CincyBillsFan

There is NO downside to this win. NONE. It's beyond stupid for these oracles of doom to be negative in any way. My goodness we're 15 - 3 and playing the AFC title game.

What a game. It's so important to be able to win games this way. Some times it's the offense sometimes it's the D. This reminds me of that AFC championship game against Denver in the 1991 season. The bills had a spectacular offense but against the Broncos we won 10 - 7 and our only TD was a pick six. I'm still stunned. Oh and I believe that winning 15 games ties the franchise record for most wins in a season.

Both the NE & Chargers games were also played in very windy conditions.

It was also clear from that angle how unlucky & fluky Allen's sack & fumble was. He is literally thrown into the second tackler by the first Colt to get to him. If the 2nd guy had been blocked or was a couple of feet on either side Allen may have gotten out of that jam and passed or ran for big yardage.

Diggs was limited last week and he did fine. At this point there's no reason to risk a foot or leg injury with the WR's during practice so you go easy. My frustration with the TE's & RB's beyond their inability to be productive in the passing game, is that with the focus opposing teams have to put on our WR's they should be making some big plays. The biggest TE play of the kind I'm talking about this year was the Smith catch against NE. Allen routinely hits our RB's in space with quick throws and almost every time they get brought down by the first tackler. I've been expecting a breakout game by Knox & Singletery in the passing game every week. Saturday night would be a great time for it to happen.

But did the Bills & Allen actually struggle against the Jets? Sure it was our worst red zone game but it was our 2nd game against a division foe which are often odd: * We didn't punt in that game and had only one TO. Nine times we drove into FG range and converted 6 FG's. * Allen had over 300 yards passing and should have had at least 2 TD's to go along with that. One had Kroft falling down and the other was an inexplicable illegal lineup penalty that no can see on replay. For that stretch of games Allen's injury certainly played a role and we were also in the process of adjusting from the free wheeling offense on display through the first 4 games to the new way in which defenses were playing us. That we came out of that stretch and fired the offense back up to where it was through the first month of the season was impressive and encouraging that we can keep it going.

This worries me to. We need the RB's & TE's to step up big time or our offense is at risk of becoming one dimensional. Think about the insane quality of those Allen throws and Gabes/Diggs catches. You can't expect to get that every game if those throws are off by an inch here or there those plays aren't made. And without those plays we lose to the Colts. We need Knox to get catches and put up yards (say 6 - 80 yards) and we need a RB to make a guy miss on a short pass and gain 25 yards. Other teams routinely get that type of production out of their RB's & TE's in the passing game. We don't and I worry that this lack of production is the achilles heel of our offense.

For the Chargers game we were running the ball well and Bosa was a wrecking ball on D. We had a 24 - 6 lead in the 3rd quarter and pretty much cruised the rest of the way. We also had that weird stretch in the 4th quarter where we lost turnovers on 3 straight possessions. I think it was also windy that day.

I think Lamar runs it about as good as anyone could. He really is an elite runner. But I agree that it isn't my cup of tea as far as football aesthetics. The way I see it is if we can hold Jackson in check for most of the game like TN did today we win. Sure his 150 yards rushing is impressive but if we hold the Ravens to 20 points and get a pick we should be okay. My only worry with the offense is how long can we go with poor production out of our TE's & RB's? If Allen and our WR's are not at their best or the Baltimore D slows them down we might struggle on O which would not be good. It's imperative that Knox & Singleterry step it up big time this week. Ditto for John Brown who I suspect is still working his way back from injury. And we really need Beasley to play like he did against the Colts. For some reason I'm less worried about this game then I was about the Colts game.

Beach weather in Buffalo in January.

I don't either. I'm just reacting to the posts of a lot folks over on the Browns/Steelers game thread and on the Winter is Coming Saturday thread.

I meant who played. But someone pointed out the Saints also advanced. That means 3 of 5 division winners did not advance past out of the wild card game. Also, only 2 of the 6 homes teams won this weekend.

Are the Bills the only division winners to advance out of the wildcard round? As for the weather, the Ravens struggled in the rain in the 4th quarter against NE earlier this year. The automatic assumption that bad weather favors Baltimore is misplaced IMO.

Earlier this year NE played the Ravens on a rainy night. The first half wasn't bad and the Ravens did okay on O. But the 4th quarter had heavy rain and the Ravens were shut out that quarter and lost the game 23 - 17. Bad weather clearly hurt the Ravens that night.

Analytics in football is so overrated. If the Steelers had just been kicking extra points it would be 42 - 31. KC must be licking their lips in hope that the Browns hold on.

Damn you guys were right. Tomlin misread his team. First you had a crappy punt then a putrid defensive effort.

Do you go for it here? I would punt stick back to the 10.

Damn Ben is losing his mind to. Why would you hurry up to run a pass play on 3rd & inches? Go to the 2 minute warning, bring your heavy set in and play smash mouth football. If they don't score a TD here it is over.

Great point and you wonder if McD was thinking along these lines. BTW I thought the healthy guys we sat against Miami all had average games yesterday.

Ben making a run on Petermans first half INT record.

Or that Allen had the most rush TD's.

Why did Pitt totally abandon the run on that drive? Once they crossed midfield they should have viewed it as 4 plays to make 10 yards. The key was to score. Then get another TD before halftime and you at lest have a pulse.

I think I'm most shocked at the play of the Steeler's defense. They have been pathetic. Sure 3 TO's are bad but the missed tackles and lack of effort has been appalling.

Maybe not. We were all saying the Steeler's were getting a bye tonight. Playoff football is weird.

If our D & ST's play better then they did against the Colts I like our chances. The bottom line is that the Ravens only scored 20 points today and I think our defense is better then the Titans. And 20 points ain't going to beat us. One thing for sure is the "experts" will be stoking the Ravens all week and that is going to sharpen the Bills focus.