The Red King

So, how do you build a team to avoid losing key starters in every level of your defense? Not saying the Bills were a perfect team by any measure. I just can't understand how people can just handwave away the number of key injuries the Bills had as if every team had to deal with them. The Chiefs certainly didn't when we met in the playoffs. But that leads to a different topic. *Can* something be done about these injuries? The last two seasons the team was shredded by crippling injuries. Was it all flukes? Do we need to look at strength and conditioning?

If backups can step in for starters with no loss in production, why do we pay starters more? If you honestly think that our healthy starting D wouldn't have done any better against KC out there, I can't take you seriously anymore.

They slowed down KC well enough in the regular season. Remind me who covered Kelce in that playoff game? You think our healthy starting D would have been ripped up even half as bad?

Yes, but the Bills didn't just lose one star, did they? Again, look at KC's injury report for that game, look at ours, and then look me in the eyes and say it was a wash.

Should Cincy have overcome losing Burrow? Should the Jets have overcome losing Rodgers? No? Can we stop pretending injuries were a non-factor? As posted above, look at KC's injuries compared to ours going into that game. Can you look me in the eye and say those injuries were equitable? Of course not! The argument that "all teams get injuries", suggesting each team's injury situation was equally damaging is ridiculous.

Again, not every OT will have a Mahomes and/or Allen in it. Different tactics for different teams.

I actually like this version. There are arguements to both sides. Be careful not to look at this through the lens of one game. Not every post-season OT game is going to have Mahomes. There are a lot of different tactics depending on the teams.

Cap'n! That fleet! They're all flying the Jolly Roger!

Unless Allen and Mahomes were playing 1-on-1 out there, boiling it down to Mahomes beat Allen is ignorant. Josh played fantastically in the playoffs this season. He did not turn the ball over or make a critical mistake. He played as well as Mahomes, if not better. He just didn't have the supporting cast.

Those horrible color-rush jerseys might actually look good with white pants (and keeping the white helmets).

IIRC he took a cheap shot from a Jets player several years back and was never quite the same. I might be misremembering that though.

The theme from Halloween? I mean, these Bills were like Michael Myers. At one point, at several points this team was proclaimed dead. They rose from the grave, knifing playoff positioning and playoff aspirations of other teams in the league, culminating in killing the Dolphins' division hopes and taking the #2 seed. Sadly, as in most horror films, the killer was vanquished...this time/season.

The section you highlighted was a standalone statement showing they were always in games. Nobody took them behind the woodshed. As for the rest, we needed some of our better players to not be out with injuries. Even a 90% Bills team could have won that game. Injuries affect execution. It's why backups are backups.

Injuries, injuries, injuries, including injuries suffered in a Wild Card game we would not have to play if we were the #1 seed. This team, if even mostly healthy, could well have won the SB.

Bills have been annihilated by key injuries the last two seasons. If they find a way to stay reasonably healthy they are a serious threat. The Bills did not lose a single game by more then one score last season.

If you receive, so long as you at least match the other team you get first crack at sudden death. If SF even just held KC to a FG, they would get the ball back just needing another FG for the win.

I would love to have him on the team, I really would. But the league has a salery cap and the Bills' have many other positions in worse shape then RB.

Diggs wants out. Something broke between him and the Bills. However, he knows the cap situation and knows he's going nowhere. He'll play for the Bills, and is enough of a competator to play well, but I think once it is feasable, he's gone. Unless something drastic changes.

KC eliminated Miami and Buffalo. Look at how each QB played. Josh played a great game and was let down by his supporting cast on offense. Can you say the same for Tua? Guy was terrible.

That's...not what I meant by 'fixed' at all. In fact my last reply (right above your quoted reply) pretty well explained what I meant by it. In detail.

Are you aware of Diggs and the cap situation? He would cost more against the cap if we got rid of him then he'd be if he remained on the team this season.

One more time, for those in the back, 'scripted' and 'fixed' are different things. The NFL can have interest in how a game plays out and use the refs to nudge it that way. If it still doesn't go the way the want, oh well. If there is fixing, it's more "We want <x> to win, see what you can do." rather then "<x> must win at all costs!!!". That's why you hear the phrase "Yeah, we had to beat them and the refs!". Look at the two key, blatent, PI non-calls in the AFCCG for a potential example of the former. Also, consider the league may have interests beyond win/lose, such as keeping games close to retain viewers, or covering a spread. And yet again, since some people apparently can't read, I do not in any way, shape or form think the league is scripted. That would be an untenable logistical nightmare. But again, 'scripted' and 'fixed' are not the same thing.

Perfect fit for Miami. His Ds could bully and blow up bad to mid offenses, but failed against elite ones. That, and the man makes no adjustments. None. Ever. He drew up plans on dry erase boards with permanent markers. If you have a good enough O, you can break his D, and if you figure out his scheme he simply will not change it. In other words, he's perfect for a Miami team that wrecked bad to meh teams and then absolutely soiled themselves against quality opponents.

This will give McD a chance to devote his full attention to head coaching. There is a reason teams have coordinators and assistants. I'd rather have McD squarely focused on his head coaching responsibilities during a game.

The current scheduling system is a formula. Every team in a division plays the others twice each, play (the same) AFC division and same NFC division. That's 14 out of 17 games. Then they play a team from each of the remaining AFC conferences that finished in the same spot aa them. Then one game against a team from the NFC that finished in the same slot. That means the AFC West teams play the same 14 games, and the other three are stacked *against* the higher-ranked teams. KC has to come here next season because we both finished in 1st. Five of KC's seventeen games, almost a third of the season, will be against teams that finished in first place in their divisions. Meanwhile, five of the Chargers' games will be against last-place finishers. KC has a harder road to the Super Bowl going through the AFC. They beat Buffalo and Baltimore on the road. Let me ask this. In the '90s do you think any Bills fan called for realignment after Buffalo won the AFC for four concecutive years?