The Frankish Reich

I guess they managed to throw for 325 yards and put up 38 points in the AFC championship game last year using only the left 50% of the field. https://www.espn.com/nfl/boxscore/_/gameId/401220401 Seriously though: the way KC's offense is designed, and given the speed Tyreek has and the elite ability of Kelce at TE, and the ability of Mahomes to extend plays and make impossible throws, even a traditionally superb cover guy like Tre White isn't gonna stop that passing game.

OK, as the annoying Glass Half Full guy ... Turn the clock back about a decade. The concussion crisis was real and the NFL's bad faith denial of it was threatening the league. https://grantland.com/features/cte-concussion-crisis-economic-look-end-football/ Turn the clock back just a year. We know COVID protocols took away the in-person fan experience, but I don't think anyone could have expected it to kill TV ratings as well: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradadgate/2021/01/08/in-2020-the-audience-of-nfl-regular-season-games-dropped/?sh=28aac747482e And now? Well, all is good. It took way too long, but the concussion avoidance/safety protocols are working. When is the last time you saw a defensive back launch himself into a receiver? Or even deliberately go helmet-to-helmet? The bad (some really bad) concussions we've seen lately are more from tall, athletic players diving for a ball and landing on their heads. This isn't good, but it's something that can happen in soccer (and without a helmet). And QBs - the marquee entertainment talent out there - are being protected like never before and playing into their late 30s (and yes, 40s unfortunately) at extremely high levels. Ratings have recovered: https://www.si.com/nfl/ravens/news/nfl-has-best-viewership-ratings-since-2015#:~:text=The 2021 NFL regular season,more than 10% from 2020. Scoring is up. And it's staying up. Hard core fans profess a love of 3 yards and a cloud of dust football. They actually enjoy a great 42-36 game with 700 yards passing even more. We've seen scoring blips before that eventually petered out as defenses adjusted. Air Coryell and followers (Dolphins) in the late 70s/early 80s. The perfected West Coast Offense of the Niners in the 80s. Sam Wyche's Bengals and the K-Gun Bills of the late 80s/early 90s. The Greatest Show on Turf Rams of the turn of the millennium. Peyton Manning's Broncos from 2012-14. And most recently the speed/spread offenses of these same Chiefs and McVay's Rams just a few years ago (the classic 2018 54-51 shootout). The Bills and the Chiefs 2.0 are the leaders of the newest wave of unstoppable offenses. It's fantastic entertainment. I was getting texts from non-football fans last night watching the game. They would never watch a 9-6 defensive battle of "real" football. It's college football without the college corruption. It's fun. And we're in the thick of it this time. The entire NFL is trying to copy us. And I suspect the NFL won't let loose enforcement of the rules bring back the return of defense-oriented running game football. They know where their bread is buttered. This was the best weekend of football ever. We're not going anywhere and neither are the Chiefs. I could grow to hate them the way I hated the Patriots. But I don't think so. Mahomes vs. Allen has more the look of the great matchups of those other high-scoring watermarks of the past decades like Fouts-Marino. I know it's officially part of the Bills fan's DNA to hate our best competitors but I can't hate this one. I just want to see more of it. Round 1: Chiefs by Knockout. Round 2: Chiefs by Split Decision (aided by antiquated OT rules). Round 3 will be ours. Thanks to all the Bills players and coaches for a fantastically entertaining season. And Go Bills 2022!

That is just ... astounding.

That was obvious. And his speed still killed us. Sure, you took away the long bomb to Tyreek. That just means Reid will run those crossing routes where Tyreek catches it 10 yards downfield, breaks a tackle (as he always does) and gains 30 yards anyway. Or more. The Bills were playing KC the way teams (including us) beat them in the first half of the season - take away the long throws, make them beat you by matriculating the ball down the field. Problem is that KC adjusted to those tactics, while Frazier and Co failed to adjust to what KC is now doing.

True. When Beane sat on his hands at the trade deadline I thought "what if one key acquisition would be enough to pull off a victory in just one playoff game." And yes, it is very possible that someone like Von could've made the difference. One sack, one forced fumble, one play where Mahomes would've had to throw it away to avoid a sack instead of scrambling around until someone came open ... the margin was really that slim last night.

Well, if you thought he was a little too happy about KC advancing, I get it. But again - if this was saying goodbye to old friends, I totally get it. So let's give him a pass until we learn the context ...

Morse spent an awful lot of time after the game congratulating his former KC teammates and coaches. It certainly had the look of equal parts congratulations and goodbye. It's always hard to project our feelings on these players who (let's be honest) aren't our personal friends. But having said that, Morse just seems like an unusually fine and decent man as well as a true professional on the field. Good luck to him wherever the future may hold for him.

That's what hurts. The way the QBs/offenses were playing it was probably an 80% chance that the team that wins the coin flip wins the game. It's awful to see an entire season end that way. And it's even worse to see one of the great games in NFL history end that way.

Bend but don't break works beautifully over the course of a 17 game season where you are trying to get to 11 or 12 and to win a division. It doesn't really work in the in-game situation when you absolutely have to prevent the opponent from gaining 35 yards in less than 13 seconds when they have 3 timeouts. All they needed was for us to bend. And oh boy, did Leslie ever bend over. Leslie needs to learn that there's no shame in adjusting your tactics to fit the situation. As Billy Beane said in Moneyball - "My sh!t doesn't work in the playoffs."

If we just had one more full quarter I swear that Singletary up the middle would have broken it for 80 yards.

Yeah. In general, I think the team that wins the flip only has a relatively slight advantage - they win something like 53%. But with the offenses cooking like they were in the second half tonight, I would have to say winning the flip gives you an enormous advantage - maybe more like an 80% chance. We have OT in the regular season just because fans hate tie games so it doesn't really matter that much. But in the playoffs? No. Each team needs to be given at least one possession. We don't want teams advancing by coin flip. And that would add a whole new interesting dimension to OT. Does the team that scores first go for 2? If not, does the team behind by 7 go for 2 if they score? That kind of stuff is interesting ... sudden death deprives the game of that.

You mean I can't start a Spencer Brown Is Trash After All thread?

True. It would have been different if KC had no timeouts. They had all 3! So they played it perfectly. A 19 yard gain to the 44. Then about 15 more would do it. It was not a situation to lay back in a deep zone. That would have been the situation if they had no timeouts, or maybe even just one left. That initial 19 yard gain had me saying "that's it ... we're going to OT and whoever wins the coin flip wins the game." Neither offense could be stopped at the end.

Correct. The blocking of the special teams unit was atrocious. And it seems that we're not the only Great Lakes team that needs a dome.

Agreed. I started out these playoffs with an "anyone but Tampa" perspective, but if we manage to make it to the SB I think I'd prefer Tampa again. The Rams are just plain loaded and relatively healthy too.

I agree. But that's what we'll all say today. If on the evening of Feb 13 the Rams are hoisting the trophy and Bills fans have tuned out (not caring about whether the Chiefs or the Rams win), everyone will act as if it's worth mortgaging the future to get that one elusive SB win.

As was said about Paul Ryan (a little unfairly in my opinion): Rodgers is a dumb person's idea of a smart person. Actually, that applies even more to his buddy Joe Rogan.

It's fun (unless it's the Bills of course) to see these supposed manly cold weather beasts fall to their warm weather wimpy opponents.

Funny, but given the weather and Gold's limited range, wasnt there a guy back at the goal line to return a short kick?

He's immunized against playoff success

That block never would have happened to Matt Haack because he would've dropped the long snap.

Never! In the great "who deserves more credit, Brady or Belichick?' derby, it's now Brady ahead by a Secretariat at the Belmont type lead. And it gets worse if, heaven forbid, Brady gets another ring. Egotist that he is, he's gonna have one more big move left with Kraft's manipulations before he hangs it up.

And that's a big takeaway from the Wild Card round. The NFC East is still garbage. The Eagles turned in a truly pathetic performance, and the Cowboys game proved that the 3rd best team in the NFC West (well, in retrospect the 2nd best team in the NFC West) is at a minimum on an even footing with them.

Yeah, that was weird. I guess if LA is held to a FG the rest of the game and the Cards make 3 TDs/2-point conversions it's 31-24. But still, that's overthinking it a bit.

Kyler looks a little scared out there. Meanwhile Matt "Never Won a Playoff Game" Stafford seems completely in control.