Big Turk

I think the increase in players who train all year round and do drill after drill in the off-season likely greatly impacts this also...and the abundance of kids who grew up only playing one sport and training for it all year round which is a recent phenomena that we are only starting to see the results from(mostly bad in terms of injuries) since they just started entering the leagues within the last 8-10 years. Nobody did that when I was a kid...football season you played football, soccer season you played soccer, baseball season you played baseball, basketball season you played basketball, etc..now these kids join these training facilities that have them training year round in one sport and have leagues that go all year round, especially in the warmer climates. The body is no different than a car in that parts wear out after so much use. If your ACL only has, say, 25,000 cuts you can make on it in your lifetime before it ends up breaking down, repeatedly cutting on it in practice during the offseason is shortening the length of time before it is going to give out. Repeatedly training for the same sport growing up year round means that area of the body never gets a break versus the kids who played all different sports growing up where different body parts were strained more in one sport than another and different muscles used regularly, etc. Players used to rest far more in the offseason than they do now since everyone is trying to get a leg up with their offseason programs and since everyone else is doing them, unless you want to run the risk of falling behind, you also have to do them. IMO, off-season rest would help cut the injury totals down significantly, but how can you tell a player they can't work out?

JFC now Benford potentially pulled a hammy in practice yesterday and was limited today. We can't win for losing.

When asked why so many coaches are choosing to defer, the Houston Texans’ special teams coach Brad Seely explained that it “comes down to the chance to pair a score at the end of the first half with one at the start of the second. It’s the only opportunity a team has for two straight possessions and can be a chance to instantly put the game out of reach.” Seely explained that every coach would love to see their team get the ball at the start of the second half after a two-minute drive at the end of the first half. It’s a perfect game-winning scenario. Analytics showed that teams who defer average scoring 1 extra point per game and they have a 12% chance to gain an extra possession. It's only been around since 2008 when the NFL finally adopted it from high school and college. Before that, whoever won the toss got the ball first. Interestingly enough, if you win the toss and you want to kickoff you have to defer because the team that doesn't choose in the first half gets to choose in the second half. Remember watching a game back in the day, maybe right after they changed the rules to allowed deferrals, where the team chose to kickoff by mistake and the coach was going crazy on the sidelines because that meant the other team had the choice in the 2nd half, which it obviously chose to get the ball, meaning they received both the 1st and 2nd half kickoffs. Kinda seems dumb that you can't just choose to kickoff first and have to force the other team to choose to receive the ball.

Where do you think the issue lies? Playing too conservative? Play calling by Taylor/OC? Red zone issues? I was kinda surprised when I looked and saw the Bengals have never averaged more points than the Bills have under Burrow and the Bills offensively has Diggs and then "others" for the most part compared to 3 legit WR's and a very good RB. You would think they should be one of the higher scoring teams in the NFL and they are usually top 10, but you'd think they'd be Top 3 or even #1.

McD is salivating at this and how it allows him to get in their psyches and tell them nobody believes in them anymore and how everyone says they can't win...being an underdog for the first time in 27 games doesn't hurt either.

Ehh...not really. Allen played with a partially torn UCL for half the season last year and a jacked up shoulder that needed a brace for a few games the year before and never looked that bad. Until he proves otherwise, Burrow is a slow starter.

Literally could not get a better scheme fit for this team if we created him in a lab.

hand warmers for sure...it's a MUST, especially for your feet. There were games my feet were so cold that it literally felt like my bones were freezing from being on that cold concrete for 3 hours and that I couldn't even enjoy the game because after every play all I could think about was how I couldn't wait til my feet were warm again and I was just trying to hold out as best as I could. With hand warmers for my gloves and feet I was toasty warm and felt perfectly fine the whole game...it's a game changer for sure. Heated Vests? Never tried those so I am not sure. IMO, as long as you wear multiple layers you usually don't feel the cold too much as long as you have the hunter heat packs. There have actually been times where I have been too warm and had to start removing layers because I was getting sweat running down my lower back. As far as Uber/Lyft I believe they have designated pickup areas for those around the stadium but I haven't ever used one so I would defer to the people who can point you in the right direction for that.

Wow...this is a pretty massive game. 20% swing in playoff probabilities with a win versus a loss(80% to 60%). Cincy's is even bigger at 22%(66% with a win to 44% with a loss)

Maybe not, but they need to start improving their conference record pretty soon or they are going to be on the wrong end of all the tie-breakers if it comes down to that, and this would be another step in the wrong direction in that regard.

Also usually denotes a guy who might be less than great in the locker room or team buy in...ie, a "me first" kinda player who is more concerned with pro bowls and stats than team accomplishments.

A giant hamstring...fun fact, the hamstring main muscles' technical name is biceps femoris, so it's basically like making an arm muscle but with your leg. For dudes like me that have worked their ass off in the gym for many years and have decent but not great genetics(I had/have pretty big legs as well--enough to rip seams on my pants from squatting/bending down), I can only dream of what it would be like to blessed with those type of genetics and how much further I would have gotten with the amount of work I put in...it's like a verifiable cheat code in the gym.

Well, it does, but so do free agents that won't come there because they want to win or make the team pay a "loser" tax and require more money to go there. Kinda like the rich get richer scenario, but it's more like the cherry on top rather than the ice cream. That comes in the form of drafting well, especially at the QB position.

Reporting in at a "Svelte" 328 lbs today 😂

Am I the only one where the sound cuts out after the reporter asks the question?? I hear the question and then when the player goes to answer the sounds goes mute. Comes back on when the next question is asked, then goes mute again. Happens like that for all interviews that are live streamed.

Yes, anyone going to IR is now eligible to come back after 4 weeks. Only caveat is a team can only have a maximum of 8 players return from IR in a season and the same player can only go to IR and return from it a maximum of 2 times. The 3rd time it is season ending.

Banged Up Bills speculated it sounded like a bone bruise that just wasn't healing well by continuing to try and play on it.

McVay explains pretty much exactly what I said: https://heavy.com/sports/los-angeles-rams/sean-mcvay-coin-toss/ I would suspect the gap would be greater if anything.

1) McD said its been several weeks 2) It certainly didn't help but that isn't the only reason. 3) No, but the injury doesn't need to be of any specific severity to add them. At this point in the season pretty much everyone qualifies for IR since they all have some sort of injury they are dealing with.

Yeah...dude has a future in bodybuilding if he wants post NFL career...that is just elite, elite genetics right there.

Seeing if Levis can have a repeat performance is really the only reason to watch this game...otherwise would be a snooze fest most likely.

Statistically it is backed up because teams will on average score an extra point when they defer kicks to the 2nd half and also have a 12% chance of stealing a possession. In all of the games I watched this year I think maybe once or twice did I see a team win the toss and take the ball first. It just almost never happens. https://www.sharpfootballanalysis.com/analysis/opening-kickoff-receive-or-defer/

If the Bills play their best, no team in the NFL, Bengals included can beat them.

Probably because over the last 3+ years they HAVE consistently far more than they haven't? Like most in the NFL during that time by a wide margin? Statistically they would have a pretty high chance of being right.