Sierra Foothills

Injuries undoubtedly played a big part in the underachievement of the Bills defense this year. Set atop the failure at Kansas City last year and you have the basis for a belief that the defense needs to be revamped. FWIW, the names most associated with the invention and development of the zone blitz are Bill Arnsparger, Dick LeBeau, and Dom Capers.

Yes, Frazier goes and hire Steve Wilks who is hard-nosed leader of men. Leslie Frazier is a good man but the Bills need a leader who brings toughness to the defense. Frazier brings resilience which is not the same thing as toughness. I'm not a big fan of Jim Schwartz... his "carry me off the field on your shoulders" stunt was lame. The problem with Dorsey is that Josh is 100% in his corner so if you get rid of him you alienate the franchise quarterback. That said there has to be a lot of soul-searching and self-scouting on offense. The numbers were better this year but Josh regressed... possibly due to his elbow injury but I think it goes beyond that. Daboll was somehow able to tap into the "good Josh" more than Dorsey was. With all the former OCs on the team (Kromer, Shula, Brady, Boras) it's imperative that they get the offense right. With that many resources the offense has to be improved next year regardless of player personnel. If the Bills fall sort of the Super Bowl next year, major structural changes must be made.

To "goad me" into asking an offhand question?

Probably wasn't the greatest idea for me to watch that late at night... 😆

It's been almost 3 years since they won their last Super Bowl, why would you say they're the best team in the league?

Zay Jones showing his true colors...

Evan Engram doing his impersonation of Tiny Tim.

Collinsworth hand in pocket... Tirico nervously trying not to notice...

To the bolded above... AMEN. The flashes Tasker showed in '95 and '96 (as a declining player) show that he was likely criminally underused during most of his career. And this was directed to... ???

Yes, of the 3 teams we lost to in the Super Bowl, the Giants are the only one that I don't despise. Between the "America's Team" arrogance and the slime of Jerry Jones and Daniel Snyder, by contrast the Mara-Tisch ownership is pretty non-offensive. Also the Giants have mostly been an organization that has advocated for the Rozelle model of parity for all markets. Also though I love cheerleaders, I always thought it was cool that the Giants didn't have them... all business.

The Giants have been peaking. To me this game is almost a coin flip.

It's also a great game, if you're between the ages of 6 and 12. How hard? Ah... never mind. Fair enough but it's not like Lawrence has topped out yet either. This is only his second year and he still has some ceiling up there. If Jacksonville's gonna win they'll have to contain Kelce which most teams fail to do. I'm curious to see how they try to guard him.

When I moved out to CA around 2002 I was at a busy intersection and a brother crossed a few cars in front of me wearing a Moulds jersey. I was pretty homesick for Buffalo at that time and I wanted to pull over and talk Bills with the guy but there was so much traffic volume that I would have had to pull over about a hundred yards away and wait for him to walk up to my vehicle. I drove on and always kind of regretted it.

Moulds was a unicorn. He had good height but a very strong frame and great overall athleticism. He went about 215-220 and ran a 4.5 forty and was very physical... great on 50/50 balls and must have been a great basketball player because he always high-pointed the ball and had great hands. As a modern day comparison Deebo Samuel comes to mind though Moulds was a better ball athlete and bigger... just a marvelous football player.

I appreciate your opinion but don't agree. When McDermott speaks of a "growth mindset" and when Josh Allen states that his offseason goals is to work on ball placement to increase his receivers' yards after catch, they're both talking about self-improvement. That doesn't mean fundamentally changing how one plays the game, that means incremental improvements in certain areas. I'm talking about a minor adjustment that could affect 1-2 throws per game.

The transitive property doesn't seem to apply to sports but for what it's worth the Chiefs won each of their 2 meetings with the Chargers this year: in Arrowhead 27-24 in September and at SoFi 30-27 in November. On the other hand the Chiefs beat the Jaguars in Arrowhead 27-17 in week 10.

Thanks Ethan. I'll take your word for it. It does make sense. Bending knees and dropping hips are the challenge of tall O-linemen. They say "low man wins" which is tough when you're 6'8." Yes, Spencer has a high floor and a very high ceiling but he's still not reached that level of consistency that we know what level of player he is. I feel like he's still improving and avoiding injuries would be really helpful to his development.

Trevor Lawrence is 38-0 on Saturdays going back to college and high school? I like it. Well if you guys hate the Jags then I assume you want to play them... revenge is a dish best served cold, no? So you'd rather play KC in Atlanta than Jacksonville in Orchard Park? I don't expect Jacksonville to win but I wouldn't be shocked if they did. An article on the improvement of the Jaguars defense since week 12: https://www.sbnation.com/2023/1/8/23545230/jacksonville-jaguars-tennessee-titans-arden-key-travon-walker-afc-south-nfl-playoffs#:~:text=The Jaguars defense ranked 18th,better defenses in the league. Josh Allen, Travon Walker, and Devin Lloyd are all highly-talented players. So are Tyson Campbell and Rayshawn Jenkins. They're not a great defense but they're young and improving.

I agree with the majority of your posts in this topic and elsewhere. However I don't agree completely with "Allen is to blame, not Dorsey." The analysis seems to indicate that the playcalling hasn't changed very much from Daboll to Dorsey. However what we cannot know and might be in play is the "MESSAGING" that Josh receives on a daily basis. Did Daboll wish Josh to be more disciplined and/or less agressive in his coaching? Is Dorsey a more lenient coach than Daboll? THOSE are the things that none of us know. We ALL love Josh and will ride or die with him. The question still remains, would he be a better/more effective QB is he dialed it back a bit? The unstated question in this article and discussion is what would make Josh Allen even more perfect? Wrong takeaway. The question is "Which 50 yard incompletion/interception do you want to substittue for the 10 yard completion?" No. Using this analogy, the question is whether Josh could "make more money" by moderating his aggressiveness.

I'm still excited that Kaiir Elam and Tre White are playing their best football of the season and that Taron Johnson's head injury against Cinci didn't prevent him from playing one of his best games of the year against Miami. If Benford was available that would be great but I'm thinking the coaches still trust Dane over him... we shall see who gets the snaps..

The Bills generally do an excellent job with managing injuries. In Jordan Phillips' case I wonder if he should have gone on IR... I wonder if trying to come back too soon aggravated the injury. Can't cry over it now. If so it would probably be minor to just clean it up a bit. Like Chester on Gunsmoke?

When healthy Jordan Phillips is a real difference maker. Players with his size and agility are not very common. You can tell he's been one-armed by the lack of impact plays he's been making. I hope his shoulder is healed up a bit because we could really use his interior pass rush. I love how Shakir, James Cook, and Elam are all playing their best football right now and I don't think it's a coincidence. IMO the emergence of our rookie class is a testament to how deliberately and carefully they've been brought along this year. Clearly none of them have hit the rookie wall and all three are contributing substantially now. Yes we're missing Von Miller and Micah Hyde but the play of our top rookies gives me optimism that this team is in some ways, better than last year's edition.

"I spy with my little eye something beginning with..."

The low blow was low brow? I'm tempted to make a joke about this but these days you just can't do such things... besides I'd be offending my own people. What's a message board without an unnecessary shyt-disturbing topic which detracts from one of the most positive events in recent sports history? See above. Thanks for your "contribution." Also didn't Ethan recently move to Ohio?