mannc

Andy Reid vs Bill Belichick.

Not looking good, folks.

If K.C. punts on this drive, it would feel like this game is over.

It proves no such thing. It proves that NE can run the ball, which we already knew, and that KC’s defense is not very good, also not exactly a newsflash.

K.C. is going to have to score a TD pretty much every possession. That’s a lot of pressure on Mahomes.

I think the greater offensive output has less to do with rule changes (although they certainly play a part) than coaches slowly recognizing that passing the football is a better way to score points and win football games. For decades, NFL coaches were biased in favor of running the football—“only three thing can happen when you pass the football, and two of them are bad”, “you have run and stop the run”. Much of this realization can be traced to analytics; passing has always been a superior way to move the football; it’s just taken football people a long time to understand that. As a result, teams are throwing more, devising better, more difficult to defend passing concepts, and devoting greater resources to developing the passing game. As defenses try to adjust, some smart coaches (like Belichick) will exploit it by going run-heavy against defenses geared to stop the pass, but that won’t change the basic fact: Passing is better.

Did your friend play in the SEC recently? Because that’s what we’re talking about, not UB or Pitt or even Penn State.

The Raiders would not trade those picks for number 9, much less 15. Gruden is stupid, but not that stupid.

Pass the pipe...

Both valid points. Forgot about the Raiders other first next year, although it’s likely to be in the 20’s.

Well, since NFL teams who pass for 105 yards or less routinely lose by less than 28.5 points, your point is utterly meaningless. #Exposed

And he beat the Bengals on the road in that game. #Owned

You’re joking, right?

Stop with your “it’s not debatable” nonsense. You haven’t refuted a single statement that Kirby made, so stop pretending you have. No one is saying Lawrence or Tua would light up the NFL right now (although Desaun Watson did as a rookie), but it’s ridiculous to argue that they aren’t better right now than some of the stiffs who won games in the NFL this year, like CJ Betheard and the immortal Brock Osweiler.

Another post in this thread utterly devoid of facts, failing to respond to the well-supported argument that Bama and Clemson could absolutely compete with bottom tier NFL teams.

If there’s no blue chipper available at 9, then teams aren’t going to want to give up much to move up. See how that works? And the Raiders aren’t trading next year’s first rounder. They are going to suck again this year and it’s going to be a QB-heavy draft.

That’s not the way it works. 24 and 27 this year are worth more than 27 this year and a 1 next year from a team like KC. Next year’s picks are generally devalued by one round. The Raiders (even with a fool like Gruden) would never trade those three picks just to get to 9 in a so-so draft.

You apparently haven’t been following college football, or at least Clemson and Alabama. These guys are grown-ass men. Alabama’s offensive and defensive lines are as big (or bigger than) the Bills’ lines. Guys coming to the nfl out of these 2 programs are not magically putting on 25 pounds when they join the league. 25 year olds are not generally bigger and stronger than 21 and 22 year olds. At least 14 guys from last year’s Alabama team (mostly day one and day two picks) played in the NFL this year, including guys who didn’t even start. And this year the numbers will probably be similar. This year’s Alabama team probably fielded 7-9 guys who will be first round picks this year or next. No NFL team has that many first round picks on its roster. And while most of those guys will improve somewhat after being drafted, they are all going to be starters or rotational guys right away, not four or five years from now. That is a massive amount of elite athletic talent. Hell, there is not even a massive talent gap between guys in the NFL and a lot of guys who aren’t. Every week we see guys who are street free agents come in and make difference in actual NFL games.

I hope this is correct. No one in their right mind would sign off on a four-year plan to make the Bills contenders after going .500 under Wrex, and I’m damn sure McDermott never told the Pegulas any such thing.

The sad thing is, we’ll probably never have the joy of seeing the Pats dynasty vanquished and stomped. Brady will probably just retire after another 12-4, Super Bowl season, and that will be that.

Garbage time...

How many offensive TDS have the Bills scored against NE in the last 4 games?

Because McDermott has been SO impressive against Belichick...

I agree that football analytics are more complicated than in other sports, where it’s easier to isolate performance and the factors affecting it. I thought you were throwing the baby out with the bath water...

So all the NFL teams that have invested millions of dollars on analytics and are making multi-million dollar decisions based on analytics (which is almost all of them) are just throwing away their time and money? Ok...