't work right. After 7 years and a loss of almost 70 pounds, and maintained off, I plateaued. I started looking into Glycemic Index loading/ response. Not all sugars trigger insulin the same way and to the same degree. Highly processed sugars like refined white sugar and corn syrups have a very high glycemic index (bigger response) whereas the natural sugars in corn or peas have a lower glycemic index. I did more research and found that even sugar substitutes have sugars in them, or sugar bases such as maltodextrin and sucralose. This and the actual sweeteners themselves (saccharine etc) may still trigger a glycemic response. The research is ongoing and hotly contested.

I loved this savage. Nothing was off limits, and this man attacked. Missing that perspective now. RIP sweet prince. You @sshole.

I cut out regular soda/ pop about 25 years ago when I realized how many calories and sugars/carbs were in a serving of it. My second restricted calorie diet landed a 50 pound weight loss. Soda was a big part of it. 'Diet' drinker since. Diet Dr. Pepper was my first go to. Eventually Diet Pepsi and others followed as I acquired the taste of the other sweeteners. The '0' or '1' sweeteners give me terrible cramps, so I prefer the old fashioned "diet x" stuff. At least the calories and sugars are lowered. When my second low carb diet plateaued after 5 years (60 pound loss), I looked for Glycemic Index facts. The sweeteners in diet soda may still initiate a glycemic load. (Studies ongoing and disagree) Since then I try to mix in more water, veggie juice and flavored bubbly water. I love the taste of Soda/pop and it does help fill because of the carbonation, but so does flavored seltzer. It's just a matter of moving a flavor profile from sweet to dry. It takes time. I actually crave veggie juice now (V8 etc). I am trying to enjoy unsweetened tea now, but that has been mostly a failure, but I love Arnold Palmers, even with unsweetened tea. I am not 100% off of soda, but I am working toward it. Whenever I get a regular soda the sugar levels are way too intense, it is half sugar syrup. I can feel the diabetes working in.

I generally lurk. I try not to make 'hot takes'. I think there were a lot of self inflicted wounds last week. I made the mistake of making an OP a few days later. My heart can't take that much salt!

why was there so little pre-snap motion? JA lost Barkley as a sideline coach, Trubs and JA is different than Barkley and JA on the sideline. Then they did him no favors by not adding pre-snap motion. It is my understanding that if you motion a WR or other player, and another player moves to follow him, it is man. If an offensive player moves pre-snap and no one, or a whole unit shifts (say LBs) then it is zone. JA still needs some pre-snap reads, help the man out!

this season has 1989 written all over it

Appreciate all the replies. Positive and negative 😄 This got a bit vitriolic at times, and I certainly stoked some fires. I think Moss adds value as a (+) blocker and that has real value in a pass first offense. I understand some of you don't feel that way. Singletary is probably the better runner, but every metric shows Moss to be a better pass blocker. When you pay a man $250 million, you should block for him. Outside of OL who is the best pass blocker on the Bills???? (the answer is Moss) Let's see if OBD agrees with me this week or not.

Nervous about this game now! Go Bills! PS put Moss in to block, and run some pre-snap motion to help JA identify zone or man coverage. that is all 😄

Any points I have to make will probably be better served on the COVID-19 thread, and honestly I am here for football. I work at a Medical Center and University and feel those are more worthwhile conversations. I thought this was about stadium entry, how to prove vax status, why, what to do if you are persona non grata now.