Lothar

Dr Pepper is mostly Dr Bronner's peppermint soap with all the natural ingredients missing.

Sorry if this was posted elsewhere but I thought, of all the brief write-ups I've read of the Bills game, this was the best. From football outsiders: What Happened: The Bills took an early 17-0 lead, then indulged in their all-too-common urge for autoerotic asphyxiation. Three Josh Allen turnovers, a few not-quite-caught Allen bombs, and some missed tackles later, the Bills trailed 24-20 midway through the third quarter while Skylar Thompson and the Dolphins looked on in awkward astonishment. A Kaiir Elam interception and Cole Beasley touchdown gave the Bills back the lead, but they weren't done choking themselves for jollies: coordinator Ken Dorsey broke out the Nothing But Hero Balls game plan to "protect" that lead, and the Dolphins pulled within a field goal on a Jeff Wilson touchdown run to cap a long drive. That's when Mike McDaniel's hybrid edibles kicked in and he forgot what sport he coached. McDaniel began calling timeouts because he did not like the defensive formation as if he were Mike Krzyzewski. With no timeouts left when trailing by three, McDaniel took forever to get a fourth-and-1 call into the huddle, resulting in a delay-of-game penalty that led to a Bills defensive stop which (essentially) iced the game. https://www.footballoutsiders.com/walkthrough/2023/bills-vs-bills-bengals-survive-giants-leap-forward

I don't know Step 4. But Step 5 is definitely, Profit!

Fair enough. I think a trip to the Super Bowl should be as fair as possible in this case. Given all the circumstances, I think the AFC championship game between any of the three teams in question should be at a neutral site. And I'll be rooting for the Bengals if Buffalo doesn't make it. Your team is all class. Except maybe Hendrickson.

I do feel for the Bengals (and agree they're getting the worst of it) but I think you are way over-playing what would have happened in the Bills game. I still think it was 50-50 because of Buffalo's propensity all season to play a crappy first quarter on defense. I would still hope that if the two teams meet, we'd play in a neutral site. I'm hoping that's one of the options on the table.

If Bills win, Bengals lose and Raiders beat Chiefs, Bills could just forfeit the game. We'd be top seed, Bengals 2 and Chiefs 3. Ravens might be upset about losing division but I don't think anyone else would be too angry. Otherwise I think you have to play the game.

Well then you'd have to either play the game or allow the teams to decide whether being the 2 or 3 seed is worth playing. I'd gather at that point the Bills would be ok playing a potential 2/3 matchup in Cincy in 2 weeks for the actual playoff game. Rather than twice in 3 games with an abbreviated schedule.

I really don't think there's a reasonable scenario to play this game in a timely fashion. And with regard to the most fairness to the league, you really want teams playing to win next week. Here's my potential solution: 1. Cancel this game. 2. For fairness to all teams, if all of BUF, KC, CIN win next week, the solution might be to give KC the top seed but if KC and BUF as 1,2 meet for the championship game, they play at a neutral site like Indy with fans of both teams given an opportunity to buy half the tickets. Similarly, if BUF and CIN meet as 2 vs 3, they play at a neutral site. Should any team lose next week, we go strictly to winning percentage. I think this gives all the outside teams a fair shot (reduces Bills/Bengals possibility to have top seed and removes Ravens possibility of winning division)

Here's one solution: 1. Cancel this game. 2. For fairness to all teams, if all of BUF, KC, CIN win next week, the solution might be to give KC the top seed but if KC and BUF as 1,2 meet for the championship game, they play at a neutral site like Indy with fans of both teams given an opportunity to buy half the tickets. Similarly, if BUF and CIN meet as 2 vs 3, they play at a neutral site. Should any team lose next week, we go strictly to winning percentage.

I think it was one of the Cover 1 guys talking about 3-man rushes out of a blitz look that has consistently given Burrow trouble all season. Usually it takes a defeat for the Bills to make an adjustment to their zone heavy schemes so I'm not sure we'll see much of it this go-round. Conversely, Allen had been one of the worst QBs against the blitz this season ... I think like 30th out of 35 qualified passers. I do think the Bengals DC is great at finding a team's weakness. That's not against pressure, where he's been really good. That in itself is an odd stat. I'm really curious how the two defenses adjust and play the opposing QBs in this game.

We need to be rooting for the Ravens. Even if we lose against the Bengals, we could get #2 seed if they then lose to Ravens. Just sayin' .... Playing 1 game on the road, I still like our chances but on the road against both Bengals and Chiefs would be a tough go.

I'm just worried about YOLO. We need him to be in form for the Monday nighter.

I think they call that an All-Pro team.

No. Both teams had the ball. A field goal wins the game.

Except that the Bills were trying to gain draft picks and Darby netted them more than he was probably worth to a team that can develop corners.

We have always been one of the worst tackling teams in the McBeane tenure. It might be the type of linebackers we get or the emphasis we place on scheme and coverage over basics like sound tackling. It's usually hard to find fault with a defense that has been among the top 5 but that is definitely a thing and since the first 2 games this year, it had become a team wide phenomenon. Joe Marino listed the percent missed tackles of every player - he said we should average about 10-12%. Some like Epenesa are over 50% and most of the team is well over that threshold.

They have regularly been among the 5 worst tackling teams in the NFL in McD tenure. Why is anyone surprised - we have light linebackers and nickel CBs on the field all the time.

This game feels a lot like the Atlanta game last year. We won but it felt grimy. It's ok. We have a lot to work on still but I'd rather be firing on all cylinders at the end of the season.

24 hours. Meh. Non-story.

Actually, no. Joe Marino pointed out on his podcast that since the first two games, the tackling has been near the bottom of the league. We just get away with it because we've made some big impact plays on defense via sacks and turnovers. Poor tackling is unfortunately a hallmark of this defense - and we're still pretty damn good. You can see how good we'd be if we also were a good tackling defense.

I still would have liked them to hold all the receivers at the line with 5 second left.

Absolutely! Whodathunk the Lions would be the highest scoring offense in the NFL?

I hate GameDay threads.

You gonna stay up all night Wednesday too, huh? I can dig it.

Realistically, he's probably not playing a full role till week 7 after the bye. He won't start practicing with the team until after week 4. And I think that's ok.