Success

A minor pet peeve - yesterday was the warmest handshake BB has given McD. He's usually pretty quick & gruff, but he actually pulled McD in for a quick hug and said a few things this time. It's what we know about him: he's just a sore loser. Anyone can be gracious when they win.

Checking the Phins schedule - we probably can't lose more than 2 more to have a shot at the division in our last match-up w/ them. Chiefs & Ravens are the 2 toughest games they have. Assuming they split those, I could see them dropping another division game to the Pats or Jets, or possibly a loss to the Cowboys or Titans. Probably a 12-4 record for them heading into that final week. If one wants to dream, maybe 11-5.

I usually think we get the bad side of it - but yesterday, some of those roughing calls on Allen were pretty borderline, and they really helped us. I thought the refs missed a few our way also, but overall, Pats fans had more reason to gripe yesterday. And certainly, Giants fans had more reason to gripe last week.

Thanks for the details. I always wondered about that. It will be really nice to finally play Mahomes IN Buffalo.

Fans gotta show up for this one. This team is having a crisis of confidence right now. A loud stadium on Thursday will be a boost.

He & Cook give me a lot of optimism for the future. Davis being a no show much of the time really hurts this offense. We're getting good production from WR1 and TE now.. Harty/Shakir are doing fine at the 3/4 spots. To have a #2 that doesn't give us 5-6 catches a game consistently really sets us back.

A "Get Righter" if there ever was one.. I simply don't see us losing this game, unless I've entered a parallel universe where nothing that formerly made sense does anymore. Get a mini-bye, then a chance at the Bengals again. That's a team that is struggling as bad us we are. We can right this ship in the next few weeks..

Actually, I'll give it a go: Bucs - we're winning. Or, the season is over. W. Bengals - they're problems run much deeper than ours. We could lose, of course - but I've got a W Broncos - W Jets - no, they're not sweeping us. At home. W. Eagles - I think we lose this, or the Chiefs. I don't think we lose both. L Chiefs - see above. W. Cowboys - at home, W. Chargers - west coast trip, L. Pats - same as Jets. W. Dolphins - playing for division if everything plays out as detailed above. Probably an L - but it will be close.

Was that really wind? It looked like he put some kind of crazy spin on it. I don't remember the ball moving that much even in the wind game against the Pats.

This is correct, but I've been so torn on it. I don't think he's a bad coach. I think he's average, and does some things really well. There is a lot of BAD coaching in the league. There is very little great coaching. I just don't know who we replace him with. I don't think you roll the dice on a hot OC or DC and hope for the best. More often than not, those hires don't work. So, it would have to be someone "proven." And who is that? Belichick if he gets fired, I suppose. But that's another D-minded guy. I'd hire Daboll if the Giants let him go.

I wouldn't even predict. We could beat the Eagles and Chiefs, and lose to the Bengals and Jets again. Who knows. I just think that team we saw against Miami is still there. If they get in a groove, they can get on a run - like they did last season in the 1st few months, or in that whole stretch after the Hail Murray game. I could see us reeling off 6 in a row right now. Not saying we WILL - but I can see it. I mean, we think the Chiefs are all that, and they are - but they haven't beaten us in the regular season in years.

Allen threw a pick on the 1st offensive play of the game - and I thought that really set the tone. It ended up putting us down 10-0, and we were battling to catch up the whole game after that. The O-line, despite great strides this season, reverted to their worst version. JA was harried all day. On the flip side, Mac Jones could fix a snack in the pocket he had all day. And despite all that, we came back and took the lead with just under 2 minutes to go. We could have held it or at least forced OT if we remembered how to tackle.

Is this golf?

Yeah - we don't know what to expect right now. After the Miami game, I think everyone felt we were at least a top 3 team in the league. Now, it's like, "who is this team?" Nothing would shock me. We could collapse and miss the playoffs, which I would consider unlikely. We could tread water and squeak in as a WC, which wouldn't be surprising. We COULD go on a tear and lose 2 games the rest of the season - and that wouldn't shock, either. Any way you slice it, it beats the drought, when the season was generally over by now.

Because we have before.

Every team that's looking for a coach wants Johnson. And we're not moving on from McD, unless this team really collapses.

This Bills team is 100% making the playoffs - provided we can stay relatively healthy from here on out. We're not getting blown out or anything. Even w/ the injuries we have, we'll muster at least 10 wins. I'm still guessing 12. Success in the playoffs depends on health. I'm still holding out some hope for a return from Milano or Jones, or both.

And another petition: the no-huddle WORKS. When the offense is stagnant, they should give it a try more often.

We'll beat the Pats in Buffalo, if both teams stay relatively healthy from here on out. But I definitely want that to be a blowout now.

The tackling was abysmal. On that last screen to Stevenson, I practically lost count of the missed tackles. Not sure who it was that had the 1st crack at it, but he had perfect position and just had to wrap him up. It was like he just bumped into him & let him keep going He picked up 20+ yards after that. Without that, it's VERY likely a FG drive, OT and a much better chance for a W.

As some have said - don't hurdle. Slide. That's it. Otherwise, play ball. Play w/ joy & go w/ your instincts.

I hope another JA thread isn't annoying, and this has been said on a few other discussions - but Josh Allen went from being the most effective QB in the NFL on the ground, to NOT RUNNING AT ALL. If Dorsey & the offensive staff aren't meeting today, determining that their little "tell Josh not to run" experiment failed, and changing course, something is very wrong. It is as obvious and clear as anything that is wrong w/ the team right now. Allen is a top 10 QB as a passer. He is a top 2 QB as a passer and runner. Fix it.

We could be the Pats - whose fans reminded me so much of us, when Fitz beat New England that one year. It was, as they liked to say at that time, our "Super Bowl." And it was ultimately meaningless. But the shoe's on the other foot now. I can't believe how over the moon those fans were to beat the Bills yesterday. We have flipped the script.. Now, if we could just get a few SB's.

I'm more persuaded by how he looks breaking 3 tackles in the backfield and getting the ball downfield than in his facial expression on the sideline.

We tried the "hot team the 1st few months" thing last year. I liked when we were the hot team late in the season. Like you said, who knows? This might be how we are this year, and it could be 1 step forward, 2 back all season. But why not believe we can get hot?