finn

I never did find out what happened to Dorian Williams. Was he injured or pulled out?

I love this idea. That might really shake up the malaise that seems to have settled in. Can Kincaid and Andy Isabelle really perform worse that these mediocrities?

The D gets a pass with those injuries. The offensive problems are really all about Dorsey, who is always one step behind the defensive coordinators he's facing: always reactive, rarely proactive. Even with a competent right tackle and reliable second receiver, this offense would not all that much better with Dorsey at the helm. It was expedient and good politics to hire from within, but it might have been the biggest blunder of the McBeane era. And after these past two games, it might finally--finally--be dawning on McDermott and Beane that the Bills won't make it to the Super Bowl with Dorsey. Unless the lose the next two, though, or maybe three, he's going nowhere until the offseason.

I think so, too. McDermott may or may not be head-coaching material (or SB coaching material), but he's a top-five defensive coordinator. He could lose two other starters and still hold the pats under 20. If we only had a top-five offensive coordinator...

Did I miss that? I thought he was still allowing four or five pressures a game.

I wouldn't mind Boogie around now. So did the Giants. Just saying.

And so young!

Bills 20 Pats 17 Another nail-biter.

I always wonder whether team-wide poor performances like this--the mistakes here and there adding up--are due to preparation, team apathy, distraction, etc., or they're the result of a cascade effect. Gabe Davis doesn't trip, for example, and Allen hits him for a 30-yard gain that excites the crowd, leading Brown to focus just a bit more on his blocking and Knox on his catching. Really hard to know for sure. As an amateur athlete, I have off days that I just can't explain, and sometimes they seem to cause my teammates to lose focus, too. Works the other way, too. A single great play can change everything. In other words, the difference between a very bad and very good game might be very slim indeed. If true, some or most of the media pronouncements about the quality of a team or player could be just plain wrong.

I don't know. It looked to me that Davis and Sherfield both tripped over their own feet. The DB's hand might have brushed Davis' leg, but it looked like he was going down, anyway.

Except Von Miller's. I don't blame Beane or Miller; pure hindsight, so it's not about Beane's judgment or Miller's play. But the fact is Miller got a gigantic contract for eight games of high-level production. It's not at all clear he'll be back to form this year, and he'll be 35 next year. Imagine spending that money on, say, Davante Adams.

Good observation. In this game, the offense wasn't as bad as it seems, and the defense wasn't as good as it seems. Another plain observation that might cut through the smoke: On offense, Bills have two superstars and a bunch of average players, along with an average OC. We're seeing the results, for better and worse.

Are you referring to his string of run plays? That was good to see. Wish he had thought to do that earlier in the game.

Not Bass. Not Knox. Not Brown. Not Dorsey. Not Davis. Oliver played well.

Injuries on D, no one home on O.

Wow, it was like the Giants knew what calls were coming on offense. Dorsey walked right into the lamp post in this game.

Yep.

Yeah, something is wrong, that's for sure.

Shotgun draw coming.

Yeah, but in the hands of a real OC, this offense could be so much better, that's the point. The offense is good despite Dorsey, not because of him.

This. Can you think of anything creative, innovative, or just plain different that Dorsey has done since he became OC? He was given the keys to a Porsche, and he drives like a Ford Pinto.

ok, now I really do think they could lose. Wow.

They could not have done worse if they ran every last play so far this game. They might even be winning. But, no, for Dorsey, it begins and ends with the shotgun.

Allen hardly making his case for MVP.

Occam's Razor. The most obvious answer is the most likely. Dorsey is not an NFL-caliber coordinator. McDermott hired an Allen crony, and they've been paying for it since then.