SCBills

Agreed, which is why I would have just given them the home field which comes along with winning the Division. No coin flip option necessary.

Best answer I can give is that a compromise is typically best when all sides aren't happy. If I made the decision, I would have never had the coin flip option for CIN/BAL based on who wins the final game. That would have given all top teams involved a positive and negative. -Bengals win Division automatically, but are relegated to the 3 seed -Bills lose control of the 1 seed, but are guaranteed the 2 seed provided they win their regular season finale -Chiefs gain everything without doing anything, but may face a neutral field AFC Championship Game. I guess, Baltimore might feel slighted in that scenario, but they clearly did not care, at all, about a chance at a coin flip home game... and they weren't serious contenders without Lamar... maybe that should matter in all this, maybe not.

How do Cincy fans view his weapons? In the sense that Burrow will likely get the new wave of QB contract approaching/exceeding 50M per... It's hard to imagine he'll ever have more weapons than he does in Chase, Higgins, Boyd, Hurst, an invested in OL (injuries not withstanding) AND a top 10 caliber Defense. Is the consensus that Burrow will elevate those around him?.. because the weapons y'all have are as good as it gets this side of San Fran. It's what we've gone through all year with a heavily invested in defense and halfway though the year we're out here wining and dining OBJ and signing Beasley & Brown because Allen is throwing to Diggs, unproven slot WR's and a guy who apparently only dominates in the Playoffs.

You haven't seen anything yet.. How about we trade Oliver for a 2nd and use that pick to draft Poyer's replacement?

Dude is all heart. He's a guy that I believe we don't have the luxury of offering a contract lucrative enough to compete remotely close to what he'll likely receive in Free Agency, but it's still going to be sad to see him in a different uniform. Let's hope he goes out a Super Bowl Champion!

This is 100% absolutely what they're doing. Extrapolating the 9 minutes of that game to an entire game almost a month later. -Never mind the fact the Bills are a notoriously slow starting defense and the Bengals, on the flip side, a notoriously strong early game offense. -Never mind the fact the Bengals are now down 2 more OL starters. And this is just opinion, but I was worried about our secondary heading into that MNF game... I feel much better about them now.

You managed to make this poor of a post AND had to edit it in order to do so?

For a QB who tagged along for the Super Bowl run on the backs of his defense and field goal kicker last year, Joe Burrow sure gets an absurd amount of love from the media. I guess it makes sense, when you see how he went off against the Ravens last week... oh, wait.... It seems, sometimes, that there is just a gut reaction to hold to a higher standard the guy who is bigger, faster and stronger than any other QB... jealousy, envy... I don't know.. but it's pretty evident at times.

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.