Cotton Fitzsimmons

Victory Formation, my good friend, you are spot on per usual! YE OLE believes these talking heads on TV that consistently talk about Buffalo being a "power running" team and relying on the defense and all this could not be further from the truth. The Bills may have an elite defense, but they are not building an offense to ground and pound. This is year 3 of Allen, who they picked to be their franchise QB. Not only should he be able to start winning games with his arm, they need to see it this year to start determining his future. Obviously the addition of Diggs only adds to the fact that they plan on airing it out. There may be games or stretches where it gets dialed back per the game plan, but YE OLE thinks it is a certainty that we will see more games where Josh gets 46+ attempts this year and if he is who we think he is, he will eclipse 400 yards.

What’s good, gents? What’s good? The important question here is... if the Bills make it to the Super Bowl, can Wade be activated?

What’s good, gents? What’s good? This BOJO character reminds YE OLE of Fred sans the talent and production. He just keeps hanging around. Perhaps one day we will have a thread debating whether BOJO will go on the Wall.

What’s good, gents? What’s good? In today’s NFL, if your kicker can’t connect from 50+ you are up the crick without a paddle... and that’s the fact Jack! With reports that Haushcka is consistently short from 50+ at camp today, it sounds like nothing has changed from last year. Looks like this Bass fellow will get the nod.

Bangarang, my good friend... you are spot on per usual!

Gents, to rank on this forum one must be prepared to pay the price... pay walls, hours of audio files, it doesn’t matter. “No days (posts) off!”

Chandler, my good friend, no apologies necessary! Always nice to be regaled with tales of War Memorial. So many great stories, gents!

What’s good, gents? What’s good? Looking over this thread, YE OLE has been asking himself “what sort of picks do we need to ship to Jax and what sort of cabbage must we pay this Fournette fellow?” It seems like the sum of picks + cabbage may be excessive for a fellow who has been decent but far from all pro level at a highly replaceable position. Gents, something appears to be unsavory in the woodshed here vis-à-vis this trade speculation.

Clearly this deal was tit for tat, gents!

YE OLE can hear the post game pressers now... Sal: Josh, can you walk us through that play right at the end of the half... what was going on there? Josh Allen: “Overall JA17 played a pretty solid game out there, but obviously JA17 might want to have that play back...”

Teef, my good friend, you are spot on per usual! Who does this character think he is... YE OLE?

Use your heart just like a (Jeff) tool... sometimes... Now we are talkin YE OLE's language here, gents!

Jauronimo, my good friend, you make sn excellent point here. The issue is, when we’ve seen this gesture (both arms out) the returner is signaling to his blockers and he lets the ball land. The problem is, he then fielded the ball and didn’t down it. There was no whistle and the ball was live. You can see the official was also confused and looked at him as if to say “are you downing it or bringing it out?” The issue comes in, if the shoe were on the other foot. Had the return team trotted off the field and this joker takes off and returns it for a TD, does anyone think that would’ve been taken off the board? I thought the panel with John Fox/Trey Wingo was particularly insightful on this. They all made the point, if you’re in victory formation, everyone may know your intent, but you still have to execute the snap and take a knee. And there’s a lot of precedent for weird kick returner/live ball fiascos. YE OLE can never remember one of these blunders being reversed due to “intent”

After taking a day to process, this play bothers me a lot more. At the time YE OLE wasn’t too upset as it did seem like common sense that he was giving himself up. But that said, there’s been many instances where weird things happen and they still call it by the book. I mean we all remember Desean Jackson’s bone headed play some years ago. Clearly his intent was to cross the goal line, but he didn’t and they ruled it as it actually happened: And perhaps the more relevant point is... if you go by “intent” and everyone stops playing without it being downed... this happens (and they obviously did NOT take this TD off the board for the Rams... and they wouldn’t have yesterday either if the Texans ran it back and everyone just “assumed” he gave himself up without actually doing it.

Just YE OLE’s 2 cents... what you’re saying is true, but none of these rules are called in a vacuum. Things like intent, severity, and a host of other factors always come into play. The odd second half kickoff/TD they took off the board is a perfect example. To the letter of the law, the official obviously didn’t feel like he gave himself up and called it a TD. However “after discussion” they reversed it and the term “common sense” started getting thrown around in ensuing analysis of the whole debacle. To the letter of the law, there also holding, PI, illegal contact, etc. on a majority of snaps. Watt, 100% landed his full weight on Allen at one point, which we’ve seen called and then not called. All of the rules are called subjectively, so things like intent and “spirit of the rule” always come into play. Again... YE OLE’s two cents is they generally let them play all day, and didn’t call a very tight game. Nobody was getting injured based on Ford’s actions. That’s a really tough call to make in OT of a playoff game.

If it plays out, Tennessee will have beaten Baltimore on Saturday, so McDermott will know a win against his mentor Andy Reid, means they’ll be coming home to host the AFC Championship. One can only imagine the scene at the airport when the plane lands next Sunday night, if that plays out!

If you could pick one corner (in their prime) to cover Fuller on Saturday... would you pick Phillip Gaines or Kenny Irvin?

It certainly should have been a block in the back... YE OLE won’t argue that, but the flag came out during the face mask from an official that was looking right at it. It clearly should have offset, and the refs huddled up forever and a day to discuss it. If they legitimately missed the blatant face mask, it shouldn’t have taken so damn long to discuss what in their minds was a routine block in the back infraction.

In all seriousness, gents, if Josh is orchestrating a game winning drive and connects with Duke in the red zone, YE OLE would not want to be the DBs standing between Duke and pay dirt... FACT!

Perhaps McBeane has waited until the postseason to unleash Duke, thus elevating from “Playoff Caliber” to “Championship Caliber” Now the only question is... can Christian Wade also be activated to the playoff roster.

Just YE OLE’s two cents here gents... but it seems that the coaching staff may have played the long game here. This was by far the best game Brady had against McDermott’s defense of late. To YE’s untrained eye, there wasn’t much happening to confuse and frustrate Brady like what we witnessed in the first game this year, and dating back to last season. The defense seemed very vanilla... and it’s not to say that they didn’t want to win, but one could say it might fall under the McBeane philosophy of win now as well as long term. The chances of Miami winning there next week are very small, and unless that happens, this had all the significance of a preseason game. My guess is, if Brady sees this defense again in January we’re going to see a lot more frustration and confusion coming from him than we did yesterday. As great as a win would’ve felt yesterday, a win there in January is the one that would truly make a statement.

9. Buffalo Bills (9-3) - Previously: 17.The Bills were on my overrated page since late September or early October, but Josh Allen's development means that they have a legitimate chance to make a deep run into the playoffs. I didn't think Allen would get to this level until 2020, but he's there now.