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Wawrow article: "The Buffalo Bills are 5-1, but are they really that good?"


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On ‎10‎/‎22‎/‎2019 at 5:01 PM, Shaw66 said:

Anyone who thinks the Bills are world beaters isn't watching.   They haven't been consistently solid in any phase of the game.   Defense has been the best. 

 

 

 

Everyone talks about how bad Allen was in the first half against the Dolphins.   I don't think the problem was that he was bad; the problem was that the Dolphins had the benefit of film study of the Bengals, Pats and Titans games.   They figured out where they could attack the Bills defense and how to stop the Bills' staple offensive plays.  .  

 

  

 

The Bills had the same opportunity to study the Dolphins D--which was without a few key players they have. 

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3 hours ago, Royale with Cheese said:

Every time the Bills have started 6-1, we've gone to the Super Bowl....

 

Al Bundy

 

this is a bit outdated but it fits in 

https://buffalonews.com/2019/09/22/buffalo-bills-3-0-starts-season-results/

 

 

 

 Here is how the nine previous Bill teams fared, including two AFL titles and two Super Bowl appearances:

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4 hours ago, BringBackFlutie said:

 

I agree, buuuut what's odd to me is that I read somewhere recently that we were 5-2 at one point during our playoff year with McD. ...so is this the same learning to win we did 2 years ago?  Of course, if we beat the Eagles, 6-1 is different than 5-2.  And, although we're not playing great teams, we're giving up far less points and not living off of turnovers on D.  But it's still strange to me that we're so close to that same position.

 

Anyway, I have no idea what the point of the article was.  There doesn't seem to be a conclusion.

 

Oh, yeah, that first year for McD.  I'd rather not remember that season.  We were indeed 5-2, with one of the best rush Ds in the league

Then Something Happened, we went from giving up an average of 80 ypg rushing, to giving up >200 yds the next three games.  We gave up 482 defensive yds to the Saints, had 1 offensive turnover for each team, and benched Tyrod Taylor for Nathan Peterman the following week.  I'm not quite sure "learning how to win" is exactly an apt what we did there. 

 

I have my opinion about what was going down, other people have theirs.   In any case, I think this year is indeed different - we have a much more solid defense (with our starting and/or 2nd string personnel) across the board.  Of concern is the health of Milano and Corey Thompson, as well as the season loss of Horrible Harry who was showing well.  Big fall off at both positions when we get down to the 3rd string.  On offense, it was pretty clear Taylor was not going to develop along the lines of the sort of offensive system McDermott wanted to run, so the goal was draft a new QB and we almost won too much to achieve that (but Beane got 'er done).

 

I think the point of the article is to raise the question and lay out some arguments pro and con, not to reach a conclusion.  The conclusion will be reached on the field. 

 

Either Beane and McDermott will find acquisitions/make adjustments to keep our defense strong or they won't.  Either our offense will step up and become more efficient at generating points/hanging on to the ball or they won't.  Answer coming soon to a stadium near you.

 

 

 

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On 10/22/2019 at 12:43 PM, Captain Hindsight said:

I think Miami played their best game of the year. They are clearly not going 0-16. That team is better coached than I thought.

 

Bills came out flat, woke up and then turned it on and put away a desperate team. It wasnt too long ago that certain bearded QB was QBing a team that started 0-8 before winning a few games against some good teams. Fitz knows what it takes to win and he gave it his all sunday. Bills were a better team and won, but Miami will be no cakewalk for the rest of the year. 

 

Unless Rosen plays

 

I think it was Dallas, was down to Miami in the 1st half and then blew them out in the second half. Kind of like our experience, Miami is a better 1st half team than people give them credit for.

 

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"Buffalo can chalk up two wins on missed kicks.

The Bills’ season-opening 17-16 win over the New York Jets came in a game Kaare Vedvik missed an extra-point and 45-yard field goal attempt. In a 14-7 win at Tennessee in Week 5, Titans kicker Cairo Santos missed all four field-goal attempts including two from inside 40 yards."

 

Maybe I'm suffering from a case of Cranial-Rectal Fusion but, since no one will ever know what would have happened had those teams actually made those field goals, doesn't this fall under the category of "taking what the other team gives you"? 

 

Who's to say if the Titans & Jets HAD made those kicks that the Bills wouldn't have still won? 

 

I haven't drunk so much of the Kool-aid that I don't realize the Bills aren't fully developed yet. This schedule, however, is based on last year's record, which wasn't great.  That's just the way it works.

 

As McDermott and many of the players have said ad nauseum, 1) the weekly goal is to end up 1-0 (which they have done pretty well so far), and 2) records don't mean squat BEFORE a game. For what DOES mean squat, see #1

 

Yes, the team that has given the Bills their only defeat thus far is the "defending" Super Bowl champs who themselves had a fairly pathetic offensive performance against this possibly not-so-good team even with all the turnovers. 

 

The time to make an intelligent determination of just how good this team is or isn't would be sometime in January 2020.

 

 

Edited by SloanBillsFan
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8 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

The Bills had the same opportunity to study the Dolphins D--which was without a few key players they have. 

Right.  I've said throughout that the Bills were not well prepared for the game.  

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3 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

 

How can you not be prepared to face the worst offense in the NFL?  4 other teams had no such problem.

How can they be unprepared?  Lots of ways.  Lousy film study.  Failure to recognize appropriate keys.  Failure to teach appropriate keys.   Failure to self scout well enough.  Failure to recognize how the Dolphins might choose to attack certain defenses.  Failure to recognize defensive adjustments the Dolphins likely would make.  

 

Everyone has a job to do, players and coaches.  Just like the players, the coaches do a better job some weeks than others.   Everything changes from week to week.   What the Bills are trying to do is achieve a high level of excellence every week, but that's hard to do.  They didn't do a good enough job.  

 

How could the Cowboys be unprepared for the Jets?   Easy.   It's very difficult to be excellently prepared week after week after week.  That's why Belichick is a genius and everyone else is changing.   The Pats are the only team that's well prepared essentially all of the time.  

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15 hours ago, SloanBillsFan said:

"Buffalo can chalk up two wins on missed kicks.

The Bills’ season-opening 17-16 win over the New York Jets came in a game Kaare Vedvik missed an extra-point and 45-yard field goal attempt. In a 14-7 win at Tennessee in Week 5, Titans kicker Cairo Santos missed all four field-goal attempts including two from inside 40 yards."

 

Maybe I'm suffering from a case of Cranial-Rectal Fusion but, since no one will ever know what would have happened had those teams actually made those field goals, doesn't this fall under the category of "taking what the other team gives you"? 

 

Who's to say if the Titans & Jets HAD made those kicks that the Bills wouldn't have still won? 

 

I haven't drunk so much of the Kool-aid that I don't realize the Bills aren't fully developed yet. This schedule, however, is based on last year's record, which wasn't great.  That's just the way it works.

 

As McDermott and many of the players have said ad nauseum, 1) the weekly goal is to end up 1-0 (which they have done pretty well so far), and 2) records don't mean squat BEFORE a game. For what DOES mean squat, see #1

 

Yes, the team that has given the Bills their only defeat thus far is the "defending" Super Bowl champs who themselves had a fairly pathetic offensive performance against this possibly not-so-good team even with all the turnovers. 

 

The time to make an intelligent determination of just how good this team is or isn't would be sometime in January 2020.

 

 

 

You should consider changing your font size.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/25/2019 at 6:47 AM, Gugny said:

 

You should consider changing your font size.

 

Sorry. Thanks for pointing that out to me. Not sure why it's posting so large. Am I missing the control somewhere? 

On 10/25/2019 at 7:27 AM, SlimShady'sGhost said:

 

This X 100

 

PSA  --  When copying something after you paste it look for 

 

  Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

 

 

just click  Paste as plain text instead

Thanks! I use my phone almost exclusively. Must be missing something somewhere... ?

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