Rich Stadium Original

I dont think you can argue Johnson was the choice target, but Bills fans can't make that judgement through the use of a still photo alone. Allen did see a flash of Palmer breaking open, but he also had a free rusher. His "get rid of it now..I dont have time" alarm clock has already gone off after he spun out of the tackle. He had a split second to make a decision ( at least in his mind) and not time to scan the field...for sure didn't want to take the sack..and that was the result. I would be willing to bet that if he didn't have the free rusher, he wouldn't have felt he was running out of time..scanned the field seeing the safety coming over to Palmer, abandoned that idea, and hit Johnson on the dump off.

Sorry I dont have a clip..doing this for memory..but I remember a play near the beginning of the game, where the Pats are in the shadow of their own goalposts. Maye drops back to throw..nobody open..pocket collapses..to the best of my recollection, it looked like Williams was the spy on that play. Maye makes a run for it. It not a sack, should have been at least a tackle for minimum gain. But although unobstructed, Williams the spy takes a terrible angle to the quarterback, Williams whiffs, lets him run by for a significant gain and a first down. Even when he had a clear unobstructed path he couldn't make the play.

Up until that punt by the Pats near the end of the half, they had only run ONE third down play-- they had been getting big yardage chunk plays on 1st and 2nd down...need to tighten things up on 1st and 2nd down here in the second half

NO....PASS....RUSH....

Their blitzing hasn't been very good. The blitzes seemed very telegraphed, with the blitzer usually easily picked up. I would like to see a well disguised blitz, with the rusher having a clean/free shot at Maye for a sack.

Just saw an interesting stat that the Bills have the 4th worst defense in the NFL in allowing short pass completions. Maye has shown that so far this year he can't throw the ball down the field, partly because of his O-line....so.....got to assume thats going to be the Pats game plan..Ill be curious to see what game plan Leonard has in place. Im really hoping the days of the large cushion soft zone are over.

Hoping that one day we play the Colts and its dark gray uniforms vs medium gray uniforms...

Not that it was a new game plan, but it was very well executed. Aside from the 2 high cover shell taking away the intermediate to deep passes, they had a very disciplined pass rush and stuck to it. The ends took a very straight rush up the field without going to deep, not letting Allen roll to the outside and extend plays. Likewise, they got a very good push from their interior, collapsing the pocket relatively quickly for the plays the Bills had called. On a number of replays I watched, they also had a spy on Allen. The results were like nearly zero scrambles throughout the game.

Not sure if this has been addressed already, but in his press conference today, Brady made mention of how he needs to get Davis more involved in games...if for no other reason than to give Cooke some breaks and to keep him fresh and healthy for the end of the season/playoffs.

...And how can a defender be called for Offside when the play clock shows zero?

I think there were three contributing factors to the Bills woes yesterday, and it starts at the top 1.) Brady and the play calling. He admitted it as much himself. A lot of the play calls were slow developing chunk plays that had a small chance of working given the Chargers high cover 2 shell. He continued to make the calls, and didn't pivot to what might have had better success until he went to the run game. 2.) Allen slow to get through his progressions. Based on the play calling, Allen was waiting far to long to get through his first two down field reads. By the time he got to his third or fourth read, the check down that was usually open, it was too late, the pocket had collapsed. 3.) The offensive line. Related to one and two above, they weren't able to sustain their blocks as long as they had in the first two games. I think a second or two more on some of those plays Allen MIGHT have had the presence to find his check down.

Im pretty sure on his run that the fumble was overturned, one of the defenders hit him on the outside of his left knee. He was limping a bit after that play. 60,000 people saw him limping off the field at the end, and NO ONE in the press room bothered to ask him after the game

Mark my words now...About halfway through the season, the Steelers will be so far behind the Bengals and the Ravens in the standings with no chance of making the playoffs, Rodgers will get tired of being hit, and be out of the lineup due to an "injury" that will ultimately lead to his retirement announcement.

I know people hate to admit this, but during their great long run (aside from the fact they had Tom Brady) Belichick and the Evil Empire were masters of this. Belichick would have players that were still very good, but on the downside of their careers, and either not re-sign them to get cap relief or trade them away for more draft capital while they still had good value. Lots of names like Malloy, Vincent and McGinest among others comes to mind as to people that were dealt.

So if I'm the Lions, my gameplay tonight is: On defense, realize the weakness of my secondary and not give Allen time to pick it to pieces. I have Hendrickson, but Bills did a good job at containing edge rushers last week... Therefore, I'm going to blitz early and often to try to manufacture pressure. On offense, I want to control the clock, so I'm going to my best weapon as often as possible-- Gibbs..force the Bills to stop him, and/or keep me in 3rd in short with a revamped O line. The good news is if I can see this, so can the Bills coaching staff, and hopefully they have a good game plan around it.