dave mcbride

I just disagree with this. It's all well and good to say "win the game decisively," but as it happens all final four teams were really good this year and there were no walkaways on offer. The Rams were 13-3 and dominant at many times this season. Plus they are probably the most star-heavy team in the league on both sides of the ball. This wasn't a game against the Bills or the Arizona Cardinals. Exactly. He basically said he had no idea where the ball was because he was beaten so badly. An INT wasn't ever in the cards.

The picture of the brace combined with the description of what likely has happened so far on the surgery front is gruesome.

The problem is that against good offenses, defenses are at a serious disadvantage because they're flat out exhausted. Does it matter in a Bills/Arizona Cardinals game? Not so much. However, when the Pats are the opponent - a team that constantly runs a TON of offensive plays in regulation (roughly 85 plays going into OT vs both Atlanta and KC, btw) -- the coin flip win gives them a huge advantage. I know that the Saints lost, but I believe that in most games involving playoff teams with good QBs/offenses, losing the coin flip puts you at a serious disadvantage to the point where it increases the likelihood that you'll lose.

That wasn't a muff. It was the right decision to overturn it. There was not the slightest alteration in the ball's trajectory while in air at any point. Anyway, they turned it over 2 plays later and the Chiefs got the ball at roughly the same point. They then scored a TD with ease.

Every other one has, and 8 is a pretty huge sample size ...

Who knows. Based on 8 pieces of evidence, we can be reasonably sure of one thing—the game will go down to the wire. Say what you will about the Pats, but they always give you an exciting game in the Super Bowl. It’s been 8 straight good, close games, and I don’t expect that to change.

On the drive where the Rams tied it 20-20, there was in fact a pretty obvious facemask on goff that wasn’t called that probably cost LA 4 points. This isn’t to excuse the NRC call, which literally decided the game and was therefore more important (and more blatant).

This won't be an argument ender to what is a really stupid argument, but it should be!

Not true. He actually had a long and solid career. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/P/ParrJo20.htm He started for that Raiders team that went to the 2002 SB.

That’s fair. I just worry that a lot of folks here are highly susceptible to Terrence Pennington-itis when it comes to lauding rookies simply because they actually made it onto the field for sustained periods of time. Teller played on a truly abysmal offense, after all.

I wouldn't put Teller on the list. He only played because the other options were terrible, and he actually struggled a lot much of the time he was out there. The jury is way out on him.

Always appreciate you insight. I did some searching and came across this thread on a falcons board. Thoughts? https://boards.atlantafalcons.com/topic/4067311-ot-jawaan-taylor/

PS: The two teams who choked at home in the final game of the season and hence missed the playoffs -- the Vikings and Titans -- had one constant: they lost to the Bills. It was clearly a sign that they weren't good enough!

The Bills played 7 games against playoff teams: the Pats twice, the Ravens, the Bears, the Chargers, the Texans, and the Colts. They were curb-stomped in every one of those games except against the Texans, but they mitigated for that by losing in epically pathetic fashion.

? - Lombardi won five championships as head coach, just like Belichick has. He also won a championship as OC of the Giants and would have won a second if not for Alan Ameche's score in OT in "the greatest game ever played." Bear in mind that he also died way too young, from cancer, at age 57.

He was one of my favorite old-time stat lines ever - in the 1968 AFL championship game against the Jets, which the Raiders lost 27-23 after the Jets came from behind late with a Namath TD pass to Maynard, he was 20-47 --- but still threw for 401 yards! That's 20 yards per completion!

Daryle Lamonica and it's not even remotely debatable. He is literally one of the best QBs of his era, and he sat on the bench in Buffalo before being traded for a box of rocks (i.e., Tom Flores).

Why higher than Haskins, if you don't mind my asking? Haskins' production was off-the-charts great.

But who are the QBs in this draft outside of the Ohio State guy? Last year their were legit blue chip prospects.

How so? There are only a couple of qbs remotely worthy of a top ten pick, and if 6 teams (or even 4, if I'm conservative) are out of the QB game and want to trade down, where does that leave Buffalo w/regard to a potential trade down? If teams want a QB, they will be willing to move up. Last year proved that.

Kirby: you said alabama players (plural) were rookie starters for the Bills who were backups at alabama. That’s what I was responding to.

There are six teams in front of the Bills that probably won't be drafting QBs (AZ, NYJ, SF, Raiders, TB, and Detroit), so I wouldn't get too excited here.

He didn't beat them; the defense did. Watson was actually terrible in that game. I watched it. Well, his NFL.com draft profile says he was the starter, and he played all the time. Christ, he led the team in pass breakups. https://www.nfl.com/prospects/levi-wallace?id=32462018-0002-5599-37dc-f8dc32c7ecf3

Always liked him. A question: was the PI called against him in London (v Jax) the worst and most game-deciding call against the Bills since the late 1990s (Just give it to him plus Home Run forward lateral)?

I think Alpha is right and that a bad NFL team would utterly slaughter Bama or Clemson. What do so many top prospects in the league say in the midst of training camp? "Man, everyone here is good." Both Clemson and Alabama have weak spots on both sides of the ball that an NFL coaching staff -- which is far more prepared than any college staff going into a game -- will ruthlessly and repeatedly expose. Wallace was a starter all season in his senior year. He got better every year--which is kinda Alpha's point! He's a FAR better player now than he was at Bama. The coaching in the NFL is also far, far, far, far more rigorous than in college.