Boatdrinks

Not a fan of Cheffers, would prefer Bill Vinovich out of that group.

The commercials themselves have become unbearable , for reasons probably best discussed on PPP. They are the reason we can watch for (mostly) free, but I’d be interested what the cost would be for a fully PPV business model with minimal if any commercial breaks.

The Bills don’t have the corners that BAL does. When ( if ) White is close to 100% they’ll be improved. They’re not built to play the Ravens style and would probably get burned quite a bit if they tried.

I think Harbaugh said he wanted Huntley to go low. Anyway that was an awful play call and not just because it didn’t work. It had zero chance of working and backfired in the worst way. They needed to spread the defense out of that was the call, no way to go over the top there. I wondered about the TO’s myself and thought it seemed like they were saving them to have a chance to run when they got closer. The goal was to score with little to no time left for CIN to get a quick FG attempt. It got sloppy at the end for sure but I think Harbaugh is a top coach and came very close to a big win vs a team with a superior QB on the road.

I think this is what it boils down to. They’re playing very good defense overall, but doing it short handed. They lack an elite rusher that can get home when a longer pass is required. If they rush 4 ( as they love to do) the QB has too much time; when they blitz the coverage is suspect and the ball comes out faster. It’s a personnel issue and one they probably can’t solve this postseason. Just have to play sound defense and realize that the occasional 3rd and long will get converted when an offense absolutely needs to make a play.

At least 2

Precisely. Any Bills fan crying foul if roles were reversed would be a fool. You are what your record says you are: the league doesn’t deal in what ifs.

Agree. More long drives would help- they worked last night, and more Josh running. Huntley was effective yesterday and darn near won the game with it before disaster turned things in favor of the Bengals , who appeared to be on their way to being knocked out on their home turf.

And it’s not even theirs … directly lifted from the Saints

I believe I saw that STH would be receiving an email.. not sure where I read it though.

Pretty much sums it up…

Maybe. Haven’t been able to find this exact breakdown but perhaps someone will. It’s the NFL so those stats have to exist somewhere. Would be interesting to see.

The Bills defense is very different from the Ravens but that doesn’t mean they can’t borrow a few concepts from what worked vs CIN last night. I don’t think it’s about stepping up as much as scheme and personnel.

Well, no they don’t. They should have won another game earlier and had an equal record to the Bills. That most likely would have been taken into account. They had 1 less win so no neutral site.

Chalk it up to other teams have NFL players and they make plays vs the Bills sometimes too, just not a lot of ‘em.

So overall ppg allowed and overall 3rd down defense aren’t that important to you, but some third and 10+ conversions are ?

This seems related to our familiarity with the Bills and knowing every detail of their tendencies plus emotional investment in the games. They are among the best in the NFL in 3rd down defense and have been for years under McD.

Overall the Bills defense fell from 1st overall on 3rd down defense in 2021 to 7th in 2022. Still a top 10 unit even with a lot of injuries. It seems any 3rd down issues are perceived rather than real. Most teams would love to be where the Bills are on 3rd down defensively.

Dolphins were 4/16 on 3rd down

Josh’s accuracy was fine. He overshot Diggs on first drive ( not unusual for him on early series)and there was no issue on his part with the 1 on 1 to Brown. Of course you take that shot; it looked like Brown lost the ball in the sun or broke the wrong way. The other INT went off Beasleys hands right to a defender. The OL had issues and Josh needed to just cover up and take the sack. That scoop and score was a bit reckless on his part.

Except when it’s called against the Bills in the playoffs vs Texans

Yep. Bruce clearly had Esiasons jersey, not the face mask and Merlin Olsen pointed this out on the replay. It felt like the Bills never recovered from those penalties in a close defensive game.

Right? The Bengals are not some perfect team and neither are the Bills. The Bills are favored in this game and that seems about right. The Bengals are somewhat mythicized now , and their QB hasn’t earned his stolen nickname of “ Joe Cool “ ( sorry that’s only for one Joe - Montana) This will probably be a close game and I believe the Bills will emerge victorious. The closest thing I see to a perfect team right now is the 49ers ; maybe just maybe the Bills will finally meet that franchise in the Super Bowl.

Was so disappointed after that game. That was my first experience as a Bills fan seeing the team play in an AFC title game. That loss was so much worse than just losing a playoff game. The Bills and Bengals haven’t met in the playoffs since.

Well, companies want to buy any commercial spot the NFL will sell them. That’s because the NFL is ratings gold ; pretty much the surest thing in TV these days. Viewing habits have changed and the amount of commercial breaks in football games reflects that. If you had a product that was in seemingly unlimited demand, would you sell less of it ? Of course not. So the commercial break situation is another change brought to you by the millennial generation that you simply have to live with. There are alternatives though: redzone as you mentioned , Sunday ticket or just DVR the game and skip through it later. Maybe just get up and grab another beer.