Alphadawg7

We absolutely could win it this year. We have the ability to do it...if we can get out of our own way. Things we need to continue to be better about: OL stops killing drives with dumb holding penalties or false starts. Defense stops giving away free first downs on 3rd down stops with dumb penalties. Daboll improves his pay calling in the Redzone. We continue to keep Devin regularly involved as both a runner and receiver out of the backfield and Daboll doesn't rediscover his allergy to running the ball. Our receivers stop dropping so many passes. Even in our latest wins, we had a lot of points left on the field including 3 dropped sure TD's in the last 2 games alone by Diggs, Sanders, and Knox. Those are the 5 main keys to the success of our team every week this year. None of the teams we lost to are the better team IMHO, we beat ourselves for the most part. Additionally, there were a couple of them the refs screwed us like the Bucs game. But end of the day, games were only close enough for the refs to impact them because of things on the list above we did to shoot ourselves in the foot. Our toughest opponent each week is ourselves. If they can minimize the issues above, we can and will beat any team in the league this year.

Count me in the crowd that wonders if the return of Henry hurts the Titans more than helps them. No denying the insane talent Henry is, but I can't help but wonder just how much he can give them when he first gets back. Long layoffs from injury, its not uncommon for a player to need a couple games before he regains his form. Their other RB's have been running pretty well, and switching back to a heavy dose of Henry coming off a long break and injury could slow the offense down a bit. And they are already struggling to consistently throw the ball. Then again, Herny is an athletic freak, so maybe he will hit the field like he never left. But just can't help but wonder if there will be some rust that works against them.

I agree with Aristorcrat here. If you really dissect the Bills Colts first half, almost all the damage was done thanks to self inflicting wounds we committed against ourselves. First drive...is what it is, good drive by Colts to open game 7-0. But the ensuing Bills drive, we moved the ball with ease into scoring territory on our opening drive. Then on 3rd and 3, there was a called run to Allen who was winding the outside for a big gain with blockers in front of him until the play got blown dead on a false start. Now 3rd and 8, holding call making it now 3rd and 18 and no longer in field goal position. Josh tries to get the first down and our WR was CLEARLY held for PI allowing another defender to get back to the ball instead for an easy pick. For me, it was clear pass interference that prevented our receiver from making a play on the ball or at the very least prevent the interception. Doesn't matter though, we were in 3rd and 18 instead of having a first down in the Redzone because of our own dumb penalties...not once, but twice in back to back plays. Not going to write a synapsis of everything in the first half, but we would go on to hold the Colts on 3rd down (and I believe multiple times) and then give them a free first down to extend drives on dumb penalties that allowed them to gain more points versus getting off the field and the offense back on the field. Additionally, McKenzie gave them a free 7 points on him tripping on his own and fumbling on his own, untouched. And then there were the multiple dropped passes on 3rd downs that killed drives too and left points on the field. And of course, more dumb offensive penalties that killed drives. Colts didn't beat us...we beat ourselves. Had we not had so many compounding mistakes, come half time, could have been us with a lead or at least a close game. Then we open the second half with ending our opening drive with of course another dropped easy pass for the first down (If memory serves me it was Knox again). Additional notes: We were missing Edmunds and Star, with Star being a really important figure for the matchup of a good interior rushing team. Love him or hate him, there is no denying our run defense is better with Star on the field. We have beaten this Colts team in the playoffs already. Honestly, I think the Rivers led Colts team was the more dangerous offense to face than this one, and we beat them already when we didnt spend the whole game hurting ourselves. We can, and will, do it again if we meet in the playoffs as long as we don't give away points or give them free points on stupid mental errors.

Bengals are a confusing team. One week they look like they are among the AFC Elite. Then next week they struggle against bad or mediocre teams. I mean they have losses to the Bears, Jets, Browns, as well as some other teams they should have beat. They also barely beat the Jags, Broncos, etc. They are more Jeckyl and Hyde than we have been this year. Then they go out and play a game like they did against the Chiefs. Jamar Chase had averaged less than 50 yards a game for like 5 weeks then explodes into prime Randy Moss against the Chiefs. Had him on my fantasy team...his previous 5 weeks he totaled 55 fantasy points over 5 games. In week 17 (when I was already eliminated thanks a lot to his poor performances in prior weeks) he totaled 53 points that week alone. They are a hard team to read, Chase can look uncoverable at times, then in other games seem to be easily taken out of the game. But they have a lot of weapons on offense, so if they get hot they will be a tough out.

Doesn't make any sense though...he refused to go into the game more than once. How can they be freezing him out if they are trying to get him in the game and he won't enter? I am sure that is going to be AB's story when it comes out, to try and blame them and make them look underhanded. But end of the day, I promise you Arian's, the other coaches, and the players on the field don't give 2 craps about how much a guy does or doesn't make. They are out there to win games, and if the Bucs truly were concerned about paying AB bonuses, they could have just added a game or two to his suspension for his faked VAX card incident as additional team punishment. This dude quit on his team and the coaches, there is no spinning that.

Comment of the week award goes to you sir

I will say this...you definitely need to consider injury history, and someone like Barkley qualifies as a guy to be concerned about. But, that being said, does not always mean they will still have injury issues moving forward. Great players like Stafford, Fred Taylor, Frank Gore were all one thought of as injury prone early in their careers. But all of them went on to shake the injury bug at some point. In the end, its a violent game, sometimes you just get a few bad luck breaks, doesn't always mean you are prone to future injuries. So I personally would not write off a guy like Barkley if there was a way to get him here for an affordable price.

So 2 WR's mean its a great roster? Sorry, I just dont get that logic. Lions had Staffford and Calvin and some other good weapons...didnt matter, and Calvin is arguably top 3 all time. Texans had Watson, Hopkins and Fuller...didnt matter. I mean I could make a list 100 teams long without breaking a sweat who had some very good offensive players but were overall a mediocre roster or worse. And neither Locket or Metcalf are any where as close to as good as those receivers I just mentioned. So, yeah, Seattle is barely a mediocre roster. Their defense stinks, and so does their OL. The only reason its even considered mediocre is because of Wilson, Metcalf and Locket. Take any one of those 3 off that team and falls to the bottom of the league.

Yeah that’s a fair point and I agree that if a team that’s got a SB contender roster ready trades for him, then maybe he can get them over the hump still. Just not sure one of those teams can pony up the best offer for him. Does he have a no trade clause? I forgot it he has any power of where he goes. Lesser teams are going to have better draft pick packages to offer. I can see someone like the Giants making a big push for him. Watson is still gonna be available too, which could influence the market for him if he gets past his off field stuff this summer.

Calling it now: Someone is going to trade a bounty to get Russ based on who he used to be then realize he is not that guy anymore and just be stuck in mediocrity while he is there. He is no longer top 5. He isn’t going to be able to carry a mediocre roster, he already can’t do that in Seattle. Some bad team is going to over pay in draft assets, then lack the tools to build a winning roster around him and be saddled with his cap hits too. See Seattle…rinse and repeat. I hope it’s the Jets.

I get that...and can't really say for sure you are mathematically right or wrong. Admittedly, I do not have any stats, nor do I know if they can even be found in the first place, but I would say I have seen deflections caught by the opponent more than dropped INT attempts ending up in the opponents hands. Obviously both happen, but I think its more common on a deflection. But I preface that as pure opinion with no statistical data to back that up. However, this was not a jump ball in traffic. It was 3 bills defenders on an under thrown ball to single WR and was right to Hyde. So catching it 100% ends the game. Deflecting it opens up the opportunity to be deflected into an opponents hands. So I still believe the math favors him catching that pass which was right in his gut over attempting to knock it away. I think its a very narrow margin of difference though given the overall situation of the play and game scenario. But still, I would rather see him end the game there then risk tipping it elsewhere for a possible unintended reception for a score.

Nothing against McKenzie, I like him, but you are talking about a pretty small sample size here that basically is tied to his last game. Prior to this Sunday, he had 7 receptions on 11 targets for a 63% catch percentage. Also too small to make any statements about that really. Like I said, I do like McKenzie, dont get me wrong, I am just saying he has been here a while and hasn't managed to make a consistent impact, never had a strong catch rate, and has had some fumble issues in the past. So I still think the offense would benefit more by getting more touches to Diggs, Davis, Cole, Knox, and Singletary (rushing and receiving) over reducing some of their roles to get McKenzie more snaps. Although I do think Sanders role should be reduced heavily in favor of Davis and Cole. He certainly has value to the team, and I would like to see him get some opportunities in the right situations, just think the other guys are ones who should command the touches more.

As its already been said, its a situational thing...and in this situation, intercepting the pass is mathematically the higher win probability practically at 100% where knocking the ball down leaves open the small possibility still of it being deflected to the opponent. So again, in a 2 score game, the INT in this scenario gives us the higher win probability. If he goes to deflect it and doesn't hit it cleanly, he could bat the ball into a position that could still be caught by the opponent for a potential score. I have seen plenty of times where a defender has swatted a pass just to see it bounce eventually to an opponent for a big gain or TD. Add in the money bonus, and its a no brainer for Hyde to catch that pass in my book. Not only benefits him deservingly so, but mathematically, it gives us the slightly higher win probability than attempting to just knock the pass down.

I mean, not really that big of a surprise even though I was curious about him after his out of no where game against Miami. But even when we seemed to need to make a change or to get a boost at RB he was not considered. And we had the roster space with all the injuries or covid stuff, so he clearly had not shown the staff he had anything more to offer over the 3 guys ahead of him. After his surprise game against Miami, there were reasons to be curious to see what he could do with some opportunities. But he never really showed anything after that that I can recall. Didn't really hear much praise about him in camp while guys like Devin, Moss, and Brieda were doing well. Then in preseason he didn't do much with that either. Wish him well though in his career

I actually think Daboll has not had a very good season prior to the second half of the Bucs game. We have an elite QB with enough playmakers around him that most OC’s could helm this offense and we would score points. But Daboll has been a terrible play caller in the red zone a lot of times this year and also struggled or resisted trying to get the run game going until just recently. I can name many examples of poor decisions, however I will cite a recent one that still has me steaming. The 3rd and 2 call on the 3 yard line at end of regulation against the Bucs. You have one play to likely score here (game was too important to not take the FG there given the way our defense shut down the Pats in the second half). This is where you call your BEST play and utilize our best talents. What’s he call? A freaking fade that requires Josh to throw the ball on the snap before even knowing if the WR is going to win the route. This is the definition of a 50/50 ball. Yet we have Diggs, Cole, Knox, Davis, Singletary, and Josh Allens legs…ALL are taken out of the play essentially for a coin flip to a short WR. Now Diggs was clearly interfered with, but the point is the play was the wrong call in that situation from the get go. Absolute worst call I have seen in a long time. He’s made a lot of bone head decisions like this in the Redzone as well that left points on the field in games we narrowly lost. Not using Josh Allens running ability in the first NE game also one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. I am not a “fire him” guy, but IMHO Daboll has earned criticism this year and I think how he does the rest of season and playoffs will be telling on whether or not he should be back next year.

I could make a case and point at one play in the Pitt game that probably changes the outcome of the game...the punt block for a TD. But since it cant for sure be known (we were still down by 3 when we attempted the punt), I agree with leaving it out of the list as "one play away" from only 2 losses.

I would be more interested in if he could play outside LB more than DE which I don’t think he could make that move.

If memory serves me, I think I saw someone post something similar before that Star wasn’t in on those plays. But didn’t verify myself. Either way, just because Star plays doesn’t mean we will never give up a big run either. I mean teams make plays, but overall it’s safe to say our run D is definitely better with him than without him.

Hard Disagree on Trent ha.

Yeah but the old QB Rating will over value something like comp %, so a check down QB who has a pitiful game will end up with a good rating for example. Trent Edwards is a prime example of that. The old rating is too simplified, the new rating isn't balanced well enough to be reliable. Neither is efficient, but again, both exist for fans really, no coaching staff focuses on it.

All true, but its still better than the old QB rating though which is even more useless. Reality is there will never be a stat that actually accurately captures the overall performance of a position as complicated as QB in the NFL. its literally impossible with so many variables to take into consideration. Not only do QB's in this era run a lot compared to past generations, but you have so many variables that surround the QB's and their ability to statistically show how well they are or are not playing. QB Rating stats are just simply tools created for fans and media to give a suggestive snapshot of their performance at any given time. More context and data is always needed to truly evaluate a quarterback, and its why coaches never use either of the QB rating systems and instead look at very specific individual data points that matter more.

Allen has been better IMO than Mahomes and Brady overall

Honestly, I just don’t see how anyone can not have Allen firmly at the top of the MVP race. I think it really should only be between Rodgers and Allen right now with Taylor 3rd.

Terrible news, absolute legend. RIP John Madden. On the bright side: At least he doesn’t have to play those crap versions of his legendary franchise game EA Sports keeps ruining and putting out lately.

I’m surprised. The guidelines specifically state if you asymptomatic and even then you need to wear a mask for 5 days after. So I thought the mask requirement would stop them from shortening the timeline.