dave mcbride

The Bills scored their one meaningful TD because the KC punt returner fumbled at the one yard line. Otherwise, the production was similar.

This is false. He was on the forum before the 2017 draft (as a Bills fan) and pushing hard every day on his argument that the Bills needed to draft Mahomes. He switched to the Chiefs because he’s a Mahomes fan, but he still likes the Bills.

Easterby was hired in early 2020, and Watson signed the extension 7 months later (in a covid situation). I think it’s fair to assume that he didn’t realize that he was going to be working under a cultish short-haired friend of Jesus driving a chartreuse microbus. I give Watson a hard pass on this one. Easterby and McNair suck and are toxic. To quote Janis Joplin, get out while you can.

He had a sneaky-dirty hit after the whistle on the bills’ first possession that set Jones off, and then he later delivered what looked to be a kidney punch (judging from the video) that caused jones to retaliate. I don’t fault feliciano - they were trying to get to the SB and the book was out that you could aggro jones into doing something stupid. He had been ejected earlier in the season for retaliating. On that play, the refs just missed the retaliation, but it was an ejectable offense.

Great post. Going back to his Miami days when he regularly stoned the Bills o-linemen, I have long felt that Suh had shockingly become one of the most underrated players in the league. He is a force out there—still extremely difficult to handle one on one.

NE fans will always love both.

I know an inordinate number of Patriot fans, and *every single one of them* is supremely happy with the result tonight. They also expect Belichick to turn it around. I don’t that most of them think in the way that Bills fans want them to. Tommy will always be one of theirs, as will BB. It is what it is.

To be fair to McD, he ran an elite defensive line in 2013 that had freaking 60(!!) sacks. They were second in both points and yards allowed that year, but were arguably the best D in the league. That said, it’s worth noting that their best pass rusher by far was a legit criminal: Greg Hardy.

Agreed. A normal qb would have been sacked 12 times. KC went in with a garbage o-line, and it showed. Eric Fisher takes heat because of how high he was drafted but he is genuinely good. The replacement tonight (Remmers) was a matador, as was the RT replacement.

Agreed, but with regard to Jones, it’s on the refs to pay attention to attempts to aggro him given the history. Christ, Feliciano did it, and Jensen tonight was even more blatant. He retaliated, but the refs have to do better. I have no love for Chris Jones, but I do expect SB refs to have informed situational awareness.

The one thing I’ll push back against is the PI in the end zone. Brady threw that away (it hit the wall well beyond the EZ) and wasn’t remotely catchable. It’s not even really arguable, and it was a huge play.

Excellent point ... but the Bucs have an inordinate number of low character individuals too!

Just to be clear, i was talking about last year (see my edit of that post if you’re interested). The larger point is that they have a TON of physical talent.

In 2019, they were #2 overall according to Football Outsiders’ defensive DVOA metric despite giving up a TON of points. The reason? Jameis Winston not only set a record for pick sixes, he threw picks and fumbled in his own end at a crazily high rate (and along with 30 picks Winston had a ton of fumbles too—12 total) . Most of those turnovers that occurred in their own end turned into points for the other team, and it wasn’t the Bucs’ D’s fault. Bottom line—Winston was terrible, and it had a huge impact on TB’s defensive numbers.

Karma is a b*tch, not a killer. Get it straight!

The reffing in the first half was objectively terrible, but KC was awful in the second half and deserved to lose. KC’s backup OTs looked like high school players — “Ole!” On every other play. For the first time in a long time, the SB was a terrible game. My broader take: the NFL certainly didn’t “fix” the game, but I suspect the last thing they wanted was Andy Reid winning after a (plausible) narrative emerged in which he enabled his idiot son (to the point of employing him despite no visible qualifications), who was responsible for a genuine human tragedy because of his recklessness.

For one side! The catch by Kelce on second down inside the 20 with leas than 2 minutes to go was textbook PI. Normally, who cares, but given the calls up to that point, my god. Not evidence. At all.

@Rico, why is Mahomes a prick? Be specific with evidence.

That I don’t know. The Bills know far more than any of us.

Mahomes is actually not a prick.

Brady runs down to taunt Mathieu and Mathieu gets the penalty after replying. Awesome stuff. I love the nfl.

The catch rates were effectively the same in 2019 and 2020, so what you’re saying doesn’t really matter. As a Buffalo Bill over two seasons with the same OC and the same QB, his catch rate has been the same. And if you want to do a really deep dive, bear in mind that his worst season in this regard by far, 2017 (38.2 percent), Drew Stanton and Blaine Gabbert started most of the games. They are bad qbs, and they were running a Bruce Arians offense that pushes the ball downfield. Stanton completed under 50 percent of his passes and Gabbert was at 55.6. Also, prior to Jackson becoming the QB in mid-late 2018, he had caught 34 balls on 67 throws. Granted, that’s barely above 50 percent, but he was also averaging 9 yards per pass attempt (601 yards on 67 throws), which is awesome. Afterward, Jackson targeted him 29 times and completed only 6 passes (a 21 percent catch rate). Anyway, context -- the qb, the system, etc. -- matters. Again, though, I agree with you that he probably will not be back. If he is out because of injury he stops being active. It’s not like he’s not getting snaps or not being targeted. He can’t play, simply put. If a player starts and goes down on the first play because of injury, it seems ridiculous to me to say that he played the game. He didn’t. Yet the stat sheet will say he played that game. Brown was functionally inactive for over a half vs. the Rams and most of a quarter vs. AZ. He wasn't hurt vs. Miami, but he didn’t play after halftime (presumably because they were concerned about re-injury).

Hapless — he came out (injury) in the first half of the rams game, missed most of the fourth quarter of the AZ game (injury again), and didn’t play in the second half of the miami game. Hence my estimation of 8 games.

Oh please. In the Bills system—i.e., the one he is playing in NOW—he catches the ball at a 63 percent rate. Also, I suggest you look at the deep throw rates in Arians offenses. They are off the charts, and he was their bomb guy for Palmer. Context actually matters. Also, while I absolutely agree with you Allen’s bomb accuracy issues, on more conventional deep throws (ie, the 25 yard throw on a rope), he is elite.

First off, while with the Bills he has averaged a 63 percent catch rate, so your numbers don’t make sense to me. Secondly, deep threats who get tossed bombs ALWAYS have lower catch rates than guys who catch short throws, and Bruce Arians pushes the ball deep more often than any other offensive coach in the league. Also, his catch rate plummeted when Lamar Jackson replaced Flacco, a good deep ball thrower (see the 2018 game logs: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/B/BrowJo02/gamelog/). This is what accounts for his lifetime catch rate and nothing else. For comparison, look at RB catch rates; they’re usually around 75 percent plus. But RBs don’t take the top off of a defense and force the safeties to play deep. Brown is a currently better player than Davis (who I like; don’t get me wrong), who can’t really move his hips fluidly—which limits him coming out of cuts (just compare him to Diggs and Beasley)—and isn’t fast. (Also, bear in mind that Davis’s stats this year were skewed by two deep Barkley bombs in the finale vs. Miami in garbage time.) Davis is good at contested catches and jump balls, which is good, but remember that Daboll’s scheme is predicated on throwing windows to open guys, not contested throws. Having said all of this, I don’t expect Brown back. The Bills are cap strapped, and they have make some hard choices. And I won’t be surprised if they draft a speed guy in the third round or so. Also, Brown can go elsewhere and on some teams will be the best receiver available (ie, Jax, NE).