HappyDays

Interesting snippet from Matt Parrino: I continue to feel a quiet confidence about the defense. I think they learned a lot from that first matchup and Baltimore will see things they aren't prepared for. To me the offense is still my biggest question mark. I'm not sure we have the personnel to attack Baltimore where they're weak. Brady will have to be in his bag and Allen will need to have a superstar performance to put up 30. If we do that we win.

Speak for yourself. I saw a video of Mark Zuckerburg offering access to his cryogenic freezing chamber. All I had to do was send 5 bitcoin to an offshore account.

Whelp you got fooled by AI on Facebook. By rule you're required to take a one week sabbatical from the internet. I'm genuinely terrified for the future.

Bills 31 Ravens 24 I don't really have a clue. But I won't predict us to lose a playoff game and if we win this is what I think the final score looks like.

The Jets hiring a former Dolphins head coach. What could possibly go wrong.

Collins and ARSB are the only players from that list that I would trade for him straight up right now.

Rousseau is not a JAG. That's patently ridiculous. Of course I wish he was Myles Garrett but there are many tiers between Garrett and the AJ Epenesas of the world, so lumping Rousseau and him together is silly and you know it. Very good player and a great pick considering who was drafted after him. Singlehandedly takes an entire side of the field away from RBs and mobile QBs.

I genuinely would have taken just the section I bolded, if it came down to it. Getting Diggs out of the locker room and out of the city was worth it on its own. The definition of addition by subtraction. The 2nd round pick was a nice throw in gift from a dumb team writing their own ticket too early.

Man, really? I don't understand the Cole Bishop truthers. Every time he's been on the field this year he's made multiple big mistakes. I get that you might prefer more sizzle from the position than we get from Hamlin, especially after years of being spoiled by Hyde's excellence, but you can't just replace him for the sake of replacing him. The replacement has to be a better player. Hamlin is unspectacular and can get beaten 1v1 by athletic mismatches but he doesn't make those fundamental mistakes.

That final line bears repeating because I think it defines this generation of the Buffalo Bills. I said it in the live game thread for Bills/Broncos that we are one of the best momentum teams I've seen in the NFL. Our league leading point differential over the past however many years is a testament to this, and to my eyes it's been even more stark this year. How many games have we watched where we're plodding along with a 3 point lead (or deficit) and it feels like we're one mistake away from a disaster, and then you check the scoreboard 15 minutes later and we're up by 25 with Trubisky warming up on the sidelines. It's really uncanny. Like we smell blood in the water and just start piling on in all three phases. And being able to win like that in a playoff game is just extremely impressive. It shows the level of experience we held over Denver. Of course as we've seen over the years the problem with this manner of winning is that you aren't going to pile on other great teams. To win the Super Bowl this year we'll need to overcome our kryptonite - high leverage moments in close games against other great teams. Those moments lost us the Texans game, and the Rams gams, and the Chiefs game going back to the divisional round last year. We'll need to execute in those moments in three consecutive games to bring home the Lombardi.

This is one of the best lines you've had. Good stuff. It is kind of unfortunate that we've become a victim of our own success. I still make it a point to enjoy every single win and every single big play. But once the clock hits :00 I'm very much in "ok, so what's next?" mode. It must be nice to be a Commanders fan right now. Winning this past Sunday was a cherry on top. Whatever happened in that game, and whatever happens from here on out, they already won the season. I remember watching the Jags wildcard game in 2018 without a hint of anxiety. Honestly I wouldn't have cared if we had lost 40-0. In retrospect that was pathetic of me. I'd much rather have the risk of ultimate heartbreak over that feeling of nonchalance. Ultimate heartbreak means ultimate glory if/when we go all the way.

I almost never bet except for parlays that are like $5 to win $5,000. That's the only kind of gambling I enjoy. No risk, big upside. Of course I never win but it's just fun for me. I did something I never do and bet $1,000 on the over in the Bills/Lions game as soon as our inactive list came out. I just couldn't imagine that game not going over given the injuries on both defenses, it felt like a total no brainer. But once the game started I absolutely hated every minute of the experience and found myself feeling secretly happy when the Lions scored a couple TDs. FanDuel offered me a $1,600 cashout right before halftime and I took it. No regrets that I would have won the full bet if I let it ride. I was able to relax and enjoy the rest of the game and could fully root for us to stop them on every play. That's my long winded way of saying no I will never again bet in any way where I find myself wanting the Bills to fail. It takes all the fun out of the game for me.

The only thing I'll say to this is that the reduction in mistakes happened right after Brady took over last year. He re-distributed targets to our most efficient pass catchers and stopped feeding into Allen's worst tendencies, where I thought Dorsey was way too boom or bust in the way he structured the offense and divvied out targets. So yes I acknowledge that Allen himself is most responsible for his increased efficiency, but I give Brady his due credit as well.

Curious to hear from our resident Chiefs fans - would you prefer to play Buffalo or Baltimore in the AFCCG? @beebe @Zerovoltz @SaulGoodman @Billl

Did people really think they were rolling with Darnold as their long term starter?

Darnold is perfect for what he is, a QB that competes with some team's rookie QB in training camp and either loses the competition or acts as the bridge. Anyone who thought he had proven himself as a true starter in this league was badly misguided.

5 DL on run downs would be one possible solution, although I don't know who you take off the field. Probably Taron? Would it be too crazy to take Bernard off and bring Rapp into the box? Whoever comes off, you could have your normal starting 4 DL plus Johnson or Phillips. Or you could make the 5th DL Smoot and line Rousseau up inside. In either scenario it's much harder for the entire OL and all ancillary blockers to win their 1v1 matchups like they did a bunch of times against us in the first game.

Yeah and he's done a good job filling from depth this year. I think Hamlin in general gets way too much hate on this board. People act like he's a critical liability out there. His limitations are obvious but his fundamentals and understanding of where he's supposed to be have been good enough. For a position that has become majorly devalued "good enough" is, well, good enough.

I just watched Joe Marino's all-22 video review of the Broncos game and he pointed out a few plays where we used 3 DL (Von, Oliver, Rousseau), 2 LBs, and 6 DBs. Those plays were all successful too. I believe we used that wrinkle to some success against the Chiefs as well. So that personnel grouping appears to be our secret weapon that we will deploy in high leverage situations. I doubt we are going to see a traditional 3 LB set more than a few times if at all.

We'd get two 3rd round comp picks, one in 2026 and one in 2027, if he gets hired there.

This rendition of the Chiefs is not built to come from behind by 24 points. Back then they had Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce in their prime and defenses hadn't come close to figuring out how to stop that style of offense yet. Not that it matters. They won't fall behind by 24 points against the Texans. They'll play a close game and then make a play or two at the end to win it, or the Texans will make a play to lose it. That's how the 2024 Chiefs are built to win.

Most of the conversation is understandably on the Ravens offense vs our defense. I'm actually more interested in the opposite matchup though. I worry a bit that the Ravens defense matches up well against us. They are the best run defense in the league in both YPG and YPC so we probably can't lean on Cook like we did yesterday. Their weakness appears to be passing outside the numbers but that's been our offense's weakness too... I think this game has to be the Amari Cooper game if there ever was one. If he's 1v1 outside he needs to get the ball. Get Coleman going on back shoulders too. We need to score 30+ and it will have to come through the air. Our first game we didn't have the horses to execute that way. This is where we find out if the addition of Cooper and the growth of Coleman are enough to flip the script.

I thought for him to live up to that contract he would need to become one of the very best RTs in the league. He's done that this year and now the contract if anything looks like a bargain.

Green Bay is playing with zero urgency here. Bizarre play calling when they need a quick score.