Utah John

For Pro Bowl voters, what counts for DBs is interceptions, and for D linemen it's sacks. Playing great team defense doesn't register. SMH but this is the way of the world in the NFL. I saw Jackson lead the Ravens back against the Colts in a huge comeback. (Of course the Colts were playing with trash DBs -- they couldn't cover the Ravens WRs or TE. But no one remembers that.) Those are the kind of games that people remember and vote for. Raise your hand if you'd take a trade, Josh for Lamar, straight up. No hands, I see. We still have the better guy.

Allen and the Bills lost to the Titans when Josh slipped. Allen and the Bills lost to the Bucs when Josh couldn't score in the first half. Allen and the Bills lost to the Patriots in a wind storm. Allen and the Bills got crushed by the Colts. Allen and the Bills lost to the friggin' JAGUARS when the other Josh Allen had a better game. Sorry, what the country saw in big games, was Allen falling short. And honestly it's the Bills' offense that's holding them back this year, unlike last year. The only Bowl that really matters is the Super Bowl, not the Pro Bowl. Allen has a much better chance of getting there than Jackson does. Take some comfort in that.

Beasley last year was the guy who reliably and consistently moved the chains. This year, not so much. I don't know if he's lost a step or if defenses are playing him better or if the rotten O line is not giving Allen time to go through his progressions and find Beasley. But Knox (with some painful exceptions) seems to have developed into a good, move the chains, kind of TE. And we have McKenzie. So we can get by without Beasley.

If I'm Beane, this off season I will cut/trade any player who's not vaccinated. Period. Probably he won't be allowed to say that's what's behind each move, but the players will get the message. And obviously not sign as FAs, or draft, any unvaxxed players. Send the message that the Bills are committed to winning, and anyone who's NOT committed to winning doesn't belong on the team.

If I'm Beane, this off season I will cut/trade any player who's not vaccinated. Period. Probably he won't be allowed to say that's what's behind each move, but the players will get the message. And obviously not sign as FAs, or draft, any unvaxxed players. Send the message that the Bills are committed to winning, and anyone who's NOT committed to winning doesn't belong on the team.

Like every other team, the Bills have ups and downs. Like every other team, they have strengths and weaknesses. We all want last year's offensive juggernaut to re-emerge but it ain't happening. Why? Mostly because other teams figured us out, and we haven't come up with new ways to attack. Or maybe Daboll is a crafty genius like we thought he was last year, and he's got a dozen new receiver route trees and blocking schemes all ready to go against NE, and he's been holding out on us so Belichick doesn't have a chance to work out countermeasures. Or maybe the Bills are just one of a lot of good teams and we're going to roll the dice to see where we end up.

I don't think the Ravens were a bad team. With all their injuries and covid, yeah, they're pretty bad now, and with their killer schedule I think they'll be lucky to be in the playoffs. I think to start with this year, the Ravens were an average team that got incredibly lucky. Early in the year they were gifted a win over the Lions because the refs let a last-gasp drive by the Ravens go forward despite a delay of game that they didn't call. (There was an incredibly quick delay penalty called against the Bills recently, no surprise there.) The Ravens were trailing the Colts by a huge amount in a game where almost all the Colts DBs were injured, and so Lamar Jackson led them back, basically playing against air. This went on and on. Lately the law of averages has caught up with the Ravens. This will all be a huge disappointment for the Ravens fans since for a while they looked like the best team in the AFC.

If the Bills used three LBs most of the time, Edmunds would make a fine WILL. He's so long, moves well, and has great speed. What he's never figured out is filling a hold and smashing a RB on the RB's way through the hole.

I don't know if it was mentioned during the Bills-Panthers game, but the Panthers had John Miller playing guard. Miller was drafted by the Bills in the third round in 2015 and played four years in Buffalo, generally underwhelming fans and the team, and had the distinction of being benched in favor of the immortal Vlad Ducasse. Cinci signed him in 2019 on a three year contract but cut him after one year. He's played for the Panthers in 2020 and 2021. It's looking like Ford will be following Miller down that career path road, bouncing along, never excelling, but always being employed by someone. The Bills quest for strong guards seems to be going on just as long as the search for a franchise QB did. Andy Levitre did well but got a huge FA to sign elsewhere. Other than that, I think you have to go back to Ruben Brown for a really good guard.

I think what's bothering people is that the Bills haven't yet played a complete game. Early in the year some of the teams they beat were playing really bad, and the Bills crushed them with a B- effort. Every now and then the office gets it in gear for a quarter or so, and we see what they're capable of, and then the wheels come off a little bit. Aside from the Oline Raliroad Trainwreck, there have been new areas of concern. Josh has been missing receivers this year, open guys, that I don't remember him missing last year. Those mistakes stop drives.

Over the years, the Pats and Fins have taken turns being the biggest pains in our backsides. Pre-Brady, it was usually the Fins that were the main competition. it seems like the Jets are hardly ever very good, but we all hate them anyway, because, well, they're the friggin' JETS. There's talk about re-doing the teams in the various divisions when the league is expanded, which it will be just so the owners can make a few more millions. There's no logical reason to keep Miami in our division, but I hope the league leaves the AFCE alone. I will root for whichever team whose win helps the Bills the most.

An 8 day weather forecast is pretty unreliable. Let's see how things look by, say, Thursday.

If the Bills think of themselves as a playoff team, winning 3 games must be a completely sure thing. Panthers, Falcons, Jets. If we can't beat all three there's no point in getting into the playoffs. So figure at least 10-7. That's probably good enough considering all the other head to head games our competition will be playing. Over the past couple of decades, the Bills actually have a better record (or, slightly less terrible record) against the Pats, playing at their place than in Orchard Park. Depending on the health of the defense, there's no reason we can't beat NE too. 11-6, and maybe win the division.

We have the luxury of knowing that one of two teams we're competing with will lose. Relax and enjoy the game, and hope the Colts show some weaknesses in the NE system that we can exploit. Big picture, getting the one seed is not likely, and that means winning the division doesn't matter much except for having the game in Buffalo, where the Bills have not done all that well this year. So the main thing is to win enough to get into the playoffs, avoid more injuries, avoid covid, and keep Cody Ford on the bench.

A play like this could have happened at any level of football, particularly in college where the players are adult-size, strong, and fast. He wasn't hit, just landed and his head snapped back. We've seen situations like this a thousand times or more. What would have happened in a college setting not in a major city, with limited medical support in the stadium or in a city nearby? The medical crew in LA were great but the same level of response won't be available in most cases.

No thanks. I'm not watching THAT again.

I grew up in West Seneca at about the same time Daboll did. Went to West Seneca East. I think there was ONE black student in the entire school. Not a diverse community.

OK, but understand that Brady has about 20 years more experience than Josh. And Brady is freakin' smart. Not that Josh is a dummy, but I don't think I've ever seen a QB like Brady for his football IQ.

The DB was staying with Sanders until Josh looked at Singletary, and the DB stopped running with Sanders at that point. If Josh fakes the throw to Singletary he's got Sanders wide open, uncovered completely for a TD.

I've read several Donald E. Westlake books (they were all great) but I don't recall any mention of the collusion between refs that Thriftygamer talked about. Can you list the titles that include those charges? Even if they're books I've already read I would enjoy any excuse to read or re-read a Westlake book. And I strongly recommend those books to anyone.

Both Julius Caesar and Scott Novak said, veni vidi vici. I came, I saw, I conquered.

The PI calls happened after a game in which the officials repeatedly shortened the yards gained by the Bills on runs or passes, by moving the ball back, sometimes more than a yard, from where the ball was when the player was tackled or stopped. Ka-ching. Thousands of betting houses cashed in.

The incorrect DPI against Wallace jogged my memory. In the first game of this season, the Bucs played the Cowboys in Tampa Bay. The Cowboys were leading by a point late in the game. Brady threw a long pass to Godwin along the left sideline (I think this is what jogged my memory), Godwin pushed off egregiously without there being an OPI penalty called, Godwin caught the ball, and the Bucs were in position to kick a FG to win at the very end. Whooo, Brady, what a guy. But if that penalty had been called as it should have been, the odds were that the Bucs never get into FG range, and lose the game.

The Bills D doesn't blow very many coverages, but they blew that one. There's no way that it should have been Edmunds trying to cover that receiver. Edmunds was just the closest guy left once the catch was made. The Bills had NO DBs on that side of the field.

The DPI call against Wallace in OT gave me a flashback of the Week One game between the Bucs and the Cowboys. The Cowboys were winning late, by one point. Brady threw a pass to Godwin along the left sideline that put the Bucs in position to kick the game winning FG right at the end. There was OPI against Godwin on that play, where he clearly pushed the Cowboy DB away in order to make the catch, but there was no call. Of course. Without that, the Bucs were stuck way too far back to get the win. There was a lot of uproar about that play, too. But they were playing in TB, and Brady, so of course the Bucs got the call. Just goes to show it isn't only the Bills getting screwed. "America's Team" had a big Phillips screw through their bellies too. Team defense. The Bills play it better than anyone. If they just had a monster one-tech DT they'd be unbelievable.