Virgil

I can't read through 29 pages of this. What exactly is his injury? I only keep reading "leg injury"

Miami 24 Buffalo 10 The Bills play their starters the entire game, and simply get stomped. Tua throws all over our defense and picks on Tre the entire game. Allen can't get into rhythm without Beasley and Bass misses 5 field goals. Bills go into the playoffs in a lull.

I think I’m doing a poor job of explaining what I mean, and I agree with your points. To me, this wasn’t a must win besides for mental/morale purposes. If not playing the second round at home is the reason we potentially lose, then that’s on the team not the situation and we didn’t deserve it anyways. Yes, there were reasons to win, but the overall essence the of needing to beat the Pats and worrying about seeding it behind me at this point. We’ve been that good to where I just don’t care about either. We can overcome it. I don’t know if that made any more sense

If we go to a 17 game season, I think they should re-do the divisions and make them larger. Maybe go back to 3 divisions per conference.

If they could play all their games on Saturday or Sunday afternoon, that would be great....

Sorry everyone, long day at work

Do you so easily forget Antowain Smith?

If Beasley is healthy, enough for Allen to throw 50 yards to him and they can both get their stats. Then welcome to the bench

For the first time since I've started writing these, I find myself struggling to talk about new thoughts that haven't come up in previous weeks. I've had a few weeks over the past few years where I had similar struggles, but that was when we could barely put any points on the board. The struggles now are for a reason I didn't see coming. What do I write about when there really aren't many opportunities on the team and we just keep steamrolling opponents? How many times can you talk about how great Allen and Diggs are? Even more-so, when such high performance becomes an expectation, is it even worth mentioning? Either way, here we go..... 1 - The Burn - Going into this game, there wasn't a doubt in my mind that we were going to win this game. People talked up the Pats dominance of the Bills and how close the last game was. In talking about it with my father, the closest scenario I could come up with was a single score victory because the Pats scored late and we benched ours starters. Many of us were waiting for this epic moment where we defeated the Patriots to win the division and establish ourselves as the pride of the AFC East. The problem is, if you can even call it that, we settled that weeks ago and before we even took the field. To me, and I know there's a varying opinion on this, but the best thing we could have done is make this game completely irrelevant. Yes, playoff seeding and playoff match-ups, blah blah blah. But that's all icing on the cake. That's after the fact concerns. We played our week 16 game, on Monday Night Football, in Foxboro, against the Pats, and there wasn't even a concern for what the game results would mean. Please let that sink in. We, the Buffalo Bills, made this game not even matter. However, we still went out and did what we've done the past few weeks and absolutely imposed our will. 2 - Allen - One of the biggest knocks on Allen in his first two seasons was making throws across his body, into the middle of the field, and on his back foot to where he dangerously created a potential turnover. Besides putting up over 300 yards and breaking the passing touchdown record, Allen's ascension can be described in two plays. Allen rolls out to his right, throws completely across his body, and finds a wide open Diggs 15 yards downfield. Later, Allen rolls to his left, barely stops and throws against his momentum 20 yards down field and perfectly into the covered hands of Diggs for a touchdown. My point? Allen didn't stop making those mistakes, he's perfected them and made them almost an expectation. If Allen has a next level, the entire league should be very afraid. 3 - Diggs - Why? Why would you talk trash to the NFL's leading receiver in receptions and yards? In typical Diggs fashion, he was slow in the first half as the offense evaluated what the Pats were throwing at him. I don't know if it was Jackson's trash talk or what, but Diggs subsequently put on an absolute clinic. Diggs showed break away speed on his 50 yard TD catch and run. He showed power on his double breaking tackle in the slot, to then walk into the end zone. Lastly, he showed great hands on the previously mentioned "Allen" throw for his 3rd touchdown. Diggs didn't just take back the receptions and yards lead, he made a statement in prime-time as to why he is one of the best receivers in the league. Like Allen, to break these records before finishing the game and having a week left is nothing short of incredible. 4 - And 100,000 tons of steel, made to roll. The brakes don't work and this grade's too steep, her engine's sure to blow. And 100,000 tons of steel, out of control, She's more a rollercoaster than the train I used to know. 5 - Offensive Line - For a line that hasn't played together healthy for an entire game, Allen's jersey looked awfully clean in this game. By the end of the game, Allen only was hit one time, and had all day to throw. The Pats showed numerous blitzes and brought more than 5 quite a few times. Their results? A whole lot of nothing. This offensive line still has opportunities to run block early in games, but they show up at the end when it matters to close the game out and they overall give Allen enough time to do what he does best. This unit has adjusted to injuries and a barrage of successful opposing team pass rushes. Among all of that, this was still one of their best overall games, and that's saying something. 6 - Milano - Frazier said a few weeks ago that he didn't think Milano wasn't going to 100% for the rest of the season. If this wasn't Milano at 100%, hide your children because he was a monster out there! Milano played both coverage and at the line. He has his obligatory destruction a halfback block into the quarterback. He took up blocks that allowed other D-Lineman to get to the quarterback. However, and to me this is the greatest sign of his strength coming back, he made multiple tackles in the flat and open field where he stopped the runner in his tracks. He came at guys like a missile and took away the check down plays which the Pats normally heavily rely upon. We need to find the money to bring Milano back. 7 - Poyer - While it wasn't a great look getting dinged up trying to lay a hit on Cam, Poyer also had a really solid game. There were two play in particular where a pass was incomplete because of a perfectly timed his by Poyer as the ball arrived. In typical Poyer fashion, he played all over the field and delivered multiple punishing blows. Poyer being snubbed from the Pro-Bowl is a crime and I hope that motivates him to continue on his excellent performance into the playoffs. Side note, when Marlowe came in, I don't know how Cam didn't fumble on his blitz. Marlowe laid the wood on Cam. 8 - Special Teams - Besides Bass kicking a lot of field goals (sorry, we were to busy scoring touchdowns), this may have been one of our better Special Teams games of the season. The Pats did have a solid kickoff return to start the game, but there was a blatant block in the back penalty not called. Beyond that, Bojo boomed his only punt, the fake punt was perfectly executed, Bass is right down the middle, and Roberts another huge kickoff return. This unit doesn't get a lot of attention because they aren't needed, but to see them make the most of every opportunity is another reason why this team is poised to make a run. 9 - Knox - Going forward, all passes to Knox need to in traffic and away from his hands and center of body. Knox continues to be an enigma as he dropped a wide open touchdown, but then proceeded to make two consecutive difficult catches. Knox was great with blocking and made some great plays in the field. The drops are killer, but he does seem to overall be getting better with the mental mistakes. Fortunately, Allen is used to having to score multiple times on the same drive. 10 - Class - One thing that really bothered me during the Pats 20 years of dominance was their complete lack of class in both running up the score and going after records. In this game, while already have 38 points going into the 4th quarter, McD pulled the starters. I don't believe for a moment that the Hoodie would have done the same. The Bills easily could have score two more touchdowns with how they were playing and put up a similar blowout numbers that the Pats used to do to us. That's not how McD works and I personally am grateful for it. Like the hero against the bully in movies, the Pats just weren't worth it. We didn't have anything to prove. There was zero doubt who the superior team was and the Hoodie's visible frustration taken out on his phone was all we needed to see. We walked off the field winners, with class, and having established dominance. Absolutely dominating the Pats felt a lot better than I though it would. I really thought the meaningless game against a broken Cam and Belly wouldn't resonate much with me. I was wrong, very wrong. When Diggs caught that 2nd touchdown, I yelled and jumped off the couch. There's a lot of buried residual emotion towards the Pats and this felt like a cleansing. We are 12-3 and a miracle catch away form 13-2. Really think about that, considering the schedule we played. This is real everyone. This is very, very real. Go Bills!

Has anyone said Diggs yet?

Honestly, who cares anymore. We did one better by making the Pats game completely irrelevant

I’m more concerned about playing the Ravens than the Titans. Maybe I’m crazy. If we rest our starters in Week 17 and the Titans win out, they would take the 2 seed from us as they beat us head to head and we have the same 12-4 record. Am I wrong?

You need the Titans to lose also, who play the Packers. I’m right there with you. I want nothing to do with the Ravens

I’m just gonna say this now. I don’t want to be the 2 seed this first year it doesn’t get a bye week, and then we lose at home to the Ravens. Say what you want, but they are finding their groove and getting dangerous. I’ve been wondering what that kick in the junk moment to bring all this down would be.... That would be it. I’m officially pulling for the Colts to beat the Steelers and Dolphins to beat the Raiders. Then we can rest our starters in week 17, to host the Dolphins in the playoffs

He can go ***** himself. I could never stand him

This is what I’m hoping for. The longer the deal, the more you can manipulate it to free up other money.

Terry is cheap

I'm taking a "who hurt me more recently" approach. So, F the Pats. I'm not afraid of either of them in the playoffs

Fair point

Wtf did you just say......

I hope the Dolphins humiliate them

This should be it’s own thread

I was in the same boat and thought winning the division was the expectation this year. However, I didn’t see them doing it like THIS. They’ve crushed expectations

And we didn’t want to lose Foster 😂

I had notes to write about it and Allen’s comment about “how many times do we need to score?” was perfect. I just didn’t want to kill the mood. Even Mahomes had a tweet about it, which also shows he’s paying attention to the Bills....