hondo in seattle

If the Bills keep playing like they've been playing, our playoff run - if we make the playoffs - won't last long. But we've seen our D play really well at times. We've seen our O play really well at times. Sometimes teams get hot in the playoffs. We have the ability to be that team this year.

As any away game should be.

An interesting list. I know some Raiders fans who would disagree with Stabler’s inclusion. But the Snake was no Joe Montana.

Luck shouldn't be underestimated. Sometimes games are decided by lucky deflections, bad referee calls, etc. And then there are injuries. Sometimes excellent teams enter the playoffs missing multiple key players while other players are playing with bandages and painkillers. And then loses to a lesser team that happens to be comparatively healthy.

We fans believe heart and soul that with Josh Allen we should win at least one Super Bowl. More than one, really. When you have a talent like that, unless your coach is an idiot, you ought to be hoisting multiple Lombardis. Belichick won 6 rings with Brady. Reid has 2 so far with Mahomes. We're still waiting for McD to cash in after winning the QB lottery. The contrarians point out that the QB is just 1 of 22 offensive & defensive starters. The entire roster matters. Let's not make too much out of the QB, they say. After all, the Ravens won a Super Bowl with Trent Dilfer. QBs don't win Super Bowls, teams do. But here's another angle. It's not just that a team with a bad/mediocre QB can win the SB. Teams with good QBs often fail. My fellow Boilermaker, Drew Brees, played 20 years and only won one. He was OPOY twice, led the NFL in yards 7 times, and went to 13 Pro Bowls. If not for Tom Brady and all his rings, Brees would be in the GOAT conversation. And his Head Coach most of his career was Sean Payton, widely regarded as a coaching wunderkind and offensive genius. As great as Brees was, the chances of his team winning it all in any given year was a mere 5%. The average team has a 3% chance (1 in 32) of winning the Super Bowl. Brees only elevated their probability by 2%. And Drew was fortunate just to get that one ring. Dan Marino, one the greatest pure passers I've ever seen, never won a Lombardi despite having Don Shula, the winningest coach in NFL history, as his HC. This is a dream duo: HOF coach with HOF QB. It should have produced an SB victory. It didn't. Marino isn't the only great QB shut out. That unhappy list also includes Dan Fouts, Warren Moon, Fran Tarkenton, and several others including - sadly - our own Jim Kelly. The message of history is clear. It's hard to win the SB with a mediocre QB but not impossible. It's easier with a great QB but not a guarantee - even with a good coach. I hate to say this but maybe we need to temper our expectations. 32 teams, 1 Lombardi. The odds aren't good. Even with Josh.

You are right of course. But I don't think anyone imagined Peterman being as bad as he was. Yeah, Peterman sucked his rookie year. But he looked okay the following preseason as I recall and some folks said he looked really good in practice. He didn't have the strongest arm, obviously, but reports said he had poise, made good reads, and had command of the playbook. He seemed like a reasonable caretaker until the real QB was ready to take charge. Even now people seem to think Peterman has something to offer. He's still on a roster. I wonder if there was back-and-forth between Daboll and McD (or McD and Beane) on how best to develop Allen. It does seem odd that Peterman only lasted a half-game before being replaced by Allen. Maybe Daboll or Beane convinced McD - against his better judgment - to start Peterman and develop Allen slowly. But watching Peterman's dismal play destroyed McD's patience. It's hard to know.

The Fins are gaining an NFL-best 409.2 yards per game. Why would you eff with that? If you work in the restaurant business and have a smash-hit recipe, you don't suddenly change out one of the key ingredients.

According to the Madden simulation run by ClutchPoints (see below), Allen will pass for 400 yards against the Fins in a victory. It wouldn't be enough. The narrative all year has been that Allen is a turnover machine. One good game won't erase that impression. Madden 24 Simulates – Bills 37 – Dolphins 28 TEAM Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4 FINAL Bills 10 17 7 3 37 Dolphins 0 7 7 14 28 Josh Allen exploded with 4 TDs and 400 total yards of offense. Additionally, he turned over the ball zero times to help Buffalo dominate Miami. While the Dolphins outscored Buffalo 21-10 in the second half, their attempts fell flat as Buffalo built too big of a lead early on. Down 34-14 in the fourth, the Dolphins lost their grip on the No. 2 seed. Now, they drop down to the sixth. Buffalo claims the No. 2 seed, hosting Indianapolis in the Wild Card round. www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/madden-24-simulates-nfl-week-18-predictions-bills-win-division/ar-AA1mmxxl

He's been ineffective this season and this game is just too important. I hope he's inactive again.

I remember we started Dennis Shaw the year we drafted him and put him behind a crap OL. Shaw never developed into the QB we hoped he would be and lasted three years as a starter before finishing his sad career as a backup. Some said we ruined his poise and confidence his rookie year and he never got it back. I don't think starting Peterman was about Peterman at all. I think it was about either McDermott's and/or Daboll's philosophy on how to effectively develop a young, talented - but raw - Josh Allen. I think they wanted Allen to spend more time with the coaches on the practice field and in the film room before they lined him up under center under the bright lights of game day.

I actually remember him... sort of. The first football game I ever watched was a Browns game. They were losing to Dallas and I began rooting for them as the underdogs. They came back to win. This is when Bill Nelson, Ryan's successor, was QB. But as a nascent Browns fan, I learned about Ryan and his legacy. I grew up a duo Browns/Bills fan but ditched the Browns when Modell abandoned Cleveland. RIP What a backfield! A PhD at QB and Jim Brown and Leroy Kelly at FB and HB! As a 10-year-old WR in 1969, Paul Warfield was my idol.

Our receivers aren't that bad. Part of the problem is that Josh hasn't been playing well. Hurt? Yips? Romantic problems? But mostly I blame Brady. He's diversified the offense which is good but he's not scheming guys open.

Maybe I'm all wrong, I don't know, but I believe that Josh would be the best, most-productive QB in the NFL with the right OC. I think a good OC would do a better job scheming guys open. I also believe a good OC would coach Josh to get the ball out on schedule more often and make better decisions. And maybe study film harder. I can't empirically back up any of this. I don't know what's happening behind the curtain. But that's my hunch. And it doesn't seem, thus far, that Brady's the guy.

As a fan, here's what I wish... The Bills passing offense plays like it did when we were destroying folks by 28+. Cook and the OL play like they did against Dallas. The D plays like it did in the first quarter against the Pats. If we do all that, the playoffs will be a very fun ride.

It's been nice to see Brady diversify the offense but I'm not sold on him yet. But today wasn't Brady's fault. It was Josh's. The OL allowed some pressure and receivers dropped some balls. The offensive woes weren't all on Josh. But he was badly off today.

I was close.

That video was very negative. Didn't enjoy it. I'm predicting a Bills victory with game balls for Kincaid and DQ.

I've complained about the OL pretty much every year since I was spat out of my mother's womb. I was tired of seeing other QBs sit back and scan the field for open receivers while our QBs scrambled for their life. And other RBs run through gaping lanes while our RBs struggled just to get back to the LOS. I think #4 is a stretch. But it's been fun to see the progression of the OL this year. The Dallas game was something special.

Damar was dead. Now he's on an NFL roster. Gets my vote.

It won't be a masterful work of art, but the Bills pull out a 27-17 victory.

I don't have any problem with Miller the Human other than what I know about his altercation with his ex-GF. My problem with Miller the Player is the ROI. We're paying a lot for very little production. It's not a matter of slack or no slack.

I did my civic duty and voted.

I hope you're right. We did see some good stuff in the playoffs last year. Hope he builds off that.

Even back in the 90s, we laid some unexpected duds. But, yeah, this season is the most unpredictable/"improbably crazy" one I can remember.

I know Fournette has always looked slow and I know he doesn't fumble. But didn't he look particularly slow against the Chargers? Cook hits holes with burst. Lenny kind of slowly rumbles into them.