dave mcbride

To be fair to the staff, it's hard to give a RB carries when you find yourself down 21-0 early in the second quarter. Incidentally, passer rating differential has historically been the best predictive stat of how a team fares. The Bills are 2-3 right now despite being negative 43.2 in passer rating differential. Yikes. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/2018.htm

I just think he needs carries to get rolling. He has *always* been a guy who gets a lot no-gains but when he carries it a lot, he balances it out with the occasional 20-40 yarder. If he's running it 5-10 times a game, that's not gonna happen.

You see that shot of him on the sideline without his helmet? With that 'stache, he genuinely looks like a member of the Village People. No joke.

I thought McCoy looked as good as ever yesterday. His ypc would have looked a lot better yesterday if he hadn't been tackled twice in the backfield at the moment of handoff for a cumulative negative 10 yards. He was great on the pass plays.

The beat goes on down there - Suh, Ajayi, Landry. I honestly think that Suh was one of the best players in the league when he was in Miami. They weren't losing because of him, and he always looked unblockable when I watched him. Also, read the bit about Landry in Peter King's column today: https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/10/08/nfl-week-5-cleveland-browns-fmia-peter-king/. 'There’s something else I like about this team. It’s something Jarvis Landry brought from Miami. When the Browns did “Hard Knocks” this summer, the most memorable scene was Landry, new to the team this year, lighting up the receivers room. He was ticked off (putting it mildly) at the effort and practice habits of the team’s young receivers, and he stood in front of the room and said: “If your hamstring ain’t fallin’ off the bone, if your leg ain’t broke, you should be practicing! Straight up. It’s weakness. It’s contagious as f—! … It’s over with here, bro! If you’re not hurt, you gotta f—ing practice! That ain’t happenin’ here! That don’t exist! … It’s contagious. It’s contagious.” Coming from one of the highest-paid receivers in the league, that tirade got noticed. “My heart was full,” Landry said. “I had no idea it would be as big as it turned out to be. But I was just trying to state the truth and wake some guys up.” Landry thought for a minute. “With me,” he said, “what it comes down is I hate losing more than I love winning. I love football, and I just hate to lose.” When the Browns tied Pittsburgh on opening day, Landry thought some players were a little happy to not lose. “There’s nothing to celebrate!” he yelled. “We work too hard to tie!” On the first drive of overtime, Landry stuck his head in the offensive huddle and said, “It’s just us. Calls ain’t gonna go our way. Can’t worry about that. Just play.” After the game, in the raucous Cleveland locker room, Dorsey found Landry. The GM loves this firebrand wideout because of the example he sets and the ethos he brings to practice and games. Dorsey smiled at Landry. “Hey!” Dorsey said. “It ain’t always gonna be easy.”

What the heck is going on in Miami? They shed talent like there's no tomorrow and Gase seems thrilled when he does it.

Jordan Phillips looks like a very good pickup. A change of scenery can be good. He seems thrilled to be out of Miami, and he could be the sort of player who thrives in great fan settings like Orchard Park (Miami is the opposite of this). There's something about the culture in Miami that's screwed up. Gase has chased a lot of good players away (and makes culture-based arguments when doing so), including a bona fide play-to-the-whistle gamer in Jarvis Landry (I know we're not supposed to like him, but he plays balls out and produces). He cut their best player (Suh) and also traded away Ajayi for questioning the culture.

Not true. They went 10-6 with him at the helm in 2007 (10-5 when he started) but didn't get in. I think you're confusing him with the other bad Cleveland QB who started a playoff game for Cleveland and ended up on the Bills. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/cle/2007.htm

He did get a hand in. It was a great play.

They needed the entire 60 minutes to put up 13 points. Scoring 13 points loses you 9 games out of 10 in today's NFL. TN's D is good, but still. Scoring involves effectively passing the ball. The Bills are currently pathetic at it.

To be fair to Holmes, it was a great play by Jackson. Defenders are capable of making great plays too. All in all, I'd say it was a good throw by Allen, a decent-enough effort by Holmes (he was where he was supposed to be and would have caught it if not for the defender), and an elite play by a very talented first-round corner in his second season.

But that was the same with Jauron, right? They had a pretty decent D and terrible offenses under him, and he got them to the neighborhood of .500 doing exactly the same thing - minimizing mistake potential on offense, generating turnovers (his defenses were good at that and prioritized it), and keeping the game close - an approach that leads to close games, which in turn can lead to wins, especially against average teams and decent teams that just happen to be mistake-prone.

The offense was awful yesterday and the scheme was neanderthal. They won (largely because of the scheme, ironically enough!), so I'm happy, but let's not sugarcoat reality. They cannot roll out that gameplan against teams with good offenses and QBs better than Mariota. To be fair, I also think they know that. As for the original question, wins are hugely important for progress, so I disagree with the premise. I'm of the mind that losses are nothing more and nothing less than losses. I'm not a "moral victory" kind of guy.

I think he's a good defensive coach and schemer for sure. With regard to that offensive plan yesterday, though, it ONLY works against a team with a QB as shaky as Mariota. TN's offense isn't good. Both the offensive gameplan and the overall scheme were high-school level in their sophistication, which ironically was just what the doctor ordered given the opponent. But they showed no signs yesterday of being able to run a complex offense -- the sort you need when facing the good teams who are bound to put up 20+ points. Baby steps, I know, but I'd like to see a bit more sophistication going forward because Jeff Fisher is no model to follow in today's NFL.

This is a good assessment. https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/10/08/buffalo-bills-tennessee-titans-josh-allen-sean-mcdermott

Neither of the interceptions last night should have been ints. Both should have been easy catches on perfect throws.

"Reformed homer" - i love it!

how many freaking drops can a team have? Christ.

What a great series of accurate throws.

To repeat - luck’s critics are so full of crap. He is not the problem there.

Luck has looked phenomenal tonight. God, so many drops. Sucks.

That's unfair to Andre Holmes. He wasn't even drafted and no one ever expected anything from him.

I have no idea what will happen, but McCoy went to Pitt and is from Harrisburg. Le'Veon Bell's ship has sailed, it looks like, and there is no way that the Steelers are giving up on the season. Shady is still an elite back (he has NOT lost a step), and he's on a reasonable contract. It makes a lot of sense for both teams given that McCoy is simply not going to produce for Buffalo in the current setup.

They'll have to do something about the stat measurement if they go that route because the college system WILDLY skews stats in a bad way for both team offenses and defenses as well as individual players.

Bills fans will find places to tailgate. If anyone can figure that out, it's Bills fans.