Randall Flagg

I think it's just really easy to forget about past preseason games haha. Didn't we blow the leafs out with an epic Eichel goal in preseason 2015?

Both Allen and Barkley were downright spooked by what Bill was showing them. You could tell they had no idea where to go after the snap. There's a reason Bill has now beaten QBs in their first two seasons eighteen straight times. That doesn't take away from the fact that Allen had his worst game since before the injury last year, and maybe ever. It happened. The question now is how he looks when he comes back. He's made the evaluation process over the next year or so quite simple - either he can develop and fix his decision-making, or he can't, and his career here will follow the answer to that question.

I don't think we're going to have Allen back for Tennessee. That game is going to be tough. I mentioned before that the Pats always beat us up, but rarely derail our seasons. 6-3 after Pats games since 2014, and we've not lost more than 1 game in a row after playing them in that span. I don't think this loss hurts the players any more than any other loss, and it wasn't embarrassing. Just need to keep going with the season. You never know what you're going to get with the Titans.

Trying to decide if that's the best defensive performance I've ever seen from the Bills. Its only competition for me (since 2005) is against Rodgers in December 2014. I think they were better today.

I don't feel super great about Tampa, but I simply have to pick the roster I think is the best when it comes to who I think is gonna win the cup. There's just not one team I like more, even if I wouldn't put money on them doing it.

Since about 2017, I would say that on balance calls, including and especially critical ones, have favored the Bills more often than not. I do think that good teams can get the benefit of the doubt more than bad teams, and that this is largely due to an inability for refs (due to the fact that they're human beings) to be perfectly unbiased. I think being a fairly disciplined team helps this a lot. This is what's changed my mind about the league being "rigged" and wanting the Pats to win. Before 2017, when the Bills were notoriously undisciplined and lacking in football fundamentals, you'd see stuff like Sanders whining on the ground in a critical game in Denver, drawing the PI flag, and then getting up and giving a literal bow to the crowd for his acting performance. You'd see stuff like the drive-extending personal foul on Hughes for slapping his teammate in the helmet after sacking Brady on 3rd and 18. But ever since McDermott took over, I've seen us get benefits of the doubt - a critical drive-extending penalty at home against Denver that let us take the lead back for good just because Von Miller faked out helping Tyrod Taylor off the ground. Multiple wrong calls about turnovers in Atlanta, and dubious PIs in our favor as well - refs arguably took that game from ATL and put it in our pocket. Similar stuff against Oakland and KC that year. And the number of 3rd down drive saving penalties in the Bills' favor this year HAS to be at like 6 or 7 at this point, and not all of them were good calls. I don't recall any going the other way, because our defense is incredibly disciplined. I haven't felt shafted by officiating since the KB TD in Foxborough in December 2017, and going nearly 2 years without feeling that way has helped me to shift towards feeling that while there's plenty of incompetence to go around with NFL officiating, none of it is malicious. I was just telling my dad this. Going into the game, I was pretty sure about what our offense was, but worried that, while we have a top 10 D, an elite offense would pick it to pieces. Now I feel the same way about the offense (they DID move the ball a fair amount, but of course need to clean up turnovers) but am not even sure if Chicago could have put up that performance today on D.

Belichick blitzes like there's no tomorrow, and they were already leading the league in sacks because of it. But our tackles are turnstiles from what I've seen. The guards and center seem okay-to-good. Spain is better than he was in preseason. Daboll and Allen weren't helping them with the amount of deep dropbacks, and the WRs had a tough time getting open consistently.

With you on Nelson. Though Gilmour has been intriguing, Nelson is not worse than the 7D that most teams roll out, and you're bang on about stylistic fit. That decision would understandably frustrate some people, but no fanbase isn't frustrated by their 7D situation haha

I swear this is the week of the fumble

At least we didn't lose our perfect record by giving up 55 to the Buccaneers

If Allen continues to turn the ball over without getting better about it like Winston, we'd better not stick with him as long as the Bucs have with Winston

It would hurt, a lot. It would also be more fun than any span in Buffalo sports history, save the Super Bowl run, with which it'd likely be tied in level of fun-ness

Watching highlights, and I think each team has fumbled the ball away about fifteen times so far in the KC/DET game

I went to type this more than once today lol

I used to see things that way too. I just don't see it anymore.

That throw was way off and in the dirt, holding or not, it never would have come close to being a catch. And I still don't know what non-call you are referring to there. And I think you miiight be right that the throw to Zay in double coverage was technically not a pick, but it was such a weird play that nobody noticed in real time, not even the guy whose job it is to analyze officiating situations for the networks, he had to come back ten minutes later and say "wait a minute." It was an awful throw deserving of the interception, and IF it was indeed a mistake, it was surely not intentional. But yeah, Brady is always allowed to ground the ball, and it's definitely frustrating.

Definitely, the old guard of QBs gets treated differently, especially the GOATs like Brees, Manning, Brady. But the lack of ejection did not materially affect any of the game situations. Neither did the officiating in general, any more than it usually does because they're imperfect.

Awful: Allen, Lee Smith, Daboll Bad: Yeldon, Zay Jones, Bojorquez, McDermo The rest of the team was pretty good today. The PI was on an uncatchable throw, which is why it was picked up. The ejection thing was dumb but didn't actually affect anything yardage-wise. Not sure what the last one is. And they did miss a facemask on Allen, just like they missed one that Shaq Lawson handed out in the 3rd quarter.

The only bad call I saw was the missed intentional grounding, which didn't affect anything really.

Besides the Allen injury and his play before the injury, this game is basically what I'd hoped for. We can win 10 games this year.

Neal was so stupid there. Roberts had that guy beat already.

This is pathetic

The intentional grounding only gets thrown if -QB is between the tackles -no receiver in area -ball falls short of line -QB is under 30 I believe that last point is the one that wasn't met We should be running the ball more.

That NE punter is good. He booms them, and his swing is so quick

I like going for the TD there. No guarantee Barkley can get you that close again.