Buffalo Bills @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers - A Few Thoughts about the Bucs Game, in no particular order

[Virgil]

Image Credit: © Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

 

While this season is one of parody and week-to-week results, the Bills fell to one game over .500 in a game where they didn't look like they belonged on the same field for half the game. As I look back on this season versus my previous seasons writing these, it's hard for me to tell if it's harder to write during a season of blown expectations or during the drought. At least during the drought, we could focus on improvement and hope. In this season, it's been more about meeting expectations or letdowns. At this point, it's evident where the problems lay with this team and not it's only a matter of how the Bills will fix it in the off-season through personnel or coaching changes.

 

1 - Allen - I'm sure many will discuss the interception before the half, but even by that point in the game, it's almost impossible for me to blame Josh for much of anything he does. Behind this offensive line where he was running for his life on almost every play, because Daboll can't seem to figure out how to block more than 5, and receivers that don't magically get open in less than 2 seconds, Josh is constantly being asked to make something out of nothing. I'm not saying he doesn't have opportunities (high throws to the sideline), nor is Josh perfect. I'm just saying it's impossible to tell. He had a great touchdown run off the RPO and had a solid completion percentage for a bit, but then was down 21 and had to start playing hero ball. Josh is our entire offense and sets up everyone else's success on the team. His ability to move in the pocket brings up safeties, and he avoided more sacks than the stat sheet will show. But it's unrealistic to expect him to carry this team on his own. I feel good knowing that we have our QB to build around no matter what changes happen on this team.

 

2 - Daboll - Coming into this game, you knew the Bucs could do one thing well on defense, and that was rush the passer. With that being said, why did Daboll leave only five players in to block so much? With the amount of DB blitzes, Motor in the backfield as extra pass protection. I say Motor very specifically because Breida got absolutely run over when he tried to make a block. McKenzie ran a Jet Sweep threat only one time which pretty much sums up Daboll's attempt to confuse the defense, move the pocket, or do anything at all to slow down the Bucs pass rush. While we did get it going in the second half, there's still no excuse for the first half performance or the three and out in OT. I don't feel like this team has any "go-to" plays anymore, and there's no overall theme on offense. Each drive and 3rd down play feels like a toss-up. This has been an ongoing theme this past month, and it's one thing just to get beat up front; it's another to not plan for it at all. 

 

3 - Running backs in the first half - 

 

4 - I seem to recognize your face
Haunting familiar, yet I can't seem to place it
Cannot find the candle of thought to light your name
Lifetimes are catching up with me
All these changes taking place
I wish I'd seen the place
But no one's ever taken me

 

5 - Defensive Line - I almost labeled this thought pass rush, but that would indicate that the Bills have one. Brady had all day literally to throw, and this 40 million dollar defensive line with multiple first-round pics was beyond pathetic in this game. You can see the frustration brewing from the players, and Oliver is a ticking time bomb of a personal foul. I've been able to tolerate McD's rotation on the line, but we can't rush the passer or stop the run with these guys and aren't getting an ROI. Groot has been non-existent since the first few weeks. Addison's had one good game and threw in an offside in this game. Hughes is the kind of almost sacks and missed holding calls. Oliver is high motor, undisciplined, and I'm waiting for more PFs against him.

 

© Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

 

6 - Zone Defense - While Poyer and Hyde are great safeties, how were they left to cover Godwin and Evans so much? I understand that Tre is out, and we need to compensate to a degree, but our great passing defense gave up over 200 passing yards in the first half, with each pass looking to fall right in front of either safety. Also, with zero pass rush, zone defense is only good if you force the QB to make bad reads and throw into coverage. With Brady having all day, it was surgical how easily he picked us apart. As we transitioned to the second half, it does look like we started playing man and saw more success. With that, shout out to Dane Jackson for playing well one on one in coverage against Gronk.  

 

7 - Edmunds - With this thought, I will be retiring any future comments about Edmunds, as I'm just over him as a player. While Milano didn't have a great game, I can at least remember seeing him on the field (Brady sack was beautiful) with some big tackles and pass knockdowns. Edmunds had one good tackle in the open field against Gronk. Other than that, Edmunds was just a big-bodied player in the middle of the field who occupies space. Edmunds got engulfed by blocks, couldn't beat a man when rushing the passer, took terrible angles on both Fournette long runs, and was overall invisible. He did start to play better in the second half, but he's nowhere near a playmaker or worthy of his draft selection. I don't blame the game-winning touchdown on him, but I blame him for the converted 3rd and 1 in OT. Edmunds was clearly behind the LOS and still allowed Fournette to get 2 yards from the point of contact. When we need a hero, it continues not to be him.

 

8 - Knox - If there's a bright spot this season, it has to be the emergence of Knox in this offense. Needing to forget his terrible play last week, Knox was decent on the plays he was left in to block and scored our only passing touchdown of the game. With that catch, he leads the NFL in touchdown passes by a TE. In an upcoming off-season where many tough decisions are going to be made, TE is no longer one of the positions we need to worry about. 

 

© Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

 

9 - McD - I want to give McD props for clearly getting involved with the defensive play-calling early in the game. However, another question is why the defensive game plan needed to be adjusted so early in the game. But what will be talked about more so than anything else tomorrow will be his decision-making again on 4th down. Sure, if the fake punt worked, then everything is fine. But the choice to give Breida the ball over Allen on 4th and short is a head-scratcher to me. Then, when the Bills actually have some momentum, he punts on 4th and short. I'm all for continuity, and we did just sign him to an extension, but I don't think that gets him out of having to present a solid plan of change to the owners going forward. I hope he's willing to adapt his defensive line rotation and start to take a bigger interest in the offensive game planning. Being 7-6 with this schedule and roster is a joke.

 

10 - 2nd Half - I know a lot are going to take the second half as a positive sign that the offense woke up and hopefully will be good down the stretch. And while I do try to take a positive approach to these games, I'm also human and tired of not winning a close game this season. I remember expecting to convert every third and fourth down play last year versus expecting not to this year. I think we were 1-9 on 3rd downs at one point. The offense did wake up, but I still attribute that more to Allen playing hero ball as much as finally remembering Davis and Beasley are on the field. To that point, I don't care if Sanders plays another snap for us. Since his arrival, he's taken snaps away from guys who proved it on the field last year, has had maybe three good games, and has disappeared since. I'm happy it was a game but also felt like I lost twice today. This game felt over at half, but the Bills did the most Billsy thing they could by coming back, giving hope, only to lose again.  

 

**The only reason I'm not talking about the refs is because of promise earlier in the season to stop blaming games on them. Yes, the 50/50 calls for PI went against the Bills and never in their favor, but we need to stop expecting them to help us. To call that play on 3rd and two if you don't plan on going for it on 4th is stupid and on us.

I know the season isn't over, and we still have a good chance to make the playoffs, but there's no reason to believe this team is capable of winning a game against any team who's physical in the trenches or be able to come back and win a game from behind. The beauty of the drought was having no expectations. I don't even know how to process this season besides it being a disappointment. There's a lot of off-season work to do, and I don't know if it will be possible in just one year. We've proven that we need to upgrade at least three spots on the offensive line, get a genuine pass rusher (not a rotation!), a big space-eater up the middle, a DB to fill in for Tre (Tre won't be back until November and Wallace is a UFA), and an MLB who can actually make a play. This team needs to change at a core level, and I hope it can be done with tweaks, but I honestly don't know anymore.

 

Go Bills!

 

 

BillsFans - Virgil

 

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[KD in CA]

Just two comments:

 

-Allen:  A win would have made it a career signature game, but even in defeat he showed grit and toughness that shows how valuable he is to the franchise.

 

-DL:  I’ll continue to beat this drum:  this D needs a dominating star in the front 7.  If you get the guy who can disrupt plays all by himself, suddenly all these other young guys get freed up to make plays and you have a monster D.  That is THE most important piece of the puzzle.

[snafu]

Tampa Bay is the most complete team we will face this season.

We should have won, but we have to overcome ourselves, and the other team.

[Core Four]

1 hour ago, Virgil said:

2 - Daboll

I think he's gone after this season.  McD gave him charge of the offense, for better or worse, and Daboll has seriously regressed this year, especially with the Oline.

 

1 hour ago, Virgil said:

3 - Running backs in the first half - 

You forgot to add content here.  Oh, wait...nevermind.

 

1 hour ago, Virgil said:

5 - Defensive Line

Agree with getting rid of the rotation.  It is wasteful and yields nothing.  Put your best guys out there and leave them out there, except for a few plays where they need a breather.  Get rid of Hughes, Addison, and Butler.  I think they'll have to get by with Groot, Basham, AJE, and Obada; not sure they'll have the cap space, or draft picks to get another DE/Edge next year.  They absolutely do need a big 1TDT.  Unfortunately, Star will be back next year due to missing last year.  It won't make sense to cut him.

 

1 hour ago, Virgil said:

7 - Edmunds

I don't care how much his physical stature seems to 'fit' with McD/Frazier's flawed scheme, the guy has no instincts.  There has to be a change at MLB.  You can't pick up his 5th year option at $12M, that would be dumb.  Either give him a short deal (2-3 years at ~$5M AAV) and see how he works at OLB or trade him.  Not sure how tradeable he is going into his fifth year, plus other teams can see Edmunds has no instincts as an inside LB.

 

(EDIT): looks like his 5th year was picked up last May, which is beyond stupid.  He can be traded before 6/1, but I don't see who would want to commit to $12M for Edmunds.  Worst case, he can be moved outside for a year to see how that goes, and will be among, if not the, highest paid OLB.

 

1 hour ago, Virgil said:

9 - McD

He underperformed this year, for sure.  I do not think he's going anywhere anytime soon.  I do agree that he needs to be held accountable for his coordinators, position coaches on both lines, player personnel, and game management.  If I was Terry Pegula, I would insist in a major philosophy and staff changes on McD's part.  He can't keep being this stubborn.  Rebuild the Oline (Guards and Center), adopt a viable running game, and get rid of the Dick Jauron/Dave Wannstadt defense, which he should have done after last year.  The "Process" needs to apply to him and his coaches, thus far it seems they have been exempt.

 

1 hour ago, Virgil said:

10 - 2nd Half -

They made a valiant effort, especially with the adjustments on offense.  Unfortunately, the damage was done in the first half.  The Sanders experiment needs to end, it has negatively impacted Gabe Davis who is much more valuable.  Daboll couldn't stop playing with (i.e. forcing the ball to) his new toy until recently.

 

Refs - True, we can't expect them to help us, but they have to call blatant PI's such as the one on Diggs in the end zone.

 

Good ending summary.  I think it is more than a few tweaks.  Both O and D coordinators, along with both line coaches need to be replaced.  DB will be a need, though I think they should prioritize both lines and MLB.  Adopt a more aggressive pass rushing scheme rather than the weak contain they run now.  I think Oliver, AJE, Groot, Basham, and Obada are better than the scheme allows them to be.  McD needs to become more like Belichick in that he's not married/stubborn to a particular D scheme as well as builds a bigger, more physical Oline and establish a running game to take the pressure off Josh.

 

Just want to say your summaries are awesome...good work.

[Dubs]

Great summary, but you can’t not talk about the officials. They are a problem and cost the Bills this game. 
 

Especially when you play great teams, having to overcome not just an occasional offsides or delay of game but rather game changing PI calls/no calls is just asking way too much. You call those PIs correctly, Bills win. It’s not even debatable. 
 

So yeah, I know it’s not cool to blame officials, but I’m done giving them a pass. Next to the government, they are the worst people in the world at their jobs. 

[Arm of Harm]

Great write-up as usual, Virgil!

 

However, I will say this. I don't think the problem with the DL is the rotation. If the rotation was the problem, you'd expect the DL to produce really good results when your starters are in, and then for things to get disappointing when the starters are rotated out. The DL didn't exactly produce Earth-shattering results regardless of whether the starters were in. Maybe some of the players aren't living up to the resources invested in them. Maybe the scheme is holding some guys back. Whatever the problem is, it isn't going to be fixed with something as simple as giving more snaps to the DL's starters.

 

To go further in that direction, Bill Walsh once said the key to winning championships is a good pass rush in the 4th quarter. The 49ers/Bengals Super Bowl was a good example of that. Late in the game the Bengals had the lead and the ball. But, the 49ers had a good 4th quarter pass rush, because they'd been rotating their DL. In large part because of that good/well rested pass rush, the 49ers were able to force the Bengals to go 3 and out. Then the 49ers got the ball. At that point the Bengals pass rush was not great, because their guys were winded. (The Bengals hadn't been rotating as much as the 49ers.) The lack of a Bengals late game pass rush was an important reason the 49ers were able to score the game-winning touchdown on that last drive.

 

While I want to see McDermott continue rotating his DL, not all rotations are created equal. I'm beginning to suspect there may be other defensive schemes which better utilize the talents of DL than this one appears to.

[Beer__League__Hockey]

Rotations are great, but I've never seen an 8 man collection of defensive linemen that CANNOT get off a block.  The only one on one matchups that were won were during the running plays, and those were due to slants/stunts.  Straight up they all blow, all 8 of them. 

 

Later in the game they would rush 4 on passing downs, including Milano as one of the 4, and he was the only one that could get close to the QB.  Why is that?

[Core Four]

7 hours ago, Arm of Harm said:

Great write-up as usual, Virgil!

 

However, I will say this. I don't think the problem with the DL is the rotation. If the rotation was the problem, you'd expect the DL to produce really good results when your starters are in, and then for things to get disappointing when the starters are rotated out. The DL didn't exactly produce Earth-shattering results regardless of whether the starters were in. Maybe some of the players aren't living up to the resources invested in them. Maybe the scheme is holding some guys back. Whatever the problem is, it isn't going to be fixed with something as simple as giving more snaps to the DL's starters.

 

To go further in that direction, Bill Walsh once said the key to winning championships is a good pass rush in the 4th quarter. The 49ers/Bengals Super Bowl was a good example of that. Late in the game the Bengals had the lead and the ball. But, the 49ers had a good 4th quarter pass rush, because they'd been rotating their DL. In large part because of that good/well rested pass rush, the 49ers were able to force the Bengals to go 3 and out. Then the 49ers got the ball. At that point the Bengals pass rush was not great, because their guys were winded. (The Bengals hadn't been rotating as much as the 49ers.) The lack of a Bengals late game pass rush was an important reason the 49ers were able to score the game-winning touchdown on that last drive.

 

While I want to see McDermott continue rotating his DL, not all rotations are created equal. I'm beginning to suspect there may be other defensive schemes which better utilize the talents of DL than this one appears to.

 

I get the theory behind a Dline rotation; the reason why it is not working for the Bills seems to be both player personnel and scheme.  Players like Addison, Hughes, Butler, Star, and a few of their practice squad call-ups are mediocre to bad (plus are taking up a lot of cap space.)  The others - Harry, AJE, Groot, Basham, Obada, and Oliver are not dominant at this point, but are sufficient.

 

That leads to scheme, Frazier/McD appear to primarily use a contain rush to try and collapse the pocket.  This is a low risk, low reward strategy, which is probably why the Bills are 20-something in sacks.  This should be much higher given the investment in the line and how rested the guys should be.  I would suspect that if McD would change his philosophy and be more aggressive at going after the QB, the Dline would look much better.  In turn, this will also help the DBs.  This would require a LB to stay closer to the Dline, rather than drop back into coverage, which goes against the current defensive scheme/philosophy.

 

McD/Frazier currently ask a lot out of the Dline, which I would assume is the reason for the huge investment in it, but it's clearly not working as planned.  The defensive brain trust needs to re-evaluate.

[Spartacus]

1 hour ago, Core Four said:

 

I get the theory behind a Dline rotation; the reason why it is not working for the Bills seems to be both player personnel and scheme.  Players like Addison, Hughes, Butler, Star, and a few of their practice squad call-ups are mediocre to bad (plus are taking up a lot of cap space.)  The others - Harry, AJE, Groot, Basham, Obada, and Oliver are not dominant at this point, but are sufficient.

 

That leads to scheme, Frazier/McD appear to primarily use a contain rush to try and collapse the pocket.  This is a low risk, low reward strategy, which is probably why the Bills are 20-something in sacks.  This should be much higher given the investment in the line and how rested the guys should be.  I would suspect that if McD would change his philosophy and be more aggressive at going after the QB, the Dline would look much better.  In turn, this will also help the DBs.  This would require a LB to stay closer to the Dline, rather than drop back into coverage, which goes against the current defensive scheme/philosophy.

 

McD/Frazier currently ask a lot out of the Dline, which I would assume is the reason for the huge investment in it, but it's clearly not working as planned.  The defensive brain trust needs to re-evaluate.

I think its stupidity of the players.

they don't execute stunts with any clue as to what they are doing.

 

every other teams create massive lanes in our OL because a stunt guy sacrificed himself to open a hole.

Our DL guys all think they have to get the QB every stunt, an end up clogging the lanes, and can't see the problem they are causing. 

 

Milano got thru because he understood what was supposed to happen

 

 

[Nash]

15 hours ago, Core Four said:

I think he's gone after this season.  McD gave him charge of the offense, for better or worse, and Daboll has seriously regressed this year, especially with the Oline.

 

You forgot to add content here.  Oh, wait...nevermind.

 

Agree with getting rid of the rotation.  It is wasteful and yields nothing.  Put your best guys out there and leave them out there, except for a few plays where they need a breather.  Get rid of Hughes, Addison, and Butler.  I think they'll have to get by with Groot, Basham, AJE, and Obada; not sure they'll have the cap space, or draft picks to get another DE/Edge next year.  They absolutely do need a big 1TDT.  Unfortunately, Star will be back next year due to missing last year.  It won't make sense to cut him.

 

I don't care how much his physical stature seems to 'fit' with McD/Frazier's flawed scheme, the guy has no instincts.  There has to be a change at MLB.  You can't pick up his 5th year option at $12M, that would be dumb.  Either give him a short deal (2-3 years at ~$5M AAV) and see how he works at OLB or trade him.  Not sure how tradeable he is going into his fifth year, plus other teams can see Edmunds has no instincts as an inside LB.

 

(EDIT): looks like his 5th year was picked up last May, which is beyond stupid.  He can be traded before 6/1, but I don't see who would want to commit to $12M for Edmunds.  Worst case, he can be moved outside for a year to see how that goes, and will be among, if not the, highest paid OLB.

 

He underperformed this year, for sure.  I do not think he's going anywhere anytime soon.  I do agree that he needs to be held accountable for his coordinators, position coaches on both lines, player personnel, and game management.  If I was Terry Pegula, I would insist in a major philosophy and staff changes on McD's part.  He can't keep being this stubborn.  Rebuild the Oline (Guards and Center), adopt a viable running game, and get rid of the Dick Jauron/Dave Wannstadt defense, which he should have done after last year.  The "Process" needs to apply to him and his coaches, thus far it seems they have been exempt.

 

They made a valiant effort, especially with the adjustments on offense.  Unfortunately, the damage was done in the first half.  The Sanders experiment needs to end, it has negatively impacted Gabe Davis who is much more valuable.  Daboll couldn't stop playing with (i.e. forcing the ball to) his new toy until recently.

 

Refs - True, we can't expect them to help us, but they have to call blatant PI's such as the one on Diggs in the end zone.

 

Good ending summary.  I think it is more than a few tweaks.  Both O and D coordinators, along with both line coaches need to be replaced.  DB will be a need, though I think they should prioritize both lines and MLB.  Adopt a more aggressive pass rushing scheme rather than the weak contain they run now.  I think Oliver, AJE, Groot, Basham, and Obada are better than the scheme allows them to be.  McD needs to become more like Belichick in that he's not married/stubborn to a particular D scheme as well as builds a bigger, more physical Oline and establish a running game to take the pressure off Josh.

 

Just want to say your summaries are awesome...good work.

There will always be bad calls against you

ive played plenty of sports when I was younger and I didn’t let that affect me.  Get over it, factor bad calls against you into your game plan. 
Where is the run game?  Where are the takeaways? And yes… Where is the Monster on the D line or Line backing crew? 
this is where the team is weak and thus remains not terrible, but just ‘mediocre’ in the NFL

and did you see Dallas D line against Washington?  My goodness… they’re monsters if healthy

[Nash]

49 minutes ago, Spartacus said:

I think its stupidity of the players.

they don't execute stunts with any clue as to what they are doing.

 

every other teams create massive lanes in our OL because a stunt guy sacrificed himself to open a hole.

Our DL guys all think they have to get the QB every stunt, an end up clogging the lanes, and can't see the problem they are causing. 

 

Milano got thru because he understood what was supposed to happen

 

 

I agree 

bills players have low sport iq

[Figster]

3 minutes ago, Nash said:

I agree 

bills players have low sport iq

Especially Josh, giving his body up for the team the way he does,

 

Gotta be low sport IQ,  crazy, something ;  ) 

[Core Four]

1 hour ago, Spartacus said:

I think its stupidity of the players.

they don't execute stunts with any clue as to what they are doing.

 

every other teams create massive lanes in our OL because a stunt guy sacrificed himself to open a hole.

Our DL guys all think they have to get the QB every stunt, an end up clogging the lanes, and can't see the problem they are causing. 

 

Milano got thru because he understood what was supposed to happen

 

 

 

They typically don't run stunts or overloads, like almost never.  The Dline scheme is one of contain, which is supposed to collapse the pocket while also covering running lanes.  It sounds good in theory, but in practice it is not that effective given the Bills are about 25th in sacks and are very susceptible to a good rushing attack get pushed around by a stronger Oline.  They are desperately in need of a big 1TDT, as well of a scheme that isn't chicken shit.

 

Milano sacked Brady off a delayed blitz.  It was a good call, defensively.  I wish Frazier would do that more often.

[Dubs]

1 hour ago, Nash said:

 

There will always be bad calls against you

ive played plenty of sports when I was younger and I didn’t let that affect me.  Get over it, factor bad calls against you into your game plan. 
 

[Arm of Harm]

3 hours ago, Core Four said:

 

I get the theory behind a Dline rotation; the reason why it is not working for the Bills seems to be both player personnel and scheme.  Players like Addison, Hughes, Butler, Star, and a few of their practice squad call-ups are mediocre to bad (plus are taking up a lot of cap space.)  The others - Harry, AJE, Groot, Basham, Obada, and Oliver are not dominant at this point, but are sufficient.

 

That leads to scheme, Frazier/McD appear to primarily use a contain rush to try and collapse the pocket.  This is a low risk, low reward strategy, which is probably why the Bills are 20-something in sacks.  This should be much higher given the investment in the line and how rested the guys should be.  I would suspect that if McD would change his philosophy and be more aggressive at going after the QB, the Dline would look much better.  In turn, this will also help the DBs.  This would require a LB to stay closer to the Dline, rather than drop back into coverage, which goes against the current defensive scheme/philosophy.

 

McD/Frazier currently ask a lot out of the Dline, which I would assume is the reason for the huge investment in it, but it's clearly not working as planned.  The defensive brain trust needs to re-evaluate.

 

 

Salary cap is a resource. Snaps are a resource. The more resources you invest in a player, the more you want to know what you're getting in return. I agree the Bills have invested too many resources into players like Addison and Hughes and Star, and have gotten too little in return.

 

I think some of it's this coaching staff or front office thinking too highly of older players. Sometimes you need to stop wasting snaps on an older guy like Addison, and give them to a younger player such as Rousseau or Obada. Same applies on offense: maybe they should take some snaps away from Sanders to give them to Gabe Davis.

 

As for the low risk, low reward containment strategy the DL is asked to implement: there are times when that would make sense. You think about a team with a mobile QB, such as the Ravens. The Bills defense did a very good job against Lamar Jackson and the Ravens in last year's postseason game. They called scissors and we called rock, so that worked out well. Problem is, Leslie Frazier always calls rock. While there are times when containment makes sense, there are also times when the DL should just bare its teeth and go after the QB. Yesterday would have been a good opportunity to do that.

[Crap Throwing Clavin]

1 hour ago, Nash said:

 

There will always be bad calls against you

ive played plenty of sports when I was younger and I didn’t let that affect me.  Get over it, factor bad calls against you into your game plan. 
Where is the run game?  Where are the takeaways? And yes… Where is the Monster on the D line or Line backing crew? 
this is where the team is weak and thus remains not terrible, but just ‘mediocre’ in the NFL

and did you see Dallas D line against Washington?  My goodness… they’re monsters if healthy

 

It's not just the Bills...excruciatingly bad calls are happening to everyone.

 

And it's not just "bad calls."  It's a pattern of inept officiating, every week, league-wide.  To the point where you have to watch the refs to see which plays they'll end up allowing as much as watching the players for the plays they make.

 

And I don't tune in to watch the refs officiate games.  I haven't bothered watching anything but a Bills game since about week 4, for that reason.  It's become the National Officiating League, with football games providing a context within which the refs perform.

[LB3]

1 hour ago, Nash said:

There will always be bad calls against you

ive played plenty of sports when I was younger and I didn’t let that affect me.  Get over it, factor bad calls against you into your game plan. 
Where is the run game?  Where are the takeaways? And yes… Where is the Monster on the D line or Line backing crew? 
this is where the team is weak and thus remains not terrible, but just ‘mediocre’ in the NFL

and did you see Dallas D line against Washington?  My goodness… they’re monsters if healthy

 

1 hour ago, Nash said:

 

There will always be bad calls against you

ive played plenty of sports when I was younger and I didn’t let that affect me.  Get over it, factor bad calls against you into your game plan. 
Where is the run game?  Where are the takeaways? And yes… Where is the Monster on the D line or Line backing crew? 
this is where the team is weak and thus remains not terrible, but just ‘mediocre’ in the NFL

and did you see Dallas D line against Washington?  My goodness… they’re monsters if healthy

 

1 hour ago, Nash said:

 

There will always be bad calls against you

ive played plenty of sports when I was younger and I didn’t let that affect me.  Get over it, factor bad calls against you into your game plan. 
Where is the run game?  Where are the takeaways? And yes… Where is the Monster on the D line or Line backing crew? 
this is where the team is weak and thus remains not terrible, but just ‘mediocre’ in the NFL

and did you see Dallas D line against Washington?  My goodness… they’re monsters if healthy

 

[snafu]

1 hour ago, Core Four said:

 

They typically don't run stunts or overloads, like almost never.  The Dline scheme is one of contain, which is supposed to collapse the pocket while also covering running lanes.  It sounds good in theory, but in practice it is not that effective given the Bills are about 25th in sacks and are very susceptible to a good rushing attack get pushed around by a stronger Oline.  They are desperately in need of a big 1TDT, as well of a scheme that isn't chicken shit.

 

Milano sacked Brady off a delayed blitz.  It was a good call, defensively.  I wish Frazier would do that more often.

 

Yeah, it would help if there was a third linebacker to fill the third lane.  Then you wouldn't have the middle linebacker guessing at which lane to clog and making his life like a constant three card monte game.  Edmunds might take a while to think, but they sure don't make it easy on him, either.

 

 

[Crap Throwing Clavin]

2 minutes ago, snafu said:

 

Yeah, it would help if there was a third linebacker to fill the third lane.  Then you wouldn't have the middle linebacker guessing at which lane to clog and making his life like a constant three card monte game.  Edmunds might take a while to think, but they sure don't make it easy on him, either.

 

 

 

That's why I wonder if he might do better at OLB, with only half a field to cover (theoretically).  

[Big Gun]

1 hour ago, Crap Throwing Monkey said:

 

It's not just the Bills...excruciatingly bad calls are happening to everyone.

 

And it's not just "bad calls."  It's a pattern of inept officiating, every week, league-wide.  To the point where you have to watch the refs to see which plays they'll end up allowing as much as watching the players for the plays they make.

 

And I don't tune in to watch the refs officiate games.  I haven't bothered watching anything but a Bills game since about week 4, for that reason.  It's become the National Officiating League, with football games providing a context within which the refs perform.

There was a flag thrown on the Raiders yesterday for having 12 men on defense, the problem was the ball had not been snapped yet. The ref mics up and say there is no foul as the play had not started yet. Why they eff is somebody throwing a flag for 12 men on defense before a play starts, that is pop warner ineptness refereeing, WTF this is the NFL, do better!