colin

we got trucked by tenn before as well, two times (a few yeas back, true). we got trucked by a bradyless ne team in the wind storm game, we got trucked by indy. while they didn't do it ground only, kc trucked us nicely in the last playoff game, and cinci trucked us in the prior year loss with their back up OL dominating out DL and getting mixon a bunch of production. we have a small d, we play nickle and dime almost always, and our top 2 LBs are out. all of this is a good reason to doubt the bills will shut down the ravens run game. i certainly hope they do, and think it might be different this year, but the reality is while the bills d has sick stats on average, there are enough games where they fold to create concern.

he really does look frenetic getting after it.

I like your confidence, but the bookies have us as road dogs for a reason: baltimore has had a bad start this season but have a pretty strong record the prior two seasons, and the bills have lost games by just making mistakes and playing down to competition. Also, in the past 4 seasons have gotten trucked by good running teams. to me, this game is a test more than anything -- if the bills are as for real as the team stats show so far, then it will go as you said. Im not sure personally, but im a ptsd impacted life long bills fan!

I figured we'd be run heavy, less passing, and similar numbers to last season under brady, which i was personally pretty good with. what has surprised me is the lack of turnovers and how solid the OL has been. I think they still struggle to pick up certain stunts and blitzes, but for the most part they just create a wall of mountain men who open holes and keep allen clean. a solid oline and RB/TE production is how you play football on easy mode. i feel like our O has been, since 2020, super dynamic but kind of a circus act where everything they do requires allen to be super man and spectacular plays to happen. being able to beat people up and get easy yards is a luxury i welcome.

the ravens are a bad matchup for us. a physical run game with lots of speed and misdirection when you throw in lamar, TEs who can pressure the middle, and some speed on the outside. their d looks weaker than last year, but that ship can be righted pretty quickly. to win this we will need allen to have another strong game, and we need our banged up d to still somehow play on their heads. our advantage might be our line play. i am concerned that our DL is better at pass rushing than shutting down the run, but getting penetration vs baltimore will be a big help. on OL, i think josh can be kept clean enough and they can get the running going to set up play action and stay ahead of the sticks. does anyone know if baltimore is still a heavy man coverage D? josh's left hand might limit him, but him running vs man ds is such a cheat code, if they are gonna be in man he will have to run for first downs and scores. this game i think will give us a really good measure of what this team is made of. if we go into bmore on sunday night and show out like our last 10 quarters of football, even with the injuries and newer pieces on O not having as much time together, i think it shows this team is as good or better than it has been than any since allen got here, and it puts us in afc 1 seed contention.

i think like spencer brown, he'll get top 10 money or there abouts. based on the cap jumping all the time and his level of play, if he stays healthy it will be a decent value contract for the team. he's a pretty outstanding corner, somewhat similar to tre he does lack top end speed and athletic ability tho. i also think he's less scheme diverse than someone like jalen ramsey.

its possible allen didn't mean this as a shot at diggs, but if that's the case then clearly subconsciously it does show he's relieved to have a better team dynamic without diggs. i still think clay travis said it best: you will be evaluated with what you bring to the table (talent) vs everything else (problems). if you are borderline nfl level, you have to be a super team guy. if you are tim tebow, who by all accounts is a good team guy, but come with distractions not necessarily of your own doing, they will still boot you. if you are a total psycho jerk (romanowski, who's play i was a fan of, or rich incognito) they will keep you around as much as they can until the problems get too big. I think in diggs' case, his attitude was accepted and even seen as somewhat of a positive (passion for the game, wanting to win, not shying away, etc) but once his actual production fell off two seasons in a row, he had to go. they let poyer go who bled bills red white and blue and who the team loves, because his production fell off. that's the overriding thing here. the media is playing up diggs because his behavior was so public, but if he caught that pass vs kc and ripped off like 3 TDs in the playoffs (i think we prolly win the sb if he does that too) then they'd keep him and accommodate his drama. simple as that.

i've been saying he's the goat of all time since we drafted him. qb is the most important position in football by far, but it's a true team game, and coaching is part of the team. we have some seasoning for our OC this season, a new DC (i think that's worth a lot, mcd was overworked a bit last season, and frazier is not a championship level guy), and a ton of continuity w the FO. the top difference in this team vs prior teams is the old standard -- our big guys are better. football is largely about beating people up, and both of our lines are better and most importantly playing better than they have since the kelly days.

the difference is kc are back to back champs, and we are really not certain how good most of the teams in the nfl are this season yet. KC beat cinci and bmore, who have been very dangerous teams recently. the bills have been playing on tilt, and aside from the zona game (where they mounted an impressive comeback) the games have been over early in the 3rd quarter and the starters ended the game on the bench, so it's clear the bills are a force to be reckoned with. BUT, we've seen the bills look great in the regular season before and fall apart in the playoffs, so until that monkey is off the back, that's gonna be the narrative, and frankly it is deserved. i think it can be different this year, but we need to get some starters on D healthy, and the new guys on O have to continue to gel and improve.

he had the highest RAS of an OT ever measured, and was super raw coming out of a tiny school and having a season off when we drafted him. if a guy has the want to and the smarts and dedication, he can be taught the skills to be an effective NFL OT. being a giant ultra athletic man child of a human being cannot be taught, and i think the bear down and fight it out attitude is mostly innate as well. In a sense, he's a bit of a Josh Allen at RT. came out raw, people said his flaws were a deal breaker, but his raw talent was kinda shocking. let's hope his career follows suit.

if we make a super bowl of afc chip game, i think we will keep as much of the young talent as possible. if we actually win the superbowl, i think we'd ink up douglas and other older guys to to keep continuity. if we falter, miss playoffs, or are 1 or 2 and done again, only the younger brighter looking guys get kept.

this guy was picked ahead of jefferson?!?

could be, i am just speculating

this makes me think bass has some kind of injury or something. his play has been poor enough to have done this last year, but im guessing something more immediate/material is afoot. sucks that dude isn't bassomatic anymore

just crazy efficiency there. now, we've had a real passing offense for like 4.5 quarters. 2 attempts in the first half vs zona, and after like 5 mins into the 3rd vs miami it was clock killing time. we'll see games where it is more back and forth and that will increase the production, but it does feel like allen will not break like 4500 yards passing, but might break 45 total TDs.

i think we are short on data to know how much this is trending, but i agree that it is for sure trending. bill parcels was asked years ago why the O's were beating the D's, and he said what is coming out of college at QB at WR is better than what is coming out at DE and corner. what we are seeing is coaching and preparation technology along w the talent on D stepping up a lot. the two deep shells, disguising coverage, and lots of schematic smarts in the front 7/6 just make things harder today than they were 4 years ago. we have a vet we traded for, and a late round pick at cb right now, and between coverage scheme, being well prepared, and just hard nosed tough smart play they are doing things. the old idea of a super man CB just being an island and erasing people is less relevant. D seems to be a much headier thing now than 10 or ever 5 years back. also, there was a lot of talk for years about how tackling was getting poorer. I think we are seeing guys coming out and tackling much better than say 6 or 7 years ago. the current meta of the d being agile hostile and mobile and keeping the play in front of them gives them such better chances for true angles and being square on square and wrapping up.

i think the bills d remembers the jags game last year as when they lost their mojo, and will be looking to get it back with a vengance. I expect shock and awe.

i honestly do think we have put too much money into like coverage tackling guys who can't do much else, but to me the biggest things for special teams are: don't make bad mistakes and convert kicks and i think we paid big cash to bass in hopes he could get us 2, but he's just not done it lately. no matter what, good kickers on good teams win big games.

This is basically it. NE when they dominated won most if not all their chips by like 3 points. they had a kicker who just never wilted to the pressure. butger is about as clutch as possible, and he also drills the long ones. special teams does not have the upside that d and o has, but shortcomings on special teams cost you dearly. we lost the jets game to start last year on a punt return. we lost by 3 to kc in the playoffs and missed a kick. we let the kick go back for a td vs zona, and it went to the last drive instead of a walk away. i think its pretty clear clutch play on special teams, particularly being able to hit the long late fg, is one of the biggest separation points between chips and also rans.

obv its too soon to be a trend, but what i'm seeing more than anything that contributes to this success so far is quite simply TE and RB productivity. the TEs haven't been catching a ton of balls, but they have been on the field a lot, blocking and forcing the D to be where our O wants them. the old dabol model of 4 or 5 wrs just lining up and running around and allen finding them is too easy for the modern two deep safety ds to take away. i do think we miss diggs in that we don't have a go to wr really. i'd be happy if we traded for a top flight wr to put the o over the top this season, but i think we might need to get a LB more.

brady for sure, the nfl will see mcd as the real mind behind the D

coach mcd claps constantly and it creates microtrauma that leads to injuries. ok, seriously this is mostly bad luck. It is true tho, that smaller more quick twitch and faster players are more prone to losing time to injury. part of it is the size they have vs the force they generate/take from contact w bigger players. a sort of under stated part of it tho is a bigger stronger guy can be more effective w some injuries than a smaller faster guy, not to mention position by position. so, an OL can have a back that needs heavy surgery (spencer brown the other year) play on it all year, and still be a solid contributor. big part of that is brown is a titan of a man, he's 320 lean strong and 6'8 no matter how is back is feeling. he doesn't sprint and change direction and catch balls, or cover guys, so him being a bit more sluggish won't hurt him as much. a bigger linebacker than milano is less likely to get muscle injuries simply because in order to have the physical impact that milano does he needs to have bigger stronger muscles relative to his frame and size than a larger edumds type backer (who missed very little time in spite of playing nearly all snaps). now the upside is, when a player like milano can hit and tackle like a bigger guy, he's a human missile and wrecks shop when healthy. another example to sort of support my point is josh allen. messed up his UCL, all but just broke his left hand, but since he's such a savage truck of a human he can still go out there and ball out. chad pennington of much slighter stature would just not be able to go with injuries like that. so anyhow, size and such does play a part, and we have a smaller d, but luck is a giant part of it, and every team gets guys hurt.

Bass cheeks just loses it on too many kicks.

Not a fan of this drive, d has been out there all night, looking a bit tired

That was so Ill