JohnNord
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Posts posted by JohnNord
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5 minutes ago, Breakout Squad said:
The drop itself compared to the others you referenced was the least egregious. The Harmon drop was bad. BUT I’d argue the Diggs drop was painful to another level. They pay him to make those plays and he dropped it. He had drops and fumbled the first catch…
Diggs was more responsible for us losing than Bass. And shame on the people that harassed Bass on social media!
I’m not so sure about that. The ball traveled 60+ yards and hit Diggs in the hands. He didn’t have to extend like Harmon or come back to the football like Clay. The only ball that easier might have been Stevie’s.But the rest, I’d agree with
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I still cannot believe that Stefon Diggs dropped this pass. I know… he’s human and all players make mistakes. That being said your best player can’t make that mistake in that moment. You can’t be a highly paid, #1 WR, team captain, throw the antics he did last season including berating your QB on the sideline and …drop that pass. This isn’t a week 4 game against the Dolphins… this is the NFL Playoffs, against the SB champions, the team that ended the Bills season twice. The team he famously cried while watching them celebrate. I think it’s reasonable to expect your best player to make that play.
Catching this pass hardly guaranteed a victory with 8:00 left but setting the Bills up at the 25 yard line would have been a huge momentum boost for the Bills. It could have almost been like the Harty punt return TD from a few weeks ago.I also think this catch could have changed the narrative surrounding Diggs potentially on the decline and a history of bad performances against Kansas City. It also would have erased the drop and fumble from earlier in the game. Instead of adding this
play to his career highlights alongside the Minneapolis Miracle, it now lives in infamy as “the drop” that will likely follow his otherwise stellar career in Buffalo. The narrative is no longer, why doesn’t Buffalo get the ball to Stef in big playoff games. It now becomes why does Stef deliver in big playoff games.
And the pass, it was perhaps one of the most beautiful balls we’ve seen travel nearly 70 yards on target. There’s maybe one other QB that could make that throw, and he was on the visitors sideline.
When you consider the difficulty of the throw, the ease of the catch, the moment, the opponent, the history, the game, the potential legacy lost, it is - in my opinion - the biggest drop in Buffalo Bills history. Recency bias? Maybe. But maybe not.
Some other drops I’ve lived through and why I place them under this one heartbreak.
Ronnie Harmon - Bills vs. Cleveland 1989 Playoffs
On paper this drop was bigger. It was a catch in the end zone for the GW TD with :13 remaining. The difference is the player. Harmon had a history of choking in big moments on college. While he was a well-known player in the NFL, Harmon was never considered an elite superstar the way Diggs has been. Also I’ve read that in 1989 this was considered a “difficult” catch, despite it looking routine with 2024 eyes.
Stevie Johnson - Bills vs. Pittsburgh 2010
This also was a GW TD drop that would have been a nice story in 2010 for the underdog Bills led by Fitz. However the stakes weren’t very high. This catch would be a fun moment but ultimately I don’t think it would have much impact on a 2 win team. Plus the drop create the Bills Mafia moniker.
Charles Clay - Bills vs. Miami 2018
With the Bills trailing 27-21, Josh makes an amazing throw on the run to throw a ball 40 yards across his body to Charles Clay who proceeds to drop the game winner. While this wasn’t an easy catch, it was far from
impossible. Much like Diggs, Clay was the biggest receiving target on the team and one of the highest paid players on offense. Your best players need to step up at key moments and Clay failed. But much like the Stevie drop, this game wouldn’t have much impact on a losing season.
Theres a couple others I can think of but nothing as big or high profile as these ones. Also my Bills memory only goes back to be about 1988 or so.
Any other devastating drops? And where would you rank them?-
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2 hours ago, Beck Water said:
I kind of hope for his sake, that he does. Between the neck surgery last season and then being out a lot with "neck" or "stinger" this season, I feel he's one wrong landing or wrong hit away from permanent disability.
Do you honestly feel Spencer Brown is good enough in pass protection at RT?
I wouldn’t rule out OL but I’d highly bet against it in Rounds 1 and 2. I think the focus really is going to find a new WR1 and I don’t buy the lip service about Diggs -
38 minutes ago, Starr-Bills said:
Let him go.
This offense is broken. The details of the routes are why Josh doesn’t have “open throws” like other QBs. Routes are bunched, players are tripping over each others. Josh is making amazing throws, and escaping the pocket but he is very rarely getting any help from the OC. So may reads are hard, so may routes are blocked or congested. And like him or lump him, Kurt ran the greatest show on turf, won a superbowl MVP and doesn’t have half the talent of Josh. Josh’s talent will come back to the mean now is the time to set him of got the back nine of his career.
McClappy is not the guy to do this. A quality OC will challenge him too much, besides the game Sunday was another one of his wet dreams, ball control kinds games and the result was the same. I think of Elway’s career and him not winning it till the coach and team was built to win and not built to rely on his “magic”.
Kurt doesn’t understand athletic QB’s. Instead he’s drawn to QB’s who play the same way he did like Tua and Brock Purdy. I take what Warner says with a grain of bull####-
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8 hours ago, beebe said:
Finally got a chance to rewatch the game. I am fairly certain this was by far the most passive defensive game plan that Spags has put together for the Chiefs vs Allen. In the 2020 AFC championship, he brought a bunch of pressure. He's done the same in many of the matchups afterward with a variety of creative and well-timed blitzes. This time, basically nothing. In 39 pass plays, the Chiefs barely ever pressured Allen and many times it was by design. D-Linemen were occasionally not even rushing and just trying to bat the ball down at the LOS. KC kept taking away the deep and intermediate routes and testing Josh's discipline to remain patient.
Despite running just 44 plays (kneel downs not included), the Chiefs had eight 20+ yard plays.
In 78 plays, the Bills had zero.
The game plan worked but was technically a failure. The Bills had three chances to hit on a deep ball but misfired on all of them. There was the Diggs pass deep downfield isolated on a safety. There was Shakir in the end zone. There was the throw downfield to Sherfield that was nearly caught. Catches on any of those three could have swung the game in Buffalo's favor.
Obviously a loss is a loss, but Spags' apparent plan was to patiently wait for Josh to get impatient and hand them a game-altering turnover and he didn't give them one.
The funny thing is the “Morons in the Morning” on WGR are convinced that McDermott demanded the Bills “take the air out of the football” and control the clock by running. This, despite the fact Buffalo passed the ball over 40 times.
They took was what given to them, rather than forcing deep shots like we saw under Ken Dorsey several times this season.
Unfortunately the lack of talent at WR2 played directly into the game plan for Kansas City. They took away the intermediate routes and dared Trent Sherfield to beat them on an island. Josh did the wise thing and checked the ball down to move the sticks.
Of course, the few times WR’s did get open, they couldn’t finish. Not a surprise. The bigger surprise was how Stefon Diggs playing like hot garbage.
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5 hours ago, HomeskillitMoorman said:
It's McD, he'll scapegoat somebody. It'll be the ST coach, he has nobody else. And he'll never take accountability for himself.
Maybe he should fire himself?
5 hours ago, BigBadBills said:ST?
DC?
OC?
what changes do you think Buffalo will make?
I would be absolutely shocked if Matt Smiley was special teams coordinator last season. I know that he is liked but aside from the Harty TD against Miami, his units have been and cost the Bills multiple chances to win (NYJ, DEN, KC among others)
I don’t see how you can go into next season with Smiley unless it’s for the sake of continuity which is never a good thing for a failing unit.
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20 hours ago, Freak-O said:
Cook dropped a TD as well. Crucial. The non pass to Diggs at the end was the worst one. Get a new set of downs, milk the clock and an excellent opportunity to score. I don’t get why Josh went for a TD there. Too much time left on the clock.
The Cook drop didn’t end up meaning anything considering that Shakir caught the TD two plays later.
51 minutes ago, skibum said:It wasn't this play or that play. The Chiefs were just consistently better in every phase of the game, all night long.
And yet Buffalo was one play away from scoring the go ahead TD
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48 minutes ago, Chaos said:
This was the week that mattered. Prior to the season more or less 100% of Bills fans expected the team to make the divisional round of the playoffs. And they did. And they lost again. This team was built to win last year. But with an aged defense and salary cap issues, it is not clear next years team is poised to be better.
So I will flip the question back to you, if not this year, when?
I’ll agree with you. Just beating KC would have helped. We could avoid all of the bull#### narratives about Bills not being able to beat KC when it mattered.To the original point, I thought that once Milano went down it was going to be really hard to win a Super Bowl. You don’t just lose an All Pro player - especially one at a position of little depth and recover that easily.
If the Bills somehow won this week, I don’t think they’d fare well against Baltimore but you never know
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23 minutes ago, Logic said:
God bless him.
That's gonna be a very heavy lift.
Tepper is the worst owner in the league and that team is in shambles in terms of roster construction and draft capital.He was already working in Carolina as Assistant GM
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19 minutes ago, DrBob806 said:
Actually, I think Diggs' ego is the problem. Sure, he's good and has "the fire," but he's as diva as they come.
There may be an element of this, but he’s getting less stats under Brady than he did with Dorsey and it doesn’t seem to be a problem
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18 minutes ago, Budkin said:
I tend to channel all my anxiety into sporting events which is just a terrible thing to do, since we have absolutely no control over the outcome. Whatever is going to happen with happen, and ultimately you have to make peace with it. Just try to enjoy the moment overall... and popping a Xanax doesn't hurt either.
I don’t really know why I do it either. I know that the game doesn’t really have an impact on my life. It’s just not very fun of days like these. I’m not really excited as I am nervous and worried for a loss. It makes it hard to enjoy these big games
55 minutes ago, Billsfanatic8989 said:This.
An elite QB is going to go after replacements immediately. It's up to McD & company to come up with a plan.
The "road" narrative facing the Chiefs makes me nervous too. They lost more at home this year. And it isn't as if they have played in uncomfortable environments before.
Lastly, there is the expectations aspect. KC has won 2/3 SB's in four years. Them losing is that...a loss. They will get receivers (Whether Mike Evans or whoever) and likely be back to the old Chiefs next year.
Everything is on us. If we win, well we still have to go in and somehow beat Baltimore. If we lose that game nobody will care we won this one. A loss will really hurt Allen's reputation fair or not. And the team could see big changes with a loss too.
TLDR: A KC loss is "meh" because of what they already accomplished. A Bills loss will bring about change imo. Oh, the Chiefs playing on road thing is overblown.
Look at the teams they beat on the road
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I just wish there was some way I could enjoy these games. I’m so anxious and nervous now and of course, I’m dreading the possibility of a Bills loss and all of the narratives which people will weaponize.
I guess if you’re a big sports fan, there’s nothing you can really do but let things unfold. But the anticipation is just killing me
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26 minutes ago, Rock-A-Bye Beasley said:
Dorsey was fine. McDermott was the one holding Josh back imo due to his off-season comments about how he has to change the way he plays.
Ken was fired after the 12 men on the field debacle which wasn’t even his fault.
He wasn’t as horrible as some make him out to be, but at the same time, the offense was very disjointed. There were times he called a lot of passing plays without giving Josh enough answers on offense for the defense he was facing. It seems like the Dorsey was all about big plays to Diggs or nothing.
I also don’t think Dorsey used her personnel nearly as well as Brady does. So while Dorsey wasn’t a dumpster fire offense, the team needed a spark.-
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1 hour ago, Limeaid said:
Merge if needed. Alex Van Pelt is a better OC (ask Jim Kelly and Aaron Rodgers) and they are stepping backwards into a pile which is brown and smells bad.
If he gets this job, he’s in a pretty safe situation. It’s an OC coordinator position but Stefanski is the one calling plays. In Buffalo he had to do everything. In Cleveland he’s be sharing a lot of duties with an offensive minded HC-
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I’m so pessimistic, man. I keep thinking that we’ll look back on tomorrow like we do with 13 seconds.
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10 hours ago, 78thealltimegreat said:
Chiefs finished 2nd in scoring and 4th against the pass but they are the 17th rated D against the run.
For comparison Bills D finished 4th in scoring and 7th against the pass and where a couple spots ahead of the Chiefs at 15th against the run.This game more than likely will come down to Mahomes and Pacheco against Allen and Cook and who controls the clock. As both teams are very good at limiting explosive plays down field.
It could come down to the QB who turns the ball over less. Case in point Bills won a close game this season at +1 in turnover differential -
1 hour ago, Logic said:
There's the "glass half full" vs "glass half empty" thing again.
Sunday is "as best a shot as [the Bills] will get against KC", yet you go on to say "I guarantee you KC won't ever have this ***** a skills group around Mahomes again.
But what about the Bills? Maybe the Bills will never have this poor of a WR group around Allen again. Maybe the Bills will never have this injury-depleted a defense heading into a playoff matchup with KC again.
My point is that you seem to be viewing the Bills as being in their "this is the best shot the Bills will get" window, but why? Why does that thinking apply to Buffalo and not KC? Why do you go on to say that KC will assuredly be getting better around Mahomes in the future, but not apply the same assumption to the Bills, that they may be getting better around Josh Allen in the future?
I fully agree that it's a huge game for the Bills, a "put up or shut up" moment, a legacy game, an opportunity to stake their claim to history. All of that. But this idea that people have that it's "now or never" for Buffalo, as if they're not gonna continue to be good under McDermott and Allen, as if they're not gonna have a bunch more cracks at it, as if only OTHER teams get better, while the Bills will only get worse and older. I just don't buy into it.
Huge game this Sunday. HUGE game. But if the Bills don't win? Life doesn't end. They'll line up next season with a 28 year old Josh Allen under center and a top 10 NFL roster and once again be on the short list of Super Bowl favorites. Enough with the "this year or no year" stuff, in my opinion. It's overblown.
This is a good point. Remember the takes in here when the Bills were 6-6 and weren’t going to make the playoffs. Everyone had predicted things would spiral downward because there was no way the Bills could beat KC, Dallas, and Miami. People took the annoying Ty Dunne narrative that 13 seconds was their the last chance. BS. Here were are 6 weeks later with another big opportunity.It just goes to show that you can’t predict the future. Unexpected things happen in football all of the time. Best we can do is to sit back and enjoy the ride and let the idiots on TV try to predict the future
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5 hours ago, Rich Stadium Original said:
It was obvious a number of years ago Mahommes and the Chiefs were going to be the team to beat in the AFC for years to come.
Beane set out to mold his team as the one that could beat the big Boogeyman Mahommes through an effective pass rush.
Yes Beane has picked up some great position players along the way, but its obvious with Rousseau, Epenesa, Basham (now departed), Von (I'm back to 100%) Miller, Floyd (and others) where he placed his personnel concentration.
Now he has a home game, with all these guys relatively healthy going up against some fairly average offensive tackles.
Yes, the secondary and linebacking corps is fairly beat up...but if Beane did his due diligence, it shouldn't make a difference if they can dominate.
We will know by midnight on Sunday.
Everyone seems to be roasting you for your opinion here but in a lot of ways you are correct. After the AFCCG and 13 seconds it was clear the Bills were built to beat the Chiefs.
If fact the criticism from last season was that the Bills were too focused on KC and didn’t think of how they matched up with the rest of the teams in the conference (ie Cincinnati).
Under Beane Buffalo have invested significant draft capital and resources in boosting a defensive line with the idea of pressuring with 4 and letting the rest play coverage. This is typically how you beat Mahomes, especially given his lack of weapons this season.
Of course, a bruiser like Pacheco adds another wrinkle to the offense.
But yeah if the Bills win the DL is going to be a part of that equation.
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Joe Buscaglia is picking the Chiefs to win on a last second Butker field goal. He’s been wrong before. Hope that happens again
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1 hour ago, Process said:
Honestly this is good news. It means Bernard has a chance which is crazy considering the way it looked on the field. I already wasn't expecting any of the guys ruled out to play.
Hopefully Benford can be back next week and Davis for the SB.
Injuries never help. But I think Johnson is the most important player on the list. If we can get Johnson back it’s big. If Barnard SOMEHOW is active, even better.I feel comfortably with the depth on the rest of the players who are out
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18 hours ago, Gregg said:
Ravens win 31-21
49ers win 34-28
Lions win 24-20
In the Bills prediction thread, I have 27-20 Bills.
Bills at Ravens and Lions at 49ers are my picks for the AFC and NFC championship games.
So you’re basically just picking favorites? Doesn’t usually work out that but hopefully for the Bills it does!
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6 hours ago, Royale with Cheese said:
Do you feel good about this game?
What is making your nervous? What is making you confident?
I feel good, I do expect a win. I can't handle the thought of us not winning. I usually don't let games bother me too much, I was surprisingly calm for 13 seconds because I have been let down before by the Bills.
This one though, this is our redemption game. We are the better team, we need to win this game.
It's in Buffalo...we can't lose to the Chiefs here.
Our defensive injuries are so worrisome for me. Keeping my fingers crossed we get at least Taron Johnson, Douglas and Dodson back. We can't have two back ups at corner and linebacker.
I was watching Hard Knocks when Miami was cleaning out the lockers and thinking “man, I hope this doesn’t happen Sunday.” It’s been a crazy season but I’ve enjoyed it-
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3 hours ago, QB Bills said:
Maybe it's just me and I'm romanticizing the latter Daboll years, but the passing offense still seems a bit disjointed, does it not?
A lot of the success seems to come down from broken down plays that Allen has to improvise on as opposed to guys being schemed open or even the odd gadget play. I agree that a big chunk of Allen's success will depend on him just not thinking and going off-script at times but I think back to some of the games he had earlier in his career and how they made everything look so easy, even against some really good defenses.
Keep hoping every week that they can get things together but I don't think that's happening without a new OC. On the other hand, I think Josh is that good where he can single-handedly win you the next three games to make this point moot but I would still love to see what he could do with some fresh blood in the coaching room.
Your eyes are fooling you….
I can’t only think of one play where he improvised and that was the third down pass to Diggs. He made something out of nothing.The rest of the time Josh seemed to be in control. I didn’t noticed this much during the game but Allen was blitzed on over 50% of his drop backs. He either got the ball out quick or took off and ran. This includes the 52 yd scramble and the Shakir TD - which wasn’t improvising as much as it was finding the hot read.
34 minutes ago, Logic said:The thing that stands out to me is that our passing offense simply looks to be "behind the times".
When I look at the passing offenses of Sean McVay, Matt LaFleur, Kyle Shanahan, Mike McDaniel, Bobby Slowik -- so, basically, all of the Shanahan coaching tree guys -- I see creativity, cheat motions, orbit actions, variety, legal pick plays, and receivers who are schemed wide open.
When I look at the passing offense of Dorsey and now Brady, I see more or less static formations, less creative personnel usage and deployment, less variety, and much less of receivers being so open that you wonder "how the heck did that happen?". To be clear, it's not that there's NONE of this stuff. This offense does, at times, show some of these things. It's just that if you watch it over the totality of a whole game, and then compare it to the Texans, Rams, Packers, etc, it just doesn't seem nearly as dynamic and modern.
I don't believe this is something that can be fixed in-season. I'm hoping the Bills do a thorough offensive coordinator search in the offseason. Let Brady interview and give his vision for the offense going forward. If he wins the job, then so be it, but don't just hand it to him. I want more modernity and creativity in the Bills offense. I want to see what Josh Allen would look like in a truly forward-thinking offense that makes life easier on him.
It’s almost a certainty they bring back Brady.
Also about the cheat motions…Brady ran a perfect one with Isabella in motion during the snap. He went around the RB attempting to catch a swing pass in the flat. Josh threw the ball low and out of reach. Is he catches that, it’s probably about an easy 20 yard gain.
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10 hours ago, kota said:
just saw that Ron Rivera is interested in coaching still and how he missed coaching on a granular level when he took over for Jack Del Rio who was fired mid season. He also stated he has a few opportunities available.
I think this is a bit interesting.
I would hate this idea when you have younger coaches on the staff who probably would be great play callers. If they fail, McDermott could already take over.
Tua expected to sign an extension with Miami this offseason, per Schefter
in The Stadium Wall
Posted · Edited by JohnNord
Tua turned out to be a better QB than I predicted years ago. But given his limitations and the way that Miami’s offense has faltered down the stretch the past 2 season, I think enough of a sample size define his limitations.
I don’t think Mike McDaniel gets enough credit for the job he’s done to build an offense around what Tua does well. It makes you wonder how much more he do to improve the pieces around the QB.