Rockinon

I love it. The suspense, the long road traveled to get here. NE actually has a chance to take the #1 seed for this week. And the Bills have the opportunity to crush their hopes twice before the playoffs. Good stuff. And there are a bunch of AFC teams within striking distance. It's game on now.

I'm totally OK with NE being #1 seed and then crushing their hopes 2 times before the playoffs.

With the Titans loss and what is looking like a Colts loss the AFC is so wide open. Love it.

What else could it be, you bringing it up in a Bills message board? Stop pretending.

Oh you mean the game where Josh has 4 TDs and connected on over 80% of his passes? Yea, that's the game. Get your smack talk in now. It'll be short lived.

Oh come on, I know you wanna.....

Titan's kicker blows.

There is no doubt you have some legit concerns. That defensive line is good and they have been coming on in recent games. No doubt they are going to try to wreck Buffalo's OL. It's their only option because their secondary sucks. I have no doubt the Bills have a game plan for this team that will exploit the secondary and put up points. My guess is that there will be additional blockers. There will be plays designed to freeze defenders so they can't just blitz. Buffalo has had a couple of stinkers, offensively, but I'm pretty confident, they have a good plan in place this week.

If he tested negative yesterday and again today, he could be activated. If I'm reading the rules correctly.

Someone painted it by hand and then called it art?

The Bills figured some things out last week with the pass game. It wasn't all Brown back in the lineup. Josh played a lot less shotgun and took many more snaps under center, setting up better runs and better play action. There was a major shift in how they were playing offense. I think you are going to see that OL beefed up even with Brown and Feliciano out. More TEs or linemen. Saw some of that last week. The 2 deep safeties don't scare me against this team. They have some major issues in that secondary.

Both of their safeties are injured. Starting CB Xavier Rhodes has given up big plays deep, allowing a passer rating of 146.8 when targeted on passes of 10 air yards or more. All they have to do is protect Josh. A sixth lineman and sling that rock. Who cares about Jonathon Taylor if you can throw for 400yds. Indianapolis has allowed more passing touchdowns than any other team in football, surrendering 23 in their first 10 games. Everyone keeps saying this is a tough matchup for Buffalo. Umm, Looks to me that this is a tough matchup for Indy.

I do believe Buffalo's run defense is underrated. They do enough to slow the run down and there is no way that Wentz is going to lead that team to even 20pts. Bills coast to an easy victory. Bills 34 Colts 13

Milano I think is playing. He's practicing. Edmunds, don't know. He could wake up tomorrow and be fine or still feel the hammy. I'm more worried about Brown. Gotta keep Allen clean so he can work his magic.

I agree. If I am not mistaken, they have some receivers that can get deep. Keep them contained and force that short pass game while playing good gap integrity, and we win this game easily. Really glad we have the best safety tandem in the NFL.

I wouldn't say Beasley is a clean route runner. Some of those cuts he makes are down right filthy.

I'm not disagreeing or arguing. I've just been on a bit of rant over RPOs lately that started before this game. One of the things that was really irking me is that it was effecting the run game and the RBs in particular. Josh would take the snap, stick the ball in a RBs gut while keeping both hands tight on the ball, trying to decide whether the hand it off or keep it himself. The poor running back has no choice but to stop, wait for Josh to let go of the ball so he could start running again. That's what got me paying attention to the RPOs more closely in the 1st place and the more I watched it just seemed to snowball in to even more distaste. Sorry if I came off a little strong. No disrespect intended. I'm just not a big fan of that play call. At least not if it's being used too often. Last year it was working very well. This year not so much.

That's the way I used to think of it. But those plays have been blown up repeatedly in recent weeks and the issue is that they often end with Josh getting hit behind the line of scrimmage. If he doesn't escape, that's a sack. Also, if you were watching this game, the RPOs were rarely used if at all. Also, it's very clear, the play calling was much different in this game. I admit that the design of the RPO is how you describe, but it is still a pass option. And if nobody is crossing the line of scrimmage, what do you think the OL is belatedly going to try to do? Continue to run block? Every play has it's benefits and flaws. The point is that it was far over used and new play calls were needed.

I was saying before this game, that the RPOs were killing the run game and the offense as a whole. The thing that stood out to me is that run plays were run plays and pass plays were pass plays. Those option plays left the OL not knowing whether to pass block or run block and were killing the offense. RPOs are a nice wrinkle, but the offense was using then way too much. It's really no surprise that the Bills offense exploded against the Jets. All they really needed was to get back to some good play calling. Of course, having Knox and Brown back factored in too. Overall though, I think the RPOs were hanging the OL out to dry and Josh too, for that matter. When the play call is a run the OL can fire off a block as soon as the ball snaps. When a play is a pass, the OL can focus on protecting the QB. The offense still has some work to do, but I think they have discovered what hasn't been working and then executed in this game. The play action is nice to see. The different run looks were too. Liking what I see.

Call a run or call a pass. How do you expect the OL to block if they don't know if it is a run or a pass? This needs to be communicated in the huddle before the play and it is obvious that Josh is still trying to decide after the ball is hiked. Those RPOs are getting exposed.

I was just reading another post, talking about how blocking on the OL is entirely different when comparing running the ball and passing. On pass plays, you are in a protective stance trying to keep the QB clean. On run plays, you are firing to hit your man and open a hole. It's a completely different mentality. What is the OL doing on RPOs? Are they pass blocking or run blocking. This is why I hate those RPOs. I could be wrong, but it seems to me the RBs would look much better if the OL is actually run blocking instead of also being tasked with pass blocking on any given play. Those plays are over used in this offense. Another thing that is driving me crazy is watching Allen waiting until the very last second to give the RB the ball. Sometimes Allen is holding the ball in the RBs gut with both hands and the RB has no choice but to sit there and wait for Josh to let go before he can take off running. How about actually calling a run, allowing the OL to fire off of the snap and also allowing the RB to hit that hole before it closes up. And how about just calling a pass play instead of an RPO, again to allow the OL to do it's job and protect the QB. The RPOs can be useful, but it is way overused. The OL will certainly look better if they know ahead of time whether it's a pass or a run.

Um, Diggs, Beasley, Sanders and Knox aren't weapons?

Oh, yes....haha. That's what I meant, 6.

I'm wondering if the Bills are considering putting 5 OLmen on the field kinda like the way SF had some success doing a couple of years ago. Also, Knox returning is helpful but I wonder if he can block with a recently fractured hand. 3 weeks away, I imagine there will be some pain when jabbing that hand at a defender. Hopefully, Spencer's back isn't serious and he's ready to roll. I wonder what run blocking will look like this week. I know the coaches like guys who can play multiple positions on the OL, but all of this shuffling can't be easy on the players. I really hope they get something serviceable figured out quick so those players can gel as a unit. Anyway, I think they are now under the gun to get things figured out in short order. Going to be interesting to see how this plays out over the next couple of weeks.

I've been wondering the same thing about the run plays. It's really odd that none of our RBs can make it to the second level of the defense. Good catch. Perhaps because of all the OL shuffling? I've been watching how anemic the offense as a whole has looked. And it isn't just the run game or the pass game. We simply aren't mixing things up. Hope they get out of this funk soon.