Livinginthepast

Play under review for having a foot 6" out of bounds?

Wow who would thought that the Chiefs would get a phantom penalty after Mahomes was sacked?! So weird!

Years ago I was at fast food burger place and a grizzled old guy in his 60s (still incredibly with a metal band style long hair from the early 80s) went back to the cashier to see if he could get a free gravy cup with his fries. The clerk, a recent immigrant from South Asia, said "no sir you will have to pay $2.50 for that". At which point the old headbanger retorted with "$2.50"!!?? "That's highway robbery"!!!!! and stormed away! Fast forward to my first trip to Highmark in more than 10 years back in October and my astonishment when I asked the beer dude how much was a Tallboy of beer and he said $21!!! $21 for a Tall boy of beer!!!! Now thats "highway robbery"!!!

Rugby is even worse.

Can we please have one game a year with the retro 90s blue jerseys and red helmets?

The new onside rules are dumb. Why did the NFL emasculate this play so badly? They act like this was the most dangerous play in the history of the NFL. Were that many players actually injured in this play in the last 50 years?

This seems to be a problem for several members of our defense. The speed, size and talent are all there in almost all the defensive positions but game intelligence is lacking in many key situations. On so many passing plays our DBs and linebackers are playing way too far off and dont react fast enough to the play. Poyer, Milano and Hyde were some of the best Ive ever seen 4 years ago but their replacements dont have the same ball hawking abilities. The Last Lion Td where Benford gets beaten. He is never looking at the ball and is clueless about where is man is going. I swear if our Dbs just turned around on plays this season we would have at least 10 more INTS.

Great game. The offense is back to elite with Brady after wandering through the Dorsey vanilla wilderness. McD seemed fine today, no issues except calling that TO on a 4th down for the other team (which never works). Defense is walking wounded but I thought Elam and Bishop were decent against a really good passing offense. But tackling and ball awareness are still so inconsistent. Bass is still a question mark, great kicks but how did he miss that short FG?

Jury is still out. Its not looking good but he needs a few games to get back into shape and get up to game speed. Also Mentally he is not there yet. Probably 2nd guessing every play where it used to come naturally.

Bills D has a lot of athletic talent but sometimes plays really dumb.

Pregnant before the wedding! Now that is scandalous drama by golly!

Wow the Rams really look ordinary this week. What are the 49ers doing to neutralize them tonight?

Make penalties challengeable but only 1 challenge for a coach per half. Also return the onside kicks to what they used to be. Now the restrictions make them impossible to recover.

Oddly enough this was the first thing I thought of at the end of that game. We lost another epic "game of the year" which neutral fans or Bills haters will rave about. Every season we just find a way to lose these games whether its a coaching blunder, a bonehead play by otherwise great players or just some bad fortune, we cant get it done in these contests. Looking at some of the other comments on here yes other teams lose in these heartbreaking ways as well but with the same frequency? The Bills dont just stick a knife in your heart, they turn it it as well!

After 13 seconds I would have hoped that ALL of these issues about playcalling and having contingency plans for the end of games would have been identified, addressed, a protocol put in place and solved. But it keeps happening. Whenever McD has you convinced he has turned a corner and is ready to play chess with the big boys of coaching he reverts back to a kid learning to play checkers who wanders into a multiple jump where he loses half his pieces to his opponent. He simply is not able to think fast on his feet and doesnt seem to consider the next few moves in advance. Yes an advisor in the booth might be a good idea but McD would have to listen and react quickly for this to work. I just cant see that!

For all those people saying that the game was over by this stage and 9 players on the field and no attempt at punt return doesnt matter, just remember the Chiefs blocking the last second FG by Denver. Blocking a FG is a 1/100 chance. I'm sure the Bills could beat those odds, well at least try. The same with the punt return. Instead the Bills achieved a 0% chance on the punt block and the return by failing to try on both.

The only thing that might save us vs the Lions is that they might be feeling very overconfident after watching our terrible D yesterday. I'm also hoping that the Bills D took yesterday to heart and are embarrassed and angry as hell. we might pull the upset here.

Nacua IS that good. He was a diamond in the rough for the Rams in the 5th round. I guess the NFL scouts were asleep the first 4 rounds? He was a great player last year and there is no excuse that McD and Babich had for not double teaming him on reputation alone. But especially after the idiotic soft zone they kept playing against him failed. It might have worked if there was a pass rush but it became abundantly clear very early that was not happening.

Maybe Brady made the sneak call, which wasnt that bad a call if Josh got in right away or even if he didnt there was a quick followup spike or play. But there wasnt which is completely unacceptable. Its McD's responsibility to make sure that a 2nd or 3rd play is scripted if the sneak is stopped and of course its McD's fault that the TO was called. Also all completely unacceptable at a pro level.

As crazy as it sounds McD needs a strategy consultant for these high pressure situations up in the booth. I guess he has a officiating one already? but he needs a calm voice in his ear to save him from himself!

The most excruciating thing about 13 seconds was the lack of planned series of plays right after we scored the TD. No plan for the KO, No plan for the defense on 1st down or 2nd down. But this lack of foresight in critical situations has been a repeated flaw in McD and his team ever since in several games. This year its been Houston and LA where its reared its ugly head. I dont understand why its so hard to have a coherent plan drilled into whatever coaches or players are involved in the play and a short series of plays ready in whatever late game situation on offense and defense. I dont know why this has not been practiced? Yesterday under no circumstances should the TO have been called after the failed sneak, just abject stupidity. McD, Brady and Allen should have all been clear on this. A 2nd down play should have also been called or just a spike it call. But if that wasnt enough, there was no plan on the punt by LA at the end. Was the punt block on? or a trick play return? Instead we got 9 men on the field, with no rush and then a returnable kick that the returner Codrington let go into the endzone with no attempted return. Which turned an already dumb situation into a situation of pure stupidity.

DLine had almost no pressure and no sacks. The only hurries were on blitzes. Stafford is obviously nowhere near what he was in his prime but yesterday was one of the greatest days of his career. With all that extra time to throw and the wisdom of experience reading the defenses, he looked HOF quality. But my question is this. Where was the strategy on defense when things were not obviously working? The Bills Dline were like a fly on a screen door, working hard and getting nowhere. Why didnt Babich or McD change up the rush patterns with a few stunts or throw in a safety blitz? Maybe they tried, I dont know but thats one of the few Bills games Ive ever seen where the defense was getting wrecked all 4 quarters with no answers for 95% of the Rams series.

The basically gave Milano his old job back right away which would be reasonable after a minor injury of 3-4 weeks. But doing so after 2 potentially career ending injuries and 1 year of no playing? I think that was idiotic. They should be bringing him back slowly and Williams should be playing most of the downs.

The game is over when the Rams punter kicks it but incredibly instead of purposely pooching out of bounds, the kick was returnable and even more incredibly the Bills player makes NO ATTEMPT to return it. No Homerun throwback, no reverse, nothing? So we just gave up on the punt block and the return? Terrible coaching and no awareness from Codrington?? Bills threw logic out the window there and just gave up. The NFL is filled with moron coaches who dont seem to practice anything let alone use any trickery. Is it against the rules now for Bass to tap it straight ahead 10 yards and try tor recover it. Is it against the rules for Bass to left foot kick it to the opposite sideline? Neither of these strategies could have been worse than that garbage kick yesterday!

This is what kills me. If your pass rush is non existent, like ours was last night get out of the soft zone and double up Nacua on man coverage. They never seem to learn!