st pete gogolak

I was going to make a similar comment. Three games decided by 2, 3 and 3 points, yet the Bills had over 500 (!) more yards of offense!! How is that even possible? Amazing. Sacks and turnovers tell part of the story (13 v. 8 and 5 v. 2) but even with that a couple of those games should have been Blls' blowouts.

Someone previously posted that Bills would have nothing to play for Sunday if the Chiefs won because they would be locked into #2 seed based on having tiebreaker over Bengals if Bengals beat Ravens and Bills lost to Pats. Based on the flowchart that's incorrect. Is it? Even if Chiefs won and Bills did have tiebreaker over Bengals, Bills would still be playing for chance to have AFCC played at neutral site instead of KC.

Not to nitpick but it's "here comes THE Robert E. Lee", the steamboat, not the general. In any event, great song from a great band.

Going into the game, I thought two things were locks. Dolphins wouldn't be able to run on the Bills and we'd have big problems with Dolphins pass rush. Of course, those were, for the most part, things that didn't happen. It's one thing for Hill and Waddle to beat you, but Dolphins ran at will. Until Morse went out, OLine held up really well. After he went out, not so much. Interior OLine was awful. Thought Spencer Brown had pretty decent game. If he doesn't recover Allen's fumble, game is pretty much over at that point. If OLine is Dawkins - Saffold - Morse - Bates - Brown going into playoffs maybe we're ok.

I'm not a doctor. Not buying in to concussion theory. In another thread someone suggested shoulder sprain. Again, not a doctor, but statistics indicate SOMETHING happened in the first half of the Packers game.

I've posted on this before but now I'm paranoid obsessive about it. We've played 13 games, so half the season is up to the end of the first half of the Packers game. Josh's stats at that point were 167 completions on 249 attempts (67%) for 2101 yards, 19 TD's and 4 INT's. Definitely MVP numbers. From the second half of the Packers game and the following six games, his stats are 133 completions on 221 attempts (60%) for 1452 yards with 7 TD's and 7 INT's. Weather for the Vikings game wasn't great and was terrible for second Jets game. On the other hand, two of the games were in a dome and in the first half of the season, we played the Dolphins in a sauna and the Ravens in a driving rain. So, is it physical (obviously elbow but lousy game and a half before elbow injury)? Mental? Lousy play-calling? Dropped passes? Worse play from the offensive line? A combination of all of the above? Much more conservative play over the last four games leading to 6 TD's and only one pick on a tipped ball and, oh yeah, four wins. Still believe something happened in the first half of Packers game to impact him physically and whatever it was, it didn't go away immediately then was followed by the elbow issue. It's been a brutal schedule so far this year. Really hoping for a big game this week or next week from Josh to put an end to the string of "mediocre numbers" and go into the playoffs with this as a dead issue.

I swear Denver hired him because they thought that they could lure Rodgers to Denver, which is dumb enough in and of itself. Then they compounded that with the horrendous Wilson trade. Like they say, when you pay franchise QB money to a QB, you better be pretty damn sure you're getting a franchise QB.

I was thinking about putting this in a separate post but I hate it when someone opens a thread with nothing other than a player's name. So here goes. Spencer Brown. I thought that after his rookie year, Brown would be All Pro by his third year. Incredible combine metrics as far as pure athleticism is concerned, huge frame, great attitude, plays with a mean streak. Yet gets beat over and over again on an outside rush. Melvin Ingram undressed him in KC playoff game. On the other hand, he appears to be very good in the run game. Is it just a question of providing him with a smaller space to operate in? I get that you don't see 6'7" guards but would moving him inside be an answer? Draft OT #1 and OG #2 next spring?

On top of winning three games away from home field in 12 days, in spite of snow storms, injuries, lack of practice and what-have-you, how about this for a statistical anomaly. After 12 weeks, the Bills have played seven road games, four home games and one neutral site game. Despite that and despite playing numerous Top Ten teams in various power rankings (KC, Miami, Minnesota, Baltimore, Tennessee, et al.) the Bills are 9 - 3. As General George Patton might have said, "Damn, I'm proud of these boys."

I'm still struggling with what I'm trying to get at with this post. It's such a statistical anomaly to go six games with incredibly good stats (one statistically mediocre game at Baltimore in the driving rain) with four picks (one 100% on McKenzie and another a tipped ball) to five games ranging from mediocre to downright awful, with a season's worth of red zone picks, game changing horrible plays, etc. Maybe it is something physical or something mental but something happened either during the bye week or during the Packer game that has put our Super Bowl hopes in jeopardy. I really believe one mistake free, "big game" performance and it's all in the rear view mirror. At least that's my hope.

Opened the season crushing the defending Super Bowl champs on the road despite four turnovers. Crushed last year's AFC #! seed at home. Lost a freakish heartbreaker at Miami despite a rash of injuries and hellish and unfair conditions on the field. Came back with a gutsy comeback win on the road at Baltimore. Destroyed Pittsburgh at home. Great game on the road for a well-deserved win against arch nemesis KC. 5-1 going into the bye. I hadn't felt as confident of a win going into a game as I did Green Bay. Rested, getting some players back going against team at the bottom of the league stopping the run. Good game to get our run game healthy. Up 24 - 7 at the half. Offense looked fine. Defense looked soft against the run, which was a surprise given how sturdy we had been against the run the first six games. At that point, Josh Allen had 19 TD passes against 4 interceptions and was favorite to win MVP. He took a couple of big hits early in the second half and hasn't looked the same since. Since halftime of the Packer game Allen has 4 TD passes against 7 interceptions (including 3 red zone INT's) and a fumble on a QB sneak that cost the Viking game. He looked bad against the Jets well before the elbow injury. I'm convinced Allen suffered some sort of injury early in the second half of the Packer game. It just seems statistically impossible to play 6 1/2 games so well and the next 4 1/2 either mediocre or flat out bad. Granted, the lousy offensive line play hasn't helped. Brown has been a big disappointment. Our defense after getting gouged by Green Bay and the Jets on the ground has rebounded nicely in stopping the run (other than the 80 yard Cook run). Pass defense has been bad but hopefully that will be cured by getting some of our guys back. The one thing this team needs is one big game from Allen showing that he is back. That, and staying relatively healthy and we will be fine.

I'm sure it has been mentioned in this thread more than once but Tre tore his ACL last Thanksgiving. OBJ tore his during the Super Bowl. Are you going to sign the guy for the second half of the Super Bowl? 45 pages for this? Seems kind of nutty.

Browns had approximately 400 yards total. Of that, 75 on opening drive (which counts of course) and approximately 150 on last two "garbage time" TD drives with Bills having big leads. Incredible job to hold Chubb to 19 yards on 15 carries. I also get playing prevent defense up big late. Ask the Browns. They gave up an 80 TD pass under 2 minutes left and cost them loss to Jets early in the season. Helped ruin their season. What I don't get, however, is the last drive and not forcing the play away from the sidelines. Play after play Brisset was completing passes to receivers who stepped out of bounds and stopped the clock burning maybe 5 or 6 seconds. A completion inbounds burns 30. Keeping receivers in play would have forced Cleveland to heave something towards the end zone at the end instead of having a shot to recover an onsides kick and causing more heart palpatations in BUFF.

And yet, we outplayed Miami and lost because of injuries, heat stroke and bad luck. The Minnesota game, I don't think I've seen a team have like, 20 chances to put a game away and failing to make one play to put the game away. The Jets, on the other hand, played us pretty even up and deserved to win that game.

I started a similar thread a month ago and was enlightened by many posters that, not only is he retired, but he has zero interest at this point in his life in playing football. Nothing wrong with that. Which is a shame, He would be a nice fit as guard - tackle backup, maybe even starter. Last year's play was better than what Saffold and Q have provided this year.

This isn't directly on topic but it's the most recently active concerning the Minnesota game. Last series. Diggs catches ball giving us a first down on the Minnesota 20 yard line with 1:25 left and two timeouts (I believe Vikings had two timeouts as well). Go for TD to Knox in endzone. Incomplete. 1:12 left on the clock. Let's say Allen threw ball away on second down with no one open (as many here believe he should have). Now's it's third and 10 from the 20. Incomplete pass followed by FG gives Vikings a minute and two timeouts to win the game. If the strategy was to at a minimum to come out of the game with a tie, we should have run or thrown a "safe" pass on first down to run some clock. Do Vikings call time out to preserve clock? Do we make them burn a couple of timeouts? It seems that the strategy, if you can call it that, was to win the game without any consideration for playing for a tie, fine. That's certainly aggressive. On the other hand, it just leads to more questions how strange the playcalling sequence was to end the game.

It's hyperbole, pal. Clickbait.

Kubiak won a Super Bowl? Must of missed that. For who?

You know, even with Hyde and Poyer, I don't think the Bills beat the '75 Steelers. Why do you keep referring to last year? I never said that last year's Bills should have been unbeaten. The Colts rolled them. Your argument is just nonsense. Again, with Hyde and Poyer, this team has a very, very good chance of being 9 - 0, or at worst 8 - 1. Do you deny that? Did you watch the games?

Have no idea why you keep referring to last season. My opinion is that with Hyde and Poyer they win both Miami and Minnesota. NYJ closer call but it's not J. Johnson taking horrible angles at running backs either. Yes, in all three games the offense left something to be desired but again, the thesis is that THIS YEAR, with Hyde and Poyer we would be minimum 8 - 1, very possibly 9 - 0.

Power rankings are worth about as much as mock drafts, but just for fun, let's assume this one is accurate. So far this season, Bills have (1) beat #1 on the road; (2) lost a heartbreaking game at home to #3 that they should have put away about six times; (3) lost to #4 on the road when half the team keeled over with heat stroke; (4) beat #5 on the road; (5) destroyed #6 at home; (6) lost a tough game to #9 on the road; (7) easily beat #19, #21 and #22; and (8) no games to date against #24 - #32. Despite all that, we still have games left against #3, #9, #12 (road); and #17 (2). This may end up being the most brutal schedule in the history of the team.

What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? This year they lost to Miami by two in a brutal game where Bills players were keeling over with heat stroke. This is personal opinion of course but if Hyde and Poyer play in that game, they win. Granted, offense wasn't great even though they put up almost 500 yards of offense. NYJ loss, don't know. Again, offense wasn't great, not sure two safeties would have made that much of a difference stopping the NYJ run game. Minnesota? Absolutely convinced they win that game in a walk if Hyde and Poyer play.

wow.

I wasn't looking for a silver lining from this game but then the thought occurred to me, what if this had been a playoff game or - heaven forbid - a Super Bowl and to lose a game like this. This would have been 10 times worse than 13 seconds because we had at least 5 or 6 times when you're about this close to saying game over (scoring TD to go up 17, 4th and 18, 81 yard run, executing a QB sneak, and on and on). It would have been time to find the nearest bridge.

Why are Davis and McKenzie right next to each other? That can't be right. Somebody had to mess up.