Fan in Chicago

Good game. I am glad we played hard but a loss is a loss. I am going to have a bad night of sleep.

If he had made those 2 catches he would have been

You can bet BB is making his players do extra "punch the ball out" drills. Allen better slide as soon as he gets a first down and doesnt fight for more yards Presuming, of course, that Daboll doesnt try to out smart the opposition and just calls a well balanced game

Sounds more like "we will choose the less bad out of two poor options"

I actually needed this reminder as I am dreading losing on the national stage facing the resurrected Pats** hype. Maybe it is BBFS. Thanks, really. Like losing your v-card. 🙂

At least the takes by @Ghost_002! And @PatsFanNH have balanced and reasonable takes. Come on, the Pats performance is directly correlated to the (head) coaching. There is little evidence to say that the Pats** team is better than the Bills.

Last night reminded me of the Bills MNF where Romo threw 5 INTs and still walked out with a win. The Browns' D played well with the takeaways but their O blew it by only scoring 10. But your point on not hanging your head and still going about your business, makes a lot of sense. You can bet that BB is (again) training for turnovers and ST advantages. My bet is that, very early, he will bait Allen to run and then go for the fumble, which Allen is prone to do. Not only will that get the ball but also seek to affect him psychologically. This is a massive test for the entire Bills team.

Thats one of the points of the OP. Sacks are great to show off but need to be correlated to metrics that matter ( @Big Turk has posted). With White now out, perhaps the D philosophy will change where Frazier may feel more obligated to manufacture sacks. We shall see in 6 days.

As long as it's the Bills scoring 9. And also if one enjoys hearing about half the Bills fans needing cardiac resuscitation.

Were you drunk?

After last season, I will admit that I was running out of patience and didn't think he would turn the corner. I am glad I was wrong. Even if he doesn't improve further (doubtful) and keeps up this performance , we will finally have a reliable TE weapon which we haven't had in a long long time

Pretty commendable for Knox considering the Pats** O is TE centric and ours is not

I did not. If McD was angry it was entirely justified except that the expressed unhappiness by itself won't make any changes to the way refs call these games. Actually I don't know why the NFL doesn't make changes to ensure officiating consistency across games

There were at least 3 plays in the first half where Allen was hit late and should have drawn roughing the passer penalties. These did not happen when he was running, he was hit when he had dropped back to pass. It was odd to not see any such flags.

Understandable. Disappointing season from him. I was hoping he was a good complement to Singletary but we have to fly with those that perform.

Not quite. He was just comparing the flip passes

I disagree. If its a physical opponent, you have to play hard. We played that way against the Chiefs with good results

Which begs the question - why did it take so long to activate him? We have to start with a win tomorrow but a win in the following game will calm more nerves (mine for sure).

McD should have control of his team's philosophies in all 3 facets of the game. It is inexcusable if Daboll is not listening to his boss. If thats the case, I want to see Daboll fired after the Saints game. I know it can be disruptive but given how his O has been continually neutralized, we arent going far this season with him at the O controls anyway.

With all due respect, I dont think it takes a full season for NFL defenses to adjust. Daboll's philosophy and Allen's strengths/weaknesses were evident in the first half of last season and we faced opponent's adjustments throughout the playoffs. Yet we won 2 playoff games. With the way the team is playing right now, I can't see them winning such games. I agree on the latter part of your post. I know D got gashed yesterday (I only saw the 1st Q) but if the O had done better early in the game, the Colts would have had to throw more thus playing into our D's strengths. Overall problems, esp on O, are deeper and I don't know what they are.

Justifiably so. The issue is lingering, festering. I find it shocking that McD hasn't forced Daboll to change his philosophies. Lack of balance has been an issue from game 1 and yet we see little to no change. McD is a HC, the team should be steered in the direction he wants. Either he is fine with the philosophy or is too weak to make Daboll change. Either way, if the O doesn't change, this season will end up as a MASSIVE disappointment given the (paper) talent and expectations we had at the beginning and a month back.

I think this is a playoff caliber team but likely one and done. I just cant figure out what has changed so dramatically since last season. Observations which are baffling (compared to last season): - O is not dominant and cant impose its will on opponents. We couldnt run the ball last year either but still regularly beat opponents - No fight. Last year, we won games against the Steelers, Colts and Ravens which were well fought, well coached and with adjustments. This year, that confidence is gone - Related to the previous point, we can prety much predict the end result from the 1st Q. If we are getting pushed around, we will eventually lose. No adjustments, no will to fight back. In the SNF game, the Steelers tied the game after being down 2 TDs in the 4th Q. I cannot envision our O being able to do that Coaches are the same, players are mostly the same with purported upgrades at DE and RT (Brown). What the heck is wrong and why ?? This is the part bothering me the most.

Will be a better prediction for the next win. With the short week and the team's terrible performance today, Saints game is not a gimme. Then we have another 2 tough ones. Panthers as the next win?

I didn't say play the new guy. I meant drafting him and sitting behind Ryan for couple of years

A better franchise would have drafted his replacement 2 years back