ShakAttack

I think this is a matchup nightmare as it has been for many teams and we are about to be destroyed. The last time I was so sure that a Bills opponent would absolutely destroy us: 2018 bills at Vikings

I want to buy into this as any Bills fan would, but the reality is, each time Josh Allen hype has peaked has been after a game against the Dolphins. If he is REALLY coming into his own we will know it tomorrow and he certainly won’t be outplayed by the other Allen. We know Allen is a gamer, we know he is going to give a game like this everything he’s got, so now let’s see exactly what he’s got at this point in his career because a game like Denver vs. Buffalo will VERY likely have to come down to one late drive to win the game on offense. And he’s been a pretty good 4th quarter passer but this Broncos defense isn’t quite like the defenses he had been getting it down against

Only thing is.... we have played 2 games against opponents this season amid reports of dysfunction within the team... and we lost both. If this was ever supposed to give us some type of an advantage, I stopped believing that after the Browns game (although they did play like a team that was trying not to win for a while). And either way, for a team being led by Brandon Allen, I would say the Broncos have been looking better than they should overall. Just hoping our defense is good enough to force him into a bad game (IF we can actually stop Lindsay. Ballage was no Philip Lindsay. I’m not ready to say our run D has turned it around just yet)

Whelp ! That pretty much unfolded the way I had called it? Best offensive day of the season? Check... wish I could make predictions like this every week, but next week I’m likely back to a pessimistic bills fan that looks at every game as a coin flip at best. Anyway enjoy this win fellas. Definitely helped temporarily erase the pain from last week. Go Bills!!!

And you know, it may sound ridiculous to some, but that is one of the things that factored into my reasoning. It’s kind of like how Philly played us a few weeks ago when they knew it was a must win game for them. At 6-3 and almost everyone else with a decent record in the AFC losing this past week as well, it may not look like do or die on paper, but we’ve seen the schedule, and it’s always been known that we have to take care of every winnable game to make it this season, and that applies more than ever now. The team is well aware of it; the sense of urgency in the pressers was quite obvious this week, and where we used to hear about looking at film and correcting errors in the past, now we have hints of an entirely new offensive approach. Sure, there is a chance that could end up disastrous at some point, but not this week, not against a defense where you hear about analysts and commentators that follow college ball having to Google names of the starters because they’ve never heard about them before. There’s plenty of reason to see this as the breakout week on offense. I’ve never thought of any other week as “the week” our offense breaks out until this one, but again, what happens on the other side of the ball with Fitz vs our defense and ANY rb vs our run defense is unpredictable. Fitz is not easy to confuse. We have to hope the defense can force him into throws That he just doesn’t have the arm to make and then the picks start coming. I love the guy, but when he’s on His game against the bills, he’s one of the toughest QBs for me to watch lol. Still, I stand by my prediction; we win by at least 10, but this time, the 4th quarter is where the game gets completely out of hand for Miami, as opposed to needing a come from behind win in the 4th

Here’s my reasoning. Josh Allen and the offense has been productive against weaker defenses, especially defenses deficient of talent. Dolphins twice last year, Giants this year and heck even moved the ball well against Dolphins this year but started off with 3 field goals not finishing drives. You combine that with a huge sense of urgency and a team that seems to respond well to these situations, and that’s why I believe our offense will be putting up A lot more points than the usual 18 ppg tomorrow. As I said in the OP, if anything , our defense is the concern in this game especially given how well Fitz was able to move the offense along in the first meeting. I also think them not having Xavien Howard and Mark Walton will be a noticeable loss for them. Walton is not a top tier RB but he sure looked like one against us while Ballage is kind of a one dimensional North-South RB and he’s all they got now. If we STILL can’t stop the run game with just ballage, then yeah, maybe we are going to have a problem, but it’s not going to be a problem with us scoring points. Not this week anyway

Young Dolph

I think it completely depends on whether they get a QB or not. Right now, they’re ruining their shot at that. And while Flores deserves credit, let’s not forget Fitz deserves the most credit for Miami’s turnaround. HE is the guy this team has rallied around, but he’s no long term answer, not for anyone. It’s easy to be impressive when you have no expectations at all. Yeah maybe they will be a threat in the future but right now they’re threatening their own shot at first dibs on QB in the next draft

19-16.... you just had to remind me of these 2 numbers.... ugh I keep hearing that, but I also saw the Bills miss a whole bunch of opportunities completely on their own, nothing to do with how Cleveland was playing us. We’ve seen what Allen looks like in the 4th quarter when he and the offense are dialed in. This is the first real adversity the team has faced all season and based on the type of player that I THINK Josh Allen is, I think the offense will do its part this week. Heck, look at the first meeting against Miami. Yes, Miami played very well, but if we didn’t start the game on 3 short FGs, that could have been one sided pretty fast, even with Fitz moving the ball. Those drives that stalled are the types of drives you see the Bills finish in the fourth quarter usually. I think that changes on Sunday. We will see.

Let me start by saying I’m not the type of fan you’re thinking of. There is not one game this season where I felt the Bills would cruise to victory (although I did have a pretty good feeling about the Giants game). It is more that I feel this team plays well, especially on offense, when there is a strong sense of urgency. For whatever reason, the Bills have not been able to play with that sense of urgency until the end of most games, and it is how they’ve won most of their games. heck as ugly as last weeks game was, it even happened there too. The offense took the lead with under 5 mins to play yet again. I believe the Browns game was a wake up call, the Bills know what is on the line here and you can hear it in the press conference we’ve heard so far this week. i think this translates to something we have been waiting to see all season, a Bills team that plays like the game is on the line for 4 full quarters, regardless of the score at any point in time. “coach sat us down and told us to play fearless” The most interesting quote from JA’s presser on Wednesday. To me, that means 4 quarters of a killer instinct on offense. Heck, I think we may even see the deep ball finally connect. The time has come to see what this offense can look like when they play a complete game and once we see that, it may even change our outlook in some of these “guaranteed losses” down the stretch this has nothing to do with underestimating Miami. In fact, I think this could very well be that game where the offense moves the ball and puts up points but we have to count on the defense to not allow Fitz to do the same to us. Fitz is one of the most unpredictable QBs I know and he is incredibly resilient so I am really really hoping we have the game plan to bring out “fitztragic”. After all, after the past month, that Fitz is overdue.

sure our defense has deficiencies, but we are at least 8-1 with this defense if we had an offense. I think if you wanna look to where the process failed it’s the offense, but you can’t fault them for trying (in terms of how many pieces were brought in to attempt to make the offense more productive). As much as I hate to say it, it starts with QB & OC, whichever you wanna blame the most

I think all of the “we have to win X games because we are going to lose Y games” arguments are ridiculous. all you have to do is look at all of the scores this past week to find out why. Many teams that weren’t supposed to win ended up winning. we can win or lose any of these games. Some just have better chances than others.

What Fitz is doing with Miami right now totally reminds me of Fitz his first year in buffalo coming in for Trent Edwards. That year the Edwards Bills were like the Rosen Phins. Then Fitz starts, suddenly we are competitive. That said, even that year Fitzmagic was never good for more than 2 straight wins.... heck in general, after a few solid games, Fitz has some kind of melt down, so let’s hope it’s the case next Sunday, cause when Fitz is doing well against the Bills it’s really freakin hard to watch. Don’t know about you guys

He was definitely clutch the first year we signed him. In fact, this is the first end of game field goal I remember him missing for us. This is the first time I can recall his missed kicks actually costing us a game

Between that and observations from Daboll’s press conference the other day, seems like that Eagles game has him feeling ticked off. Maybe lit a fire? Not sure but I don’t mind!

thanks for that man ?

Only got to follow our game through Game Center and red zone today and on GC it said duke Williams was injured on his 20+ yard catch and then “rolled out of bounds” and walked off on his own. Anyway how bad did it look? Anything to be concerned about? He only had one catch today but it was another big one on our go ahead td drive so I’d hate to lose him

It’s a funny thing. My nerves go crazy every year the week before we play the Titans and for me it has nothing to do with the music city miracle. It’s more that every year we seem to be pretty evenly matched with them and we seem to play them at a critical part of our season. In this case its 4-1 into the bye vs 3-2. On paper 3-2 looks respectable but in reality it ain’t even close. 4-1 record into the bye means the team & fans (especially) get to feel great for a couple weeks for a change, it means we avoided a 2 game losing streak, it means Allen probably did something right and showed improvement against a great defense and MOST importantly, at 4-1 it would become really hard to NOT make the playoffs (while at 3-2 we are most likely going to be in a large group of AFC teams with that same record after tomorrow). This game is huge. I can’t say we “never” win these types of games because that has actually changed since Beane & McDermott showed up, but I can say historically when we find ourselves in such a favorable situation and face a game like this, it usually ends up with heartbreak. Let’s hope McBeane has changed that trend as well! And if we need another fourth quarter comeback, let’s hope Allen can deliver yet again against a defense that poses a much greater challenge than the others did

I would have taken 3-2 at the bye but not if coming off 2 straight losses.

At 3-1, who said anything about “the season being over” in the first place!? Sheesh. Of course it isn’t over! I see the Patriot effect played out yet again!

Heck “even with Barkley” bet we move the ball more consistently. I actually like Barkley’s chances against a complex defense a bit more than Allen’s, if that makes sense, and it’s because his ability to read a defense is a little better. There are ultimately pros and cons to both. With both of them you have to hold your breath when they throw the ball, but for different reasons. But if Barkley has to play and we can give him a clean pocket maybe we see more of this: And need I remind you, 2019 is the Year of the Backup QB in the nfl!

I wouldn’t say the book is out on Allen. He was terrible against the Pats last season too and all he did was come back to play his best football after that... until he played the pats again! You need the personnel and scheme to do what they do on defense

Maybe I’m one of the few that feels this way but as much as I would rather have Allen out there competing I don’t think there’s much of a drop off with Barkley. He had us a yard away from the go ahead TD if not for a Gilmore tackle and then Gore getting stuffed on the next play followed by a pass off Zay Jones’ hands that Duke Williams would have grabbed (they had obvious chemistry in pre-season I’d call him up for the Titans too bad it won’t happen though ). This team will fight for him too. He doesn’t have the mobility but he is probably a little better at finding the open receivers. I’m reluctant to say that he would have less turnovers than Allen though cause he’s had those issues in his career too, but as long as our defense keeps us in it - and they will - there isn’t too much of a difference

well...fwiw...Allen did have the highest wonderlic of the 2018 qb class, even better than genius Rosen, so we know he's a good test taker. Therefore, if he is indeed right, I would like his chances of passing the test as much as anyone.

Exactly and he will do it again and again. It’s part of his game. It’s part of why he’ll always be at risk for injury but fortunately he seems to be able to take a hit better than any other QB I’ve seen. Thing you have to consider is how many critical first downs have you seen him get for us by sacrificing himself just like he did there?