MTBill

I just saw this article. Didn't see it posted here (but didn't search super hard). It's from Yardbarker.

He's so tough, Chuck Norris is scared.

A tough challenge for sure. If the Bills don't beat the Ravens, they are likely to win out and clinch homefield. On the other hand, the Patriots have their biggest challenge this week other than our game in the Chiefs. Here's to hoping the Chiefs win! If the Bills win out - they'd have a shot at home field - when is the last time that was possible this late in the season? Crazy. Ravens - tough, but I'm not giving up on our guys. AND - it's at home. That's a plus for sure. Patriots - tough, but they not only look beatable - they've been beaten. Pulling for the Chiefs to knock them down 1 more peg. Steelers - on the road, but this season is not the same as years past. Definitely winnable Jets - Hate this game. It has trap written all over it... It also has the potential to be important. The Bills are peaking at the right time - and now they can showcase what they are capable of. Go Bills!

Like you - that instant the snap was muffed, I went right to the sad-sack Bill's feelings... Then watched in awe as Allen pulled it out of the pile - and finally broke free to get the first down. What this game did for me was reminiscent of a different '60s song than Revolution #9.... "I'm a Billiever" This isn't the teams of futility we languished on over the past 20 years. Even when we were 'winning' - it was always enmeshed with failure. If this team struggles during the rest of the season, I still feel like I can finally turn the page on doubt that they have the wherewithal to pull through. Gone is the misery of watching success turn to defeat in prime time games - or just flat out getting destroyed. For me, this game marked a turning point. I was not expecting a win this week. I was sure all of the heat piled on to the Cowboys and the short week where we had to travel were all going to create a loss. The first drive did nothing to assuage that feeling as we watched Dallas cut through our defense to put up 7. I was sure the largesse of Allen's first big show was going to shake him. I was wrong. Allen never seemed to lose his composure at all. He did what great leaders do, made the people around him better. I'm not worried about this receiving corps. Allen is learning how to use them - and was able to use his legs not to always run (which he still did effectively) but also to find the open route. Go Bills. (And I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought about this yesterday - but Pancho was there.)

PIcking off the best play from statistics can be a useful venture - but you have to do it unilaterally and compare it. If you take away the longest pass from every QB in every game and look at the statistics are you going to see some sort of trend? Taking one play off one game to make your 'point' is sort of pointless. It's like when people want to take that "one run" off a RB who breaks one during a game to show how futile he is. Except that play counted in the game. You're making a presumption that if that play didn't happen that nothing else would have changed in the game - which is incorrect. I'll take 4-1 as a starter this season, those are the only stats that matter to me.

Agree x2, however it is a very small sample size and is obviously top of mind as it happened yesterday. How many big games has he really had as a Bill? This is hopefully one poor performance and he'll get better in this situation. Bill B also didn't make it easy on him at all. What we can hope is that he learns from this experience. I fully expect him to bounce back from this AND to learn from it so he does not make the same mistakes the next time he has a big game - which is going to happen this season. He certainly didn't have big games at Wyoming. I guess I am just not going to overreact based on one game. Not trying to be a homer. EDIT - I forgot to say this earlier, but unlike many of the past games vs. the Patriots, it was competitive. That is a start, when we can consistently play well we will get our share of wins. Sure we've had some fluke wins over the years, but I felt like we did a great job as a team yesterday compared to prior games against them.

Agreed on all counts. Thanks. Defense is for real. Josh Allen had a tough game. Not sure if he was just too excited and lost focus - but it wasn't the same Josh Allen we've seen the other 3 weeks (albeit against teams far far weaker than the Patriots). I am hopeful that his concussion is not severe, he certainly looked fine running off the field on his own, but the protocol covers a wide spectrum of concussions. Billy B also did what he needed to, rattle Josh with the play of the defense, to put him in that panic mode. This is year 2, Josh will get past this and learn from it. Matt Barkley played pretty subpar in relief. Singletary will be back - if not this week, soon. Josh will be back too. While I am very impressed by Frank Gore, we need Singletary back there too. 3-1 at the quarter pole is a good start. 4 quarters like this and you'd be 12-4.

To me it's less important the result of the hit than it is the intent. A d-bag move by a d-bag player. Hopefully that will get reviewed and he'll get a fine. If he gets away with it, he'll do it again and perhaps injure someone.

Nice read. Thanks for the link. I suspect the fact that Morse was in the protocol much of the preseason had at least something to do with that failed snap. Not trying to make excuses - but it's just a fact. What will it take to remove the 'bias'? consistent improvement. Frankly, I don't care what others think - but if that eggs Allen on to do better, then it is not all bad. If his play continues to impress and get wins, he will win over all but the most jaded folks.

All I can think of now is.... "I ain't sayin' she's a gold digger. . ."

Favorite line - There are more possible schedules than there are atoms in the universe. Let that sink in.... 16 games, 17 weeks, 32 teams, more possible schedules than there are atoms in the universe. Math - gaining an understanding of problems larger than the universe. (I happened to have studied OR on my path to a Math degree.)

Because Bill's Fans have draft envy and buyer's remorse.... It comes from years of failing miserably at finding a replacement for nearly Saint Kelly....

Interesting nugget on that list. One of the QBs on our roster is on that list - with 3,700 yards in a season. Playing for Cleveland... None other than Derek Anderson.

This sums it up for me...

I have to agree with the OP. There have been some good pickups in the past 2 drafts. While these guys all seem to be good picks - I guess what we don't know is if they are great yet, just too early to tell. Are they good because they are on "this" team full of general crappiness? Or are they good enough that on most other teams they'd be starters? Don't get me wrong, I like all those players named. I think Zay seems to have figured out his niche. If we had a competent #1 - this team would go much further. I don't lament letting Sammy go, sometimes a player just has to move on and his shelf life on the Bills was up. Trusting the Process.

So long, farewell, we bid you all adieu.... Nice guys do finish last sometimes - and for good reason. He is not an NFL QB. I would be very surprised if he makes an appearance in a game again - preseason or otherwise. But - he can tell his grandkids how he had his shot, and even has something a few greater QBs never had - a pass attempt in a playoff game.

The only stat I needed to know about NP. the ONLY one... In the Super bowl era, he holds the record for the most INT for any passer with 100 or fewer pass attempts. He is not the worst ever - that falls to Tommy Wade - Pitt QB from 64-65 who threw 13 picks in 69 attempts.... Later in the game yesterday, he passed 100 attempts - and finished the day with 12 picks in 130 attempts. A staggering comparison - Aaron Rogers has thrown 11 picks in his last 993 attempts. Bonus stat: Peterman became the 1st QB since 1999 with 30 completions to pass for less than 190 yards. It is not just the people around NP, NP is not capable of playing the position. He is holding that position ONLY because we have zero other players who can even stand out on the field at the moment.

I may be getting old (well, I am).... but this too shall pass. I have thought for many years the team needed to go through one of these type of seasons - stop trying to piece together a 9-7 team for a single season to keep a job... People need to chill out. It is unfortunate that Josh Allen injured his elbow. If he were playing, this team would look better than it does without him. Not a doubt in my mind. We need help on the OL - and even more help at WR and TE. What is great to see is that the Defense is geared up for winning. There are a few guys there who are going to be gone, but it is still a pretty young defense which will be here when the offense comes around next season. When you are as bad as the bills, a lot of numbers look worse.

This team - the one on the field now - is not 2-3 players from a SB... We need a WR1, a Center, at least one Guard, a RT, TE, WR3, and we need a CB2 to complement White and at least one OLB. It really did suck that we lost Wood to injury and Ritchie to some sort of mental instability issue. Maybe that was there all along, but he really seemed past that for a while.

I believe the thing is - if you have a player who is not buying in to the culture - not giving his 100%, it does not matter what strategy you have - it won't work with this player. I agree with that statement. If the comment is that you cannot have strategy - then I completely disagree with his statement. I just believe given the full context - his meaning is that you have to have players who buy in to the philosophy and are actively participating in the strategy. Does that make sense?

Given the whole quote - it makes sense. If you have players who don't participate wholeheartedly - strategy and talent don't matter. Teamwork makes the dream work - and that requires you to buy in and participate fully. People who want to live on an island and only show up when they want to just does not work.

There are unbiased data scientists - but not this guy in particular. He formed an opinion about the draft - now he is trying to support his prior opinion. He is biased. But there are plenty of guys with no skin in the game who do analytics. I agree though that analytics takes an amount of faith in your data. Most analtytics guys who get into the data know the data generally has more holes than swiss cheese - so you have to temper your projections. I think our friend here is now trying to defend his position (poorly).

I'm an analytics guy - data science is very helpful. One thing though - it's only as helpful as what you put into it. Sports analytics is still a relatively young field and there are a LOT of variables unaccounted for. So - it is a bit annoying that this guy does not seem to acknowledge his grade could be wrong... It would be a fascinating case study if these people were to run the same analytics over the data on some HOF QBs against their college careers. I suspect what they'd find out is that analytics isn't the whole story and they need to tweak their models to get better at it. If all other talent/opponents college QBs faced were equal - you could focus on the measurable from only the QB. But in reality, surrounding talent/coaching/opponents are vastly wide ranging - and that has a huge impact on the QB's measureables. It's OK to be wrong John Ledyard. Stop throwing crap like "this is why I had him as a 3rd round pick" in your weekly breakdown. Critique him on the evidence before you, sans your prior judgement.

The thing with Josh is that it's going to be a roller coaster for a while. He is going to have good plays and bad plays - when he starts reducing the bad plays is when he will have arrived. I actually got to watch some of Baker's game - he sure looks to be legit. I can't worry about that - we didn't have an opportunity to draft him (or Darnold) in terms of thinking we picked poorly. Josh was worth what we gave up to get him in my view. and I prefer him to Rosen, although we're going to see all of them on the field this season and watch how they all evolve. Really glad to see Edmunds making improvements and showing up on this list. He's also going to have good plays and bad plays - and again seeing fewer bad plays is what we expect.

Is he this hard on all the QBs? It sure seems with his language that he's convinced Allen is not what we believe he is. But maybe he's this hard on everyone. He isn't just an analytics guy the way he is breaking down plays. a typical analytics guy is only looking at stats/numbers.... At the end of the day - I really don't care what the opinion is of these folks. If Allen is getting wins - and improving, then he is what I want him to be. If he's not getting wins but still improving I'll also be happy.... Regardless of these op-ed pieces.