hondo in seattle

I forget who but someone did report that he was ejected by security.

Thanks for this. And you're exactly right. Logically and statistically, McD made the right decision on the first two-pointer. When it failed anyway, he was forced to go for the subsequent 2-pointers. Each decision was rational by itself. But we failed on each of them so hindsight says it would have been better to kick all those EPs.

Yeah, if I was a Ravens fan, I'd be pissed. But Brady's play-calling changed too. He started the game very conservative but opened it up when he realized he had no choice. I'm not sure the Ravens D would have been more successful if they had remained in their 1st half defense. We can only speculate. In any case, our passing game leaned heavily on our receivers and earned 41 points against one of the top teams in the NFL led by a guy considered one of the top coaches. When we needed our wideouts to produce, they didn't fail us.

I think most pundits would agree that Baltimore has better players, and yet the Bills won. I'm not sure why Beane doesn't get some blame for not building a better roster. I'm not sure why McD doesn't get some credit for building a no-quit culture.

I was instantly happy when I saw they were punting, which meant it was obviously a bad call for the Ravens. 4th and 3. Lamar is cramping but all he has to do is hand the ball off to Henry. Henry always gashes the Bills and was averaging something like 9 yards per carry against us yesterday. The 1st down was likely. With the Bills only needing only a FG and Josh on fire, punting was clearly the wrong choice. Raven fans must be pissed.

I don't hate any announcers/commentators/analysts. Part of it is that I just don't like to waste time and emotion on hating anyone. The other part is that I take what they say with a grain of salt. They don't like Allen? They don't like the Bills? I don't care.

He did his 1/11th on a team that gave up 40 points at home. Not high praise.

GB, you're right. And yet... Harbaugh chose to rush 3 for at least part of the 4th because he believed that gave him the best chance of winning. Rushing 3 meant he had 8 guys in coverage versus our 4 or 5 out on routes. Maybe only 7 guys in coverage if Harbaugh left a spy on Josh. Still, considering the Ravens have good coverage guys and our receivers are, reportedly, poor at separation, that would seem to give them the advantage. Yet Josh threw for 269 yards in the 4th quarter alone, mostly to subpar wideouts. Maybe the wideouts aren't as bad as some folks think. It's interesting that Samuel and Moore have both started about half their NFL games yet aren't good enough to start for us. I don't think our starters are elite by any means - Josh deserves better. But they're not entirely woeful either. Still, Josh is the engine that makes this passing game work. I started this thread to see if anybody has a different take and, of couse, some do and I respect that. But IMHO the scheme, play-calling, and 10-man talent are average-ish. Josh elevates everything.

Here's what I know about Jackson Hawes: He can block as well or better than any TE coming out of college over the past ten years. But he's got hands of stone and can't even catch a cold. Um, wait...

Josh makes some great throws and has some great games that make me start thinking he'll be in the GOAT conversation someday. When I calm down and consider this, I think Brady was better in two ways. First, Brady was a master of presnap recognition. You could tell because he'd get the ball out so quickly to the right guy. Second, Brady was devoted to his diet and fitness in a way that I don't think Josh yet equals. And that's why Brady lasted so long. But I think Josh is gaining on him in both areas.

Three times this season and last, I turned on the TV and expected to witness the Bills losing a game. Only three times. All Ravens games. So happy to be wrong - again. Maybe I'll learn to have some faith the next time we play them.

I guess I'm old because I remember those games. The 1974 game was the only home game I ever attended. The Raiders were undefeated on Monday night. The Bills were only allowed on MNF because we had OJ. The Juice got off to good start but when he got hurt just before halftime, it seemed like the Raiders would continue their Monday night dominance. OJ was pretty much our entire offense the year before. But Fergy, surprisingly, came through dramatically for our first MNF victory. Amazingly, we went 0-for-the-1970s against the Fish. If I recall correctly that game had like 9 or 10 interceptions but after all those changes of possession, we ended our 20-game losing streak. The fans tore down the goalposts in celebration. Picking a favorite among these three is hard. But I'd probably choose this one because I transitioned from absolute misery when it was 40-25 to absolute jubilation just a few minutes later.

I remember watching The Comeback on TV. My then-wife wanted me to take her somewhere when the score was 35-3. I told her the Bills could still come back. She asked, "Has any team ever come back from such a big hole?" I acknowledged that, no, never. But hope always lives in the heart of a Bills fan until the time expires. Considering we authored "The Comeback" with a backup QB, I don't know how fans could leave with Josh under center and we're only down by 15.

I think Lamar is a good QB and I don't blame them for supporting their QB. But, yeah, if you had to choose the MVP based on tonight's performance, Josh is the man. In retrospect, Raven fans chanting MVP for Lamar is kind of amusing. Thanks for reminding me!

Happy Days, all your micro-observations are true. But you also point out that Baltimore "maybe has the best secondary in the league." Yet Josh threw for nearly 400 against them in a game they badly wanted to win. And our wideouts accounted for more than half of those yards. So maybe when you put the wideouts under a microscope, they don't look so good. But when you look at the big picture (389 yards passing, 41 points, and a W), they look a little better.

I don't love to be miserable but, I confess, I thought we'd lose to the Ravens by double-digits. When the score was 40-25, I was momentarily miserable but not surprised at all. The game was unfolding pretty much the way I had thought it would. Which made the comeback all the more unexpected and delicious. When Prater nailed the game-winning FG, I cheered and laughed so much at the improbability of it all that I had tears in my eyes. My husky had never seen me behave like this before and started jumping around excitedly and doing weird husky vocalizations that would have made a great TikTok if I were into that sort of thing.

Maybe you're right, but I never expected the Bills D to be successful against the Ravens O. The matchups were bad. So it seemed obvious that if we were going to win, it would be in a shootout. Josh had to be unleashed.

Our starting wide receivers combined for over 200 yards receiving against the Ravens - a total that last year's wideouts didn't often achieve. Is this a better receiving corps? Coleman 8/112 Shakir 6/64 Palmer 5/61 How do we explain their productivity? Weak Raven secondary? Good scheme and play-calling by Brady? Josh makes any receiver look good? Or do these guys have some legit talent? Your thoughts?

I admit that I was afraid of another much-scrutinized 13-second type ending when McD opted to run another play and then have the FG unit, with a new kicker, run the Fire Drill. Folks watching Sports Center later only saw a low-drama chip shot, but I was sweating bullets watching it live.

At one point in the first half, the announcers said 41% of Allen's passes were behind the line of scrimmage. I acknowledge that dink-and-dunk is appropriate in some circumstances. Brady did a lot of dink-and-dunk in his time. But nearly half of the passes behind the LOS sounds like the stat line of a rookie QB who hasn't earned the confidence of his coach. Josh is a future HOFer, the reigning MVP, and probably Buffalo's best QB ever. You've got to let him air it out sometimes.

It's hard for me to give a whole lotta love to a defense that gave up 40 points and 8.6 yards per play. So I'll limit myself to one game ball per squad: Offense: Josh Defense: Ed ST: Matt Same as Peace Frog but without the trolling.

Agreed. The Raven's O is so multidimensional. They can run with Henry, run with Lamar, and throw. You can't go big and crowd the box because of Lamar. You can't not crowd the box because of Henry. A DC has zero good options. Cook is a good back but he's not in Henry's league and doesn't create the kind of scheme and defensive play-calling problems that the Lamar-Henry duo causes.

I left the army a long time ago and still haven't figured out what to say when thanked for my service. All I can offer, is (1) thanks for saying so, and (2) it was an honor and privilege to serve with those brave men and women. As for your second point, if I had to miss a Bills game, maybe Wide-Right wasn't the worst game to miss. Watching live probably would have broken my heart worse than hearing about it hours after the fact. Tonight I was watching the Bills game. As the game wound down, a friend and fellow Bills fan texted me "Painful..." I thought there was a lag in my stream and he had already witnessed Prater missing. It would've been a Billsy experience. So happy to be wrong!

One game doesn't decide that argument. But I've never thought Lamar was better than Josh. There are several excellent QBs in the NFL right now, including Lamar, but I don't think any of them carries a team as much as Josh does. Josh should have been MVP twice by now.

I gotta admit, a healthy, back-in-form Joey Bosa is probably the best thing that a fan of the Bills D can hope for.