HappyDays

My brain is rooting for KC but my heart wants to see KC get stomped. This is the rare game where either outcome will make me happy.

If you assume a 50% chance of winning any given playoff game, having 1 less game doubles your chances of winning the Super Bowl. I would say that is a pretty big deal.

I expect the Bills will just roll with Sweeney and Morris while Knox heals. We have a bye week followed by an easy slate of games and a broken hand doesn't take too long to heal. No need to make a panic move. I would love to get a legit pass catching RB like Barkley or Sanders. That is the last piece this offense is missing to become unstoppable. Yeah our run blocking is mediocre but also our RBs are slow. Imagine our offense with RB swing passes and screens that have a chance of gaining good yardage. I'm meh on trading for a guard. Norwell isn't going anywhere, Urban Meyer coached him at Ohio State and loves him.

I think just about all of the smoke comes from Houston which means I don't trust it. There's no reason for Miami to want these rumors to keep popping up. The players, Tua in particular, can see it. The fans can see it which gets their hopes (or disgust levels) up. It puts too much pressure on the organization. So I don't really believe that anyone in Miami has validated whatever source is putting this out there. I'm guessing Houston or maybe Watson's agent is pushing hard to make a team desperate enough to trade for him before the deadline.

Top 5 grades: 1) Diggs (A-) 2) Allen (B+) 3) Hughes (B+) 4) Dawkins (B+) 5) Johnson (B+) Bottom 5 grades (worst to 5th worst): 1) Milano (C-) 2) Wallace (C) 3) Edmunds (C) 4) Singletary (C) 5) Poyer (C+)

I thought he showed patience in the Titans game until that drive. He did check it down to Moss or Knox a few times. That is the perplexing part about that drive, of all the drives that game that one was begging for methodical passes all the way down the field. Part of the problem is those long methodical drives don't often turn into TDs for us because of our red zone issues so I understand why he is trying to score from further out. That just wasn't the drive to do it. To be fair though that first play was definitely a shot play. Allen could have and should have moved off the deep read earlier... but why was that the first read to begin with? I have criticized Daboll for failing to understand the flow of the game when calling plays, that is an example of what I means. You know the Titans offense is scoring at will and that the best chance of winning the game is a drive that takes 5 minutes off the clock and puts points on the board. You know you have a QB that has never seen a deep pass he doesn't like. You know the Titans are playing deep zones and that we don't have a true deep threat at receiver. So why call a shot play in that scenario?

It is both. There was one swing pass to Moss yesterday where I thought it was about to go for a big gain because he had a ton of space in front of him. Instead he took too long to accelerate and they stopped him for I think no gain. I think RB swing passes could be a huge part of this offense given how defenses are playing us, but Moss and Singletary are not ideal swing pass RBs. Sanders would be terrific in this offense.

If the Eagles have accepted they need to rebuild I would give Singletary and a 3rd for Miles Sanders. My kingdom for a RB that can hit the window and go.

It's just that his stat line last night is no longer rare. Top tier QBs are expected to do that regularly against bad pass defenses. I'm not disagreeing with you though. One bad drive and a couple missed passes does not mean he is to blame for the loss.

I think we are spoiled by QB play across the NFL. 5 years ago Allen's play right now would be bar none the best in the league. This year there are more than 5 QBs that are playing at an elite level. That makes what he's doing seem less impressive. Personally after watching 20 years of just awful QB play I am not going to nitpick him. He had one truly bad drive last night but the TDs he singlehandedly carries us to more than makes up for it.

I'm actually happy we have the bye week after a last second loss like this. I worry that the players, Allen in particular, would be trying too hard to win the next game on every play instead of playing their normal style. Instead they have two weeks to let the loss fade away and get back to the dominance they are capable of. Agreed that Allen's second to last drive should have won us the game if he had stayed patient. It's too bad because otherwise I thought Allen was spectacular and kept us in the game. But in a shootout every mistake on offense is amplified. McDermott preaches situational football. Going for the kill shot when you're already up 4 points is not situational football. Other than that series I thought he showed good patience throughout the game. It was a step up for him, until it wasn't. Oh well. If you had told me before the season that we'd be 4-2 at the bye with a blowout win over the Chiefs I would have been more than satisfied. I still think we are in the drivers' seat for the #1 seed because Tennessee and Baltimore are not going undefeated the rest of the way. I genuinely believe we can after the bye. We did it last year.

Our problem in the red zone is we have no real run game. People talk about our YPC but a lot those yards are gifted to us by defenses that are overplaying the pass. When the deep passing windows go away, we see what the run game is really made of. Every time we hand the ball off in the red zone it is a complete waste of a down. But I can't blame Daboll too much, if we just pass it every time defenses can tee off. I don't have statistics on this but it feels like a lot of our TDs this year have been from 20+ yards out. Once we get inside the 10 yard line our offensive identity doesn't work.

I just don't really care... Allen winning MVP would be a cool story. It would not guarantee us a championship. He is still an elite QB and clearly talented enough to win a Super Bowl.

He played very well tonight, especially considering how shaky the offensive line was all night. In a shootout every offensive mistake is amplified. But he really only made a few errors. I'm not going to nitpick them. Give me his stat line tonight every game for the rest of the season.

I'm not too worked up about this one. There are not many games left on the schedule that we will be underdogs. Maybe just the Bucs game. I think we made a bad decision keeping Epenesa out. The o-line played its worst game of the season. 1 yard or less QB sneak is usually a guaranteed 1st down for Allen, it just wasn't our night. All that going against us and we were still an inch away from winning. I don't see this game impacting our season at all.

That is too bad. I do like the decision there. O-line needed to get just a tiny bit of push.

Like I said

Honestly I didn't want us to score too fast anyways

That's an incredible play from Allen. They had that play covered perfectly and he just found a way.

The run plays are killing our drives.

When Allen is running right and throws the ball I don't ever doubt a completion. I just wait to see how long the completion goes for.

I was perusing this board yesterday and one of their posters put in a picture of Hunter Kelly as a joke to denigrate Bills fans. If anyone wants to know the kind of people that post over there.

Too bad, I was hoping to see Pittsburgh buried in the standings. But I guess barely beating the Geno Smith led Seahawks probably doesn't bode well for their chances either way.

Why does Seattle keep running it? Geno has looked okay.

I get what Metcalf was trying to do, just get more yards to make the kick easier before running out of bounds. But protect the ball with your life if you're going to do that.