colin

The Denver team has way more talent, but they are making so many just aggression mistakes. They have some sick oline and defensive stats, but just like Baltimore they are big and talented and play just super dirty. Just so happens they got flagged for a few on the last couple drives.

the worst thing they can do, for themselves, is lose w wentz, then rush mahomes back and get him banged up vs pittz.

the one thing my gut disagrees with is i think kc drops 2 games coming up.

lol, you guys are just too gloomy!

guys like kelly would be marginal in the nfl today compared to their talent if the were out boozing and taking summers off, and it reflected in their play back then too. if they were more dedicated to fitness, diet, breaking down film, all of that the true super stars of yesteryear would be super stars today, and i think kelly would be one of those. to me the real example of the transition was Terrell Owens and Drew Bledsoe/Tom Brady. Brady had more talent than his 6th round pick status for sure, and he was a late late bloomer, but drew had way more talent. Drew just wasn't a gym rat of a film junkie. he'd do what he was told, do the mandatory workouts, go to the meetings, and then just be himself in the offseason and on days off. brady was addicted to working out and the film room, and was in the coach's ear all the time to get more information and improve. they kept him because his whole being was pro football. drew was blessed from the day he was born to be a great nfl qb, but he did what was asked of him and not more. TO was a total workout warrior, and stuck to the diets that the coaches had for the players. he never got out of shape and after breaking his flipping leg in the middle of the season, came back and was the best player in the super bowl that they shoulda won over the pats. The norm now is way more dedication, and these players have been coached up and filmed and trained from a young age. kelly was gassing beers in high school and didn't go to his local penn st cuz they wanted him to be an LB. the bills of those days were known to party and show up to games half in the tank. if he adapted to the modern nfl life he'd be a modern great.

the rams game was horrible, something went totally wrong w the DL. I think bishop and elam might be who we need out there to have our best team available. douglas has fallen off and is just not the athlete elam is, and hamlin is just small and slow (but i will say, steady). Having all the new guys come in at once vs detroit was not a good thing at all. spector and the guy we had starting at the other safety position, as well as the guy who can in to replace bishop were big reasons why we gave up so many yards late. they were off the bench and really not good. I think if mcd and babbich can put some big boy pants on and make the moves they made vs detroit, and we don't have another total mash unit, we will see the bills d able to force 3-5 punts and get 1-2 turnovers, which with our O makes it very very difficult to beat us.

if we put the shoe on the other foot, what would KC think their chances are if the bills were 13-1, they were 11-3, the bills had some tough games coming up and had been winning with really tight kinda fluke type games, and allen had a high ankle sprain? I'd say they'd put their own odds at like 30%. now, they are the better team based on back to back chips, and clearly have a better much much more consistent d and special teams, but are not so dynamic on O. I'd say discounting the above scenario for that, it put's us at like 20%. Now, if we win out, don't have crazy injuries, and actually get the 1 seed, I think it puts us at like 30-35%. we'd have our biggest issues w baltimore (bad match up, we'd need playoff lamar to lay an egg again), and of course KC because you'd have to assume mahomes will be healthy by then. the 4 horsemen of the NFC are Detroit, Philly, Mini, and Greenbay. I think tampa could play spoiler and have beaten some good teams before they got a lot of injuries early in the season, but I'm gonna assume they won't come up on top enough times to get there. We beat detroit in a game that was not as close as the score told us, and they have had some more shocking injuries, so i'm confident (60%+) we beat them again. Philly i woulda said is our worst match up because of their running, but it seems like the bills real weakness is accurate passing to athletic targets in a sophisticated O, philly has a high school simple passing O and hurts just does not read the d well, so i think we have an advantage there (at a good health level anyhow). Greenbay is a real wild card, they are not consistent but could kinda get hot and beat people, or just fall apart. I'd have to look deeper into the match up, but they can run and have a live qb, so i'd be a bit worried. Minni I think is just too one dimensional, of all the above nfc teams they have by far the worst qb. anyhow, the real gauntlet to the super bowl will be winning in the afc. a bye gets us healthy and rested and at home, kc is a huge monkey on our backs, but if we are the one seed my quiet expectations will be that we get there and win.

He looks to me like an improved Gabe Davis. Targeted down field, uses moves and body control to get deep. Difference is he's obv a way better athlete, has a bigger frame, and better hands. They've done a few quick screens to him, but our o is less fast on time stuff and way more extended plays so him being more of a big play option seems to suit.

That really grinds my gears

between this game and the number of non calls on just completely obvious fouls in front of refs, including an eons early false start on 4th down by the rams, last week; it's pretty clear the refs just want to let offensive fouls go, some on D in coverage too (but i think there is a bit more judgement there and the refs might miss some). as a biased fan i see more against us than for us, but I have seen them both ways. i think our team plays a faster more spaced style, so it hurts it more than it helps us. baltimore, for example, commits a foul on just about every play, but only gets called on a few of them. maybe we can get rapp and bishop together and just assault guys and get away with it on the playoffs, but im not a fan of letting obvious fouls go, and im particularly against inconsistent calls. the last onside was clear, detroit just erred on the side of being insanely aggressive and dared teh refs to flag it, and they kept their hands in their pockets.

I didn't break down the all 22 film obv, but in general the NFL is really letting offensive and defensive holding go. Scheme and Allen buying time like vowels on wheel of fortune means our guys eventually get open, but it's crazy what gets let go. I think this is a part of why coop a d Coleman didn't get much, along w the game plan to destroy their base d. It's like they've been on playoff calls mode since our game vs KC, the atmosphere has felt that way too

The whole dline has a switch flipped. The back 7 was beyond awful after like 42 good minutes, but they had Spencer Brown and cam Lewis and someone else who I dont think I'd recognize playsong, so it makes sense, kinda. I think they were way off vs the Rams. Also, and we benefit from this sometimes too, in the past 2 bills games the refs are letting some shocking OL holding go. On two of the late scoring drives by Detroit I saw bills defenders getting spun around by holds and no flags.

I voted dline, as of right now that's what we need the most. MCDs whole system is about a platoon of dl running like horses so that the small but present windows in the passing game aren't reachable. If we had a miles G or bosa on this line we beat the Rams and maybe even Houston this year. One thing that makes my mc confidence low is if we play the game of "switch QBs with the other team, do we still win" it's really hard for me to find a team in the NFL where that's true. Maybe cinci because they have a great QB so the loss on the exchange is less and their team has played badly, but that team has eaten our lunch the 9 quarters we've played them.

You're high in Ingram? I'm meh on him, which is actually kinda positive for a back up corner. I know it's hack at this point, but he shows good space and some skills, so I'd kinda like to see him at FS and bishop at SS, and elam at corner. They are backups for a reason, but every one of them is a better athlete than the guy they would be replacing today

Well, we might see the guys I peg as real athletes, elam and bishop starting today. I hope they make some BIG strides towards fulfilling their potential today, cuz boy howdy are we gonna need it.

I agree with this completely. Sadly, i've not seen much from mcd to show that he will go against type, but it's pretty obvious at this point that our d is soft and does poorly when it does not get turnovers.

ya, i get why he didn't start right away, but they can't find a package for him? my issue is mcd is so stubborn with his personnel and scheme it's just impossible for him to adapt. aj klien over dorian vs kc in the playoffs last year, elam getting zero burn despite being one of our few CBs to get picks in the playoffs, it makes me think mcd leaving a lot of meat on the bone wrt player development. this guy had peterman start over allen.

i've said it before, and i'll say it again. another coaching blunder and defensive melt down loss in the playoffs, mcd has gotta go. i count mcd as having outsized influence on the gm. he was hired first, was in the first draft where the pick for mahomes was traded for tre white (such a mcd move) when beane was not, and has shown to be very very stubborn on who he plays or not (remember nate peterman?). all the signs point to mcd running the operation. to the posters saying we'd get a dud like vrable -- vrable has done no worse than mcd in the playoffs, he was the number one seed one year and lost to cinci at home just like we did (except the titans seemed to have a chance in that game after the first 4 drives, we did not), he beat number one seed on the road in baltimore (our max win is what, 5 seed?) and he lost to kc in the afc chip game (our highest accomplishment) all with flipping tannyhill at qb. what would mcd accomplish with tannyhill at qb?

So, in 2017 the bills had a rag tag team on D but scrapped together a flukey 9-7 record and got to the tourney, where the d played great but the tyrod O was cheeks. in 2018, we started to see a pattern that would continue until now on D. we faced baltimore to start, peterman had his famous 0.0 passer rating game (i remember throwing like 8 incomplete passes and nothing else would have created a better stat, he might be the worst performing nfl qb i've ever heard of). The d was on easy mode and the ravens just targeted edmunds who was out of position in our "all parts must be in place" D and just walked on us. The next game rivers and the colts went to buf, the career of josh allen started with very little fanfare, and we were obliterated by the rivers passing attack in the first half. then davis retired at the half (lol, the most bizarre thing ever!) and our D in the second half and for the majority of the rest of the season was at the top of the NFL in yards allowed, and for the most part in scoring as well. I remember being shocked at how a pretty rag tag squad (poy and hyde were known as former scrubs who played on their heads, rather than the all pros they became) of aging vets and a couple talented guys (our dline was headed by rookie harrison phillips, lorax, kyle williams, and free agents trent murph and star, and we had 2nd year tre white and rook edmunds) just frustrated nfl teams constantly allowing few big plays and forcing punts and timely turnovers. this pattern of being totally solved and blown to pieces in a couple games and being basically lights out the rest of the time continued until this very day, even with josh allen maturing from a lost uber talent raw guy behind some of the most garbage OLs and with the lowest level of skill talent around him to the FarvElway he was always meant to be with a dominant line and a mix of some real talent and lots of overperforming jags. McD clearly has something on D. He's had too much success against too many teams in too many games to be a rex ryan or jom shwartz who piles up mega stats when the D is 65% of the cap and is executing a very specific scheme well, but the complete lay downs from the first couple drives to the buzzer have still been there on D, even with what is basically the best player ever leading the scariest O on the planet. the bottom line for the McD skeptics is that given we have a nuclear bomb on O, we do not accept a D that is structured to maximize the average result on D if it leads us to games vs good teams (particularly in the playoffs where he has never beaten a 4th seed or higher) where the D will squander any level of play by the O, including literal all time dominant performances, let alone a less than cosmic performance from 17. we simply don't believe that this is the way it must be. he must adapt his concept of complimentary football to include moving out of his comfort zone on D in order to have an answer for the Rams of last week, KC of several playoffs, and cincy in the home divisional game where instead of accepting a slow and steady death he makes some kind of move (not just in game, but in prior preparation) to change his focus to doing what had to be done with who he has on the team to get allen the ball back so he can continue to make the greatest plays anyone has ever seen from an NFL QB, even if it means allowing more frequent deep passes. his tendency to sort of desperation dial up poor blitzes and last ditch coverage changes as a half measure while still being crippled by his fear of players making mental errors forcing him to start aj klien over a talented dorian williams has ended at least 3 pristine chances at a super bowl in the past several seasons of allen's record run at QB. he can't win them all, but he must win one, and soon, or else he's simply the modern shottenhiemer who's playing for a good loss to the champion.

Bills 37 Lions 27

the proof, to me, from watching the rams loss was what the offenses had to do to score. the bills had allen run around, buy time, scramble and make guys miss, make hero throws and scan the field all day to see who might get open. we also had a few balls hit the ground on miscommunication. stafford just had to stand still as no one was near him, and throw (great throws for sure) to the open man, or the wr ready for a screen, or do the lil jet sweep thing, and it ate us up. this is also the case for all of the above mentioned playoff losses. allen plays on his head, the other team just executes the plays as written, and we fold on D. I suppose it is possible that the bills have simply made the worst roster decisions for years on d, and have signed slow small weak wood players to contracts they don't deserve, and that mcd has magically coached these crippled losers into at least statistically being a top flight D, but that's even worse and would mean we need the gm and hc to be replaced by people with some idea. mcd has this season and the playoffs to show he's got some way to improve.

we have some pure athletes in the back end, williams, bishop, and elam, but mcd's scheme is too complicated for them, or he's too much of a picky peter for them to get burn. he's gotta go to war with the army he's got. milano is not back, williams was a monster (he slowed down a bit when he hurt his knee, but i think he's fine now), bishop was trash with a couple huge mistakes but he can learn to fix that, hamlin can't learn to be an athlete like bishop is, and elam is our fastest and most athletic corner with good man skills. they have to take their lumps rotating in williams and milano and playing bishop and elam (on rotation is fine) to get them up to speed vs all these crummy offenses we blow out so that we have some kind of answer vs a team like the rams. if you want results you haven't gotten you need to do things you haven't done, and the anti mcd brigade (I'm a member) just think he's too stubborn to realize this.

I'm meh on black licorice, i am a fan of Hawaiian pizza tho. lil ham bacon and pineapple, maybe hot peppers if it's a spicy night.

The reality is our d was trash, d line was woat, and rams had a day. the bills just don't like to get out of their base shell nickel d. the reason why almost 80% of rams passing was to those two guys, mostly out of the slot, was because the saw they could exploit what we were doing on d with them, and we didn't make a change. that's the mcd way, he doesn't like to make changes to impact specific players on the other team, and that's why we get torched when we can't get pressure and the other team can find open guys underneath the deeper coverage, be it cover 2, 1, or 3. its like mcd has sold his soul to stop the deep pass. it makes scoring against the bills hard, but when someone can square the circle and exploit the d front with power running or accurate passing (honestly, misdirection is the real culprit) then we get boat raced like we did sunday and in playoff losses.

i know people don't like it, but i love the all red's