dave mcbride

Wtf, dude. I'm out.

??? I like Allen. He has issues that he has to clean up, however, and he had a very bad game yesterday. It happens. What the heck is your problem?

What the hell are you even talking about?? I'm talking about Allen's manifest ball security issues. Sheesh.

Ha! I thought the same!

There is context to consider. He was clearly hurt after the dirty hit by Anderson in the second Jets game, and was never the same for the rest of the season. He was 67 percent after that kick and his kickoffs weren't reaching the end zone. He's a good kicker and he'll be fine this season, I think. He was 87 percent in his first season.

It wasn't clear *at all* that fumbled after the whistle was blown. Saying that you know that is not based on actual evidence. But whatever. I'm talking about ball security, and I feel like I'm talking with Allen's technicality-obsessed lawyer.

you do realize he missed a 58 yarder in game 3, right? Also, if you miss your first kick in the first game of the season, you're at 0 percent, right? The presumption is that he'll regress to his mean over a 16-game season.

No, I'm focusing on his PLAY, not weird NFL rules or whether or not something should have been reversed or not. He fumbled the ball on that play, and it wasn't called. And he threw a terrible, amateurish pick that arguably should have been reversed (although it wasn't entirely clear from the replay) because of a very weird rule. Both were bad ball securities plays by him irrespective of refereeing.

No, not really. He gets paid to make 85 percent of his kicks, and there's an expectation that he's going to miss somewhere between 10 and 20 percent, particularly in Buffalo. Stick with your cliches, however.

He well deserved that INT for making a horrible decision and throwing it right to the DB in the midst of triple coverage. If you want to let him off on the most niggling of arcane NFL technicalities rather than judge him for what he actually did on the play, be my guest.

I agree that our STs are a problem overall, but Hauschka is fine. He's not going to make every kick, and missing by a whisker from 49 and missing a prayer 58-yard attempt are his only misses all season. I can live with that.

Actually, I watched a bit of him in Chicago and Philly, and a lot of him at USC. He does some things well, and that's one of them. He has clear physical limitations, though, which is why he dropped in the draft and why he's going to probably spend 12-15 years in the NFL as a backup. Not sure why you're so argumentative about this. His game is what it is, and it's pretty well known at this point. A 49 yard kick is never a gimme. It's 50-50 in the NFL.

I think you actually have to contact someone for there to be interference. That's not evident on any of the replays they showed yesterday.

Belichick is probably planning to figure out a way to steal Hyde from the Bills as I write this.

Relevant to the discussion. https://www.pff.com/news/pro-nfl-week-4-pff-refocused-new-england-patriots-16-buffalo-bills-10 Levi Wallace would have enjoyed one of the best statistical performances of any corner this season if he wasn’t tripped up on an uncalled pick play. Although he didn’t make many plays on the ball and won’t show up on any post-game highlight reels, his consistently tight coverage forced Brady into a number of errant throws. He must have been targeted on close to double figures during the game and gave up only a single catch.

7 solo tackles, one pass defensed, 4 assists, and two tackles for a loss, and basically all over the field. A dominant, all-pro level performance yesterday.

I didn't think so from the angle I watched, but I could be wrong. It would be good to get another view. In any event, you simply can't reverse that non-call given the way that PI challenges have been going so far.

I don't think you can call it if there's no contact. That's just me, though. I don't know the rule in any depth.

That's not what happened, and it's pretty clear on the replay. My question is, can you ever call OPI if the ostensibly offending receiver doesn't actually touch the defender? It certainly looked to me like they never actually contacted each other even though the Pats player got in his way. The Bills defender appeared to trip over himself as he tried to get around the receiver.

Statistically, almost everything about him is average, except for his ypa averages, which are pretty good. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/M/MariMa01.htm He does have a nice TD-INT ratio this season (7-0). I'll grant him that. But his sack rate is too high.

In that SB, a hold on Faulk cost them 14 points - a pick 6 transformed into a Rams TD because McGinest was called for a hold on Faulk.

Hauschka's kick would have been good from 44 yards or 34 yards. It wasn't good from 49 yards, which is a spot where kicks become 50-50 affairs. If he hadn't taken the sack, it' would have been a 44 yard kick. My larger point is that when you're in that 25-30 yard-line range, you simply cannot take a sack on 3rd down. He does it way too frequently.

It's more about using your eyes and watching how he plays. It seems patently obvious to me that he gets through reads faster but suffers in the athleticism department.

I don't know. Every time I think he's lousy, he starts playing well, and vice versa. I think he's basically the epitome of league-average.