colin

ya, i said going into this season it will play out, and for a while it looked like he was gonna grab that brass ring, but frankly, i think he's solid overall, just not great.

i was thinking panthers was after NE. so ya, i suppose we can drop two games vs good teams and crush a can and mathematically be eligible for the playoffs, and then get beat by NE, but i really think our team is emotional and streaky and we need to prove to ourselves we can stomp w the best and beat TB to get the Mo to take it further. ya, as i mentioned in the other post, i was wrongly assuming it was TB followed by NE, not the panthers. again, i think it is possible we get our mojo back beating NE, but the way we have played for the past two months, i think we really need the ship righted correctly and now to get the juice flowing

pittz losing, and possibly cinci takes some sharks from the tank behind us, obv baltimore and tenn ahead of us could lose too, but i doubt it. I still think our best shot at the playoffs is winning the division, we'd have to beat tampa and NE in NE to do that, because i don't see us making it 3 losses in a row and bouncing back to mop up the softer teams. As far as i am concerned, these next two weeks are the start of our playoffs.

that's insane, guy was so young. does anyone know how a car accident that doesn't put you in traction for a long time does this? i presume it is brain related, but perhaps neck/spine damage can cause this? i bet some people are gonna talk about cte and such, but it seems like there are so many complications from different kinds of trauma and injuries that didn't get spoken about before. rip.

he erases some mistakes by the line (perhaps they aren't mistakes, perhaps they d the run up aggressive up front and have him fill in) and he absolutely erases guys in the middle of the field in the passing game, that's why he's made probowls and got drafted high while 19 years old. the issue for me is he simply makes errors, out of position, doesn't get off blocks, gets manipulated. i honestly think better opponent coaches (like reid and billicheat) target him to get him in the wrong spot, since he's a bit of a lynchpin to our D. it's all so tiresome

i know mathematically a loss in tb is not as important as any of the afc games, ne in particular, for our playoff chances, but in terms of momentum and confidence, i think we are on a precipice right now, and you need something to just supercharge the bills swagger. i suppose there could be some kind of exciting close loss where the bills play better where they get their mojo back, but i really think walking into TB and smacking them, followed by going to NE and beating them turns the team from self sabotaging into a deadly monster of a team. so, based on all that, i think we either beat TB and make a hard push at a chip, or lose there and just fade down the stretch. i think if we miss the playoffs, even at 10-7, at the very least some assistant coaches get walking papers.

i think we need to win 4 games to get into the playoffs. while tb is the strongest team (perhaps save the pats) we have left, and are out of conference, i think it will be hard for the team to lose two huge prime time games in a row and come back and win 4 straight, so i think for us to make the playoffs, we like 75% have to win this game in tampa. ironically, winning this game in tampa and the NE game gives us a very solid shot at the division. so, while backing into the playoffs is mathematically quite possible, i kinda feel like we turn it around now and hard, or we are fudged.

i think we have a very good roster, but our allocations/where we got lucky just aren't balanced. rookie RT is perhaps our best o lineman, which is saying a lot because he didn't play for a year and is raw. the rest of the line has issues, and it seemed like we had solid back ups before, but now w guys like ford totally regressing, we can't afford an injury. our DL is stacked, tons of picks and the most money in the nfl in it. the issue is our two highest paid guys, houghs and addison, are old as dirt and not impact players. our top DT, Star, got sick at a bad time. aside from that, we have a ton of picks and money invested in part time players. i get the reason for the rotation, but we have so much depth at the same positions and no one seems to be breaking out, so you have high picks and big salaries on the bench by design. those picks and salaries could have been put to better use on starters at our thinner positions. we get outstanding db play, really think our coaches might be the best there, but our depth is a touch thin as we may see w tre being hurt. TE, RB, they just need upgrades, just a dearth of ability there. LB im actually good w. WR we are kinda monster, but again depending on our formation, guys are on the bench a lot. davis i think is our future, doesn't get enough burn, sanders is old and like replacement level for us (davis or diggs fill in for him and have the same impact or greater), bease looks hurt, and we benched our speedy gadget guy. i really hope we can improve by re allocating money on non starters (DL rotation, klien and mattawitch who are OK but get way too much to ride the pine, sanders) and sign like 2 high impact players and draft to fill in the rest. shorter version: we have way too much draft and cap capital sitting in depth.

im not sure which lb was making a mental vs physical mistake, but AJ ran himself inside, behind the initial block, making it easy for the wr to trap him. i think even just fighting to his right might have gummed up the play (having the fb run into a pile of guys) enough to make a big impact, let alone beating his blocks. even smaller speed DEs like the bosa's and such show enough fight in the run game to make that much harder for the O. i don't think it's a physical issue w aj, he just made a mistake. platooning our DL kinda gets them not taking so many snaps. keeps them fresh, but it might hurt them getting learning reps and getting a feel for what the O is doing.

i'd put him in, how much worse can he be?

of course a great ol is better than a great rb, but that's 5 guys vs 1, and the cheapest of those 5 great OL likely get the same or more than the 1 RB. in terms of min maxing, what is the least cost and change that would result in the greatest improvement in our O (besides coaching anyhow) the biggest impacts as i see them are OG, RB, TE, big WR. solid OG might be our biggest instant improvement, but that says more about how awful the trash we line up out there are when we don't have our best guys in as much as how much the new OG himself will add. of the rest, RBs are the one position who can be generally counted on to perform at a high level as a rookie, and don't cost as much to keep. slightly better RB (call it close to NFL average) on monday woulda won us the game. taking away the horrible brieda fumble, and bouncing it outside on 1st and goal would have been enough in that disaster of a game. I think it's clear we need OG and RB (and TE and WR if we can swing it) but we don't have any other OGs on the roster who can step up as far as i can see, so im for jamming williams in there to see what happens, cuz what we got now ain't getting it done.

no, josh didn't do it alone, but i totally fade the argument that qb's are some kind of magical sapling which require special care in order to grow into 200 foot trees. they are football players like the rest of them, and if a guy has what it takes, he'll make it somewhere. if he doesn't, he wont. and i didnt' say to fire everyone, but clearly mcclaps has had a bad year, and im 100% unequivocally saying that dabol and some if not all (o line for sure) of our offensive coaching staff are simply not good, and they are riding high off of the explosion the bills o experienced which is a function of talent. being horrible in the red zone and not making adjustments is a sign of weak coaching, and not having an offensive identity in your 4th year w the same qb (star qb at that) is a sign of poor ability. daboll had trash results prior to the bills, and trash results his first two years. it's one thing to argue about an imperfect oc who has had consistent success (greg roman) but a guy who has only had about 20 or so really strong offensive games of production is simply not the CV of a good OC.

dude, what is your actual point? that the coaches are great and fans don't count? like, you realize this a fan message board, right? you're just coming off half cocked here, you pretend not to understand my point about the coaches doing a poor job, i've made a pretty clear case where and why our coaches have a shortcoming, and you need your head checked if you think allen isn't a rare talent, he did get the biggest guaranteed contract in nfl history, like it's not exactly brave to say he's good. your comment to me about not being important or entitled to anything is telling. you are nothing but a fan yourself, who are you to tell another fan (on a fan message board, where everyone is a fan giving fan opinions, for fun and venting purposes) what a fan should or shouldn't think? lol, you seem like a guy who orders a jersey with the coach's name on it.

bro, this is it entirely. motivation, scheme, basic coaching, and most of all identifying talent and ability. cody ford is trash, but it seems it took some serious failure to figure that out for our coaches. we let teller and spain walk (i understand spain had attitude issues of some kind, but he was good here for a while, and has been good on his new team). we could have dawkins, spain, morse, teller, brown assuming the coaches who would have pushed to keep those guys would be at least a bit better at scheming and coaching them up, that's a killer line. all guys who were on our team, all guys who played. we'd be able to pay teller by ditching williams as of next season, meanwhile he'd be on the roster this year as depth. we could have sacrificed the sanders signing to make easy room for all of this. i honestly think that alone, even w dabol being not my personal favorite (i admit, i've railed on him a bit much) we'd be able to run and protect just enough better in the red zone to have snuck in an extra TD and woulda won vs jax, ne, and likely one of pittz or Tenn. 9 and 3 would have us sitting super pretty, with the ability to actually execute on O oh my, what could have been!

oh dear, im afraid to look. that bad?

all that means is that the coaches are better than the trash we had before. also, w allen on this team, we are and should be judged more strictly, as we have a top flight qb, we should expect top flight results. furthermore, prior history loses relevance in the nfl very quickly, you are only as good as you are right now, and right now we are middle of the pack of the afc. that's not acceptable.

good point, Dopey! said another way: players not being ready to play, be it their personal mindset or schematic implementation or preparation prior to the game, be it a function of specific x's and o's or a more general systemic "culture" prevalent in the professional football club environment, is a function of the effectiveness of the management of that football club, i.e. the coaching staff.

ya, i was impressed with how hard the bills worked to stop it, and go the job done, after getting trucked for a long drive. it was a solid defensive stand.

in an era when RBs are the lowest paid as a % of cap as they've ever been, and are viewed as fungible, it is shocking to me we have 3 rbs on the active roster who either can't run, can't break tackles, or can't hold onto the ball (in some cases several of these at once!). given what we pay addison, butler, and sanders (who while fairly capable, is simply just a guy who replaces a basically equivalent player on O when he lines up, can't block, and it small) who are at best part time players, it's funny that we couldn't sign an OG and a real nfl RB this off season. god williams sucks this season.

the way we are built, we are weak against the run, it's just that simple. last night it showed when we got trucked a few times, and most of all on that long td run. i give our d a ton of credit for playing balls out all night and doing everything in the power to help us win. the goal line stand was essentially heroic. our d has laid two big eggs today, indy and tenn. those losses are on them. the rest is all on the O, and to a lesser extent on special teams (pittz)

hes another one of our just above replacement level rotation guys on the DL. the depth really does help our pass D, they don't get a lot of sacks but they can get some pressure while not totally falling below their normal standard vs the run (not the greatest standard, but still a very good overall D) the issue i have with him and groot and boogie and even oliver is that they are on the bench the majority of the time on D because of our rotation, while brown being out meant we had disasters at 3-5 of our oline positions. just poor allotment of draft capital, not to mention vet contracts.

exactly. im not sure of the mix of play calling, motivation, or simply just practicing and designing the necessary stuff to win these situations, but whatever the coaching staff have spent the entire season doing, it doesn't work at all. most dangerous run/pass qb in the nfl and i can tell you from my couch what play we are about to run in the redzone 8/10 times, and you know nfl d's figured it out. urban meyer made a disparaging comment about what we do on O, and he was 100% right. we are a lame spread O. he d'ed us up like one, and we folded like a cheap suit. and jax absolutely sucks.

we won 10 games in 19, woudla been 11 but we sat guys in the last game. we won 13 last year, most we are gonna win this season is 12, and that's with an extra game (and i don't think a single person on this board thinks we are gonna win 12 this season). Our talent is better than 19, and i don't think you rationally say it is worse (in fact, it is kinda obviously better, less the tre white injury of course) than in 20. all we have done this season is crush cans, snuck one over kc, and gone .500 at home including two total let downs on O, and a total team blow out. mcD in every season before this year had at least one total run for the bus game (NO when we had tyrod, several in Josh's first season, a couple in 19, tenn kc in the play offs last year, indy this year). so he's conservative in a way that doesn't prevent blow out knock down losses. allen is easily the best thing on this team, and about 29 or 30 other nfl teams would step over their own mothers to get him. he's the only reason we did well at all last year and this year. I agree mcd is coaching poorly this season, but he's the HC and he's on contract, and the D is solid and his shortcomings aside, he's got us this far. we absolutely need a better offensive coaching staff, and i wouldn't look past upgrading our D staff either. we might not have an overall great roster (not as good as we thought) and it's clearly not balanced or tough, but my goodness our redzone o is just so shockingly our biggest issue that if mcd wants to keep his seat from heating up too much he is going to have to address the O coaching. i don't think he has the eggs to fire daboll midseason, so it's likely in the offseason.

im banging the cover off of this drum, but not being prepared every other week is indicative to me of a coaching/culture issue. either they players don't buy in, they slack off, the scheme's get lazy/crappy, or some other issue hits us and we simply aren't good to go.

facts. sometimes i think being a bills fan itself is malicious compliance.