Ed_Formerly_of_Roch

Thanks for making us all feel better about things! Merry Christmas to you too. I was thinking that often teams would have set backs after advancing deep into playoffs year prior. Didn't realize it was quite this common. Do recall too the year after the Giants beat the Bills in the SB in 1991, the Giants didn't make the playoffs the next year.

When did we do this? We traded Kiko, but he was far from a star. The only place he was a star was in fans minds for a few games. Not sure who was a bigger legend, Kiko or Duke Williams.

One Sunday I flew out to San Fran to watch the 1:00 game, then flew to Cleveland for the 4:30 game. Was exhausting.

Typically is always on in the home and visitor market. Could always "move" for a few hours or take the free 7 day trial to You Tube TV, Or FuboTV, Hulu Live, or Sling with NFL It's also on NBC Sports Boston

Barkley would be the 4th guy like Fromm was last season, Webb would still be #3, that was the articles thought anyway. When I first just Rypien at QB, the only one I even knew of was Mark. I thought maybe Mark was one of their coaches and were making him into an emergency type player, but also thinking "How old is he??"

There's an article in today's Athletic suggesting Carolina will likely be needing to make a QB move soon once they activate Darnold. The likely move is cut Barkley and then thinking the Bills may sign him to their PS and isolate him as he already knows the system.

Yes and reasonable people wouldn't be saying "Football gods really having fun with the Bills this year." when we have one starter out and other teams have close to double digit if not higher number of players out. And to your point which I agree with you on, is reasonable people wouldn't be saying "Football gods really having fun with the Bills this year." with anything to do with Covid. But Bills fans really have nothing to complain about WRT one starter out.

I was trying to put it in some terms that maybe you'd understand, obviously that's hard to do. My point is the Bills have had it easy WRT Covid compared to other teams and the football Gods aren't singling out the Bills. And if you feel they are, fans of other teams would just laugh at you and say poor little girl.

Does the league know Dawkins is out? I'd think that should warrant a 72 hour delay!

Because overall the effects on the Bills isn't that bad compared to others. So why are we complaining about so little? Let me try putting it in different terms: If you posted someplace or told a bunch of people that the Caviar you ate last night with your Kobe filet wasn't as good as normal, do you think many would feel sorry for you!

I'm sure a Browns or Washington fan would disagree with you. Other teams in even worse shape.

The fact that he's a great QB whisperer (which is up for debate in itself) doesn't mean much in that he'll be a great OC. He could be, but he just as easily may not be. Actually would give him a better chance at success than failure, but just a gut feel, no actual fact.

I feel the Bills don't have many needs for players typically chosen in the 1st round with the exception of a Nose tackle type player or maybe a CB. Assuming they aren't going in either of those directions and lets also assume the Bills are picking around #23 I'd propose they: Trade their 1st rounder to a team picking around 5th or 6th in the 2nd round, get their 2nd and 3rd round picks, so Bills now have two 2nd and 2 3rd round picks Or Trade their 1st rounder to a team picking around #31 and get their 3rd, 4th, and 5th round picks, so Bills now still have a 1st down around #31, but also have two picks near the bottom in rounds 3, 4, & 5 Could possibly bundle a couple of them to move back up earlier in 2nd or 3rd round. Could see them getting better return on value for interior lineman and RB

Definitely agree with you on the OT part.

Yes that would work, assuming NE doesn't choose direction instead. 99% of the time you are right, they'd choose the ball, but since NE did have a small lead and with that wind I wouldn't count on BB taking the ball, think it would be more like 50/50. In reality, the Bills moved the ball better into the wind that with it. NE did nothing with the wind as far as passing goes.

Completely incorrect. The Bills deferred their decision to the 2nd half meaning at the beginning of the 3rd quarter they had a choice between receiving, kicking off, or choosing which end to defend. So the Bills could have instead chosen which end to defend so they'd have the wind in the 4th quarter. But then NE would have chosen to receive the ball to start the 3rd quarter just as they received the ball to start the game. You're basically giving NE an extra possession in a game that they were behind at the half and could sense point would be hard to come by. That would be a hard choice to defend if they lost in giving NE the ball an extra time in game they were behind at the time. I will say the the thought did go through my mind before the coin toss that if the team deferring to the 3rd quarter was ahead by a fair margin, would they choose direction instead of the ball. I think if the Bills were up 2 TD's at the half, then may have in that case.

But why? Same players for the most part, same coach, Why are they worse? That's the part can't understand.

Month back I'd have been more in favor of this as thinking the Bills may be picking around #30 so a RB then isn't so bad. But now looking more like picking in low 20's so agree don't pick a RB then.

Yes that's my point. Agree too pass blocking hasn't been great, but the run blocking even worse. At least the results are worse trying to run, may simply be due to Allen bailing out the line so much by avoiding sacks. Who was the Bills QB few years ago that seemed like a gust of wind could sack him, imagine him back there now! To your last point about not working hard enough, that may be due to bringing almost the same roster back as last year minus the rookies. You look at the guy next to you and both convince yourselves how good you are based on what you did last year. Where if maybe 5 to 10 new faces, you don't have that ability to do that as easily.

Are we talking about Duke Williams here?? LOL

At this point I think I'd give up trying to run and just pass, but need to get Allen to buy into short 5 yard passes to force defense to come up, then can open up entire field. Think that was part of the difference from last year, by year end, were mainly passing, but defenses hadn't figured out yet how to defend it. Now they have, but 5 yard passes should work.

So what you're saying is Allen's a ball hog! I do wonder if during practices etc, the Bills place too much time on working on passing game, pass blocking, etc?

While the results certainly are not there, you could argue, the biggest weakness last year was the D line, he used the first two round picks, brought in Obada, and got Star back. Rest of unit basically the same. Defense IMO overall is better this year. Even last night gave up over 200 yards on the ground, but that was the entire yards gained for NE so can't fault last night too much. Certainly the Indy game the defense was gashed both running and enough passing ,as was in the Tenn game. Offensively brought the same team back, the one that went 13-3 and was the #2 rated offense last season in a year with limited money. On paper hard to argue with that, however the results are nothing like last year, mainly on the offensive line and to a lesser degree RB. They weren't all that great last year either. Not sure I'd say it's objectively better, but not any worse. Is it coaching or have the players just somehow regressed, aged fast, effects of Covid, etc??

You can do that, but then NE gets the ball to start the 3rd quarter

Not how it works! If you win the toss you can either make your choice now or to start the 2nd half. The choices you have are kick receive, or defend. If you defer you then get to make that choice in the 2nd half, but once you select one of the three, the other team picks next what they want. So if you defer NE can then either choice to receive, kick off, or defend. The Bills do NOT get to kick off and choose the end they want! It's one or the other. The thought has crossed my mind though who ever wins the toss, will they instead pick the end to defend and give the other team the ball both times.