Sierra Foothills

Fair enough... in our hypothetical scenario, hopping 3 times on the same foot before going out of bounds is not a catch. Next question, receiver catches the ball in the middle of the field and because the defender is holding his foot up, he hops on the same foot 12 times over 20 yards before going out of bounds. Catch or not?

Interestingly he seemed to get the same foot down twice... Theoretical question: a player catches the ball and hops on the same foot 3 times before going out of bounds. Catch or not?

Yeah it's really too bad our community simply didn't have the money necessary to: 1) Put a dome on the stadium 2) Place the stadium in the Buffalo River/South Park/Chicago Street area. Moving the stadium back to that area would have accomplished so many positive things...

I'm as a big a Bills homer as there is but Reid's reputation as an offensive genius is earned. It's way too early to make statements like this IMO. Don't look now but the Bills are also getting healthier at just the right time. I think Tomlin and Co. believe they can rehabilitate some of the players they take on. I'm as a big a Bills homer as there is but there is absolutely no question that Lamar Jackson is worthy of consideration and that the race is not locked up yet.

Holds the ball too long, doesn't look for an escape route... then makes an unforced fumble. Incredibly poor for a rookie QB, much less a "Super Bowl Winning QB."

Hey, you do you!

Could we do a ceremony that includes a mass urination on the uniforms before they're burned? Or do you think that would that prevent them from igniting?

As a corollary to the above and specifically regarding DPI, I've seen way too many plays where the receiver was simply not open and in fact was dominated in coverage by the defender, but a flag was thrown because the receiver was partitioned from the ball by the defender and was unable to work back towards the ball. This happens a lot in trail coverage. In these cases a DPI penalty should almost never be called... a receiver should not be rewarded for having been dominated by the defender. Additionally it's completely unfair for a defender to be expected to somehow "get out of the way" from between the receiver and the ball. If the coverage is excellent and the defender ends up between the receiver and the ball, a flag should almost NEVER be thrown. To be clear this includes many plays that are underthrown balls and I'm NOT talking about plays where the defender is oblivious to the ball and simply runs over the receiver awaiting the ball. In these cases it is obviously DPI. But otherwise in cases where a ball hits the back of a defender it should NEVER be DPI.

Sean Salisbury probably remembers too.

That won't be necessary. I'm seldom right.

I stand corrected. My next prediction (consider the track record) is that Johnson will not make any significant contributions to the Texans this season.

Retired NFL players cannot come out of retirement after week 12.

Just speaking in general, I really don't know what the officials are thinking or how they're trained when it comes to calling penalties. If I was training them my criteria for a foul would be: 1) How egregious is the foul? 2) Did it have any bearing on the outcome of the play? Based on a summation of those two considerations a flag would be thrown or not. It seems increasingly like NFL officials just can't resist the temptation to throw a flag, no matter how marginal the infraction is.

Donald Defesne? The old Canadiens defenseman?

Fixed it for us. Yes, the annual discussion of Rest vs Rust. And the Steelers play Cinci in week 18. I don't expect them to have much left in the tank come the playoffs.

What's embarrasing is the lack of perspective of so many fans after a divisional win coming on the heels of 4 straight nationally televised games. The appropriate reaction is thankfulness and relief that we won a game that was inevitably gonna be a clunker. Hmmmm.... Jauron is apparently a motivational speaker now and Sauron's physical form was permanently destroyed, and his spirit dissolved into nothingness when Frodo threw the Ring into the fires of Mount Doom. Does that answer your question? The officiating was piss poor and I was a bit surprised as I have a generally favorable view of Brad Allen and his crew. The Bills were due for a letdown for sure. They aren't robots. Many people here remember AVP's shortened nicname, "The Pill," derived from his nickname "The Pillsbury Doughboy" given to him by Jim Kelly if I'm not mistaken. Never has that nickname been more appropriate.

Before inexplicably deciding that he wanted to provide more motivation for the Chiefs. Dude, this is priceless. Thank you. The picador put at least 6 lances in that bull's neck. That bullfighter could die as far as I'm concerned. He turned 19 on May 2nd.

If we're restricted only to yes/no responses... absolutely yes. Elam's getting more playing time which 1) will make him a better player and 2) will allow the team to make a better evaluation of him. Even after regressing this year it's likely that the team won't be able to re-sign Rasul. The Bills have to be certain about how they feel about Elam. Now if we're allowed a reasonable response, if the Bills are concerned based on what they saw today then by all means dress Rasul and spot Elam in as the game script allows. Keep in mind though that Elam didn't cost us the game today and he didn't come close to costing us the game today. He should be dressed and playing meaningful snaps.

As for the topic of sandbagging, I've assumed the Bills would be holding back these last 3 weeks. The playing of young players is an indicator of that. Some of the guys that are sitting out could play but the Bills are taking calculated risks here. There's a cost benefit to every personnel decision they make, every look they show, every play they call. They'll slow play as much as they think they can get away with. It's a delicate balancing act because you're worshipping more than one religion. Balancing out these different motivations could cause them to fall but it's a game all teams with championship aspirations play. It's not specific to the Bills. The top seed is unlikely but still possible. Bottom line is that the Bills won today. Their performance today didn't disqualify them from anything. That happened when they lost to the Rams. The Bills are still positioned to leapfrog KC if they stumble and still in the driver's seat for the number 2 seed. It's all good. I will grant that they dug themselves a hole and that the game wasn't in hand until the recovered onside kick but I really don't think the Bills came very close to losing today. Of course Josh is tired. He carries the burden of the team, the community and his celebrity into every waking moment. It's the winter solstice in Buffalo. The team has just come off a gauntlet of 4 straight nationally televised games against marquee opponents. These guys are athletes, not machines. They're all tired and it showed. And they won. I expected them to be flat and they were. I expected them to win and they did. I don't think there was any lesson learned. The Bills knew that they could dial it back today and still win. Now they have the great fortune of being able to watch Pittsburgh, KC, Baltimore and Houston play this Wednesday and watch the Chargers and the Broncos play on Saturday. Much of the Bills' possible fates will be determined before they kickoff on Sunday at home against the Jets. The Bills are in the catbird seat. The most dangerous game IMO is the season finale at Foxboro. It'll be very tough beating a divisional opponent twice in a short period of time. New England is gonna treat it as their Super Bowl and they'll be at home, armed with the lessons learned from today's loss. But the Bills might already know by kickoff if they have anything to play for or not. People here should be happy. It's odd seeing all the apprehension and fear and glass half-empty sentiments.

Yeah, I'm feeling the same way. We'll know by 4 pm tomorrow.

Also, more cow bell.

Einstein telling us to do the math... For sure it's a fine balancing act.

That's a legit question. Also legit question, at what point does he shake it off, call a huddle, rally the troops, and resume his professional duty to lead the team?

The US Military has a phrase... "Fit for Command." Even in a non-military, civilian culture, high-level leaders have a professional imperative. In fact I would imagine that there are many people in this very conversation who have professional positions where "falling to pieces" is simply not an option. Even as a head of household in the midst of an emergency/tragedy you cannot lose your mind.