hondo in seattle

My earliest football memory is watching Mini Max Anderson swallowing his tongue.

Yeah, as BigDingus said, it would have been nice to see a complete win: offensive, defensive and ST dominance. Like the 51-3 Raiders game years ago. But here's the thing. A lot of folks predicted that the Ravens would win, that we couldn't stop their running attack. Lamar didn't do crap before his injury and the Ravens never found the endzone. Watching a good defensive performance in a big win is plenty entertaining for me. Two more, baby, and then I can throw out the sweatshirt I wore today: "Just One Before I Die."

Great chart! The Ravens blitzed 41% of the time during the regular season- most in the NFL. That works against some teams, but not much against the Bills. Martindale has said they're going to bring the heat against the Bills regardless. Speaking of Allen, Wink said: "He knows that there's going to be pressure, that's for sure. That's who we are. That's what we've done." People say this game is a poor matchup for us because on D, we're poor against the run while they're strong running the ball. On O, we're good at passing but they're good at stopping the pass. But this chart helps show a different perspective. The Raven biggest defensive weapon is their blitz. They do it often and do it well. But the Bills are mostly impervious to the blitz. Their best defensive weapon shouldn't effect us much. The Ravens would prefer to face a QB with happy feet and poor poise. That's not Allen. Bad matchup for them.

I personally don't discount this game. I think it will be a hard-fought battle that can go either way. I just don't like how some people build up the Ravens and insinuate they're better than the Bills. The Bills have a better W-L record against a tougher schedule. The Bills offense has performed well against good defenses. And our D, while still suspect against the run, has played significantly better during the second half of the year than it did in the first. We're not chopped liver. NFL.com power ranking have us at #2 and the Ravens at #4. This game is a contest of Titans - the mythic kind, not the Tennessee type. I'm hoping for a Bills blowout. I'm guessing we'll win in nail-biter: 31-30 or something like that. And I wouldn't be shocked at a less favorable outcome - given the strength of the Ravens squad - because on any given Sunday...

Hard to know for sure but Williams looks like a back who would run well in snow.

We know the Ravens will blitz. But you ask the key question: Will it get home? The Bills have mostly, but not consistently, handled the blitz well this year. Beside the obvious point of getting blocking assignments right, I think Josh will have to make good pre-snap reads. If he's scanning, scanning, scanning while being blitzed, very bad things may happen. I hope Daboll's done a great job of studying, understanding, and predicting the Ravens scheme. If so - and if the wideouts are reasonably healthy - we can put up a lot of points despite the talent of the D. How many times this year have we seen good pressure on Josh and good coverage in the secondary and yet the Bills still found the endzone? Sometimes being good just isn't good enough against this excellent Bills passing attack. When the Bills offense is clicking, it's hard to stop.

That's the big concern. I wonder how badly hurt Diggs, Beasley and Smoke really are. We can't expect the info coming from the team to be perfectly accurate. All are on the mend - hopefully nearing 100%.

A lot of people expect the Ravens to win on Saturday. The narrative goes something like this: The Ravens will run all over the Bills. And the Bills offense will be slowed by the excellent Ravens D. I'm not so sure. I'm not underestimating the Ravens - they're a great football team. But I do think some folks are underestimating the Bills. Here are the top defenses (yards allowed) in the NFL: 1. LA Rams 2. Washington 3. Steelers 4. NO 5. SF We've played three of the top five and beat all of them. We averaged 386 yards and 31.7 points against these premier defensive squads. Why would we expect the Ravens D to do any better? The Bills are a passing team and - statistically speaking - the Raven's pass D (ranked #6) isn't as good as the pass defenses in LA, Pittsburg or San Fran. We've obliterated defenses better than the one in Baltimore. So if we play to our norm against top tier defenses and hang 32 points on the Ravens, can their Greg Roman rushing attack put up 33? Maybe. They did average 29 points per game during the regular season. They only need to find 4 more - in the playoffs... in Buffalo... in the cold... against a fired up team. I'm just not counting on it. Go Bills!

Allen didn't have it easy. He was pressured and the coverage downfield was mostly good. Yet he found ways to pass for 300+ yards and account for three TDs in a win. That'll be my biggest memory of this game.

We didn't play our best game and had a hugely controversial call go against in the closing minute and won a playoff game. How far we have come.

As it was, it was a horrible, horrible play. But without Williams, it would have been so much worse.

We used to lose games when a late controversial call went against us. We won this game despite a hugely important call not going our way in the closing minute. These are your new Buffalo Bills.

The Bills are so snake-bitten, I never celebrate until the final call is made - no matter how obvious the facts may be. Even when the final Hail Mary fell incomplete, I waited until the teams were walking off the field before I was convinced a late yellow flag wouldn't ***** the game away from us. Only then did I yell in exultation.

I was a little surprised by Daboll's game plan. The best way to beat a strong running team - especially when you have a questionable run defense - is to build an early lead and force the other team to pass. Of course, you need the requisite firepower to make this work. We do. I thought Daboll would be aggressive and have us passing on nearly every play. This is true. But the NFL is a copycat league. I'm just wondering if Indy figured out something that other teams will emulate.

Moss and Singletary combined for a mere 42 yards. And Allen's 324 yards of passing didn't come easy. He was pressured. WRs were covered. Passes were contested. Every yard was well-earned. The Bills offense has a lot of talent - we've averaged 38.2 points per game since the bye. Yet Indy held us to 27. Any win is a good win. I just hope that other teams can't replicate the relative success of the Colts D.

I feel bad for Moss. But our best backs aren't great and our worst backs aren't bad. There's not a tremendous drop-off from Moss to Singletary to Yeldon to Williams. I hope he heals quickly but Moss's absence doesn't cripple this offense.

I know the Bills scored 27 points, Josh threw for over 300 yards, and the Bills won. Yet the every yard and every point seemed to be a struggle. What did Indy do to slow down our offense? Will we see more of the same next week? I'm like a lot of fans - my eyes tend to follow the ball. I never took the time to analyze or understand Indy's defensive game plan. Whatever it was, it worked fairly well.

I know Hawk, Raider, 49er, Steeler and all sorts of other fans. I used to try to explain to them how the Bills fans are - bar none - the best fans in the NFL. Of course, they just chalked my enthusiasm up to homerism. But deep in my heart, I know Bills fans and our love for our team is something different, special. Great vid.

They really need to rush the Moderna vaccine to Buffalo. Otherwise a SB win will cause a huge surge in Covid cases. There's no way a pandemic will stop Bills fans from celebrating.

Bills fans are like cockroaches: we're everywhere! Just the other day, I talked to a guy working as a cook in a little BBQ joint in Gig Harbor, WA while wearing a Bills beanie. In the past, I've encountered Bills fans on the streets of Seoul, in the sands of the Arabian Desert, on a beach on the little Colombian island of San Andres, and various points in between. It's a great and global fraternity we have.

Pyrrhic victory? What's the status of the injuries to Diggs and White?

Good question. I guess they're saying that if you took the average individual coach and had him make his key game time decisions based on their data and analyses, he'd win .75 games more. I'm not sure how much I buy this but certainly some coaches need to understand game data and probabilities better.

I'm sure this measures something. But I take analytical rankings of coaches with a grain of salt. The number nerds don't have all the same data points that are available to a coach. For example, a coach facing 4th-and-1 may know that his best short yardage RB just tweaked his knee. He factors that into his decision making process while the analytic geeks don't. Also there are immeasurable intangibles in a game. Momentum, for example. The players feel it. It's very real to them even if it doesn't show up on a stat sheet. A coach who has it, wants to keep it. A HC whose team has lost it may want to - very rationally - gamble to get it back.

I have a soft spot for vets... Very cool!