JohnNord

Say what you will but I still can’t write off Mahomes and Kansas City He suffered a knee injury that probably should have sidelined him for a few weeks. He missed one game. I think the knee is holding him back. Also he is 34. We’ve always wondered when he’ll start slowing down and we might be seeing that now.

Wow… this mean no Jones against New England They had an open roster spot that we all assumed was going to Jones. He might not be ready to return which is a bummer

His record was 9-7, 9-7, 4-11-1 That last season was an absolute train wreck that saw him embarrass Philly by deliberately tanking. People want to say that Marty or Marvin Lewis are comparable…they are not. McDermott has more post season success than both combined. I’ve always felt John Fox was the best comp. He took over a Josh McDaniels dumpster fire and got the team to 8-8 with Tim Tebow and actually won a playoff game. He then won 13, 13, and 12 games. Of course that also included a SB appearance where his team was blown out by a lesser opponent. He was fired shortly after. With Peyton Manning on his last legs, Johnny Elway hired his best friend and OC to run the team as well as his former head coach Wade Phillips to run the defense. Elway relied on experienced coaches he knew well and previously worked with. Also in the case of Kubiak, a coach already on staff. He didn’t hire the “Ben Johnson’s” of the world to start over.

I lived in the Philly/NJ area when this decision was made. There was a lot of talk that Andy “couldn’t win the big game” in the background and that followed him to KC until recently, but this is not why they fired him. In 2011, Andy finished 8-8 despite winning the division the previous years and building superstars on offense like Shady, Desean Jackson, Jeremy Machlin etc. So he got a second chance in 2012 ans ended up going 4-12. One of the worst teams in the NFL. 8-8 and 4-12 is what got Andy fired. It wasn’t the belief that he couldn’t win them a Super Bowl. Philly felt that Reid’s time had run its course and that they needed a change.

You are correct. What annoyed me is that we all could recognize some of the mistakes from McDermott - just as we could with Josh, the entire defense, Gabe, Cook etc. Yet, everyone just wanted McDermott using the catch all phrase “because he’s the head coach.” It wasn’t nuanced realistic criticism either - it got the point where people were saying McDermott was “Dick Jauron with Josh Allen at QB.” In the end, he has his flaws like all NFL coaches do. Is he good enough to win a Super Bowl? That has yet to be seen. But you really can’t say he isn’t a good coach in the NFL. He’s proven that “The reasons so many think the chances the McD ever wins a Super Bowl with the Bills are extremely low have been posted with lots of data, statistics and reasons like maybe 100 times.” If this is so easy to find, show me the data. And don’t use the 33rd team article about QB/Coach combos which doesn’t speak directly to any individual coach.

It’s hard to say - there’s been two examples where the Bills were locked in as the highest seed they could get in Week 18. In 2019, they chose to rest the majority of starters against NYJ knowing they had the 5th seed. I don’t know if the coaching staff saw this as a benefit as the Bills lost in Houston the next week. In 2020, the Bills were locked in as the #2 seed. They really had nothing to play for but McDermott still elected to play most starters for a half and they completely dog walked Miami to keep them out of the playoffs. In 2021 and 2022 they needed a win for the AFCE (2021) and to keep the neutral site playoff game with KC (2022) So there is evidence of the Bills taking both measures in years past. My guess is that the starters would play for at least a half. The Bills had a later bye this season and I almost feel it would benefit them more to keep playing.

He does - also for the fact that he was a former 7th round draft picks who rose through the NFL ranks with an unorthodox route running style. He was never in the conversation for too 5 WR’s but he was special. Much like a Lee Evans, it makes you wonder how his career would have panned out had his prime years been on a winning team.

that’s a good way of putting it. He’s at 725 yards and would really need to have one monster game catching deep balls like Amari Cooper. Those 0 rec games killed his chance at having 1,000 yards.

This is why I told people not to freak out when the Bills were 5-5 and 6-6 and NYT has them at 16%. It was as meaningless as saying the Bills the highest probably of winning the Super Bowl last year. These so much that could happen over 7-8 weeks. I remember someone was arguing with Jeremy Whotenfrom WGR on the validity then and he was like “well….these are tens of thousands of simulations.” Now with two weeks left you can see what has to happen for scenarios and how likely they are to happen - knowing that the better team on paper doesn’t always win.

I’ve noticed this too. I don’t think it’s bandwagon as much as it is they feel brave enough to wear Dolphins gear without ridicule

Hoping for a Ravens victory though I am scared they are going to blow it and that Miami somehow finds a way to win this game even without Waddle. The bye for Miami would be huge but out of all the playoff contenders they have the least advantage on their home field. It seems to be about 60/40 Cowboys on Sunday in one of the biggest home games of the year. But as it pertains to the Bills, none of this matters. Just keep winning. It’s hard to win 3 games on the road…not impossible.

True. But even if he plays well, it seems like the last impression is the one that sticks with people. If the Bills somehow end up in the #2 seed because of Josh Allen have two really big games, when you stack up their stats side-by-side there isn’t a comparison. Baltimore would be #1 and Buffalo would be #2. Would 2 or 3 more victories be enough to say Lamar was more deserving? I don’t think so. I’ll say this though - I think this is a spot where Tyreek Hill can get back into the conversation. If he has two monster games against Baltimore and Buffalo, I think he has a shot. Bottom line, the MVP is going to be decided in the final two weeks.

I think that Josh has a legit chance at MVP but a few things will need to happen: #1 Miami will have to lose their last two. #2 Buffalo will need to win their last two and secure #2 in the AFCE #3 Josh will have to have 2 monster games in the process. If these happen, and I think there’s a decent chance, I think Josh has a chance to win MVP. In this scenario of course, the biggest completion will be Lamar, CMC, or Hill. Any of those three can also have monster games over the final two and steal MVP.

Hill goes before Tua on just about everyone’s list.

Baltimore’s defense is really good too. This is a great team

Yeah what people are going to look at first is Baltimore’s records which probably will be the best in the league. From a statistical standpoint, he doesn’t really compare to the others. He has played awesome and looked like an MVP tonight, and sometimes the last thing you see sticks with people so we’ll see if he can replicate this next week

Lamar is playing really well. One thing I notice is that he seems to be eluding just about every defender near him in the backfield and making a great throw to an open WR. It makes me wonder how sustainable this is, because at some point he’s not going to be able to escape

Good point. After watching the Chargers put up a fight and the Raiders beat KC, nothing is a given. New England’s defense is pretty good and Barmore and Uche are two game wreckers. The Bills can’t sleep walk through this game and expect a victory. If they do, NE can find a way to cause turnovers and help put points on the board. The NE offense in the other hand is pretty depleted. If there aren’t any turnovers I don’t see them scoring enough points to win…but who knows? Yeah but it really took a lot. Some really bad penalties and terrible times. 3 turnovers - 2 inside the Bills own territory and one at midfield, 50+ yard field goals, 0 defensive turnovers. With that being said NE is still hard (to the detriment of their draft pick) and can’t be overlooked.

Baltimore was always the more important game. Dallas was so close to a win but it was a lot like a Bills loss this season. I wasn’t overly impressed with the Dallas offense or Dak Prescott. Much like last week when Dak was rushed he became rattled. Sometimes the Dallas OL was so bad at communication they simply forgot to block the open rusher. Other times, Dak had time and didn’t know where to go with the ball. You could see him think about throwing and double clutch, only to throw to a receiver short of the sticks. In the 4th quarter he lead a really nice TD drive downfield to put Dallas ahead by one point. The Dallas defense perfected the bend by don’t break defense and held Miami to long FG’s all day long. Usually things a recipe for success. Of course on the final drive after the TD, the defense couldn’t get a stop allowing Miami to run out the clock and score the winning FG. Bad complimentary football! Much like the Bills you can fault both the offense and the defense, though both played well at times. As far as Miami, I thought the defense played really good though I don’t think they were challenged by a hesitant play caller. They are a good team, but they are far from unbeatable. AFC literally is wide open .

I think Miami finally beats a winning team today

Yeah, I’ve known this stat for a while and it is completely maddening. It’s not just the fact that they’ve been near 100%. So many of these attempts were longer, lower percentage kicks. Also not like teams are stalling near the goal line and making chip shots. Also wasn’t the one miss a block or deflected ball at the line?!?!? The full list is below and surprisingly there are two teams with a lower percentage. Not surprisingly, Cleveland is #1 and a team like Jacksonville which has been inconsistent is ranked fairly high as well. But if you look at the list, most of the top teams are toward the middle or higher. You have to think at some point things change a bit. https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/opponent-field-goal-conversion-pct I knew when Dicker lined up for the 53 yard FG it would go right through the uprights. Injury luck ✅ Fumble luck ✅ INT bounces ✅ FG bounces ✅ Basically unlucky across the board

I can agree with that. But if you are introduce luck as a substantial factor, then you can easily say the reason the Bills 13-2 is because of “luck.” And you can’t discount luck as a factor in why some teams win the SB and why other don’t. The problem is that Bills fans want it both ways. The Bills are lucky when they win a game versus a bad opponent but when they lose a close game it’s their own fault.

He put a giant target on his back as a Running Back you can get to fumble. Teams are going to specifically be strategizing ways to rip the ball out. Cook needs to be ready.

I have a sinking feeling Miami is winning the next games. Also I don’t see Kansas City losing…. But who knows?

It’s just that Chargers played tough, the Bills had a ton of penalties and turned the ball over twice in the own territory and once near midfield. Still the result of those turnovers were 13 points. My concern is that the offense looked very disjointed again. Bad performance by the OL and Diggs just doesn’t look the same.