billsfan89

Are concerns legit? Yes. Is the game likely to be determined by blown calls? No but it is possible. In games where margins are likely to be tight a couple of drives extended by a bogus call could be the difference. But as a fan while I am concerned I just don't think it is worth worrying about too much. The Bills have Josh Allen that's a pretty good place to start.

The Bills in the divisional round game against the Ravens clearly were looking to run the ball early and often. Deflated stats for pretty much everyone in the receiving game. The Bills only had 22 pass attempts so not a lot of targets to go around. The leading receiver was Shakir with 6 receptions for 67 yards. Only 2 other players had multiple receptions one was a RB and the other was Samuel neither put up massive numbers. The Bills are gonna need Cooper against KC he's going to have to keep the Chiefs defense honest as I suspect KC is going to play single high safety looks or five defensive line fronts like they did in the regular season game to keep the run game in check. It's going to be on Cooper to break some plays on the outside.

KC is without Rashee Rice, that being said KC got the luxury of being the one seed wrapped up with a week left. They haven't had to play a meaningful game from week 18 until they played the Texans in the divisional and they had a mini-bye after their X-mas day game. You get a lot of time off so you have a chance to get healthy. No worries the Bills have Josh Allen.

Not many teams can sustain two injuries to one group and have a third stringer that's good or at least capable. It is what is it is depth wise for nearly every team at every position. Luckily if Rapp is out Cole is there after that it's just dam near impossible to not have a drop off.

Looking at the three defensive injuries for players that didn't finish the game or are in the protocol (Rapp, Benford, and Milano) the player the Bills are least capable of replacing is Benford. Cole Bishop has about 5-6 starts under his belt in the regular season and he looked solid in relief of Rapp in the Ravens game. I would rather Rapp play but I think Bishop can be more than serviceable. Milano started to look like a difference maker again but Dorian Williams started most of the year and if he's got to plug in I think he can do so well. But if Benford is out the Bills are plugging in some combo of Cam Lewis, Elam, and Ingram. I think Cam Lewis is a decent backup nickel and Ingram is a decent dime back. But if this team has to put those role players or Elam out there on the boundary against vets like Hollywood Brown and Hopkins I would be very concerned and it could be a liability.

Silver lining is to me Cole actually looked solid in the Ravens game. I think he's not the worst plug in backup the bigger issue is having to see Elam out there if Benford can't clear that could be a massive liability.

It's so dependent on the player, I thought Davis was going to not play this week after that brutal concussion but other times I have seen players get concussions that aren't serious looking keep a player out multiple weeks. Really hoping that he clears he's such a massive part of the defense.

It was a good defensive gameplan and the defense was very hyped to play. Even in the second half when the defense was starting to get a bit grinded down the defense still made the big play with the amazing peanut punch. McD made a great gameplan and the defense executed it. Just a true signature coaching job that I think he really needed to display. It doesn't get easier next week McD's gotta come up with a way to slow down Mahomes and Kelce.

Orlovsky pointed it out and I am glad Josh thought better of it.

Really hope he is able to clear the protocol.

The Ravens made mistakes but I think the Bills are not getting credit for both making the Ravens into a situation where their margin for error was fairly low.

Mistakes happen on both sides of the game, no team plays a "mistake free" game. But the Bills mistakes were less costly as they did not result in turnovers or big plays. The Bills also are not getting credit for making big plays. That peanut punch by Bernard was fantastic. In the playoffs you run into a lot of the top defenses in the league. KC is a another great defense. I would wager that if you ranked the top 10 defenses in the NFL I think 7-9 of them would be in the playoffs.

The Bills just needed a play to run a 5 or so seconds as if the Bills took a bunch of knees it would have left 2-3 seconds left on the clock on 4th down. The could have had Josh sit back and take a sack or something so they ran for a play to just chew up a few extra seconds. They didn't need a first down.

The 51 yarder was huge, kicking can singlehandedly lose you a game or win you a game. Bass made his kicks that's literally all you can ask someone to do as a kicker. My confidence level is pretty high, its remained fairly high since the 60+ yard kick against the Fins.

The Ravens are also in my opinion the most physical team in the playoffs with several dynamic offensive pieces. I looked at them as the worst matchup in the playoffs for the Bills. I know Mahomes away is hard but I think just looking at the matchups in KC from an X's and O's standpoint KC doesn't present the same issues. KC is different issues but hey there's no easy playoff games to be the man you gotta beat the man.

The two point conversion was a tough one but had he held onto the ball the Bills still would have had 99 seconds and 2 timeouts to just get a field goal to win the game. But the fumble was the tough one. The fumble was the true momentum shifter. The Ravens had the ball down just 5 and on a 11-3 run with a lot of momentum. And to give the Bills the ball back on good field position was the "mistake that sent the team home" to quote Bill Pacells. Then to compound that mistake with the 2pt conversion drop is a tough one. I feel really bad for Andrews, he's a fantastic player he just had a few bad plays.

All week pundits were saying how the Ravens were a bad matchup for the Bills. And in the second half we saw some of that manifest, the Ravens offense scored 15 points and the Ravens defense held the Bills to just 6 points. But the Bills managed to get a win off of clutch turnovers and an offense that was able to get it going just enough. Sometimes you just gotta grind out wins in bad matchups and that's what this team did. To be the man you gotta beat the man.

Turnovers are a killer in any game. If you are -3 in turnovers that's gonna put you behind the eight ball so to speak. The Bills made the margins tight and forced the Ravens to execute a tight game and they just made too many mistakes. Even had Andrews tied the game the Bills still would have had the ball with 99 seconds and 2 timeouts only needing a field goal.

What a game, Bills got punched in the mouth again but came back and got a two possession lead before Baltimore took the game and made it tight. Not gonna lie the Ravens defensive adjustments made the Bills offense a lot less effective in the second half. The Bills only scored 6 points in the second half clearly the Ravens had something on the offense. But the offense was also able to scratch out some yards and first downs when needed. The Ravens choked a bit with the drops and turnovers but the Bills also just made plays too. Great game all around what a way to end the divisional round.

If you are 50/50 and you gotta win like that 3 times in a row that's not good.

I think Von's gonna have a big splash play, I also think Groot's gonna have a big game too. I am hoping the DT group really shows up like they did against the Lions who are a top O-line in the league.

Lions hanging tough after getting punched in the mouth. But the Lions issue was that their defense still isn't great so they are going to be consistently in shootouts and shootouts are 50/50 propositions.

This is gonna be a 45-42 type game. Awesome.

I was shocked KC got run on so much. KC's defense doesn't usually get run on like that.