The Frankish Reich

I thought it was a good draft at the time. But you're right: it was definitely a need-based draft. The draft along with the signing of Von signified that this was a GM who thought one impact player, a few good athletes to phase into playing time, and some vet fillers on the lines would be sufficient to get the team over the top. They were wrong.

A Dorsey kind of play call.

I had made the same comparison. Burrow is Brady, or maybe Peyton. You saw him reading defenses expertly today, distributing the ball, moving well in the pocket to avoid the minimal pressure he got. He is absolutely right there with Allen and Mahomes. Meanwhile, Allen is Aaron Rodgers, or maybe Brett Favre. Nothing wrong with that. His game just isn't as precise, as disciplined as Burrow's. Or maybe he's the young Elway, still waiting for the right coach/OC to put in a system where he doesn't have to do it all by himself. No, I wouldn't swap Allen for Burrow. But I have to admit ... there is something to this^

Maybe a punt returner/speed/gadget play guy too? I mean, all we have available right now are McKenzie/Hines/Shakir/Cook

Partially agree. Frazier's scheme is McD's scheme. Frazier may move on, but I wouldn't expect McD to do something entirely different with a new DC

It's sure looking like that. Not that Knox was bad, but just because that money needed to be committed to more pressing concerns.

Watching extra points is fun again! I now wait an additional 30 seconds before hitting the bathroom after a Cowboys TD.

Kills me watching Isaiah Pacheco become KC's feature back while we try in vain to make James Cook more than a change of pace back.

Right. Cincy averaged 26.1 ppg this season. They scored 27 We averaged 28.4. We scored 10. Leslie Frazier Fail and all that ... I think the this tells you what really went wrong.

He seems to be part of the process of making it to the AFCG

I'm not so sure. Last year ended with the KC heartbreaker. But overall, it felt like a season of a great move forward, including some ridiculously entertaining games. This season felt more like a team trying to hang around for one last big opportunity. To be honest, it never felt like a Super Bowl caliber team to me after Von went down.

Do we also need a RB who drops his girlfriend with a right cross to the head?

And that's not by accident. On defense, it is clearly the Frazier/McD concept - speed, closing on the ball, versatility are all valued over physical strength. I'm not criticizing it - it's worked really well overall - it's just a fact. It's a little less obvious on offense, but still there. Doing things like drafting and very quickly moving in Spencer Brown at RT for example. He's not a big lower body/leverage type. He's a tall slender guy who's trying to pump himself up into a 300 pounder. And overall the emphasis has always been more toward good pass blockers than physical/run game road graders of the Wyatt Teller type. Repeat: Again, not necessarily a criticism - it's worked really well overall! - it's just a fact.

In the final analysis (like, right now), the failure to upgrade the O line was the overwhelmingly biggest mistake this past offseason. I don't know how they do it now with little in the way of cap space and even less in the way of high draft picks.

Ouch. True, but ... ouch.

Not an excuse. The defense played like crap. But would we beat KC scoring 10 points? Offenses like the Bengals and Chiefs are never going to be held under about 24. So we lose this one even if Frazier hold them to 20.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but amidst all this Leslie Frazier bashing, it appears that we have scored … 10 points.

When they punted on 4th and 2 I said they’ll get the ball back down 21 with 10 minutes left. I was wrong. There’ll be 11 minutes left.

Remember Billy Beane in Moneyball? “My sh!^ doesn’t work in the playoffs.” We have a team that will win 13 games a year no problem. But one that is not sufficiently adaptable to win consistently in the playoffs. And Burrow = Brady, Allen = Rodgers. Which is fine, but which leaves you with one ring vs half a dozen.

Cincinnati is the better team. There. I said it.

Kelce is a big TE but not the biggest. He's certainly not the fastest. So we watch him and say, "how does he keep getting open/making big plays?" Basketball fans see Nikola Jokic and say "how does that slow-footed Serbian who can't jump keep winning MVPs?" Kelce is just plain football-smart in the way Jokic is basketball-smart. They see the field/court better than anyone else. We saw that in the KC game last year where he basically told Mahomes where he'd be with the certainty that he'd be open. Meanwhile, freak of nature huge/fast athletes like Noah Fant remain consistently mediocre. Sometimes you're just the best at playing your position.

Yeah. Kelce is just pretty damn good at finding/creating that open space too.

Concussion. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/playoffs/2021/01/17/chiefs-overcome-injury-patrick-mahomes-beat-browns-nfl-playoffs/4199854001/

Look, Santos can’t be removed from Congress. There’s no authority for that. We get it. But his party doesn’t need to treat him like a regular old candidate who puffed up his own credentials. I guess they can continue to count on him voting the party line, but he doesn’t need to have committee assignments, and he really shouldn’t have anyone defending him or comparing his preposterous (really, compulsive) lying to that of the garden variety politician. Trump, Biden, Bill Clinton all told whoppers, but this guy is a whole different animal. A difference of kind, not of degree. A complete fool who ought to be shunned by all.

Agreed. No offense taken. I’m just defending that Ringer nerd who was effusive in his praise of Allen and Dorsey but is being ripped here for saying a slightly more conservative Allen (given the game situation) could be even better … Bills fans have a weird defensiveness about ANY type of criticism of their heroes. That’s what 20 years of utter futility did to us.