ShakAttack

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?

Say what you want about Barkley being a disadvantage next week, but he ain’t missing that one

Yeah but you were not in concussion protocol. There’s specific requirments to pass that. For all we know Allen could claim to be feeling great but still won’t be good enough to clear protocol. Nobody really even knows wtf it consists of

Isn’t it so typical that every time we play the Pats in a meaningful game they not only leave us feeling disgusted after the game but also take out a key player to put us at a disadvantage for our next game(s)? Tre White... Josh Allen ...heck we can go back to the Wilfork hit on JP losman the one time he was actually having a decent season. been going on for years. I even predicted it would happen (them beating us and costing us a key player due to dirty play). Because sadly that’s how common it has become. only happens against the pats too. Gotta love it!

Was my exact thoughts too. I’ll even spell it out... Duke Williams. That’s all he did in the pre season. Wouldn’t have gone off his hands. That’s why you keep a WR with unique skill set compared to other WRs on your roster. Probably a different outcome with Duke.

I’m probably one of the few that thinks this way but I’m sure I’m not the only one! I am dreading this game because every time we ever have something good going for us, we play the Pats, they destroy us AND leave us with a roster decimated with injuries which effectively complicates the rest of our season and we are usually left a shell of the team that we were prior to playing them. So if you ask me, they can have the win. With our schedule I will take 3-1 all day! BUT it’s the injuries I worry about. If we come out of this game unscathed that’s a win for me. Heck I’d even go as far as saying let the evil genius game plan against Allen’s strengths and weaknesses all week long and then trot Barkley out there on Sunday. Throw a wrench in their game plan. Probably gives us a slightly better chance of pulling off the miracle honestly. And that’s no disrespect to Allen as much as it is just knowing their defense is lights out Belichik is a genius that will expose Allen’s weaknesses all day.......... but he wouldn’t be expecting Matt!

You bet for, I bet against. I wonder how a conversation between us would have went when Vikings had 3rd and 1 with 3.5 mins left... and then how it would go about, what, 10 minutes after that? You are one lucky dude!

Yeah I have to admit when I knew the matchup was Tyree vs Sloter I thought this was the first time a pre season game was an easy bet -3. Told a good friend of mine that it was money in the bank too. We bet against Buffalo (Vikings -3 was the line). With 3.5 mins left and the score 23-3, I felt like a genius. But that’s precisely when the Vikes put it into cruise control and the Bills decided they wanted to win. but before you start comparing it to our friend that put his house up against the Bills in last year’s Vikings game (or whatever crazy amount it was), it was only $58.... don’t worry lol but it still sucks considering everything went as expected... and then it didn’t lol either way here’s the take away... NEVER BET AGAINST BILLS WHEN THEY ARE PLAYING THE VIKINGS! (And spoil the opportunity to enjoy something that would otherwise be a heck of a lot of fun to watch)

As long as they are the old Flutie jersey cards that were actually game worn. Majority of jersey cards now are “player worn” which means Panini has the player wear about 10 XXXXL jerseys at the same time and then cut them up for all the rookie cards in every product for the year. This is no exaggeration. For some reason I can’t embed the pic here but maybe someone else can do it for me. Go here and scroll down to the picture of Mark Ingram wearing a bunch of huge saints jerseys http://www.sportscardsuncensored.com/nfl-football-hobby-continues-haunted-player-worn-material/ So that’s why a lot of collectors including myself are starting to prefer plain on-card autographs to everything else in the hobby right now (sticker autos are another story) now the card in the OP is the best of all worlds today.... the iconic Contenders product, cracked ice parallel, low serial #, clean on-card autograph and no “player worn” jersey bs...... it does not get much better than that right now.

No wonder the bills are so damn expensive In all the team breaks this season; everyone collecting Allen! I’ve got about 20 Allen autographs all from team breaks but if you combine their value, it’s probably still worth less than that sick Contenders cracked ice you posted OP. At present I’ve had a hell of a time trying to pull an Allen RPA out of NT (currently worth around $1k+). Been in 6.5 NT case breaks and hit 3 Allen autos /99 but not the chase autos so for those of you thinking I did well, no, I actually took a major loss because the Bills sell for $200+ in case breaks

You know, I used to be excited about the FA money as well until I noticed that a lot of teams have a lot of cap space and the free agents out there are not that special overall. So I’m not really sure how that will all pan out. It’s very likely we sit out the first wave again simply because this scenario may result in a lot of overspending on the top FAs at each position. But if we have a stellar draft and make the most of these 10 picks that would be huge in itself.

Haushka, Deonte Thompson and Tre’davious White. Those were our clutch players last season. While there was definitely luck involved, those guys still had plays to make and they made them (unlike Clay)

Well if something I wrote on a message board could entertain and engage a person enough to quit their job then gosh dang it I am putting MY notice in right now cause I am in the wrong business

Yes definitely fitting how Andy Dalton got us into the playoffs on a miracle in a season where the Bills won multiple games that felt like miracles considering we had always been losing those types of games before (and not getting the calls like the one we got in the snow game when the Colts actually had the game won until a penalty called it back)

Unless you count Allen I guess but there is is no doubt the oline is much worse. without checking the numbers, I would imagine our defense has improved a bit though (but may be creating less turnovers)

Going to try and make this quick because I'm on my limited time lunch break at work, but just something I find to be interesting. I have always felt that we have had better teams in recent years than the 2017 Bills team that snapped the playoff drought, but the difference was that the 2017 Bills were FINALLY getting the lucky breaks that are the difference between wins and losses. If you look at last year's schedule, the Bills basically had 5 games that went down to the wire and were 4-1 in those games. Similarly, we've had 5 games that have gone down to the wire so far this year, and are 2-3 in those games. Turn those 3 losses into wins and the Bills are suddenly 7-6... just like they were at this point last year. And between how the defense completed dominated Deshaun Watson and Houston and had a late lead only to have Peterman literally throw the game away, how Clay dropped the game winning TD against Miami and how we completely blew it against the Jets last week, we probably SHOULD have those 3 wins. In terms of being blown out, last year we lost FIVE games by 13 or more. This year, we have also lost 5 games by 13 or more so far and I realize the season isn't over but out of the Lions, Pats and Dolphins, I would highly doubt 2 of those teams beat us by 13+ at home and if the Pats do it, no surprise, but 6 losses by 13+ is not a heck of a lot different from 5. As far as blowing out our opponent, last year we only beat the Raiders by 13+. This year, we've actually done it twice (Vikings and Jets). Although I will say the season opener against the Jets and season finale against Miami may as well have been blowouts. Simply put, the 2017 Buffalo Bills was our luckiest Bills team in years. We won several games that Bills teams usually just do not win. The only tough break we had was the Zay Jones drop against Carolina, but other than that, any game that went down to the wire turned out in our favor. So what's the point in all of this? Well, I just got kinda tired of hearing about how the 2018 Bills have taken a "huge step back" from 2017, but if you actually think about it, it's not necessarily true. Instead, I would say that neither team was that good, but we deserved last season; a little luck was long overdue...