CincyBillsFan

Is that the same Miami team that went on to win 7 straight games after their loss in Buffalo?

You ain't kidding. Not only has it been a while but it's a very rare event. Here's what I have for the Bills winning the AFL/AFC East at least 2 years in a row: 1964 - 1966 (3 in a row) 1988 - 1991 (4 in a row). And that's it. In the entire 60+ year history of the Buffalo Bills they have only won back to back AFC East titles TWICE. And the last time was THIRTY YEARS ago! We are on the verge of doing something very rare in Bills history.

And the Bills ran the read option and audibled into the run side at the LOS so even when not carrying the ball Alan did his best impersonation of Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore running game during those last 3 drives. If the Bills face another terrible weather game they may want to try this right from the get go.

I expect (hope?) that the Jets will be running for the buses in this game. The Bucs game was their Super Bowl and they blew it. And out defense plays very well against young inexperienced QB's. The guys that give us some problems are the savvy vets like Ryan today and Rivers last year.

I could care less about the MVP all that matters is that the Bills made the playoffs for the 3rd year in a row, got to 10 wins for the 3rd year in a row and are on the cusp of winning the East for the 2nd year in a row. As someone who lived through the 18 year playoff drought, which was marked by inconsistent and mostly horrific QB performances year in and year out, Allen has been the best thing to happen to the Bills. Sure Allen was inconsistent in his passing today but weather was a big factor in this. And for the record he was not "horrific". He made some outstanding throws converting 3rd down. Stats don't always paint a true picture - particularly QB stats. Franchises sign QB's to 258 million dollar contracts to do what it takes to win football games. Sometimes that means throwing for 350 yards and 4 TD's. Other times it means rushing for 80 yards and 2 TD's while executing the read option running game at a high level. Allen has proven over & over again that he can do both. This is why he's an elite level QB worth EVERY dime of his 258 million dollar contract. And for the record, Lamar Jackson is about to get a very similar contract and his game relies on the run more then the pass. Even the best QB's can have bad stretches in a game and Allen had one. But elite QB's bounce back and lead their team to victory. Allen had two long, time consuming TD drives that erased a 15 - 14 deficit and put the Bulls up 29 - 15. There is nothing "horrific" about that.

Did I see right? Allen has at least 40 TD's for the 2nd year in a row? Not bad. Maybe the negative Nancy's ought to take a hike.

On Allen's first INT in the end zone watch Diggs slip and slide on his butt coming out of a cut. It was a serious wipe out on the ice. Again I think the lack of size with our WR group is a disadvantage in a game with today's field conditions.

I think with Allen the stats are never going to tell the whole story. This is like Farve back in the day and Jackson today. Consider the following: after throwing 3 INT's in 4 passes and seeing the Bills go from a red zone possession leading 14 - 5 to Atlanta leading 15 - 14 early in the 3rd quarter Allen had every reason to be rattled. Instead, taking the ball at the 20 yard line Allen leads the Bills on an 80 yard TD drive using his legs and arms and then converts the 2 pt conversion to take a one TD lead. On their next possession he leads the Bills on another long drive to go up by 2 TD's and effectively end the game. That's big boy football on a cold, snowy and blustery day.

The passes definitely helped set up the run. Also as bad as Allen was throwing the ball today he put on a clinic on how to run the read option. Allen and Singleterry combined for nearly 200 rushing yards and 4 TD's.

Beasley got knocked off his route and then stopped. If he keeps running it's a completion. Of Allen's 3 INT's today only 1 is on Allen - the goofy hero ball throw into the end zone. One thing that bothered me a bit is that our WR's aren't built for a slippery, snow covered field. They looked tentative running their patterns and the lack of size takes away the WR screen where we don't have the type of WR's that break tackles or make blocks at the point of attack. Atlanta had success with that kind of pass today.

This also applies to McKenzie. Still those are outstanding numbers. I would also point out that given the much larger sample size, Beasley being at over 75% is also quite impressive.

It wasn't that long ago that Beasley had big games: 2nd Dolphins game: 10 - 110 yards. Along with Allen Beasley was the key reason we snapped out of our offensive doldrums midway through the 3rd quarter. Tampa Bay game: 9 - 64 yards. Converted a lot of 3rd downs in the 2nd half to help rally the Bills.

Not so fast. While Beasley and McKenzie are both slot receivers they're very different in what they do best and where they can be productive. They might even be complementary in certain situations. There's also what I call the "20 years of Bills football purgatory" syndrome going on here. This is where a guy steps up, has a great game and we Bills fans go ape ####. And then our new favorite player struggles to repeat it. Now this may or may not be McKenzie and like others I see McK replacing Beasley next season if Bease isn't willing to take a pay cut. But once D-coordinators have film on McKenzie they're going to figure out what his weaknesses are and who on their D is best able to handle him. To the Patriots McK was a bit of a black box Sunday. Going forward he's going to be treated differently. Beasley was already an open book to Defensive Coordinators the day he arrived in Buffalo in 2019. And he still was highly productive. McK has yet to cross this bridge.

I don't disagree but some of Beasley's drop in YPC is due to how the Bills are attacking defenses sitting back in zone. And now that McKenzie is on defensive coordinators radar having both Beas & McK on the field for some plays might prove fruitful.

I agree. There is a big difference between getting mad at him for game day decisions and wanting him gone. It's like getting mad at your spouse or kid for something and jumping from that to wanting them out of your life. Quite simply he's the best Bills coach since Marv Levy and IMO it's not even close.

Damn file this article under the Webster definition of "what have you done for me lately".

I'm not saying McKenzie wasn't great on Sunday - he was. And I think McKenzie needs to be integrated more fully into the Bills offense. But Beasley has been consistently productive over the last THREE seasons. Sorry, but I see a real value in consistency. I may be wrong here but I get a sense that there's an anti-Beasley bias coming through in some of this. One great game by McKenzie doesn't mean we should toss Beasley to the curb. And given that most of McKenzie's catches were at the boundary of the field while Beasley thrives between the hash marks it seems like we could employ both guys in the passing game at the same time.

Davis. But Sanders who started off strong has faded. In contrast Beasley has been very consistent across the season. And as great as McKenzie was Sunday, Beasley has been playing at a top 3 slot WR level for nearly three straight seasons: 2019: 67 - 778 - 6 TD 2020: 82 - 967 - 4 TD 2021: 76 - 640 - 1 TD That's great production. And I would like to see Beasley and McKenzie on the field at the same time. There are some innovative formations you can run out of with these two together.

Great point. And this more then any other factor may explain why Allen's stats are just a little down from last year.

Mckenzie had an awesome game but Beasley has had 76 catches to date. We can use both of them.

I would add the TN game to your list. At the time we didn't appreciate just how good the Titans were, especially when they had ALL of their offensive play makers on the field. We came within a hair of winning that game.

When will the NFL realize that it has a serious officiating problem?

Griese actually said something funny on purpose - "it looks like neither team wants to run an offensive play".

The refs are criminally incompetent. That spot was a yard to short. The Saints may have went for it on 4th & 1 but no way on 4th and 2. Every week we see the sorry state of NFL officiating.

No it's based on my vast experience as a reader and I can spot an annoying hack a mile away.