Virgil

I agree with what you are saying, but if Hoecht and Bosa are the starters and only effective pass rushers, why are we paying Groot starting money? If Groot was still on his rookie contract or paid like AJ, I wouldn't be so critical of him. But as it is, Groot is meant to be a starter and a pass rusher. I don't think he's even remotely living up to that.

Here’s my issue with that mentality. Everyone wants to praise Jones and Walker for how well they are playing, to which I agree. So, if they are doing their jobs, how is our newly paid Groot not able to get any pressure whatsoever? AJ is typically hit or miss and doesn’t really get paid. But Groot has no excuse.

Allen Cook Bosa Oliver Dawkins

Yup

The fact that they’d kick the tires on Rivers over Russel Wilson says a lot about how people feel about Russ That Losman deep ball though….

You dare mix up DC and Marvel?! Respect yourself 😋

I started writing my thoughts right before Josh's 40 yard TD run. I was done with the game. Happy to be wrong and have to start all over again.

Not to steal @Just Jack's thunder, but I'd like to think that I willed the Bills to win by starting this write up a few minutes before the Benford pick six. I was at my second thought, seething about our defense and what McD brings to the table if his defense sucks, and then we score 21 points in four minutes. Did the win talk me off the ledge? A little. Do many games come down to a few plays? Yes. Are we severely injured? Yes. Even with all of that, I'm just tired of us not showing up for the games until half time. 1 - Hold my beer - I have this image in my head of McD talking to Benford, asking if he's okay coving the most explosive receiver in the NFL, and Benford just smirking at him. McD then pulls him aside again, asking for a spark, to which Benford gets the first sack of the game. Lastly, watching the time expire and the Bengals seemingly getting their offensive momentum back, Benford goes pure Thanos "Fine, I'll do it myself," and gets the pick six. I mean honestly, while we have Superman on the offense, we apparently now have Batman on the defense. To completely shut down Chase so much that they had to move him to the slot just so he could get a catch is insane. That pick six, while shaking off a dejected Burrow on his way to the end zone, while Chase got to play defender and lose...wow. To know that we can now take away the opposing teams main receiver is a huge boost to the defense and brings Beane's success rate up to 50% for offseason extensions. 2- Superman likes it cold - In a game where we saw masterful throws by both QB's, Josh showed off what sets himself apart from the rest of the elite. Running Josh is back and it was beautiful. Not only did he show elusiveness in the backfield, he showed speed on the long td run, and elusiveness on the final 3rd and 15 game sealing run. I also believe that Josh plays better when Knox is more involved in the game plan. In a game where the receivers again weren't a focal point, Josh put up over 300 total yards and 4 touchdowns. He out-dueled a Burrow who played a monster game. 3 - Rushing attack - Cook picked a really bad time in the season to get a case of fumbleitis. The fumble into the endzone could have been the dagger in this game. You could feel the energy leave the stadium until Josh's 40 yard touchdown run. Cook ran good outside of that, but not enough to compensate for the mistake. As for the rest of the backs, I don't understand why Davis didn't see more touches. Ty Johnson had two big mistakes on the first drive, as he slipped on a clear TD run. Then, on the 3rd and 2 near the goal line, Johnson made no attempt to sell the handoff run on the option play. 4 - Receivers - Two games in a row now where the receivers are almost non-existent. Yes, Coleman and Shakir each caught a touchdown, but the receivers were mainly irrelevant. Gabe led the receivers in snaps, which I assume is more for his blocking ability. I do appreciate that Coleman isn't being handed back his snap count share. It would have been nice to see us take some shots deep, as the Bengals were playing only one safety deep for most of the game. I also liked to see Cooks getting in on the blocking action on Josh's long td run. 5 - Burrow - I don't know the last time I've seen a QB make so many touch throws look effortless. The Bengals carved up the Bills defense on the first three drives. Yes, a lot of that was on the Bills defense with their soft zone. However, Burrow made a lot of high point throws where he gave his receivers the opportunity to make a play, and they responded kindly. There were quite a few passes where I don't know how the Bills defender could have covered any better, and the receiver just made a play. However, the Fitzpatrick curse got to Burrow with those two interceptions. On both, I don't know why he made either throw. Benford was right in front of him and Phillips had his arm up in his face on both throws. 6 - Defense - I can understand the defensive game plan of wanting to respect the run and prevent the big play. But you can't just give Burrow all day to throw. Groot and AJ are incapable of rushing the passer and we were only able to generate pressure when we blitzed. However, you can also tell we don't practice blitzes enough because there were some massive coverage gaps due to communication in the secondary when we did. Third downs were as abysmal as ever. Our run defense was good enough, but it was overall a rough day for Cam, TJ, and Tre. Poyer appeared to be playing well and I'm hoping Bishop's injury isn't anything serious. From a comparison standpoint, the Bills had to convert multiple 4th downs in the first half, and we were overall outplayed by the Bengals defense in that half. That's unacceptable. 7 - Special Teams - Prater picked a good day to not miss an extra point. Our KO units were an opportunity. We gave up multiple returns past the 30 while we struggled to get back to the 20 on multiple kick-offs. Not sure what the issue is here, but I feel like this unit has been very up and down this season. 8 - Spencer - Hopefully he can come back healthy soon, because Van Demark had a rough day. Not only did he have two holding penalties, but he was beat both inside and out throughout the game. Most of Josh's pressure came from his side. Granted, we survived, but I don't know if he should even be a primary back up for us, as he looks lost out there at times. 9 - Gesicki - I'm sorry, but ***** him. I can understand players getting hyped after a good play, but he seemed to be really relishing in his success out there. Maybe it's from his Dolphins tenure, but I felt like he was taunting us all game. His catch on the Bengals last drive was a killer on Cam and he had an overall good game. But again, ***** him. 10 - Chicken or the Egg - Shout out to Knox for putting up numbers we haven't seen in years. This is the type of game that I believe Knox is very capable of having more of. I know he's had his share of drops and is a better blocker than Kincaid, but I feel like we need to try and have more gameplays like this. Knox and Kincaid running free is very difficult to defend, occupies the safeties, makes play action more effective, and makes the running game so much better. Now, was this a result of the Bengals defense being comically bad against the Tight Ends? Maybe. Either way, Knox is a capable playmaker and I hope to see more of it. Bonus - Did we find out why McD burned a TO prior to an extra point? And don't think I forgot about his other wasted TO before a 3rd and short, that the Bengals ultimately converted. We are on to the most meaningful game left on our schedule with the Pats. We are either going to be in the hunt for the division after this next game, or trying to lock up the wild card so we can take week 18 off. With the Broncos winning, the 1 seed seems very unlikely, so hopefully we can get things sorted out prior to week 18. Go Bills!!!!

Josh Benford Knox Thompson

Nope. I knew what I was doing and happy to be wrong.

Our defense is being outplayed by the Bengals defense. Let that sink in.

It’s like blitzing and press creates a difficult situation for the qb on 3rd and long. Who knew?!!

If we’re just going to let them score every drive, might as well send the house and get some hits on Burrow

At this point, I’ll take a coach who’s at least capable of beating the Texans and Bengals, and Chiefs in the playoffs. For as great a team as we are supposed to be, it’s crazy that we have zero shot to win those games with this regime. And none of them are in our division. It’s pathetic really

Tell your DBs you have zero faith in them covering downfield without telling them you have zero faith in them…..

Go Duke! JMU getting a playoff spot would be nuts

Just give me one. That’s all I want. I won’t give a ***** about anything this team does beyond that. After that, McD and Beane can sign lifetime contracts for all I care. Josh can retire and go to Cali. We can draft DBs every round until the end of time. McD can clap his little heart out. Just one…..

Bengals 31 Bills 17 Same as the Texans have our number, the Bengals and Burrow continue their dominance over Josh Allen. The Bengals are able to move the ball with Brown enough that our already depleted pass rush gives Burrow all day to throw. The Bills offense isn’t able to keep up, as the Bengals defense makes enough key stops early to make the Bills play one dimension football after the half.

I don't disagree with any of this. This season's missed expectations has definitely done a number on me. To think that we could easily be in control of the 1 seed in a season where the Bengals, Ravens, and Chiefs aren't contenders has ruined me a bit.

I honestly wonder if we win that game if Queen doesn’t get that late hit on Josh and Bosa doesn’t get the strip sack. And why did it have to come to that? We were slugs prior to those happening.

This

When the Bills started to get more primetime attention for their games, I thought the people on this board complaining about them were just grumpy old men. While this wasn't a primetime game, I am finally starting to feel the non-1pm start-time fatigue. As dumb as it sounds, I have a certain rhythm to my day before a 1pm game and these 4p or later games just don't feel the same. Also, I feel like I should note that many of these thoughts are not going to reflect a 19 point victory on the road in a crucial conference game, as I still can't figure out if the results were more about the Bills being better or the Steelers being worse. Forgive me. 1 - Late Hit on Allen - There's so many things about this moment that stand out to me. First off, how that wasn't called by the refs is beyond insane to me. There is no question that Queen started his tackle well after Allen began his slide and usually the refs err on the side of caution. Not sure what happened here, but it was as bad as missed flag as I've seen. Beyond that, so many Bills after the game said that was the turning point for them and played with attitude afterwards. WHY? Why does it take that hit in the final two minutes of the first half to get you motivated? My biggest issue this season has been how this team has not even shown up for their losses, and even some of their wins. To me, this is either coaching or the players have lost faith in the McD message. Either way, being outside the 1 seed and the AFC East leader apparently isn't enough motivation alone. 2 - Obstacle Required? - Call me crazy, but do the Bills tend to play better when they have an obvious obstacle on the team, or if there's a focal point on the opposing defense they need to scheme around? It seems to me that whenever the Bills are going up against a TJ Watt, Parsons, missing offensive lineman, etc, that they are able to devise a scheme that overall results in a win. However, when it's just a "must win" or scheme against an overall good team, they can't get the same results. Watt and our minted Tackles were talked about, but never came to be a factor in the outcome of the game. Watt didn't get a sack, nor did anyone else, and the Bills ran the ball at will. But why do they need that extra motivation to achieve that result? 3 - Vintage Gabe - Remember when we were ready to let Gabe walk because he consistently gave up on routes, or ran the wrong ones? Maybe I'm wrong, but the Josh interception seemed to be a prime example of Gabe not following through on his slant route and then not fighting for the ball. Outside of that, Gabe was fairly non-existent as were the other receivers. I don't want to give Coleman his own slot, but he also looked disinterested in his routes again, but thankfully came away with a touchdown. 4 - Benford - Benford stated post-game that he was assigned to follow Metcalf all over the field, and overall shut him down. I can't remember many games where McD allowed that kind of shadow coverage to happen, but I'm glad to see the flexibility and result. 5 - Brady - I can understand how the media and others might view Brady calling the same running play over and over again would be imposing of wills and daring the other team to adjust, but to me, it's infuriating. Yes, it worked and we won. But we also know that it can easily not work and Brady won't know how to get away from it. This has been feedback against Brady all season and it's frustrating to see it continue. Brady also confirmed again that he does not know how to incorporate wide receivers into his gameplay. 6 - AJ - I'm sorry, but McD should have pulled him off the field after that stupid Unsportsmanlike Penalty. AJ, you are not good enough to be pulling crap like that. It was pointless and extended a Steelers offensive drive that was all but dead. 7 - Villian - Can we please get someone from the opposing team to fight with Josh at the beginning of every game? Clearly the vomitting, McD, and playlist aren't working for Josh anymore and he needs something else to get him going. Thank you Heyward. 8 - Cook - I mean, what else can you say about the guy. So glad we extended him as you can just see the difference he makes out there. His vision, cuts, burst, and overall speed is such a game changer. His recent receptions surge has also been a nice bonus. Many Steelers players said in the post game that they knew Cook was good, but it was next level seeing him in person. With the way Shakir and the receivers have been non-existent as of late, it's good to know Josh has other support. 9 - Josh - I would literally give anything right now for Josh to have an open and honest conversation about what's going on in his mind right now. Josh wasn't bad in this game. You could see him get fired up after some good runs, make some good throws, and the fiery competitor shine through at times, but Josh still isn't quite Josh. I have no idea why, but I really do believe he's as frustrated with the coordinators and effort around him as we are. It's very unlike Josh to show his frustration towards teammates, but you saw it on some of the false starts and broken plays. I know Josh wants to be a good captain, but I think that also means knowing when to call people out. Granted, not the way that Rodgers did in his postgame, but somewhere in-between. 10 - Pass Rush - When you only give up 7 points off a turnover, it's hard to want to talk negative about the defense. I do still think the Steelers being inept on offense made us look better than we were. With all of that, I'm very worried about the Bengals coming into town next week with our lack of pass rush. We haven't received a status update on Bosa's hamstring, but he seems to be the only one that can generate any pressure right now. Bosa's hit on Rodgers was amazing in both the execution and timing. Burrow, with all day to throw, is a scary thought. We aren't the same Bills offense that can keep up with a high scoring offense, so next week it going to require some work. Go Bills!!!

All bets are off at this point. TJ Watt has to be licking his chops to play against backup tackles. Will Brady hear all the online abuse he received after the Texans game in not giving Allen extra blocking? Is Allen’s injury more debilitating than we realize? Will our weakness at linebacker get exposed harder against the Steelers tight ends? Can McD overcome his road woes? Steelers 21 Bills 16. Allen has the ball in his hands to win it at the end, but falls short. Another multiple turnover game.

I had sleep apnea for years. Would wake myself up from naps due to my own snoring. I would also wake up in the middle of the night gasping for air. Over the last 18 months, I’ve lost 100 pounds (semiglutide) and taken thc night gummies. In that time, sleep apnea is gone. I’ve been tested to confirm and I’m good now. Not sure if that would help anyone else, but figured I’d share.

We were the consensus AFC favorite my pretty much everyone. Media, bettors, and fans. With our schedule, perceived weak AFC East, and tougher division for the Ravens and Chiefs, as well as starting 4-0. This wasn’t fans living in delusional land.