2003Contenders

Bingo! The difference in the game? Mahomes' much-maligned receivers caught virtually every catchable pass thrown to them -- Josh's did not.

Note also that against both Miami and Pittsburgh they blitzed at a heavy rate (over 50%). It is hard to get the ball downfield in those situations.

Agreed -- and it may be time to add some wrinkles/gadget plays with Harty and see if he can get some decent YAC.

One thing I just realized... when we played against the Chiefs earlier this season (Week 14), that was part of that series of games when Gabe went 3 out of 4 (the exception being the Philly game) without catching a single pass. It will be interesting to see what his role would be if he is indeed healthy against a team that he has had success against in the past.

Interesting... wonder if he got upset about not being activated for yesterday's game and started making waves?

I think it serves also to provide reminders in late-game key situations, especially when you do have back-ups in there. Things like: "There are only 10 seconds left and they have no timeouts. Make a tackle in the field of play and the game is over!"

Well, there is a certain WR who shall remain unnamed who legend has it did take it deep against the Chiefs multiple times the last time these 2 teams met in the playoffs to the tune of 200+ yards and 4 TDs. Whether or not he is healthy enough to go remains to be seen.

Add also that the Ravens (with Lamar Jackson) have not exactly lit it up in the playoffs. I believe they have one win to their credit.

Kudos to a guy who had a career year the season AFTER signing a big contract!

The crazy thing is that when this happened last time it was Josh who was penalized for shoving the creep after the play. Wait until Wilkins does this to everyone's fair-haired-boy Mahomes. Bet the outrage ensues then.

Add also that the Dolphins added new wrinkles with all of the misdirection on the running plays, and I think the DL was instructed to hang back a bit and not over-pursue.

Also, I think a huge difference is in demeanor and the way the respective coaches' have handled the players. I always attributed Josh's being "dialed back" under Dorsey to mandates from McD about not putting the ball in harm's way, etc. Same with Cook's benching for the first half of the Denver game because of the fumble on the first offensive play of the game. However, in the Jets game (Brady's first game as OC) we hear Josh exclaim, "I'm back!" -- and in all the games since it really does seem like Josh has been playing like his old self (both the good and the bad, as we saw in the Miami game). Also a couple of weeks back, the broadcasters alluded to a comment from Cook regarding Brady: Cook said was relieved not to have been "disciplined" after dropping that potential TD pass against Philly. Same thing Sunday night, even after dropping the TD pass against Miami, Brady showed faith in going back to Cook. By implication, it would seem that benching Cook in the Denver game was Dorsey's doing, not McD's. It just seems like under Dorsey, the players were possibly over-coached to the point of worrying too much about making mistakes -- whereas under Brady they have been much more loose and comfortable.

Davis does many things well -- he is physical in the run game (remember, he received a game ball in the Dallas game even though he did not catch a pass). I just wish he was more reliable in terms of his route running and pass catching. I actually do hope that he is healthy enough to play against Pittsburgh -- because, due to the bad weather and Pittsburgh's tough defense, Davis would definitely make a big impact in a ball-control offense sort of day. Speaking of Pittsburgh, for years I have thought that what the Bills REALLY need is a clone of Hines Ward. A guy who is physical and can do all those things that Davis does do well -- but at the same time has great hands and runs precise routes.

He should be a big target for Josh on Sunday considering the weather and the fact that the Steelers' weakness on defense is with their LBs.

For all the righteous indignation about how poorly Gabe has been playing -- he DID have a career game the last time we played against Pittsburgh.

This team is battle-tested and has a 4-1 record against playoff teams with the only loss coming with the aid of horrific officiating against Philly.

By far and large O'Cyrus has played well this season. He may be hitting a bit of a "rookie wall", but I believe that it is best to let him work through it. For as much as I have historically complained about the OL and the front office not investing enough into it, I will say that I have been happily surprised by just how effective (and healthy) they have been this year. Even Spencer Brown is rounding into shape finally -- and I thought he played a pretty good game last night. Even for that series or two when Dawkins was getting his hand attended to, Van Demark filled in seemingly without issue. For the most part, Josh had plenty of time in the pocket last night. Other than the sack/strip/FR by Wilkins, where O'Cyrus was soundly beaten (by a top tier DT), Josh was only primarily pressured when Miami went all-out with the blitz. I will say that the last few games, defenses have done a good job with stunts and bringing extra rushers up the middle, which DCs have discovered makes Josh more mortal. The entire interior of the line (beginning with Morse) needs to do a better job communicating and setting the necessary protections. And, Josh needs to do a better job recognizing when the pressure is coming too -- and better protect the ball. That is especially important with a high-pressure team like Pittsburgh coming to town.

Something that I just realized -- the Bills record over the last 2 seasons when Von is NOT on the field is exemplary. Recall that he went down in the Detroit game last season -- and the Bills won every regular season game after that. This year he was inactive for the first four games -- and the only one of those games the Bills lost was the Jets game in which the defense played well -- and we lost because Josh was careless with the football. In fact, when Von was inserted this season (against the Jags) that is when our of our troubles began. Interesting. Not sure how much of this is coincidence, the surrounding players stepping it up knowing that he is out, changes to defense alignment, etc. He did have some key plays last season -- but has been mostly invisible this season.

TEs historically have a pretty big learning curve because of the variety of things they are asked to do both in terms of protections as well as the passing game. It is a bit unfair to compare Kincaid to LaPorta given that LaPorta has had an out-of-this-world rookie season. All things considered, Kincaid has had a fine rookie season with 66 receptions for 589 yards. His 66 receptions rank 8th in the league for TEs. He caught 81.48% of his targets, which ranks ahead of all the big-time TEs such as Engram(80%), McBride (78%), Likely (77.78%), Kelce (76.86%), Hockenson (74.8%), Andrews (73.77%), Goedert (73.42%), Kittle (72.22%), and LaPorta (71.68%). So he is doing a good job catching the ball. It's not his fault that the goons that design the plays for the Bills are not placing him in a position to be more productive (just 2 TDs).

Interesting... I was under the impression that Howard was almost definitely out, Waddle was 50/50 and Mostert was likely back, given that Mostert practiced in some capacity last week but was surprisingly scratched. I wonder if Mostert aggravated something in practice -- or if Miami's McD was playing games with the injury designations. Maybe he is doing the same this week. Honestly, if Miami is truly limited at so many positions (including a nicked Tua), I wonder if they would be best served to rest guys knowing that they are at least assured a playoff spot? Yes, they would certainly rather play at home than on the road in the playoffs -- but I also think they would rather be as close to healthy as possible and not risk further injury to guys who are already banged up.

It is hard to look at stats overall, because each game presents its own unique situation. I think we can all agree that the offense looked much improved in Brady's first two games as OC against the Jets and Eagles. Against the Chiefs, who sport a top-notch defense, the numbers were not as great but the offense still did enough to pull out the victory on the road in Arrowhead. The Cowboys game was also hugely successful with Brady showing the adaptation to move toward a rushing attack that was tailor-made to thwart a Cowboys defense that was built to stop the pass. I suspect that the success of the rushing attack in that game may have given Brady a bit of an inflated view of just how good the offense really is at running the ball, given that they had nowhere near that sort of success against either the Chargers or the Pats. Speaking of which... The offense certainly regressed after the Dallas game -- but I do not think they were nearly as bad against the Chargers as we remember. Remember that 3 bad turnovers (including one on Special Teams) served to minimize the offensive output in that game. The Pats game was another story entirely, as the offense looked as bad as it has all year long (with either Brady or Dorsey). Plenty of blame to go around here, as the play calling definitely left a lot to be desired -- but the OL did not do a great job, Josh missed on some key opportunities, and the receivers (running backs included) dropped some very catch-able passes. Sometimes, though, you have to give credit where it is due -- and Bill Bellichick had a masterful game plan that his players executed excellently. You know that after those back-to-back games against Josh and the Bills back in 2021 (where the Bills did not punt a single time in either game), BB was up nights trying to figure out a defense that would thwart Josh. To an extent, he succeeded as the offense did not play nearly as well against the Patriots last year. And in 2 games this year, that defense gave Josh fits. The Pats figured out a way to make Josh uncomfortable -- and when he is uncomfortable, he s prone to making mistakes (and missing open receivers).

Not too worried about the time issue as the Bills have mostly played later games this season. Jet-lag, however, could be a bit of concern. No need to start this game sluggishly and allow an overwhelmed team (with a new interim head coach) to build its confidence!

When he was originally brought in, I am not sure that anyone on the Bills (or in the league) knew what to do with him. Was he a jumbo TE? Offensive tackle? Defensive lineman? Purely special teams? So it may not be that the coach in question was even an offensive line coach. May have been special teams -- or even a defensive coach. I can't remember the full chronology of Peters' tenure here with the Bills. I do know that he played some special teams (blocked a punt, I recall) and some DT as well before he settled in at RT. I believe he became the starting RT in his 2nd season (2005?) and did so well that he signed a contract extension a year or so later (2006 or 2007). Then he was moved to LT -- and was unhappy that he was being paid like a RT, even though he had developed into an elite LT. That's when he had Parker started playing hardball... and was traded to Philly after the 2008 season.

Excellent point. Remember also that Martin did a fantastic job pinning the Bucs deep inside their own territory repeatedly in a game that wound up going down to the wire. I would also say that one of the myths about punters is to look at their average punt distance. A team whose offense is terrible punts from their own side of the field most often and relies on their punter to boom it 50+ yards -- whereas, a team with an offense that moves the ball (like the Bills) is usually relying on their punter to get more hang time and less distance. Not saying that Martin couldn't do a better job in certain situations -- but I don't see him as near the liability that many others do, especially when the Bills typically punt so rarely.

A few things for all the Chiefs fans and Reid/Mahomes apologists (in the fashion of the old ESPN series, "5 Reasons You Can't Blame the Refs for the Chiefs Losing to the Bills")... 1. The off-sides on Toney ABSOLUTELY was a penalty. It wasn't even close. It's not like his toe was across the line -- literally his whole body was across. 2. That penalty ABSOLUTELY could have been a reason for the outcome of the play. Let's not forget that it was Toney who caught the lateral and ran the ball in for a TD. I do not think it is crazy to believe that his illegal head-start played a role in his ability to complete that play. 3. It is not like the refs were trying to screw the Chiefs over after the result of the play. The flag came out immediately -- before Mahomes even threw the pass, before Kelce made the catch, before Kelce lateralled the ball to Toney, and before Toney ran into the endzone. 4. Furthermore, this was not the last play of the game/drive. The Chiefs still had 3 more plays to try to at least get a first down. 5. Even if the play stood, the Bills' offense would have had over a minute and all 3 timeouts to respond. I like their odds there with Josh Allen.