thurst44

My superstitions for this year: - Chicken bites from BJ's that my wife bought on a whim Week 1. - My dog Trixie has to have her Bills jersey on (but I do not) - First beer has to be Presidente, second Modelo (yeah, I'm basic) The bites are well on their way to being 13-1 with the Hail Murray week being the only loss. The Dolphins were driving today when I realized I was doing none of these. The moment Trixie's second paw got in the shirt (oven on, Presidente in hand), Edmunds got the sack, so can't question it. The Mike Love play came when I put the bites in and got the Modelo.

What has ever gone wrong when relying on Pitt's backups to do one thing or another to affect our post-season outcome. Oh wait.

Ha, sorry if I was combative (it wasn't intentional, but I should have read more carefully). FWIW, on the Edmunds tip, that was more of a frustration on every board I've read, but I did say that part was not necessarily about the two people posted here. Let's put it this way: I just now noticed your awesome screen name. Robb Riddick was my first favorite Bill. I guess part of my thoughts here are that trying to figure out who is best to play in the playoffs is ultimately pointless since football (and this D in particular) can be so unpredictable. As you, yourself, say, anything can happen in the playoffs. Then again, this is a Bills board and it's something to talk about, so your opinion is as valid as mine here. I tend to look at it as who would I least like to lose to b/c I expect to win. This time feels like they could beat anyone right now, but as the Ravens showed last year, and the Giants will probably show if they somehow get in (since they seem to win the SB every year they get in with a ridiculously bad record) fortunes can change with one bad day in the playoffs. Also, I had a different takeaway from the Ravens game. The defense did enough to win and stopped Lamar Jackson about as well as anyone did last year (they were a juggernaut at the time we played them and he was MVP for a reason), but their defense just never allowed us to get into rhyth. I still have nightmares about Judon -- it's why I wanted us to pick him up and I had him on my fantasy team. The Ravens really only scare me for illogical reasons (they looked unbeatable going into playoffs last year and fell flat, so this year when they look a hot mess much of the time, watch them have a run).

Any given Sunday. Teams have bad days and good days, our two best linebackers have been hurt much of the season and we have WON every game in that period, many against good teams, save for that fluky game we lost in the last seconds. We could play the Dolphins in Wild Card Weekend and get gashed or play the Ravens and hold Lamar to 100 yards total. And we've won 12 out of our 15 games this year and their losses have had many extenuating circumstances if that's your logic. They've stopped good rushers (see Josh Jacobs, Henry) and had problems against others. I'd say I can't believe the level of anxiety over a 12-3 team that has dominated five games in a row going into the playoffs (we ARE that team right now), but I've been alive long enough to know that it was like this in the 1990s too. And Ravens are also a good example that you can be looking this good and lose right away in the playoffs. It happens. Right now, however, it would be foolish to change much about the way the team is playing. And people (not necessarily the two quoted here as i haven't seen them do this) need to lay off Tremaine Edmunds. His D has got it together right now.

Derrick Henry got his fewest yards of the year against us when Edmunds was hurt and Milano was out. I wouldn't hold up that disastrous game as a template for good defense, but it was actually Tannehill who destroyed us in that game. When we beat them last year, Henry only had 78 yards. Just saying Bills have actually stopped some good runners this year (and been brutalized by some meh running games). Given that we're 12-3 and the two bad losses were against 10-win teams when we could never focus on either team and one of the teams had 16{?!} days rest, I'm gonna say our coaches are probably doing the right thing. Henry could hang 200 on us (he's been doing that a lot), but, again, he's been doing that a lot. Our Run D worries are overblown. It's not been a strength this year, but our team has been having a season for the ages, so maybe Frazier and McD and our inexplicable whipping boy defensive captain Edmunds know what they are doing.

I did a double take when I heard that comment. (1) By the same logic, you could say they don't have anyone this year b/c he threw to McKenzie a number of times, or that they were relying on the rookie Davis b/c he got over 60 yards a few games this year. It was a false equivalency, since Duke Williams was not Allen's 1st option by a long shot and that's what Griese's analogy implied; he just got a lot of passes in that playoff game. Griese seems to have forgotten about Brown and that Beasley was also there last year and playing well. Getting Diggs changed the dynamic of the team and gave them a true #1 take-over-the-game receiver, as opposed to 2019's group of good receivers and 2018's mess, but the Duke Williams analogy was not the right way of expressing how Diggs changed the offense.

Oh for crying out loud, he's the MLB and 22-year-old CAPTAIN of a defense on a 12-3 team which has dominated five straight games (and he held the same role on a team that was the #3 defense last year). They have allowed fewer than 260 yards the last three weeks. All players have bad plays (Aaron Donald looked silly a couple times in that game where he also had a few sacks against us), but if you've watched Edmunds and your takeaway is that he's a reclamation project or a bad player, then you probably don't know what you're talking about. Making the Pro Bowl this year was a stretch, but it was the players and coaches who sent him there. And say that nonsense to McDermott or Frazier and see what reaction your "expert" take gets. Or most football analysts. Moreover, it's just sad that this team is rolling in all aspects of the game for the first time since the 1990s and some here's takeaway is how we need to get rid of a player who is a respected captain of the team. How miserable. And I will keep mentioning 22-years-old, because it's relevant whereas O'Leary's grandfather isn't and if you don't get that, maybe your take is a wee bit chilly and maybe you should enjoy this team's run and not try to dismantle it in your head b/c you think you know better. Frankly, I'm finding the "he has no instinvts" comments becoming a lazy meme, especially when I've seen him with my own eyes take over games and sniff out plays from sideline to sideline. One other thing you need to remember is YOU DON'T KNOW what he's supposed to be doing or the game plan.

I'm gonna go with Kyle Brandt and take Taiwan Jones and it will make up for last year.

There's a Madden game, which might be more real than the usual Pro Bowl.

Nah, "typical fair weather fan" only pays attention when the Bills are winning and are oblivious at other times. OP seems the opposite if anything--maybe over-invested. Even as one of the most overly positive Bills fans out there, I can understand and respect that (even if it can get irritating during the temporary lulls); I think we all get moments of gloom as Bills fans (some are just more pronounced). It's a slight better than people who are obsessed with players who should be benched when we have won 5 of the last 6 games.

That's just ridiculous!!!! There's a 62.3% chance tops.

And any given Sunday, someone could get past KC. Juggernaut teams don't ALWAYS win the Super Bowl. We all know what happened to the 16-0 Patriots and the 15-1 1988 Vikings and 2005 Steelers did not even make it that far. KC has won its last three games by 3, 4, and 2, and the 2 was against a Panthers team that had lost three in a row going into that game. They only beat the Bills by an almost identical score to the one many fans here are bemoaning was not enough against the Chargers. Chiefs are a great team, but they are hardly invincible.

With an actual good coach and some talent and players who wanted to win, that hypothetical team that has never existed could have 30+ pts, 750 yards of total offense while shutting out the opponents. Sorry, I'm just a hypothetical realist.

Vrabel's Titans also barely beat a lot of terrible teams (Jags, Texans, Vikings, Broncos) and lost by 11 to the Bengals. On the flipside, McDermott's Bills have not lost to a bad team since arguably the Browns last year and have beat four teams with seven wins or more. Yes, they lost to the Titans, but even you have to admit that the circumstances of that game were a little weird. Bills had to prepare for two different undefeated teams while the Titans got a bye week-plus.

That was always clearly more disruptive to the Bills who had to plan for two different undefeated teams, not knowing when or where they were going to play. Plus, in that case, they simply played in Tennessee so the Titans were not even disrupted as to where they were playing. In this case, the more disrupted team is clearly the 49ers as the Bills were already traveling across the country and have even played in the stadium more recently than SF as the 49ers have not played at Arizona since last year. I'm not saying the 49ers won't have the upper hand; it's just that I don't think that parallel really tracks.

Also, if a person is 6-10 consistently in every stat, it's a good chance they average to 4th or 5th overall as you have some players who will be below the top 10 in some categories.

Fair enough on Taron--he's having his worst season for whatever reason (I've cursed his name during games this year more than AJ Klein, and Klein has at least played well the last few weeks). I'd argue his good plays outweighed his bad plays (at least well enough for a CB3) in 2018 & 2019. Maybe it's just that we're seeing too much of him--or people figured out how to exploit him.

And probably when you compare him to most of the CB2s in the league. We tend to have different eyes for our own players (some people skew positive, others negative), but Taron Johnson and Levi Wallace have been an important cog--as usual CB2 and CB3-on a pass defense that's been at or near the best two years in a row. I suspect they're both a bit better than you value them.

On that note, George Wallace the 60-something comedian is also underrated.

I always thought it was endearing.

We're actually top 10 in sacks as well.

That's actually pretty similar to the resume of James Harrison at this point in his career and he went on to be a 4-time All-Pro and is so much the epitome for hitting hard that he is used in commercials as the representation of the pain of being tackled. I'm not saying Zimmer is the next James Harrison, but just saying that "never drafted, bounced around" does not immediately mean he can't possibly ever become a star. He's probably going to be a part-time player but who knows, and he's been fun to watch in the brief time we've got to see him so far.

Honestly, Tua starting is the reason I don't fear the Dolphins this year. It feels like they're playing a longer game in hopes they hit with Tua and can be a dominant team in a year or two, and I'd be surprised if he doesn't struggle the rest of the way. That said, I've been surprised before. However, you're not going to have many games where you can win when you get under 150 yards offense while your defense gives up 400 yards.

Yup, if you have a lot of worries it's better to be 6-2, 4-0 than 2-6, 0-4! There's time to figure it out

And some of us always want to believe the norm is whatever is the worst version of the team. They have stopped the run some weeks, been awful other weeks. They've also been plagued by an absurd rash of injuries, but have a lot of talent. I'm not sure which defense or running game we'll see this week. I'm not sure what this team is this year. That seems like the rational reaction, not that they are clearly terrible and cannot beat any good teams. Also, for all we seem to wish to rag on this team, they are still 5-2 with their only losses to teams that played in Conference Championship games, and wins against three teams that are .500 or better.