We're on to Cincinnati(Bengals coming to OP). Sunday 1/22 at 3pm. Opening Line Bills -5

[BillzFreak]

4 minutes ago, Boatdrinks said:

Right? The Bengals are not some perfect team and neither are the Bills. The Bills are favored in this game and that seems about right. The Bengals are somewhat mythicized now , and their QB hasn’t earned his stolen nickname of “ Joe Cool “ ( sorry that’s only for one Joe - Montana) This will probably be a close game and I believe the Bills will emerge victorious. The closest thing I see to a perfect team right now is the 49ers ; maybe just maybe the Bills will finally meet that franchise in the Super Bowl. 

I understand Josh has been inconsistent as heck this year and yes he has to limit the mistakes he is making for us to win. But for people to act like he can't take over a game and absolutely be the difference in a win is just plain wrong. Cincinnati will be hoping for the mistakes and it's up to Josh not to just give it to them. But as hard as is may seem to be for some people to admit, this team is good enough to beat any team going forward, including the Bengals

[fergie's ire]

4 minutes ago, Boatdrinks said:

Yep. Bruce clearly had Esiasons jersey, not the face mask and Merlin Olsen pointed this out on the replay. It felt like the Bills never recovered from those penalties in a close defensive game. 

I think that Bruce's strength worked against him on that one.  The way he yanked Esiason down it looked like he must have had the facemask, but he didn't.

[goober]

1 hour ago, Billz4ever said:

 

I thought it was Jeaux Bureaux 😄

You mean the Joelboro Man?

[Pokebball]

36 minutes ago, Lieutenant Aldo Raine said:

I think you both are correct 

I agree. Not all TOs are equal. A 55 yard pass that get's intercepted inside the 20 on a 3rd and long isn't much different than a punt.

[SCBills]

4 minutes ago, Solomon Grundy said:

Bengals will blitz Mike Hilton a lot Sunday

 

Was thinking this same exact thing when I saw the plays he was making behind the LOS yesterday.  Bills definitely have to be prepared for that. 

[Airseven]

21 minutes ago, BillzFreak said:

So in you're opinion the Bills are ripe for defeat for having Josh Allen as there Qb? Or am I reading this wrong?

You’re reading it too simplistically.
 

Bills don’t match up well enough against the Bengals, i.e. they lack physicality, ball control, pass rush, etc., to overcome Allen not having a near perfect day. 

[mannc]

1 minute ago, Pokebball said:

I agree. Not all TOs are equal. A 55 yard pass that get's intercepted inside the 20 on a 3rd and long isn't much different than a punt.

Except when it gets returned to the 50…

[The Jokeman]

1 minute ago, BillzFreak said:

I understand Josh has been inconsistent as heck this year and yes he has to limit the mistakes he is making for us to win. But for people to act like he can't take over a game and absolutely be the difference in a win is just plain wrong. Cincinnati will be hoping for the mistakes and it's up to Josh not to just give it to them. But as hard as is may seem to be for some people to admit, this team is good enough to beat any team going forward, including the Bengals

It is good enough but the Cincy passing offense can be just as good if not better than ours. It's why playing for a shoot out against them foolish, small ball control passing coupled with an efficient running offense with TDs that keeps Cincy's offense the field is smart play. The Ravens showed that last night but turnovers is what did them in. 

2 minutes ago, goober said:

You mean the Joelboro Man?

I swear every time I see Burrow I think of Jim Breur and that just adds to it. lol

[BillzFreak]

4 minutes ago, Airseven said:

You’re reading it too simplistically.
 

Bills don’t match up well enough against the Bengals, i.e. they lack physicality, ball control, pass rush, etc., to overcome Allen not having a near perfect day. 

But isn't it very possible he can have one of those days? I'm not saying he will or he won't but it's a definite possibility.

 

And furthermore 3 starting offensive lineman might very well be out for the Bengals, you may not see it as an advantage for the Bills but I do. This game isn't a gimme for either team as much as you want to believe it is for Cincy.

Edited January 16, 2023 by BillzFreak

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

7 minutes ago, Solomon Grundy said:

Bengals will blitz Mike Hilton a lot Sunday

Good. And good luck. 

[Mark Vader]

4 hours ago, John from Riverside said:

People keep on acting like the Bengals are unbeatable, but then every time I watch them, they seem to be in tight games with the other team, holding their own
 

I think that what it is is teams are afraid of their potential to be a dominant team not necessarily that they are a dominant team kind of like the bills. The bills are capable of playing so much better than they have been.

The same way that people feel about the Chiefs.

[Billz4ever]

2 hours ago, goober said:

You mean the Joelboro Man?

I don't care how cocky they are or how much we dislike how some of their players carry themselves...this year's Bengals team will always have my respect and gratitude after the incredible empathy and class they showed Damar and the Bills on that fateful January 2nd night.

 

Is still hope we beat that a** this week though.

Edited January 16, 2023 by Billz4ever

[Johnnycage46]

3 minutes ago, Billz4ever said:

I don't care how cocky they are or how much we dislike how some of their players carry themselves...this year's Bengals team will always have my respect and gratitude after the incredible empathy and class they showed Damar and the Bills on that fateful January 2nd night.

 

I agree on most of that.  But by like Wednesday of that week all their players and their coach were bitching about the scenarios.  I get that it affected them negatively but it seemed like a pretty quick turnaround from empathy to self pity.

[Ya Digg?]

12 minutes ago, Airseven said:

You’re reading it too simplistically.
 

Bills don’t match up well enough against the Bengals, i.e. they lack physicality, ball control, pass rush, etc., to overcome Allen not having a near perfect day. 

You can easily flip that around and say that about the bengals. The one spot where they definitely have an advantage is at WR, but  their line is beat up so bad Burrow won’t have the time to take full advantage ofnthem

[Mark92]

12 minutes ago, The Jokeman said:

It is good enough but the Cincy passing offense can be just as good if not better than ours. It's why playing for a shoot out against them foolish, small ball control passing coupled with an efficient running offense with TDs that keeps Cincy's offense the field is smart play. The Ravens showed that last night but turnovers is what did them in. 

I swear every time I see Burrow I think of Jim Breur and that just adds to it. lol

Good lord.  I'll never look at Burrow the same.   How I never saw that he is a doppelganger for Breur is fail on my part.

[SCBills]

5 minutes ago, Airseven said:

You’re reading it too simplistically.
 

Bills don’t match up well enough against the Bengals, i.e. they lack physicality, ball control, pass rush, etc., to overcome Allen not having a near perfect day. 

 

I think you're being far too simplistic as well.  

 

Why does Allen need to be "near perfect" but Burrow does not?

 

Would you rather have the Bills OL or the Bengals OL?

 

Would you rather have the Bills DL or the Bengals DL?

 

I'm taking the healthy Bills OL over the beat up Bengals OL.  The DL's are pretty close, but for all the hand-wringing post-Von's ACL, in games I've seen of Cincy, our DL gets more pressure with 4 than theirs does.

 

We all know the Bengals have top 3 weapons in the league.  And your physicality comment isn't lost on me.  I'll be very interested to see if the Bills man up, because the Bengals came out early a few weeks ago with a vicious energy that we did not match early on.  

 

I think Tre White's play over the past two weeks has been very encouraging, and Kaiir Elam was drafted for games like this.  Those two need to watch Ravens film, because they can certainly play like they did. 

 

One last thing... for all the Burrow simping some here do, he has played a handful of playoff games now and has not once turned in a Josh Allen/Patrick Mahomes performance.  Once again, yesterday, his defense made the play to win the game.  It's the same script we saw last year.  

 

Burrow has the better weapons... but his OL is leaky and he doesn't have the take-over ability Allen has.  He could carve us up... heaven knows I am not sold on McD/Frazier's post-season defense... but I'm going to give them some credit and say we show up Sunday.  

[Billz4ever]

1 minute ago, Johnnycage46 said:

 

I agree on most of that.  But by like Wednesday of that week all their players and their coach were bitching about the scenarios.  I get that it affected them negatively but it seemed like a pretty quick turnaround from empathy to self pity.

 The difference between what they did during and immediately following the Damar incident is miles apart from them disagreeing with how the league handled the seeding.

 

I have issues with how the league did it too.

[billieve420]

52 minutes ago, Magox said:

Cincinnati definitely has a good team but people are way overestimating who they are what they've done.  Also, it's kind of crazy that people are down on Josh.  It's absurd.  I'd like to make just a few points.

 

- Josh Allen's int's were not solely his fault.  The one to John Brown at the time of the interception seemed like a bonehead throw but it was clearly a miscommunication, John broke to the outside rather up the field and hence the int.   The other int. was a good defense play that led to a fortuitous bounce for the Dolphins.   Without doubt the fumble for TD was on Josh, but if he hadn't of had those dropped passes the game and those two int's that weren't his fault he would have had a juggernaut of a game.   He was actually very accurate on his passes and no one in the league compares to Josh at being able to push the ball down the field the way he does.   He is a UNICORN.

 

- The Bengals continuously seem to be playing one good half of football down the stretch.  This has been happening for quite some time now and doesn't seem to be rectifying.

 

- The Bengals were outplayed and outgained by the Ravens at home with Tyler Huntley and no receiving corps.   Huntley led them to over 360 yards and the Bengals didn't even reach 235 yards for the game.

 

- The reason why the Bills are favorites over the Bengals is because the Bills are a better team.   The Bills have Josh Allen and the oddsmakers believe Josh is the difference.  The Bengals have not been showing over the past few weeks that explosiveness and dominating the game in terms of outgaining their opponents, whereas the Bills consistently outgain who they play and they usually do it by a lot of yards. 

 

If the Bills can avoid what happened this week against the Dolphins with giving the opponent great field position throughout the game and not turn the ball over so much, the Bills should win every game they play from here on out.

 

Yep, this is by far the biggest key for the Bills.   Yes, getting pressure is important but turning it over is an even bigger one.

For me it was more about the play calling instead of that turnover to Brown. We were up 17-0 and moving the ball running. Why go for a low percentage play there on 1st down. Dorsey/Allen both get some of the blame there as it completely swung momentum of the game when there was no need to force anything.

[Johnnycage46]

Just now, Billz4ever said:

 The difference between what they did during and immediately following the Damar incident is miles apart from them disagreeing with how the league handled the seeding.

 

I have issues with how the league did it too.

 

I don't think it's miles apart.  It's like complaining about a funeral getting in the way of your free time (think it but don't say it).

[dma0034]

I think the Bills and Bengals fell victim to looking ahead last week because they were playing against backup QBs. Forunately for both they were able to win after a tough battle with a division rival.

[Mark92]

The Bills have a shot and it's at home.  The rest will have played itself out come Sunday around 7pm. 

[Billz4ever]

2 minutes ago, Johnnycage46 said:

 

I don't think it's miles apart.  It's like complaining about a funeral getting in the way of your free time (think it but don't say it).

How the Bengals felt about the seeding is a totally different subject that's detached from how they felt about Damar and the Bills that night.

 

To say they're related is to suggest that if they had to do it over again, they'd have insisted on resuming the game that night because if they won, things would be different now.  That incident affected their players and staff too.

Edited January 16, 2023 by Billz4ever

[Johnnycage46]

Just now, Billz4ever said:

How the Bengals felt about the seeding is a totally different subject that's detached from how they felt about Damar and the Bills that night.

 

To say they're related is to suggest that if they had to do it over again, they'd have insisted on resuming the game that night.  That incident affected their players and staff too.

 

Ok.  But, maybe they should just keep their mouths shut.

[Ya Digg?]

5 minutes ago, Johnnycage46 said:

 

I agree on most of that.  But by like Wednesday of that week all their players and their coach were bitching about the scenarios.  I get that it affected them negatively but it seemed like a pretty quick turnaround from empathy to self pity.

They certainly had a reason to complain, I’m not gonna hold that against them too much. They continued to show compassion towards Hamlin-one thing doesn’t cancel that out 

[Brianmoorman4jesus]

Not going to be easy but you just have to take care of business somehow. The score doesn’t matter, how we get there doesn’t matter. Find a way. Won’t be easy for them either 

[Johnnycage46]

1 minute ago, Ya Digg? said:

They certainly had a reason to complain, I’m not gonna hold that against them too much. They continued to show compassion towards Hamlin-one thing doesn’t cancel that out 

 

Honestly, any normal person would show compassion...not going to give credit for them being human beings.  It's just bad form to B word about the scenarios like a day after the event.  Keep it in house.

[Mark92]

2 minutes ago, Johnnycage46 said:

 

I don't think it's miles apart.  It's like complaining about a funeral getting in the way of your free time (think it but don't say it).

The Bengals do have a right to be upset that this game isn't at a neutral site.  If the NFL is willing to do it for KC vs BUF then they should have done it for CIN vs BUF.  The league was in a tough spot and almost got it right so it was fair to all.  

[Billz4ever]

Just now, Johnnycage46 said:

 

Ok.  But, maybe they should just keep their mouths shut.

So what have they said, other than being critical of the league's decision for the seeding, that would suggest they're a bunch of phonies regarding the Damar incident?

[billvernsays]

1 minute ago, Mark92 said:

The Bengals do have a right to be upset that this game isn't at a neutral site.  If the NFL is willing to do it for KC vs BUF then they should have done it for CIN vs BUF.  The league was in a tough spot and almost got it right so it was fair to all.  

Right. The fair thing to do would’ve been to give KC the bye since they were 14-3. The divisional game this week should’ve been at neutral site and if the Bills win KC comes to us (we overtake the 1 seed assuming we win at the neutral site) and the Bengals goto KC if they beat us since they wouldn’t have been able to get to 14 wins regardless of the outcome of our canceled game. 

[SCBills]

3 minutes ago, Mark92 said:

The Bengals do have a right to be upset that this game isn't at a neutral site.  If the NFL is willing to do it for KC vs BUF then they should have done it for CIN vs BUF.  The league was in a tough spot and almost got it right so it was fair to all.  

 

NFL was willing to do it for BUF/KC, because KC still got a bye week and the "easier" path.  

 

Fwiw, I'm beyond sick of the Bengals shtick.  Really hope the Bills come out Sunday with some demon energy and beat up the Bengals.  They just talk and talk and talk. 

 

Send them home and shut them up. 

[Johnnycage46]

3 minutes ago, Billz4ever said:

So what have they said, other than being critical of the league's decision for the seeding, that would suggest they're a bunch of phonies regarding the Damar incident?

 

Who said they were phony?  I am saying they should maybe have not bitched about the situation publicly.  I am certain that they cared about the incident but they can just leave it at that.  You keep putting words in my mouth to try to prove your point.

[Ya Digg?]

6 minutes ago, Johnnycage46 said:

 

Honestly, any normal person would show compassion...not going to give credit for them being human beings.  It's just bad form to B word about the scenarios like a day after the event.  Keep it in house.

They were being asked about it in interviews, it’s not like they were calling press conferences themselves. Not your style, I get it, but to me you’re trying to make a mountain out of a molehill 

[Pokebball]

15 minutes ago, Ya Digg? said:

You can easily flip that around and say that about the bengals. The one spot where they definitely have an advantage is at WR, but  their line is beat up so bad Burrow won’t have the time to take full advantage ofnthem

Allen was sacked, what, 7 times yesterday? Bengals beat up O line probably matches ours

[Process]

11 minutes ago, Mark92 said:

The Bengals do have a right to be upset that this game isn't at a neutral site.  If the NFL is willing to do it for KC vs BUF then they should have done it for CIN vs BUF.  The league was in a tough spot and almost got it right so it was fair to all.  

It's a completely different situation. Bills and Bengals played the same number of games. Bills were 13-3 and Bengals 12-4. It's cut and dry. It's like the game was never scheduled.

 

Chiefs and Bills played a different number of games, which is the only reason they have a better winning percentage. The bills didn't have an equal opportunity. The Bengals did. 

 

It's not hard to comprehend.

 

Edited January 16, 2023 by Process

[Billz4ever]

Just now, Johnnycage46 said:

 

Who said they were phony?  I am saying they should maybe have not bitched about the situation publicly.  I am certain that they cared about the incident but they can just leave it at that.  You keep putting words in my mouth to try to prove your point.

And why should they not complain? They have legit gripes that even Bills fans can acknowledge. They are completely separate issues, but you keep trying to combine their beef with the league with their feelings about Damar and the Bills.

[Pokebball]

15 minutes ago, dma0034 said:

I think the Bills and Bengals fell victim to looking ahead last week because they were playing against backup QBs. Forunately for both they were able to win after a tough battle with a division rival.

The Bills went up 17-0 and perhaps got complacent? Momentum turned and Bills struggled to get it back...but they did.

[billsherd]

Bills D coaches might be able to game plan better hopefully after watching the Bengals O from that suspended match up. Just to see how they were planning to attack our D, any advantage at this point is welcomed.

[SCBills]

2 minutes ago, Pokebball said:

Allen was sacked, what, 7 times yesterday? Bengals beat up O line probably matches ours

 

Yea... not going to equate these two things.

 

Burrow/Bengals would've had the same opps we had to utterly obliterate the Dolphins, but in the process Burrow would've left the game bloodied.  Dolphins played that game one way, and it was focused on hitting the QB with a Defensive Line that is quantum leaps beyond what the Ravens have. 

[dma0034]

1 minute ago, Pokebball said:

The Bills went up 17-0 and perhaps got complacent? Momentum turned and Bills struggled to get it back...but they did.

 

That's exactly what I thought happened. I think the Bills thought they'd go in and get up by 3/4 scores and figured the Dophins would pack it in. Allen missed a wide open Knox to go up 21-0 and suddenly it was tied at 17.

[Max Fischer]

- IMO, the top story all week will be the state of the Bengals offensive line. Right now, it Cincinnati could be down three starters, including both tackles. 

 

- The Ravens defense is great but even so, the Bengals could not run and their pass protection was poor. 

 

- On their first possession of the second half Bengals scored a TD (and added a two point conversion) to go up 17-10.

 

- This was their first possession after LT Jonah Williams got hurt. They drove 83 yards for the score. 

 

- However, after that possession, the Bengals went:

• 3 plays, 8 yards
• 6 plays, 13 yards
• 3 plays, -1 yard

Three possessions is a VERY small sample size but if it were the Bills, most would find it disconcerting.