HappyDays

TE is a position where guys come out of nowhere. Kittle for example was a 5th rounder. Very difficult position to project to the pros and Hawes just seems like a natural. I think catching that seam against Baltimore was huge for his confidence. Now he knows he can make tough catches through contact against the most physical secondary in the NFL which means he can do it against anyone. He isn't quick enough to become a consistent separator but if he can develop a feel for working open in zone and an ability to make tough catches in traffic, that along with his elite blocking could make him a potential impact TE2.

FWIW PFF had him as our top offensive player in both games. Gave him a 93.7 grade against the Ravens and an 85.3 against the Jets. By their metrics those are both considered elite grades. Played at Yale and Georgia Tech, but from day one is immediately dominating NFL players. The guy was created in a lab to do this one very niche job.

He's still seeing pineapples every time he closes his eyes

Even though it's probably technically better for the Bills if the Raiders win this one, I'm rooting for the Chargers to establish a 3 game lead over the Chiefs. Getting them to be a wildcard team would be huge.

I was thinking they should have just taken a knee, wasn't worth the risk of something going wrong and Houston returning the ball for 2 points.

Awesome game from Baker. Houston's defense is relentless and he just kept putting the team on his back in every big moment.

Like I said, great call not to use the TO to run the clock all the way down. Never doubted it.

Why the hell did they not use a TO?? That is just crazy.

Ah the rookie heard footsteps

Scoring that quickly is a gift to TB. 2 minutes and 4 downs and 3 TOs. Your offense has done nothing in this half. Find a way to win.

Man Stroud has really been off

Baker's offense needs him to make a play and he does. That's where Stroud is lagging behind the top 10 right now.

Stroud is just not quite good enough to overcome their personnel issues. A tad off on 3rd down, way overthrown to no man's land on 4th down. If he wants to be talked about as a tier 2 QB let alone tier 1 he needs to make those plays.

Doubt it is a serious injury. He was on the sidelines with his helmet on through the 2nd half. If it was really serious he would have been in the locker room. That being said we'll almost certainly keep him out on a short week, as we should. We really just need to go undefeated against our clearly inferior opponents and win any 1 of KC/Philly/TB. If we do that we'll probably have the #1 seed locked up in week 18. Rest all the starters for two weeks and for the first time ever enter the playoffs with a totally healthy defense and only 2 wins to get to the Super Bowl. If we end up in a seeding dogfight down the stretch and end up losing a defensive player or two in the wildcard we'll have no one to blame but ourselves. Stay focused and don't drop any stupid games.

What I'm learning watching this game is Houston's D is strong on the edges but you can gash them up the middle.

Bills 30 Dolphins 17 Thursday night games can be weird and I'm sure the Miami players want to show the world they aren't the worst team in the NFL. But their roster deficiencies are just too much to overcome and the locker room dynamics are past the point of no return. Mike McDaniel has totally lost control of his team. If we get up 2 scores in this one I think Miami will pack it in and we can sit out a good chunk of the 4th quarter for the second game in a row.

Funny enough I've been asking myself over the past few years what it would be like to have an elite pass rusher. Von showed us a glimpse before his injury, but other than that we have been lacking this major component of the championship formula that other contenders have had. Well, Bosa's performance in this game showed me what it's like. Beyond his on paper production which itself was eye popping, his constant disruption whether it got home or not was getting in Fields' head and made him completely ineffective. There were flashes of it in week 1 and now we've gotten the full vision. It's been a long time since I could say a Bills player other than Allen took over a game and made it effectively impossible for the opponent to stay in it. Bosa and Oliver look like they could be a major problem this year if they can just stay healthy together. I'm desperately hoping we lock up the #1 seed early so we can let them rest and have them full steam ahead entering the playoffs. Those guys wreaking havoc around the QB could be the missing element we need to finally get over the hump.

Mahomes isn't Brady and Reid isn't Belichick so that's where that comparison ends.

Last time they got blown out in the Super Bowl they had a down year the following year. Mahomes in particular - that year he had a stretch of games where he played like absolute garbage and then single handedly gave away the AFCCG to Cincy. I wondered before the season if something similar might happen this year. Not going to count them out by any means, and they'll be better when Rashee Rice comes back, but they have some pretty fundamental issues on both sides of the ball. They have no run game, weak pass catching group, the IOL has taken a step back. On defense they have one better than JAG secondary player and a middling front four. The one thing saving them from total dysfunction is they still have the best all around coaching staff and Mahomes has made some magic happen. But Mahomes' on schedule play has been below his standard this year. I've seen him miss way too many throws that he usually hits. He's so good escaping the pocket and making something happen off schedule that he's been able to get away with it to some extent, but over the course of an entire game it isn't a sustainable style of play. And this year they don't have the clutch defense that was making up for some of the offensive struggles last year.

You're drawing the wrong conclusion from that comparison IMO.

Here's a black and white example of the difference between Davis and Cook: I mean it's pretty much the exact same offensive and defensive play call on each attempt. Davis gets stuffed on his attempt, Cook scores a 44 yard TD on his. The people that said Davis could replicate Cook's production in this offense were just flat out wrong. So are the people that said Cook's TD production last year was a fluke. Okay maybe a bit early to take a victory lap on that but for right now he is definitely on track to meet or exceed his 16 rushing TDs from last year.

He's only played in 78 games. Allen by comparison had played in 126. Burrow tore his ACL in his rookie season. I think we can just say that he's injury prone and there's nothing more to it. Of course Cincy should be aware of that and build the team accordingly moving forward from here. Burrow needs elite pass protection and a scheme that gets the ball out of his hands fast.

On one hand I understand this take. No question they have not done a good job of finding OL talent. But also this is the NFL... QBs are going to take hits. Allen and Mahomes have had their share of poor OL play over the years and they haven't missed chunks of their career. The tackle that he got hurt on yesterday was as routine as it gets, he was trying to step up in the pocket and got tackled by his ankles. Watching it back you wouldn't think that will end up a 3+ month injury. Burrow unfortunately is just injury prone and short of building the greatest OL of all time it feels inevitable that any random hit he takes over the course of a game will knock him out for a while. This will be the 3rd season out of 6 that he hasn't been able to finish. Half of his career...

I think Brady is trying to make the best of an underwhelming group of pass catchers. The pass protection also has not been as strong as it was last year. If anyone is expecting a bombs away offense that just isn't realistic. Our offense is built to run the ball, control clock, and wear down the opposing defense so we can open it up in the 4th quarter if we need to.