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2021 Buffalo Bills - Same as it ever was*** (7 Viewers)

I am surprised that this team is so mentally soft. The D had a melt down again with the late penalties and Diggs looks like he checked out in a game for the second time in a row. 

 
I'm not going to overreact to a team that's 4-2, with their two losses coming to teams that are a combined 9-1.  But yeah right now this team looks completely incapable of beating another playoff team.  The defense is just terrible -- DL, LB, and DB units are playing very poorly.  They need the offense to score 30+ every game, which isn't going to happen when it's just Allen throwing 3-4 very good WRs with no running game and sub-par pass blocking.

 
Anyone have any idea why they have moved away from the mid-to-deep crossing routes which were so lethal in the first 4 games? Last week I figured it was because they didn't have John Brown, but tonight?... 

 
Grigs Allmoon said:
I wouldn't say that. KC and Ten will likely be the top two seeds. I think they are capable of beating a 3rd-7th seeded team, but these last two weeks have been a reality check.
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TBH my thinking is probably colored a bit here.  I have a high opinion of KC -- tonight's loss is disappointing but not really all that discouraging.  On the other hand, Tennessee has struggled in every game except ours which is more bothersome.  And last year's loss to Houston still sits rather badly with me considering that that was the team we were best-positioned to face in the playoffs. 

Right now, I feel like this team is just expecting Josh Allen to carry to carry it week in and week out.  I'm about as confident in Allen as anybody outside the Allen household, but teams that live and die on flawless play by their QB generally don't go far.  Consider the Chiefs tonight, for example.  Mahomes has already proven himself in the NFL in ways that Allen hasn't, so this isn't a perfect comparison, but KC didn't need Mahomes to play lights-out to win.  Their defense was somehow able to generate all kinds of pressure and they racked up 250 or so yards on the ground, so it didn't matter that Mahomes was sort of pedestrian.  Championship caliber teams are all capable of finding other ways to win.  This team isn't, at least right now.

Edit: Also, if you told me back in August that Allen and the WRs would play this well, I would have just assumed that we would be a glide path toward the super bowl because of course our running game would still be strong and of course our defense would still be a top-5 unit.  Because, why wouldn't they?  It's basically the same personnel from last year.  Yet we somehow completely forgot how to run the ball or play competent defense.

 
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Zach Moss might be good some day but they should not be using him on 3rd and 1 in a crucial game in his first game back from injury

That, and the coaching malpractice of kicking the extra point instead of going for two when they scored in the fourth quarter, cost them their two best chances to win.  

 
This was such a weird game that I’m not sure we get a good read from either side. The weather conditions changed a lot of things. And when Schwartz went out on our offensive line Reid changed philosophies. 

The mudders the Chiefs had in there were road graders - and Reid knew that.

Conversely, I think the Bills got away from the run way too early. Teams fall into this trap against the Chiefs - they feel they have to “keep up” with their offense. Which was not a threat tonight.

Reid decided to play a ground it out game, and the Bills coaching staff didn’t adjust.

I think the Bills are on the precipice of being GREAT - they just need to recognize who they are and play to those strengths. 

I really like McDermott - the dude is legit. Chiefs are really lucky to get this win.

 
bostonfred said:
Zach Moss might be good some day but they should not be using him on 3rd and 1 in a crucial game in his first game back from injury

That, and the coaching malpractice of kicking the extra point instead of going for two when they scored in the fourth quarter, cost them their two best chances to win.  
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He single-handedly converted a 3rd and 1 earlier in the game and there's a reason why TJ Yeldon got all of the short yardage carries last week.

They got dominated by the better team tonight, neither of those two gripes moved the needle.

 
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IMO, the biggest problem for the Bills is that the defensive line, outside of Jerry Hughes pass rushing, is just downright bad. They don’t have a single defensive tackle that can make plays in either the passing game or running game. It’s just guys getting blown off the ball over and over again. And the DE spot opposite Hughes has been a black hole. Even Jerry Hughes, for as good as he has been rushing the passer, has not been good in holding the edge against the run.

The defensive line being invisible has out tremendous pressure on the linebackers in the running game and the secondary in the passing game. And without Milano, both groups have suffered.

I’ll also say that Hyde and Poyer’s play have both seemed to slip this year. Neither one of them have really been making plays.

 
Fact of the matter is....if the Bills can beat the Jets and Patriots in the next two weeks, these past 2 games' sins are absolved.

That said, if they play like they've been playing, they'll lose to both teams.  Yes, I said it; if they play like they've played these last two games, they'll lose to the Jets.

 
Steve Tasker said:
Yes, I said it; if they play like they've played these last two games, they'll lose to the Jets.
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Forget Milano and Edmunds.  I could suit up at LB and hold Frank Gore to fewer than 250 yards rushing.  He might get into triple digits but I'm pretty sure he would die of old age before getting to 200.

 
Steve Tasker said:
Quinton Spain with a vague tweet insinuating he's no longer on the Bills?
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There was obviously something going on behind the scenes with Spain that the outside world was never made privy to.  This makes no sense at all on the surface, but nothing with Spain has made sense all season.

 
I think the Bills made the decision that they needed/wanted to find a spot for Cody Ford. It clearly wasn’t at OT because his feet are just too slow and Williams has been much better than Ford was. And Feliciano has been their best OG so it wasn’t going to be at RG for Ford. So Spain ended up the odd man out and Spain wasn’t happy about it.
 

And frankly, I don’t blame him. Spain wasn’t fantastic to start this season, but Ford has not been good enough. But I think the Bills are emotionally invested in Ford since he was a high draft pick and they made the decision to go with Ford even if he wasn’t the currently better player.

Who knows why they released him rather than keeping him for depth though, especially with Ford looking like he’ll be out this week. Maybe they felt they needed the roster spot. Maybe they worried he would be a malcontent. Maybe they’re telling the truth and wanted to give him a chance to start somewhere else.

 
Call me crazy, but I think Spain faked an injury to get out of the Titans game. Maybe he had COVID concerns or something else. 
 

He is a scratch on game day after telling the team his foot doesn’t feel right. The next game the team benches him. Then they cut him despite being very thin at Oline. After having extended him in the off season. 
 

Doesn’t add up. 

 
Dawson Knox tested positive for COVID and about 3/4 of the Buffalo TE room knocked out of tomorrow’s game because they were deemed to be in close contact with Knox. Seems like a pretty big failure on Buffalo’s part to have this happen. It’s the right thing to do, but man it kind of stings to lose about a whole position group for a game because one guy tests positive when the Titans essentially had about half their team test positive and it seemed like have virtually none of them actually miss the game.

 
Wow. Apparently the only reason Tyler Kroft isn’t  also out is that when all the other TEs were in close contact with Knox, Kroft was recovering from being with his wife who had been in labor for 24 hours having their baby!

 
Here's more info

https://www.buffalobills.com/news/bills-place-four-players-on-the-reserve-covid-19-list-four-players-elevated-from

The Bills were informed this morning that TE Dawson Knox has tested positive for COVID-19. Knox was placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list. Per NFL contact tracing protocols, three other players – TE Lee Smith, TE Tommy Sweeney (currently on PUP list), and practice squad TE Nate Becker – have been defined to have been in close contact with Knox and were also placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list and will miss Sunday's game.

The Bills have elevated the following players from the practice squad for Sunday's game with the Jets:

WR Duke Williams, OL Jordan Devey (pronounced like heavy), LB Andre Smith and CB Dane Jackson.

 
IvanKaramazov said:
Is it too early to make a joke about Dawson Knox actually catching something for once?
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I was trying to come up with something riffing on all his dropped passes but you nailed the obvious one.  :lmao:

 
GroveDiesel said:
I think with 1 positive life just kind of goes on. If they have more positives pop up from today’s tests, then there will be a problem.
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It's one positive, but it is resulting in 4 players being out.

 
Tre White and Milano both active today - hopefully they can both play a full game.  Huge sigh of relief for me - this game has trap written all over it.

 
themeistersinger said:
Tre White and Milano both active today - hopefully they can both play a full game.  Huge sigh of relief for me - this game has trap written all over it.
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Yeah, I'm a bit torn. Good to see them go, and I do see this as a bit of a trap due to all the other Bills out, but could we give them another week of rest and still win...?

 
Grigs Allmoon said:
Yeah, I'm a bit torn. Good to see them go, and I do see this as a bit of a trap due to all the other Bills out, but could we give them another week of rest and still win...?
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It’s the NFL. No game should be taken for granted. That game 1 against the Jets got pretty dicey for a bit. Everyone keeps talking about this being a “get right” game for the Bills. With Darnold back I’m sure the Jets will be thinking the same thing. 

 
No gimme games in division. The defence started shaky but tightened up. The Jets were gifted a first and goal to get their TD. 
 

Moved the ball on offense. Need to cut out the penalties (cost a TD) and the fumble didn’t help either or it might have been a route. 

 
The Duff Man said:
No gimme games in division. The defence started shaky but tightened up. The Jets were gifted a first and goal to get their TD. 
 

Moved the ball on offense. Need to cut out the penalties (cost a TD) and the fumble didn’t help either or it might have been a route. 
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That illegal formation penalty that negated the TD seemed awfully dicey to me. Davis’s head needs to be lined up at least at the waist of the center and it sure looked fine to me when they reviewed it.

 
A win's a win at the end of the day, but not feeling particularly great about that one.

I thought Allen had a pretty solid game despite them not putting the ball in the end zone.  Defense really pinned their ears back in the second half....Jets ran 16 plays for a total of 4 yards.

Still, a ton to work on.

 
Saw a stat - Matt Milano played 15 plays against the Jets, only in clutch situations - 3rd and 4th downs, late game, late in the half etc.  The Jets had 16 total yards on those 15 plays.  Bills need to throw the checkbook at this guy in the offseason.

 
Steve Tasker said:
Saw a stat - Matt Milano played 15 plays against the Jets, only in clutch situations - 3rd and 4th downs, late game, late in the half etc.  The Jets had 16 total yards on those 15 plays.  Bills need to throw the checkbook at this guy in the offseason.
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He’s already everything they hoped Edmunds would become. Pay him and decline Edmunds’s option. If Edmunds figures it out, either pay him too or go find another LBer.

And stop overpaying all these mediocre defensive and offensive linemen. They have 10 defensive linemen on the 53 man roster right now. That’s absurd.

 
538 article on who's best from the 2018 QB class.  (Spoiler: Not Rosen).

Nothing ground-breaking, but lots of interesting stuff here about Mayfield, Jackson, and Allen.  I'm posting this here in part because of the wrap-up:

These team effects are likely benefiting Allen as well. This season, Buffalo has surpassed Baltimore in play-action percentage, and about 47 percent of Allen’s passing yardage has come off those plays. While play-action surely isn’t the entire explanation for Allen’s improvement in accuracy, it points toward something more pervasive. It appears that teams with organizational structures in place to maximize talent tend to dominate the analysis of a prospect. What is seen as a liability can suddenly become a strength — on the right team. The Tennessee Titans’ reclamation of Ryan Tannehill — third in the league in play-action dropback percentage and fourth in the league in QBR this season through Week 6 — adds further evidence.

So while it’s still too early to answer the question of who’s the best QB drafted in 2018, we at least have a framework for answering the question — and for handicapping QB prospects moving forward. Bet on players who land on smart teams, and discount those who are drafted into chaos and dysfunction.
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How weird is it to see Buffalo so casually categorized as a "smart team?"  It feels like just yesterday that we were watching Buddy Nix mangle the draft.  

 
New England’s top 4 WRs for this week are guys I’ve never even heard of before. Cam has struggled throwing the ball, especially to his right.

So we can pretty much expect the Pats to run it like 50 times for 300 yards on Sunday, right? All while I sit watching in frustration.

 
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Crazy. It’s Bills/Patriots this week where the Bills lead the division and have a chance to go up 4 games on the Pats and this thread is  :tumbleweed:

What sucks is the weather. Pats could very well be without their top 2 CBs, and the Bills get John Brown and likely Jon Feliciano back. With good weather, this game would very possibly be primed for a huge passing game from the Bills but instead it actually plays to all the strengths of the Pats this year...because of course.

 
Watching the bills games the past three weeks has been pretty frustrating. I’d like to see time of possession stats, Seems the offense hasn’t been on the field much due to the horrendous run defense. Don’t the bills get a few O linemen back this week? I saw some roto blurbs that made it seem that way

 
Long time NE fan here. This is a prime spot for BUF to gain a stranglehold on the AFC East and kick NE to the curb.

This is USUALLY the type of game where NE circles the wagons, but I just don't see how that happens.

NE has no WRs to speak of and are banged up on both sides of the ball. Only way they win this game is if they literally run the ball every play and Cam goes completely off as a rusher.

And Allen has to really screw up. Multiple turnovers. And maybe BUF actually tries to run the ball.

 
ahartig said:
Watching the bills games the past three weeks has been pretty frustrating. I’d like to see time of possession stats, Seems the offense hasn’t been on the field much due to the horrendous run defense. Don’t the bills get a few O linemen back this week? I saw some roto blurbs that made it seem that way
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Feliciano is being activated from IR.  Cody Ford is still out.  John Brown should be active also - FP all week.  

With the high winds expected, it will be interesting to see how Josh performs as a passer - days like this are one of the reasons the Bills drafted him so high.

 
I've been looking for rumors, etc. for a couple weeks now... This team HAS to trade for a good interrior DL to be a legit contender, no?

 
Grigs Allmoon said:
I've been looking for rumors, etc. for a couple weeks now... This team HAS to trade for a good interrior DL to be a legit contender, no?
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They have almost no salary cap left. Would be pretty tough. Their cap next year may be a little tight too, so trading a future cheap asset for a one year rental and cap space that could be rolled into next year would be a pretty big hit on their future. Not that you’re wrong about then needing a DT this year. Star opting out was a lot more detrimental to this defense that I think just about everyone thought.

 
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