dave mcbride

According to PFR, his best season was 2013 under Bill Sheridan (Schiano was coach). It was the only time he made all-pro and he had his highest AV that season. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/M/McCoGe99.htm I am in no way blaming McCoy for the entire Tampa D performance, but it is the case that his been really terrible during his career there: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/tam/.

My son actually attended this now infamous show at Terminal 5 in NYC. He said it was completely insane. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/arts/music/travis-scott-sued-concert-injury.html. I have to think that the NFL is aware of the rep of his concerts, but after all they had the Who perform a halftime show ...

? - He was banged up this year and struggled (although his stats were good), but last year Wentz would have been MVP if not for the injury. It's way too early to be passing these judgments.

that's a good point. There was blown call in that game (The Lewis fumble that was blown dead and which should have been a Miles Jack TD). Not sure it was him, though.

The Carolina game from 2013 - which Blakeman completely blew at the end by picking up a flag on a BLATANT end zone PI vs. Gronk - is driving this as well. I know we don't like the Pats here, but ... um ... https://www.businessinsider.com/ref-explains-patriots-panthers-call-2013-11 .

Agreed.

He is actually my son's favorite artist. He has seen him twice. It's not really my cup of tea, but he is good for his genre, albeit pretty experimental (and certainly more experimental than most super bowl halftime artists).

Meh. Williams's defenses are historically mediocre overall (and the numbers show this). If he has really good talent, they'll be ok, but if they have too many weak spots, they'll be shredded. At this point, he's about as average-generic a DC as the league has.

As a baseline, the opponent has to see you as a rival too. "Rivalry" conveys an antagonistic partnership, but a partnership nonetheless. No team in the NFL sees the Bills as a rival. Rather, they see the franchise as a longtime doormat and regard games against them as the ones they should probably win. When they lose to the Bills, such franchises are likely to regard it as a sign of their own weakness as a team. Cardinals-Cubs this ain't. Frankly, Wilson made a big mistake years ago when he held up the Miami rivalry as a reason to avoid joining a great lakes/rust belt division when realignment happened. No one in Miami cares about the Bills, and the franchise doesn't see Buffalo as a rival. They hate the Jets and Pats.

The Patriots have had only 8 losing seasons in the past 43 years, going back to 1976. The Bills have had 24. They were opposites in the 1989-1993 era, but otherwise the Pats have been a markedly more successful organization, at least since the beginning of the final quarter of the last century.

Calling the Jaguars a rival is an insult to the term "rival."

At this point, the Bills have no rivals as the term "rival" is currently used.

"Bear" is the first thing that pops up in my head.

Interesting:

That will definitely affect the game. One thing to bear in mind: NE's rushing stats (see my post above) and the following KC rush D rankings: 27th in yards given up on the ground 29th in rushing TDs given up 31st in rushing yards per attempt allowed Not good.

Just checked out the forecast: the high now is forecasted to be 13 and the low 5 on Sunday.

I wouldn't overinterpret this. Hackett will be fulfilling the Curtis Modkins role. LeFleur is going to be running that offense. He's not going to be running anything.

As I say above, the KC secondary is total trash. The one thing they can do is get to the QB really well with their edge guys, but that was the Chargers' forte too. I'd also add that NE went into the NFL history vaults in order to innovate--they drafted a RB in the first round and featured more heavy sets than any team I can remember (save for perhaps a gimmicky team like the Ravens). They identified a weakness stemming from NFL trends in defense (prioritizing pass rushers, coverage LBs, and DBs) and took advantage of teams all season.They were third in rushing attempts league-wide this season, 4th in rushing TDs, and 5th in rushing yards. And none of that yardage came from QB runs - it was all by the backs and players like Patterson.

So much of Brady's weaker performances this year derived from injury issues. When the team is healthy, he looks great. He annihilated a not-bad Jets D in the final game, and flat-out vivisected SD, which is a good team.

Easier said than done. I loathe Edelman, but he is essentially uncoverable on the shorter stuff because he has so many option routes that are dictated by the coverage, and Brady knows them all. They are in near-perfect tune. That's one of the reasons Brady is so good. He's also ridiculously accurate on passes to RBs; he always has been. And I strongly suspect that the Chiefs are going to get a hefty dose of Gronk this week. The Pats knew they'd destroy SD, and held his plays in reserve. If Gronk is on, he's basically uncoverable too. I think he's going to go all-out on Sunday because this might be it for him. Re blitzing, Brady struggled vs TN this year on blitzes, but over the course of his career, he's eaten them alive. And NE is healthy going into this game--which is huge. I'd be very wary of blitzing if I were Reid. Brady has struggled against teams with good man coverage - Denver comes to mind - but KC's secondary is garbage.

A guy named Russell Wilson too. He's a good passer, or so I hear.

Gronk had a phenomenal game. He was regularly destroying the lineman in front of him on run plays. Blocking is a big part of thr TE position. (He also got a PI in the end spzone that immediately led to their first TD.)

You know what? We could add to this: Bills fire Gailey Jets hire Gailey Dolphins fire Wannstedt Bills hire Wannstedt Dolphins fire George Edwards Bills hire Edwards --and maybe: Bills fire (Gregg) Williams Jets hire Williams

Gase hated a lot of players: Ajayi, Suh, Landry, and Jordan Phillips. He chased a lot of talent out of there because they weren't "Gase culture" guys. I think he's a smart offensive game planner, but I really wonder about his emotional intelligence.