Bills @ Hawks

[4XPIPS]

Well I was as at the last home game, and it was a great experience even though we lost. I sat with a pretty cool crowd around me, and most of them were 49er fans and it was real fun to have that back and forth fun banter in the stadium, and of course they had the last laugh. One of the 49er fans was an Aussie and he was on a business trip to Seattle, and we had this funny bond considering we both live in Australasia , but I could not keep with the amount of beer he was downing. Side note never try match wits with an Aussie beer to beer, YOU WILL LOSE!

Bills vs Hawks, this will be very tough match for us as the Bills are an elite team. However, the Bills have only beaten weak teams this year, and have lost to elite teams.

All wins against losing record teams
Cards 3-4
Dolphins 2-4
Jaguars 2-5
Jets 2-5
Titans 1-5

Losses
Ravens 5-2
Texans 5-2

Same can be said for us, but we did beat the division leading Falcons.

Yes we are not an elite team, but I think we are competent team. Josh Allen is an elite QB, but does have a tendency to sH!t the bed as a QB at times, and has an off game here or there. He is very mobile and one of the least sacked QBs in the league. I did read an article back around week 3 where the coaching staff wants Josh to slide more and avoid more contact, and this driving their coaching staff crazy at times. As he has suffered some minor bumps and bruises in game from taking hits down field scrambling. However, the pundits indicated Josh doesn't back down from a big hit and likes contact and will fight for every yard in front him. Josh Allen is a big boy.

In order for the Hawks to get a win is to slow the run game down and hope Josh has one of those games, and Geno would have to play elite hero ball and can not afford any errand passes and be perfect. We lead the league in pass attempts and passing yards(sort of sounds like U-Dub type of offense) to this point, so much for being a running team. I just don't feel we have the defense to contain Josh, and if he scrambles he will be tough take down.

Bills 39 Hawks 31

Hawks Lose, but may maintain staying atop of the NFC west at 500.

[Aseahawkfan]

Good barometer game. See if you can contend in that second tier.

[River Dog]

This is a tough one to call. We broke our three-game losing streak against a team that looked like they were the strongest team in their division, but Buffalo is by all accounts a much stronger club with a much better quarterback. Josh Allen is playing well, hasn't thrown a single interception this year after averaging 13 picks over his first 6 seasons. He isn't taking as many sacks, either, having been sacked just 9 times in 7 games. Their defense is only so-so, meaning we should be able to move the ball against them.

I need to think about this one some more before I commit to a prediction.

[NorthHawk]

It looks like we will be playing without DK, so it will be even tougher.
On a side note it will give us a glimpse of what it would be like if we traded DK as in a prior thread.

[River Dog]

It looks like we will be playing without DK, so it will be even tougher.
On a side note it will give us a glimpse of what it would be like if we traded DK as in a prior thread.

With us winning and the Niners losing last week, the trade Metcalf scenario seems much less likely, especially given how JS has been acting prior to the deadline, that he's a buyer, not a seller. But I do think that it will be a viable option after the season.

We already got a glimpse of what it would be like without Metcalf. He virtually disappeared during our three-game losing streak.

[c_hawkbob]

Not that I'm pretending to be in Schneider's and MacD's heads but I don't think trading DK was ever anything more than a fan driven 'what if' scenario. I know most don't agree with me on this but I see DK as a future HOFer.

[MackStrongIsMyHero]

The Bills have a good record, but their wins have come against weak teams. Allen's performances have been strong vs weak teams and weak vs strong teams. I don't think they are as good as their record much like how the Seahawks 3-0 start was misleading.

Rest assured, the Seahawks are not the Ravens or the Texans, but the Bills aren't way ahead of the Seahawks.

[River Dog]

The Bills have a good record, but their wins have come against weak teams. Allen's performances have been strong vs weak teams and weak vs strong teams. I don't think they are as good as their record much like how the Seahawks 3-0 start was misleading.

Rest assured, the Seahawks are not the Ravens or the Texans, but the Bills aren't way ahead of the Seahawks.

Which Seahawks are you talking about, the one that beat the Falcons or the one that lost at home to the 2-5 Giants?

[MackStrongIsMyHero]

I don't know which one shows up Sunday. The one that played the Giants likely loses this one. The one that beat the Falcons could very well pull it off.

[River Dog]

I don't know which one shows up Sunday. The one that played the Giants likely loses this one. The one that beat the Falcons could very well pull it off.

I agree completely. That's why I said that this one is tough to pick. I'm leaning towards picking the Bills simply due to the QB they're facing and the year he's having. We're going to need some turnovers if we're going to pull out a win, and Allen hasn't been turning the ball over this season. Turnovers have been the one thing that's kept Allen and the Bills from taking that next step.

There are a whole slew of teams in the NFC with 2-3 losses, 7 to be exact, nearly half the conference. We're one of those teams who are still trying to sort themselves out, contenders or pretenders. We'll know more by Sunday evening as to which category we fall under.

[Aseahawkfan]

Not that I'm pretending to be in Schneider's and MacD's heads but I don't think trading DK was ever anything more than a fan driven 'what if' scenario. I know most don't agree with me on this but I see DK as a future HOFer.

DK is averaging a 1000 yards a year and 8 TDs. His stats would probably be higher if we had a better QB at center better able to hit the long ball and throw in the red zone. We'll be drafting and developing a QB further putting DK in a situation that won't maximize his potential within a few years.

Tough place for DK to be in to have his best years with a middling QB and a developing QB when we draft one unless John hits big on QB.

[MackStrongIsMyHero]

I agree completely. That's why I said that this one is tough to pick. I'm leaning towards picking the Bills simply due to the QB they're facing and the year he's having. We're going to need some turnovers if we're going to pull out a win, and Allen hasn't been turning the ball over this season. Turnovers have been the one thing that's kept Allen and the Bills from taking that next step.

There are a whole slew of teams in the NFC with 2-3 losses, 7 to be exact, nearly half the conference. We're one of those teams who are still trying to sort themselves out, contenders or pretenders. We'll know more by Sunday evening as to which category we fall under.

The Ravens kept Allen to 55% completion; Texans kept him to 30%. It was 180 and 130 yards, respectively. Both of these were away games, and both were the only losses for the Bills thus far. The Seahawks have to find a way to get the better of Allen the way these two did.

[River Dog]

I agree completely. That's why I said that this one is tough to pick. I'm leaning towards picking the Bills simply due to the QB they're facing and the year he's having. We're going to need some turnovers if we're going to pull out a win, and Allen hasn't been turning the ball over this season. Turnovers have been the one thing that's kept Allen and the Bills from taking that next step.

There are a whole slew of teams in the NFC with 2-3 losses, 7 to be exact, nearly half the conference. We're one of those teams who are still trying to sort themselves out, contenders or pretenders. We'll know more by Sunday evening as to which category we fall under.

The Ravens kept Allen to 55% completion; Texans kept him to 30%. It was 180 and 130 yards, respectively. Both of these were away games, and both were the only losses for the Bills thus far. The Seahawks have to find a way to get the better of Allen the way these two did.

I agree, that "if" we keep Allen in check like the Ravens and Texans did, then we have a good chance of beating them, and if you told me that Allen would complete just 30% of his passes and under 150 yards passing against, I'd lay a ton of money on us to win.

But I keep looking at what the Giants and their poor man's Josh Allen did to us in our house: 23-34, 257 yards, 2 TD's no INT's, the Giants running 71 plays and racking up 420 yards of total offense, and I keep asking myself what the difference is between Daniel Jones and Josh Allen.

[MackStrongIsMyHero]

That’s real. If they could not slow down Jones, it definitely calls into question finding a way to get the better of Allen. Need the offense to keep Allen on the side lines as much as possible.

[Spohawk5092]

That’s real. If they could not slow down Jones, it definitely calls into question finding a way to get the better of Allen. Need the offense to keep Allen on the side lines as much as possible.

absolutely!!!! Hoping we can get an early score so as to get the crowd LOUD, and make the Bills play from behind. Watching the stupid offensive penalties please.

[4XPIPS]

Three straight passes, 3 and out. Grubb startin pass happy again.

Bills march right down field and have their way. Even with 3 penalties we couldn’t get them to 4th down. This will be a long day

[c_hawkbob]

yeah this ain't looking good at all so far.

[c_hawkbob]

This is a bit better

[c_hawkbob]

Guess I spoke too soon ...

[c_hawkbob]

Connor Williams just cost us 2 scores.

[4XPIPS]

Should have ran Zach again, and punched it in before the rain takes an effect. Wasted opportunities is going to kill us later in this game

[Spohawk5092]

Allen being given WAY to much time to do whatever he wants.......

[4XPIPS]

Reed giving Hall a talking too! Wish they had fight on the field

[c_hawkbob]

And those 7 point brought to you by Derick Hall.

[River Dog]

I'm not blaming that 2nd abortion on Williams, at least not in its entirety. If you look at the replay, we had 3 players in a very congested area as they had Bradford pulling to his left, which is slower for him than pulling to his right, between Geno and Williams while the defense is in their heavy mode trying to win the LOS. Plus, we don't operate over center very often.

I realize that hindsight is 20/20, but I blame that failure on Grubbs as much as I do any one player. Pulling a guard across the formation in a short yardage situation with your QB under center?

[c_hawkbob]

oy-vey

[4XPIPS]

This game is trash, I wasn’t expecting to win. But I was expecting for us to play much better than this garbage. Geno’s INT, just another example of crap execution

[River Dog]

Did you see that graphic? 2 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, and we have 3 yards rushing.

[4XPIPS]

Did you see that graphic? 2 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, and we have 3 yards rushing.

Not that it would make muck difference now, but on that bad snap that Walker scooped up, instead of running with it and taking a massive loss he should have thrown the ball away. It was a pass play and most of line man were pass blocking, if not it would have been either an incomplete pass or illegal man down field which would have been a penalty and save the down, but instead he took a massive loss of yards on that play. Either way, this game is over

[c_hawkbob]

I imagine this is how the Falcons fans I was sitting with last week felt. They're a better team than that and we're a better team than this.

[c_hawkbob]

Not that it would make muck difference now, but on that bad snap that Walker scooped up, instead of running with it and taking a massive loss he should have thrown the ball away. It was a pass play and most of line man were pass blocking, if not it would have been either an incomplete pass or illegal man down field which would have been a penalty and save the down, but instead he took a massive loss of yards on that play. Either way, this game is over

I don't think that would have put the ball at the original LOS, more likely to the point of the fumble recovery. Might have to get a ruling from Blandino on that.

[Aseahawkfan]

Bills are out of our league. If we're this inconsistent from week to week, then we're not really contenders. You don't make it through the playoffs this inconsistent. That's fine. We weren't going to build into a contender this quick. I think we all want real contention, not just punch our ticket and one and done in the playoffs. We've done that for years and being a yearly lower tier playoff team that isn't really competitive hoping for some magic to happen is not what I want to be. I want to be a real contender that can go head to head with the best.

[NorthHawk]

Bills are out of our league. If we're this inconsistent from week to week, then we're not really contenders. You don't make it through the playoffs this inconsistent. That's fine. We weren't going to build into a contender this quick. I think we all want real contention, not just punch our ticket and one and done in the playoffs. We've done that for years and being a yearly lower tier playoff team that isn't really competitive hoping for some magic to happen is not what I want to be. I want to be a real contender that can go head to head with the best.

Pretty much my feeling as well. It’s why I’m against trading draft picks for possible rental players.
Geno isn’t much of a leader and it shows when things go wrong. He should be on the sidelines encouraging the players to get after it, or get real pissed off like Peyton Manning or Brady did instead of whining or sitting by himself looking like all is lost. Terrible body language.

I said earlier that we need at least another draft and FA where we hit on most of our picks and it seems more evident now.
We also need to get the OL fixed and keep them together for a couple of years as continuity is real important.

[Rambo2014]

Big Howdy Doo and seasons greetings LOL

Nice game today!!!

Next week we put the nail in the coffin.

See ya then and say hello to the missus

Sincerely

Rambo

[HappyHawk]

This is my first post here. Hello everyone.

Very tough game today. Hopefully the coach can turn it around and get these guys working as a unit. However, I do think this is team is a few years away from being competitive.

Go Seahawks!

[c_hawkbob]

Welcome aboard Happy! For MacD's sake it better a year, maybe 2 at the most rather than a few.

[HawkSis]

Long trip from sunny Ca to freeze my ass off in the wind and rain for this BS. I thought Grubb learned a lesson. Jesus. How many rushing attempts/yards did they have today? McDonald isn’t very impressive on the other side either. Flashes of excellence on both sides this season with a whole lot of really questionable play calling. I wanna love Grubb, but he’s cost us some games with his air raid bs. IMHO, of course.

[NorthHawk]

This is a complete change of philosophy on both sides. It’s going to take time.
Pete wasn’t particularly good the first year, either with some good games and some bad games.
What we need is an off season like we had in 2012 when we loaded up in the draft. I don’t expect that to happen, but a couple of solid drafts where they can get players that fit their schemes and can provide the culture that the FO wants.
This year is the first year for MacDonald and Grubb to really evaluate the players when in the heat of battle.

They’re only 8 games into their evaluations and they may never be successful but they need time to really show what they can do. I think if they get the right players the team can become a force because some of the pieces are in place and they’re not starting from scratch but they consistently get beat because of the failures in the trenches as has happened for the last 7 or 8 years.

[Aseahawkfan]

This is a complete change of philosophy on both sides. It’s going to take time.
Pete wasn’t particularly good the first year, either with some good games and some bad games.
What we need is an off season like we had in 2012 when we loaded up in the draft. I don’t expect that to happen, but a couple of solid drafts where they can get players that fit their schemes and can provide the culture that the FO wants.
This year is the first year for MacDonald and Grubb to really evaluate the players when in the heat of battle.

They’re only 8 games into their evaluations and they may never be successful but they need time to really show what they can do. I think if they get the right players the team can become a force because some of the pieces are in place and they’re not starting from scratch but they consistently get beat because of the failures in the trenches as has happened for the last 7 or 8 years.

I agree. Mac needs Mac players to make his scheme work. That will take time.

[River Dog]

Connor Williams just cost us 2 scores.

Obviously the first one was all on Williams, but if you look at the replay of the 2nd, we had RG Anthony Bradford pulling to his left between Geno and Williams, making that a very congested area, and they got tangled up. As a lineman, when you have your right hand in the dirt, pulling to your left is a slower movement than to the right as the 3-point stance with the left foot ahead of the right puts you out of balance. As soon as Bradford pulls, Williams blocks the opposite direction to his right. It was a pretty complicated blocking scheme for a short yardage situation like that, with the center and guard going in opposite directions. Plus, we just don't run very many plays with the QB under center, so Geno might not have gotten away from the center as quickly as he needed to in order to avoid all that traffic.

IMO the fact that it was Williams feet that Geno happened to trip over was irrelevant. In that situation, it was a very bad play call to ask your right guard to pull to his left with the QB turning to his right it the opposite direction of the pulling guard. With that kind of movement and the defense trying to push the LOS backwards, it was almost inevitable that someone would get tangled up. Heck, even if Geno had cleared William's feet, he might still have gotten tangled up with Bradford.

This isn't the first time we've misfired in short yardage situations. We've had similar failures going the other direction inside the 5. It seems like a major weakness with this offense.