st pete gogolak

Last year they were destroyed by a team in the AFCCG that was then destroyed in the Super Bowl. We were arguably the 3rd or 4th best team in the league. If the Chiefs destroy the Bengals and then win the Super Bowl, we're arguably the second best team in the league. Bingo! We didn't take a step backwards, we took a step forwards!

This is a semi-serious thread BUT so many posters in numerous threads have lamented the fact that the Bills' Super Bowl window will close rapidly once Allen's new contact kicks in, it had me wondering if there is any analytics behind that assumption. I know NE was successful for a long time because Brady was willing to be grossly underpaid. Seattle hasn't done all that much after paying Wilson. On the other hand, GB has posted great regular season records (but have choked in the playoffs) with Rogers being paid a ton. When a QB plays like Mahones or Allen, you really don't have an option other than to pay them, do you? Can you imagine KC or BUFF putting Mahones or Allen on the trade block? Inconceivable. In the AFC, in a couple of years, KC, BUFF, LA, CIN and maybe BALT will ALL be operating with QB's making big bucks. Does that mean some team without those QB's will be in the Super Bowl? Just curious what people think about the topic.

LOL. Saying they went from 13 - 3 to 11 - 6 is "fact based". Saying they "took a step backwards" is your opinion. Last year they got destroyed by the Chiefs in the AFCCG. This year they battled the Chiefs toe to toe and had a 95% chance of winning the game with 13 seconds left. I guess that based on that they took a "step forward".

NewEra, c'mon. I get what you're saying but even in a gut-wrenching loss (and this was the gut-wrenchingnest), I enjoy coming to Two Bills Drive. 99% of the time you can tell by the title of the topic if you want to read it. Read what interests you and ignore the rest.

If Dorsey leaves to be OC for Daniel Jones instead of Josh Allen, then I am glad he didn't get the OC job here because I would question his sanity, let alone his football wisdom.

I guess now I'm wondering exactly what we are talking about with a squib kick. Some one above said it would take 4 - 6 seconds off the clock. That wouldn't be right. Again, got to believe instructions were to fair catch a ball in the air or immediately call yourself down with a squib. The later takes - what? - one or two seconds off the clock? And where on the field does the squib go? Between the 20 and 30? Say the 25 and you take two seconds off the clock. Butker kicks the field goal with one second on the clock. The kickoff didn't help but the unbelievably bad defense was the true culprit. Poyer, Hyde and Milano picked a bad time to have a bad game. Edmunds was useless. I won't be sorry to see him go.

I'll admit I wasn't aware of the "intentional foul to kill the clock" scenario until after the game. That doesn't mean you can't manipulate the situation to your advantage. Have two DB's in Hill and Kelce's face and be aggressive with them. If a hold is called on one or both so be it. Can you imagine the guts the head ref would have to have to call that intentional and give them 15 yards and no time on the clock? I don't know about no rushing anyone but of course, rush two or three max. The two plays are absolutely mind-blowing in how badly botched they were. There's Hill with a two man escort in front of him and not a Bill within 10 - 15 yards of him. Where are the safeties on the Kelce catch? I am 100% convinced that the previous Hill touchdown scared them so ####less that the defense was designed not to give up a game winning TD. Stupid, stupid stupid.

I'm sorry, I have a tough time getting over it as well. After Norwood missed the kick in Super Bowl XXV, I thought a team with Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Bruce Smith and on and on, is just too talented not to win a Super Bowl. Then Joe Gibbs puts together a one-year wonder powerhouse, the Vikings gift the Cowboys a dynasty and there you are. No rings. Minnesota hasn't been back to the Super Bowl since the 70's. Chances just don't come around as often as you think. This year, we were pretty injury free but one injury to our star corner may have cost us a Super Bowl appearance. I just can't get over the last 13 seconds and how stupendously stupid our defensive thinking was. Hypothetically, what if we went for two after the last Davis TD and made it to lead by four. At that point of course you kick it into the end zone to avoid the possibility of a return. Even if KC ran the same two plays, they would have been at our 32 with a shot at the end zone. That's mind-boggling. That also assumes that they wouldn't have tried for more yardage on their two plays and that our DB's wouldn't have been playing any deeper than the 40 yards they were playing! If my memory is correct, that's about where Bledsoe was when he launched the Hail Mary pass interference call that beat us in Foxboro.

This is rich. Remember way back to, I don't know, 2020? Extremely tough schedule, playing NFC West and AFC West. Played Mahones (L), Goff (W), Wilson (W), Murray (L), Carr (W), Herbert (W), Jackson (W), Rivers (W), Tannehill (L) and Roethlisberger (W). Record 15 - 4. This "beating up on rookies and third-stringers" is a false narrative.

I think Burrow is a terrific quarterback but you can't put him up there with Mahones and Allen. He has zero escapability. I understand his OL stinks but nine sacks! I can't see Mahones or Allen taking nine sacks if they were behind a high school offensive line.

OK, engaged in a bit of nerdness and looked at all of our kickoffs during the regular season. Excluding touchbacks, kicks returned from the end zone and one onsides kick, there were 31 kickoffs fielded between the 1 and the 19 yard lines. Excluding kickoffs fielded between the 1 and the 5 (because of the chance kick returner would let it go and hope it made it into the endzone), there were 13 kickoffs fielded between the 7 and the 19. Average yard line ball caught - 9.5 yard line. Average start line - 23 (not counting two penalties called on the return team). Worst result for ball caught was the 19. Worst starting field position 32. I'm convinced Reid would have instructed Pringle to fair catch a short kickoff. If he does anything other than a fair catch, and doesn't get any farther than 30 - 35, there's maybe 7 seconds left and KC has ONE play to move 30ish yards to get into field goal position. If he calls fair catch, say between the 10 and 15, no time runs off the clock but that's an extra 10 or 15 yards KC has to cover in the 13 seconds. That's 45 or 50 yards in two plays in order to try a 57 yard field goal. Of course, Pringle could have busted a return and taken to the house. That would have been a total outlier given our special team play this season. Of course, given what our defense did, could Mahones covered 50 yards in two plays? Sure. He covered 45 in two to get the FG. But there is no question that kicking it into the end zone was the wrong call.

Hell, you don't have to go back to the Patriots game. Chiefs did it to us in the FIRST HALF OF THIS GAME! Got the ball with 37 seconds left in the first half and three timeouts and comfortably moved down the field until Mahones threw two incompletions and Butker doinked a 50 yard FG off the upright. Maybe a squib or a pooch at the end of the first half was in order!

Milano gave up the 25 yarder to Kelce? That must be news to Levi Wallace. Oh, and agree that Edmunds was useless and atrocious in the game.

Congratulations! You're the first person to put Addison and Mack in the same sentence!

All this hand-wringing as to what we need to do in the offseason is nuts. Name two teams you'd rather be heading into the offseason. Realistic projections for offense and defense for next year WITHOUT making any moves other than resigning a couple of our own free agents and not considering the draft. Offense: Davis - Diggs - Beasley or McKenzie - Knox - Dawkins - Bates - Morse - D. Williams - Brown - Allen - Singletary. Defense: Rousseau - Oliver - Phillips or Star - Basham or AJE - Milano - Edmunds or replacement - Poyer - Hyde - White (midseason) - Jackson - Wallace or replacement. I think we're in great shape with some tinkering, especially in secondary.

Yes, yes, yes! Butker was going to attempt a FG if they got within 60 yards, maybe a yard or two beyond that. That was why I was anything but comfortable after the last Davis TD. I went back to the play-by-play and forget that the Chiefs got the ball with 37 seconds left in the first half with three time outs and Butker doinked a 50 yarder off the upright. That was after two Mahones incompletions. To think that the Chiefs couldn't pick up 30ish yards from the 25 in two plays was fanciful, especially playing a defense to prevent a Hail Mary.

Or the 49'ers trading up to take Jerry Rice. Seriously, I am in favor of trading down to get more #2 and #3 round picks and trading up to get more #2 nd #3 round picks. Go through NFL draft history and you will see tons of first round busts and tons of great players taken in the 2nd and 3rd rounds. After that, not so much. Not saying you don't trade up in the first round to get the guy you want (duh, Josh Allen), but generally, I'm in favor of accumulating draft picks but especially in 2nd and 3rd rounds. Agreed. I think Spencer Brown will be an All Pro in two years. Yeah, he had a lot of ups and downs this year and Melvin Ingram abused him Sunday night and could have ended that game a lot sooner than overtime, but for a 3rd round pick from a small school to perform like that as a rookie is impressive. I believe he's only going to get better and better. It's a home run pick by Beane.

Yeah, because the offense never struggled in a game this year.

He'd be an idiot to take an OC offer from another team if the Bills offered him the OC position. If he turned it down, I wouldn't want him because I would question his judgment, maybe his sanity.

Right. They played to prevent a touchdown. Everyone is acting like KC had to get to our 32 to get a FG attempt. They didn't. Anywhere around our 42 - 43 is going to give Butker, who has a big leg, at least a shot at a FG. I'm guessing that was what KC was thinking. Get to somewhere around the BIlls ' 40. The key to the last 13 seconds was Hill's 64 yard touchdown. It had us scared ####less that Hill would win the game with a TD. Which of course is nuts. The last thing you wanted was the game to go into overtime and be decided by a coin flip.

Yeah, agree and I know that it's not their job to satisfy the curiousness of the fanbase but I'm genuinely curious now as to what the hell happened. Was the intent to kick it deep or was something else called and it wasn't conveyed to Bass or was it conveyed to Bass and Bass screwed up? To me, it's looking like one in the middle.

Then why wouldn't McD just say that the KO was executed as intended? Clearly Bass' intent was to hammer the ball. So the only explanation for a "screw up" is if Bass was told to kick short or squib and he doesn't do it? That seems ridiculous as well.

With all the discussions about the last 13 seconds, I'm finding out that there are a bunch of NFL rules I didn't have a clue about (being able to fair catch a kickoff, ref can call "intentional" defensive holding and make it a 15 yard penalty with no time run off the clock etc.). What is the rule if it's kicked short - say to five or ten yard line and kick returner wants to gamble that it goes into the end zone? It is an automatic touchback with no time left on the clock? Does the kick returner have to at least cover the ball in the end zone and does a second or two run off the clock?

I'll say it again. It's not just the fact that they kicked a 49 yard FG starting at the 25 with 13 seconds to go, it was that it was so damn easy. I was worried about Butker being jacked up and hitting a 60 yard FG, or maybe Mahones pulls an Eli Manning and does a Houdini escape and makes a pass to a KC receiver who makes a David Tyree catch. Nope. Nothing. Two plays where the Bills seem to be protecting against a TD and not a FG and give up 20 and 25 yards with basically no resistance. Insanity!!

I hope someone more technologically savvy then myself can put together a video of Bass' "short" 2021 kickoffs. Just from memory, I believe Bills were extremely successful doing this strategy this year. Again, from memory, I can't recall many returns past the 20. I'd also be curious where the kickoffs were caught assuming KC would fair catch the pop up kick. Even starting at the 20 instead of the 25 would have helped.