Georgia Bill

Yep. That last attempt to be "strategic" and kick a line drive in the landing zone at the end of the game cost us, with the Cards getting the ball at the 40 yard line. It's just not worth getting fancy. Not to mention the Cards kickoff return for a touchdown. The best thing you can have now is a kicker who can kick it out of the end zone every time. The league will still see more scoring with all those starts moved up to the 30.

My only concern is we basically lose a day in travel, and the game is played 3 days earlier than a normal (Sunday) game. So really we don't have much time to prepare. Neither do the Dolphins but that one extra day they'll have could mean a lot.

2nd half was way better than the first for the Bills. The first half of the first game of the season is now basically meaningless with respect to judging play, it's more like the last preseason game used to be. In the first half of those, starters played but they weren't fully dialed in yet.

I was surprised at how often the Cardinals stuffed runs at or near the line of scrimmage. It wasn't enough to stop our offense, but was concerning for a while.

11, +/- 1

It seems like most people on this board think the key to getting past the Chiefs and to the SB is "more offense". A case can be made for more defense too. As we have painfully seen, one or two key plays on defense can also be the difference in those tight games.

Lofton was 35 and topped 1000 yards with the Bills in 1991. It can be done, but it is indeed rare.

Belichick was known for getting rid of players a little early rather than late, and somehow they kept winning. Hope we can too.

Tom Petty - won't back down

Brady was 9-4 in AFC championship games. Great record - plus other years he didn't make it to the AFC championship. Even if Mahomes were the next Brady, other QB's did get through. We have as good a chance as any to get through the Chiefs.

There's a difference. Yes Mahomes might be something akin to the new Brady, but we have a QB of equal caliber now too. It's not like we're in hopeless land like we were all those years against the Pats.

Niners gonna win it.

I'm not going to say all our problems on defense in the all important playoff games have been because of injuries, but you'd have to be a fool to suggest that was not a large part of the problem this year. I've always chalked that up to lady luck - and felt like sooner or later we're going to be lucky and have the majority of our defensive starters healthy through the playoffs. I'm starting to wonder though, is there something we're doing (or not doing) that is increasing the chances of injuries?

I can

McCaffrey on the sideline grimacing as they apply pressure to his upper back/neck area. I'm pretty sure he hurt himself when he landed with full body weight on his head. That could have a huge implication for the Super Bowl. Once the adrenaline wears off he's going to be a hurting puppy.

At least most of the time. This is just getting silly.

Dan's balls of steel getting smashed

So we should root for KC to win this year, so that someone else gets a chance next year?

Prepare for twice as many. It's a new league.

Oh yay, another KC Super Bowl 🤮

Maybe the other AFC teams will get lucky and they'll break up before the next season, so the refs aren't pressured to push KC forward.

I want to watch the Chiefs get beat. Not that I particularly relish another team (Ravens) getting back to the Super Bowl before the Bills, but I can't stand the thought of another Super Bowl with the Chiefs. I'd like Mahomes record (which is pretty damn good) about reaching the AFC championship to start losing some luster when it comes to winning it.

My wife surprised me with a "2023 AFC East Champions" tee shirt today, and seemed disappointed that I wasn't thrilled with it. Sigh.

To be fair, I would argue that most playoff teams do worse defensively when going up against the leagues best teams/coaches. It gets harder as you go into the playoffs, and only one team gets out without losing. Every team that loses has armchair coaches second guessing why this or that didn't get done, or pointing out why those painful playoff losses are the coaches fault. I take some comfort in the fact that outside of the funky fluky Bengals game, we're in these games - they are close. Any number of things just going a little right instead of a little wrong would have us winning those games - particularly the last two big ones against the Chiefs.

I don't agree with the "nobody would have questioned them going for it" part. While I personally think they should have gone for it, if we go for it on 4th down and don't get the 1st - meaning the game is over, many would have questioned why you didn't just take the field goal to extend the game. It's a no-win situation, either way if you go for it and don't get the 1st down or you miss the field goal you're going to be blamed that it was the wrong decision.