dave mcbride

Still a bunch of games to go against bad passing defenses outside of NE. Let's see how it all shakes out.

I'll say this about Daboll: before coming to Buffalo, he has worked with what collectively has to be the worst set of QBs of the 21st century: Brady Quinn (twice! - in both Cleveland and KC), Derek Anderson, Seneca Wallace, a rookie Colt McCoy, Matt Moore, and the late-period corpse of Matt Cassel. Matt Moore was the best of the bunch, which is saying something. No, the Bills were down by 2 scores with less than two minutes to go. That's a fact. It was 23-13 when the Bills got a garbage time FG to make it 23-16. They were dominated in the second half.

I personally didn't think the player had crossed. Regardless, it was hardly an easy one to call and you've gotta play like the call never happened. Which would be smart anyway because he's failed on all of his hard counts this season and should assume they're not going to work. That throw he made was a lazy high throw basically 10 yards behind the receiver who was covered. Didn't even try to read the field on that play.

I honestly felt we lost that game to the Pats because of a failure to execute on offense. At key moments the plays were there, but the mistakes in execution were just too plentiful. I know the game looked ugly for the D, but at the end of the day they held their opponent to 14 points and 240 total yards and had nine tackles behind the LOS. This was a team that was averaging 30 points per game over the previous six games.

All of the teams I listed above all have losses like the Jax loss every once in a while. It sucks and it should never have happened, but that's what parity does. Go look at Saints and Ravens losses in their pretty good years - lots of close, gut-wrenching losses to good teams. The Bills are a good but flawed team -- just like every other good team in a semi-down year in the midst of a long run of success. You'll appreciate that d-line when the Bills find themselves in a close game involving a lot of passing by the opponent. Could happen as soon as this week.

The Bills were down by 2 scores vs Pitt with less than 2 minutes to go. That game was out of reach.

Because guys moved but didn't actually jump. In both the Miami and NE games, guys shifted but never crossed.

He's certainly complaining too much for the refs about not getting Offside calls when he shouldn't actually be getting them. He lets the play get away from him on those plays and they always end up badly.

... or simply get better interior o-linemen (historically, the easiest positions to find as long as you prioritize them) and a Joe Mixon-type runner.

(A statement up front: the Patriots should not be the benchmark by which to measure the Bills relative to other successful NFL teams. They are an outlier like John Wooden's teams were outliers.) Let's assume for a second that the Bills go 11-6 this season (a big assumption, but plausible). Under McDermott, they will have gone 9-7 6-10 10-6 (would have been 11-5 if the finale actually mattered; they would have utterly destroyed the Jets) 13-3 11-6 / 10-7 Then compare the Bills to other good teams with longtime coaches in recent years: the Ravens under Harbaugh, the Steelers under Tomlin, the Chiefs under Reid, the Saints under Payton, the Packers under McCarthy, the Seahawks under Carroll, and the Giants under Coughlin. Note the trend: most seasons are good ones, but there are a lot of 10-6 and 9-7 seasons. They're never truly terrible teams either; the worst you'll generally see is the occasional 7-9/8-8 seasons. See the links below. My point is that there is a ton of parity in the NFL which makes it very hard to pump out 13-3 seasons year after year. Accounting for the fact that no normal team will ever be the Patriots under Belichick, the Bills are performing like your typical long-term good team. They'll have some great seasons mixed with some decent ones, and every once in a while they'll have injury issues that make them a .500 team. The other constant to go with long-term winning coaches is good quarterbacking, and the Bills are set at that position, thankfully. I don't see them winning the SB this season, but I also think the fixes they need to make to go 13-4 as opposed to 11-6/10-7 are relatively easy to make. They have a good core of talent with holes, just like every other team. But the fixes they need -- better interior offensive linemen, a better RB, one more #2 corner, and a new run-stuffer - are about the easiest positions to find in both FA and the draft assuming you're always drafting in the 20s. I'm just as unhappy as anyone that this isn't shaping up to be a great year, but they're still a good team and are built to be good for a while. The stars really do need to align for a SB run, and this just isn't the year. That's OK. Maybe next year will be. As long as Allen is slinging it and there's continuity with the coach/GM (both of whom are good, perceptive, and self-aware), they'll be competitive. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/pit/ https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/gnb/ https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/rav/ https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/kan/ https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/nor/ https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/sea/ https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/nyg/

The other I'd add is Allen thinking he got them offside (he didn't; the NE player didn't cross the line) and then throwing a no-chance pass and complaining to the refs. That's the third time he's done something like that this year on a play in which he thought he got the guy to jump but didn't and then played like he could throw it away.

Totally.

The heck with TN; just look at the Pats. Stevenson, Harris, and White were all picked later than Moss and Singletary.

I thought the playoffs was mostly a sure thing until I looked at remaining schedules. Basically, three out of these five teams will be wild cards: LAC, Buffalo, the Colts, the Steelers, and the Bengals. Two won't make it. If the Bills lose the games they're expected to lose (NE and TB), it'll come down to tiebreakers. The Bengals and Steelers have brutal schedules, and the Colts have to play both NE and then AZ on the road.

Thank you! As it happens, I found a clip, and ... it's TOTALLY a penalty. He was running free downfield (3 yards) before the pass left Allen's hands. Check it out. Glad it wasn't called! https://www.espn.co.uk/video/clip?id=32807881

Whether the lineman is engaged or not doesn't matter; it's all about how far downfield he is.

It's actually the rule, and it wasn't a hold. I just watched it again. You're allowed to touch an opponent; that's not holding.

It is actually a rule that once the QB leaves the pocket, the DB can push the receiver around. Richard Sherman made a living doing this. It's not a penalty. The idea is that once the QB leaves the pocket, there's a strong likelihood that he's going to run it, and receivers can therefore block defenders to help the QB on his run. To make it more even, the defenders are allowed to initiate contact. If he is still doing it while the ball is on the air, it's PI, but in this case he turned around to play the ball just as it was released. It was an excellent play.

It is legal, and Allen had been out of the pocket for some time. Personally, I thought it was pretty physical play, but I didn't think it was a penalty. I thought it was good defense. At the defining moment, he out-physicaled Knox. It was a really good play. It was a good throw by Allen too and he made a great play just to get into that position. He should have been sacked.

No, it was definitely a Bills player.

I'm thinking payday, at least in Williams' case.

Not true. PFT covered it. More importantly, it's not publishing until August 2022.

Daryl Williams gave up a very bad sack last night (where he matadored Ekuale at the Pats 44 yard line in the second quarter; see below), but he also did this. Note that while Barnwell says it's the center, it's the LG (Williams). We were lucky that wasn't called given that it was called against the Bills in the Saints game. Williams (#75) is definitely downfield (close to three yards) when the ball is released. I mean, what is he thinking? Personally, I think it's too ticky tack to be called, but it was by definition a penalty and could have been called. I don't want to obsess over this stuff, but that is just sloppy play. I gotta say, he looks overweight and seems to me like a classic case of a guy who got his final big payday and is playing like it. On that sack Williams gave up, Sanders was open for a big play:

I actually think the Bills present a decent matchup and in theory think they could win given the Bucs' secondary issues, but here's the issue: the Bucs are 5-0 at home and here are the scores in their last four home games (they opened with a tight win over Dallas): 48-25 45-17 38-3 30-10 They are absolutely blowing teams out at home this season.

Or the fact that Diggs was wide open for a TD at the goal line after he smoked Jackson and the ball sailed way over his head? Diggs would absolutely have caught a decent pass there. Don't get me wrong - Allen is great. But the crunch time play this year has been subpar. The sacks he takes, the wrong decisions, etc. -- they have added up. He has five games left to rectify things for this team, so all hope isn't lost. My larger point is that it's OK to hold Allen to account even if there are a lot of bad things happening around him. He's been paid a quarter of a billion dollars and he's a physical freak. He needs to rise above.