finn

Ed Oliver and the Warm Butters.

Can you describe the new scheme?

Are they really claiming Allen is not elite? Do they think he is, what, above average? Mediocre?

Maybe not. The Athletic has some film analysis of three or four defensive breakdowns, and in at least some of them the Bills players were in position to make the tackle but just didn't. DeQuan played like he didn't have arms, Rousseau got knocked down at least once, Sanders was walled off or slow off the snap, Rapp was just slow period, Bernard and Milano kept running the wrong way or got blocked, and Bishop, well... Only Oliver, Bosa, and Benford appeared to play well (based on this and a few other analyses I saw), while Dorian Strong held his own for the most part. If all this is fair, maybe you're right we can't blame McDermott's approach. Maybe this was just a truly bad performance of a good defense, or a predictably performance of a mediocre defense against an excellent offense. I would opt for the latter, with the proviso that the young players should improve.

You're ok with a speedbump defense and ball-control offense asking Allen to produce with less than 1% odds of succeeding? I mean, that's what happened Sunday, right? Allen and co. bailed the team out despite McDermott's approach to the game, not because of it.

Thanks for the fresh thread. Upon reflection (and endless, happy viewings of the highlights), I'm even more impressed by Oliver. The big sack, the stuff of Henry, the huge hit on Lamar... He looked like Aaron Donald out there. And I agree about the tone this comeback sets for the team, both the rookies and veterans like Bosa and Palmer. Wow, could there be a better motivator to work even harder than a win like that? It must be electrifying. And talk about boosting resilience! Who is going to be giving up in the tough games ahead when the team is down in the fourth quarter?

Or McDermott. 😕

I wonder if the Beane and Brady (I don't credit McDermott) are on the cutting edge of offensive innovation in this respect. You pass on an extremely fast but small receiver who can presumably get loads of separation for a big, strong guy who can't separate to save his life but can leap through the ceiling and box out like an NBA center. For example, how do you defend that high pass to Coleman in the fourth quarter? Yet he's not just a tight end: he's athletic and has moves, like that stop-go step that broke Jaire Alexander's ankles. Separation isn't everything.

I see your point. But there's a reason why the Red Sea opened up for Allen in the fourth quarter, besides his inherent greatness: the defense was exhausted from defending the run. (TOP was 34:49-25-11.) Instead of a fast-paced shootout, McDermott evidently planned for the Bills D to be at least a speed bump (e.g., Henry had to slow down to stiff-arm Bishop into the turf /s) while the constant grinding on offense depleted their defense. But McDermott's brilliant strategy gave his team a 1% to win at the end, so you're dead right and he was dead wrong. Just because Allen bailed him out doesn't mean he shouldn't be held accountable. Can we get a new head coach, please? He's using his Maserati of a quarterback to drop off the recyclables and pick up the kids.

How about the Jell-O defense. You can eat it all day long, but if you get too much of it, it makes you sick, as the Ravens found out.

Good point. It's just a metric, useful as long as clear what it's measuring. Same with QBR and EPA. (As I recall, Lamar is higher than Allen in QBR, too, but lower in EPA.)

Romo used to be one of my favorites, but now he's less articulate, more liable to ramble and lapse into platitudes and superlatives instead of sticking to analysis.

Second. This site is a pleasure to visit: clean, intuitive, complete. Look at any other NFL fan site, and you realize how lucky we are.

Kelso with the kazoo helmet!

Tell me more about depressed Dolphins fans. 😁

Looks like he was below average in the first week, too.

The move would make more sense if they were dead last in offense...

I respect your first sentence. I don't respect your second, which puts you squarely in the ever-charming "If someone disagrees with me, I must insult them" camp. Don't bother to reply. I prefer substance to malice.

Not at all. I was being totally earnest and asking questions I was interested in, no snark at all. (And I'm not one of those posters who view any criticism of the Bills as disloyalty or worse.)

Your list suggests the tradition had (and has) good cause. The film on how Bishop missed that tackle should be a "What not to do" teaching tool. I'm sure Bishop would agree.

I hardly think it's over the top. You really think no safety in the league has a chance to tackle Henry from that angle? That's giving Henry an awful lot of credit, and takes Bishop off the hook for a truly lame attempt. Yes, it's a tough tackle, but his job is to tackle, not flail and end up on the ground.

I don't know about average, but you would think more Lamar boosters would acknowledge that it makes at least a little difference to have a generational running back on your team, maybe handicap his MVP hype just a bit. Put it this way: Can you imagine Allen and Henry on the same team?

Was it the Ravens playing soft or adjustments by the Bills? Could it be as simple as Brady not calling run plays and short passes, or the receivers deciding to get open, or Allen hitting the small windows he wasn't trying earlier? Looking forward to the analysis.

Yes, Rapp looked as slow as Hamlin looked last year, like he was running in mud. Bishop has the speed, just not anything else. That lame tackle attempt against Henry, who didn't stiff-arm him as much as lazily wave in his direction, was embarrassing. Will he grow into the job? I want to optimistic, since he's young and athletic, but he had a private tutor all last year as well as the offseason to learn, and he still did worse than Dorian Strong performed as a rookie sixth-round pick. Still early, but he's got to turn it around soon.