hondo in seattle

At the time I thought it was an incorrect call. But I've changed my mind. Tre is engaging Coleman with both his hands about when the ball is first thrown. Tre's not playing the ball, he's playing the man, trying to physically hold him up. Then Coleman tosses him. Coleman pushing Tre out of the way looks bad, but Tre engaged first. By the way, Coleman still should have caught this.

Agreed. They turned the ball over because they made bad plays while we made good plays. There were no weird bounces or bad ref calls involved. It wasn't luck. We didn't give the ball away when we were on offense because of our style of play. Maybe we didn't throw downfield much because our wideouts couldn't get open. Or maybe because we wanted to grind it to keep Lamar & Henry off the field. But maybe also we wanted to stay safe with the football on a day with damp balls, cold hands, and a slick field.

I've used that same expression to describe this defense: making lemons out of lemonade. Like other McD defenses, we see a lot of teamwork, communication, and effort this year. We don't often see blown assignments or guys otherwise out of position. These are all signs of a well-coached unit. Our problem is guys getting outmuscled or outrun. The talent level is pretty mediocre. We see that when we watch games and then again when we look at the year's yardage stats. But these guys are good at takeaways which is probably more a factor of coaching - putting people in the right place at the right time - than athleticism. Unfortunately, takeaways can be fickle. Even when you're doing all the right things, you might not get any. And we need the takeaways to win against elite teams. Let's hope we win the turnover battle two more times this season.

I'd forgotten that. No wonders he wasn't resigned. Bad ball? Most high school receivers would make that catch. I mean, damn, I'm 65 and could easily make that catch (if you ignore the fact that an NFL DB would have knocked me unconscious at the line of scrimmage).

This is a good point. But I'll ask this... How much does Harbaugh's coaching have to do with 9 of his players being name All Pros? Good coaches get the best out of their players. Bad coaches get the worst.

Versus my "Just One Before I Die" sweatshirt.

This is true. But I don't think this is the whole explanation. I think, as GunnerBill often says, our outside receivers aren't separators. But I also think scheming a downfield passing game isn't necessarily Brady's forte. I'm not saying he's bad at it but he's not among the best.

I told my wife at the time that as happy as I was, I also felt sorry for Ravens fans. I also remembered the Harmon Drop and the disbelief and disappointment I experienced.

I didn't buy into all the negativity during the preseason. I thought as long as we had McD and Josh, we'd be alright. But with $36 million in dead cap and a bunch of jettisoned captains, I did have concerns about the strength of the roster. So I projected another AFCE crown but a short run in the playoffs. I didn't expect to be in the AFCCG so I'm thrilled we're exceeding expectations. But now that we're here, I'm hungry for more. These opportunities are rare and that part of my heart where Bills hopes live is blazing like a furnace. Maybe the Bills aren't actually the best team in the NFL this year. But just two more wins gets us the trophy. Just two. The Gridiron Gods can give us that.

I seriously doubt if McD met with Babich and said, "This week for the Ravens, we're going with bend-don't-break." I'll go out on a limb and guess that McD wanted 3 and outs and even game planned for it. But their offense is better than our defense and we had trouble forcing punts. In any case, this wasn't an example of a bend-not-break defense. We bent and broke on some drives, got turnovers on the others. The thing that impresses me is that we went up against a team with a solid coaching staff and a better roster than we have, and we won. That says something positive about our coaches. What about Harbaugh's coaching in the 2nd Quarter? Two excellent coaching staffs went against in each other in a win-or-go-home game. The Ravens had the better players. The Bills won. Maybe our coaches did just fine.

Our players made fewer game changing mistakes than their players. That's why we won. Their offensive players made more good plays than ours, but they made more bad plays too. And the bad plays were really bad. People said Lamar had a better game than Josh. Lamar did throw for more yards, but he also crucially turned the ball over twice. I'll take Josh's stat line over Lamar's. In every universe, they deserved to lose and we deserved to win.

Harold, I'm not sure why you're sharing your credentials with us. There are a lot of people here who know the Bills. And there are a lot of people here who make pretty good predictions. But the best experts in the world are often wrong about football outcomes. No one - not even you - has perfect predictive power. That's one of the things that makes football so exciting: "On any given Sunday..." A little humility might help you enjoy more positive interactions with the good people on this board.

This is an amazing statistical comparison. Very much seems like the two teams are equally matched. Yet they have trophies and we don't. I really, really, really, really, really, really, really hope we change that this year. (p.s. The number 7 was considered lucky in the Eastern Zhou culture of ancient China).

The media has a short memory. Let's say we beat the Chiefs by 10 and then win the SB by 10. Outside of Baltimore, everyone will be talking about how great the Bills are, and the close Ravens game will mostly be forgotten. Let's say the Chiefs beat us. No one, outside of Baltimore, will care anymore that the Ravens lost a close game to the Bills thanks to mistakes.

I don't think this is the best roster we've had since McD and Beane arrived. But it may be the best team we've actually fielded during the playoffs - given injuries - since the 1990s. And considering our roster weaknesses, I think our best chance of winning it all is staying healthy. Really hoping Benford recovers, and all our starters remain injury-free till the conclusion of the Super Bowl.

Since McD arrived, I thought each season he either overperformed versus the roster strength, or performed about as expected, depending on the season you look at. I think he overperformed in the 2024 regular season. If we hadn't sat our starters against the Pats, we would have finished the season with 14 wins. Along the way, we defeated arguably the best two teams in the league. Even with Josh, this isn't a 14-win roster with an average NFL coach. And yesterday we beat a team with elite coaching that fielded a team loaded with All-Pros and Pro-Bowlers. So already, at this point, he's overperformed in the playoffs this season. I hope he keeps overperforming all the way to the Lombardi. But Lombardi or not, if McDermott resigned after the season, he'd instantly be the hottest commodity in the coaching market.

I don't disagree with anything you say but to see 6 defensive guys recognized in a game where we gave up 400+ yards and only a dropped pass stopped the Ravens from tying the game in the waning minutes seems a little much. Personally, the only defensive game balls I'd give out would be to the guys who created the TOs.

I agree with the notion that Josh is safer with the ball these days. But I don't think he would have made that pitch 4 years ago. Or ever. We were winning. Players were draped on him. There was little if any chance of making a clean pitch.

I was geared up with a Bills jersey (#17), Bills sweats, and Bills socks. But I noticed that one sock had a hole. Rather than blow it off, which would be an offense to the Gridiron Gods who expect devotees to be dressed appropriately, I darned the sock before kickoff.

Condolences for the loss of your wife and best wishes for your Bills aspirations. At this very moment, I'm wearing my "Just One Before I Die" sweatshirt though I've accepted the possibility that, after 50+ years of fandom, I may never see the Bills hoist the Lombardi. So be it. Being a Bills fan has added more joy than pain to my life. I've enjoyed the wins, but I've also relished the camaraderie with my fellow members of the mafia from blood relatives to complete strangers. All fanbases say theirs is the best but there's truly something special about ours. I hope somewhere in the Great Beyond, your wife gets to watch the Bills trounce whoever the NFC trots out against us when we do reach the SB.

How do you prove an opinion? Let's do an experiment. Let's replay the Ravens season 500 times with Lamar at QB and another 500 without Lamar at QB. Run the same experiment with the Bills. Let's see which QB adds the most wins. My guess is that it's Josh. But that's just an unverifiable opinion. And that's me equating "most valuable" with "adds the most wins" which may or may not be the same thing. By accepted definition - even if I don't like it - the MVP is the guy the AP panel decides is the MVP.

I thought about this before the Ravens last drive. For them to win, they would need to: 1. Score a TD, 2. Score a 2-point conversion, 3. Stop us from getting at least a FG. Any one of these seemed likely enough. For them to do all three, however, seemed unlikely. At least that's what I told myself as I paced in front of the tv with blood pressure in the danger range.

A lot of commentators are saying the Bills won yesterday even though the Ravens looked like the better team. When we played the Chiefs earlier this season, we looked like the better team. In all our other playoff matchups with KC, I thought it was an uphill battle against a great roster with an elite coaching staff. This year, though, I like our chances.

It thought the coloring exercise was a fail but loved Orlovsky's support for Allen and the Bills.

The very first time I saw Damar on an NFL field, I felt like one of my sandlot buddies (via a time machine from 40 years ago), just got a chance to play for the Bills. In other words, he looked like he didn't belong out there. And when he was listed as a starter this preseason, I didn't believe it. I thought he was just a placeholder until they named Edwards or Bishop as the actual starter. But I give Damar credit. He's done reasonably well. It hasn't been forget-Hyde-and-Poyer greatness, but he's certainly exceeded my expectations.