dave mcbride

Recall that at the 5:20 mark, this was not called DPI.

Two things can happen at the same time, and they did!

Watched it again last night thinking like you and @Shaw66, but Josh was DEFINITELY down at the two. Not even arguable, and the refs spotted it appropriately. Watch it again from the reverse angle. I thought the non-calls on Shakir and especially Cooper were right. The slight hook on Shakir didn’t impede him (the pass was off anyways) and that literally happens on almost every play. The defenders are actually allowed to contact receivers (after all, it’s a contact sport). Outside of the Dawkins call (compensated for by the very questionable call on Tre White), it was a pretty well officiated game.

He also slipped at the most inopportune moment on a very icy field.

About 45 seconds before the forced fumble, I texted a high school friend group (all knowledgeable bills fans) and said, “terrell bernard is having a pretty bad game.” One minute later i wrote, “i take that back!” Agree with what you say above.

Thought of you when I saw Simms saying the same in his next-day convo with Florio. I still kinda disagree with you because I don’t think throws need to be perfect to be “good” throws, but I like Simms and he obviously played the game at a high level and worked for Belichick for a year. So maybe he’s right???🙂

I thought he played fine. He got called for a BS penalty -- BS in the sense that it should clearly have been a "let 'em play" decision by the ref given that it could have been called on either of them (and moreover this sort of thing happens all the time) -- but that was his only negative play.

I thought the throw was right on the money. He was obviously supposed to go there, but was slow getting out of his break and was late. He barked about being held, but it was normal (if real) contact and pretty good defense.

They’re all good. Great QB draft. What do you mean by that?

I rewatched the game tonight. On the one throw to Cooper, the throw was to a spot, and it was accurate. He couldn’t fight through it (and no, it wasn’t a penalty, just good defense) and then started barking at the refs. And he also possibly broke in the wrong direction.

Nah. It’s kinda BS that the teams that get the one-week bye get an extra one-day bye before the conference championship weekend.

You’re neglecting the Bills, who were 9th in passing yards and 5th in ypa. The Bills averaged only 5.7 yards per passing play after averaging over 10 yards per passing play the week before in the cold vs a top 5 defense (Denver). I don’t care who the Ravens played — they have great defenders and their defense was truly elite in the last half of the season. So the weak competition argument doesn’t convince me at all. They also shut down the bills’ passing game in week 4 too.

The Ravens’ pass D has been lights out since week 11. In 7 out of 9 games they held opponents to under 200 yards passing. They also gave up 202 in one game and 251 vs the Steelers in the playoff game, but most of those yards were garbage time yards: 211 passing yards in the second half when the game was out of hand and not in doubt. At halftime, they were up 21-0 and had given up just 40 passing yards. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/rav/2024.htm

Allen because of the 2 rushing TDs. I mean, who else could they give it to? No one on D and no one else on O.

Texans also missed 7 points on kicks.

The Ravens defense is really good. It bears repeating that they were the best defense in the league by far over the final seven weeks of the season. And they dominated the Steelers in the playoff game too when it mattered (ie, before a very long garbage time session).

The Rams, Lions, Ravens, and Texans all had more yardage than their divisional round opponents and all of them lost. Has that ever happened?!? (A comment from @zow2 made me look this up.)

Andrews also dropped an easy first in the second quarter at the Bills 20, and Jackson took the sack/fumble on the next play.

The defense seemed to be scrambling to get aligned properly on almost every play of that final possession. Keystone cops-like.

Allen hit Shakir on a 34-yard deep throw two plays after the Hollins miss.

It’s worth noting that Andrews dropped a likely first down early in the second quarter at the Bills 20 yard line. It was a good enough throw and he just dropped it. The next play, on second and 10, Jackson was sacked and fumbled, resulting with the Bills in scoring position. Basically, three disastrous plays for Andrews.

I thought that was a pretty poor call and could easily have been called on Coleman. But it’s the NFL MO these days to punish pass defenders, so I’ll gladly take it.

Seems strange given that he stopped the previous 2 pt conversion, which was also a passing play.

It was a straight-up horrible drop on a safe, accurate throw. Full stop.

Thanks!