BigAl2526

I think they also heal up a bit quicker than a more serious fracture. It's a matter of how soon the medical staff signs off on him once the crack disappears from x-ray images. I wonder if he could play with some kind of splint to protect his arm at some point.

I doubt that Williams is as smart or as effective as Milano yet, but he's developing and no longer the liability that he was as a rookie. His athleticism is a strong plus and I think he is a quality starter going forward. The notion of trading Milano is worth considering, but the Bills will want to be sure they have quality depth behind Williams if they do. The Bills' depth chart shows that Baylon Spector is actually the backup for Dorian Williams. Obviously, the Bills trusted Spector to step in at MLB when Bernard went down, rather than the listed backup, Nicholas Morrow. The other linebackers on the roster are Ulofoshio and Andreeson. Both are rookies. Ulofoshio had injury issues in training camp, so we didn't get much of a look at him. His college scouting report suggests he's athletic if a bit short, and that he's got some football smarts. In short, it sounds like he's a developmental prospect with good upside. The downside is he's a rookie who needs development time before the Bills can depend on him as more than a bit player, and it's not certain he will develop. Not all rookies do, even athletic ones. We saw a more of Joe Andreeson. He's a little less of an athlete than Ulofoshio, but acquitted himself really well in the preseason. Nevertheless, he's no more ready for extended action than Ulofoshio. The question is whether or not the Bills will think either one is enough of a sure thing to part ways with Milano.

Josh has been playing great, but it should be noted that receivers are dropping very few passes. I don't think Shakir has dropped any. Having sure handed receivers can only help a QB's completion percentage.

I like crab cakes. Maybe I'll get a couple.

That may be true, but Arizona happens to have beaten the LA Rams, which in turn has beaten San Francisco. Both Miami and Jacksonville were rated higher in the preseason than they are now, and a major reason Miami has dropped in the power rankings is the fact that Tua is concussed and out for several weeks, with doubts about his future. If Buffalo beats Baltimore, Baltimore will be 1-3 to start the season. I can't imagine that will do much for their power ranking. Will Buffalo's doubters then discount Baltimore and need Buffalo to beat Houston to be regarded as legit?

Baltimore is good against the run and poor against the pass. Buffalo seems serious in its "everybody eats" philosophy on offense. That makes it hard for a skill player on offense other than Josh to get AFC Player of the Week honors unless the Bills have another week where they greatly overweight the run again as they did versus Miami. That makes Allen the strongest candidate if not the only possible offensive player of the week when the Bills overweight the pass.

Buffalo knows how to defend Derrick Henry. They also know how to defend Lamar Jackson. They have never had to defend against both at the same time. That complicates matters. I'm picking the Bills to win, but it will be a chess game. I don't think that Baltimore can stop the Bills' offense.

I thought it might take a bit of time for the offense to get cranked up this season. It's funny. It didn't feel like Buffalo was an offensive juggernaut in the first two games, but the still ended up with 30+ points. That did include a defensive pick six in one game. The game against Jacksonville demonstrated that an explosive passing offense has not disappeared from Buffalo's arsenal. What it all means is that Buffalo can be effective against pretty much any defense that focusses on stopping either the run or the past. Defenses have to respect both against Buffalo. Defensive coordinators are going to have to engage in a guessing game from one play to the next and hope they can confuse Buffalo about where their focus is. I like Buffalo's chances against just about anybody in any guessing game. Josh Allen has become really proficient at reading defenses.

I'm sorry I did not clarify. Wallace is certainly a far better athlete than the average American. His athleticism is less than average for a starting NFL CB, maybe even less than average for all NFL cornerbacks, starter or backup. Yes, he started for the Bills, several seasons and by all accounts played pretty well. Yet there was always a hope among many fans that the Bills could upgrade from Wallace because he was vulnerable to big, fast, physical receivers.

Zone defense in general and Sean McDermott's system in particular places a premium on mental sharpness both to anticipate what receivers and QBs are doing and to coordinate with other defensive players. Athleticism is always good, but the scheme can still work with players who are average to good athletically. McDermott has even made do with less than average athletes. Levi Wallace played a few years for McDermott. Wallace was underweight and could be pushed around and ran about a 4.7 as a cornerback, yet he managed to start for the Bills because he knew what he was supposed to do. Buffalo looks for guys who have the football smarts and instinct. Some can get up to speed quickly (Benford). Others (Hamlin, Lewis and Ingram) have needed some development time, but McDermott saw something in them that he liked. I'm glad it paid off.

I think that McDermott has the coordinators he's going to be happy with, at least until they are poached by teams looking for a head coach. I'm sure McDermott still has input into the defense, but he does trust Babich. On the offensive side, the Bills have given Brady all the tools he needs for a complete offense. I suppose if I wanted to nit pick I could say that it would be nice if Buffalo had an athletic and fast 240+ lb running back who could run between the tackles no matter the defense throws at them and then outrun defensive backs to the end zone. Shy of that, I see no weak spots for this offense. They have an elite QB, a top offensive line that can open holes in the running game and protect the passer at a high level, solid running backs who can both catch and run, great tight ends and solid wide receivers who get open, have great hands and can get yards after the catch. I don't think there is a defense in the league that can take away everything that Buffalo can do. Brady knows that, and he's willing to exploit whatever defenses leave available. Jacksonville plays a man scheme in pass defense and focusses on stopping the run. Josh Allen picked them apart and the receivers dealt with Jacksonville's DBs easily. I haven't followed this year's edition of the Baltimore Ravens, but I think if they try the same strategy as Jacksonville, Josh will have another field day. If they try a shell defense with 2 deep safeties, Buffalo will run the ball down their throats. Brady knows how to scheme both the run and the pass and he's willing to go heavy either way as the circumstances dictate.

If Buffalo fans think the team is being disrespected, It doesn't mean a whole lot. But if the players and coaches think they're being disrespected, it might just help them keep their edge and hone their killer instinct.

Allen was pretty close to flawless tonight. If he keeps playing that way, he will almost certainly go into the last part of the season as the favorite for MVP.

I would add Javon Solomon for a special award. In his first NFL game he gets a strip sack.

I agree, However, Buffalo has been more successful than most teams at defending against Lamar Jackson. Baltimore has switched offensive coordinators this season, so that will necessitate adjusting the strategy against Baltimore. In particular, the addition of Derrick Henry requires some attention. McDermott has been one of the better coaches at strategizing ways to counter challenging offenses.

I'll wait for my royalty check.

The loss to Jacksonville last year was flukey. First, the league scheduled Buffalo for London as a home game, but in reality it was even more of a home field advantage for Jacksonville than normal because Jacksonville had played the prior weekend in London and has played there every season for the last several. Even though it was a different stadium than usual, Jacksonville is accustomed to playing in London and had an extra week to get the jet lag out of their systems. In addition, Buffalo went into the game down two or three starters on defense and proceeded to lose two or three more starters to injury early in the game. Thus, they played most of the game down five starters out of eleven players on defense. It's pretty amazing that they still held Jacksonville to 25 points, but it was just too much adversity to overcome. This year, Buffalo started the season with different safeties than they expected and are also down two starting linebackers and a slot corner, but the guys manning those spots all have some experience under their belts and a long week of practice to further develop chemistry. The injured safeties are back healthy and poised to at least take rotational snaps to relieve the pressure on Hamlin and Rapp. Specter is not Bernard by any stretch, but he's playing like he knows what he's doing. Likewise, with Dorian Williams, as he gets more and more experience, he should become less likely to bite on fakes. Cam Lewis and Ingram are not Taron Johnson, who is an elite slot corner, but they do show some consistency in their play. What I see is quality depth and a coaching staff that has succeeded in getting players to buy in to their system from the top to bottom of the roster.

I usually watch games alone. Sometimes I watch with my wife. I'd rather watch alone than with my wife. She's not really a football fan and will sometime ask questions or make comments out of her football ignorance that are annoying. I think watching with another true fan or multiple fans might be fun, but it's not something for which I feel a need. Also, I'm not into sports bars, so I just head to my man cave for games.

What do you me "ZERO benefit to Mayfield saying this publicly." If he hadn't done so and it wasn't reported here we would have been denied an opportunity to hate on Tom Brady, something most of us love to do.

Yeah, Fran Tarkenton scrambled a lot, but I don't think he had the ability that Mahomes and Allen have both show to improvise passing plays when the called play breaks down. Both Allen and Mahomes are better passers than Tarkenton was.

That is my hope as well.

The game against the Jags will be interesting. Their defensive coordinator is fond of man coverage. That usually means loading the box to try and stop the run and bring pressure (blitzing) on passing plays. It will be interesting to see how that affects the Bills' strategy on offense.

Any AFC East team not named the Bills. I'm not a fan of John Harbaugh and the Ravens. I wasn't a fan of Jim Harbaugh when he was in the league before, and probably won't be now either now that he's with the Chargers. I don't have any strong feelings about NFC teams, except when they play the Bills. They need to lose then, of course. Beyond that, I root against teams that might any kind of threat to Buffalo's playoff interests. That could be almost any AFC team. When two such teams play against each other, I root against the team that is the greater threat.

The one area where I think age may have an effect is injuries, not that younger players don't get hurt or that older players can many times get through a season healthy, but there probably is a somewhat higher risk of injury for older players, and time to recover might on average be a bit longer.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is Von Miller's last season. The same with Sam Martin. The odds are their roster spots will be taken by much younger players next season. Changing those two out will drip the average age a bit.