BigAl2526

Most of the members of Belichick's coaching tree are garbage head coaches. Dabol might be the exception. Hopefully the Giants retain Dabol and the Patriots pick someone else from that tree.

The Miami loss opens the door. They also lost their center and appear not to be able to protect their QB with the backup. The Dallas game is critical. Winning out is the only way for Buffalo to win the division, and Dallas is the biggest hurdle.

I don't think Herbert is coming back this season. They may not win another game without Herbert. Buffalo's game against the Chargers should be a cakewalk if the Bills can keep their collective heads screwed on straight.

The stats say he's less than OK. His average of pinning other teams inside the 20 is his best trait, and he ranks in the bottom half at #18 in that category. He ranks near the bottom in some other categories. Maybe this year is a fluke and he can improve to where he was, but the if the Bills want to make that bet, they had better be in a position to hedge their bet.

I'm not going to go through 32 punters and figure out the percentage of every punter of punts inside the 20. I did kind of skim through the list and Martin's percentage was nothing special compared to others. Several punters have a far better per punt average and a far better percentage of punts inside the 20. You are right in that Martin has been known as a punter who can pin opponents deep. It is also true that players wear out eventually. The Bills have to decide if that is the case for Martin or he's just having a sub-par year for some reason.

It's symbolic more than anything.

I read it in a post. When you raised the question, I checked stats on NFL.com. Marttin has 14 punts downed inside the 20. I counted 21 punters among the top 32 punters who have more than 14 punts inside the 20. Seven punters have fewer punts inside the 20 than Martin. https://www.nfl.com/stats/player-stats/category/punts/2023/reg/all/puntingaverageyards/desc

Buffalo has tough opponents, especially Dallas, and so does Miami. Miami has lost a critical ingredient on their offensive line, center Conner Williams, for probably the rest of the season. After he left the game Sunday, Tua was sacked 5 times. If Buffalo can run the table, they have a realistic chance. That's a big "iif" though.

The fact that he's in the bottom half pinning opponents inside the 20 doesn't help that argument.

If there are no injuries to open up a roster spot, it will be interesting to see who gets cut to make a spot for him. Harty hasn't done a lot this season, but probably had his best game of the season on Sunday with a decent return and a critical reception.

Others have stated Buffalo will be looking for safety help in the off season. I agree. I don't think Buffalo has given up on Elam yet, but the clock is ticking. I expect him to get a chance to be on the field before the end of the season and I think he'll be here for training camp. Anything after that depends on him. Benford in 2024 is a given, I think. Dane Jackson probably sticks. If Rasul Douglas is on a two year deal, he is too. I'm not ruling out Tre white next season. I think the Bills will wait until training camp to figure it out. Other CBs are contract issues I will leave to the team to figure out.

Wink Martindale is a long term veteran defensive coordinator. I suspect he is the kind of person who wants to do things his own way. Daboll is also a pretty strong minded guy. As the head coach he probably figures that when he wants to have some input on how the defense is doing things his defensive coordinator should listen to him.

On the TV news this evening, it was reported that Jones is back doing "football things" and could be ready to play before the end of the season. I'm guessing maybe the last game against Miami.

I'm pretty sure Taylor Swift has a fatter bank account. They would be a bigger power couple than Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen I think Kelce was guilty of offensive pass interference in a pick on that play too.

It's just amazing to me that there would be such an uproar and anger at officials for making the right call on an obvious infraction. So, if it is a huge game changing play at a critical juncture, you let it go even when it's obvious?

I think both Mahomes and Reid complained because the refs didn't warn them before the play started that Toney was lined up in the neutral zone. It's a lame argument since defensive players get called for the same penalty all the time and never get warnings.

I wouldn't be surprised if Martin is gone after the season apart from cap considerations. He clearly doesn't have a real big leg. His forte is controlled punts being downed inside the 20 but he hasn't been anything special in that regard. Matt Arraiza is out there. I don't think Bass will be jettisoned. He's got a big enough leg, yesterday's kickoffs not withstanding. Even though the kickoffs were short, they were so high that most of them were fair caught. The FG misses could be a short term struggle.

I think the "person" comment in his post-game pressor has more to do with seeing McDermott's 9/11 comment less as a symptom of coaching acumen and more as a question of his character. I don't think he meant to imply whether McDermott is either a good or bad coach.

If the Bills were to activate Elam and drop one of their other CBs, the obvious candidate is Cam Lewis. I'm not being anti-Lewis here. He's a decent utility type guy in the secondary, but he's undersized and doesn't have special athleticism or anything. They could probably sign him to the PS. Elam does have some man coverage skills to go with his plus athleticism. McDermott used some man coverage in the KC games. It really depends on what he wants to do scheme wise in the Dallas game.

I don't know about a fine. I'll leave that up to the league, but it's pretty obvious to me that Mahomes, the NFL's Golden Child is a sore loser and is as capable of being petty as anybody else. I completely reject the notion that the refs should have warned them before the play about Toney's Offside alignment. Refs call Offside all the time for defensive players lined up in the neutral zone without warning the player. It's the argument of an entitled spoiled sport.

Out of curiosity, did you hear any of what KC fans were saying after the game about their failed "Music City Miracle" play?

I don't know that Allen will avoid tossing the ball to Knox because of his wrist, but I think naturally Kincaid will get more targets. Allen might want to use a little more touch on throws to Knox though.

Thread is too long to read so I don't know if anyone has mentioned it, but KC is missing several important starters for the game. Isiah Pacheco -RB, Donovan Smith - LT, Drew Tranquil LB and Bryan Cook - safety. Pacheco is a good RB. McKinnon and Edwards Helaire are not as effective. Obviously, missing their starting left tackle may make it easier to contain and pressure Mahomes. On the other side of the LOS, Tranquil has been playing in place of Nick Bolton. That means KC is down to their third string LB. That could affect KC's short passing defense as well as their run defense. It doesn't hurt that KC is down a starting safety. Meanwhile, thanks to the bye, Buffalo is as healthy as they been in a while. Buffalo would be even better off if they activate Elam and especially if they can activate Knox.

I think that McDermott's use of a 9/11 comparison was stupid and insensitive, but I also think that obsession with political correctness in our society is a plague we could do without. I'm sure McDermott has figured it out, but It would be appropriate if Pegula spoke to him about being more careful with his analogies in the future. I don't think anything more than that needs to be done.