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Who is the healthy scratch for Sunday?


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9 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Yes I am not suggesting cutting Lee Smith. I am suggesting I might be tempted to make him inactive for this Sunday because I like the matchup of Duke against their corners and I see him as the most expendable for this game.

 

I feel ya - its not like he's going to be the reason we win this game.. I just get nervous of a gameplan that can get thrown out with a kroft ankle injury or something like that.

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2 hours ago, Ethan in Portland said:

With a capable rushing attack and the rush defense woes, I can’t see Corey Liuget not dressing this week. And while it would blow this board up, I can’t see Oliver not dressing either. My guess is they will dress all five DTs. 
Could Lawson go further into this regime’s dog house and not dress? Could Murphy go from making zero impact on the field to zero impact on the inactive list?

Furthermore, with the inclement weather prediction will they dress three or four tight ends?
I have a feeling, they will only dress four WRs - Brown, Beasley, Duke, and Roberts. Also with a healthy Nsekhe and Ford, they might opt to sit a linemen to get Yeldon or Sweeney active. 

 

I can not imagine they would not have either Foster or McKensie dress.  Foster has been killing it on ST.

 

19 minutes ago, JoshAllenHasBigHands said:

That is a quick turn around on Liuget. It'd be one thing if we only had three DTs, but throwing him in with only a couple days preparation with a healthy roster of DTs seems excessive. 

 

He is a vet.  He indicated he would have to "get on it"  but also even though it's a challenge, he could pick it up like "this" (finger click).

 

I imagine it all depends upon how he looks in practice.

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With everyone healthy, I think the first 4 are easy:

 

Boettger

Bates

Sweeney

Vosean Joseph

 

The other 3 will be a DB, WR and DT best guess:

Marlowe (outside chance it's Coleman)

Duke Williams (Foster stays and they use McKenzie a lot)

Taylor

 

Though Yeldon is a good possibility too. Maybe that's how they get 5 DTs active

Edited by jwhit34
Forgot one
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49 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

I am not generally as down on Smith as I know you have been but actually the tape the last two weeks shows me Kroft blocking pretty well and Dawson (while he has some room to go as a pass blocker) has been a beast in run blocking and has outperformed Smith there. I just don't know at this stage if his blocking is so much ahead of theirs that he is worth a specialist spot.

To me, I’d just assume play an extra OL. You don’t really have to account for Smith in the pass game. He’s a good blocker but not as good as an additional OL would be in short yardage. He commits 1-2 penalties a game. I just don’t see his value? 
 

Now, I’m not terribly high on Foster either. He’s open every play. He and I have caught the same number of balls this year. His ball skills are just so poor. He does add some value as a threat though. The thought of him over the top is enough to keep the safeties back and help in the running game. I believe that matters some. I’d still take 2 shots a game down the field. I just wish that every so often it resulted in a catch or PI flag.

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3 hours ago, Ethan in Portland said:

With a capable rushing attack and the rush defense woes, I can’t see Corey Liuget not dressing this week. And while it would blow this board up, I can’t see Oliver not dressing either. My guess is they will dress all five DTs. 
Could Lawson go further into this regime’s dog house and not dress? Could Murphy go from making zero impact on the field to zero impact on the inactive list?

Furthermore, with the inclement weather prediction will they dress three or four tight ends?
I have a feeling, they will only dress four WRs - Brown, Beasley, Duke, and Roberts. Also with a healthy Nsekhe and Ford, they might opt to sit a linemen to get Yeldon or Sweeney active. 

It appears we should bring a strong running gameplan, complimented by a short passing game with the strategy of decent YACs.

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29 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

Yes I am not suggesting cutting Lee Smith. I am suggesting I might be tempted to make him inactive for this Sunday because I like the matchup of Duke against their corners and I see him as the most expendable for this game.

 

McDermott talks about earning it.   Each week we talk about penalties stalling our offensive drives.

 

Lee Smith has 7 penalties all by his lonesome this season.  4 for false start, 3 for offensive holding.

That's 1/4 of the Bills current FS penalties (16) and ~1/4 of the Bills OH penalties (13) just on his own.

 

He keeps saying "We've got to do better - I got to do better" when interviewed.  2 against Philly.

 

So I think that's a possibility.

 

But interestingly, the TE whose offensive snaps have taken a nosedive isn't Lee Smith.  It's Tyler Kroft.  He went from 44% snaps vs Miami, to 58% vs Philly, to 26% vs Wash.

Either they were working him in too quickly physically and realized they need to back down, he isn't performing as they expected, or they are really making individual TE playing time choices based upon opponent.  Knox, on the other hand, has gone from 53% to 45% to 76% the last 3 weeks.

 

Smith has had a pretty steady 30% of the snaps the last 5 games - a couple little spikes up into the 40's.

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3 hours ago, PaattMaann said:

 

There is absolutely no way they only dress 4 WRs lol 

 

what inclement weather are you talking about?

You are probably correct.

I saw high 30' low 40s with sleet snow/rain mix possible. 

1 minute ago, Royale with Cheese said:

 

Yes you did post a question but also went on a rant.  You've gone on rants before.

Yeah maybe I did rant about Murphy. I did not like the signing from day one and feel Lawson is underutilized. 

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9 minutes ago, Ethan in Portland said:

You are probably correct.

I saw high 30' low 40s with sleet snow/rain mix possible. 

Yeah maybe I did rant about Murphy. I did not like the signing from day one and feel Lawson is underutilized. 

 

get a new weather app friend 

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3 hours ago, billsbackto81 said:

That's a lot to ask of a street FA picked up a few days ago. I do like what he brings though, maybe he'll see some action as I expect a heavy run gameplan on both sides.

 

Leaning towards Luiget getting snaps.

 

Luiget is a vet who has played DT for two teams that have asked him to leverage different interior gap techniques.

 

If he is healthy he gets the snaps. It will not be that much of a curve for him to understand what the defensive staff feels they are giving up in the middle on run D, and what they are looking for him to bring.

 

I am concerned that he has been cast off by two teams, but Phillips seemed to blossom here after getting the boot from Gase (genius), maybe Luiget finds his game again as a Bill.

 

 

 

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22 minutes ago, Kirby Jackson said:

To me, I’d just assume play an extra OL. You don’t really have to account for Smith in the pass game. He’s a good blocker but not as good as an additional OL would be in short yardage. He commits 1-2 penalties a game. I just don’t see his value? 
 

Now, I’m not terribly high on Foster either. He’s open every play. He and I have caught the same number of balls this year. His ball skills are just so poor. He does add some value as a threat though. The thought of him over the top is enough to keep the safeties back and help in the running game. I believe that matters some. I’d still take 2 shots a game down the field. I just wish that every so often it resulted in a catch or PI flag.

 

I think Smith runs routes often enough and catches enough balls that he isn't a tell in the way that an extra OL is to the defense. I would rather have him up than down but this week I want to get Duke active and while I am with you on Foster (I have never been especially high on him and he surprised me last year) I think for this week especially I might go Smith down of the two. Most weeks unless there is a specific matchup reason to think otherwise Duke would be my healthy scratch (along with Yeldon and Sweeney) of the offensive skill position guys.

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32 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

McDermott talks about earning it.   Each week we talk about penalties stalling our offensive drives.

 

Lee Smith has 7 penalties all by his lonesome this season.  4 for false start, 3 for offensive holding.

That's 1/4 of the Bills current FS penalties (16) and ~1/4 of the Bills OH penalties (13) just on his own.

 

He keeps saying "We've got to do better - I got to do better" when interviewed.  2 against Philly.

 

So I think that's a possibility.

 

But interestingly, the TE whose offensive snaps have taken a nosedive isn't Lee Smith.  It's Tyler Kroft.  He went from 44% snaps vs Miami, to 58% vs Philly, to 26% vs Wash.

Either they were working him in too quickly physically and realized they need to back down, he isn't performing as they expected, or they are really making individual TE playing time choices based upon opponent.  Knox, on the other hand, has gone from 53% to 45% to 76% the last 3 weeks.

 

Smith has had a pretty steady 30% of the snaps the last 5 games - a couple little spikes up into the 40's.

 

I think the Knox peak this week was game plan related. They were going to run it a lot and his run blocking has been the best of the 3.

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