Ed_Formerly_of_Roch

Where/what hotel do the Bills typically stay in for home games? How close to stadium? The players probably came to practice today assuming they were going to hotel afterwards as normal for Sunday game. So wil lthey do that and also stay there Sunday night too?

You must have read the same article a couple week back that I did! LOL True could be by bus. Pretty certain it won't be train though. Seems like Pitt to Buffalo is further than NJ to Phil?

I wonder how this affects Pitt travel plans? Did they already leave for Buffalo, I'd guess not. Will they now stay home till Sunday, but then risk having a hard time getting to Buffalo, or will they fly in Monday morning? That creates an unusual travel plan which could mess with them. OK just read they are flying to Buffalo Sunday at 3:00

But if the refs had called the interference on first drive, Bills would have 1st and goal on 1. Much better odds they'd have scored there. So it evens out.

Just remember Dolphins are warm blooded mammals. I do wonder how many dolphin fans who still live in south Florida will make the trip to KC with this weather?

Fines seem to always be announced on Saturdays. Maybe that's the day pay checks go out?? I'll bet if that play is ran 10 times, 9 times, the Bills score. I think with it being the end of the half, with the running clock, the refs were distracted by more trying to spot the ball quickly so no complaints from the Bills and watching the clock. Likely too in situations like with clock potentially running out, that the ref's have different priorities to watch for rather than than what they'd be doing in a normal play with say 8 minutes left on clock. No excuse, but think that was the reality.

Steelers aren't a big passing team, add to that potential weather, not as worried about Douglas and Rapp being out as I would if they were playing Miami or KC.

Yes but these guys aren't brain surgeons. As also was pointed out, some have contract incentives for Int's plus most NFL players have big egos so they will catch it and if given the chance attempt to run it out too rather than take the touchback. Add to that they maybe have about a tenth of a second to process all that, not the amount of time you took to write this post. So yes what you're saying is true, but if the same thing happens 10 times, 9 of those will likely have the same results as what happened here.

Except Steelers run 3 WR 75% of the time.

I don't know about stepped back, but sounds like a dicey situation with the Giants. I read on Monday Martindale quit, but today read it's up in the air, that he hasn't resigned, nor been fired. Think both sides waiting for the other to blink first.

I'd put the Panthers #1. He's already has a pretty good history. In Tenn isn't this only the first fire/hire?

Think Williams is last years Spector. Give Williams another year and likely have some good young depth at LB. Bernard, Spector, Williams, Dodson's only 25. If Milano injury takes something away from his game and he never plays at former level, we're still ok for a couple years with rookie contracts. LB may be one position we don't need to draft at as would likely mean cutting a good player to add a rookie. Bills began the season looking great on defense, McD is great as DC, then injuries happened. Mid season defense was terrible, was all McD's fault, he can't handle DC role, needs to be fired. Maybe just maybe the problem was needed time for the replacements to come up to speed. Now looking very strong again.

I can see Dallas in that Dallas was always known as America's team and back in the 70's that probably was the case. Even today still the most popular, but many people are Bills fans now because of their style of play with Allen. The Bills also may be the most followed team when losing. Go back 10 years ago when losing every year, they still had a big following. NE is ranked 2nd, but give it a couple more years of losing and see where they go. No one followed them before Tom Brady. Some teams have big following only because of size of city they are in like Giants, Bears.

The problem I see with hiring Martindale as been stated his scheme is much different so likely assistants and even some players also wouldn't fit with the new scheme either so many of them would be gone too. So basically starting over on the defensive side from a coaching and maybe even a player standpoint. The other issue with doing something like this is it's kind of a slap in the face to the existing staff. Coaches typically either expect to be fired if the HC gets fired or promoted to fill openings on the staff. You have coaches like Babish and Washington who'd be logical promotions to DC, but instead passing them over to bring someone in from the outside. Those guys would likely also leave. It's different if the team is struggling and the defense or offensive scheme isn't working and you want big changes, but don't think that's needed here. Bringing in Rivera probably wouldn't be an issue with scheme, but would still be an issue with promoting from within.

Hard to believe the Bills ar 3rd and Jets last, but out of 17 games, 14 of them are against same teams. Only differences are Ravens V Bengals, KC V Chargers, and Lions V Bears, total of 15 less wins??

Is Smith the OL that was hurt and hoping to come back and play or was he filling in and now inactive due to starter being back?

Think it's more that Jones plays same role and plays it better.

I had a good feeling, but then realized it was just gas!

But what about the spleen? Sounds like they someone had a hit taken out on you!

Lot will depend on this Sunday and the playoffs. A month ago I was thinking this season out of playoffs, next season good time to retool the roster. But if they win Sunday and got deep, then maybe a small retool is only needed and worth kicking the can down the road some more.

Well I'll believe it when the season ends. Wasn't Diggs on the injury report back around late Oct, something with his back. Maybe still lingering effects and Bills feel since he was on injury report for it initially, they can get around it and whatever fine they get, so be it?? Allen isn't on the injury report anymore either, but he even said something about the shoulder maybe a week ago, kind of implying it's much better, but could read what he said as not 100%. Add to that the post yesterday about when the season ends, the whole story will come out about it.

The part in bold I agree with, but that's why I want someone as a backup that has a decent chance of winning a couple of games at least against the weaker teams. Yes Purdy, O'Connell became starters because there was no true established starting QB on the team. The QB the team signed to become the #1 for the upcoming season was benched so the backup took over. In that case sure why not take a chance on an unproven backup as you're likely not going deep into playoffs to begin with and the guy your signed as your #1 had some questions to begin with. That is my point, when a team does not proven starter, it's ok to have an unproven rookie backup. And the names you mention all fit that role on their respective teams with the exception of Huntley, but his first two years he was the #3 guy.

Those three names prove my earlier point. In the case of Zappe and O'Connell those teams didn't have established starting QB's so risk in taking a flier on a low drafted rookie isn't bad as for all the team knows he could be better than the week 1 starter (see Tom Brady) Huntley is on a team with an established starter, but back in 2020 when he was a rookie, he was 3rd string. So Baltimore paid the salary for a #2 backup, Robert Griffin plus Huntley possibility used up an additional roster spot on him as not certain if he was active all year as the #3 QB or just made active roster as #2 when Jackson was out and rest of year was on PS. They also carried 3 QB's in 2021 too with a 12 year vet in Josh Johnson on the team. Only starting in 2022, did Huntley become the #2 QB as a 3rd year player. Prior he was 3rd string. So yes those three names all are good examples of exactly what was my point.

My guess is when the season ends a similar story will also be coming out about Diggs. Whether his will be surgery free or not, who knows, TBD??

And the front office will figure out a way to handle the cap. Will they be in great shape no, but likely can afford better than vet min for a backup QB. Yes is Allen has season ending injury the team isn't winning the SB, but if Allen were to be out 3 to 4 weeks even with a backup QB like Mitch T, they could still win some games against the likes of NE, Giants, Washington, Chargers, they could win half the games and keep the team in it till Allen returns. With it's very unlikely they'd win at all with a rookie QB who hasn't played at all who was drafted in the 4th round. You want to draft him and keep him on PS, fine, but pretty much a waste of the draft pick too then.