Week 16: Bills at Bears on Christmas Eve

[Franco_92]

34 minutes ago, Buffalo03 said:

Find this hilarious. Apparently, Cheffers is in the Bills pockets and wants us to be the #1 seed

Work your magic Carl!

[Big Turk]

Just now, arcane said:

Work your magic Carl!

 

Maybe he can throw a flag and hit Mahomes in the eye...

[Fleezoid]

The closer we get to this game, the more anxious I'm getting. Some of the factors have me a bit concerned this will be closer than we might expect:

 

Morse out; the weather; our occasionally bad run defense; and the poor tackling as of late. Hopefully we'll be fine, but those things bother me. 

[HappyDays]

12 minutes ago, Bangarang said:

Wonder if Bates plays center with Morse out

 

Almost certainly Bates at center with Van Roten at RG. Van Roten apparently only gave up one pressure in his playing time against the Dolphins and Joe Buscaglia graded him well. We can manage with that OL for a game especially against a weak pass rushing unit.

[Dan]

2 minutes ago, Fleezoid said:

The closer we get to this game, the more anxious I'm getting. Some of the factors have me a bit concerned this will be closer than we might expect:

 

Morse out; the weather; our occasionally bad run defense; and the poor tackling as of late. Hopefully we'll be fine, but those things bother me. 

And leaving a day early... means that missing a day of practice?  Unless they can do their walkthrough in the courtyard at the Mariott. 

[Buffalo03]

32 minutes ago, RiotAct said:

he’s got the blue checkmark, though…

The blue checkmark was irrelevant to why I posted it

[Fleezoid]

1 minute ago, Dan said:

And leaving a day early... means that missing a day of practice?  Unless they can do their walkthrough in the courtyard at the Mariott. 

 

Oh great! Now it's 5 things.

 

The Browns game in Detroit, it took the Bills a bit to get going. They looked a little off in the 1st quarter. Took 'em awhile to get going. This isn't nearly as dramatic, but it's something. 

[Warcodered]

 

[LEBills]

14 minutes ago, Fleezoid said:

The closer we get to this game, the more anxious I'm getting. Some of the factors have me a bit concerned this will be closer than we might expect:

 

Morse out; the weather; our occasionally bad run defense; and the poor tackling as of late. Hopefully we'll be fine, but those things bother me. 

All those things could not go our way and we will still likely be fine. Bears don’t have the horses on the DLine to expose our beat up OL.

Our run defense is best when we worry about taking that away rather than stopping the pass - see Tenn, Bal, NE game. And the Bears don’t have any WRs to worry about and their OL is one of worst in the league.

 

This Bills team is different. We have learned from all of our mistakes over the past years. We played a crazier weather game against the Pats last year, we now know what we have to do to win in that weather. It’s the NFL so anything can happen, but this is one of the weeks we should have a relatively easy time.

Edited December 22, 2022 by LEBills

[fergie's ire]

53 minutes ago, Doc said:

 

Or he hates the Chefs.  Not sure why they're mad, they should easily handle the Cheaters.

As easily as they handled Houston?

[Motorin']

5 hours ago, CSBill said:

 

I hope those Chicago fans don't see this as an opportunity to throw snowballs at their opponent. 🤪

 

I'll be at the game, but I'm betting it's half empty. You can get Tix for 10 bucks now bc of the weather. Last week $70 was the cheapest seat. 

[Simon]

27 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

Almost certainly Bates at center with Van Roten at RG. Van Roten apparently only gave up one pressure in his playing time against the Dolphins and Joe Buscaglia graded him well. We can manage with that OL for a game especially against a weak pass rushing unit.

 

I actually thought Van Roten also played OK the week before, when he had to come in for Bates in the Jets game.

[Fan in Chicago]

1 hour ago, LeGOATski said:

Why is that arrogant? All he said was "no, not really." Is there more context here?

It's in the way he answered the question. He could have given effectively the same answer in a diplomatic manner.

Such as -

"He is a very good QB but we run a different kind of offense so I need to do things our way."

[Big Turk]

35 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

Almost certainly Bates at center with Van Roten at RG. Van Roten apparently only gave up one pressure in his playing time against the Dolphins and Joe Buscaglia graded him well. We can manage with that OL for a game especially against a weak pass rushing unit.

 

Allen almost had another under center fumbled snap with him tho, so clearly they don't mesh well in that regard.

[Bob Jones]

59 minutes ago, Dan said:

And leaving a day early... means that missing a day of practice?  Unless they can do their walkthrough in the courtyard at the Mariott. 

I was wondering about this myself. How many days did they even get to practice for this game? 2? I’d guess 3 at the most.

[RiotAct]

Just now, Bob Jones said:

I was wondering about this myself. How many days did they even get to practice for this game? 2? I’d guess 3 at the most.

yep, 2.

[Bob Jones]

Hopefully they can find an indoor facility in Chitown and get some practice in tomorrow.

 

Related: maybe so few practices over the last 6 weeks or so is a reason for their poor tackling? The latter doesn’t seem to make sense, but I’m just throwing it out there. 😃

Edited December 22, 2022 by Bob Jones
Added words

[The Firebaugh Kid]

2 hours ago, LeGOATski said:

Why is that arrogant? All he said was "no, not really." Is there more context here?

Tone, demeanor, and body language. 

[mannc]

Anyone seen the national TV maps for this weekend?

[PaattMaann]

9 minutes ago, Bob Jones said:

Hopefully they can find an indoor facility in Chitown and get some practice in tomorrow.

 

Related: maybe so few practices over the last 6 weeks or so is a reason for their poor tackling? The latter doesn’t seem to make sense, but I’m just throwing it out there. 😃

 

they have been an extremely poor tackling team during McD's entire tenure 

[DaBillsFanSince1973]

17 minutes ago, mannc said:

Anyone seen the national TV maps for this weekend?

 

[Beck Water]

2 hours ago, John from Riverside said:

You don’t wanna do that

 

[Nephilim17]

This has likely been mentioned and discussed but the Bears D line has 8.5 sacks total this year.

 

Yes, 8.5 sacks for everyone on the D line. That must be some kind of record this far into a season.

 

Good week for Morse to be recovering (if he comes back at all). Josh should still have a lot of time in the pocket.

[Beck Water]

1 hour ago, Dan said:

And leaving a day early... means that missing a day of practice?  Unless they can do their walkthrough in the courtyard at the Mariott. 

 

I don't think they're missing a day of practice. 

 

They're planning to leave this evening, right, or has that moved up?  So they'll get in their normal practice today as far as I know, which is equivalent to "Fast Friday"

 

They'll do their normal "Saturday morning walk-through" on Friday, in a ballroom at the hotel if they need to (McD presser)

 

The disruptions are more psychological and to treatment - guys missing out on the Thursday equivalent of "Friday date night" or "Friday Family night", maybe worrying if their families will come through the storm OK with power; guys who normally get a cryo or a hypobaric chamber treatment before the team travels, maybe missing out on that.

[Beck Water]

3 hours ago, LeGOATski said:

Why is that arrogant? All he said was "no, not really." Is there more context here?

 

It's more kind of the way he said it.  Turning his head immediately to look for another question, kind of with a "why would I do that?" affect.  It kind of came across as dismissive, like "why would I?"

 

If he said "I'm focused on studying our offense and being the best I can be within it" or "I catch their games occasionally - we have a very different style of play" it would have been fine.

[Scott7975]

7 hours ago, newcam2012 said:

That's pretty extreme wind and not the norm. The passing game can still be effective in the cold weather. However, 25 to 40 MPH winds makes it very very difficult to throw the ball. 

Really a bad break for the Bills as the Beats suck at passing and the Bills are very good at it. Vice versa for the run. 

 

I don't seecan easy path to victory. 

 

Its the 3 win Bears.  Im sure the Bills will figure it out.  FFS.

[Beck Water]

1 hour ago, RiotAct said:

yep, 2.

 

Did McD say that they weren't gonna practice today or something?  Because T-W-Th instead of W-Th-Fr would be the normal practice week for a Sat game

[Scott7975]

2 hours ago, HappyDays said:

 

Almost certainly Bates at center with Van Roten at RG. Van Roten apparently only gave up one pressure in his playing time against the Dolphins and Joe Buscaglia graded him well. We can manage with that OL for a game especially against a weak pass rushing unit.

 

The other issue is having to play from shotgun all day because Van Roten and Josh cant seem to figure out how to not mess up the exchange.

[Eastport bills]

On 12/18/2022 at 4:22 PM, chaccof said:

This strikes me as a classic game that the Bills can blow through over confidence and looking ahead to Cincinnati the following week.   Sure hope not.   

What gives any reason to expect that? Has it happened before? Just because they have a big matchup next week doesn’t mean they want to play down to the Bears level. Now that weather is potentially going to test what running game we have because passing down the field is challenging. Josh will find a way.

[HappyDays]

22 minutes ago, Scott7975 said:

 

The other issue is having to play from shotgun all day because Van Roten and Josh cant seem to figure out how to not mess up the exchange.

 

Bates will be at center and I dont think he's had issues snapping the ball. Van Roten will take over Bates' spot at RG.

[RiotAct]

4 minutes ago, Process said:

If it weren't for the weather my entire net worth would be on the bills this week

 

 

haha, I know right?  

 

Although the hope would be, that those two (starting?) offensive linemen being out would mean our defense gets better penetration on the 40-45 running plays the Bears are going to run.

32 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

 

Did McD say that they weren't gonna practice today or something?  Because T-W-Th instead of W-Th-Fr would be the normal practice week for a Sat game

actually they may have practiced today, I’m not positive.  I know McD had media availability earlier…

32 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

 

Did McD say that they weren't gonna practice today or something?  Because T-W-Th instead of W-Th-Fr would be the normal practice week for a Sat game

actually they may have practiced today, I’m not positive.  I know McD had media availability earlier…

[Process]

1 minute ago, RiotAct said:

haha, I know right?  

 

Although the hope would be, that those two (starting?) offensive linemen being out would mean our defense gets better penetration on the 40-45 running plays the Bears are going to run.

Not worried about the bears run game at all regardless of the weather. We will shut it down with zero threat on the outside. No Hill and Waddle to worry about.

 

The Bears have the worst pass rush in the league. It's non existent. No weather issues and Josh would shred them. It's unfortunate. 25+ mph sustained winds is brutal.

[Georgia Bill]

56 minutes ago, Nephilim17 said:

This has likely been mentioned and discussed but the Bears D line has 8.5 sacks total this year.

 

Yes, 8.5 sacks for everyone on the D line. That must be some kind of record this far into a season.

 

Good week for Morse to be recovering (if he comes back at all). Josh should still have a lot of time in the pocket.

I could be wrong but with the anticipated winds I doubt that the passing game, or ability to get sacks, is going to matter much. 

 

When the wind-chill gets this cold, I think it's less about talent, game plan, or coaching, and more about whose team has players willing to play with intensity despite the bone chilling, hand numbing cold.  In this game I think it's going to come down to who is willing to hit hard and make tough tackles - when their mind is just looking forward to getting back to the warm bench.

[Big Turk]

2 minutes ago, Georgia Bill said:

I could be wrong but with the anticipated winds I doubt that the passing game, or ability to get sacks, is going to matter much. 

 

When the wind-chill gets this cold, I think it's less about talent, game plan, or coaching, and more about whose team has players willing to play with intensity despite the bone chilling, hand numbing cold.  In this game I think it's going to come down to who is willing to hit hard and make tough tackles - when their mind is just looking forward to getting back to the warm bench.

 

Both these QB's have the arm to throw the ball deep I think, only one has the receivers to actually do it tho.

[Georgia Bill]

2 minutes ago, Big Turk said:

 

Both these QB's have the arm to throw the ball deep I think, only one has the receivers to actually do it tho.

I would normally agree, but in 20-40 mph winds, throwing deep is a bad idea.  No telling where the ball goes - could be right into the hands of a defender.  You lose precision, and that worsens on the longer throws.

[zow2]

I agree the freezing and windy conditions won't be good for throwing..  But if they try a few passes, the Bills do have the best bad weather thrower of the football in the NFL, no debate.

[Big Turk]

5 minutes ago, Georgia Bill said:

I would normally agree, but in 20-40 mph winds, throwing deep is a bad idea.  No telling where the ball goes - could be right into the hands of a defender.  You lose precision, and that worsens on the longer throws.

 

Sometimes....depends on if the wind is with you or against you tho...the intermediate throws over the middle are usually the most dangerous as those are the ones that tend to sail high and right to defenders 10 yards away. Deep sideline throws are usually safer because it's either your WR catches it or it's 10 yards OOB.

 

Allen actually looked pretty good in the first Patriot wind game last year once they opened up and let him start throwing more. If they would have done it earlier, they likely would have won the game.

Edited December 22, 2022 by Big Turk

[ColoradoBills]

13 minutes ago, Process said:

If it weren't for the weather my entire net worth would be on the bills this week

 

 

 

Also, Darnell Mooney, their #1 WR went on IR 2 weeks ago.  The Bears starting outside WRs have a total of 11 receptions this year.

TE Knet is the only experienced guy catching a football who isn't a RB.

Whoever is filling in for Whitehair from their depth charts will be someone with 0 NFL experience.

 

Bears might not score 10 points. 

 

[TFBillsfan]

Hopefully the wind lessens as the storm moves thru. 20mph wind shouldn’t impact the Bills passing game significantly. May give them a chance to improve their intermediate passing game. 
 

Looking ahead at the weather against Cinncy it’s currently showing a 50% chance of rain next Monday night. UGH!  I think the best weather they will see again is the Super Bowl.

[Georgia Bill]

11 minutes ago, Big Turk said:

 

Sometimes....depends on if the wind is with you or against you tho...the intermediate throws over the middle are usually the most dangerous as those are the ones that tend to sail high and right to defenders 10 yards away. Deep sideline throws are usually safer because it's either your WR catches it or it's 10 yards OOB.

 

Allen actually looked pretty good in the first Patriot wind game last year once they opened up and let him start throwing more. If they would have done it earlier, they likely would have won the game.

The wind with your or against you thing can be dealt with to a degree, but sometimes the winds are cross winds or swirling winds.  Those can be a lot harder to try to compensate for.  At any rate - I just hope the Bills commit to making hard hits and low tackles on runners in this cold.  If they do I think they'll win.