HappyDays

I'm only able to follow the game on ESPN gamecast tonight and I cannot begin to imagine what that play actually looked like

That man's family tree already has more branches than the British monarchy

Those two examples you used are ancient history in NFL years. These days there is maybe one defense per year that is able to actually slow down top offenses. This year it's Houston, and they have two top 3 picks that turned into superstars. A team like us picking at the bottom of the rounds, we're never going to have a defense that talented. And just to be clear I'm not saying defense is totally meaningless even with the rules as skewed towards offense as they are today. I'm fine using 1st rounders on DL and CBs and occasionally giving out big FA contracts to legit defensive players. But you can't spend almost your entire set of offseason resources on that side of the ball, and then still get into games like yesterday. We're extremely lucky to have the only QB in the entire NFL that can win yesterday's game for the Bills, but I hate having to rely on that. There have been several games this year where we needed the offense to be the unit that made a play at the end. Same with our last two playoff losses. Sometimes Allen is able to pull it out all on his own but a lot of times he's not. So I'm happy to accept that no defensive coaching could have made any kind of difference in yesterday's game, as long as we're also accepting that no amount of investment could have made a difference either. Whereas a couple legit investments on offense absolutely could have made it easier on us. Allen's ability to have a legendary performance in a shootout should be a bonus, not the only possible win condition.

So I don't necessarily have a problem with a talented offense putting points on the scoreboard. I get it, Cincy when healthy can do that to just about anyone other than maybe Houston. The path to beating them is what we did yesterday, try to put up 40 and create a couple negative plays on defense along the way. My overarching complaint, and this is more about the roster construction than the coaching yesterday, is that we spent all this money and draft picks on the defense only for us to still end up in these shootouts. Like we're acknowledging before the game even starts that Cincy is putting up 30+ no matter what, so why do we not want offensive weapons that can keep pace in a game like that? What is the point of investing in the defense as much as we have at the expense of the offense if we're just going to throw our hands up and say "nothing more we could have done" when another offense has its way with us? Either it's true that we need to keep making big investments in the defense, or it's true that nobody can stop an elite offense when they're clicking. Those statements can't both be true. If the second statement is true (and I acknowledge that it mostly is) then the only viable solution is an offense that can match.

You're right I looked it up, his first grandchild was born in 2010 and that was also the last season he played.

Honest question - would Rivers be the first grandfather to play in the NFL?

I get it. Spent a few years with his 10 children and decided getting sandwiched by Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson sounded more appealing.

The Gesicki TD happened because a bunch of our DBs didn't know their assignments... I've seen less of this since McDermott took over play calling from Babich after the Atlanta debacle, but before that play Cam Lewis and others are frantically pointing at each other like they have no idea who is covering who. Looks like a man call to me but Taron is way out of position to be covering Gesicki and late getting to him, meanwhile Burrow had an even easier TD he could have thrown to an underneath player on the same side that nobody was covering.

One random fun wrinkle that popped up on the all-22. On Benford's CB blitz into a sack we had Ja'Marr Chase being double covered by Shaq Thompson and... Greg Rousseau 😂 Here's the play: Good aggressive play call in a moment where we really needed a negative play. Another note - Hancock is athletic but he doesn't really know what he's supposed to be doing on a lot of his plays. The TD to Higgins with Tre in coverage, Hancock inexplicably comes way downhill seemingly to cover Gesicki who is already bottled up, meanwhile Tre looks like he's expecting help deep and inside and it isn't there. Bishop on the other hand didn't give up anything as far as I could tell and had a couple nice run fills from depth.

This was the one play call that really bothered me in real time. Now you would certainly know better than me. Watching it back on the all-22 based on Tre's drop I would think it's cover 3 (or cover 6?) where he's dropping into his deep 3rd leaving no one underneath to take the air out of Iosivas' route. Easy pitch and catch from there. But are you saying Tre is playing man on Iosivas there? Because if so that's a horrible job by him, so bad that it makes the play call look silly.

I feel like I was right not to be overly concerned about the safety position when everyone else was panicking. Well I'll admit Rapp was much worse than I expected. I don't know if it was the injury or what but he went from being a decent player to an outright liability. My whole thing all along was I didn't need a superstar at the position, just no liabilities. Once Rapp was removed and we inserted a replacement level player in Poyer the whole machine clicked into place. Obviously big credit to Bishop as well who has elevated his game well beyond what I expected based on his early season play.

This is just sad. Exposing him to potentially a lifetime of complications for what a 10% chance of making the playoffs?

Are you sure? Or do you just only look at hyper nitpicky Bills all-22 reviews but don't do the same for the Bengals? Tell me what you think about this play: Looks to me like Burrow has the easy completion underneath but tries to force one over Taron's head and almost gets intercepted. Allen has the lowest air yards per attempt of his career this year. It really isn't the case anymore that he is turning down open short throws to force dangerous passes downfield.

Chiefs fans are being ridiculous talking about how Andy Reid needs to retire. I've watched every Chiefs game this year and the coaching in all three phases is still by far the best thing they have going for them. Their biggest problem is talent. Rice is a very good WR, I'd say he's a borderline #1/#2. Kelce is still good but not in his prime obviously. After that is a bunch of JAGs. The IOL is still very good but with Trey Smith's injury they lose that advantage. The OTs have been a MASH unit. The situation on defense is arguably even worse. Chris Jones can turn it on when he really needs to but he is not consistently as dominant as he was in his prime. Nobody else on the DL scares you at all. McDuffie is being forced into a full time outside CB role and he just can't handle big physical WRs. The rest of the secondary is middling. The LBs are good but that's not enough. Spagnuolo is holding that thing together almost entirely on his own. Oh and the one thing nobody wants to talk about... Mahomes has played below his previously elite standard for the past three years. I thought he would bounce back this year but he really hasn't. He misses a ton of wide open deep throws which takes TDs off the board. His on schedule passes are too frequently off target or poorly timed. The last INT last night where everyone is clowning on Kelce, this is the picture at the catch point: That is not really a clean drop, that is poor ball placement. It happens to every QB but it's been a bigger problem with Mahomes than anybody talks about. He can still make magic happen with his legs but that isn't sustainable over the course of an entire game, and he no longer has a defense that can keep the opponent down long enough for Mahomes to get into a groove. I don't know what Chiefs fans are watching but the coaching is elevating a mediocre roster and inconsistent QB play, not the other way around.

Sean Payton would absolutely do that. Bills can do our part by beating New England next week which opens the path for Denver to have the #1 seed clinched before week 18. They win the tiebreaker over New England for common opponents (because NE lost to the Raiders) so they just need to be 1 game ahead heading into week 18 and they have it clinched.

It's not over but they have to win out and get some help. They've lost 4 of their last 5... It's likely they'll slip up in 1 of their remaining 4 games. Titans and Raiders are probably automatic wins. Broncos and Chargers I think they will split. Even if they do manage to run the table they need the Chargers to go 2-2 at best against Eagles, Cowboys, Texans, Broncos. Broncos may rest starters in week 18 giving LA an automatic win. So there is a LOT that KC needs to go right.

True but did you see him limp? What a competitor.

Mahomes was intimidated and nervous meeting a top 5 QB

It's even worse than it looked live: But somehow the broadcast doesn't even mention it. Everyone on Twitter talking about how Mahomes' team let him down today and Kelce ended their season. Oh well. KC will miss the playoffs because Mahomes didn't make enough plays to get them there, no matter what the narrative becomes that's the truth.

He's still an elite playmaker off schedule but his on schedule accuracy and decision making has noticeably fallen off. It's weird that he can hit ridiculous throws while floating horizontally or running full speed to his left, but two normal NFL throws in a row he is behind the target with no pressure affecting the throw.

By the way both of those "drops" were thrown behind Kelce. We won't ever bring that up though

Okay that is the absolute funniest way the Chiefs season could end 😂

Love how he starts talking about Drue Tranquil's "relentlessness" as if that had anything to do with Stroud air mailing a wide open WR

There's your self appointed top 5 QB