fergie's ire

MVP for this game: Tyler Bass. Not only did he kick the game winning field goal, but I think his missed extra point saved us. If they were down four, the way their offense and our defense was playing, I do not have confidence that we would have stopped them. They would have gone for it on fourth...probably made it...and scored a touchdown with like 5 seconds left.

I am actually one who hates the red helmets, but, supposedly, they went to them to help Ferguson's interception problem. The theory was that he was accidentally throwing it to the wrong team and the red helmets would make Bills players stand out more.

Do they need to switch to red helmets?

Agreed. I think anyone who has played sports has had those times when everything goes to poop. All of a sudden you start making mistakes and can't hit anything. When that happens you take a deep breath settle down and just go back to the basics and try to get easy wins. It's like when a B-ball player loses his outside shot. Settle down, take some layups, then maybe some mid-range jumpers and regain confidence and form. That's what I felt like the Bills were doing today. Hit the easy target, take the easy points, take a breath and get the win and gradually work on adding in more aggression.

Team has been told they need to improve their record in one score games. Defense just trying to help out.

Yeah, sounds more like a storm I remember in 84-85, right around New Year's. The city just kept getting hammered by lake effect for days. Nothing was moving. I was a couple hours east at the time and we had little or no snow. However, friends tried to go in and "rescue" another friend who was trying to get out. They got almost to East Aurora and ran into snow drifts bigger than their car...turned around and gave up. The friend, trapped in downtown Buffalo, would call with updates. About day 3 he called to say a plow had finally come down his street....and got stuck. Nothing much got into or out of the city for about a week.

Yeah, I question the decision to leave Saturday. They will probably be okay but we have all seen instances where the lake effect kicks in and makes it impossible to go anywhere.

To me, this highlights the problem that Allen is having. When he was playing great he was taking the easy throw. Now, he is forcing throws when he doesn't have to. Hit Singletary or Morris and you still probably have a first and goal. There's no need to try and get the touchdown. Yes, it was makeable...but why try? Take what's given.

Yeah, I feel like it's not just the run game that was abandoned in the second half. This offense works best, becomes scary, when it uses all its weapons. We have a ton, but have to spread it around to them to be effective. It's not like KC in the past years that had Kelce and Hill and would always go to them when they needed to get going. In the first half, the offense used McKenzie effectively, Knox effectively, Davis effectively, in addition to Motor. We were the multi-headed monster. In the second half they didn't seem to be using everyone anymore...and I am not sure. Does Allen start to lock on Diggs? Does the play calling become less creative? It reminds me of the way this team was prior to last year. They would play tight in the second half with a lead rather than continuing to play loose and putting a team away.

15 att for 41 yds, 2.7 avg. Sarcasm?

Yeah, I have been thinking about this a lot because he definitely didn't look right. I can think of two times when Josh just seemed off like this. One was when he hurt his shoulder against Oakland a few years ago. He acted as if it were nothing and it wasn't affecting him, but he didn't look right for about 3 games. The other was the middle of last year. It's been pointed out that something happened at half time of the Tampa Bay game and he and the offense looked much better. Seems like it was a mental/focus problem. So, it could be a physical issue (either the Douglas hit or another hit), or it could be mental. It's hard to tell the difference particularly since he downplays injuries. Certainly I would hope that the coaches weren't calling runs if they knew or even suspected he was hurt. Will just have to wait until Josh gets better and see how he looks then.

Yeah, whatever they did at half time of the Bucs game last year, they need to repeat. Josh needs to get his head (and elbow) right....but also need to get the running game in gear and have Davis and McKenzie get squared away.

I don't know if it's concussion but something doesn't seem right with Allen since about that hit. Uncharacteristic bad throws (both decision and placement). It reminds me of how he was throwing when he hurt his shoulder in the Raiders game a few years back. For about 3 games he was just off.

But I thought our defense sucked and got run over. Very confused.

He can return kicks, line up in the slot, has the speed and elusiveness to run gadget plays.... Seems like he has a lot of the same skill set as McKenzie. Makes me wonder if there is a wide receiver out there on the street we could sign, maybe someone who has been injured, it would allow us to cut him to make room. Sometimes feel as if coaches have lost faith in McKenzie and could move on.

I think some are failing to recognize a difference between scheme and personnel. Yes, we are almost always in nickel personnel but the scheme has actually been very fluid this year. In particular, that KC game was amazing. They threw all kinds of defensive schemes at Mahomes including that crazy man/zone hybrid that accounted for the interception at that the end. In some of the analysis I've seen they've talked about how Fraser is tailoring schemes to each opponent. Now, you may disagree with the scheme they came up with but clearly their thinking was that Rodgers is a 2 time MVP and if they were going to lose it was because he recaptured his old glory. They completely shut Rodgers down until garbage time. Again, maybe they were wrong about that and it's the reason we lost, but it seems like a reasonable plan.

By "media" he meant this guy:

I feel seen.

I definitely want the Jets. If the Jets loose, it will make a difference in their record but no other real difference for their franchise. However, if the Pats lose, particularly if they get crushed like they did against the Bears, then there are going to be a lot of questions about their quarterbacks and their coach. I could see this putting the franchise in a tailspin and completely out of the picture. I like how we match up against the Jets and think we have a good chance to knock them down ourselves in 10 days, so I'd like to see Pats taken completely out of the picture.

Agreed. While I never want a loss, I think being 14-1 may be better than 15-0. If we can win out we could have home field wrapped up with a week or two left in the season. Then we don't have the whole "Do you go for history or rest starters" controversy. We could rest our starters and possibly get almost a month of rest going into the playoffs.

I found the contrast between Bills D/Chiefs and 49ers D/Chiefs to be interesting. The Bills were able to harass Mahomes throughout the game but particularly on the last interception. Late in the49ers game, the commentator mentioned that Mahomes had not been touched. Yes, they did finally get a sack and yes they had a lot of injuries (but so have we). In recent weeks the talk has been about two of the great defenses being 9ers and Bills...but the Bills D looked MUCH more impressive against Chiefs, particularly the D line. Bills have mainly played good QBs and teams. It will be interesting to see what happens when they get to play some struggling D's and quarterbacks. It really could be scary.

Actually, it was.

Agreed. I also think exhaustion caused the missed 4th down pass. Josh didn't step into the pass properly.

But if they can beat the bad Lions, Jaguars, and Bears and split with the Patriots, that will get them to 9 wins. They won't have to do a lot more to make the playoffs.

Yeah, that one really long drive killed off half our offense. I remember when Bates went out and they were tending to him, like half the offense was either kneeling or sitting and taking in water. They looked like they were all about to pass out.