dave mcbride

Is he any good anymore? Presumably the Raiders cut him for a reason.

Columbus already has a pro football team.

Through week 8 (that is, not including this past week's game), the Browns were 26th in offensive DVOA and the Bills 24th: https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/teamoff/2019 The Bills' defense (16th) is five slots better than than the Browns' D (21st) in DVOA too. https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/teamdef/2019 The Bills likely got better in both categories this week and the Browns likely got worse. The updated numbers will be posted tomorrow.

I am all for a team in London. The Chargers and Jags both make sense.

What rivalries?

He was cut by Green Bay in November 2018 after slapping an opponent in the face. The Browns picked him up. He was a UDFA and is a truly marginal/fringe player. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/W/WhitJe02.htm

Breer discussed the game a little (not much) in his MMQB column on SI.

That vaguely rings a bell ...

Did he actually fumble twice? It says here in the individual stats that he fumbled twice, but if you search "fumble" in the play-by-play, it only comes up once. I can't recall him fumbling outside of that running play in which Norman forced the fumble. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/201911030buf.htm

I neglected to include that game. Thanks. They're 1-2 there then and 5-4 overall against Browns 2.0.

I actually do, although I sometimes question the playcalling (like insisting on pounding it up the middle on short yardage plays, but that may be more McDermott based on his comments yesterday). I think the overall talent is sub-average. They have solid but not elite linemen, a below-average but improving QB who is mystifyingly poor this season on deep throws, a good-but-not-elite WR, a borderline-JAG-but-still-genuine-starter-material slot guy, no decent 3rd WR, rookie TEs, a grinder RB who is no threat in the passing game, and a promising rookie RB.

It's a bit of a myth that he's underutilized. He's been the target on 21.2 percent of the Bills' passes, and Brown has been the target on 23.1 percent of the throws. No other Bills receiver is even close. Edelman has been the target of exactly 25 percent of NE's passes. NE has passed it 360 times through 9 games, and the Bills have thrown it 259 times through 8 games (the Bills are ranked 24th in pass attempts per game; they really don't throw it much). Factor in that Edelman is for all intents and purposes a #1 in the NE offense. Beasley is a number 2 (Brown is #1 because he's their best receiver), and number 2s generally are targeted less than number ones. Tyler Lockett, who always seems to be on the receiving end of Wilson's passes, has been targeted 59 times on 293 attempts (20.1 percent), and he's the leader on that team. They spread it around. The difference between Lockett and Beasley is that he catches the ball at a higher rate (81.9 percent to Beasley's 63.6 percent, which isn't terrible). But that's because he's a better player who is playing with a much better QB.

The Bills are 4-4 against the Browns since they were reconstituted in 1999. They have won the last two in convincing fashion (both in Buffalo, in 2014 and 2016), and are 0-2 at Cleveland (the 8-0 snowstorm in 2007 loss and the Monday night loss in 2013 when Jeff Tuel came in for an injured Manuel and threw a pick six that basically cost them the game).

He has been targeted 55 times this season and Brown has been targeted 60 times. No one else is even close. Last week, he was targeted 7 times. He is on pace for 110 targets, 70 catches, 674 yards, and 6 TDs. The most he was ever targeted before was 98 times.

Awesome. This one might be my favorite:

I do think he sold Singletary's rushing TD extremely well - best he's done all season.

Awesome!!!

This is an excellent rant: https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/ny-jets-adam-gase-lose-to-dolphins-20191103-t4wqvvto3bdh3hzkr4fb4o32g4-story.html?__twitter_impression=true

As I said elsewhere, he ran for 4,132 yards in three seasons (39 games) in college and never missed a snap. And he did it in the ACC, a big-boy conference. I think we should all consider the possibility that the standard model may not apply to him.

The most predictive stat of won/loss records in football is team passer rating differential. The Browns team passer rating is 71.2, and opponents collectively have a 103.6 passer rating against them. -32.4 in that category is a huge number.

Yes, excellent point.

The throws were decent enough, but collectively they amount to super-conservative, take-no-chances passing that simply won't win you games in the NFL. A standard-issue, pro-style running game isn't good enough to win in the NFL (or even get you TDs) even if it's strong, and that's all the Redskins have.

Agreed, although I was pretty unimpressed by Haskins. He made one or two nice relatively short range out pattern throws, but they were basically all gimmes that the Bills were happy to concede. He only challenged them twice beyond the initial secondary wall, and overthrew it once and got stoned the other time (by Taron Johnson in the EZ). Playing like that will get you to midfield, but it's not a recipe for scoring TDs. I do realize he's a rookie with very little experience, but that just suggests to me that he should never have been taken in the first round.

They had four sacks yesterday, and both starting DEs recorded sacks.

35 percent isn't that bad - bear in mind that the Redskins ran a ridiculously low 49 plays (because they went 2-11 on third down).