UKBillFan

What was Milano's status across last week? Ed Oliver was at least limited today.

My big bugbear with the offense, and maybe it's more specifically Josh - what's happened with him taking with what's on offer? Before the bye we seemed to have a bit of everything, particularly in passing plays. The defense gives us short plays, we took them; someone got free deep, Josh threw it. Now, we seem to be overlooking this for deep shots more often that not. There seems to be no ease with our offensive play now. Everything is a challenge.

To me, it sounds like his knee injury has somehow played a part in this, with Smith's comments on it. Perhaps Smith told Mariota he was going to be made the back up, Mariota asked to save face by going on IR, or told him if he was going to be benched he wanted to have his knee looked at, Smith refused and, at that point, Mariota walked (limped) out?

Well I didn't expect this news today. Hopefully the break from leaving the Bucs has resulted in him having something left in the tank. He is something like a safety blanket for Josh and it perhaps says a lot that he's reportedly been calling for him and Brown to return for a while.

My point is did we expect it from the offense at this point last year? I think we were in mass panic, especially at 7-6, thinking we might lose the division to the Pats and miss out on the play offs entirely. The weekend just gone in 2021 was when the offense woke up in the second half after an inconsistent run which included scoring six at the Jags, 15 at the Colts and 10 against the Pats. Even then, the four game regular season winning streak was hardly easy on offense despite the scores, especially weeks 17 and 18. But when it mattered, when we needed them to turn on the after burners, when we needed to carry the team - they did. Will we do that this year? I hope so. I do not think our offense, in terms of players, is any worse than last year; indeed I'd say we're slightly better. The big question is if Dorsey and Josh bring out the best in each other and is the former experienced enough to take us through this sticky patch and see us click again. All we have is hope.

I'm not happy with it. I just recall last year our offense suddenly clicked so there's no reason to think the same thing can't happen this time. If it doesn't then there will be a LOT of questions Besides, 4 yards on first down is fine, as long as we get 4 yards on second and 2 yards on third. Dink and dunk, keep the chains moving. We did it perfectly against the Pats. It is annoying we didn't do the same thing yesterday.

There is a difference in expectations, though. We're looking through the prism of expecting to be one of the Superbowl favourites, so we're picking on every little thing we see is wrong and panicking (maybe overly so) over them, as it's a threat to the ring. The Jets are maybe another draft and a QB away from expecting to be in the hunt for a long post season run; even now this season is a promising part of the rebuild.

Yes. Sometimes the defense will bail out the offense; sometimes the offense will bail out the defense. Sometimes one side of the ball will let down the other. It's what happens in the NFL.

One thing - we were saying this exact same thing as this exact same point last season. It wasn't the offense which let us down in the play offs.

We churned out a win against the Jets yesterday and Diggs only touched the ball twice(?) - he was hardly effective. I'm not saying him going down wouldn't be a season ender as it would be, same with Josh, but we're not using him well . Scheming to get him open more is key to this offense. The Chiefs seem to manage it with Kelce, the Vikings with Jefferson, the Dolphins with Hill (ok, they have another key target with Waddle), the Eagles with Brown. We don't seem to be able to make those kinds of calls as much. I'm intrigued by the Kyle Brandt podcast tomorrow. I know he's close to Josh but it's now Greg Cosell, Orlovsky, I think Cover 1 and the reporter at the press conference yesterday all questioning the offense. He surely has to bring it up, in an albeit 'kinder' way than they did.

Though that's exactly what we did today (well, 20-12 but...)

I'm astounded Ken Dorsey travelled from Orchard Park to Mile High so quickly.

They must think Christmas has come early. They thought they had the toughest division in the NFL - instead it's the easiest outside of the NFC South.

I swear I said previously the biggest difference between Mahomes and Josh is that Mahomes is much better at protecting the ball. OK...

Interestingly, heading into today, Hurts' QBR is lower than Josh's (69.2 to 75.1). Passer rating is much higher, though (108.3 to 96.0) and that gap with grow after today.

At their respective peaks, I think Josh is slightly better than Mahomes. But Josh has a lower floor than Mahomes does, and Mahomes is the more consistent of the two.

He won't get MVP but, unlike quite a few of the other SB contenders, he's most definitely our offensive MVP.

His injuries is why we didn't put in a serious offer in for him and, despite how he's playing, I still think that's the right decision.

The concern with Diggs is we seem to struggle to scheme him free. Is it because defenses have little respect for the other options on offense, so they can really go hard on him? Somehow scheming him free more would make such a difference to Josh and the offense moving forwards.

The number of years Brady torured the Bills. This game feels like karma of sorts.

Move it to Detroit.

Or catching too many breaks, so to speak.

At their best the likes of Davis, McKenzie and Knox are ballers and can make plays which help make this offense explosive. Same with Cook and Singletary. But they are so inconsistent as well, and that can harm as much as help us. Dare I say it, as it's blasphemy on here, but Josh has been inconsistent since the bye as well.

If it was the Super Bowl, then no, the win is the most important thing. Obviously we wouldn't be facing the Chiefs in the SB so, if we had limped through, offense wise, and still had a game or more to go then, yes, I'd probably be slightly concerned whether we had enough to win the final prize.

If we keep Mahomes and co to 12 points I'd be stunned. Happy (as long as we scored at least 13) but stunned.