Logic

Saw this graphic posted by CBS today and thought it was pretty funny. Josh and Brady are the best.

If a minority coach is hired away to become a head coach elsewhere, the team from which he is hired gets the picks.

I don’t want to lose him, BUT… Two 3rd round comp picks will soften the blow.

I sincerely thank Beasley for all he's done as a member of the Bills. That said, I'm beyond ready to see the Bills move on from him. The headache he seems to present outweighs the production he brings. After this season, I truly hope the Bills move on.

They sure are super irritated about a Bills fan starting the pre-game thread. Seems like much ado about nothing, but what do I know?

Eh...those drops are at least somewhat on the QB, IMO. He can't throw Howitzer-Bazooka piss missiles at 150 MPH when receivers' hands are little frozen blocks of ice. He has to learn to take a little power out of those throws and use some touch. Situational/weather awareness.

First: I like our coaching staff a lot. They certainly should not be fired. That's silly. They're one of the better coaching staffs in the league. Second: It's okay to acknowledge the above while still critiquing personnel decisions, playcalls, strategies, and other decisions. Coaches are not infallible. Even the great Bill Belichick is not exempt from criticism. Third: It's great that the Bills are AFC East champions and are hosting a playoff game. I'm excited. It's exciting. That said, the Bills SHOULD be the first or second seed. Instead of looking down the barrel of a matchup with the Pats at home and then a roadie at Arrowhead, they should be getting a week off and then hosting the Bengals or Raiders. The reasons they're NOT the first or second seed are open for debate, but coaching and player execution (which is not unrelated to coaching anyway) are at least partly to blame. Fourth: I have the right, as a fan, to simultaneously be proud of our team and to like our staff and players, and to ALSO feel that we have wasted some precious opportunities this season and have made the playoff path much harder than it needed to be, and that those letdowns have sometimes been due to coaching and, at other times, due to poor play. There's room here for optimism, pessimism, realism, and criticism. You are not czar of Two Bills Drive.

Yeah. I can't disagree. Had our defense not been so elite, and had they not been going against such an inept opponent, it's highly likely that the game wouldn't have gone in the Bills' favor. They were just too ineffective for far too long on offense. The long stretches of bad offense this season have been absolutely confusing and infuriating. Our offensive line has finally come together, our receivers are mostly healthy, even our run game has improved. And yet....for long stretches, we're the Keystone Cops. I don't know where to point the finger, but I can't pretend that Allen is totally exempt from blame.

Sounds to me more like Flores wasn't willing to continue to defer to Chris Grier. Possibly wanted more say over his roster -- particularly at the QB position? Synergy between GM and HC is important. I don't get the sense that Flores wasn't a good relationship builder with his players -- certainly winning 8 of his last 9 this season indicates the team hadn't quit on him. It feels more like he didn't have a good relationship with the front office and/or ownership specifically. I suppose it's all conjecture, though.

Anyone who is still spouting the "defense isn't as good as its stats indicate" line is just flat out wrong at this point. You can say that in week 4 or week 7 or whatever, but after a SEVENTEEN GAME sample size...there's no denying it any more. Number 1 in points AND yards allowed is elite. Period. Best defense in the league.

Fair point. I gathered from highlights and from a Pats beat reporter that the pass rush was pretty non-existent against Miami, too. Granted, Tua gets the ball out really quick in the RPO game, but still... This is the matchup of the game to me. If Allen has all day, as he did the last time the Bills faced the Pats, the Bills win easily. If Bill figures out a way to consistently get into Allen's face....it's gonna be a long day for Buffalo.

On the one hand, I think Allen will always be a guy who has weird weeks where his number stink but the Bills win. He's truly one of those "do whatever it takes" guys, and sometimes what it takes is gonna look like two INTs but a bunch of clutch runs, and ultimately a Bills victory. On the other hand, it's hard to deny that for long stretches of the past two weeks, the Bills offense has gone dormant. During those stretches, Allen has been inaccurate and out of rhythm. What's concerning is that this happened against bad defenses the past two weeks. Spare me the "bad weather" nonsense. Yesterday, there were far too many 3-and-outs, considering the Bills were going up against the 32nd ranked defense in the NFL. Bad weather or not, there's no excuse for that. They don't score on every drive? Fine. But at least put some drives together. I found yesterday and the week before concerning for the offense. Honestly, the offense has been Jekyll and Hyde for MUCH of this season. When it's on, it's really on, and you can see that it has the potential to be unstoppable -- the best offense in the league. But then other times, they can't BUY a first down or cash in a red zone trip. It's maddening and confusing, and they'd better hope that the Good Offense shows up next week against Belichick's defense.

That's exactly it. I agree that if they play to their potential, they win. The problem is that on many occasions this season -- including just yesterday and the Sunday before -- they HAVEN'T played to their potential, especially at home. I'm not saying the Bills are definitely going to lose to the Pats. I'm just saying that the Pats winning is a reasonable possibility, because Belichick is the greatest coach of all time, the Pats defense is still elite, and this will be the third time we've faced them this season. Give Belichick three cracks at a given team in a single season, and it's reasonably likely he'll outcoach his opposition 2 out of 3 times. There's a reason the oddsmakers are only giving the Bills essentially one point in the spread (they get three automatically for being the home team). It's going to be a close game.

I mean... Like I said, the Bills offense has been a bit rotten in Orchard Park for large stretches of the past few weeks. We're looking at a sub 20 degree game with a 50% chance of snow showers. We're going against a top 3 scoring defense. I wish I shared your optimism that things will definitely play out the way they did in Foxborough, but I don't.

One thing I'm curious about: Where the hell did the Pats pass rush go? It was pretty non-existent against the Bills in the most recent meeting, but I wrote it off to Belichick asking the d-line to play contain against Allen instead of getting up field. But then the pass rush continued to be non-existent against the Phins, and now I don't know what to think. Add to this the fact that Barmore likely will not play, and this becomes the matchup of the game to me. If Belichick can manufacture a good pass rush and make Allen uncomfortable, the Pats win. If he can't, and it's more of what we've seen the past few weeks, Bills win handily.

Count me among those that wanted to play the Chargers rather than the Pats. The Chargers would have been coming off a five quarter game that went late into sunday night, and would have to fly east to play in cold weather. They have a statistically weak defense, specifically against the run. The Pats, meanwhile...even though we have shown that we can beat them handily when things are clicking...well....things haven't been clicking the past few weeks in Orchard Park. Anyone who actively WANTS to face Bill Belichick for a third time in the same season must have sat out the past two decades and/or missed the way Allen and the offense have been performing for large stretches of the past few home games. Aside from the strategic advantage of facing the Chargers instead of the Pats, I felt like Herbert vs Allen would have been a really FUN matchup. Nothing about facing the Pats with the season on the line is FUN to me. Not in the least. The playoffs are all about what path you have to take to reach the Super Bowl. The Bills will likely start out with the Pats and, if they win, the Chiefs at Arrowhead. That's a rough way to start the playoffs. The Chiefs, meanwhile, start out with a Charmin soft Steelers team at home. Ugh. Oh well. Here's to me being totally wrong and the Bills wiping the floor with the Pats*.

On the one hand, Flores just coached his team to wins in 8 out of the last 9 games, and one wonders if firing a guy after that will alienate a lot of the locker room. Head coaching changes also tend to set roster construction back, as the new coach will often want "his guys" and there will be a bunch of roster turnover to fit new offensive and defensive systems. I DO wonder what the Flores Dolphins would have looked like with a legit QB under center. I sense they could be a perpetual 11 win team with capable quarterback. On the other hand, Flores seemed to me like a guy that was always gonna be just good enough to reach 9-8 every year. Good enough to MAYBE sneak into the playoffs, but that was his ceiling. I sort of don't blame the Phins for wanting to get off of that rollercoaster. Stephen Ross is a "flash over substance" guy. I'm guessing they go hard after some big name head coach, and sell the farm to bring in Deshaun Watson.

Yeah I noticed he was out there a bunch yesterday. He's basically our Lee Smith now. Granted, he presents zero threat to run a pattern or catch a pass, but he's a capable extra blocker. It's kind of funny to me, actually. After the Bills struggled with run blocking and pass protection all season, Daboll was finally just like "***** it, we're bringing in an extra tackle." It also helps explain us only having one true tight end active the past few weeks. If, heaven forbid, Knox ever goes down with injury mid-game....yikes. It's Gilliam city.

Listen up everybody.... I think the OP just forgot to type a few words in his original thread title. What he MEANT to say was: "McDermott era should end with a Lombardi trophy or two"

It's crazy that after 17 games and what seemed like a real marathon of a season, the Bills will now have to win four games in a row to claim the Lombardi trophy. Nuts.

Apparently, the 53 yards by the Jets today is the lowest offensive total for them in franchise history. The Jets have been around for 61 years. They have played 948 regular season games. Sometimes, in the heat of the moment, cool historic moments like this get lost. Between the Bills winning back to back Division titles for only the third time ever (and 1st time in 30 years), and the defense's performance....this was a historic day for Buffalo Bills football.

You'd have lost that bet, though...

A few thoughts: - Just win, baby. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know...it was ugly for long stretches. Yet again, an "off day" for the Bills still meant over 400yards of offense, 27 points, and a 17 point win. - Don't take today lightly. Only the third time EVER the Bills have won back to back division titles. - The Bills held the Jets to 52 TOTAL yards on offense. I don't care if they're the Jets, that's really, really impressive. - Would the Bills dare activate practice squad punter Jamie Gillan for the playoffs? Probably not, but......ya know.... Bottom line: Division champs, three seed, playoff home game with a full house incoming. And... One QB sneak slip away from the one-seed. Game of inches. Oh well. No use crying over spilt milk. Tonight....we drink!

I'm not sure you'll need condicidence anyway.

So, uh.. What happens if the Steelers and Ravens tie?