It’s division title or bust (updates on non-Bills games)

[BillsfaninSB]

47 minutes ago, TheFunPolice said:

Huntley should have led Baltimore to a playoff upset win at the Bengals last year, if not for a fumble at the 2 yard line that was returned for a TD. 

 

He's going to come to play. The players out there are going to want to win.

I think about that sometimes.   Should have had the Jags in the snow instead of the Bengals.

 

I wonder if the Bills would have snapped out of their funk if they had reached the AFCCG. 

[chongli]

 

[Big Blitz]

 

[newcam2012]

5 hours ago, WacArnolds said:

Teams don't actually think like that. It's a divisional rival and the backups have something to prove. Not sure they care about a team they likely feel confident they can beat, that controls their own destiny anyway, getting in. 

I agree. 

[Big Turk]

On 1/3/2024 at 7:23 PM, Einstein said:

Any given Sunday, yada yada, but it’s looking like Division title or bust.

 

Obviously we all know that the only way the Bills get in with a loss is if Pitt or Jacksonville lose. Well, a couple pieces of news today:

 

1) Ravens (playing Pitt) announced they are making Lamar Jackson inactive. In addition to this, the Ravens reporters on Twitter expect many more starters to sit out or see very little action.

 

2) The Titans (playing Jax) have 15 people on their injury report. That’s nearly 30% of the roster. The Titans are terrible as it is - they can’t afford any players to be injured.

 

 

 

.

 

I remember back when all we had to do is beat the Steelers backups and get some help and we'd be in the playoffs. The help came, we didn't finish our job.

 

Don't think the Ravens backups aren't capable of beating the Steelers.

[NoSaint]

On 1/3/2024 at 6:23 PM, Einstein said:

Any given Sunday, yada yada, but it’s looking like Division title or bust.

 

Obviously we all know that the only way the Bills get in with a loss is if Pitt or Jacksonville lose. Well, a couple pieces of news today:

 

1) Ravens (playing Pitt) announced they are making Lamar Jackson inactive. In addition to this, the Ravens reporters on Twitter expect many more starters to sit out or see very little action.

 

2) The Titans (playing Jax) have 15 people on their injury report. That’s nearly 30% of the roster. The Titans are terrible as it is - they can’t afford any players to be injured.

 

 

 

.

the ravens are starting their backup qb against the Steelers disaster at qb?!?

 

the jags debacle faces a titans debacle?

[loyal2dagame]

8 minutes ago, Big Turk said:

 

I remember back when all we had to do is beat the Steelers backups and get some help and we'd be in the playoffs. The help came, we didn't finish our job.

 

Don't think the Ravens backups aren't capable of beating the Steelers.

It wasn't merely the Steelers backups.  

It was the Steelers backups to the backups.  And we still lost. 

[BarleyNY]

20 hours ago, dma0034 said:

I know it's said every year but the NFL needs to get rid of division winners automatically host a game. Let them automatically get a playoff game but put all teams into rankings 1-7 based on their schedule. Browns and Eagles should not have to go to lesser teams because they won their weak divisons (Eagles suck but still)

Then you have to get rid of divisions and no team should have to play the same opponent twice during the regular season. That would be boring.

[chongli]

53 minutes ago, BarleyNY said:

Then you have to get rid of divisions and no team should have to play the same opponent twice during the regular season. That would be boring.

 

But NBA still has divisions, and if you win a division, you don't necessarily get home-court advantage in the first series.

[Captain Hindsight]

On 1/3/2024 at 7:28 PM, Einstein said:

 

13 of the 15 were either “limited” or “did not practice”. If you’re a player, you’re hurt, you’re on a 5-11 team… are you pushing to play in a meaningless final game? 🤷🏻‍♂️

As a professional player looking for their next million dollar paycheck? Probably 

12 hours ago, Einstein said:

 

No idea how you figured that, but it’s not accurate.

 

Steelers (-195) vs Ravens (+165) implies the Ravens (who we want to win), only have a 33.9% probability of victory.

 

Jags (-265) vs Titans (+190) implies the Titans (who we want to win), only have a 22.9% probability of victory.

 

I’m guessing you’re taking the singular probability of two events (P(team A) + P(team B) - P(team A * team B)), which would be 49% in our case.

 

.

He probably just figured the Steelers were starting some dude name Rudolph 

[DCofNC]

I have no hard time believing both the Jags and Steelers lose.  Both teams suck.  The Steelers can be a problem because of Watt and that defense, and even an average day from a QB can be made to look good with the weapons they have, but they never seem to be able to get even that.  The Jags are frauds, I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, they are the all hype/potential team.  Trevor Lawrence is Blake Bortles with a Head and Shoulders contract.  Josh Allen is only good when he plays Josh Allen. Etienne is a poor man’s James Cook.   They can’t finish drives, their D gets slapped in the mouth quite often and let’s be real, no team wearing teal has ever been a real threat. 

[Nephilim17]

If we can't beat the MASH unit that is the Dolphins we don't deserve to be in the playoffs. And if so, let the purge begin...

[buffblue]

2 hours ago, Big Turk said:

 

I remember back when all we had to do is beat the Steelers backups and get some help and we'd be in the playoffs. The help came, we didn't finish our job.

 

Don't think the Ravens backups aren't capable of beating the Steelers.

Or how about needing the 6-9 Bengals to beat the Ravens in Baltimore to break a 17 year playoff drought. No one in their right mind thought Cincy would win that game. There was a reason Marvin Lewis was finally being let go

Edited January 5 by buffblue

[chongli]

 

[BarleyNY]

8 hours ago, chongli said:

 

But NBA still has divisions, and if you win a division, you don't necessarily get home-court advantage in the first series.

Okay, but then what is the point of the divisions? The NBA divisions are much less meaningful than in the NFL. They play:

- 4 games each against division opponents

- 4 games each against 6 same conference different division opponents

- 3 games each against the remaining 4 same conference different division opponents and

- 2 games each against all of the teams from the other conference 

 

There is virtually no scheduling difference between the in-division and out-of-division conference opponents. In the NFL two games against same division opponents is 6/17th of the schedule. It’s huge if you’re in, say, the AFCN vs NFCS. The NFL could change their schedule to one game each against every conference team plus two games against out of conference teams, but that seems a little wonky. Would it be better than the current system? How would you schedule seasons?

Edited January 5 by BarleyNY

[EmotionallyUnstable]

Debating which scenario I’d prefer, given one of the two we need to lose drops their game:

 

1) Steelers lose - I like this because as much as I like tomlin, I think he is getting a bit of a free pass this year. A few of their guys annoy me (Watt, Pickens, Johnson). Their QB situation is gross, and given their history of playoffs, winning records and success, it would be comical to watch them self-destruct against a division opponent with the playoffs on the line. 
 

2) Jags lose - On the contrary, I really like a bunch of the players on Jacksonville (Kirk, Nigerian Nightmare, Allen). I don’t think Lawrence is a great QB. I think he’s fine but turns it over a ton. Despite this, it just seems like Jax has been this thorn for us the past handful of years (playoff loss, Urbab Meyer loss, London game) and for once maybe we can exercise those demeans with a little help from the Jags. At the same time, I hate Vrabel. And the titans. I don’t really want to be rooting for them Sunday. 
 

Im going with the Steelers. I’d rather watch them lose. Can’t think of a reason it’d be bad. 

[Radar]

On 1/3/2024 at 7:42 PM, Jrb1979 said:

Yeah cause that's the reason they won't make the AFC championship game. How about the losses to the Pats and Broncos? 

I'd add the Jets to that as well. Those losses were worst than the Jags loss in my opinion.

[chongli]

 

[LABILLBACKER]

I agree with many fans we got absolutely screwed by the league in that London game experiment.  But we've also managed to lose 3 games to teams we should've dominated. The last 2 weeks we've squeeked by against 2 more weaker teams. This has been a chaotic season.  If we have to earn the playoffs by beating Miami,  so be it.  I'd like to at least take a little positive momentum into the playoffs.  If we lose, we didn't deserve it.  We're not getting help so end that nonsense. 

[IronyAbounds]

53 minutes ago, LABILLBACKER said:

I agree with many fans we got absolutely screwed by the league in that London game experiment.  But we've also managed to lose 3 games to teams we should've dominated. The last 2 weeks we've squeeked by against 2 more weaker teams. This has been a chaotic season.  If we have to earn the playoffs by beating Miami,  so be it.  I'd like to at least take a little positive momentum into the playoffs.  If we lose, we didn't deserve it.  We're not getting help so end that nonsense. 

Yeah, I think the Bills need to win if they are going to do anything beyond just making the playoffs. Even if they get in while losing I just don't think they will pull off a road win in the first round. They beat the Dolphins and go in as a 2 seed with at least 2 home games and they may get their sh*t together and complete a trifecta and make it to the Super Bowl.