dave mcbride

I was shocked he was allowed to keep playing. I mean, given that he just came out of protocol and had TWO episodes in that game ... How does that even happen?

You know, the throw he made to Knox in the EZ on the third down before the final TD that the latter bobbled was just as crazy and just as good.

He had a pass just like this in the home opener vs the Raiders in September 2023.

Man, that hold takes them out of fg range. Brutal. Can’t happen.

Tampa in 2021, Philly in 2023 …

I cannot believe they didn’t punt there.

I feel they have to punt here. Hate to say it, but they can’t go in down 28-11.

Incomplete pass.

He had his head turned back

Wow. Terrible call. He had his head turned around.

Am I a mere pessimist for assuming the Bengals probably convert here?

I predicted the Bengals winning this one by 10, and man I fear I’ll be right. The Bills D scheme plus the complete lack of a four-man pass rush for weeks now is just a horrible matchup vs Burrow and those receivers.

Hey, Tony Eason started in a super bowl! Also, Ken O’Brien was a legit good qb for a number of years.

I mean, you could say the same about Mike Gesicki's build, and he's missed hardly any time in his career.

Whenever I hear “injury prone” for a player like Kincaid, I go back to Paul Posluzny, who was universally regarded as “injury prone” when he played for the Bills. Once he left Buffalo for Jacksonville, though, he missed very few games in the 7 seasons he played for them. In five of the 7 seasons, he played every game, and another he played 14 out of 16 games. My point is, while some players ARE injury prone and some are also iron men (ie, Josh Allen, Brett Favre, and even Dion Dawkins), for the majority of players who do miss time, more often than not it’s just bad luck and not a function of internal makeup. Kincaid has played in 42 out of 49 games so far (including playoffs), and hamstring pulls are very common occurrences for all players. So I’m not willing to declare him injury prone just yet. By way of comparison, TE Hunter Henry missed a LOT of time early on in his career, but he is basically an iron man now. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/H/HenrHu00.htm

White has been a slightly above average NFL cb this year.

Great breakdown. I know folks like @HappyDays and @BADOLBILZ are quick to blame Gabe Davis, but man, on that INT vs Pitt, it was just a terrible read by Allen. Davis did nothing wrong. And I think it’s a bit rich to blame Davis for “dropping” a 70 mph bullet pass that probably traveled 7 yards in a fog-of-war scrum vs Tampa. Not one NFL receiver is catching that, and the blame for him not keeping his feet in bounds vs an elite boundary corner in Stingley, who had established sideline control on that play, seems way off too. That struck me as a no-chance play regardless of the receiver given how good the coverage was. And trust me, I am not a big defender of Davis.

QB stats in the 1970s were different in relative terms from what they are now. You need to look at context, and PFR's adjusted passer rating provides that. Between 1974 and 1980 - the prime of his career - he finished above 100 (with 100 being league average) six out of seven years: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/F/FergJo00.htm. Also, @eball, if you look at the adjusted passer ratings for Kemp, he wasn't great, but he wasn't horrible relative to the rest of the league. In 1964 (a year in which the Bills won the AFL championship with an 11-2 record), he only completed 44.2 percent of his passes and had 13 TDs against 26 INTs. Yet he also led the league in YPA (hard to believe given his completion rate) at 8.5 ypa (extremely high by today's standards, even; Josh Allen's career high is 7.9, although he's at 8.1 this season). The reason? The average completed catch was 19.2 yards! That would never happen now, and I suspect as a consequence that many of those 26 INTs were 45-yard arm punts. It was truly bombs away back then. Anyway, you simply can't take 1960s and 1970s stats and draw convincing conclusions unless you place them in the proper context. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/K/KempJa00.htm

How do we know they're out this week?

I think there's a decent chance the Bills will be 8-6 in two weeks, so KC winning is definitely in the Bills' interest. Cincy is coming off a mini-bye and Burrow has never lost to the Bills, and the Pats will be coming off a full bye and playing at home. They are also a better coached team than the Bills with probably a better roster overall. Of course, the Bills are capable of winning both of those games, but hope is not a plan. The Bills have the head to head vs KC; they don't vs Houston. Seems like an easy decision to me.

I think the fact that the Pats will be coming off a bye and at home makes them a prohibitive favorite. The Bills are likely to be playing a tense game on Sunday vs Burrow/Cincy too. And god know what injuries they'll accumulate. There is always something in that regard.

No he didn’t!! That was Robinson, the GM. Vrabel was opposed to that trade.

I certainly suspect so.

This is gonna be a blowout. The coaching differential between the two teams is so vast.

Prater is making 89.5 percent of his FG attempts this year, which is better than any season of Bass's: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/B/BassTy00.htm. As for XPs, Prater is at 91.9 percent this year (low for him, but a couple of doinked uprights), while Bass was at 92.2 percent last year. Indistinguishable on that front, really, and if Prater makes his next two XPs, he'll be better than Bass was last year.