Einstein's Dog

I'm torn on who to root for, having the Chiefs win makes the Championship games seem like the cream of the crop - Chiefs/Bills, GB/ NO or Bucs. Puts the Bills in their rightful place of top 4 in the NFL. Great hype that will carry over to next year - and hopefully starts the new era of Bills as a good team. While a Cleveland win cheapens the overall look of talented teams it eases the path for the Bills to the superbowl and brings another home game to Orchard Park. I think the Chiefs win.

IMO, the two sides of the coin help illustrate why Daboll deserves credit. Opinions can and do differ wildly - from throwing to the wolves or babying. No debate though on tremendous results in year 3 and looks like a franchise QB. JA is not a finished product though and I would like to have Daboll back to help continue with Josh's progress. I believe continuity helps and if Daboll goes elsewhere I hope they hire from within and keep the same system - it's fun and it's working.

I guess I'm in the minority but I don't think Marcus Peters is good. It might be the back but I think it's more he's in the wrong system. His skill set is not meant for man to man. He's a risk taking somewhat cerebral veteran with diminished skills. I think the Bills will go after him a lot. He reminds me of Josh Norman when he was with Washington. I think Peters will be abused. And after he will claim his back was bothering him. I hope he plays.

Kerrigan is a hard pass. My DL plan is to draft a young one, let Murphy go, Butler's gone. And for the big off-season move bring in TJ Watt. Limit his snaps and have him help develop are improving young players. I smell a repeat.

I have no problems with the way the OP handled this. A POS job with a douche as a boss is not worth investing your time. But let this be a cautionary tale for the newbies/youngsters out there to consult the board prior to these decisions. Back in the day the Monday after Superbowls were extremely tough. Luckily this year you can easily pull the cough/covid card and sleep it off.

They have gone for it many times on 4th down. And prior to several of these (almost all) JA tries to lure them off sides.

Just want to mention that is not the rule. It varies with where the punt is coming from. This was coming from near our own 40. In that instance generally you don't let it go unless it is inside the 5 - which it wasn't. In any event it was Roberts call, and he chose wrong. The Bills were supposed to be the ones with the pro bowl returner yet the Colts were better in that area Saturday. It was not a good day for Roberts, I expect better vs the Ravens.

I agree with you, that the tactic of QB draws can be effective. And if Balt sends 5 and has man to man on the back end and we send them all deep Josh may have to do it again. Gain 15 and get OB or slide down (because Balt likes to take the cheap shot intimidation factor). Then Balt will need to rethink their strategy.

I don't get what you are trying to say. The "NEVER" part is really confusing because they just did it. And if someone felt they were saving it for a special moment, then they have to think our coaches are geniuses because it worked! Trying to get their first playoff win in 25 years is kind of the best case scenario for when to have that play work.

I'm hoping you're right and that in retrospect it looks like a wake up call. But I don't know if I'll buy it. I think the Colts game was a fluke based on incredibly bad field position and a couple of stops for the first half. Maybe it can settle down Josh for the end games of these playoffs but that's about it - this potent offense is still there, it was just unable to be unleashed early on. The hope is the Ravens don't pin us back so far and the Bills unleash this offense right from the start. If we put up 40+ points and see if they can keep up. I don't think they can.

Smoke had a poor game and needs to do better this time around. If the Ravens are going man to man they will eventually try to flex towards Diggs (because he will be burning them). And when they do, Smoke needs to make the most of his limited targets and make the Ravens pay. On the positive side G Davis played above expectations. He may have earned himself some more targets. I was a little down on him before but he redeemed himself in a big way.

Didn't you see the earlier twitter feed - $41 million bones buys a lot of cheeseburgers.

One thing going in his favor on that one is they said during the broadcast you could see the pebbles popping up, a sure sign of the toe drag.

It was a terrible display out of him. And it wasn't just the runouts on KOs. He didn't fair catch the punt and they downed it at the 3. He did the KO runout got nowhere and had the penalty to boot. He didn't expect and misjudged the one KO and had to just dive on it instead of seeing it was a short one picking it up and getting some additional yards. Trying too hard or something - hopefully back to pro bowl form next game.

And by not losing McD has now exonerated that no playoff win concern (thank god- it would have taken a whole year for another shot). Now, there is undeniable year over year improvement. Improved record, improved/dangerous offense, and playoff victory. The future is bright.

On offense I go with Dawson Knox. The Colts will be considering him the 4th option (Diggs/JB/Beas) and he will torch some poor scrub DB. On D I go with J Norman. He'll take his shot on a quick out and make them pay- like the Miami game.

I agree with most JA was already on an excellent improvement trajectory. The combination of factors lack of crowd/officiating helped all QBs/Offenses. I think the person who most benefited was Bass. It seemed like a great way to develop a rookie K. Bass' troubles were early and seemed a little pressure related. Now he has the hang of things and will slowly integrate crowd pressure into the mix.

Yes, the Bills should beat the Colts, substantial favorites. The nervousness is because if the Bills lose as prohibitive favorites to the Colts it mars, in a significant way, the overall view of the season. This one loss has the most potential negative affect on Bills off-season. The label of choker and underachiever will not be easy to erase.

Who? The Dolphins. Get serious. They were in the running for worst 10-6 team ever. What a fluke. And they're keeping their subpar QB after shattering any kind of confidence or development, and also bringing in another new OC. This team looks mediocre at best for the next several years.

I don't think it is so much the "rookie wall" as it is he is just a somewhat raw rookie who hasn't developed yet. He's a good future WR but right now we are knee deep in the present and it is no longer developmental time. G Davis seems to not have the finer points yet, like you mention not coming back and at least breaking up the pass - and in an earlier game he didn't finesse the long ball. i think we can roll with G Davis as the 5th option (behind Knox who I trust a little more). But if J Brown goes down, I think they need to have Stills ready to go.

I like the signing. I (and Ii hope the FO) view it as Smoke Brown insurance. I don't think Davis adequately filled Smoke's role when he was out. G Davis is a learning rookie and IMO has been making mistakes that are no longer allowed. G Davis had not made a sufficient effort to stay inbounds and pick up a PI in the NE game. In the Miami game he didn't come back for the ball. Small things like that. G Davis has a future with the Bills but the playoff games are not the time for his development. There is now a superbowl opportunity ahead of the Bills. If J Brown goes down, I want Stills to be able to go in.

Yes, it is semantics and accepted usage. When the NCAA basketball talks of reseeding the brackets they mean instead of adhering to the original matrix they would adjust the matchups to be highest seed vs lowest seed in each region and then even for the final four - they call that reseeding. The NCAA doesn't do that now but the NFL does.

Virgil - great post and thanks for doing these. My thoughts: 1. Great to see the Knox plays. I think Knox will be good and they needed to get him back on track for this year. 2. I agree with most others on here and have no problem with the deep pass. Miami was calling time outs and even if not, this is not some pop warner game. The bills had things needed - get Barkley some respect, work on Davis he's getting better. Now if Barkley has to come in for a play or two in the playoffs, it will give all the other teams something to think about. 3. I think you neglected the coaches again (I reprimanded you in the last segment). You can't do better than what they did for this game. There is no Monday morning coaching even in this hard to please crowd. All kinds of records, swept the East, second seed, played the backups, and kept momentum. Incredibly well done by the staff. Maybe nothing specific you can point to, but when everything aligns so beautifully it seems credit should be given. In retrospect there are no regrets. 4. A lot of the post game talk is on the Dolphins and the decisions of their staff. They have question marks. But I always thought they were pretenders and actually overachievers. I also don't fear them for next year, we are significantly better and they do not have a QB. Appreciate the write-ups and subsequent discussions.

I think the making of M Garrett the Captain may have been a bad troll move out of the Browns. Trying to intimidate the Steelers may just provide the motivation for the QB and his supporting cast to try a little harder. I can see the backups for the Steelers giving it their all.

What are you talking about? You have this all wrong. If the Bills lose they are not playing Miami, Miami would be the 5 seed. Secondly, if the Bills win they are not playing the Ravens. The Ravens are sitting at #6 behind Miami and would move ahead of Miami and probably be #5. One of the big benefits of winning the 2 seed is the Bills won't see the Ravens.