The Athletic - some grim stats (new Tim Graham piece)

[Billsfanatic8989]

On 10/17/2025 at 1:08 PM, zow2 said:

 

All good points.   Earlier this week I was scrolling social media and saw a clip of Brady talking about the Super Bowl he won with Tampa.  I stopped and listened.  He said he studied the Chiefs defense closely and by the night before the game he knew Spags' defense and blitz schemes better than the KC players.  He knew where the players were coming from, he knew when they would fake it and drop back into coverage, etc.. Brady said that was his "super power" and before every snap he had the answers to the test and knew exactly where the ball was going.

 

I guess my point is, we are not that advanced here.  I don't think the coaching this season has been anything close to good...and it's not even up to standards from recent seasons (which also was not good enough vs KC in the playoffs).

This is what Allen is missing imo. Not that he will ever be a Manning or Brady presnap. They are generational at that. But knowing all of the coverages. 

[GoBills808]

13 minutes ago, Billsfanatic8989 said:

This is what Allen is missing imo. Not that he will ever be a Manning or Brady presnap. They are generational at that. But knowing all of the coverages. 

😂😂Brady threw for like 200 yards in that SB

[Billsfanatic8989]

25 minutes ago, GoBills808 said:

😂😂Brady threw for like 200 yards in that SB

He would have thrown for more if needed. They basically killed clock the entire second half. Game was over early 3rd quarter.

 

I'm talking in general though. Allen gets elite at presnap reads and the Bills have an elite #1 WR.

[Billl]

1 hour ago, GoBills808 said:

😂😂Brady threw for like 200 yards in that SB

Imagine not giving credit to Brady for winning his 7th Super Bowl in dominant fashion because he didn’t rack up a ton of passing yards.

[GoBills808]

1 hour ago, Billsfanatic8989 said:

He would have thrown for more if needed. They basically killed clock the entire second half. Game was over early 3rd quarter.

 

I'm talking in general though. Allen gets elite at presnap reads and the Bills have an elite #1 WR.

He was fine

 

The story of the game was the Bucs defense and Mahomes gagging a SB as he's wont to do

[Julio Hopkins]

6 hours ago, Billsfanatic8989 said:

This is what Allen is missing imo. Not that he will ever be a Manning or Brady presnap. They are generational at that. But knowing all of the coverages. 

 

Nobody can beat Brady presnap.

 

Mostly because of the cameras and cheating system though.  

Edited yesterday at 05:38 AM by Julio Hopkins

[RoscoeParrish]

8 hours ago, Billl said:

Imagine not giving credit to Brady for winning his 7th Super Bowl in dominant fashion because he didn’t rack up a ton of passing yards.

You can give Brady plenty of credit, but the Bucs defense destroyed the Chiefs that year.

[Since1981]

The team called the Bills have no W1 and no CB1 in a passing league. That might have worked in 1999

[ChronicAndKnuckles]

On 10/17/2025 at 10:16 AM, streetkings01 said:

It’s what we already knew……this team at the moment isn’t very good. We didn’t need stats to tell us that…..our eyes told us that!

Exactly. It only confirms what we’ve seen and maybe haven’t been able to articulate, but the Bills have been failing the eye test. The good news is the only way they can go is up especially concerning their WRs, pass pro, and pitiful pass coverage. The thing I want to see the most is the response from the coaches. They have a solid 2 weeks to right this ship. A good coach will scheme up a failing area of the team. Brady, Babich, and McDermott have their work cut out for them, but even they have to start feeling the heat. 

[ChronicAndKnuckles]

On 10/17/2025 at 7:01 PM, Peace Frog said:

As of right now, this is what I see with our remaining schedule.  This prediction is based solely on how all teams are currently playing.

 

@ Panthers - W

CHIEFS - L

@ Dolphins - W

BUCCANEERS - L

@ Texans - W

@ Steelers - L

BENGALS - L

@ Patriots - L

@ Browns - W

EAGLES - L

JETS - W

 

That's a prediction of 5 wins and 6 losses for a final record of 9-8, 10-7 if we're lucky.  Again, this is based off of how all teams are playing.  This year's version of the Bills is not as good as last year's and it will show come post season.

You think Josh Allen will have a losing record from here on out ? Do you not realize the Bills have a yearly slump at almost exactly this time ?  I read your post and this is what I disagree with. 

 

1) I love Joe Flacco, he always gets overlooked by his teams. Once the initial Flacco magic runs out and age catches up, Cincinnati fans will be running him out of town with pitchforks. Bills beat them handily. If they played them this week then I think they crush us. I have faith the coaching staff will have something figured out come December. 

 

2) I got laughed off this board when I said the AFC better be prepared for a Rodgers-led Steelers team. They are the most impressive team to me so far, but there are still very valid concerns for fans. 4 out of 6 of their wins have all been by less than a score, Rodgers is old, and so is their general roster. Regardless, I think Allen goes into Pittsburgh and puts Rodgers back in his place on the QB hierarchy.

 

3) Chiefs at home is most certainly a win. If I was superstitious, then I would sacrifice the regular season win against them for the playoff one, but I’m not. KC has more problems on offense than we do. At least the Bills have Cook and Kincaid/Knox/Hawes. Chiefs have an aging Kelce/Mediocre JuJu/Hollywood Brown their best option IMO. In order to win, the Bills need to figure out how to beat Kansas City’s world class defense. Come playoff time they turn into the 85 Bears. Chris Jones’ retirement will be on the level of Tom Brady for Bills fan. 
 

The rest of the losses I agree with you for the most part. I do think the Bills have potential to upset the Eagles and even split with the Patriots but I wanna remain realistic as possible. I think we’ll see a pretty similar end result to the season as all of the other previous McDermott years.
 

Best case = Bills finish 12-5 narrowly winning their division. 
 

Worst case = Patriots beats the Bills in New England. Buffalo drops 3 of their last 5 and finishes at the #6 seed Wildcard. 
 

Silver lining is once rhe Bills are in the dance, they have just as good of a shot as any especially if our guys are playing to their ultimate potential. 

[Brand J]

On 10/17/2025 at 9:49 AM, 26TrapDraw said:

we should of known what we had when we extended Greg " i show up for work once a month" Rousseau for 80 million.

The funny part is there were a bunch of fans on here who wanted to re-sign him even if it took $24M/yr. I argued against those people that I wouldn’t re-sign him for more than $18M AAV. When I saw it was $19M, I could live with that, but in no universe was I okay with Greg Rousseau being north of $20M AAV. He’s the DE equivalent of Ed Oliver, but with less dominant games.

[Billsfanatic8989]

The Bills are paying too much money to non impact guys. 

Edited 23 hours ago by Billsfanatic8989

[Billsfanatic8989]

10 hours ago, Since1981 said:

The team called the Bills have no W1 and no CB1 in a passing league. That might have worked in 1999

This.

 

And I feel as though that would be manageable if the defense was elite. But it's both units. That is what differs from other years. It has never felt this bad in the Allen era. 

[Peace Frog]

9 hours ago, ChronicAndKnuckles said:

You think Josh Allen will have a losing record from here on out ? Do you not realize the Bills have a yearly slump at almost exactly this time ?  I read your post and this is what I disagree with. 

 

1) I love Joe Flacco, he always gets overlooked by his teams. Once the initial Flacco magic runs out and age catches up, Cincinnati fans will be running him out of town with pitchforks. Bills beat them handily. If they played them this week then I think they crush us. I have faith the coaching staff will have something figured out come December. 

 

2) I got laughed off this board when I said the AFC better be prepared for a Rodgers-led Steelers team. They are the most impressive team to me so far, but there are still very valid concerns for fans. 4 out of 6 of their wins have all been by less than a score, Rodgers is old, and so is their general roster. Regardless, I think Allen goes into Pittsburgh and puts Rodgers back in his place on the QB hierarchy.

 

3) Chiefs at home is most certainly a win. If I was superstitious, then I would sacrifice the regular season win against them for the playoff one, but I’m not. KC has more problems on offense than we do. At least the Bills have Cook and Kincaid/Knox/Hawes. Chiefs have an aging Kelce/Mediocre JuJu/Hollywood Brown their best option IMO. In order to win, the Bills need to figure out how to beat Kansas City’s world class defense. Come playoff time they turn into the 85 Bears. Chris Jones’ retirement will be on the level of Tom Brady for Bills fan. 
 

The rest of the losses I agree with you for the most part. I do think the Bills have potential to upset the Eagles and even split with the Patriots but I wanna remain realistic as possible. I think we’ll see a pretty similar end result to the season as all of the other previous McDermott years.
 

Best case = Bills finish 12-5 narrowly winning their division. 
 

Worst case = Patriots beats the Bills in New England. Buffalo drops 3 of their last 5 and finishes at the #6 seed Wildcard. 
 

Silver lining is once rhe Bills are in the dance, they have just as good of a shot as any especially if our guys are playing to their ultimate potential. 

You may want to revise your Chiefs pick; their offense just made the Raiders defense look like a JV squad.  I applaud your optimism, but our Legion of Room defense couldn't stop a doorway.  And good luck trying to cover Chase & Higgins.  Watt & Heyworth will make our offensive line look like Swiss cheese.  But hey, Go Bills!  Amirite?

[ChronicAndKnuckles]

18 hours ago, Peace Frog said:

You may want to revise your Chiefs pick; their offense just made the Raiders defense look like a JV squad.  I applaud your optimism, but our Legion of Room defense couldn't stop a doorway.  And good luck trying to cover Chase & Higgins.  Watt & Heyworth will make our offensive line look like Swiss cheese.  But hey, Go Bills!  Amirite?

You’re using the Raiders as the litmus test for a good offense ? 😆Child, please. 

 

Allen & Cook would drop 40 on them like it’s just another day at the office. Geno Smith is also the type of average QB that McDermott has made millions feasting on for his entire career. The Raiders to the Chiefs are as the Dolphins are to the Bills. 2x yearly free win tokens. 

[Blackbeard]

On 10/19/2025 at 6:19 AM, ChronicAndKnuckles said:

Chiefs have an aging Kelce/Mediocre JuJu/Hollywood Brown their best option IMO

What about Rice and Worthy?

[BuffaloBillyG]

On 10/17/2025 at 10:05 AM, dave mcbride said:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6720217/2025/10/16/buffalo-bills-josh-allen-brandon-beane-gm/

 

"Pass protection has been diddly-poo. Allen was sacked 14 times last year. He has already been taken down 12 times, eight over the past three games. Pro Football Reference has charted Allen with a career-low 2.0 seconds of pocket time and 15 scrambles (rushes on plays designed to be a pass), which would put him on pace for 71 this season. His career high was 57 scrambles in 2022.

 

Discipline has been diddly-poo. The Bills have committed 35 penalties [in the past three games], 30 of them accepted for 209 yards. They drew 15 flags against the Patriots and four in the first quarter alone versus the Falcons, including a Gregory Rousseau offside that erased a takeaway and a Tre’Davious White pass interference on a third-down incompletion to extend a touchdown drive. Opponents have accepted at least eight penalties in three straight games, something the Bills haven’t experienced in four years.

 

Turnover margin has been diddly-poo. The one trend everybody knew Buffalo couldn’t count on forever was its kooky 25 consecutive games without a negative turnover margin. Buffalo was a minus-4 combined against New England and Atlanta.

 

Their run defense has done diddly-poo. Despite amassing 26 tackles for losses on runs, fourth most in the NFL, they’ve allowed 5.8 yards per carry, with 3.9 yards after contact, both league worsts. Only the Tennessee Titans, who fired their head coach this week, have allowed more than the Bills’ nine rushing TDs.

 

Open-field tackling has been diddly-poo. At safety, Sports Info Solutions has Taylor Rapp down for seven missed or broken tackles and Cole Bishop for three, most comically on Bijan Robinson’s 81-yard touchdown run Monday night. Also, 34-year-old Jordan Poyer is on the field again.

...

On the 15 balls thrown into White’s coverage, he has allowed 11 receptions (73.3 percent) for 114 yards and a touchdown, while also committing pass interference twice, defensive holding twice and missing four tackles. And he missed a game.

 

Christian Benford has surrendered an even higher passer rating, 18 of 28 attempts (64.3 percent) for 174 yards and four touchdowns with a pass interference, a defensive hold and an illegal contact.

...

Beane was so cocksure Allen’s solo act would work again that the GM made only minor moves to improve the offense. Beane even seemed willing to let running back James Cook walk in 2026.

 

In a post-draft interview on the Bills’ flagship radio station WGR 550-AM, Beane lashed out at the hosts for criticizing his lack of attention to wide receiver throughout the offseason. The club thought Beane was righteous and entertaining enough to feature his rant — that the Bills even had to bleep — at the very beginning of their behind-the-scenes draft special. The Bills didn’t lead with material about the rookies they drafted; they wanted to ridicule.

 

Through six games, the receiver criticism looks legitimate. The highest draft picks haven’t made an impact, and receiver production has been negligible.

 

Almost a year ago to the day, with concerns over the wideouts and the Bills coming off back-to-back losses, Beane traded for Amari Cooper, and although the five-time Pro Bowl receiver didn’t light up the stat sheet, his presence was credited for opening up the offense.

 

To make a similar deal now, of course, would require Beane to admit he was wrong this offseason."

 

Nobody is happier to report bad things on the Bills than Grim Graham. Except for maybe Jerry Sullivan who must have been doing cartwheels all last week.