fergie's ire

Yeah, that hit made me happy. Mahomes like to run toward the sideline and then when defenders pull up to avoid hitting him late, he'll stop and make a throw (like he did here) or even run forward for an extra yard or two. Liked to see him get punished for F'ing around.

Agreed.

They only converted 3 of 13 third downs....so couldn't have been too many. I think they have been taking some chances and sometimes get burned...but overall, I like this defense much more than previous versions.

I'm seeing a lot of criticism of McD's time outs. I kind of get it because those are timeouts that might have been needed for a Josh drive late. However, I think in the particular circumstance, I think the timeouts were really smart. The D is still learning the more aggressive style and they are moving a lot of players around which is tough when the crowd noise is super loud. Yeah...ideally you don't want to be confusion on D pre-snap, but there was. When that happened pre-snap against Baltimore, Derrick Henry was dribbling Bishop post-snap. If Mahomes snapped it with the D out of position, bad things would probably have happened....and I think it was smart for McD to call time out and avoid disaster.

Put another way, the ONLY times teams have stopped them from getting to the Superbowl they first beat them in the regular season.

Tackling was the major concern about him when drafted. Though it is the smallest of sample sizes, I did find it encouraging that Hairston had the best tackle that anyone in the back 7 has seemingly had in games (stuck the guy, stopped him, AND wrapped up).

That had crossed my mind. I remember a few years ago he took a shot against the Packers that people suspected was concussion causing...and did not seem right for a few games after. However, I would think that, since it wasn't severe enough that he got pulled from the came, that if that were the case, he'd be better by now...but who knows.

Yeah. Something seems off. There were a couple of passes in the first half, with open receivers, that Josh missed BADLY.

One of the reasons that people always cite for wanting a big one tech is that he will require double teams and free up Ed. However, you can also draw double teams through penetration. That's exactly what happened on the first sack of the game by Ed. Hoecht drew a double team and Ed was easily able to get in on Dalton.

Hey!! It's Franklin.

There's been talk about Poyer and Hancock stepping in at safety. What about Franklin? Anybody know if he can actually play safety or is he a safety like Codrington is a corner?

I think that is what it best about the Rapp injury. I've heard the coaching staff LOVES Rapp. The fan base thinks he is a big part of the problem. Well, whether it is Poyer or Hancock or someone else, at least fans and coaches will get to see how it looks with another option.

It DID and I think that was the one silver lining of that game. If not for Tre leaving his man wide open who a desperate Penix was able to hit for a big play, it would've been a very good second half. They gave the offense plenty of chances to take back the lead. I hope it also showed that even though the Bills were down to backup corners, they could stick with ATL receivers long enough. The D Line HAS been getting pressure and have to trust that and risk the corners playing tight. Sure, the ATL receivers are not the KC receivers...but still.

It is common for these McDermott teams to have a two game losing streak which everyone (here and in the media) seem to be pointing out. In an earlier thread, someone commented that McDermott's teams go on a tear after a loss, but someone pointed out that's not true and they often drop a second game. However, what IS true, which I don't see people mentioning is that McDermott teams DO go on a tear after the second loss. Here's the Bills record after a two game losing streak from 2020 on: 9-1, 4-0, 7-0, 6-1, 10-2 (and the second loss was the giveaway to NE).

Yes, I heard a lot of "Look out for the Jets. Things are going to change because the Jets got a guy from a well run organization who is going to bring about a culture change." At the time, I thought "Isn't that EXACTLY what they said when Salah was hired?"