Nextmanup

Absolutely. Vrabel will play this out as far as he possibly can, with all the "he's almost ready" talk. I don't think he'll play except maybe toward the end of the playoffs, if the Titans survive that long.

That would really be a strange situation. In the NHL, teams "play for a tie" all the time when the score is tied and there is maybe 5 minutes left in the game. No one does anything risky, it's all defense, and no one is trying to score, so they both get the 1 point for tying and then they can try their luck for a second point in OT. I can see a pair of NFL teams playing in that manner, in theory. Very vanilla football, shooting for a 0-0 tie! That would be crazy.

Don't you think there's ample evidence here, over a period of years, to suggest he has some mental health issues? A lot of people think it goes back to the monster hit he took from Vontaze Burfict. Watch this video (it's interesting) and see if you don't find some more compassion for AB's situation.

The non-COVID stricken team wouldn't be so happy about that schedule change! It will be fascinating to see how this plays out, if a QB gets it in particular. I wouldn't be surprised to see some spur of the moment reaction from the NFL, switching things around, which is kind of bush league.

How about paying a neighborhood kid $20 to come over and keep an eye on the little one while mom watches the game? With mom popping in to see how things are going every commercial break? NFL football games are so disjointed with commercials, she would never be away from the child for more than what? 7 minutes tops?

Master Bates has been known to have issues with wrist and hand related injuries, it's true. 🤫

Except we now know that Bruce Arians was trying to get him to GO BACK IN THE GAME and he wouldn't do it! That led to Arians saying to him "If you won't play, get the heck out of here" or words to that effect...and that is when he took his clothes/pads off, saluted the crowd (or whatever he was doing) and left the field. I'm not a fan of cancel culture, but if this comment is what it takes to get rid of Terry Bradshaw forever, I'm on board with it. I just can't stand the guy, and he's a complete idiot to boot.

I think this is the key; I have said this several places around this forum in the last week or 2. I DO think Josh puts enormous pressure on himself at home and who knows, it may well have a negative impact on his game. Don't ask me to quantify this one way or the other though. But Josh does have an issue with this stuff, seemingly more than most do. Is he still vomiting before every single game?

You bring up the interesting topic of weather, which was not really discussed very much during the game. Was the wind bad? The last weather report I saw prior to the game called for steady 15MPH wind gusts. And then, very early in the game, Matt Ryan through up a long pass and the wind completely knocked the ball down, to the point of stopping its forward progress...and that would have been going into the wind (scoreboard end). I think the weather may have had more impact on the game than people are talking about, but I wasn't in the stadium.

All I could add to that is that the Super Bowl is against Tampa, so we get in some good old fashioned Tom Brady avenging as well--OR--Dallas and we avenge 2 SB losses directly to them. Your outline plus Tampa or Dallas in the SB would be almost incredible. And it could all happen, too. The Chargers are a team I would always be afraid of in the playoffs, because they have an outstanding gunslinging QB who can single handedly win games for them. I loved Herbert at Oregon and the guy is getting better all the time. He is a like a clone of Josh Allen; they are both super similar. Why play a guy like THAT if you can avoid him and get a matchup with Mac Jones, Derek Carr, or Carson Wentz!

That's an interesting scenario, and as much as I would like to play NE, I would take a Raiders game for sure. They might be (other than NE) the weakest team in the AFC playoffs. Not sure Cleveland can beat Bengals right now though. Bengals look really good at the moment. That's a great point that I think I forgot about. Limited crowd size last year against Indy and Baltimore both! Many of these Bills will see the might and majesty of the fanbase in full-tilt playoff mode for the first time, ever. It's going to be fantastic!

Some of the food they showed was making me extremely hungry. One guy had a grill so big, it was commercial grade, and he must have had like 50 Italian sausages on that thing, or more! I'm getting hungry now!

I realize this defeats the point of the thread, but I would cross this bridge only if and when we come to it. I'm just not that fearful we are going to lose anyone this year.

Here's the deal as I see it: We will beat the Jets on Sunday and win the division; and get a single home game against New England almost certainly. We'll then go on the road, and that path will ultimately go through Kansas City in the championship game, yet again. If we play our best football we can beat everyone in the AFC including KC. If we play up and down or falter, as we have done several times this year, any of these teams will beat us. I can't wait for it to get started!

I thought Stephenson looked terrible, but this is such a minuscule part of the game now I can't really get worked up over it. As long as whoever is back there doesn't fumble, it doesn't matter who it is.

There hasn't been a home field advantage in the NFL for 3 seasons now. Further, Josh puts enormous pressure on himself at home, more than on the road IMO. I don't think home vs. road helps one way the other. The key is we have the massively better QB; that is what should matter. Just pray the weather is reasonably stable and it's not another tornado, so that Josh and our offense can distance themselves from New England.

Not worried and in fact have been calling for and anxiously anticipating this matchup for several weeks now. We have the massively better QB in the matchup. Jones will be among the absolute worst QBs in the playoffs. I'll take the matchup all day long.

Maybe this is now old news, but I just learned that Bruce Arians tried to get AB back into the game on TWO different occasions, and AB wouldn't go in. Arians then told him if he didn't want to go into the game then "get out of here" or words to that effect. That's when he took off the jersey and pads and started to leave.

Am I the only laughing at an exchange between "FILTHYBEAST" and "BEAST" ???? I understand the point made by Filthybeast; McDermott may well not be the guy to deliver the hardware, but I disagree that we are going to have some sort of definitive answer on that this playoff season. That question will remain until he wins it all, and it could linger for years to come, as long as we maintain a certain level of winning sufficient to keep him here as the HC. It will probably take several more years at a minimum for Pegula to move on from him, if he is ever going to. And he could deliver a championship, too, in which case he'll be here forever.

LOL. If we followed that logic in all threads, there would be very little posted at this forum.

I said as much earlier in this thread (I think). It is amazing at what you can get away with as an athlete if you are good enough. Not sure his performance vs. pain in the ass factor works to his favor now though. This feels like a new low.

I agree, but we need to divert considerable assets to the O line this offseason, not the D line! If he'll work for cheap, sign him.

I would think this is it for him, though people have probably said that before now! But I don't see another NFL team dealing with him at this point.