dave mcbride

He was misused terribly by Hackett. Gailey was not a good head coach, but he knew how to use the offensive talent he had. Hackett treated him as an up-the-middle pounder.

I immediately thought of the 70-yard TD bomb Flacco threw to Jacoby Jones with 40 seconds left in the 2012 playoff game against Denver.

His 2012 season was one of the best offensive performances by a Bill this century: a staggering 6.0 ypc plus 10.7 yards per reception (extraordinarily high for a running back).

Watch them: they are good. Their defense is the best in the league, I think.

I think the Vikings would destroy the Bills.

Terrible game. The quarterbacks for both teams are awful. Really boring.

To be fair, I think Hurts stinks too, so who knows what will happen. Neither of these qbs will sniff starting roles in the nfl.

Enh .. he had a good game. He led OU to 38 points in regulation against an elite college defense that is LOADED with NFL talent.

I went into this game thinking that Alabama would blow Clemson out. That is what is currently happening, but we shall see. The Clemson qb is terrible (against real competition).

Good post, and I don’t disagree. But Brown can play a role in tnis defense. He literally played on 99 percent of the plays this year.

True, but he has been on the field more than any other Bills player (something crazy like 99 percent of plays). He’s not great but he understands the system at this point. Getting rid of him strikes me as more subtraction without any addition. The guy also seems injury proof, which is rare for a linebacker.

Dunkirk Don said he’s definitely a goner, so ...

Re Dareus, the mice thing about Kyle W is that I really think he’d agree with your take. Regardless, he has had 2-3 genuinely dominant seasons (2010, 2013, and 2014) and the best single game performance by a Bill in the last decade (in my opinion) — the 2010 “I praise you 24/7” game against Pitt (a SB team), in which he was in the backfield on nearly every play.

Let’s not forget the 40-yard PI call that got them down to the one, after which they punched it in. It doesn’t show up in his yardage stats, but he made a great throw there and exploited Tankersley.

Phenomenal -- thanks!!!!!!

That's awesome! Good find.

I suggest reading what I wrote and my second post in the thread. Or are we supposed to dispense with any analysis at all and simply shout down anyone who brings in some numbers? This isn't a celebratory instagram site. and I don't kvetch about "curses", so I don't know where you're coming from with that. ????

Not entirely fair. Every board needs a spam folder. This is it.

Blair Walsh (Hauschka's replacement) probably cost the Seahawks a full game too overall. He wasn't the full reason they lost yesterday, but he missed a go-ahead 48 yard FG with 30 seconds left yesterday. He was shaky all year -- 72.4 percent.

The Bills' turnover differential in recent history (Going back to when they became a run-heavy team post-Gailey): 2013: +3 2014: +7 2015: +6 2016: +6 2017: +9 They were -13 in 2012.

Not at all. i am as happy as can be. Turnovers are huge, and the Bills prioritized it. It was smart. Targeting safeties who can force turnovers was a great move. Poyer and Hyde were phenomenal in pass defense all season.

The Bills were statistically bad or at best mediocre in virtually every category except one: turnovers. They were 6th in raw rushing yardage, but only because they ran it so much. They were actually just 14th in rushing ypa after finishing first last year. Their pythagorean (statistically expected) record was 6.4-9.6. However, their offense surrendered the 6th fewest turnovers in the league and their defense finished 9th in takeaways. Importantly, Tyrod Taylor had the lowest interception percentage (1.0) of any quarterback in the *entire league*. Obviously, that had a material impact on the team's fortunes; teams so weak in so many major categories shouldn't have winning records. They were seventh in turnover differential, and if you take away the statistical blip that was the first half of the Chargers game, they are in the top two or three. **A tip of the cap to Hauschka too; his excellence was probably good for one additional win above expectations too. Signing him was like the Indians getting Andrew Miller in 2016.

8-6.

Coming in late here - i watched up until he fumbled in osu territory down 17-0. My quick take, at least on the early part of the game: his receivers killed him, fumbling away one on the first possession and then dropping a perfect throw on the second possession that would have put them at the osu 25. Things seemed to snowball after that.

Dennison is neither adaptable nor able to adjust at halftime. He's the offensive version of the opposite of Wade Phillips (a guy who adapts to his players and consistently adjusts well at halftime when things aren't going right). The Bills are a consistently worse team in the second half, and when it happens so often, that's pretty much all attributable to system/design.