dave mcbride

Pretty sure he forced his way off that team, which is currently in disarray and with a historically bad offense (the o line is probably the worst in the league).

The ball moved from his grip right after he hit the ground out of bounds — i.e., he lost control even though it didn’t hit the ground. He regained control of the ball but did so while clearly out of bounds. By rule, it is not a catch and it was clear as day. “Going to the Ground: If a player is falling to the ground while catching the ball, they must maintain control of the ball after they land for it to be considered a catch.”

Oh, I agree. My point was simply that it wasn’t just about the timeouts.

You make it conditional - offer them the better of the two picks depending on how the season shakes out. It's very simple.

It's not about throwing timeouts away; it's about throwing challenges. They would have lost the Kincaid challenge (there was no chance it would have been overturned), which means they only would have had one left. You don't know if you'll need that challenge later on.

And they were wrong because they don't understand the rule. There was zero chance that would have been overturned.

There was actually 32 seconds when they got the ball ... and 50 yards would have resulted in a 65 yard FG attempt. So yeah, it was a pretty freaking stupid decision.

The fact that the Bills didn't turn it over yesterday despite the overall miserableness on offense was the sole reason they stayed in that game. A pick or a fumble and Houston probably wins by two scores. It's an underrated stat, although Allen had a couple of throws that were pick-able.

Allen still leads the league in QBR (77.2) and has a passer rating of 102.8 despite yesterday's clunker. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/2024.htm

In that same time frame, Bass is 34 of 44 -- 77 percent (including playoffs).

For context, between 2015, and 2022, the league average for XPs was slightly below that number every year: https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/league-wide-extra-point-percentage-in-the-nfl-year-by-year-2015-to-2022. The TB kicker missed one last season and the NE kicker missed one in the late season game last year that the Bills won. Both misses were in Buffalo. But that's it. The Giants kicker went 3 for 3.

The Bengals took their foot off the gas in the latter part of that game. They dominated the Bills D when it mattered.

36 out of 38 vs the Bills on FG attempts (including playoffs). That is a 95 percent success rate, and some of those were REALLY long attempts. Jeezus H. Christ. And half of those games have been played in Buffalo.

Interesting post by @GunnerBill

And he was open on Brady's final failed bomb in that SB. He scored the go-ahead TD two minutes earlier too. The Pats lost that game because early in the fourth BB decided to go for it on 4th and 12 from the Giants 31 instead of kicking a FG. It failed, and they lost by 3. They didn't lose because of Randy Moss.

That team is a complete mess right now. I knew they'd be bad, but they're bad AND in disarray.

Say what you will about Hollins, but that was a helluva pancake block at the end there.

It could end up being 2 years/$16 million with a cap hit in 2026 of $3.4 million. Not ideal, but not a horrible hit given the likely size of the cap that year. The fact that I'm already thinking about this is kinda sad, though. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/player/_/id/21781/curtis-samuel He was wide open. Allen got hit, though.

Yeah, but even factoring that in, he's averaging 3.4 yards per play he's involved in (13 targets and 3 rushes). That's laughable for a WR.

The Bills were forced to pass the last two games too. And they were forced to pass in game one given that they were down by 2 TDs.

Judging from his performance in 2022 and 2023, Curtis Samuel is not a bad player at all and is indeed a moderately productive one if used properly. In this system, though, it feels like most throws to Curtis Samuel are behind the LOS and they seem to end up with him tackled around or slightly behind the LOS. It's baffling. He has long been a fairly productive player, with 171 touches (126 catches for 10 ypr; 45 runs for 5.1 ypc) and 10 TDs in the 25 games he played for Washington in the previous two years. That's basically 7 touches for 60 yards and .4 TDs per game, and with garbage QBs throwing to him. He had a 69 percent catch rate too. For the Bills, he has 12 touches on 16 targets/carries for freaking 54 yards over five games and hasn't sniffed the EZ. He is averaging 3.4 yards per play he's involved in, and he's a WIDE RECEIVER. That shouldn't happen; it's terrible. He's not a true difference maker, but he's certainly not this bad. At this point, I have to think he's simply being misused.

Throwing to Cook (or a TE or Samuel on a crosser) on first is a fair point. The third down call had to be for a throw past the sticks, though.

Here's the thing: the run game had completely stopped working (5 yard on the previous 6 RB carries), and even if they ran it on first and second down and ended up with, say, 3rd and 7, you still need to pass it because the best outcome is getting a first down -- not giving Fairbairn a chance at a long kick. If they get the first on the pass, great, the game goes to OT. If they fail and it's incomplete, Houston still has the one timeout they need. They didn't need three - they needed one. Plus failed running plays are generally shorter in duration than failed passing plays, so that gives Houston a few more seconds. You can rip on the play calls -- the second down one was a heave due more to pressure than a schemed design, I believe - but on the first one Coleman had one-on-one coverage (against Houston's weaker CB, Lassiter) and it was a throw to just past the sticks. To be sure, Coleman was well covered there and his OPI was smart and arguably prevented an INT. On third down, Samuel was wide open for the first. I would have preferred TE usage in that sequence, but the first and third down plays weren't terrible, at least in conception. More importantly, conceding a punt with three runs up the middle was the worse play, percentage-wise, than trying to pick up a first. And while Allen had a poor game, I would rather put my fate in his hands than those of the running backs.

Great point!

Gronkowski is arguably the best tight end in league history.