Logic

I think there's a decent chance that it'll be on Saturday instead, as the outcome of several Sunday games could impact the importance of it. They don't want to make the decision to flex the game to Sunday night and then have the outcomes of those games render the Bills-Phins game less meaningful. So, perhaps....LIVE, FROM MIAMI, IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT!!!!

If the reports are true that Beane turned down a 3rd round pick for Elam, then that fact combined with what we now know was a lingering injury that made it tough to move laterally give me at least a little bit of renewed hope for Elam to be a productive player. I maintain that he played well at times during the last few games and the playoffs last season. He may not have been a world beater, but he certainly didn't look like a complete bust, either. Here's hoping he can get some snaps, gain some confidence, and turn into at least serviceable depth for the Bills.

Played Swift, but there wound up being a negligible difference between their production. Your quote "I think they will come out about the same in the end" proved prophetic. I'm back in the same Swift vs Montgomery dilemma this week. Championship weekend. Swift has a matchup that looks good on paper vs Arizona. Montgomery has been incredibly consistent in getting between 11-16 points the past several weeks running. I'll likely overthink it right up until game time 😅

Yes.

As I mentioned in another thread, I was locked into a date with my wife last night and missed the whole game. I NEVER miss games, and I'm very curious to know how last night's game played out. I have already watched the highlights that are available on YouTube. What I'm looking and hoping for is a description of how the game played out. Did Joe Brady call a good game? Did the offensive line protect well? Did the run game generally look productive? Did Fournette make any impact? How did Josh play overall? Did McDermott call a good game on defense? How did Poona Ford look? Who were the defensive MVPs, if any at all? Any recap anyone is willing to provide -- the more detail, the better -- I would greatly appreciate. Thank you in advance.

IF they make it into the playoffs, I like their chances of advancing at least to the AFCCG, if not the Super Bowl. I feel that the Bills, as they are currently constituted and at the level at which they are currently playing, can beat any team in the AFC. The Dolphins don't scare me. The Chiefs don't scare me. The Ravens don't scare me. The Bengals have been our biggest roadblocks lately, but they're Burrow-less and have a banged up Ja'Marr Chase. Put simply, in my eyes, GETTING to the second season is where the challenge lies. I have faith in the Bills beating LA and NE, but Miami on the road will be no small challenge. Yes, I realize I just said they don't scare me. They don't. But beating them in a win-and-in game in their home stadium is still not going to be easy. As others have said before, the most painful part of the Bills under-achieving for the first half of this season and putting themselves in this position is that this appears to be the easiest path to a Super Bowl (playoffs wise) that they will have yet had. An offensively under-manned Chiefs team, a Mark Andrews-less Ravens team, the Dolphins...if the Bills could have secured the one-seed this year, which they realistically could have done by simply beating the Broncos and, say, the Jets in week one, it'd be on like Donkey Kong. Instead they have to fight for their playoff lives the next three weeks. Ah well. The past is the past. Onward and upward.

Thank you both for the input. Thankfully, I put Nacua in my flex slot at the last minute. Would've been furious with myself if I didn't after last night's game. The Swift vs Montgomery conundrum remains. I'd normally lean Montgomery, but Gibbs has been eating into his red zone usage big time in recent weeks, and the VIkings have a brick wall of a run defense. Hmmm...

If there's another thread for this, I apologize. Anyone else in their fantasy playoffs or championship this week and agonizing over a start/sit decision? If so, what is it? For me it's a 12 team full PPR league. I went 13-1 and had a first round bye. This week, my first dilemma is who to start at RB2 between David Montgomery or D'Andre Swift. My next dilemma is who to start at my flex spot between Puka Nacua, Devonta Smith, and whichever RB (Montgomery of Swift) I don't start at RB2. Nacua has the highest projected points, but we all know that can be meaningless. I'm tempted to chase the high ceilings of Swift and Nacua in each spot, respectively, but crippled with indecision. Any fantasy gurus wanna provide your two cents?

Been thinking maybe I could conceal a small ear-piece and listen to the game secretly during dinner. She'll just think I'm leaping up and cheering because I really liked the appetizer.

Fancy Italian restaurant food. About a week ago, my wife asked if I minded if she made a reservation at a restaurant for a fancy, romantic date on Saturday night. Completely forgetting that the Bills played on Saturday night instead of Sunday, I said yes.

The first sentence in my post was "Cook absolutely deserved it, BUT..." Cook played very well and deserved the award. I opened with that. On the other hand, he averaged 4.2 yards rushing BEFORE first contact, and that speaks to a dominant performance of the offensive line, and the most dominant man on that unit was Dion Dawkins. My sentiment that offensive linemen should win these awards sometimes is unchanged.

Those players are all amazing, no doubt. The problem is that the Bills will be Eleventy Billion dollars in the hole next year. Even with clever maneuvering by Brandon Beane, I believe that the money we already pay Josh Allen will prevent us from signing Josh Allen.

Cook absolutely deserved it, BUT... It would be cool if offensive linemen won these awards sometimes. If you go back and watch Cook's biggest runs on Sunday, he often had gaping holes to run through. Congrats to Jimbo Cook, by all means, but Dion Dawkins is the real offensive player of the week for my money.

Mine: Deonte Harty was a hugely underrated signing. He has flown under the radar throughout his career. He will take the top off the defense, be a key deep threat for Josh, and will add speed and explosiveness to our offense. His contract was a bargain compared to what he'll provide for the team. ......Whoops.

Wild Card: Win out. Likely enter as the 7th or maybe even the 6th seed in that case. AFC East title: Win out. Phins lose to either the Cowboys or Ravens and lose to us. It's that simple. Win out and the Bills are extremely likely to make the playoffs. Lose one game the rest of the way and they'll need a lot of help. Good news is that the next two games are against Easton Stick and Bailey Zappe. So long as the Cowboys or Ravens can notch a win against the Phins, week 18 is hopefully for the AFC East title, and then we don't have to worry about Wild Card scenarios.

https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2023/12/18/24005803/nfl-week-15-hot-read-buffalo-bills-back-christian-mccaffrey-baker-mayfield The Bills have a 69 percent chance to make the playoffs. That’s right. The Bills, who even after the Aaron Rodgers injury lost to the Jets in Week 1 because Josh Allen threw three picks. The Bills, who barely survived the Tyrod Taylor Giants in Week 6, only to lose to the Mac Jones Patriots (yes, the Mac Jones Patriots) one week later. The Bills, who fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey after consecutive prime-time losses that stuck them at 5-5. The Bills, who have lost Matt Milano and Tre’Davious White for the rest of the season and DaQuan Jones for the foreseeable future. The Bills, who recently had to address comments made by head coach Sean McDermott during the 2019 season about the organization and effectiveness of the 9/11 terrorists. Those Bills. They’re probably gonna make the playoffs. And after what we just saw on Sunday, are you gonna bet against them when they’re there? Let’s talk about Sunday. The Bills beat the Cowboys 31-10; at halftime, they were up 21-3. It was a consummate shellacking of one of the NFL’s hottest teams—but the fact that the Bills beat the Cowboys is actually far less remarkable than how the Bills beat the Cowboys. They ran the dang ball. They pounded the daggum rock. Buffalo ended the day with 19 total dropbacks on 65 snaps—a dropback rate of 29 percent, the lowest in any game of Josh Allen’s entire career. By run rate over expectation, which adjusts for game script, as well as down and distance, this was the highest run rate over expectation for the Bills in the last three years. There are a few reasons why the Bills were capable of deploying such a run-heavy game plan. The first is James Cook. The Bills have been trying to find a young go-to back for years now, failing to find such in Devin Singletary and Zack Moss. In Cook, they seem to have finally found what they’ve long sought: a three-down player who can both churn out yards between the tackles and also run and catch on a full route tree. It’s a rare thing to have, but the Bills have it. Cook is now third in the league in scrimmage yards at 1,401. He’s on pace for over 1,000 rushing yards and over 500 receiving yards, which would make him the first player under 25 to have such a season since three players did it in 2019: Christian McCaffrey, Leonard Fournette, and Cook’s brother, Dalvin. How many backs do you know that run corner routes out of the backfield? Cook’s talent as a pass catcher speaks for itself—the success of the Bills’ rushing game, however, is a collective effort. Buffalo really started investing in their handoff game—remember, all of this data is about the designed running game, not Josh Allen scrambles—at the start of the 2022 season, when Dorsey took over as offensive coordinator following the departure of Brian Daboll. The Bills hired Rams offensive line coach and run game coordinator Aaron Kromer for the offensive line job on their staff, and an accompanying jump in run game efficiency followed. The Bills offensive line, often the culprit of disappointing losses in years past, is now the best Allen has played with. The starting unit hasn’t missed any time—they’ve played together for 867 of a possible 894 snaps. Left tackle Dion Dawkins is playing the best ball of his career; center Mitch Morse, who seemed last season like Father Time was coming for him, is enjoying a quiet resurgence; right tackle Spencer Brown, who needed to take a leap, has. Are Brown and rookie right guard O’Cyrus Torrence perfect? By no stretch. But they aren’t enormous liabilities, and both can really move people in the running game. Just ask the Cowboys defensive line. And of course, that’s the last consideration: Johnathan Hankins was out today for the Cowboys. Hankins isn’t a big name on a defense featuring Micah Parsons and DaRon Bland, but he’s a linchpin for Dan Quinn’s scheme. The Cowboys defensive line is built for speed and explosiveness—the other starting DT for the Cowboys, Osa Odighizuwa, is all of 280 pounds. They need the space-gobbling capacity of Hankins to survive against the run—especially with thumping linebacker Leighton Vander Esch out for the season. Rookie DT Mazi Smith is, theoretically, a Hankins replacement—but he has struggled in his debut season. So the Cowboys had no answer for the running game—but that doesn’t change how impressed I am that Joe Brady and the Buffalo offense committed to it. The Bills are at 7-6, with the season functionally in the balance every week, and it’s very hard to take the ball out of Josh Allen’s hands. You want to let your star players carry you to the promised land. To see the favorable matchup and run the ball at a rate you hadn’t hit in ages requires a lot of faith in an offense that has been … mercurial. Kudos to them for sticking to their plan and executing it. This dominant rushing performance from Buffalo, with their defensive performance considered (three meaningful points allowed to Dak Prescott and the Cowboys?), and the ever-present threat of Allen going thermonuclear? From my vantage point, the Bills look like a complete team for the first time all season. They’ve endured injuries and coaching changes and heartbreak and drama and somehow come out the other end looking like that which they were supposed to be all season: an AFC contender. The hay isn’t in the barn. They have to stay perfect down the stretch in games against the Chargers, the Patriots, and the division-leading Dolphins to end the season. They could use some help in the wild-card race, as the field is crowded with 8-6 teams: the Texans, the Colts, the Bengals, and the Jaguars. But ask any AFC contender who they don’t want to play come January, and I promise you: The Bills are high on that list.

It goes both ways. We're a 12th man away from being 9-5. We're a missed 59 yard field goal in the rain away from being 10-4. We're probably one interception away from beating the Jets on opening night. You are what your record says you are. The calls and the luck of the football bounce both ways. Every team in the NFL can play the "what if" game. The Bills are 8-6 and have a realistic shot at the postseason. They recently almost beat the Eagles in Philly, they beat the Chiefs at Arrowhead, and they DESTROYED the hottest team in the league yesterday. Let people be excited.

As someone who recently and repeatedly stated that I'm ready to see the Bills move on from Sean McDermott, it seems only fair for me to say this: The team has very clearly not quit on Sean McDermott. They are not in any way acting or playing like a team who doesn't like their head coach or who want a change. If anything, the Dunne article seems to have united the team and provided an "us against the world" rallying cry. Furthermore, yesterday's game was a "Sean McDermott's perfect ideal of what football should look like" game if ever I saw one. Masterful defense, the offense imposing their well, and physicality across the board. Very, very impressive. The thing that stood out to me on TV is that you could SEE how hard the Bills were playing. The defense was absolutely flying around, hitting hard, popping pads, and playing MEAN and with swagger. The offense was physical and relentless. The whole team LOOKED like it was playing playoff football, whereas the Cowboys absolutely did not. For the defense to play as well as it did, missing as many key players as it is, against such a great offense, was MASSIVELY impressive. For the offense to impose its will and dominate physically the way it did, just running the ball over and over and over, was also massively impressive, both from a physical standpoint and from a "Joe Brady is just gonna keep doing the simple and obvious thing until you stop it" tactical standpoint. Yesterday was the most thorough, impressive, across-the-board win I've seen from the Bills in quite some time. Great jobs from both offensive and defensive coaching. Great jobs from both lines of scrimmage. Great jobs by the players in executing. Just a no-doubt-about-it 60 minute ass whoopin. What else can I say? Give Brady his flowers. Give McDermott his flowers. Give Cook and the o-line their flowers. Masterful, impressive, awesome win. GO BILLS!!!

That dude flip-flops more than a gold medal gymnast.

It stinks that AJ is out, but... Leonard Floyd is having an exceptional season. Greg Rousseau and Von Miller both had good weeks against Kansas City. Ed Oliver has been beastly in the middle. I think his absence is survivable. I'm more concerned about Micah. The dropoff from him to Rapp/Lewis is big. Not only that, it reduces the degree to which the Bills can operate out of dime packages, and it potentially puts Tyrel Dodsen on the field more often against the pass, which is not ideal. Either way, as others have said, the Cowboys have injuries, too. Bills need to take care of business.

Put simply: If there's one area of the roster that I'm simply not concerned about as long as Sean McDermott is around, it's defensive backs. I expect Douglas, Benford, Elam, and Jackson will be the outside quartet next season, with Taron Johnson at nickel and some late round camp competition brought in. Unfortunately, it may be time to bid farewell to the beloved TreDavious White. I wish it wasn't so, but the Bills have to find places to cut salary. At safety, Hyde and Poyer will likely be gone, and McDermott will likely fill one spot through free agency (maybe Rapp, maybe someone else) and one spot through the draft. He'll coach the new guys up, as he always does with safeties. There will be a dip in production and cohesiveness early on, but once they get up to speed, it'll be all systems ago. For whatever other deficiencies may exist across the roster going forward, call me crazy, but I'm not too worried about the DB room.

Cowboys are dog water on the road. Everyone talks about how they average 40 points per game over their last five, but...When on the road, the Cowboys average 23 points, and they give up an average of 20 points. Dak is also historically not particularly good in temperatures below 40 degrees. Give me the desperate Bills team, in front of a fired up Highmark Stadium crowd, in the cold rainy weather, on prime time. Bills by a billion.

A torn ACL this late in the season really stinks, especially in a contract year for this player. It knocks him out not only the rest of this season, but also for most of next season. Just Brutal. Football is a cruel game. This year seems PARTICULARLY bad with injuries across the league. Just look at the QB lineup in the AFC, for instance. Yikes.