SCBills

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/35427940/buffalo-bills-josh-allen-rise-career-journey

It's a valid criticism. We are hilariously bad at screens. I just do not care.. it's one of the more random things to worry about.

-We'll see. Bengals have played us for about five seconds. Miami sees us all the time. Agreed though.. Bills DL needs to be better against another decimated OL. -If he's still hurt, he has a funny way of showing it by putting on a laser show nonstop against Miami on Sunday. -Ok.. We've lost 3 games. Dorsey is fine. Does he deserve criticism, sometimes.. but he's not losing us games. -Tre has gotten better week to week and finally looks confident again. Kaiir Elam is an X-Factor due to Jackson's injury finally forcing our most talented CB onto the field to show what he can do. -Screen passes.. really? I literally could not care less about the fact we don't run screens well.

Yea.. I think many of us have been down on the WR's all season, and with good reason.. but I've come around after Sunday's performance. Diggs and "Playoff Gabe" is as good of a duo as there is in the Playoffs. It seemed like Allen & Beasley were a tick off until that TD throw.. then followed up with a great hesitation route in the middle of the field that Cole turned up for huge YAC. Add in Shakir and potentially getting McKenzie back, and they have some really solid options to rotate in at Slot Receiver. Knox is an above average Tight End. I'm really good with what we've got in place to make a run. Doesn't mean we shouldn't ABSOLUTELY draft a WR in the first two rounds next year, but for this post-season, I like where we're at.

Somewhat accurate heading into the playoffs, but teams may want to be afraid of Gabe Davis. He absolutely dominated out there on Sunday. If Allen hits him on the deep balls Davis had a step on, we're potentially looking at close to 200 yards receiving.

Doesn't seem like a McDermott move to declare someone out and then all of a sudden he plays. I guess you could say that falls under "sportsmanship" but it doesn't seem like the kind McD would engage in.

Did it? I could've sworn when the game was first set on Sunday it opened -2.5 but then quickly jumped for -4.5... maybe I'm wrong. You answered it. Mahomes has a Super Bowl. Allen is more talented.. he's the most talented QB in the NFL. Once he gets a Super Bowl, the narrative will reflect that.

I think Bills -2.5 People may say, well look at the Dolphins movement and how the game turned out, but anyone watching that game knows the Bills should have won by 30 if they weren't busy messing around on some nonsense all afternoon.

I think the Bengals run to the Super Bowl last year was a bit fluky. Burrow was basically along for the ride, their defense implemented some tricky concepts that confused Mahomes in that second half and they kicked - what seemed like - 40 field goals. Tre looks much better now than he did heading into the first Cincy match-up. At the very least, he seems to have his confidence back. Yea, Elam is a rookie, but he balled out in his first ever post-season game. I have no reason to be down on him, other than he's inexperienced. He's got talent, and the Bills seem finally ready to let him play out there.. which is especially helpful given they also seem to let him play press man coverage on his side. Both QB's have their negatives. Allen sometimes is careless. Burrow takes sacks. If Cincy wants to blitz Allen, go ahead.. you can choose to be worried about it because Miami (like Ravens/Bengals) have the blueprint to hit Allen and turn him over. I am not. I know how good Allen can be, and his ceiling is higher than anyone in the league. Re: Coaching... AGREED. If Cincy comes in down 3 OL starters, and our Defense can't slow them down, I'll start to question whether we can win it all with McDermott/Frazier. There are no excuses, imo, for that to happen.

Honestly, I'm pretty confident. With Cincy's OL injuries, the edge swings pretty heavily to us. I feel way more confident in our secondary going into this match-up, than I did a few weeks ago. On Offense, we have the better QB, the healthier/better OL and our weapons look like they're rounding into form at the perfect time. Home field is icing on the cake. Cincy will come out with an edge, feeling like they were slighted, but with McDermott being a very strong defensive coach.. having that quick look at Cincy's opening game plan a few weeks back isn't inconsequential.

Any chance they just want some PS guys to replicate Higgins and Boyd in practice this week?

Meh... he's going to be in line for his second contract soon. Drafted in the same class as Gabe Davis. Could he help this year? Maybe.. Not sure Allen would be throwing to him like DJ is. What would Khalil Shakir look like if you swapped him out for Hodgins in NYG? I think the Bills have what they want for these playoffs.. Diggs and Davis outside. Beasley in the slot, mix/match with Shakir/McKenzie/Brown. Diggs is Diggs, Playoff Gabe and Allen/Beasley look to finally have found their groove after another clunky looking out route throw and the deflected interception. I come away from Sunday, frustrated by the dumb mistakes that need to be cleaned up moving forward, but heartened by the fact this WR room is healthy and looks like what we expected to have as we make a run to the Super Bowl.

Some of it was probably the fact it was a close game (although pretty much every WC game was close going into the 4th aside from DAL/TB).. most of it is the Bills/Allen. People tune in for QB's. There's a reason they are so protected. Of the Top 5/6 QB's, only Allen & Mahomes are really must watch.. add in Lamar, if you have him ranked that high.

True .. I do think Tre White, a few weeks removed from that game, is a much better player now. He was lacking confidence going into that game and they exploited it.

Humble and Hungry worries me a bit.. I get the mantra, and that's who McDermott and Frazier are... but if we can take anything from the two Cincy drives a few weeks ago, it's that they want to take it to our Defense and physically impose their will. When I watch some of these playoff defenses that slow down people, they seem to be filled with guys who are borderline line-steppers and chirp nonstop. I don't any of that from our guys, sans Milano's physicality ... and guess what, he's a first team All-Pro. Edmunds brought the hit stick out on Sunday, and that was good to see. Not saying we necessarily need to be like that to win, but Ravens Defenses are always like that. Chiefs a few years ago in the AFC CG.. they were as physical as they could possibly be all game. Bengals Offense came out, literally, with the intent to hurt people on that Monday Night. I'm hoping to see us match, and exceed, the Bengals physicality and aggression.

I've seen the Ravens slow down elite offenses in the playoffs. When the Bills do it, I think they'll start getting the same credit by many here... they will by me, at least. If they step up against Cincy, I'll be the first to give them credit.

Wherever he goes, they better have a top 5 OL. They made the point last night that Brady can still do it at a high level, but the difference is where you give Allen, Mahomes or Burrow a bad OL and they're still a top QB.. you've now seen that with Brady and he seriously struggles to put points on the board.

I see Dalton Kincaid TE, Utah mocked to us in some RD1 Drafts. Id rather go that way than sign another big money TE, if we feel that’s a move we want to make. Not sure I understand the need for a second really good TE though… I’d rather invest high draft picks into OL & a WR.

If our trenches are weak, what are Cincy’s? Heading into this game, Bills have the healthier/better OL and the DL’s are a push, if not slight edge to the Bills.

They followed up and said he dislocated in back in Week 5 and played the next week, but now there's more concern and it sounds like a potentially more serious injury than the first time. Their Center Ted Karras has a quote where he's talking like they are expecting to be down Jonah Williams and Alex Cappa, along with La'el Collins of course.

Echoing what others have said, sounds like their starting tackles will both be out. Collins, obviously, and Williams is reportedly going to be out with the dislocated kneecap. Cappa, not sure, but last I saw of him was at Bengals practice last week in a boot and on a scooter. Judging by Karras’ comment, he seems to be expecting them all to be out on Sunday.

This. Maybe Burrow and the Bengals attack differently and aren't so hyper-aggressive ALL the time, but Burrow would've gotten lit up in that game. Miami has top 3 DL talent in the league with Phillips, Chubb, Ingram and the interior guys. On top of that, they just blitzed nonstop. When they didn't send the house, it was simulated pressure. Ravens Defense is obviously way better in the LB/Secondary, but the Dolphins Defense is psychotic at times.. amplified by the fact they knew the defense had to go for broke.

Yea... not going to equate these two things. Burrow/Bengals would've had the same opps we had to utterly obliterate the Dolphins, but in the process Burrow would've left the game bloodied. Dolphins played that game one way, and it was focused on hitting the QB with a Defensive Line that is quantum leaps beyond what the Ravens have.

NFL was willing to do it for BUF/KC, because KC still got a bye week and the "easier" path. Fwiw, I'm beyond sick of the Bengals shtick. Really hope the Bills come out Sunday with some demon energy and beat up the Bengals. They just talk and talk and talk. Send them home and shut them up.

I think you're being far too simplistic as well. Why does Allen need to be "near perfect" but Burrow does not? Would you rather have the Bills OL or the Bengals OL? Would you rather have the Bills DL or the Bengals DL? I'm taking the healthy Bills OL over the beat up Bengals OL. The DL's are pretty close, but for all the hand-wringing post-Von's ACL, in games I've seen of Cincy, our DL gets more pressure with 4 than theirs does. We all know the Bengals have top 3 weapons in the league. And your physicality comment isn't lost on me. I'll be very interested to see if the Bills man up, because the Bengals came out early a few weeks ago with a vicious energy that we did not match early on. I think Tre White's play over the past two weeks has been very encouraging, and Kaiir Elam was drafted for games like this. Those two need to watch Ravens film, because they can certainly play like they did. One last thing... for all the Burrow simping some here do, he has played a handful of playoff games now and has not once turned in a Josh Allen/Patrick Mahomes performance. Once again, yesterday, his defense made the play to win the game. It's the same script we saw last year. Burrow has the better weapons... but his OL is leaky and he doesn't have the take-over ability Allen has. He could carve us up... heaven knows I am not sold on McD/Frazier's post-season defense... but I'm going to give them some credit and say we show up Sunday.