BigAl2526

I met a woman this past summer from Cameroon (in Africa on the Atlantic coast near the Congo). She fled to the US out of fear for her life from her abusive husband. She is well educated and the daughter of a pastor.

Nick Bolton is on IR. I don't know if it is full season IR or not or what his injury is. There are four total Chiefs on IR. Bolton is the only would be starter. There are nine Bills on IR, four of them starters. Two of those have been to the pro bowl.

I assume Rapp had a bit of a setback after practicing yesterday. Johnson practiced in full today and is good to go. Both Hyde and Poyer are healthy. If they can stay that way, losing Rapp won't hurt too much. The same with Dane Jackson. Benford and Douglas are both healthy. They're the two best outside CBs on the roster with Tre White out. Lewis and Neal can handle some spot duty in relief. If the Bills need to, they can activate a guy from the PS. There are 4 CBs on the PS.

I have felt all season that when the Bills are playing to their ability and they can manage injuries successfully, they can beat any other team in the league. Obviously, they haven't done that all season. It still goes however. If the offense can perform like it has a number of times this season, scoring in excess of 30 points, and the defense can deal with the continuing injury issues (the latest being defensive backs dropping like cluster flies) they can indeed beat the Eagles.

We sure aren't getting much from Harty.

It is really encouraging that Buffalo has accomplished its sack production without Von Miller contributing. I don't know that he can't be effective at some point. I think sometimes we as fans undervalue the negative effect that injuries can have on player production even after players return to the playing field.

I fully agree.

Teams are paying more attention to defending against Josh Allen runs. That doesn't mean he should stop, just that he needs to make the right reads when he considers running, and maybe be a bit more selective. Having at least the possibility of a Josh Allen run forces the defense to account for it, and that can cause other plays to be available.

A good example of why stats should be used carefully. Another stat line to be aware of is turnovers. The Jets had a turnover problem on Sunday and Buffalo got points off of Jets turnovers more than once. That may be harder to accomplish versus Jalen Hurts and Philadelphia than it was versus Zach Wilson and the Jets. The Jets turnovers definitely inflated the appearance of the Bills' offense, not that I was disappointed in the offense.

We saw some promising play from the offense when both Knox and Kincaid were on the field at the same time early in the season. I want to see Knox get healthy and Buffalo putting both on the field at the same time again for a while before I decide if it's worth paying both of them.

I'm not harboring any illusions. Buffalo can possibly afford one or two more losses this season and they have to run a gauntlet the last 7 games. The injuries have been devastating, but mostly the Bills have been their own worst enemy the last several games, particularly on the offensive side of the ball where injuries have been less of a factor. I'm not going to worry about the playoffs until the Bills string a few wins together, but I'm encouraged that the Bills figured out how to play a game without beating themselves. They just need to head to Philadelphia next week and do the same thing and I will be happy.

My assumption is that fans are tough on coaches generally. That probably true in all sports and in all cities. As soon as a team appears not to be living up to fan and media expectations, the coach haters come out of the woodwork.

I think he is a youngster with an intriguing skill set and plenty of upside. He's not really ready to be a starter. Think Terrel Bernard last year. People were thinking he was a wasted pick. This year, he's starting and playing well. We can't be sure Williams will develop in the same way, but I always tend to err on the side of optimism.

I don't disagree, but if anything, player performance might be tied to position coaches rather than the coordinator. The coordinator's job has more to do with scheme, game planning and play calling.

To me, the road to the playoffs looks to be about 13 1/2 months long now at minimum.

Special teams was a mess yesterday. There does need to be some accountability here.

I agree that there have been issues with Dorsey's work this season, but the performance of the offense last evening was on the players. Specifically, the turnovers were perhaps the most important factor in the Bills' loss, and that is on the players. Unfortunately, this wasn't a single player issue. Cook, Davis and Allen all bore responsibility. You can't bench all of them, and probably not any of them. They all need to do a better job holding on to the football.

Klein doesn't shine. He hangs on for dear life. Not his fault. He only has the talent to be a depth player. The Bills are hoping Dorian Williams will continue climbing his learning curve.

My title would be Stuck in the Mud = Coaching + injuries. I think the team has enough talent to be good, maybe even dominant. The Bills will be entering the Denver game missing 45% of the starters they had on defense entering the season. That is a tough loss to overcome. I do think there have been coaching errors this season that have cost games.

It is not a fair comparison. Daboll had to deal with a very raw rookie Josh Allen. His first 25 games were heavily affected statistically by Allen's lack of development. I am not among those calling for the head of Dorsey, at least not yet. He does need to solve the offense's recent lack of dynamism though, and quickly. I think the tools to do so are present on the team now,

I think the three big injuries: Tre White, Daquan Jones, and Matt Milano have killed the Bills defense. I'm hopeful that Linval Joseph and Rasul Douglas will make a difference, but the guys playing in Matt Milano's place don't measure up to the play that Buffalo is used to getting from Milano. Dorian Williams may eventually become a linebacker with Milano like traits, but he's still early in his learning curve.

I'm concerned that Norwood's pass coverage might be a little wide on the left.

This is a troubling position for McDermott to take. I can see doing something different at some point, but the read option Allen ran was so effective, I think the Bills should have used it longer. At some point, the Bengals would have had to overcompensate to try and stop what the Bills were doing. It would be up to Dorsey, upstairs, to figure out when they were doing that and then call plays to take advantage.

I think that both Joseph and Douglas could be very helpful acquisitions. I don't know that they are the equals of the two injured players, Jones and White, but they're good enough that the holes left by Jones and White are mostly filled. They contributed in the Cincinnati game. I think they'll help even more going forward. Now, if we had someone to fill the hole left by Milano. . .

I agree with this. Houston is on the upswing. Seattle is no pushover, and you're right on the 49er and Jaguars. I think the Colts probably have a QB they can win with and may be improving soon. Tennessee and Arizona look like they won't be a threat for a while though. Ultimately, what the Bills do next year will depend on the Bills. There still enough talent on the team to win the division and make a serious run in the playoffs. They heed to figure some things aout and have a little good luck when it comes to injuries, but those are issues for other threads.