mbowman14

Crazy part is the lack of talent is being magnified by the mental mistakes and poor play-call decisions. As much as I agree that they are lacking talent (specifically on the perimeter), there is a good chance they are 6-0 if Palmer lines up on the LOS against NE and Rousseau can tell that he is lined up 18" Offside last night. They don't have the talent to keep making things harder on themselves.

Issues: 1. Extremely sloppy, back-breaking penalties NEED cleaned up. 2. Brady and Babich have had 2 rough games. D needs to be more aggressive and force the issue which they did in the 2nd half. This D isn’t talented enough for bend don’t break. Yes, aggressiveness can lead to big plays, but it can also create mistakes, which is what this team needs . Offensive play-calling and player utilization is an absolute mess especially on meaningful downs. 3. WR1 is a glaring weakness that exposes the O. The lack of respect for our outside WRs is allowing defenses to neglect large portions of turf downfield and outside the #s. They can fill the box more and bring more heat because they have no fear of the perimeter weapons. 4. Watch other teams Safeties fill in run support then watch ours. The safeties are also slow and indecisive in coverage. 5. I like the guy, but I legitimately think a case can be made that the biggest improvement in the 2nd half defensively is Bernard being out. He is really struggling in base run and isn’t making the splash plays blitzing or in coverage. Don’t know the fix, but he needs to pick it up or sit.

That is 100% the point and is not second-guessing because it was called for last week. Getting NE into heavy personnel and taking advantage of them with PA was the way to attack out of the gate. Get them behind and force them to play a game of catchup all night long. The Bills came out with a pathetic plan including Knox jet-sweep and a flea-flicker that was nearly disastrous. That is the stuff you try when Tyrod Taylor is your QB and you don't think you can beat the opponent with your conventional offense. NE couldn't and wouldn't have covered Kincaid all night because they don't have the personnel to handle him. Stop being cute and play to your strengths/the opponent's weaknesses. A few throws early would have greatly opened up lanes for Cook as LBs and S would be thinking PA first. Very frustrating plan from Brady.

Because he doesn’t want to go left and is less likely to take the bait.

True and the one stop in the 2nd half was a gift on 3rd and a foot with the false start.

Last night was the perfect game for a script similar to the Seattle plan last season. Play in reverse by setting up the run with play-action passes to the TEs/Shakir over the middle. NE has a good run defense, and you know Vrabel is preaching physicality out of the gate. Use that and their poor coverage LBs and S against them. Instead, the offense pissed away a good 1st half by the defense running jet sweeps to Knox, flea-flickers, and Palmer being unable to recognize he needed to be on the LOS. Really poor plan and execution that entire 1st half is what doomed the Bills. Again, game-script matters and the only time NE felt a little heat was after the 1st drive on the 2nd half when the D got super soft and let NE get the ball across mid-field before the KO team was seemingly off the field. Need to be better and more aggressive early to control the game-script.

And this is what I can’t stand. A mile from the play they will call weak illegal contact like on Benford tonight. Then a clear penalty that prevents a catch is ignored.

Brady is coaching like we can’t run real plays and are outmanned. Stop being cute!!!

I am not disputing that the Bills could lose. See Packers, Browns. I am saying the Ravens are far superior. The Bills play their A game, they beat NE. That isn’t necessarily true with Baltimore.

The entire argument about the Pats being the best team the Bills have played is flat out ridiculous. Sports books don’t like to lose money and right now the Ravens are around +1000 while the Patriots are between +10,000 and 15,000 to win the Super Bowl.

And because he played at an ultra-elite level in victories against the league’s two best teams in the most watched, hyped games of the regular season.

This game illustrates why you can’t pay Rousseau $25 million. He isn’t this level.

I think Rousseau is better relative to Edmunds, but only a step up from JAG and never going to be over-the-top impactful against elite competition. He also picked a very bad time for his worst game of the season. His edge contain starting with the 4th down-play in KC's own territory, that was an obvious Mahomes keeper, was brutal all night. He will be a very tough call because I think his price (similar to Edmunds) will ultimately leave the buyer remorseful. The issue is he is clearly the best the Bills have, and they still need another more impactful DE as well.

I agree with a fair amount of man-to-man and being aggressive vs sitting all game in a passive zone getting picked apart. The Baltimore success rate by coverage splits certainly backs that up as well. I hope if that is the plan, Douglas does not find his way on Worthy. Keep him on Juju or Hopkins. Worthy's speed vs Douglas will be no bueno in man-to-man and a big play waiting to happen.

I thought the tone for the 2nd half was set with the very first play call (toss to Cook). Harbaugh's halftime interview said exactly what you'd have expected (they needed to stop the run). Buffalo surely knew that as well and that first play was the perfect opportunity to run play-action and get things started aggressively. The Bills should have looked at scoring a TD on that drive as game over. It would have forced the Ravens to largely abandon the run. I am not sure if the decision to be so conservative was on Brady or was influenced by McD. It was very strange because Brady has been excellent this year and McD has proven to really trust Josh and has drifted away from his conservative nature. Thankfully they prevailed and hopefully a lesson was learned. As Romo started pointing out repeatedly later in the half, if you go down, go down firing your bullets with 17. Have to enjoy a win like that over a team as tough as the Ravens, but need to play to win and give our best player the chance to lead the team.

I feel homefield is much more important vs the Ravens than the Chiefs. Reasons: 1. Bills have proven multiple times during the regular season that they can win at Arrowhead and while their fans are great, Bills seem to relish that environment. Also, would have won a playoff game there if not for that period of time which shall not be named. 2. The Ravens feed off their home crowd and I feel that stadium with all of the darkness resembles a dark alley fight for which the Bills are not designed. 3. I don't think Highmark has much impact on Mahomes..he is seemingly unflappable. I do think the crowd and some mistakes can snowball on Lamar and my hope is that is what happens Sunday night.

Not getting ahead of ourselves, but the Bills were massively banged up in the Ravens game. Shakir hurt early, no Cooper yet, Bernard, Milano, Taron all inactive. Those are massive holes to fill. I still think the Ravens are the worst matchup, however that game is not a good indicator of what a rematch would look like.

Correct. Also, they were a moronic Jonathan Taylor play (at home) from having their playoff control taken from them in a very meaningful game just a few weeks ago vs the Colts.

Not a chance. His decision making in preseason prompted the move for Codrington. Playoffs aren’t the time for a debut performance at sneaky-high pressure position. It was mentioned earlier and I actually think they might consider Hyde just to securely catch the ball and make correct decisions inside their own 20.

My guess: Sat aft: lac @ hou Sat nt: den @ bills Sun 1: was @ tb Sun 4: gb @ phi Sun 8: pit @ bal Mon: min @ lar

The disjointed offensive performances against the Ravens (hurt early) and Texans (DNP) certainly provide evidence as to his importance.

This also calls into question the 10 second runoff after the Intentional Grounding. I think with 2 TOs left there, burning one of them would have been preferrable to the 10 second runoff which equates to two plays. I really like McD as a coach, but his time management decisions continue to be poor. Not calling a TO with :01 on the play clock in the 2nd half to get below the 2:00 warning after the fg attempt was also suspect. You know these things are discussed in-depth because they are well prepared seemingly in all facets, but far too often it is not the optimal decision with regard to the clock.

I thought about this at the time, and it is the only logical reason not to throw the hail mary. If that really is the concern, let Trubisky throw it. You have to take a shot there for a lucky bounce or DPI. The play to Shakir had no chance whatsoever and it wasted a small opportunity at points. I would also look at the Hook and Ladder play Detroit ran. That is the perfect play for the next to last play of the half when the Bills needed 5-10 yards for a FG and the Lions took away the short sideline since Buffalo had 0 TOs. Something like that from Kincaid to Shakir flying across the field to then get out of bounds. Curious to see if it is added for playoff time.

A hidden part of the game that hasn't been mentioned much is how well the Bills caught the ball. Josh was slightly inaccurate on a few throws and the hands were unreal and need their kudos: (Ty Johnson sliding catch on 1st drive, Ty Johnson 4th down fingertip grab, Dawson Knox 1-hander, Ray Davis TD, Keon Coleman smoothly adjusting to deep ball over his other shoulder, Curtis Samuel diving 1 yard gain on Goal line out route - all off the top of my head). I love the way this team is catching the ball.

It was defensive hands to the face and Edwards’ hands were inside the framework. Horrible call.