2003Contenders

Here is what I will say... There are entirely too many times where Josh has dropped back to pass and is unable to find anyone open. Replays often show all the receivers bracketed in coverage. I just want someone who can consistently get OPEN!

I agree -- especially with the part about letting McD make the call on who he wants at DB. IIRC Hyde, Poyer and Tre all came aboard in McD's first season back in 2017, and all three made an immediate impact. Hyde and Poyer were prudent FA pickups that did not break the bank, and Tre was a rookie. I would LOVE to see something like that happen again this off-season.

For me -- and I am sure for many others as well -- this board is a great place to come for therapeutic healing after a loss like last week's. (Thanks to everyone for that!) I will say that after a week of digesting what all went on with the game, my own feelings are much more positive than they were last week. Initial reaction to the offensive performance: the coaches did not sufficiently stick to the running game, Josh was not his usual post-season Superman self, and the over-use (and lack of innovation) on the "tush push" proved fatal. Initial reaction to the defensive performance: the Bills allowed the Chiefs to score points than they did in any other game this season, and once again the post-season comes to an end in the McD/Beane/Allen era with a resoundingly poor showing by the defense. With some time to reflect, while my initial reactions have not necessarily gone away, I will say that I am not nearly as down as I was last week. Just some random thoughts: Sometimes you look back at a game with a close score and you say to yourself that the close score was not truly indicative of how closely matched the 2 teams were in the game. Well, in this case, that is NOT true. The game really was THAT close. Both teams scored 4 TDs and 1 field goal. Despite all the bad officiating, questionable play calls, etc. the game really did come down to the fact that the Chiefs made good on their 2 point conversion -- whereas the Bills failed on both of their attempts. The Bills ran 66 plays, and the Chiefs ran 61. The Bills racked up 384 yards of offense, and the Chiefs racked up 380. Yes, it was that close. As much as we decry the defense allowing the Chiefs to score 32 points in the game, if you had told me before the game that the defense would hold Travis Kelce to 2 receptions for just 19 yards, mostly bottle up the Chief's running game (less than 4.0 yards per carry), prevent the RBs from having a big day catching the ball (just a total of 4 receptions for 35 yards), win the turnover battle 1-0, and keep Mahomes under 250 yards passing WITHOUT two key pieces of the Bills' secondary on the field -- I would have been VERY happy. While I see the argument that a great number of folks have made about McD and his staff being out-coached, we are talking about an opposing team that has Andy Reid calling the plays and Spags running the defense. Both of these gentlemen will likely wind up in the Hall of Fame one day. Yes, there were certainly things that I wish the coaches had done differently, but given how close the game was, that the Chiefs had home field advantage, were mostly healthy, and most certainly received MANY favorable calls from the officials, I think it is hard to complain too much about the coaching. Josh certainly came out with too many juices flowing - a la Brett Favre. I do wish that Brady had dialed up a more scaled back start to the game with some runs mixed in, etc. But after that poor start, Josh settled down -- and the offense scored the 2nd most points that any team scored against the Chiefs all season. The first-most, of course, was the one additional point that the Bills scored against them during the regular season. If the officials did not get so many of the spots wrong throughout the AFCCG, I honestly wonder how many more points the Bills would have scored! At the end of the day, Josh's and Mahomes numbers were quite similar: 237 yards and 2 TD passes for Josh, 245 yards and 1 TD pass for Mahomes. Ironically, it was Mahomes who did more damage on the ground: 11/39 yards rushing for Josh compared to 11/43 for Mahomes, which was close -- but Mahomes scored twice. Clearly, the Chiefs #1 goal was to minimize Josh's success outside the pocket -- and credit to them for doing that. Last note about the offense: the Chiefs biggest weakness during the season was that they allowed TEs to catch the ball at will. The Bills completed a combined 3 passes for 20 yards to TEs. I know Kincaid was supposedly still nursing a knee injury -- but why was Dawson Knox, who has had a pretty good track record against the Chiefs, targeted just once (which he caught)? Oh well. I will say that I feel better heading into next year than I did a week ago. The team should have more cap room to work with this year and, rather than an overhaul, if they can make some smart tweaks here and there -- a few more solid pieces on defense and at least one more capable receiver -- they should be a Super Bowl contender again in 2025.

Dareus was a beast when he really wanted to play. Of course, having Mario Williams, Kyle Williams, and Jerry Hughes on that line with him certainly helped him to thrive. Also having Schwartz at DL, who really knew how to make the best use of that DL talent certainly helped too.

I remember when the Diggs trade was announced and we saw that the pick was for the pick that Houston acquired from Minnesota rather than Houston's own 2nd rounder I was happy, as I figured (based on what happened in 2023) that the original Vikings' pick could be in the top 10, whereas Houston's would possibly be in the 28-32 range. As the season wore on, it became obvious that the Vikings were much better than we thought, while Houston was lucky to be in arguably the worst division in the NFL. Maybe the Bills would have been better off with Houston's own original 2nd rounder? Ironically enough, Houston is still alive and well in the playoffs -- and with the Vikings one-and-done (thanks, Sam Darnold!) Beane made the right choice!

I believe the emergency QB can come in without the other two being injured, but once he comes in neither of the other two is eligible to return to the game. So if McD does decide to get White into the game and White himself gets hurt, he would need to plug in some other player (probably someone who played QB in college or at least high school) to finish out the game.

Honestly, the last couple of weeks it has looked to me like the Ravens are going out of their way to pad Lamar's stats.

It is interesting that his career trajectory literally looks like a mountain (or hill) that peaked back in 2021. That is, when he entered the league back in 2019 he progressively got better in terms of targets, receptions and TDs each year until 2021 when he hit his high water mark with 100+ receptions, 1100+ yards and 8 TDs, career highs in every category. Since 2021 he has progressively DECLINED in targets, receptions and yards. So the upside is simply not there to warrant the challenges he presents. Let him become some other team's headache.

Exactly right. There is no reason why this should not be a blowout victory for the Bills, but let's not forget that the Bills struggled in both games against the Pats last year.

Exactly right! It's funny -- when you look at the final score and yardage, it would seem that the defense was garbage. And what transpired in the 4th quarter was certainly problematic. That said... -- The Bills did a very good job of holding the Lions' vaunted running game in check. I went into the game very worried that the combination of Gibbs and Montgomery would have a field day running up and down the field and could very well each eclipse 100 yards rushing EACH. Instead, they combined for just 44 yards on 10 carries. Yes, the Bills jumped out to the big lead, which forced the Lions to abandon the running game early. But part of the reason for that was the solid run defense early, which played a role in back-to-back punts to start the game. -- It took a lot of deep-in-the-playbook options for Ben Johnson and the offense to put up the scores they did: hook-and-ladder, tackle eligible pass, converting multiple 4th downs, etc. -- Others have already pointed out that all week we talked about the defensive line being a weak link. This week they showed up in spades, pressuring Goff from start to finish. -- Again, as others have pointed out, injuries were certainly an issue. We went into the game down 3 starters in the secondary. By the 4th quarter we were literally playing with multiple practice squad guys as Bishop, Milano and D. Williams all went down as well. I may have issues with some of McD's defensive decisions, but I do think that a good part of what he does is designed to overcome shortcomings from a talent perspective. That is why he employs so many bend-but-don't-break schemes. Of course, the very design of that scheme is supposed to minimize big plays, which is decidedly NOT what happened late in the game yesterday.

Clearly the prospect of being without Hamlin/Rapp/Douglas is not great. Especially in a week where it appears that practice time will be practically non-existent. That said, my expectation heading into the game (even with all of these guys healthy) was that the offense is going to need to score on virtually every possession if they have any chance of winning. So in a somewhat twisted way, being without these guys may not be the end of the world. In fact, there is a curious side of me that wants to see: 1. Has Bishop improved since he got torched in Houston? 2. How much -- if anything -- does Hyde have left in the tank? 3. Will Elam get another shot?

That is exactly right. And for those complaining about this post and suggesting that I am "woe is me as a Bills fan" or "reliving the past", I guess you missed (or perhaps I did not properly articulate) my whole point, which was that this game was strikingly similar to the LAST losses in the regular season for the past 4 seasons. This was intended to be OPTIMISTIC -- pointing out that after suffering defeats like these, the Bills rallied and went on to win all of their remaining games en route to division titles. Often times these late-season victories came against long odds (like beating KC in KC the week after the Eagles loss) when many believed that their season was over. Hopefully history repeats itself in these regards.

That is exactly right -- and a big part of the problem (especially in the 2nd half) against the Rams. In addition to being pinpoint with his passing on Sunday, Stafford also did a masterful job of using he snap count to his advantage to identify when the Bills were blitzing and setting up the protections on the spot. That, of course, allowed him to consistently find the hot read. Against the Lions, I hope McD does a better job of disguising the blitz, faking it at times -- and giving the players a "bail" when the QB obviously reads it.

The Bills have been on the losing end of what could arguably be called the "game of the year" (regular season) each of the last 5 seasons, and the similarities are uncanny. All 5 games: -- Came against NFC teams. -- Josh played lights out in all 5 games. -- All of the games were decided by a single score -- All games essentially ended on the final possession. Indeed, 3 of those 5 games went into overtime. Let's look back.... 2020 Week 10: the infamous "Hail Murray" game. Josh passed for 284 yards and 2 TDs. He also rushed for 38 yards AND CAUGHT a 12-yards TD pass. 2021 Week 14: the overtime loss to the Tom Brady-led Bucs. After a slow start, the offense explodes in the 2nd half overcoming a 3-TD deficit. Josh passed for 308 yards and 2 TDs and tacked on 109 rushing yards along with a rushing TD. 2022 Week 10: the overtime loss to the Vikings thanks largely to insane catch made by J. Jefferson on a 4th-and-a-mile conversion. That was inexplicably followed by a fumbled exchange between Morse and Josh in the endzone, which the Vikings recovered. Josh was still able to tie the game with mere seconds left -- but ultimately lost in overtime. He passed for 330 yards and rushed for 84 in that game. 2023 Week 12: this was another overtime loss that was set up at the end of regulation where Elliott made good on a 60-yard field goal in the driving rain. Josh passed for 339 yards and 2 TDs, and added 81 yards rushing in that game. 2024 Week 14... Well, we all know about this one against the Rams. All of them exciting games that unfortunately went the wrong way. Josh racked up 400+ total yards in 4 of those 5 games -- and caught a TD pass in the other. Now, here is the GOOD news. In years 2020-2023 those games would all serve as the Bills final loss of the regular season, as the team would go undefeated the rest of the way! Here's hoping that this latest misstep follows suit!

Excellent points. Folks' observations about Knox looking better than Kincaid are also justified by stats... Kincaid has hauled in 34 of 59 targets that Josh has thrown his way (57.63%) for 356 yards. That is 10.47 yards per catch and 6.03 yards per attempt. Knox has hauled in 14 of 22 targets (63.64%) for 226 yards. That is an amazing (especially for a TE) 16 yards per catch and 10.27 yards per attempt. Knox is also clearly the better blocker and has a knack for making big plays at the right time. This is not an indictment of Dalton, who came into the league as a much more polished pass-catcher than Knox did. Also, going into the season there was a great deal of hype (even in fantasy circles) about Kincaid possibly being the focal point of the passing game -- and it does seem like defenses have been dead-set on limiting him, especially in the first half of the season. Even with him missing the last few games with the bum knee, he is still #2 in targets (behind Shakir), so Brady indeed has made an effort to get the ball to him. I am hopeful that the time off has allowed Dalton to digest some of the mental parts of the game. Once everyone in healthy and on the field at the same time, maybe things will open up more for him.

Getting back to the notion of the original thread -- and tracking Purdy's shoulder injury... The last I heard was that Purdy did some light tossing and workout yesterday, he is resting today, and they want to see how he feels tomorrow. My guess is that he will officially show up on the injury report all week as Questionable regardless of his true status. That said, it will be worth watching to see if he practices tomorrow -- and what he does on Thursday and Friday to see what direction he trends. The 49ers have been notoriously dishonest with the injury designations -- they outright lied about McC's status early on, and were misleading regarding the nature of Aiyuk's injury as well. So we are unlikely to get much in the way of "official" intel on Purdy. As I said, I suspect he will be designated all week as "Questionable" and his activity will be listed as "Limited".

Eli definitely gets in. He's got 2 SB wins (both against the Pats, one of them against the Pats team that went 16-0 in the regular season). Aside from that, he posted some gaudy career numbers with 366 TDs and over 57K yards passing. That said, you could argue that Eli was actually the 3rd best QB in that 2004 draft class -- even though he was drafted #1 overall. Roethlisberger will get in too when he is eligible in a couple of years -- also with 2 SB wins and even better career numbers. Rivers will be more of a debate, since he never made it to a Super Bowl. However, he wound up with better career numbers that Eli -- 6000+ more yards passing, 60+ more TD passes and 30+ FEWER interceptions -- with roughly the same number of pass attempts.

It is great for us as fans to be looking at various scenarios for these final 6 games, but I hope that McD and the team's sole focus during this bye week and heading into Week 13 is the San Francisco 49ers. Let's win that game at home -- and then start focusing on the Rams on the road. Rinse, repeat, etc.

It is interesting because Rex made an immediate impact when he arrived on the scene to coach the Jets. They made it to the AFC Championship game his first few seasons there -- and then crashed and burned after that. When he came to Buffalo, Rex made an immediate NEGATIVE impact. Recall that when Doug M. left the Bills almost made the playoffs (9-7 record) with Kyle Orton at QB and a top notch defense coached my J. Schwartz. Rex chose to dismantle that defense and wound up regressing in a major way in virtually every category.

Given that the game-sealing INT took place right in front of him, I too took it as a sign of respect and appreciation for an opponent who had just played a very good game against his team.

As we have seen, anything can happen. Right now the 3 hottest teams in the NFL are the Lions, Bills and Eagles. The Chargers are starting to turn heads, and the Steelers will not go away with that top drawer defense they have. The Chiefs have shown that they can always find a way to pull out a close game in the 4th quarter. Going strictly by odds, etc. it would appear that the Bills will be favored in 5 of their remaining 6 games as they will likely be 2-4 point underdogs in their game against the Lions but favored in the other 5. The 49ers have struggled at times this season as their record indicates, but I still expect that to be a tough game. Hopefully the Bills will be refreshed (with possibly some healthy reinforcements) and ready for business after the bye. They can't afford to come out flat after the extended rest and get down early to a team with CMC! The Rams are finally healthy, and their offense is now multi-faceted. We've already talked about how well the Lions have been playing. The funny thing is that their weakest game in the past few weeks (against Houston) may also be their most impressive, as they got down big early in that game (thanks to 5 INTs by Goff) and found a way to come back and pull out a win. Bottom line is that all 3 of those NFC games will be tough. It is tempting to pencil in all 3 of the final games as a "W", but they are all against division rivals who would love nothing better than to play the role of spoiler. Yes, the Bills SHOULD win all 3 of those games -- but they can't afford to lose any focus or intensity. They did exactly that in 3 of the 4 games in which they faced the Jets/Patriots last season and finished 2-2 against them.

The Ravens (and Texans) caught us at the right time, when the Bills were going through their annual 2-3 game slump, partly due to injuries. The Ravens also happened to be peaking at that time -- they have not looked nearly as good in recent weeks. Yes, they continue to run the ball well and stop the run, which will always make them a bad match-up for us. But if we see them again in the playoffs, I think we can take them. FWIW, if we meet the Texans again, I think we DESTROY them. Josh played the worst game of his career (at least since his rookie year), and Houston STILL barely won that game at the end of regulation.

I do remember that play. It was a 4th-and-1, and the Chiefs were pretty deep in their own territory (like the 38-yard line). So when Reid decided to line up to go for it, everyone knew that they were just trying to draw the Bills off-sides. When the clock started getting close to 0. I noticed the same thing you did about Mahomes casually walking toward the sideline. Rather than thinking he was going out for a pass, though, I thought maybe the Chiefs had a direct snap in place to the RB and Mahomes was just trying to divert the attention of the defense. The Rams did this with Kurt Warner successfully many years ago. I wonder if Andy Reid had Mahomes do this on purpose to give a look for the potential of calling a play like that in the future?

Was in a tweet today from Alex Brasky. The tweet stated: "During Thursday #Bills practice, WR Amari Cooper (wrist) appeared to increase his participation from what we saw last week. Thursday, Cooper caught passes both from coaches and QB Josh Allen. A good sign that he is trending toward a return following a 2-game absence #BillsMafia" Alex Brasky Tweet

He appears to be trending in the right direction to play Sunday. Was catching passes from Allen today in practice. So we will see...