Stefon Diggs goes off, Josh Allen: Bills’ offense was ‘piss poor’ + biggest concerns after upset

What is up everybody? Welcome into shoutout a Buffalo football podcast very early on this Monday October 6th uh a little over an hour after the Bills dropped to 4- one their first loss of the season to a very different New England Patriots team. Brian Talbet, uh, I want to welcome you in and and where I want to start, I think more than anything, we’re going to get into all of the the things that led to this Bill’s loss. But to me, the biggest storyline coming out of this game is that the Patriots are in fact a legitimate contender in the AFC East. They have a quarterback in Drake May who I think had the kind of performance today that I was kind of waiting for before I was willing to crown him as this great young quarterback. You know, he answered a lot of questions for me today, especially in the fourth quarter on that game-winning field goal drive. I mean, some of the plays that he made, the one uh with Dayquin Jones bearing down on him to buy some time to find Stefon Diggs, we’ll get into him as well. It was a big- time performance. signature win for Drake May. And listen, the the Bills have had the luxury of an AFC East that’s been dormant for much of the last couple of years. I think the Patriots are here, but in a lot of ways that the the Bills also did a great deal of of damage to themselves in this game. Yeah, Bills shot themselves in the foot multiple times in this loss, but give Drake May his kudos, his credit. Uh he made a Josh Allenesque play with Dcoin Jones bearing down on him, finding Stefon Diggs who absolutely torched the Bills secondary all night long. Uh so you know they were the team that made fewer mistakes and it’s no surprise that they came out with the wind. And I guess the the next place we have to go is Stefon Diggs, who literally turned the clock back tonight and and looked like the receiver that we saw in this stadium for so many Bills games over the years, getting the the lion share of the targets for the for the for Drake May and this offense, consistently making plays throughout the game. Now, I think a lot of his sea success came down to the lack of competitiveness from both of the Bills boundary quarterbacks and Christian Benford and Tradavius White. Both of them struggled quite a bit tonight. Tradavius White in particular. So much so that I tweeted late in the game, I thought the Bills should have maybe gone away from him and and inserted Jammarcus Ingram into the game. They’re in a situation right now where they’re leaning on their depth. Going into the season, I don’t think anybody had planned on Tradavius White being the starter opposite Benford. If that ended up being the case, it was either there going to be injury or concerns with the rookies. Dorian Strong’s out, Maxwell Harrison out, forcing Tradavius White on the field. I thought he had perhaps his worst game of the season tonight. and and and for Steph Diggs, one year off of the torn ACL in Houston, less than a year, to have the kind of performance he did on the road tonight was really impressive. Back-to-back 100yard performances. He looks phenomenal. Uh the route running was great getting open for Drake May on plays where May had a scramble. May was lethal rolling to his right throughout this game. But, you know, Diggs being able to turn guys around. He had Trey White spinning around on one play where he got uh open deep down the sideline for a first and goal that set up one of Raandre Stevenson’s touchdowns. He was fantastic. He he showed that there’s still a lot in the tank there. The Bills have legitimate concerns at cornerback though because as you mentioned Max Haristen, we still don’t know the timeline and when he’s going to return. Dorian Strong is on the IR now with a neck injury. Uh the Bills have to see what’s out there, whether that’s free agency or the trademark. Apologies right now to anyone. My voice is a little bit shot today. Way better now than it was earlier, but working through it. Well, you were having the time of your life last night at Wingnuts, and I think that that that’s the that’s the big issue. We had one of our our most fun live shows that we’ve had in a while uh last night at Wingnuts. It was absolutely great time. Um our next one’s going to be the Kansas City Chiefs weekend, so that is going to be absolutely massive. I want to get into the the Bills offense and the struggles. You you’re you’re right on the money. I mean, cornerback to me coming out of this game, I sent you actually a text earlier in the week. I was listening to Chris Sims’s p podcast going into this Patriots game, and one of the things that he said is that he felt the Bills had one of the most unimpressive cornerback rooms in all of football. And I think you see that that that that quote, and the first thing that kind of jumps out at you is like, wait a second, Christian Benford just signed this big-time extension. Taran Johnson has long been one of the best slot cornerbacks in the NFL, but I thought all three of those guys tonight had plays where you’re like, there’s issues here. And so, I think to your point, figuring out a way to find answers. And I think depending on Haristston to be an answer coming off of the knee injury is something that’s a little bit of a dice roll. And so, going out and getting another veteran into the mix here would make a lot of sense. Yeah. You know, Stefon Gilmore’s still out there. He’s the premier name. I know he’s up there in age. He’s someone to kind of consider. The the Bills do have legitimate concerns there, though. And, you know, there needs to be a conversation on Taran Johnson. This has not been a very good first five weeks for the nickel quarterback. Um, I think we’re learning that you can’t necessarily rely on past performance when it comes to some of these players. You know, Matt Milano guts it out, comes back from a pec injury, he exits again. He hasn’t looked the same. Obviously, he’s been banged up the last two years. Terren Johnson, it looks like he’s on the downside of of his career. Still can play at a some a pretty good level, don’t get me wrong. Trey White, I I’ve already said it. He he is very replaceable and they need to find an option there. So, the Bills has some issues on that side of the ball. And obviously, it wasn’t just the defense tonight. They did come up with some stops. The offense was a a mess. Once again, um the two turnovers early were perplexing. I mean, this is a team that has made its living and the construction of the offense and their team is really predicated on them not turning the ball over. And you know, to to be in it and have a chance to win late against a rising team like this tells you the talent that the Bills have on both sides of the ball. And I thought in the first half the defense played really well. They couldn’t sustain that. Matt Milano goes out. I thought Shaq Thompson played well at times. We can get into some of the um offensive performances here as well. I kind of want to run through the pass catchers in a minute, but the Bills run game for the first time this season was really handled outside of Josh Allen scrambling. I mean, James Cook in this game, you look at the final numbers, he’s averaging 3.3 per carry. Ray Davis gets forced into the lineup. Joe Brady talked about it earlier in the week. He goes two carries for one yard. I mean, was it you that suggested the Ray Davis trade earlier in the week? It was. I did, you know? I mean, dude, you’re looking like a little bit of an oracle in this game. I I think somebody said in the press box, it was like it just feels like every time he’s in the game, it’s forced. It doesn’t feel like he’s offering any juice at all as a runner. You know, he gets to the line of scrimmage. He looks to make something happen and as soon as there’s contact, play over. Like the complete antithesis of what James Cook has been this year. I’d almost wonder if the Bills would be benefited by going to more of a Tai Johnson 6535 split with James Cook and maybe even making Ray Davis inactive. I I don’t hate it. I don’t want to We’re all over the place right now if I’m start criticizing Brandon Bean, but I feel like sometimes he drafts guys based on character over fits and what you’re going to get out of them in the NFL or upside. like Ray Davis was a Buffalo Bill in terms of character, his whole story going through foster care and uh you know, you can look at Carter and Mr. Duke and all the the leadership things. Sometimes that’s not the route you need to go in this league and Ray Davis, he had some good moments as a rookie last year. He loses weight this year to feel more explosive is what he had said. He has not looked explosive. He has been you get hit, he goes down. Uh it’s been an issue. Tai Johnson’s been a lot more effective, but the way the Bills ran the ball tonight, too, Matt, was baffling to me. And this is a Joe Brady issue. The strength of the Patriots defense is right in the interior of their offensive line. It just felt like the Bills were running it right into that over and over and over again. Not enough opportunities for Cook to take it outside. Uh there were a lot of flaws in this game plan on both sides of the ball. Uh thank you so much uh for watching, making us part of your very very late night or early morning, however you kind of want to look at it here on the Sh podcast. If you’re watching on YouTube, make sure you hit that uh like button for the episode. Subscribe to the channel as well. We have um uh super chat in here. We’ll get to that in a moment, but before we do, right now, Ryan, we’re we’re we’re sponsored by Topps Friendly Markets, and it is the rush to the red zone to play the red zone raffle over at TOPS. You know, we love their their breakfast pizzas, but at Tops right now, you can enter to win one of the premier packages. There’s Dan Fates from Buffalo Plus just riding by in the background. Um, one of the premier packages in tailgating, uh, an Oni pizza oven, uh, $500 chef experience. So many different things are offered in this package, and all you got to do is head over to topsmarkets.com/redzone to figure out all the details. All right, let’s go to the super chat here before we move on because I want to get into some of the offensive performances for the Bills at Passcatcher. Yet again, Kansas City’s top three picks are awesome. Where is our drafting? Null Williams, Xavier Watts passed up in round two and round three. Um, yeah, Ryan, I I I think that there is going to continue to be in in on moments like this questions about some of the resources that have been spent. I mean, this was a game where you trade away Stefon Diggs two years ago. You go to a complete new identity. You pass up on the opportunity multiple times in drafts over the last couple of years to get potentially difference maker makers at at wide receiver. And today, I know Keon Coleman had the touchdown late and I thought that that was a really nice play on a moment that they needed. Although, I thought the one defender that was kind of hanging out down there, had he reacted any quicker, that could have been an interception. Mhm. But early in the game, Keon Coleman nowhere to be found. He comes into the game, he gets gets targets on two straight plays, incomplete passes both times. It’s like this team doesn’t have a number one wide receiver right now. And you look at the impact that a Xavier Worthy had on the Kansas City Chiefs offense when he came back last week against Baltimore. Where is that player in Buffalo right now? Maybe you’d come back and say Dalton Concade. had his best game in a Buffalo Bills uniform today, but it wasn’t enough against a New England Patriots team that you should have beaten even with the three turnovers in this game. Concaid was excellent against man getting open, six catches, 108 yards on six targets. But it’s the same old story on these wide receivers. They struggle to get open on a regular basis. You had Josh Palmer get open early in the game, then he kind of disappeared at times. Uh Khil Shakir with the short passing game. We know what he can do there, but down the field, it’s not necessarily something that we’ve seen a lot of. The offense looked all out of sorts when they threw those backto back throws to Keon Coleman early in the game, the back shoulder and then just kind of the 50/50 ball. And I get it. Keon Coleman came down. That’s not 429 anymore. Coleman came up with that 50-50 ball later in the game. Uh but it’s just like forcing it at times trying to get those guys involved and it doesn’t look great. Um Curtis Samuel has, you know, a good moment in this game as well, but it’s just not consistent enough. And that’s why you see Josh Allen having to scramble at times, waiting and and trying to roll and let guys get open. They’re lacking that guy that can just win off the line like Cole Beasley did all those years. uh like Stefon Diggs obviously did in his time in Buffalo where he could get open on his own and it wasn’t Allen having to scramble around to make those plays. Palmer to me is the great mystery right now. This was a guy they gave $13 million per season to. Right now it’s a it’s a huge miss through five games at that price tag. Especially considering you could have just probably kept Elijah Moore signed him late in the in the situation. He was inactive tonight. You think about the contributions for those two guys through five games and they’re a wash. And so you went out and you spent 13 millions. It’s early in the season, right? Like anything can transpire over the next couple of weeks as Josh Palmer continues to get settled in. But you know that it felt like the Bills tabbed him specifically for his ability to win one-on-one. This to me would have been a game where you could have leaned on something like that. It was Daltton Concaid who ended up making plays in big-time moments for this Bills offense. like the penalties. Listen, there it two-pronged conversation. Number one, this this referee group is about as pitiful as there is in the NFL. It’s just it’s an awful experience. And I I saw somebody tweet that I thought was so fitting. Even when the Patriots were flagged, it was an eye roll from from a Bills fans perspective because it’s like every single player just waiting for flags. It felt like the first half took two two and a half, three hours. It was just it it was such a slog. It almost feels like Hawki gets like a kick out of it when he’s announcing these penalties. It’s absolutely horrible. But at the same token, eight accepted penalties against the Bills today. This was an unacceptable, inexcusable performance from a disciplined perspective. I got to tell you, Ryan, I have a cousin and an uncle who literally they light me up on my on my text messages every every game. It’s a Shawn McDermott hate line, right? And their big their big contention is a couple years ago after 13 seconds, the Bills should have fired Shawn McDermott. I’ve always pushed back against it when Mike Brabel was out of coaching for a couple years and kind of like doing a couple things saying that he’s the kind of coach that wins these kinds of games. It remains to be seen. We’ll see how the Patriots do over the next couple of years. But this is to me an example of a big-time divisional game. Something that Shawn McDermott has based his entire approach in building the culture and the organization over the years on games like this to be out coached by a less talented team, by a secondyear quarterback to come in here and allow him to make these kinds of plays. You got to put a lot of this on Shawn Mcderman. And I I also like something that he said too, not to get to too many points here after the game. He said, “At times we were too cute tonight.” I think that falls directly on Joe Brady. The Dawson Knox reverse jet sweep was absolutely an atrocious play call in a game like this. Like I I like the the flea flicker with Ray Davis in there, throw a trick play into it, but when you start to get cute over and over again, takes those kinds of chances, I don’t know. It’s it’s it’s just it’s too crazy of a game plan when you have the kind of players that you do on offense and the quarterback that you have, right? They didn’t they didn’t play to their strengths. I’ve already mentioned not getting Cook more involved running to the outside, giving him some swing passes and opportunities. He’s kind of been phased out of the receiving game more times than not, which is just baffling to me based on his talent as a pass catcher. And then you start throwing these cutesy plays, the the handoff to Dawson Knox that the exchange is fumbled and the Bills turn it over there. And then you follow it up with the flee flicker. I know you said you liked it. I wasn’t a huge fan of it. I know they it was ended up being a positive play, don’t get me wrong, but after a cute play like that, I would say come out and then run your offense and you know what’s what’s gotten you those 30 points every week leading up to that point. It it just felt like this was too much stop and go and yeah, a lot of that had to do with the penalties. Uh but this is a team that has been undisiplined on both sides of the ball, especially defense obviously, but the lulls on offense once again showed up tonight and this was just one of those games where the Bills didn’t have enough time to work their themselves out of it. Yeah. And uh a couple comments here about Vrabel. Um, you know, it felt like in the fourth quarter, not even from a varable perspective, but the Patriots were trying to lose this game at times, like right and that to me is where, you know, you look at I think it was late in the first half where Shawn Mcder kind of burned an awkward timeout as the as the clock was running down. And had they not used that timeout, I think there would have been a a scenario where maybe you forced them to kick a longer field goal or maybe a you know, time runs out. It’s just maybe not a spot where you want to, you know, call that time out, but there was another time in this game where the Bills on the one field goal attempt had 10 players on the field. Did you notice that? I did not noticed that. Well, that’ll be an interesting question for for him tomorrow. Some of the the penalties the Patriots took though to my original point was really just brutal like in that spot. You’re thinking that the Bills are going to do enough to come back and win this game. Defensively, it’s like it’s feast or famine. It’s boom or bust. You had the first half where it’s four out of five possessions or or three out of five possessions, you hold them to no points and then on the two drives that they score points, it’s only a field goal. And then you go to the second half where it’s like field goal, touchdown, touchdown. It’s like you you can’t get any kind of sustained momentum from this defense. And there’s issues at all three levels. I thought the defensive line at times tonight played really well. I thought this was Greg Russo’s best game of the season. I thought thought he answered the call. I thought the pressure was there early in the game. I thought the the run stop for a or tackle for a loss and sack on the first drive set the tone for the defensive performance in the first half. It just wasn’t enough over the course of the game. Yeah, it’s funny. It’s like when the offense gets rolling in some of these games, the defense is struggling. When the defense is playing well, the Bills can’t the offense can’t get it together. And tonight, the defense shows up early. They’re making some good plays and then the offense is just turning the ball over. Whether it’s uh the exchange from Dawson Knox, whether it’s the interception by Josh Allen, uh the fumble, you know, there’s three turnovers that’s so uncharacteristic of this team. And you take those out of the equation, you look at the points that Allen took off the board with his interception on the throw to K Shakir, you’re at least talking three points there in that moment, which is the difference in this game. So little mistakes snowballed. Penalties really hurt this team. But once again, it’s just like these two units aren’t usually they just can’t seem to be working in sync together so far this season where special teams tonight minus that 10 man, they were great. Coverage units were great. Really obviously Matthew Prader came out again, did a great job. New punter did a great job with the holding. Um that unit held up. It was just once again the offense and the defense with their let downs. Uh, thank you so much for watching. Hit that like button, subscribe to the channel as well. We really appreciate you making us a part of your very early Monday morning here as the Bills drop to 4-1. And you know, I think if we use a little pers two things before we get out of here. I want to talk about a little bit of perspective for this game. I mean, you look across the AFC right now as the Chiefs seems to be getting things right. Chargers drop another game today. It is not a very strong conference. This is a a a good Patriots team that’s going to have some tough games. You get another shot at them later in the season. I don’t think the Miami Dolphins and New or New York Jets are going to pose much of a problem for the Bills or the Patriots the rest of the way. So, you know, you take care of your business here. You could get to the Chiefs game uh potentially sitting there at 6 and one. I think that the Bills have an opportunity to really respond from this. They need Michael Hoy to be a a a guy. They need Larry Oen Joby to be a contributor. I think what we’ve learned through these first five games is that Dion Walker is the find of this last year’s draft class. I thought he was really good once again tonight. I have to go back and watch the entire thing to see if there were times uh when he could have been better, but he was placed in a big spot. Fourth round draft pick, year one. You got to go out there and start next to Dayquin Jones without Ed Oliver, without TJ Sanders. Lot was on his plate tonight. I think for the most part he handled it pretty well. Let’s talk about the Stefon Diggs thing one more time just to put a bow on it. Yeah, to me it’s it’s one of the most all-time weird storylines that has I’ve ever really seen in the NFL or covered. You have this like dramafilled breakup with the Bills. Like all of the perceived um falling out between him and Josh Allen. You have the way that these two guys have talked about each other for the most part since the the divorce, since the breakup. You have Stefon Diggs. after tonight’s game, you tweeted it saying that this was 100% personal for him playing this game today. And he could have meant that in a bunch of different ways, but then it, you know, you have the side eye last year after the Houston Texans game. He comes out today and basically just goes on a one minute um rant about how much he loves Josh Allen and how much he’s his guy and how much, you know, they built a bond when he was here. It’s it’s the strangest kind of thing because in a lot of ways their inability to hold that thing together probably limited the potential for what they could have been uh in in that era. I mean for Stefon Diggs to come out over the last two weeks and give these kinds of performances probably puts to bed the talk of him being washed late in his Bills career. You know at times early last year with the Houston Texans. He looked exceptional tonight in this game and I don’t think the Bills were very good, but to go out there and have this kind of performance was big time for him. Yeah, huge for him. And the storyline’s weird. You know, tonight though, big hugs Josh Allen, Shawn McDermott, all the other guys pregame, uh, along, you know, embrace after the game as well. But him coming out saying it’s personal, but it’s also the national broadcast. like NBC the way they were talking about it almost made it sound like the Bills wanted to get rid of Diggs and not vice versa where Diggs is the one that worked his way out of Buffalo and you know whatever the reasons may be for that maybe he felt like this everyone eats offense wasn’t for him uh either way the way the relationship ended with him and Josh Allen and with him and the team you know this shouldn’t be personal to him he’s the one that is the one forced himself out of Buffalo unbelievable performance showed there’s a ton in the tank. Uh did a great job just kind of exposing Buffalo’s secondary all night long, making big plays for Drake May, including that one that looked like it was going to be a throwaway to with Jones bearing down. So, you know, kudos to him. Maybe that’s what he just needs to get up for games like this, but whatever it is, definitely worked out tonight. Uh Matt Milano update. Not much from Shawn McDermott after the game. He left uh in the most missed most of the second half. And you know, I know a lot of in the moment a lot of Bills fans talking about um uh being done with him. This is his last contract year. It feels like he’s always hurt. I kind of get all of that. Um but I he’s still somebody that I think you want in the mix. And the fact that he comes back, plays a half, and he’s already dealing with this thing again. It’s probably something that’s going to he’s going to have to deal with not only like over the next couple of weeks, but probably throughout the season depending on whether or not he’s able to get back. McDermott hopes he has more of an update on it tomorrow. But Milano going out, I feel like you really have to dive into your depth at that position. Shaq Thompson’s been really good, but he’s coming off of uh two significant seasons with significant uh leg injuries, so you have to worry about his durability. And the Dorian Williams Ryan, I’m very concerned about his durability. Like going back to when he showed up for training camp, every practice he had a huge brace on his elbow, huge brace on his knee. I mean, this is a guy that even when he’s playing out there, he’s kind of put together. Uh, you know, uh, almost on like with a stilt and a, you know, a big brace on his on his elbow. It’s I I worry about his ability to stay healthy as well. We talked about cornerback being an issue. I think linebacker is sneaky becoming an issue as well, big time. I mean, Joanne Andre’s another depth option there. We know his struggles in coverage. Uh, very young player, not a lot of reps under his belt in meaningful situations. Jimmy Charlo just signed to to the 53man roster. He missed all of his rookie season last year with the Jets due to an injury. Uh, was a real feel-good story this summer and did enough to make the practice squad in a short time and now on the 53. But those are some options that you’re looking at there if if you’re without Dorian Williams, if you’re without Matt Milano, uh knowing that Shaq Thompson has that injury history to Bernard’s been banged up, there’s some problems there. And I did see someone in the comments say, “Go sign Chris Paul Jr. off of the practice squad of uh Seattle.” I I don’t hate the idea. They did a ton of homework on him, but that’s still another young player that you don’t know how he’s going to react in a moment like that. Veterans, who knows? It’s always a crapshoot there. Someone texted me joking maybe they’re going to bring back Balen Spectre again. Spectre knows the system, but he’s Mr. injury prone. So, there’s some serious issues and concerns at linebacker, at cornerback depth right now. Uh, obviously they’re going through it at defensive tackle. You want to see what this looks like with everyone healthy, but when are we going to see that? It’ll be it’ll be an interesting week to see uh if they can get Ed Oliver back uh next week against the Atlanta Falcons. I felt like he was ramping up and getting close. I think they probably want that to be as close to 100% as possible. It did still feel like at times in the open viewing portions on Wednesday and Thursday at times he was still, you know, um it was hard to push off of that ankle. And I think sometimes when you’re coming back from something like that, you know, the just a little bit of pain, it’s not even just about the day where you can kind of get through practice. It might be the next day and how you’re feeling a day after that. Maybe three straight days of practice. He wasn’t feeling it on Saturday and that’s when they decided uh to elevate uh Fedarian Matthysse and Zion Lo who played a ton tonight. All right, we’ll get to much more of this coming up over the next couple of days. I mean, the first loss was always going to be something that I think charged fans up a little bit, right? It’s been kind of hoham the Bills. There’s been these lingering issues, but they’ve continued to find ways to win. Their offense has continued to find a way to put up 30 points today. 20 points, three turnovers. This is a come to Jesus moment for this offense in a lot of ways. As Shawn McDermott, you know, in a indirect way, maybe calling out Joe Brady a little bit. there’s been an unhappiness with the play calling. That’s going to be something that takes center stage. And I also think I can’t remember who tweeted. It might have been Carl Jones and we’ll we’ll catch up with him on Tuesday, maybe get his thoughts on this, but he said I think that this game reminded him a lot of the Houston Texans game last year. And you know, maybe that’s just maybe there is something extra. You know, Stefon Digs talked about it being personal for him. Maybe that’s still personal for Josh Allen and playing a little bit differently when going up against Stefon Diggs and maybe wanting to prove that the shift to the everybody eats mindset. There’s been a lot of like read in between the lines comments from Josh Allen over the last two years about that that you kind of wonder if maybe he just makes it bigger than it needs to be and you go out there and press a little bit. That interception that Josh Allen threw by Marcus Jones, I think it was in the third quarter, was about as bad of an interception as I’ve seen him throw in a while. Yeah. He said he threw it behind Khil Shakir and and you know if he puts a perfect ball on Shakir, maybe he catches that, but it it felt like he was pressing in that moment following the penalty for the offensive pass interference where the Bills got backed up. It it took points off the board. It cost the Bills ultimately at the end of the day. And it’s just a throw that you don’t see him make in those situations very much. And it it certainly felt like he was pressing at times tonight. All right. Uh big week coming up. Ryan and I are both got to get that voice fixed on you, buddy, because we’re heading to Atlanta this weekend. Uh we have a live show coming up on Sunday night in Atlanta. I’m pretty sure tickets are already sold out. We’re so excited uh about our big one uh at the White Hall Tavern. It’s going to be such a fun time. We’ll both be in Atlanta. Hey, if you’re going to be in Atlanta, we land, I think, at 7 o’clock on Saturday. Uh hit us up. Uh join the insider text line. Send us a note. Let us know what’s going on in uh Atlanta this weekend. It should be a fun time. All right, for Ryan Talbin, I’m going to save his voice and that is going to be our final thought. We will be back uh this week with plenty of coverage as the Bills look to uh rebound next week against the Falcons. Take care, everybody.

Matt Parrino and Ryan Talbot break down Sunday night’s upset for the New England Patriots, who came away with a win on the road s a 8-point underdog.

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10 comments
  1. You asked "Where was that player", then answered your question in the next sentence. Kincaid, the Bills first round pick, who went 6 for 6, 108 yards, 18 yards per catch. How many receivers you need to have 100+ yard each game before you stop this non-sense? "The lack of a great receiver" was not the problem today.

  2. You could see Drake Maye last year being very impressive and particularly how well he played against the Bills. This loss may actually be a good thing as far as a wake up call, but let's face it; the Bills pass defense is VERY flawed and if it's not addressed we can forget about a championship or even a deep playoff run. If they didn't "wake up" from previous nail biters against "lesser teams", maybe they won't wake up at all. Last year it was the safeties and one cornerback being liabilities, now it looks like it's the entire secondary. What's new though? Same old same old, but tonight even the offense was bad. The penalties? LOL. We are DREAMING if we think this team is going to beat some of the better teams. It's NOT happening.

  3. Why so much complaining about the secondary? This one was on the offense. I thought it was one of the better overall efforts from the defense.

  4. BULL💩!!! The Bills have barely won in every game.. WHEN are they going to DEMAND NEW COACHING!!! Defensive coaching has SUCKED THIS season. If they continue to play, they might as well sit in the stands.

  5. Turnovers and penalties. That's the whole story. The defense actually played better than I expected them to, patriots only score 23 points despite winning the turnover battle 3-1 and being gifted so many opportunities by Buffalo. The d-line finished with over 20 pressures and 4 sacks. They forced 2 fumbles, only recovered 1 though. If the Bills keep it clean and don't turn the ball over in this game, the Patriots go home with a loss and score like 13 points total. The extra possessions they accumulated amounted to 10 points, and pretty much a 17 point swing against us. Is it frustrating to see Diggs popping off? Sure it is. But he was their entire offense. They didn't have much of a run game. Their explosive return game wasn't an issue for us on special teams either. Maye finished without recording a touchdown. Diggs accounted for more than half of Maye's passing yards.

    The major factor as to why the offense is struggling the past couple of weeks is the penalties. You can see it very clearly. They lost about 100 yards worth of field position off a dozen offensive penalties committed. When they're committing all these penalties and turning 2nd and shorts into 1st and 15+, it completely hamstrings an offense. It totally takes the offense out of the game-plan they went into the game with. It forces Joe Brady to call the game differently. It makes Josh have to press to gain back the yards they lost. It negatively impacts the run game. It starts getting deflating constantly having a positive play, just to walk backwards and start over. It feels like you can't do anything right and it can mess with you mentally. The offense can't establish a rhythm, guys can't get into the flow of the game. Josh can't get into a zone. The penalties and the lack of rhythm on offense can lead to turnovers. It all starts adding up and this is the result of that.

    There are absolutely issues on defense that need to get addressed, 2 things can be true… they're just not the reason they lost. And yeah, frankly this isn't a game the Bills should've lost, it's a game they should've won by at least 2 possessions. Like it should've been a comfortable win, they should've covered the spread and then some. The Patriots are up and coming, but they're not a better team than the Bills. Like not even close. I think they needed this reality check though, like brutally. They've been playing sloppy, uninspired football. A total lack of focus across the board, almost like they're taking things for granted and just coasting waiting until they get to December. Obviously no one predicted that both of their rookie corners would be on IR by week 5 of the season. The plan was never to start Tre White, the plan was for him to mentor Maxwell Hairston because of his familiarity with the system here and his knowledge. The plan was for Hairston to come in and start at CB2 immediately and have Tre there as a backup.

    Brandon Beane and McDermott need to pow-wow here and really contemplate making a move prior to the trade deadline. Doesn't have to be a pro bowler, just someone established who you know can play and who you can trust. A Rasul Douglas style trade. Someone like CB Cordale Flott from the Giants. I bring him up for a couple reason. For one, he's only 24 and just turned 24 in August. Two, the Giants clearly need help at receiver after losing Nabers and aren't really in a position to challenge for wins this year and could use extra draft capital. For 3, they also have Deonte Banks who is also young & has been sharing CB2 duties with Flott, with Flott earning the most snaps between the two because he's been having a solid year. He's 6'1, good speed, mostly plays outside. And I think he only has 1yr left on his deal and wouldn't be expensive to extend if you wanted to. A guy like that makes a lot of sense to trade for at this point in the season.

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