Low Positive

For some reason, this Nick Wright exchange got under my skin. Yeah, people say that he's seeking attention. But he could criticize Joe Burrow and get just as much attention but he never does. In fact, no one ever says a negative thing about St. Joe. He's thrown 2 fewer interceptions than Josh this year, but none of his INTs are ever his fault. A stat line of 209 and 1 TD in a playoff game and they are measuring him for a gold jacket on the NFL Network. He was outplayed by Tyler Huntley FCS. Also, people in Cincinnati are getting out of hand. Women on Facebook are showing off their Sam Hubbard needlepoints. I had a grandmother yell "Who DEY!!!" at me in a Kroger parking lot and she was with her grandkids.

The Bengals come out of the locker room after HT of the AFC CG and started rushing only three and dropping eight. That wasn't a HT adjustment?

He's the scout team Tee Higgins, much like Tavon Austin was the scout team Lamar Jackson.

The players must like this combo the best.

I remember that game well. I was 14. They did the Icky Shuffle all over the Bills in Riverfront Stadium. It was the Bills first AFC Championship Game. It was the first time that the Bills disappointed me. It would not be the last.

This is what I came in here to post. Patmon is being paid for a week to simulate Higgins in practice. Broughton is just a standard roster move. The Bills released him on Saturday and are bringing him back on Tuesday.

Just like Josh in that way.

Ross will do it just to spite Goodel.

Elway is perhaps the best comparison, but Josh throws for a lot more yards and runs for a lot more yards than Elway ever did. But that is probably a function of era and rules. I'm too young to remember Bert Jones. His rookie year is the year that I was born.

Hodgins is the #1 WR in NY and is getting the targets that come with that. Good for him that he's making the most of that chance, but I'm sure that the Giants will upgrade the position in the off season.

But in order to do that, you have to give up plays like that TD pass at the end of the first half against New England. That was a spectacular play that was ill-advised in almost every way.

That game was this group of Bengal players' first home primetime game. They came out with their hair on fire because they knew the whole NFL world was watching. The game would have settled in.

One thing that would help immensely would be for Josh to learn when the sack is inevitable and turtle up on the ball like Joe Burrow does. Joe was sacked 41 times, but only fumbled 6 times. But he also gives up on evading the rush long before Josh does so perhaps some of those fumbles are the price we pay for the magic.

For sure, but it's just surprising that the Bengals have 704 fewer rushing yards and that's with Mixon and Perine.

And Burrow pulled a Brady in that he threw it over there looking for the call.

If you're around it on a daily basis, that "they gotta play us" BS starts to get old really quickly. And the way that Zach Taylor just blows off a pretty bad performance as "AFC North football" is something that McDermott didn't do in his post-game speech. The Bills are "humble and hungry." The Bengals are "salty and hungry." For years the answer to "Who Dey" was "pretty much everybody."

Favre who can run. Brett Favre's passing stats in 1995 (his best statistical year) are eerily similar to Josh's stats this year. The main thing that Allen adds to that (besides not being a bad teammate) is the rushing yards and TDs. But they had a thousand yard rusher. Also, did you guys know that the BIlls got over 1,400 yards rushing from their primary running backs (Singletary, Cook and Moss) this year? More to that point, if you add Josh's yards in (which you should because yards are yards), the Bills were 9th in the league in rushing yards this year. And that's not adjusting for them playing one fewer game. The Bills had by far the highest number of rushing yards amongst the teams with high-powered passing offenses. I never would have guessed that based upon how I felt throughout the season.

Unless you're Tre White. That PI call that extended the Fins sole long drive was weak, especially given all that they let go throughout the game.

Actually, against the Bengals, the Ravens play a lot of cover 2 and soft man. Joe Burrow was complaining about it after their first game in Baltimore this year. Here is the quote

You're right. The Bengals blitz at the same rate that the Bills do this year. Last week against the Ravens they played it differently because they didn't fear Huntley's arm. Against teams with a good QB, their nickel corner plays almost 100% of the snaps. Against Mahomes, they have taken to rushing three and dropping 8. Can't do that against Josh because he'll just run through the gap in the middle. We'll see what they do.

Even Aikman said last night that Brady's stats are skewed by the absurdly high number of passing attempts that he has. But he did have his moments this year. Just not last night under the big lights when he used to be at his best. Another interesting game was the one against Cincinnati on Sunday night on 12/18. The Bucs turned the ball over on 4 straight possessions and Brady was directly involved into three of those. Again, a prime time game when he imploded.

I just realized that we play the Raiders at Highmark next year.

The crowd was electric in that game. It was the first Monday Night game in Cincinnati since December 2017.

The team plays with a giant chip on their shoulder and the attitude has rubbed off on the whole city and most of SW Ohio and NKY. They feel constantly wronged by the league, other teams and the media.

Brady is in the LeBron stage of his career. He signs a big FA contract, burns through all the teams future assets to build an instant winner, and then leaves when it's time to pay the piper for poor roster management. Bron did it to Miami, Cleveland and he's in the end stages with the Lakers. Except with Tom, he gets teams to do it even before he signs.