Utah John

Don't sleep on the Jets. Their defense looks very very good, their rookie RB is playing great, and if they get decent QB play they'll be tough. When this year's schedule came out we all looked at the first seven games and figured that stretch would be the challenge. But the Rams and Titans were pretty bad when we played them (and we knew the Steelers wouldn't be very good). And now look. After Green Bay, which we thought would be a tough game, but is actually looking very winnable, we play the Jets (away) and the Vikings (at home). Those are going to be two tough games. After THAT, it finally gets a little easier. Unless of course the Pats new QB keeps playing so well.

There's no way to sugarcoat it. When the Bills or Chiefs are playing, the quality of play is just different. The two great QBs can do things mere mortals don't even dream about, and that opens up everything else. Watching any other teams play is just a let-down. It can even be boring unless it's a close game.

KC is supposed to have three really good O linemen, including their center. I don't think I heard his name called once after the pre-game introductions. You'd think if he'd made some good blocks on running plays, Romo would have mentioned it. OTOH the pressures against Mahomes were coming mostly from outside, primarily from Miller, so the center probably was doing well in pass protection. But the point about run defense is very valid. KC used to have Mahomes doing his thing, and then gash us with running plays. This time, Mahomes was still doing his thing, but no gashes. Great improvement. Oliver is a smallish DT, quick and able to penetrate. He was playing well in the Rams game before he got hurt. Now the Bills are big-body with the DTs, and looking for penetration from the edges. I don't know if Oliver is still a little hurt but he does seem to vanish from the action.

These were fun to watch, but since this is about an announcer's comments, I'm going to insert comments about Romo and Nantz's coverage of the game. Think about how Romo used to be when he started covering games. He was getting into all the subtle technical details of how both offenses and defenses were adjusting. It was like going to football school. He doesn't do that anymore. He does make very insightful comments, but usually about the players and the big picture issues. Sort of like John Madden used to do. But Romo doesn't get into the details anymore. I'm sure he still sees what's going on, but maybe CBS has told him to back off from the technical info that a thinking viewer would want. Now we get the party info a drinking viewer would want.

That was (a) something Kelce does all the time, and (b) something he's really good at doing just not quite enough to get called for, and (c) a good call when it happened.

Having KC screw up royally and repeatedly, as they did against Indy, is not a strategy. Beating KC when they're playing well is another matter. That DID require a creative and well-installed defensive strategy. It will be interesting to see if any of the Bills defenders get selected for the Pro Bowl, let alone All-Pro. The stupid and lazy electors just look at sacks and interceptions, and as a result the Bills D has never gotten the recognition its personnel deserved. This year, Von Miller and Jordan Poyer are probably getting penciled in, but Matt Milano won't get enough votes except from the teams the Bills beat.

Good luck to him.

Well, to be fair, if we loaded that guy up with all those things, to keep the average the same, the other guy would be small, slow, weak, and stupid.

Here's what the AFC playoff bracket would look like if the postseason started today: Buffalo Bills (5-1) Kansas City Chiefs (4-2) Tennessee Titans (3-2) Baltimore Ravens (3-3) New York Jets (4-2) Los Angeles Chargers (3-2) Indianapolis Colts (3-2-1) The COLTS would make the playoffs. Almost unbelievable. And the disappointing Chargers. The season has a long way to go of course. The Jets D looks very very good but their offense is built on running, and that's no formula for success in the league these days. The Ravens are collapsing, looking at each other for what's wrong instead of looking at themselves for how to close out close games. And the Colts, geez louise, they're bad.

When the schedule came out I was glad to see the only AFCW team the Bills would play, was KC. Not that KC would be easy, but that all four teams were being talked up. Turns out the other three teams are not playing well. The Chargers in particular ought to be a dominant team, and the Raiders looked nearly complete. So much for that. Instead we get the NFCN and AFCN which are overall having bad years. Finally a scheduling break.

Exactly. A team that's won because of turnovers can lose because of turnovers too. A team that wins with solid offense, defense, and STs will keep winning most of its games. He's not a dud, but he's way too inconsistent.

OK, so this is a response to the criticism of the Bills stadium's visitor's locker room. Of course the visitor's room will be smaller and not as nice as the home room, since the home team uses their room every day. But the visitor's room ought to meet some kind of league standards for space, showers, toilets, etc. Whether it's the Bill's stadium or any other, there's no excuse for treating professional athletes in a substandard way.

The Eagles have a big strong QB too. Oh wait, so do we. There's no reason we couldn't line up in that smash mouth set too. We would HAVE to be better trying that then the endless 3rd and 1 failures.

Tony Romo referred to Milano as an under-rated LB, and I suppose that's true, because no one except the teams the Bills beat seem to pay any attention to him. But he's consistently in the right place at the right time, making important plays. Without Milano coming up, Mahomes eludes Miller's rush and gets off a pass that probably finds Kelce wide open, as usual. Half of the Bills D was involved in this play, and it doesn't happen successfully without all of those guys, but don't overlook the contribution of Milano. So the Bills go into Mordor on the Missouri and defeat Sauron. Rings await.

The one thing the article doesn't go into, and that could be key, is the issue of trust in the coaches. The Bills players thought their final TD pass to Davis was the clincher, and that the coaches would know how to handle the 13 seconds. Completely and disastrously wrong. McDermott choked. No squib kickoff, to take half the remaining time off the clock? Seriously? Frazier choked. Levi Wallace guarding the sidelines, when the Chiefs had 3 timeouts and didn't need to run sideline plays? Seriously? Rushing four or five defenders (I don't recall exactly) when the key was to deny long plays -- so rushing only two or three and clogging the field was the obvious thing to do? Seriously? McDermott blaming poor execution for the loss? Seriously? McDermott and Frazier are both great coaches, particularly Frazier. They had the team in position to win, and the players deserved to win. Deep in the back of their minds, the players will be wondering whether their coaches will come through if they get into another clutch situation. Will the coaches be ready? Both coaches are doing the best thing possible, which is doing an even better job this year of building the team and preparing it every week. Maybe that's the best way to push the dark thoughts out of mind, and to restore trust in the players that they and the coaches together can and will achieve success. I hope so. If the Bills continue to succeed this year, it will be clear that the coaches and the leaders among the players have been successful. I'm of the opinion that just having Miller in the locker room, helping the other players prepare to win, is an even greater contribution to the team than his excellent pass rushing ability.

I noticed that kick did not connect. Tom's been having a lot of trouble these days with incompletions. (That's what she said.)

I gave up watching this in the 3rd quarter so I missed the muffed punt and Washington still needing three plays to punch it in. I get such flashbacks from watching other teams, of how the Bills used to be. Year after year of this kind of mediocrity. My guess all along was that his wife didn't want to move here.

This was billed as the difference inches can make, but it's really the difference EVERYTHING can make. A better, stronger, more accurate QB with top-level receivers, all of them on the same page. vs. A more experienced but not as strong or accurate QB, with prima dona receivers who think they can just do whatever they want because they're (fill in the blank, Jeudy or someone else). A more confident, take no prisoners QB at the top of his game. vs A frustrated, demoralized QB whose receivers are not doing whatever they can to make him look good. Also the Colts D is somewhat better than the Steelers D, this year, so Wilson had a tougher opponent to contend with. The takeaway here? Have the Broncos coaches show this comparison to their players and hope everyone gets smarter. The Broncos better fix this fast, or this trade will gut them for half a decade. Two firsts and two seconds plus some other players, for THIS? Yikes.

There is a very real trend that Josh's passing toward the right is sometimes (certainly not always) not as good as when he's throwing to the left. He missed two wide open receivers in the end zone toward the right against Pittsburgh, and if he'd hit McKenzie on a pass toward the right on the last play against Miami the Bills would be undefeated. I view this as just something for Allen to improve.

At least now when Brown or Settle move somewhere, everything moves more or less at the same time. No telling how long it would take the trailing parts to catch up with the leading parts if there was no uniform to bind everything together.

Bledsoe, paging Mister Bledsoe -- Oh, Mac Jones, you'll do.

Really good breakdown of how the Bills beat the Steeler coverages. But also he makes a point of saying Allen has a problem sometimes, throwing to his right. There were two missed TDs to the right against the Steelers, on what should be easy throws for him. Going back to the Miami game, the Bills win if Allen hits McKenzie, who's wide open, to the right, on the last play. Maybe this is a technique problem, maybe it's that Allen is reading coverages from left to right and when he sees the open receiver to the right, he's rushing. I don't know what the problem is, but there's something there that the Bills could improve on.

Seventeen years ago, Broncos coach Mike Shanahan traded running back Clinton Portis to Washington in exchange for cornerback Champ Bailey and a second-round draft pick. Portis for Bailey by itself would have been a win for Denver, but the extra draft pick makes it clear that Shanahan easily won the trade. Washington needed a RB but geez louise that was a bad trade. Even more now than 17 years ago, RBs are less important than top CBs. Bailey was one of the best CBs in the league, and he became a mainstay on an excellent Broncos defense. Portis did OK for the Skins but his legs gave out like happens with most RBs. That trade was a loser for the Skins to begin with, and the impact only got worse with time. So the point is, why trade Tre White to some other lucky team for a short-term patch somewhere. And where would that patch player play? Would you really trade a locker room leader and All-Pro player for a guard?

Yes. And that would be without our best safety!

The two DPI call you mentioned were good calls. The Chiefs DBs tackled Adams both times. As to the two main points, that the referees last night were terrible, and that Carr is overrated -- I completely agree with both.