fergie's ire

Thank you. Between college and pro I have watched a lot of football games the last few weeks and it was driving me crazy where I saw that.

There was a game recently...maybe in the college football playoffs where this happened. A kickoff rolled to a complete stop about the five yard line and about 2 yards in bound. The returner laid down on his stomach with his feet out of bounds and touched the ball. It was therefore an illegal kick out of bounds and they got the ball out at the 40. Found a link to this example by the Packers a few years back. https://www.sbnation.com/2016/9/25/13049606/packers-kick-return-ty-montgomery-randall-cobb

On the interference call it seemed very similar to the contact against Dalton Kincaid in the end zone. Yes, he hits Kincaid early but it was close and clearly going for the ball. I'd also need to have a closer look but, to me, it didn't look like the Bills defender did actually pull the receiver. Yes, his hand is around him but seems to be resting on the receiver rather than grabbing him...which DBs will do. But again, either way, it was close and seemed consistent with the way refs were calling it.

Did we have Lamar Jackson's number or Greg Roman's? That's the concern for me. This offense looks different.

It's interesting that in the same market the Florida Panthers had a high flying offense that was super exciting to watch....during the regular season. But against good teams, especially in the playoffs, they struggled. So, they took a President's Trophy winning team and blew it up....fired the coach traded away a star player and completely changed how they played. People thought they were insane. They struggled in the regular season, barely made the playoffs, and then made the Stanley Cup final. Will Miami do something like that? No chance. Should they? Maybe. Unless they can find a way for this offense to win against good teams they could end up a great regular season team that never goes anywhere.

a rain storm vs a thunderstorm?

Deshaunless Bowl here we go.

Yeah, and not coincidentally, they have looked like a much better team those last three weeks. They looked like one of the worst teams in the league the three weeks before that (crushed by the Colts, beaten by Patriots and Cardinals). They're a really weird team in a weird NFL year.

If it does snow, I think that will be a situation where it'll be much better to have Brady instead of Dorsey as OC. Over the last year or so, and specifically in the "I don't watch that much film" quote, I've heard Allen said that they don't want to focus on what the other team does. The Bills offense should just impose its will regardless of what the D is doing. Based on what I've seen on the field, I'm guessing that came from Dorsey and Allen was repeating it. Dorsey seems much more willing to adjust based on the situation (eg, running the ball a million times because Dallas can't stop it). I remember after the wildcard game last year, a Bengals player was mocking the Bills offense because they were running routes that are hard to run in the snow. Keep it simple in the snow. It's hard to run a double move, but it's hard to defend just a simple in cut because the offense player knows where he is going and doesn't have to try and cut as abruptly. As someone pointed out, the Kelly Bills used to score a ton in snowy games. Offense can be really effective. The Bengal's point was that everyone knows the kind of routes you need to run on snow and the Bills just refused to run them. That seems very Dorsey-esque to me.

Ah, but you left out the important part of the definition that came after "ails:" but before "Trouble or afflict" and that would be "verb." You can rectify a mistake...but you can't rectify a mistook.

Rectify our ales? Too warm? Head too foamy?

Recap? Quotes? For those of us who may have just cancelled Max.

To me, the BEST outcome is KC wins so that Mahomes finally has to play on the road and comes to Buffalo and gets spanked. The WORST outcome is KC wins, Mahomes goes on the road and ends that narrative by beating the Bills. So, I'm torn.

Yeah, I'm hoping someone does a careful breakdown of him on the all 22. I noticed him make some plays and never noticed him completely lost or pushed around so it seemed like he did well, but I did not isolate him. I'm hoping someone else will...and maybe Van Demark and Dane Jackson as well.

I saw Josh on the sideline right after the interception waving his hand across his face. At first I thought he was saying he didn't see very well because a hand was in his face but then I remembered I've seen him make that motion before when saying he wants the receiver to cut across the face of the defender. Right as he was getting ready to throw the ball, Davis was standing next to Apple. I think Josh anticipated that Davis would step in front of him and kind of box him out. Instead, Davis ran away from him and thus away from where Josh threw the ball.

Very similar to a couple of things I heard them talk about on the Buffalo Plus postgame show. Apparently when Dawkins was bleeding all over himself the training staff told him he had to go into the locker room. He told them to wait and he looked at Van Demark and asked, "Are you okay?" Van Demark nodded and said, "I'm okay. I got this" and only then did Dawkins agree to the locker room. Also, after the Bills called the timeout on that last 4th and 1 before they went for it, apparently the leaders of the secondary (Hyde, Poyer, Taron) were out patting on the offense telling them they had it (and don't worry if you don't). The Buffalo Plus crew said they've been on a lot of NFL fields and you just don't see that. Seems like these players love each other and are having fun again...and man I love this team when they are like that. It's as if this year has been a reversal of last year when the vibe started out great and went downhill.

He looks angry to me.

Yeah. I had zero (or near zero) faith in Tennessee. It seems like for the last 6 weeks a Titans win would help us...and every week I check in with Red Zone Channel and I think "Great. Tennessee is winning" and then they would rapidly implode somewhere along the way. It even happened against the Dolphins but they managed to un-implode.

Seriously. Not only this game but the game against the Dolphins as well. I think One Bills Drive should send a truckload of wings to Tennessee the way they did for Cincinnati when the drought was ended.

Oh, I get it. And I think it is closer but might still be a bit optimistic. Dolphins are banged up, I get it...and Ravens SHOULD be a much better team...and Jags have been struggling. Still, I am optimistic...but very cautiously so. In another post I responded to where I got my numbers which are not hard quantifiable numbers like your own. I would put it this way. 95% means a virtual certainty. Your 80% would translate as very likely to me. I think 60 or even 66% translates as likely, but not VERY likely which is how I feel their chances are.

No hard calculations...just a feel. But probably would put it at 57% to beat dolphins and about 3% for Steelers or Jags to lose. Just don't have any faith that the latter will happen.

I find that to be optimistic....probably 60% is about right. I do think they'll make it and I think they'll beat Miami, but beating a playoff team on the road can't be super high odds and I think there's little chance Steelers or Jaguars lose. The NYT calculator probably considers likelihood of Ravens beating Steelers based on their past performances but probably doesn't take into account that Ravens have clinched and won't play many of their starters.

The last two weeks he has had ratings of 84 and 101. Not awful, but not revenge-y. Very Tannehillesque.

And yet he leads the NFL in air yards. Those 10% must be REALLY long throws. https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/highest-qb-air-yards-per-throw

Wasn't there a guy who used to play DE for the Bills years ago named Bruce something who was pretty good? Nope. Must be my imagination because I just checked and no such player ever existed. Weird.