dave mcbride

I'm not saying never throw, of course, but I do think that you shift to ball control mode with a big back who almost never fumbles (Murray, who has one fumble in his last 722 carries and two in has last 938) with the occasional safe play action play. Maybe you get another field goal or two, and then put the pressure on Zack Wilson to make a play. Outside of the two early runs by Hall, the Jets did nothing on offense. Hall had 8 carries for 18 yards the rest of the way. Anyway, I'm asking for situational awareness from the OC. I didn't see it last night.

Well, I certainly don't disagree with this. But if you're an OC and see this happening -- and you have the lead against a team led by Zach Freaking Wilson -- you adjust your plan. I didn't see that last night.

When you're giving up that many sacks and averaging 4.6 net yards per passing play (and passing plays bring more risk than running plays), it's not working. Plus think about the opponent: Zach Wilson is horrible and the Jets' o-line is a sieve in pass pro.

?? -- The Bills had nine negative plays on dropbacks: 4 turnovers (one of which was a fumble out of the shotgun) and five sacks. They had 217 net passing yards on 47 dropbacks (including the fumble play) which is 4.6 yards per passing play. That's horrible.

I don't know how many times I need to say this, but the Bills had the lead for most of the game and running plays are generally safe plays. Why not play ball control against a team with a terrible QB? They also slow down pass rushes because d-lines have to play differently. The Jets have a good run defense, but their pass defense is even better. Again, I thought Allen was terrible last night. Not trying to deflect blame, but more than one thing can be wrong.

Tell that to the 49ers and the Eagles. Run pass balance is used to HELP the passing game because it slows down a pass rush. The Jets were defaulting to pass rushing all night because the Bills were dropping back at such a heavy rate.

I'm sorry, but there are reasons that teams run the ball on occasion. And they especially run the ball when they have the lead. By my count, the Bills called running plays 27 percent of the time against an EXCELLENT pass defense from front to back. And they had the lead for close to two thirds of the game.

If you run the ball a lot defensive line movement is different -- it's more lateral. It literally slows down pass rushes, which is why teams do it. He was sacked 5 times and hit 9 times.

Hardly ever running it leads to jailbreaks on pass rushes versus an overmatched o-line. And that's what happened -- 5 sacks and a lot of hits. Of course Allen was terrible too, but the OC didn't help him. Not my point; of course he was terrible. But more than one thing was bad last night, and the two things -- OC and QB -- fed each other.

Some eye-opening numbers from last night: The Bills held the lead for 37 minutes and 18 seconds of regulation. The Jets held the lead for 1 minute and 46 seconds of regulation. The score was tied for 20 minutes and 56 seconds of regulation. Josh Allen dropped back 46 times (41 attempts; 5 sacks) and ran it another six times (half of which were scrambles if I recall correctly). The Bills' running backs ran it 16 times. Think about that.

He also had a potential pick dropped by CJ Mosley. Last night, he looked like an unholy combination of Trent “Captain Checkdown” Edwards and Ryan Fitzpicksix. Also, the coordinator is really not good. That game plan made no sense, particularly the situational aspect. I have quite low expectations for this season. I am expecting 9 or even 8 wins.

I am definitely a bit more low energy this season.

Nothing is ever called consistently. I am just saying that linemen are given more leeway than in the past because they're facing far better athletes than their predecessors were 25-30 years ago or so, especially since the league decided it wanted to be a passing league with fewer injured QBs. Good big-men athletes get fed into the d-line from early on; the lesser specimens become o-linemen. There are of course some good o-line athletes, but on average they're measurably inferior.

As Chris Simms has repeatedly said (and I agree with him), o-line players across the board are getting more non-calls going their way these days because today’s defensive linemen are SUCH better athletes than before — and better athletes by a good ways than offensive linemen on average. They’re basically changing the rules to account for this disparity without actually officially changing them. I have come to accept it because at least I know the unwritten rules now. I suggest just accepting it. The league wants to protect QBs, and this is how they do it in a context of physically overmatched offensive linemen.

As Chris Simms has repeatedly said (and I agree with him), o-line players across the board are getting more non-calls going their way these days because today’s defensive linemen are SUCH better athletes than before — and better athletes by a good ways than offensive linemen on average. They’re basically changing the rules to account for this disparity without actually officially changing them. I have come to accept it because at least I know the unwritten rules now. Well, the asterisk is appropriate with regard to Mahomes last night. Mahomes did nothing wrong to lose that game. It was all on his bad receiving corps. That’s the truth.

I just woke up after only watching the first half. I watched the second half highlights, and it appears that Toney basically cost them the game — with his two drops of good passes costing them 10 points. Is that right? Both looked like egregious drops to me.

https://nesn.com/2023/09/asante-samuel-trolls-patriots-bill-belichick-tasteless-linda-holliday-breakup-joke/

Yes, my bad. A small brainlock. More evidence, though, about counting stats: Kirksey had far opportunities to make plays than Edmunds last season because the Houston D was on the field for 1,134 plays while the Bills D was on the field for 997. In 2021, the Bills’ D played 1,014 plays to Houston’s 1,101. The Bills D simply gets off the field more quickly than Houston’s because opponents’ drives are shorter and consist of fewer plays.

That is not true. Look at the advanced stats—the passer rating against Edmunds last year in passes thrown his way was 69.9, which is below the proverbial Mendoza line. Kirksey’s stat was 90.1 and three years ago it was 155.8 — which is a perfect rating in the NFL qb rating system. Bottom line: stay away from the shiny object of counting stats. There is a tackle on every play that isn’t a TD play, and someone has to make the tackles — just like someone on the worst NBA team averages 20+ points because even the worst NBA teams average 90+ points a game (and someone has to score those points). Kirksey was cut from a truly horrible team for a reason and Edmunds got paid a TON of money for a reason, and these decisions were made by people who are far more informed than message-board warrior fans. That said, I’m more than willing to give Kirksey the benefit of the doubt. But if you can’t pass cover as a LB, you are a liability who*will* be exploited.

Already back on the colts. His cut was a mere procedural move: https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/colts-re-sign-wr-isaiah-mckenzie-place-te-jelani-woods-on-ir

More like “Team Kyle or Team Carson”!

Shades of Shady!

I have watched a fair bit of Rudolph in Pitt, and I think he stinks. It pains me that he was allegedly the Bills guy if they couldn’t get Josh Allen (when Lamar would have been there).

Whoops. Regardless, close enough.

Wyatt Teller.