BigAl2526

Losses to Atlanta and Miami have made this game a lot more important.

Not a surprise. Given the short week and Buffalo's offensive success versus the buccaneers, the Bills would be foolish to change things up. After the Houston game, the long week will give the Bills a chance to assess Coleman's short-term future and give Coleman a chance to redeem himself at least in a practice setting.

Meh. He would be the 4th short fast receiver on the Bills. He's only averaged a couple completions per game this season and he's 32 years old. He's probably better than what he was able to show in New Orleans, given that it is a dumpster fire there, but given the circumstances, he doesn't seem to justify his cap hit.

It doesn't sound a whole lot different from a 3-4 defensive front, except for terminology. In a 3-4 alignment, you've got your DT/NT in the middle. Your two defensive ends are the size of 4-3 defensive tackles, and your outside linebackers are the size of 4-3 defensive ends. Yes, the outside linebackers are in a two-point stance at the snap and half a step off the line, but otherwise not much difference. Buffalo actually were stopping the inside runs of Tampa pretty well most of the time. Tampa was killing them on the outside all game. It's hard to see how the "bear defense" wouldn't continue to leave you vulnerable to outside runs.

I suspect that before he had a chance to do that, McDermott would have pulled him and sent Trubisky in to hand the ball off.

I think defenses have decided that James Cook has to be stopped and are stacking the box more in the last couple games (Miami and Tampa) In the Buccaneers game, I think Brady started to figure that out and adjusted his strategy accordingly. Houston will look at what Buffalo did and try to counter it. That's how the NFL works. The best teams are not one dimensional. If opponents focus on shutting down one aspect of their offense, they will have the ability to do something else. No defense can shut down everything at the same time. Most of the time there is a guessing game going on between offensive and defensive coordinators on opposing teams when the teams are multidimensional.

They have several tough games down the stretch, but then, so do the Bills.

Oops. I knew that. You're the first of three who called me out for my booboo. Davis Mills, all right?

With the Bills' run defense, I'd be concerned with Donald Trump's tough running up the middle.

Stroud has been slow to recover from a concussion. The last I heard he's still considered iffy for the Bills game considering it comes after a short week. We may be facing Miles Davis, who hasn't been bad in relief. I don't think he has Stroud's mobility though.

The Bills are probably more shorthanded at DE than at tackle. Until they can get another DE on the roster, using Sanders is probably what they'll do. I have to say though, I don't know how much worse their run defense could have been had Jordan Phillips played more snaps

Coleman has had a season and a half to show signs of maturity. He hasn't. It makes it seem doubtful he's ever going to grow up. His trade value is minimal though. I would guess somewhere in the 5th to 7th round range.

Shavers is not at all sudden or twitchy. He was getting opportunities because the Buccaneers left a backup cornerback on an island with him. If defenses make a point of trying to take him out of the game, I think he'll probably disappear. Kudos to Shavers for taking advantage. He showed he can be effective in making a defense a little more honest in their coverage schemes.

The virtual measurement saves having to bring the sticks out to measure, but has nothing to do with where the referee places the ball.

McDermott was effusive in his praise oof Hardman. He's here to stay at least for a while.