dave mcbride

Joe B breaks down every third down situation the Dolphins faced: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6655576/2025/09/24/bills-defense-third-downs/. Basic takeaway: three young players — Deone Walker, Cole Bishop, and TJ Sanders — were responsible for many of the problems. Also, Bernard and Tre White made mistakes (or simply failed to make a play) on a couple of occasions too. Otherwise, the Bills were reasonably sound, and their success on 1st and 2nd down suggests that they’re not in crisis. Rather, they’re dealing with the growing pangs of youth. Missing Ed Oliver is a problem too.

And the last time they played the Saints (Thanksgiving 2021), they annihilated them. Although that's the game Tre White tore his ACL in ...

They simply never solved the offensive line, and the one good player, Andrew Thomas, started out poorly before becoming good - and then he ended up getting hurt all the time. His one good year -- 2022 -- is the year they made the playoffs. He was a second team all pro that season. The o-line has been a train wreck from mid-2023 onward.

Wilson was shockingly bad in the KC game.

Richard Sherman has a real shot. Let the league in PFR AV rating twice (essentially, WAR): https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/S/SherRi00.htm.

Oh, totally. It'd be the height of irony given how he was pilloried here.

He also had to share catches with Marvin Harrison for much of his career.

52 postseason receptions for 81 yards and 6 TDs plus a SB ring in 10 games suggests to me that he's first-ballot guy.

I'm not necessarily defending Lynn Swann's inclusion, but I think people focus too much on regular season stats at the expense of the postseason when it comes to the HOF issue. In three consecutive SB games (all victories) - vs Dallas twice and then the Rams - Swann had 16 catches for 364 yards and 3 TDs. That's 22.75 ypc and he also deservedly won a SB MVP. That needs to count because it's coming against the very best competition in the biggest games. I say the same thing about Terrell Davis. He had an injury-shortened career, but in 8 postseason games he had 1,140 yards and 12 TDs plus a SB MVP award against the league's best competition in "gotta have it" games. Extrapolated to a 17-game season, that 2,422 rushing yards and 26 TDs. Think about that for a moment! Gilmore probably should have been MVP of the 2019 SB, so factor that in. He had a huge interception, three passes defensed, and forced a fumble in that game. He also won a DPOY award.

I would normally punt but I think going for it here *might* be the right move. But the Ravens could still get the ball back with about 1:35 or so with no TOs even if they get the first here.

I do think there were problems with the Dorsey offense despite the metrics. I don't think he was great situationally and the offense had WAY too many turnovers. They were 31st in offensive turnovers in 2023 (meaning only one team had more) and 23rd in 2022. In 2024, they were first.

The Bills are first in the league in yards, 3rd in points, 2nd in points per drive, 2nd in yards per drive, 1st in rushing yards, 1st in rushing attempts, and 1st in turnovers lost (meaning fewest). https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/2025.htm What are we complaining about again?

Happened last week with Houston too. The Texans clearly let Chubb score because otherwise they had zero chance.

Dude, math. Hypotenuse.

Huh???? Rodgers showed today and the past couple of weeks that while he is no longer a top-three qb in the league, he is CLEARLY in the top 12-15 QBs.

Collinsworth was absolutely right about the distance of the throw.

You are factually wrong. Just watched it again, and he released the throw from his own 34 yard line on the far right edge and threw it to the 9 yard line (with room to go) in the air on the right side hash — which is actually pretty much exactly 70 yards.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6643448/2025/09/19/bills-dolphins-tnf-josh-allen/ “Bosa had an outstanding game against the Jets, and with fellow starter Greg Rousseau dealing with a bone bruise on his knee from the Ravens game, Bosa — at least in the short-term — has become their most trusted asset.” He was limited in practice the last couple of weeks.

You just know they are saving it. We will see deep shots soon enough.

Rousseau is a very good player currently suffering from a bone bruise in his leg that he got late in the Ravens game (which he played pretty well in). I *guarantee* you that it’s affecting his performance. They tend to be very painful. They do heal, though.

Jackson had gone down and they had basically bad practice squad players plus Rasul Douglas playing corner. Exploit it at the moment. We can agree to disagree here. It's the exact sort of situation that Tom Brady would have attacked.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/201309080buf.htm https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/201211110nwe.htm https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/201509200buf.htm Scroll down for the final plays and series in these ones.

I think part of that is simply Miami. Waddle and Hill are SO fast, and no other team has a pair like them (Tee Higgins is good but not blazing). The basic philosophy, it seemed to me, was to never let them get behind the D, and they didn't. On the deep shot to Hill, two defenders were behind him and ready to make a play. They figured that making Miami march slowly down the field would result in a lot of completions but also a couple of crushing mistakes, and it usually has worked out that way in the past. But Miami played well and McDaniel outschemed Babich on third down: 10-15 on third and 1-1 on fourth, so essentially 11-15; that's inexcusably bad. The other thing is that on the three times Miami moved the ball, they got TDs as opposed to FGs. On the fourth try, they finally made the mistake that matched up with the Bills expectations, and it was game over. I'm going to push back a little with regard to one instance: When they were up 14-7 and in the red zone, on second down and long they ran the ball despite Miami being down almost all of their CBs for that particular play. When you're up against non-NFL level talent in an opposing secondary, you have to exploit it immediately. They didn't, unfortunately, and I thought it was a very, very bad play call. There were of course a ton of play calls, but in that instance, you have to throw the script/gameplan to the wind and exploit the extreme weakness that had just manifested.

Two special teams failures (kickoff return and missed easy FG), a ridiculous non-challenge by McDermott, and a ridiculous decision to run it on second down in the red zone when Miami is down practically all of its (bad) corners is why we're here. I mean wtf, Brady - exploit non-NFL level talent when the very rare opportunity presents itself.

But someone above says early season losses don't matter!