fergie's ire

The strange thing is that he was listed as having an injured shoulder UNTIL last week. I heard one of the announcers say that Josh had been frustrated that he had been missing much more than he used to this year. Seems the shoulder WAS bothering him but the implication was that it is feeling better now. After the game, Josh apparently said that the ball didn't feel right in his hand and was coming out strangely. Not sure what that is about. Maybe they were underinflated? 😃

They should be thinking that way because it's likely going to be the case. I don't like the chances of Jaguars losing to Titans (even without Lawrence) or the Steelers losing to the Ravens backups.

I heard that in his press conference Josh even said that the ball didn't feel right in his hand for the Patriots game. He didn't even seem to know why but he knew the ball wasn't coming out right and that he was off. Even completed passes were often a bit off target like the pass that was behind Shakir.

Dolphins may have just lost Chubb who was still playing down 30.

Yeah, I think it should be Texans and Colts both lose AND either Steelers or Bengals lose.

I agree. I point back to the point in the season where Diggs mysteriously showed up on the injury report but announced he would still play. We never heard much about the injury and it seem to disappear as quickly as it showed up in reports. I wonder if he could be injured or banged up enough that it impacts his play and that rather than have him push through it, they have decided to limit his play. Remember the last few years, Diggs has not looked like himself when the playoffs came. Maybe they are hoping that by limiting him they can get him right at just the right time.

You might be right. What I find comforting is that Brady seems to have a much better ability to figure out in-game what DOES work and goes with that. I remember seeing a breakdown of his first game as OC and there were a few unsuccessful plays in the first drive. They were screens or quick hitters to Diggs, if I remember correctly. Anyway, what the breakdown showed is that these failed plays actually exposed what the defense was doing and then on the drives after that Brady went after what the defense was doing. I've heard Josh say a few times that he doesn't concern himself with what a defense does that if the Bills play their game nobody should be able to stop it so why change based on the defense. I know he said it during the controversial "I don't watch that much film" interview. Since Brady has taken over as OC it makes me wonder if that attitude was actually coming from Dorsey and that Josh was parroting what his OC. Wherever it came from, I'm glad to be rid of the "we're going to do what we're going to do and you can't stop us" arrogance.

Not sure if anyone else mentioned it, but nice job on the Latin plural. Well done, sir.

Oh I know. Even though we needed that win, and I love seeing the Cowboys embarrassed, I think my favorite part of that game was that the crowd noise pretty much drowned out the here we go. I told my wife, "It's going to be awful listening to this for 3 hours" but then she said, "I don't hear it." It was beautiful.

Steelers play the Seahawks who are fighting for a playoff and Bengals are playing an increasingly desperate Chiefs team. Jaguars are reeling but play the Panthers. Still, if 2 of those three games go our way AND we beat the Patriots, that means we would have a playoff spot locked up next weekend. That would be nice.

And 3 if the Ravens lose their first playoff game....something we have seen before. I was thinking exactly the same thing. Wish there was some way we could can convince the Ravens to sit Lamar tonight.

Angel Hernandez would like a word.

It is great how things are shaping up for the wildcard, but I think we are all hoping for a phins loss next week to open up the chance to win the division. If that happens, the other thing this weekend did for us was make the 2 seed a real possibility. If we win the division, all we need is the Chiefs to lose one more game. In years past I would say a loss to a team like the Raiders or Bengals would be a long shot, but this year...? Seems like it could certainly happen.

I actually felt like this was the game where Brady made the greatest difference. We've seen games where Josh and the offense seem off. However, in past games, they would seem to press and try to make the hero plays to spark things. There was some of that in this game with success (to Davis) and failure (to Diggs), but the key drive to me was the one to take the lead in the first half. They had quite a few runs and some short passes and it just seemed like a calming "we're in control" drive that changed the mood of the game. It felt like they were trying to do that again with an easy first down in the second half drive before the penalty disasters (tripping and holding). The ability to catch their breath and calmly impose their will because they are the better team is something that seemed lacking in the past.

Used to be on ESPN. Hosted "His and Hers" with Jamele Hill and then those two hosted "The Six."

Yeah, it's been talked about how Parsons was often left unblocked. Part of the reason was that he was really worried Allen would keep. Saw one replay where Josh hands the ball off to Cooks running to his left, and Allen steps right as if he still has the ball. You can see Parsons take a wrong step to his left to chase Allen and by the time he starts moving in the right direction, Cooks is long gone.

I hope you're right, but I have a bad feeling they'll crush the Cowboys. I agree they are a fraud in the sense that they are good or even very good...but not as good as their record suggests. That said, I just feel like the Cowboys weaknesses are run defense and an inability to adjust when schemed against. Dolphins have a really good run offense and a coach known for his schemes. Seems like a bad matchup for the Cowboys.

Or sometimes he dives at a quarterback who is five yards away and running away from him and belly flops his way onto IR.

True, but the colts and Texans play each other so it is only possible for 3 of them to get to 11 wins. So, we the simplest way is we just need the Bengals to lose and if we win out we are in. Other possibilities are if Miami loses a game and we win the division or if Cleveland loses 2....or if the team that wins the Colts/Texans game loses a game before this. Also, need to put Jaguars in the mix. If they lose one more they'll have 7 losses which means the Colts/Texans winner gets the wild card (taking them out of the division). I agree that we really want to have 11 wins, even if Miami wins the next two so that doesn't win us the division...but there are still a LOT of permutations.

Side note. Nice Wegman's Bills Pilsner of yore. Used to have a couple of these but they didn't survive all my moves back in the day.

Yeah, my favorite example of them scheming against a pass rusher was a couple years ago in the Daboll era when they eliminated Judon's impact. Early in the game they chipped him with the TE and had Josh run wide. Josh had some huge runs that way so later in the game Judon would take a couple steps backwards at the snap. Love when Josh and scheme can get a pass rusher moving backward and taking himself out of the play. On Sunday, they would run away from Parsons but he was very aware of Josh...had to worry about rushing him or chasing him if he ran...while the play was sweeping to the other side. You're right...Josh plus scheme, and it's something that was largely missing with Dorsey.

Orlovsky pointed out that most of the time the Bills just left Parsons unblocked. We'd run the other way and he'd get lost in the wash.

I haven't read through all of this to see if it's been posted but the simplest breakdown seems to be the Bills are in if they win out and either the Jaguars OR Bengals lose at least one game, OR if the Dolphins lose at least one of the next two. In the last case the Bills win the division AND if the Chiefs and Jaguars both lose one more game in addition to the Dolphins losing one of the next two, PLUS the Colts and Texans each losing at least one more, the Bills would get the 2 seed. Doesn't seem likely the Chiefs would lose one of the games they have left but it's certainly very possible.

I could see him practicing this week, getting some minor action next week against the Patriots, and then ready to have more meaningful participation by the phins game. That would seem to be an ideal scenario.

Yeah, I am not sure what to make of the Dolphins. Looking forward to see if the Fraud Bowl tells us anything this weekend...and maybe puts Bills in control of their path to the playoffs. Just not sure if I can count on the Cowboys stopping Mostert and Achane.