PoundingDog

Another nail-biting game this weekend! Man I was looking for some relaxing time Sunday afternoon...

Geez nobody saw him using the scooter to get to the interview podium?

Good for a movie script. But I doubt Harbaugh wants to change his profession to a screenwriter, even as a reality TV show screenwriter, anytime soon.

The main thing is to face one of them in the playoffs - KC or Baltimore, not KC AND Baltimore. The most likely way to get that is the #1 seed. Look at last year's AFC playoffs, the Chiefs had a relatively easy time against the Texans (23-12 before a end game safety) while the Bills fought the Ravens tooth and nail. By the time the Bills got to play the Chiefs for the AFC Championship, all kind of injury on Bills side.

I admit Ed Oliver is growing on me. Not eloquent, but direct and authentic. The answer on his maturity is unusal but does give you the simple straight thinking he has on the subject. And I do like his view on facing the Jets running attack this week: a second shot at it.

Well ... put yourself in his position. You practiced the play like the back of your hand throughout the week. You know your 1/11 responsibility on the play, all of sudden you said I shouldn't execute that because I can't do that like the plan, where should I go? If you were a vet like Hyde, you might recognize a hole in the coverage and just go there. Otherwise you don't just go to another player's zone to disrupt someone else's play.

It coincides with Babich taking over as a D coordinator. I'm not convinced is all about talent related - how many talent on D we lost comparing 2023 to 2024? Yes Poyer but was Poyer's performance in Miami would make that much a difference in Buffalo? I still don't know Babich is the RIGHT answer yet. McDermott continued changing his defensive staff by bringing in Ryan Nielsen and Mike Pellegrino this year by the way.

There are a few reports out there giving Revens Todd Monken a lot of credit. The gist is the Ravens did a lot of quick snaps once they broke out of the huddle, not even motion a lot of times. You may ask why. Well the Bills do a lot of disguise and changing of the coverage at this last second. Bernard is the one setting up defense, while Rapp calling out secondary alignment. The Ravens pretty much screw the entire cadence to the point that some plays when Bernard was still assigning player positions and the ball was snapped. Result, the back 7 was out of position in a lot of plays. The one egregious play was called out on TV where Bishop blitzed from a ridiculous distance from LOS. The reasonable explanation is that he was supposed to disguise by staying deep and then creeping up when the ball is about to be snapped; but Jackson snapped the ball so fast that Bishop had not even started the creeping up part.

Did the extra point kick have the similar blocking from Walker when he took on the outer guy? It appeared that way to me.

Josh can throw an incomplete pass any time to stop the clock before the field goal attempt

That's a whole discussion by itself. If Harbaugh was going for it, what do you think the best play they have to convert it? I bet both the Ravens and the Bills know it will be on the ground. I know Jackson hobbled a bit on the Oliver hit right before the play. But even it does not bother him, you can bet the Bills will stack up to the front, blitz with run awareness, double Flowers, one-on-one with everyone else. It is less than 50-50 chance to convert at that time if Harbaugh was not comfortable with putting the ball in the air. And the consequence of a failed conversion is high chance of loss: inside 2 minutes, one first down to running out of the clock and a field goal. Conversely, if the Bills were in Ravens position, going for it would be the right play, just like Andy Reid would do for the Chiefs. You have reliable target for short area quickness targets, capable running back going to the edge, and a mobile QB.

This game has the feel of how the Chiefs winning their regular season games the past few years. Other teams view beating you as a measuring stick; they prepare and make you look bad in the process. But you have enough floor to hang around, then somewhere and somehow, someone makes a big play (or the opponent make a big mistake) and your superstar QB takes over and gets you to the finishing line. A lot of media types said the Ravens beat themselves. I disagree. The Bills made plays to win the game themselves. THE critical turning point, the Henry fumble, was not something Henry was careless, or someone did not blocking for him. Oliver beat his man quick and punched the ball out. Of course, Allen was converting every opportunity at that point. I still maintain Allen today is not the Allen we saw 2 years ago. There is a reason he didn't win MVP until last year. Mentally he's probably at the best of his career. In one of the post game interview, he said Ravens would be looking to stop big plays down field at both half time and the end of the game, so he would take shorter completions. In the past, he probably would say I'm still going to complete down field passes on you (and he did from time to time). A big step forward for our outside receivers. Towards the end, Coleman and Palmer came up big when they were one-on-one and they got open for Allen. Good signs. The tipped catch by Coleman is luck. However, Coleman played basketball at collegiate level. So he is used to the going after the rebound concept. Speaking of Coleman, there is report Coleman went to California catching passes from Allen off-season. It reminded me the story of Julian Edelman moved to Los Angeles specifically to be near Tom Brady, as in "whenever Brady wants to throw the ball, I'm there." Oliver, I'm surprised there is no interviews what-so-ever after the game for him. I rank him as co-stars of the game along with Allen. McDermott said it's a coach's dream to have this come-back-from-behind game. I know why. First, you win. Second, team bonding from the get-go. Third, you evaluate players under stress situations against a tough opponent. There is a lot to be worked on, and a lot of roster decisions with a number of guy of IR, suspended guys in the next 4-6 weeks. You have several games to see who is taking the coaching and improve. Even in good plays, like the last field goal that has a clear blocking execution mistake but did not cost them.

There is a reason top QBs like Mahomes and Allen can go off on passing yards in the 4th quarter. Defensive players getting tired for sure. QBs as good as Mahomes/Allen probably have seen enough of prepared defensive plays for the game to have quicker recognition. The surprise is really the outside receivers Coleman, Palmer carried the load at the end when the Ravens made sure Shakir, Kincaid do not beat them, something we have not seen last year at all. Again it is game one so we'll see if it continues.

May not be tossed aside by the Ravens line but I did notice our defense has changed this year some where they put Malino and Bernard on the line more in the gaps vs always off the line. Babich said in his presser today that he thinks Bernard thought too much during the game. That is surprising to me but I also applaud his candidness on his captain. Maybe it is because of game 1 and the Ravens put a lot of new things in. That explaination can easily be extended to Milano for not able to trigger his action as quickly as we saw in the past. My main concern is whether Milano can indeed re-capture his magic following thru recent injury years, and unlike the reporters, I'm not holding high hopes. Same goes for Tra White where I'm fine with rolling with Strong if everything goes well in the next few games.

One game, just one game so far. Orchard park kicking in the winter is something else.