SCBills

In the moment, I agree with you completely. This defense struggles early in games. I'm sure the coaches have faith that they would hold the Bengals down, or to a FG, on the following drive... but that feels misguided given their recent struggles until they settle in. Felt 3 meant nothing at that moment. Also felt like we would get 7 unless we screwed up... which we did on 2nd and 3rd down... wasn't anything the Bengals did.

I'd say no, but I do wonder about Tre White given his views during the covid opt-out, the emotion he showed last night and his philosophical tone coming back from the ACL injury. For everyone else, I doubt it. This was such a freak incident. A routine tackle. Extremely rare, but has happened in other sports too. I don't even know how to wrap my head around that... no way to prevent it, which I think adds to the feeling of mortality, but I don't think it changes 99% of players views on playing football.

I think the Bills are going to have to do as you say, and make Rhodes/Benford both gameday active and have the tough conversation with Tre that he's going to be part of the rotation with everyone else. That's got to hurt to hear, but nobody is expecting Tre to be a star this year. Next year is the target year for him to start looking more like the pre-injury Tre White.

I knew from the moment they announced Bengals won the toss and elected to receive that Josh would step on the field down 7-0. Bengals surely know the reputation of our defense's slow starts and wanted to get out early. It worked. As perennially frustrated as I am with Frazier and our Defense, they settle in and start playing good football after the first couple drives. The flip side is that it's a bad reflection on game-planning & preparation that the defense constantly gets out-schemed/out-coached/out-played early in so many games.

Bills Defense has a penchant to start games slow and make even bad offenses look like the greatest show on turf for the first 1-2 drives before they settle in and start playing solid football. Bills Offense also sliced through the Bengals Defense before a miscue/blown play on 2nd down in the red zone and then a timing hiccup between Allen & Beasley, who are probably still working out the kinks, forced us to settle for 3 instead of tying it up at 7. Bills Defense looked equally unprepared/outschemed on the Bengals second drive before Hamlin went down on the field. Not a ton to take away from the game, aside from our Defense looked poised to give up two easy drives to the Bengals to start the game just like they've done far too many times this season. ----- If we see them again, you can't put Tre on an island against Chase. Chase is too big, too fast and Burrow is completely comfortable throwing jump balls out there. If we go one on one with Tre, it has to be on Higgins.. then bracket Chase. Burrow will take the underneath stuff alllllll day. He will kill you death by a thousand paper cuts. Not sure "bend, don't break" is the move against a QB with 3 star playmakers at WR and a good TE. May have to take risks and play tighter coverage to force him to hold onto the ball and if he hits you deep a few times, so be it. We never got to see the Defenses adjustments that typically come after the first few drives, but we saw enough to know that ... once again... the game plan to start was a mess. A far too common issue... can't be "feeling out" teams every week and putting yourself in a hole constantly.

Its not just that they scored on their first two drives … it’s that it looked so easy. Every play the Bears ran looked to be the perfect play against our defense. Then they clamped down. Same thing early on against Cinci. It’s annoying, but it’s been our defenses M.0. all year. I doubt we clamp down Cinci like we did Chicago, but I also think they could adjust enough with our Offense looking ready for a track meet.

Bills were an Allen/Beasley timing hiccup away from this being 7-7. We moved the ball at will on our first drive. As frustrating as it is, we’re all very familiar with our defenses slow starts. To act like anyone knows how this game was going to go, even if the Bengals go up 14-3 on their current drive, is being ridiculous and completely disrespectful to the grit and heart this team has shown this year. I say this as someone who was ready to throw my tv watching our defense in those first 1.5 drives. ….I also know we have a seasons worth of data to rely on as to the good & bad tendencies of this defense all year long.

My goodness, will you stop… “Neutral” is not the preference so we can avoid what you believe was going to be a “throttling”. 1) It gives us zero shot at the one seed should KC win. 2) If we were going to lose that game, I’d much rather play, lose it, and then force the Bengals to beat us twice in a month if we meet again in Cinci in a few weeks. All a neutral outcome gives us is a potential Cinci game at home. I think most would rather take the chance at a 1 if Hamlin is ok and we have the opportunity to resume down 7-3 midway through the 1st quarter. This all said .. we’re not going to have what we hope is good news on Hamlin for a couple days, based on almost anyone familiar with what happened. The Bills may have to prepare for NE all week with their teammate, and our Buffalo Bills brother in a medically induced coma fighting for his life. Posters are commenting about potential decisions knowing this reality.

Bills beat the Chiefs without Hyde. They did have Von, but no Tre White. Chiefs went up and down the field on us early but Elam had a pick on a little pop pass Mahomes tried in the red zone. Bills, as frustrating as it is, have not started games well on defense this year. I don’t expect they would have shut down Burrow and the Bengals after two drives like they did Fields/Bears, but we have a season full of data showing they would start to figure out what the Bengals can do/want to do, adjust, and start slowing them down a bit.

Thank you. Im awake at 2:20 am because, aside from watching a plane hit the tower on 9/11, that was the most jarring thing I’ve ever watched on tv. Everyone I was with joined together and prayed for Damar. I also want to talk about something other than that from time to time tonight. Everyone deals with things differently.

Not sure Tre should be on an island with Chase even when healthy. Burrow has no issue throwing jump balls down the field. He’ll do it every time it’s single coverage. The TD was just poor scheme and smart Bengals play calling to dissect it. Tre taking outside leverage, Hamlin sucked up to defend the underneath route. Game over. At least Tre can run with Higgins down the sideline. Single man coverage on Chase is a recipe for disaster no matter who you have at corner. Bracket that guy.

This is my guess, as based on anyone I know with medical knowledge seems quite sure this doesn’t end tomorrow with Hamlin waking up and all is fine. (Not that he couldn’t be fine down the line). Have to think the Bills would agree to this given the circumstance, and the Bengals probably wouldn’t be loving this but also may not want to play on Wed/Thurs only to risk losing and then have a showdown for the division a couple days later.

Just like the Bears were about to “throttle” the Bills? For whatever reason, our defense has been trash to start games. They tend to settle in after the 2nd drive. …or do you just think the Bengals were going to perfect game us? Bills went right down the field and were a hiccup in timing between Allen and Beasley away from it being 7-7 instead of 7-3. That was not a great start from the Bills, but it’s not really much different from quite a few starts to games we’ve seen from them this year.

Someone got a tip about the status of Poyer and/or Hubbard? Not sure a Safety and Defensive End move the line to that dramatic of an effect though?

One thing is for sure.. If the Bills take care of business tonight and close out the Pats next weekend, they will have EARNED the one seed. -One of the toughest schedules in football. -Major injury issues to star players all season. -Tough scheduling & weather issues. -Playing not one, but both teams we are competing for the one seed with, on the road. Would be quite the testament to the heart and grit of this team.

Its a bit annoying how pessimistic so many of us are, also every national show has been hyping the Bengals all week… it is what it is. 1) Bengals are at home 2) It’s a passing league and our passing offense has been… strange.. and our pass defense has been meh against good passing offenses. Kind of like a funk that we need both aspects of our team to snap out of now. 3) 13 seconds. It cemented a loser sentiment amongst many fans in big moments. Lack of trust - Somewhat removed by the acquisition of Von, but now Von is done for the year. …they’re going to have to overcome those demons themselves.

Asking anyone to read this graph is an act of terrorism.

Josh needs to find a level somewhere between him and Justin Herbert, relative to check downs. We have two guys who should be check down monsters in Cook & Hines, along with Knox who is extremely talented with the ball in his hands. I know he always wants the big play, but taking check downs is what can open that up. It will also make this offense look much easier. Also.. we may see Playoff Josh tonight. That’s the one where he just runs for the easy yards whenever they are there. That requires a spy and/or for the defense to suck in, also opening up everything. It’s not a coincidence that we looked like a laser show in the playoffs last year…. It’s because Josh Allen unleashed is an absolute monster.

Need the Bills to win so I can post the “I don’t think about you at all” meme… …Because that’s kind of how this feels with the player clips from both sides going into this game.

I’d argue the Bills OL is solid when healthy, and they’re healthy now. Metrics can be cherry picked. As I said above, Bills are Top 5 in pass block win rate. In regards to Allen having less to work with than Mahomes and Burrow… I think that’s probably accurate. Remains to be seen how our Kromer-led run game factors in against peer contenders.. Not that we should become a running team, but it will be interesting to see if it translates in any meaningful way. The flip side of the coin is that our Defense is better than Cinci’s and much better than KC’s. Do they show up in games like this?… because for all the investment, they didn’t last year when it mattered.

Just repeated the analytic on the radio a few minutes ago … Bills OL pass block win rate #4 in the league. When healthy, the Bills OL is solid. Yes, Allen makes them look much better, but he also holds onto the ball a lot instead of hitting the check down.. which can make them look worse.

Not sure what to read into the comments before this game, but contrast the Bengals players chirping and feeling “disrespected” or whatever their problem is with what we hear coming out of Buffalo…. Nothing. They’ve just gone about their business this week. Only comment I saw get any buzz was Allen saying he’s getting sick of AFC East Division Champ hats and that there is much more ahead of them. (Paraphrasing)

Chiefs play Saturday, so if we don’t win tonight, we - and the Bengals - would know if the 1 seed is or is not on the table. Normally I’d say that guaranteed second home game if we win on WC Weekend is worth it, but we could really use a bye week… Tough choice. I think we’d have to be in the locker room to know how necessary that rest is. A potential rematch against Cinci, at home vs on the road isn’t nothing. Or, we can take care of business tonight and not worry about what we should do.

This Ravens team is shot against the Bengals if Lamar doesn’t play. Chargers probably do care about keeping the 5 seed they’re now in. For those who don’t want to see LAC in the Wild Card, should we not beat Cinci, this was likely a good result … but yea, Baltimore has only seeding to play for next week unless we beat Cinci.. which, in that case, we could care less.

Kaiir Elam played extremely physical at Florida. Maybe if we actually gave him playing time, he’d have the experience/trust for the staff to let him go out and do some of this stuff.