SCBills

I think we’re a better overall team and I think Josh Allen is now the better QB. My worry comes down to overcoming the Chiefs playoff mysticism, our DL coming up small in a big game and our coaches vs their coaches. Not so concerned about Arrowhead, as we perform well there. But if our DL gives up easy rush yards to Pacheco & Hunt, and then doesn’t come close to pressuring Mahomes, it doesn’t really matter where else we’re slightly better than them on the player personnel side. It will, once again, be all on Josh Allen to be Superman.. and even then, our coaches have shown that may not be enough in these moments. McDermott does seem different this go around, but if we lost that Ravens game, the turtle up/conservative second half would have been litigated to death this off-season. But, we won.. and hopefully McDermott realizes you have to kill the Chiefs. They aren’t the Ravens and postseason Mahomes isn’t playoff Lamar. He won’t give us the game. We have to go take it. Im more confident than not that we do.

This question should be reframed as “How do you stop the Chiefs in the Playoffs?” Because we stop Mahomes just fine in the regular season. His playoff numbers against us though, have been absurd.

It's hilarious... every year with them since the Tampa Bay Super Bowl loss. Everyone else loses people and they either lose one rotational guy or just get healthier. Added Brown and Watson for the postseason.

Bills rushed Lamar differently than they'd rush anyone else. Mahomes can scramble, but he's not Lamar and the Chiefs OL isn't the Ravens OL, despite how good their interior is. That said.. as you point out, we don't exactly have a monster DL, unless Rousseau, Von and Oliver all decide to ball out together.

Ryan Clark is literally melting down on X because Marcellus Wiley called him out over his JA/Lamar coverage. Wild to see...

Rapp comes across as a toss up, leaning towards not playing. Benford limited today is what we needed to see. He'll play. Milano limited with hamstring soreness should be good to go. Worry of him re-aggravating it during the game, but let's hope not.

Actually surprised at the legitimate Bills/Chiefs discussion on First Take today. SAS & Saturday saying the pressure is on Allen, but acknowledging that he's always stepped up against Mahomes. Mad Dog (correctly) pointing out how this game is pressure packed for McDermott, because it's been our Defense & Coaching that has let us down against this team in the past. All in all, a decent conversation, especially for ESPN. Probably because Mad Dog and Jeff Saturday are actually intelligent football analysts and not biased cheerleaders like RC and Cam.

I honestly don't know if Lamar will. I obviously hope Josh will get at least one. Josh just needs the team/coaching around him to step up with him, specifically against the team we will see Sunday night. Lamar has been part of the reason the Ravens have lost in the Playoffs every year. Until he's not, it doesn't matter what's around him.. they've been the best team in the league for two years in a row and no Super Bowl appearances.

They focused HEAVY on Josh Allen breaking contain and launching it downfield, only for us to run a million times and throw underhand passes around the LOS.

Same concern for me.. Worthy and Brown. Douglas on either one of them is a tricky proposition and we're currently having to hope Rapp and/or Benford can go. Baltimore was always the bigger challenge for our Defense, but Pacheco, Hopkins, Brown, Worthy, Gray and Playoff Kelce is a legit group of weapons for Mahomes when we know his OL is going to be able to hold & false start all game.

Were they though?.. in conventional fashion? The only big time downfield throw they connected on in structure (that I can remember) was the pass to Bateman over Hamlin. Bills had one to Shakir first drive of the game. Ravens had some bigger plays down the field when Lamar scrambled or bought time, whereas Allen was pretty much hemmed in the pocket and we seemed ultra-focused on keeping things safe.

It's a fair criticism. We called an extremely conservative game up 11 out of half and put it all on our Defense to save the day because of it. Then we got lucky with the Andrews drop. The result was Allen constantly being put in tough passing downs. Also, upon seeing some film reviews, our TE's basically killed that 3rd Q. Kincaid lost his footing and couldn't make the catch which led to a 3 and out and then Knox turned upfield like he lacks any peripheral vision ending another drive.

It did seem like we came out of half.. 1) Thinking what we did in the 1st half would just keep working and 2) Thinking we could just grind the game out up 11 Very frustrating half that was saved by an elite defensive play by Bernard and Andrews drop, but I will give credit to Baltimore.. Their Defense showed why they were the best in the league for the last half of the season and Henry/Lamar got rolling.

Backing track wouldn’t play, so after a minute of awkward silence, she just went a cappella and absolutely killed it

That Carrie Underwood moment was incredible

I honestly don't think so, despite some tongue and cheek remarks by our favorite podcasters. I do think you need to be able to force "some" actual stops. We saw them do it against Denver and I think they can do it against KC. Baltimore is a different beast.. matchup nightmare for us, and one where creating chaos in hopes of forcing mistakes in bad weather was our best chance.. and to their credit, they executed. We hunt turnovers. The Bernard play is the best example. That was simply an elite defensive play and one you can only make if you practice that, which we clearly do. KC however, is not Baltimore. Not as talented. Not a mismatch. But.. they are clutch and don't lose games by making a bunch of mistakes. Our Defense needs to show up again, and it needs to show up by forcing some FG's and punts.

I honestly think this is a low key big deal. The outrage publicly to the officiating in that Chiefs/Texans game was unlike anything i've seen before in the modern NFL.

Hollins and Coleman are monster run blockers, which Brady loves and keeps us incredibly difficult to defend with the ability to kill teams through the run or pass. That said.. when the Offense bogs down like we saw in the 3rd Q yesterday, you want to see plays dialed up and plays made by our outside WR's. Hollins did what we expect Hollins to do. Keon had a 5 yard catch that was so close to breaking for a TD and drew a huge DPI down the field. Cooper did..nothing. We know he can, we saw it against these very same Chiefs. I hope we see it again. Somebody not named Shakir or a Running Back will hopefully emerge in these next two games.. Be it Cooper, Coleman and/or Kincaid.

Is Derek Carr our QB, because im pretty sure thats who our coaching staff think is our QB so far this half

Rapidly approaching a place where if we don’t win, it’s in the Offense 21-10 at half and then absolute trash from the Offense in its first two drives

It’s so important to try and get up a score on them and the refs just destroyed our chance of doing it that drive.

Baltimore up 1-0 in game altering bad calls so far.

These are the games his defense needs To show up in. No offense to Bo Nix, Mac Jones, Skylar Thompson etc., but he gets only so much credit for those games.

Wide open receivers everywhere after Milano completely whiffed on a 3rd and long stop as a spy.

Fwiw, I don’t think the Chiefs will get calls like that if we play them next weekend. But I don’t think for one second that the NFL wanted the Texans in the AFC CG, when they’re staring down the barrel of Allen or Jackson trying to dethrone Mahomes.