Impressions from game

[HurlyBurly51]

I need more Dorian!

 

[TheyCallMeAndy]

2 minutes ago, HurlyBurly51 said:

I need more Dorian!

 

He wasn’t perfect, but it’s a good start. 

[Orlando Tim]

6 minutes ago, John from Riverside said:

People need to stop freaking out about the back up offensive line
 

When a player gets injured, you don’t put in the whole second string

Hey was working up to a good irrational rant, why you gotta ruin like that? 😁

[JGMcD2]

16 minutes ago, John from Riverside said:

People need to stop freaking out about the back up offensive line
 

When a player gets injured, you don’t put in the whole second string

Except for that one time in Miami! 

[Eastport bills]

Dorian Williams looks like he can play. He’s really quick and is physical. He’s definitely an OLB that will contribute immediately. Cook is explosive and will be one of the keys to making the offense multidimensional. Murray will be a good complimentary back and be a great as a short yardage option. Basham will be a tough guy to deal with when  Miller and Floyd are on the field. He looks highly motivated. On the other side of the ledger, Allen can’t be #2. He’s just not experienced or confident enough for our team. Barkley knows this offense and is a good backup. Shakir must clean up the drops because he can be a tremendous asset as our slot receiver. I like Sean as the DC. We will be more aggressive for sure.

[Einstein]

24 minutes ago, mannc said:

Remember this?

 

 

Yes!

 

Between him and Singletary, we had very little playmaking ability to take advantage of defenses that collapsed on the tackle box.

 

[In Summary]

Asking: Did the Bills play any three LB defense? Any reason to think that if they did/do in the regular season, it's not Milano, Williams  and whoever starts at MLB?

Edited August 13, 2023 by In Summary

[balln]

3 hours ago, Augie said:

 

I’m all for the speed upgrade, but if I have Singletary I just keep doing what he does well, making people miss in small spaces and happily accept his career 4.7 ypc. 

He had a crazy high fumble per carry rate. And he would have big time drops in playoff games in passing game

[HappyCat]

4 hours ago, Doc Brown said:

Can we put Matt Barkley's brain in Kyle Allen's body?

I was thinking the same.

[Malazan]

4 hours ago, Doc Brown said:

Can we put Matt Barkley's brain in Kyle Allen's body?

 

Isn't that how we got Josh Allen?

[HappyCat]

3 hours ago, Rich Stadium Original said:

Purely a gut feeling..will have to go back and look at the stats again, but..

Thought Cook looked good..even aside from the TD hit the holes well in his limited action.

Vance more than held his own at guard.

Allen has two weeks to get in sync if he wants to be QB2

Looks like they are pretty confident in THAT rookie TE if they hardly played him

Unimpressed with starting defensive line. Weak again against the run, and only pass rush was generated by blitzing. 

 

 

I don't think Allen #2 will get 2 weeks.  Something is up with him.  He played like a raw rookie!

[Dan]

13 minutes ago, balln said:

He had a crazy high fumble per carry rate. And he would have big time drops in playoff games in passing game

That is simply not true. 

[Ralonzo]

4 hours ago, TheyCallMeAndy said:

Tim Settle looked GOOD, been hearing that all camp.

 

Settle got completely handled by Nelson 1-on-1 in the 1st quarter which freed up the rest of the Colts starting OL. As soon as Nelson exited the Bills DL poured through the Colts like they were a sieve. He's that important.

 

Sad to see but Boettger is done. Doyle with one leg was more effective blocking. He was a JAG to begin with but has lost a significant something.

 

The big'uns at receiver weren't getting separation in the first half, and Wrong Allen was throwing to them anyway. Shavers, Johnson and 8-man did have moments later with Barkley.

 

Don't think Isabella is the answer at KR, but Evans could be, esp if Harty is going to handle punts.

 

"3-car" Gouraige seemed to show well at LT, as did Van Denmark although he seemed to struggle some at RT.

 

Saw more out of Dorian Williams today than Bernard his first preseason - lucky fumble return notwithstanding.

 

Didn't see any down-roster CB's looking very good which, usually, one or two do for the Bills in preseason.

 

Could it be that all the running backs looked better that previous years because the OL in general looked better in run-blocking?

[balln]

18 minutes ago, Dan said:

That is simply not true. 

He does. Second behind Melvin Gordon.

[gonzo1105]

1 hour ago, John from Riverside said:

People need to stop freaking out about the back up offensive line
 

When a player gets injured, you don’t put in the whole second string

When the Oline looked bad it wasn’t even the primary backups in. Bills starters got like 10 plays then guys like Q-Berry and Shell, Torrence/Bates didn’t play much at all. The guys getting shellacked were Alec Anderson, Ike Boettger(who had fallen off a cliff) , Gouriage etc. 

[NoSaint]

40 minutes ago, In Summary said:

Asking: Did the Bills play any three LB defense? Any reason to think that if they did/do in the regular season, it's not Milano, Williams  and whoever starts at MLB?

we’ve played nickel more than 90% of snaps several recent years. Some of the remaining 10% dime. 
 

it’s basically only been a goal line package and even then inconsistent 

 

we will see about this year but would be odd to ramp up with it the most depleted we’ve seen the lb unit 

[Dan]

3 minutes ago, balln said:

He does. Second behind Melvin Gordon.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/S/SingDe00.htm
 

13 fumbles in 672 carries and 145 receptions. Thats is simply not a crazy high fumble per carry rate.    
 

Career catch % ..75.1%.   I guess all his drops were in the playoffs?   
 

 

[NoSaint]

2 hours ago, zow2 said:

 

I agree.  I liked Singletary.  But Cook has some great potential.  My problem last season is that when some defender scraped a fingernail on Cook he went down.  He’d go down easily when breathed on.  He’s gonna have to break some arm tackles occasionally. 

impressive to be near 6 ypc behind a mediocre line and getting carries in bad weather when you are that delicate 

[Simon Says]

3 hours ago, Einstein said:

 

Kyle Allen is so bad that it makes me upset that we didn’t pursue a better backup option. Maybe there was literally no one else available? I haven’t checked.

 

Absolutely anyone has to be better than what he has shown throughout camp and in this game.

 

If Allen goes down for ANY amount of time - even one game - I find little optimism for a route for us to produce a win.

Bills invested money elsewhere. Apparently Beane couldn't, or wouldn't, spend much on a backperiod.

Josh has been durable and hopefully we dont see Kyle or Barkley out there. I don't know that either could win a regular season game, much less keep the team afloat if Josh is out for an extended period.

[Ray Stonada]

1 hour ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

 

Agree, plus those still images of gaping holes and cutback lanes can be really misleading. 

Cook’s TD reminded me of Thurman bouncing runs.

[BillsShredder83]

3 hours ago, zow2 said:

 

I agree.  I liked Singletary.  But Cook has some great potential.  My problem last season is that when some defender scraped a fingernail on Cook he went down.  He’d go down easily when breathed on.  He’s gonna have to break some arm tackles occasionally. 

Not late season it wasnt happening at all!  Remember being impressed seeing him finally push the pile and break some tackles

[BuffBillsForLife]

Barkley should be QB2

[NickelCity]

Having rewatched the game....Gouraige might be my standout of the game. He looked very good out there. Really hope he can get to compete earlier in the game, and I hope we can find a way to hang on to him if he continues to play this way. 

[Mat68]

Shorter will be fine.  Will probably look better when actually targeted.  Looked wide open a play Allen threw to Shakir who made the catch but was heavily covered.  This game did not effect Shorters roster status imo.  I think another good showing Barkley is qb 2.  

[Thurman#1]

5 hours ago, Einstein said:

 

No he didn’t. He went straight through the 4 hole.

 

But even in an alternate universe where he bounced it out, the fact that he couldn’t make one edge contain miss is also a massive problem of his.

 

 

In his time here he made a lot of guys miss. He was consistently among the league leaders in forcing missed tackles. He was a good player, a good blocker for Josh as well, consistently an asset here.

 

Cook seems to be better, but Devin was good. He just wasn't as explosive as we'd have liked him to be.

13 minutes ago, NickelCity said:

Having rewatched the game....Gouraige might be my standout of the game. He looked very good out there. Really hope he can get to compete earlier in the game, and I hope we can find a way to hang on to him if he continues to play this way. 

 

 

That's good to hear. Haven't seen the game yet, and it's always good hearing backup OLs doing well.

[Doc]

Sounds like Torrence (RG), Vandenmark (LT) and Gouraige (RT) showed promise. 

[Bangarang]

13 minutes ago, Mat68 said:

Shorter will be fine.  Will probably look better when actually targeted.  Looked wide open a play Allen threw to Shakir who made the catch but was heavily covered.  This game did not effect Shorters roster status imo.  I think another good showing Barkley is qb 2.  

Shorter might not be fine. He might just be a JAG that does nothing and fizzles away.

[Mat68]

5 minutes ago, Bangarang said:

Shorter might not be fine. He might just be a JAG that does nothing and fizzles away.

I think he makes the team strictly based on special teams this season.   

[Sammy Watkins' Rib]

4 hours ago, Einstein said:

 

Kyle Allen is so bad that it makes me upset that we didn’t pursue a better backup option. Maybe there was literally no one else available? I haven’t checked.

 

Absolutely anyone has to be better than what he has shown throughout camp and in this game.

 

If Allen goes down for ANY amount of time - even one game - I find little optimism for a route for us to produce a win.

Haven’t we heard that the two Allen’s are pretty close friends? If so, I got to think that could have something to do with Allen being brought in.

 

But yeah, I am definitely not confident in the back up QB spot. Who is the current day Fitz? A career back up fringe starter who always seems to get more action then teams originally anticipate and who is a gunslinger with athletic ability?

 

Minshew come to mind but he isn’t as athletic as Fitz was. But he has the moxy that Fitz had. 
 

Turbitzky plays too scared. He looked good on the Bills in the very limited times we saw him but he played like a total wuss on the Steelers last year. Was very disappointed with him.

[Sierra Foothills]

5 hours ago, klos63 said:

Barkely did well in the 4th qtr of game 1 preseason, against many players that probably won't be in the league in 3 weeks.

 

Barkley played almost all of the 2nd Half with some players that might not be in the league in 3 weeks.

 

5 hours ago, 1ManRaid said:

I agree I want to see more of Isabella.

 

So did Ferdinand.

 

4 hours ago, Kmart128 said:

Yeah but thats why I think Kyle Allen looked so bad that first drive out of the half.

 

He was on pace for 16-30 244 Yards for a full game... not great but considering he was playing with backups and Colts had their starters in longer. And he is learning a new offense. Id hardly say awful... bot great by anymeans but ive seen way way worse performances. Especially in preseason. Heck ive seen worse performances out of Barkley in the past

 

Kyle was also on pace for 2 interceptions.

 

2 hours ago, Rocky Landing said:

Jesus, don't get so triggered. "The incident" has utterly dominated everything the national media has said about the Bills since it happened. I was watching "Inside Training Camp" the other day, and it was the only thing reported about the Bills camp. "Damar Hamlin walked out onto the field... now onto the Jets..." And yeah, it's his first game back. They may now start talking about Damar Hamlin, the player. 

 

And in my opinion, it does him a disservice to continually define him by that extremely rare occurrence.

 

The story is played?

 

Today was the first live football he's played since his death.

 

I'm not sure what rules you're going by but I think you're being a little premature.

 

Damar playing today was a big story for a lot of people.

 

2 hours ago, billsfan89 said:

When there was four preseason games you had a good understanding of how teams approached preseason. Game one was almost completely backups, game two starters played a quarter and a half, game three starters played the first half and a bit of the second and game four was almost all backups last shot to make the roster. 
 

But now with one less game the whole flow is off. Not the biggest deal but just an observation 

 

 

This subject can't be talked about separately from the rule changes regarding the single (and late) roster cutdown date.

 

[NickelCity]

17 minutes ago, Doc said:

Sounds like Torrence (RG), Vandenmark (LT) and Gouraige (RT) showed promise. 

 

Gouraige played LT, and I think has been practicing there. I've been hoping to see him give RT a shot, but they might be thinking about Dawkins depth. He was LT in college. 

[Buffalo716]

7 minutes ago, Sammy Watkins' Rib said:

Haven’t we heard that the two Allen’s are pretty close friends? If so, I got to think that could have something to do with Allen being brought in.

 

But yeah, I am definitely not confident in the back up QB spot. Who is the current day Fitz? A career back up fringe starter who always seems to get more action then teams originally anticipate and who is a gunslinger with athletic ability?

 

Minshew come to mind but he isn’t as athletic as Fitz was. But he has the moxy that Fitz had. 
 

Turbitzky plays too scared. He looked good on the Bills in the very limited times we saw him but he played like a total wuss on the Steelers last year. Was very disappointed with him.

Minshew is probably the closest..  he probably can run like fitz... Just isn't as crazy actually

 

Him or potentially Stetson Bennet ... Because he has career backup all over him

Edited August 13, 2023 by Buffalo716

[Sammy Watkins' Rib]

If Isabell can impress will the last WR spot come down to Shorter vs Shakir?

 

Who has more immediate value and long term value? Feels like Shorter can play more special teams coverage and blocking. Shakir can feel in on Punt returns but wouldn’t really be needed with both Harty and Isabella on the team. 
 

And Isabella would presumably run a lot of the same routes Shakir would be asked to run. Seems like Shakir would be expendable if Isabella makes the 53.

 

Shorter would be the potential replacement for Davis if the Bills and Davis part ways after this year. So longterm it would seem Shorter also has an advantage. 
 

I’m not sure either can be safely kept on the practice squad. 

[Nephilim17]

Hi, I couldn't watch the game on vacation with no TV and bad internet. Questions please:

 

1. How did the new FA O-lineman look?

2. How did Rapp look? How was he used?

3. How did the young guys Elam and Benford look?

Thanks in advance! 🍻

[NickelCity]

14 minutes ago, Sammy Watkins' Rib said:

If Isabell can impress will the last WR spot come down to Shorter vs Shakir?

 

Who has more immediate value and long term value? Feels like Shorter can play more special teams coverage and blocking. Shakir can feel in on Punt returns but wouldn’t really be needed with both Harty and Isabella on the team. 
 

And Isabella would presumably run a lot of the same routes Shakir would be asked to run. Seems like Shakir would be expendable if Isabella makes the 53.

 

Shorter would be the potential replacement for Davis if the Bills and Davis part ways after this year. So longterm it would seem Shorter also has an advantage. 
 

I’m not sure either can be safely kept on the practice squad. 

 

I think if Isabella impresses, the last spot will be between him and shorter et al (a few rookies looking good at the bottom of the roster). 

[Sammy Watkins' Rib]

5 minutes ago, NickelCity said:

 

I think if Isabella impresses, the last spot will be between him and shorter et al (a few rookies looking good at the bottom of the roster). 

That has been the popular opinion for that I have seen thrown out. But does it make sense? I haven’t actually heard arguments that back up why Shakir should stay and Shorter should go to the practice squad in such a scenario where Isabella makes the 53.
 

Do we have a bias because Shakir was on the team last year and Shorter wasn’t? 
 

Draft capital wise they are nearly identical having been picked two picks apart in the 5th round. 
 

Longterm, Shorter seems to have more value with one more year on a rookie deal and a potential Gabe replacement .

 

 

[NickelCity]

25 minutes ago, Sammy Watkins' Rib said:

That has been the popular opinion for that I have seen thrown out. But does it make sense? I haven’t actually heard arguments that back up why Shakir should stay and Shorter should go to the practice squad in such a scenario where Isabella makes the 53.
 

Do we have a bias because Shakir was on the team last year and Shorter wasn’t? 
 

Draft capital wise they are nearly identical having been picked two picks apart in the 5th round. 
 

Longterm, Shorter seems to have more value with one more year on a rookie deal and a potential Gabe replacement .

 

 

 

I think Shakir has flashed enough to be safely ahead of Shorter and that group. Blocking and receiving. 

 

 

On a totally different note (MLB)...Dodson sure didn't inspire confidence. 

Edited August 13, 2023 by NickelCity

[beerme1]

3 hours ago, billsfan89 said:

Overall the returns seem to be good, like any game you have some that did well others that didn’t. I think week 2 is where we will get a better glimpse of starters and such. The flow of the three game preseason has yet to really be standardized throughout the league. 
 

When there was four preseason games you had a good understanding of how teams approached preseason. Game one was almost completely backups, game two starters played a quarter and a half, game three starters played the first half and a bit of the second and game four was almost all backups last shot to make the roster. 
 

But now with one less game the whole flow is off. Not the biggest deal but just an observation 

 

I can’t wait till it’s only two pre season games.

[That's No Moon]

1 hour ago, Doc said:

Sounds like Torrence (RG), Vandenmark (LT) and Gouraige (RT) showed promise. 

Van Denmark blew one block so badly at RT he is fortunate the DE let up or Barkley would be in the hospital. Ole! and right on by, didn't even slow the guy down.

[JerseyBills]

Lot of Safey blitzing. Hamlin played great.

Murray looked great! Dude is big and fast