Bills at Chargers, Game Week Thread Sat. 8 pm on Peacock (7 pm for us Flyover Folks)

[Utah John]

1 minute ago, John from Riverside said:

I’m worried about the lag of the trip across the country like whenever they had to play overseas

That's always been a problem for the Bills, particularly playing late in the season.  Also it's a short week to begin with, not counting losing almost a full day with the flight.  I remain confident about this game but I do have nagging worries that those problems will start to bite.  It's so important that the offense gets some first downs early in the game, and if possible scores early, to keep the Chargers from any real hope of an upset.

[GottaRun]

41 minutes ago, Utah John said:

He was outside for over three hours in a cold rain, which for me is the worst condition.  I would much prefer 10 degrees and sunny, or 20 degrees and snowy.  The rain just soaks in and chills you to the bone.  I'd be surprised if a lot of guys didn't get something affecting their health.  

 

I was outside in it for 10 hours and I'm more than twice his age 😇    Kids today....

[BigAl2526]

46 minutes ago, Utah John said:

That's always been a problem for the Bills, particularly playing late in the season.  Also it's a short week to begin with, not counting losing almost a full day with the flight.  I remain confident about this game but I do have nagging worries that those problems will start to bite.  It's so important that the offense gets some first downs early in the game, and if possible scores early, to keep the Chargers from any real hope of an upset.

I would have set practices two hours later than usual and invited players to sleep in and stay up late.  Hopefully, Josh bought tickets to the game for everybody in Firebaugh.

Edited December 21, 2023 by BigAl2526

[stuvian]

roll on against Easton Stick

 

[VaMilBill]

1 hour ago, Utah John said:

That's always been a problem for the Bills, particularly playing late in the season.  Also it's a short week to begin with, not counting losing almost a full day with the flight.  I remain confident about this game but I do have nagging worries that those problems will start to bite.  It's so important that the offense gets some first downs early in the game, and if possible scores early, to keep the Chargers from any real hope of an upset.

I feel like it’s easier to go west and play than it is east. 

[HappyDays]

Chargers social media team wins again.

[Warcodered]

5 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

Chargers social media team wins again.

Chargers fans probably: But can they coach?

[gonzo1105]

Sounds like Keenan Allen isn’t going to play again 

[Beck Water]

2 hours ago, Utah John said:

He was outside for over three hours in a cold rain, which for me is the worst condition.  I would much prefer 10 degrees and sunny, or 20 degrees and snowy.  The rain just soaks in and chills you to the bone.  I'd be surprised if a lot of guys didn't get something affecting their health.  

 

There was a lot of talk about Peacock offering a free 7 day trial but if you go to their website there's nothing there about it.  Has anyone tried to sign up for it in the last couple of days?

 

I agree that cold rain is miserable, but the big misery is if you have to be standing around in it.  The players have warm capes and heated benches between downs and I believe the trainers hand out chicken soup.  So they'll stay warm while they're on the field, and then get a chance to get warm off the field.

 

So even though I'm 100% with you on preferring colder but sunny or snowy, I don't think it made anyone sick.  Getting some of the Cowboy plague-carriers norovirus laden spit on him during some of those "Snowplow" collectives more likely.

 

 

[wppete]

So we win and  2 of these 3 teams (Bengals, Texans, Colts)  lose we have a playoff spot? 

[Bills!Win!]

1 hour ago, wppete said:

So we win and  2 of these 3 teams (Bengals, Texans, Colts)  lose we have a playoff spot? 

We lose every tie breaker with just about every afc team because of our conference record is awful. We can only have 2 of the browns, bengals, texans and colts reach 10 wins for us to make the 7 seed.
 

If 3 of them reach 10 wins we need to be 11-6 which means the only way in is winning the division 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Bills!Win!

[Richard Noggin]

3 hours ago, BigAl2526 said:

I would have set practices two hours later than usual and invited players to sleep in and stay up late.  Hopefully, Josh bought tickets to the game for everybody in Firebaugh.

Firebaugh REALLY far away from LA. 

 

Edit: I'm a dumb wrong idiot and it's basically a 5-hour drive...WITHOUT TRAFFIC lol. I'm still wrong, but the traffic

Edited December 21, 2023 by Richard Noggin

[DisplacedBillsFan]

I’m visiting family in San Diego and will be driving up to the game. Any recommendations for pre-game shenanigans?

[chongli]

Man, I just went over to the Chargers forum to see them dissing the Bills, and then report back here. But, the attitude there is resignation. In fact, they want to play their young guys and have them lose to improve their draft status. They said if the Raiders can hang 63 on them, imagine what Buffalo can do. The spread went from (-10) to (-12) for Buffalo, and one guy said he'd be all over than and give us even more at (-20)!

 

But this comment made me laugh:

 

"You know the season is in the books, when the pregame thread isnt stickied, lol..."

 

https://www.thepowderblues.com/forum/forum/los-angeles-chargers-forum-nfl-forum-padres-forum/the-los-angeles-chargers-forum/1592371-bills-at-chargers-10-pregame-discussion-wk-16

Edited December 21, 2023 by chongli

[WhitewalkerInPhilly]

10 hours ago, HappyDays said:

Chargers social media team wins again.

To be fair that's pretty much all they win

[SoCal Deek]

9 hours ago, DisplacedBillsFan said:

I’m visiting family in San Diego and will be driving up to the game. Any recommendations for pre-game shenanigans?

I don’t think they use the word shenanigans much in Inglewood. 😉

[Einstein]

I need someone to slap me. I’m more nervous about this game than I was KC or Dallas. 

 

I was reading the Chargers forum and one Bolt fan made this comment: “When there is nothing on the line, this team tends to win”. 

 

Hopefully they have a beatdown from Buffalo on the line.

[LetzGoBuffalo]

Peacock will occasionally give free trials for a week as long as your can remember to cancel it after the game. Not sure if they are offering it right now but it's worth going to the website and checking!

[2003Contenders]

13 hours ago, BigAl2526 said:

I would have set practices two hours later than usual and invited players to sleep in and stay up late.  Hopefully, Josh bought tickets to the game for everybody in Firebaugh.

Not too worried about the time issue as the Bills have mostly played later games this season.

 

Jet-lag, however, could be a bit of concern. No need to start this game sluggishly and allow an overwhelmed team (with a new interim  head coach) to build its confidence!

[fergie's ire]

10 hours ago, Bills!Win! said:

We lose every tie breaker with just about every afc team because of our conference record is awful. We can only have 2 of the browns, bengals, texans and colts reach 10 wins for us to make the 7 seed.
 

If 3 of them reach 10 wins we need to be 11-6 which means the only way in is winning the division 

True, but the colts and Texans play each other so it is only possible for 3 of them to get to 11 wins.  So, we the simplest way is we just need the Bengals to lose and if we win out we are in.  Other possibilities are if Miami loses a game and we win the division or if Cleveland loses 2....or if the team that wins the Colts/Texans game loses a game before this.  Also, need to put Jaguars in the mix.  If they lose one more they'll have 7 losses which means the Colts/Texans winner gets the wild card (taking them out of the division).  I agree that we really want to have 11 wins, even if Miami wins the next two so that doesn't win us the division...but there are still a LOT of permutations.

[WhitewalkerInPhilly]

37 minutes ago, Einstein said:

I need someone to slap me. I’m more nervous about this game than I was KC or Dallas. 

 

I was reading the Chargers forum and one Bolt fan made this comment: “When there is nothing on the line, this team tends to win”. 

 

Hopefully they have a beatdown from Buffalo on the line.

[Matt_In_NH]

If you cant beat the Chargers without Herbert or their Keenan Allen you don't deserve to make the playoffs.

[Beck Water]

Didn't see this on a quick glance, apologies if dupe

 

 

 

 

 

Simms memory is off, as back in 2020 the Bills did win several games with Josh Allen being pedestrian and by leaning on the run.  But his overall point (the drum he's been beating, to win the Bills must be more than the Josh Allen Air Show) stands.  He puts up some nice screen shots of some of the Bills runs vs. the Cowboys.  A more X's and O's based assessment than usual by Simms, reminding us that he was an NFL QB and a Patriots assistant coach and he does know ball.

Edited December 21, 2023 by Beck Water

[Beck Water]

 

Joe Marino show with his Chargers peer.  I know a lot of folks here like Joe.

 

 

He points out that the Bills are at double disadvantage, short week and cross-country travel

Also believes in the "interim coach bump"

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Beck Water

[Warcodered]

11 hours ago, chongli said:

Man, I just went over to the Chargers forum to see them dissing the Bills, and then report back here. But, the attitude there is resignation. In fact, they want to play their young guys and have them lose to improve their draft status. They said if the Raiders can hang 63 on them, imagine what Buffalo can do. The spread went from (-10) to (-12) for Buffalo, and one guy said he'd be all over than and give us even more at (-20)!

 

But this comment made me laugh:

 

"You know the season is in the books, when the pregame thread isnt stickied, lol..."

 

https://www.thepowderblues.com/forum/forum/los-angeles-chargers-forum-nfl-forum-padres-forum/the-los-angeles-chargers-forum/1592371-bills-at-chargers-10-pregame-discussion-wk-16

I mean of course they feel that way, the biggest worry in this game is a theoretical boost in playing ability/motivation from them having an interim coach this week, that's it really everything else going into the game more points to them getting smacked around. Obviously the Bills have had weird games though, against bad opponents that was with Dorsey though, so they still have to go out there and do it. Not like the Bills can lose intensity they need every game not to mention they've been crapped on by the media and everyone all year.

[jletha]

We usually play well in December when it matters most. Also McD tends to do very well against inexperienced QBs. I really cant remember a rookie or first-year-starting QB that beat us except Mac Jones in The Wind Game.

 

He uses too many disguised coverages and blitzes, Easton Stick will have his work cut out for him.

[bills742]

 

[Beck Water]

31 minutes ago, Warcodered said:

I mean of course they feel that way, the biggest worry in this game is a theoretical boost in playing ability/motivation from them having an interim coach this week, that's it really everything else going into the game more points to them getting smacked around. Obviously the Bills have had weird games though, against bad opponents that was with Dorsey though, so they still have to go out there and do it. Not like the Bills can lose intensity they need every game not to mention they've been crapped on by the media and everyone all year.

 

Well...there is the point that the Bills seem on-track to be playing a backup DLman and perhaps without Floyd or with him hampered

Then, possibly having Cook less than 100% due to illness and cross-country travel

 

I see it in pretty simple terms not too dissimilar to what the chap upthread said.  Either the Bills go in there determined to play solid December football and take care of business, or they don't deserve to go to the playoffs.

 

 

[Gman10]

1 hour ago, Matt_In_NH said:

If you cant beat the Chargers without Herbert or their Keenan Allen you don't deserve to make the playoffs.

So many variables, but I agree with this. Im not really hyped until we play the Dolphins (hopefully they drop 1...or 2). But if you struggle against the Chargers we will struggle in the playoffs(if we even make it)...

[Beck Water]

Speaking for myself, I'm looking up what Poona Ford did in previous games and trying to persuade myself that "it's not so bad, it's not so bad"

He played the largest # of snaps in the loss to NWE (45%)

[Matt_In_NH]

6 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

Speaking for myself, I'm looking up what Poona Ford did in previous games and trying to persuade myself that "it's not so bad, it's not so bad"

He played the largest # of snaps in the loss to NWE (45%)

 

Ford has sucked.  But you will see Oliver, Joseph and Settle.....Joseph is new from NWE.....I think Ford probably gets a jersey and gets single digit snaps.

[Beck Water]

1 hour ago, Beck Water said:

Didn't see this on a quick glance, apologies if dupe

 

 

 

 

 

Simms memory is off, as back in 2020 the Bills did win several games with Josh Allen being pedestrian and by leaning on the run.  But his overall point (the drum he's been beating, to win the Bills must be more than the Josh Allen Air Show) stands.  He puts up some nice screen shots of some of the Bills runs vs. the Cowboys.  A more X's and O's based assessment than usual by Simms, reminding us that he was an NFL QB and a Patriots assistant coach and he does know ball.

 

Sorry, it's crass to follow my own post, but I got a belly laugh at the big ol' "Disagree" an individual slapped on this post.

 

It's a fact that the Bills won several games with Josh Allen being pedestrian in 2020. 

Bills 24 NWE 21: 38 rush attempts for 190 yds (of which Allen had 23).  11 for 18 on the pass attempts. 

Bills 27 Chargers 17: 30 rush attempts for 172 yds (of which Allen had 32).  24 pass attempts and Allen threw a pick and lost a fumble.

One can argue that we've never seen the Bills OL set out to just plow the defenders downfield before, but that wasn't Simms point.

 

It's also a fact that Simms often just opinionates and doesn't make any attempt to illustrate what he says with screen shots or diagrams

 

It's a third fact that Simms was an NFL QB and a Patriots assistant coach.  You don't get there without knowing ball.

 

So I'm not sure what's to disagree with here. 

[AKC]

1 hour ago, Beck Water said:

Didn't see this on a quick glance, apologies if dupe

 

 

 

 

We'd be wise not to take too big a lesson from the Dallas game. We’re highly unlikely to see that soft a run defense the rest of the season. They were down their only real run stopper in the middle. Due to horrible personnel management they had no backup to bring it to cover injuries to their starting LB corps. Most importantly we were able to implement a running game that left the backside of most plays unblocked only because Micah Parsons was clearly degraded by the bug he had been fighting. Good luck to any team who leaves that guy unblocked behind their run game when he has his normal explosive initial steps back. It’s a TFL strategy. The Dallas game was fun and it exemplifies how we benefit when our run game is clicking but it was an outlier for more reasons than just Dorsey’s awful play call instincts. It was an exception we can use to help diversify our offense and not a model to rely on as a strength.

[Beck Water]

12 minutes ago, Matt_In_NH said:

 

Ford has sucked.  But you will see Oliver, Joseph and Settle.....Joseph is new from NWE.....I think Ford probably gets a jersey and gets single digit snaps.

 

I doubt you see single-digit snaps out of Poona.   Suck or not, he's gonna be out there.

 

It's not just being out DaQuan, it's being out Phillips and also AJE.  In the past when they've been down at the DT position they've rolled Rousseau inside on some snaps and put Oliver at 1T.

 

Can't do that while missing AJE and maybe Floyd hampered.

 

So what I think we'll see is some Settle at 3TDT and Ford getting what he got in the previous games he played, which is 25-45%, Linval Joseph getting the 40%-ish he got against Dallas and earlier in the season, and Settle getting 40% split between 1T and 3T. 

 

Minor point: Joseph has never played for New England.  He was "on the couch" until we signed him mid-season.  Last season he played with Philly, but the two previous years he played for the Chargers!  So he may have some insight into their defensive scheme etc. especially since Giff Smith was his position coach under Anthony Lynn and stayed when Staley took over.

Edited December 21, 2023 by Beck Water

[Simon]

4 minutes ago, AKC said:

We'd be wise not to take too big a lesson from the Dallas game. We’re highly unlikely to see that soft a run defense the rest of the season. They were down their only real run stopper in the middle. Due to horrible personnel management they had no backup to bring it to cover injuries to their starting LB corps. Most importantly we were able to implement a running game that left the backside of most plays unblocked only because Micah Parsons was clearly degraded by the bug he had been fighting. Good luck to any team who leaves that guy unblocked behind their run game when he has his normal explosive initial steps back. It’s a TFL strategy. The Dallas game was fun and it exemplifies how we benefit when our run game is clicking but it was an outlier for more reasons than just Dorsey’s awful play call instincts. It was an exception we can use to help diversify our offense and not a model to rely on as a strength.

 

I gotta wonder if that was the plan going in or if they made a quick adjustment when they realized that Parsons was compromised.

It was immediately clear within a few snaps that he had minimal jump, no power and he was clearly sucking wind before the Bills even hit midfield on the first series.

When some guy on his couch 150 miles away can see it right off the bat, could somebody on the Bills staff have picked it up and got into Brady's ear about it?

[Gman10]

Off topic but @Simon Im curious, when can I make a thread? Ive been here for 3 months, 50+ posts etc!? 
 

go Bills!

[Gman10]

Anyone slightly pissed they put Bills as the Dolphins easiest game?

 

https://www.tankathon.com/nfl/remaining_schedule_strength

[Steptide]

Sorry if already posted. This is definitely interesting.... 

 

 

[Fred Slacks]

51 minutes ago, Matt_In_NH said:

 

Ford has sucked.  But you will see Oliver, Joseph and Settle.....Joseph is new from NWE.....I think Ford probably gets a jersey and gets single digit snaps.

I know Jordan had a sack last week but I think he has played like butt all season.  Addition by subtraction with him going on IR in my opinion.

 

[RiotAct]

4 minutes ago, Steptide said:

Sorry if already posted. This is definitely interesting.... 

 

 

ah so there will still be the usual stoppages it sounds like.  I’m all for it if it means less commercials and more talk related to the game.