GunnerBill

Roster wise they are gonna return a ton of guys though.

I'm 2/2 on predictions so far.

One thing for certain, I am FAR more confident than last time we went there in an AFC championship Game in 2020. At that time I still felt we were a level below Kansas City in terms of talent but also in terms of Josh's maturity and the overall experience and mentality of our team. This time this Bills team is battle hardened and experienced. It has been on the field with these guys and gone toe to toe with them, beaten them, lost close games to them, there is no inferiority complex when we take the field on Sunday which there was in 2020. We are going to have to play a great game to win, no question. But the Bills are ready for this. I just hope and pray it's finally out turn to get one. Crikey, no!

He is correct. Exactly what I have been saying. It is late and behind. Makes an easy throw as hard as it can possibly be.

The first line had rushed hard before the great play by Lamar they tried to rotate to get fresh bodies in and got caught in a substitution look that they probably would admit wasn't ideal. But what do you do? Keep guys in who are worn down or go to fresh legs even if they are your backups? The best players weren't out because they were cold they were out because they had rushed their assess off chasing Lamar trying to stop the drive at source.

No I am not saying that. I am saying the throw unnecessarily increased the degree of difficulty. Of course Andrews should catch it. But the ball should have been placed better.

I listen to it in podcast form a day late on my commute to the office on the London underground. So today's show will be tomorrow morning for me. The presenters are meh, the callers are hilariously bad.

He has definitely taken a step back this year. I think Knox has pretty comprehensively outplayed him in 2024.

The reason it will be on the call sheet is they have audibles based on looks. If Josh thinks he is getting an overload blitz up the middle his audible is screen outside. That won't be a choice of plays in the huddle thing that will be a basic install audible.

Add to that in the two "lost drives" in the 3rd they called two downfield play action shots and Josh came off BOTH and threw underneath. Joe Brady can call the plays. He can't go out there and run the routes for them too though. We have a receiver separation problem. Particularly downfield, particularly outside. Where I think you can legitimately ask a coaching question is why they haven't managed to fully embed a package of plays for Amari Cooper. Even if that is an occasional bolt on to your offense. Without it the Ravens just went back to the week 4 plan on defense 2nd half - we'll take the middle you can have outside if you want it.

That play was a foul by White but it was a hold or illegal contact not DPI. But the issue we have talked about ad nauseum with Keon was there again. Downfield he plays to the contact rather than seeking to use the leverage to create separation. That at this point is who he is and who has been throughout college. IT should be coachable and we just have to hope that with a full NFL offseason where he can concentrate on his craft rather than working our for combine drills and prepping interviews that the Bills can make some progress with him there.

This is just not true.

I did not spot it at the time but you are 100% right. Josh clearly kills the play and audibles.

I think we'd have done it because we have Josh freaking Allen and because, actually when you have an elite QB in that situation they have to come through. Forget context, forget supporting case, forget everything else. 1.33, 2 time outs, needing a FG to win it.... if you have an elite QB in that scenario they gotta get it done. No excuses. It was a criticism of Josh that I made back in 2021. We lost a handful of games that year where Josh had the ball last with a chance to take us down for the win and failed to get it done. It always seemed a bit frantic. I think the fact that he did it in the 13 second game (only to be let down by others) was a turning point for him in those scenarios and I've never doubted him since in those situations. He finds a way.

Agree. And it was always swayed by the fact that the only teams who ever went for 2 in non "gotta have it" 4th Quarter situations were the teams with great QBs. Because guess what, when you have Brady or Big Ben (remember the Steelers were an early adopter) your chances of executing a 2 yard play are higher than if you have EJ Manuel or Blaine Gabbert. Once the analytics moved the dial and it basically became the go to play any time you score down 8 or any time you score and have a chance to go up an additional score by getting 8 pretty much at any point in the game and every team whoever then QB began to pivot that way then that was another factor likely to drag the "make it" percentage down and affect the math.

They didn't go into prevent until the last couple of plays actually. Every time a team moves the ball on us fans shout "see we are in prevent." The play where we flushed Lamar out, were chasing him down and he threw back across his body to Wallace on a scramble drill was not prevent defense. It was a pressure look. A great Quarterback made a great play.

He has been great in both playoff games. Reminding us all why he was a 1st team all pro. Boy how we have missed him the last two regular seasons.

I thought he was competent but not much more than that. He had a poor 3rd quarter for sure. I do still think he is severely limited by the talent available to him outside. He needs to use Cooper better but the lack of separation from the outside receivers is a real concern. He and Josh have done incredibly well to make the O as productive as it has been this year with that handicap. But second half last night the Ravens definitely got the better of him and it took him some time to get to his answers.

I think the Ravens made more plays last night, but the Bills made most things difficult for them and consequently they made more mistakes too. The Bills will need to play a similar game against the Chiefs in terms of making them earn it but they will need to make more plays themselves on offense. Particularly in the passing game. The wide receivers have to separate, they have to find ways of getting Cooper involved and they also have to take advantage of Knox particularly in the middle of the field if the Chiefs wanna play McDuffie on the boundary. Until we blow out every team by three scores and go 20-0 on route to a Superbowl everything will be McDermott's fault. The problem is a lot of those people are starting from a premise that "if we lose it's because of coaching" and they then see everything that happens in the game through that prism. The Bills clearly had better gameplans than the Ravens last night and executed them better. I think the Ravens made good adjustments, they have a good coaching staff too, and on offense it arguably took Brady to long to get to his adjustments... but they pulled it out against a really good team and a really good staff. The coaches deserve credit for that.

And the Ravens were down to 1 timeout. All things considered it made sense. EDIT: also worth saying, the 2 point conversion rate is waaaay down in 2024. I always thought the more teams went for 2 the lower the success rate would be. It is at 31% for the year. Now the Ravens should have made that play, and the Bills got away with one, but another reason to feel good about going up 8.

I suspect Brady would too. They have to get open.

They had tried to sub fresh rushers in after the pass to Wallace and then kinda got caught with them in there.

I think you mean with no SUBjectivity....

I am not someone who finds reasons to criticise Lamar. Quite the opposite. I have said here countless times he is a completely deserving MVP. I think a lot of fans act like he is still the QB he was day one and he isn't his development since entering the league is every bit as impressive as Josh's. But he absolutely did NOT throw Andrews into the endzone. If Andrews catches it and doesn't twist his body he comes up short. Of course he does. That is without doubt. But it could definitely have been thrown better.

I am the opposite of a Lamar hater. But go watch it back. The throw made catching it and getting in harder than it needed to and it contributed to the drop.