Buddo

So far, I don't think I've seen anyone who didn't think that was a fumble and recovery. In the UK, we had a bunch of people for the broadcast, in their own studio, and links to the US, and they all thought it was a fumble. I don't remember seeing such a 100% roll call of presenters, ex zebras, and pundits on a call like that. The only logical explanation, is that neither the zebras for the game, or the NFL, wanted to end the game on a call. To be fair to the zebras, I can see why they called it a complete pass originally, where the WR is down by contact, even though he was getting up, but once it was under review, there were enough angles to see his knee was up, before anyone touched him.

If we make it to the AFC Championship game, on the one hand I would like us to be beating the Chiefs, as it could be an awesome game to watch. On the other hand, if the Chiefs falter, then the Bills get the AFC Championship game at home, and that's something not to be sneezed at. In that vein, if we made it to the Superbowl, I'd rather have Green Bay than anyone else, as again, it is probably the most attractive matchup, as games go, and wiinning it, would be awesome. If we did make it to the Superbowl, and it was Brady, then all I hope is that we put the complete smackdown on him. I think our players are a lot less worried about Brady without Belicheck. I don't know why, I just think that.

You have to think that the best HC position that is available atm, is the Chargers. Especially for Daboll. They already have a talented roster, and an answer at QB. That just needs the sort of development that Daboll has achieved with Josh. He is also familiar, by all accounts, with their GM, so it shouldn't be too difficult for them to get in lockstep, like Beane and McDermott are. As a football team, they are a lot closer to having something come together, than the majority of the other teams who are looking to hire a HC. Can't say I'm too struck on their stadium situation though - although I really don't know that much about what they have going on there. A more difficult job, but still a promising one, would be Houston. Promising because Watson is a 'franchise' QB. I think there you would have to insist on 'time', and also know who the GM is going to be, and how you were going to work with him. 'Time' is necessary, due to the idiocy of BOB, who removed a lot of talent from the roster, and also mortgaged the draft and cap, way too much, to little avail. The outlier, could be Jax. Mainly because they get to pick their QB this off season. I'm not up on their GM, Cap and roster situation, although I think they might have some $ to burn, and it may be possible to do well in FA there, and address holes. I genuinely would be shocked if Daboll went to the Jest. I don't think they are talentless, especially on D, but they seem to breed discontent there somehow. I think that comes down to drafting purely on talent, rather than putting additional emphasis on character.

In terms of how things have panned out, with Frank looking like a solid choice for the Colts, it might have been very interesting indeed. Especially if Schwartz had stayed as DC. Think about that one - they were the OC and DC of the Eagles when they won the Superbowl. At a guess, I'd say that Frank would have got Whaley to draft either Watson or Mahomes. With Terry Pegula in the Mahomes camp at the time, it may well have been him, especially if he didn't have a problem working with Whaley, and tbh, I would guess (again, I know) that Frank wouldn't have been too stressed about having Whaley as GM. No idea where that would have taken us, but I think we would probably be still looking like a playoff team. As the OP says, where we are now, is thrilling, but as 'what if' scenarios go, it's one of the more entertaining ones to mull over, when there's nothing better to do.

Good stuff Shaw. Important points about our backups. The guys make plays. Matekevich (sp?) I have been especially pleased by, as he came in as a STs ace, at what seemed like a hefty deal. Turns out he got that dough because he's also a solid LBer, who knows his job. There was another game recently, where he came on and was making plays also, so it wasn't entirely a surprise, just that he hasn't really been given much credit thus far. Similarly, we've seen our DBs do this sort of thing before- even as backups, but it was nice for Jackson to confirm positive opinions, and for Norman to get the pick 6 after a ticky tacky PI, that much of the time wouldn't be called. Marlowe showed again why he's a favourite of McDermott - another guy who does his job. The revelation was the latest in the long line of Williamses. Burst , power and desire. I've previously been an advocate of Yeldon, who has done well whenever called upon, when at times, either Singletary of Moss were struggling, especially Moss early on in the season. Now I think that roster spot should go to Williams. I'm not so convinced that the Offense spent the first quarter 'sizing up' the Miami D. I think they came out far too flat and vanilla, in the hope that could work. It obviously wasn't going to, so they pulled their collective finger out, and got back into what they had been doing before. Thing with that, was that they still had looked unperturbed, even though it was obvious that things weren't working at that point. This is a very confident group now. I don't think things could have worked out much better then, if they had scripted them. The opportunity for a 2 minute drill for Allen, just before the half, and we executed far too quickly. Taking that lead into half-time, gave the coaches the flexibility to do whatever they wanted. Once Allen got himself going, he again hit heights of play that were impressive. The 2nd TD to McKenzie being one I especially liked, as it was almost a 'no look' throw. I say almost, as he didn't actually move his head to follow the throw, but when you see it from behind, he obviously has McKenzie in his sights, and knows exactly where he is going to put the football. I think that might be some of the 'arm arrogance' that Ryan Clark alludes to. That game was more fun than you could shake a stick at. What a wonderful way to end the regular season.

Josh just owns the Fish - even when we have lost to them, he's still put up big numbers. I have no especial idea why it should be, it just is and I'm very fine with that.

I know we are spoilt with Josh's arm, but Barkley is most definitely a noodle arm.

McKenzie doing a Roscoe impersonation!

It might well have been. From the endzone, it looks like it, but not so much from behind. Allen obviously knew where he was, but it looked to me that he only watched the throw, once he made it.

The D is playing well. Offense needs to shake things up. Forget vanilla, just bang a TD in, and then pull Allen.

Probably won't be overturned, but tighter than first looked.

I know where you're coming from. Trouble is, it still takes 21 days to become effective I believe. At this point in proceedings, it's not worth the trouble tbh - the season is going to be mostly over bar the SB itself, by the time it might help.

They might not want it, but as they are hard enough about it, to make the Broncos play a game without a recognised QB, then a team missing its starter, isn't going to phase them. Their attitude is, in effect, that whoever is missing, is the result of 'injury'. There has been talk, in the past, of getting teams to 'bubble' for the playoffs, but whether or not that happens, is another question.

My impression recently, is that there have been fewer of the more irritating types, especially the pre-snap variety. There have been some fairly bogus ones, but also the oddball facemask by our starting QB on opposing D-Line. I don't suppose there have been too many of those, ever.

Goodness only knows what would have happened if he had stayed, either as HC, or as part of a package with an Offensive HC who had the sense to retain him. One thing I would be certain of, is that D the next season, would have been top 3 comfortably, and not the disaster Ryan turned it into. Providing he doesn't end up against us in the AFCE, I can only wish him well, in whatever he decides to do. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he does take a year out, as I always thought he was a pretty 'hands on' type of coach, and this last year may have been more frustrating for him because of that.

Tackling is as much about technique, as it is about hitting - and you don't have to hit someone to teach the right technique. To be fair, the more I think about it, I can see where some of the Line techniques are going to be better done through some form of contact, but tackling absolutely doesn't have to be done by 'hitting'. Much of the time, when we talk about guys missing tackles, we should probably be talking about the fact that they got to the right place, but were incapable of executing a tackle properly. Too often guys don't get the basics right, and also try and use their own bodies as some sort of battering ram to try and stop someone.

I don't really have too much of a problem with then lessening practises that involve hitting. I do think that there's no need to curtail walkthroughs, classroom learning etc. If you want to build a successful team, you need the guys to be interacting with each other.

Something nobody seems to be talking about, is how the players themselves see this. Now, as competitors, I'm sure they are happy to play, but they are also going to trust whatever McDermott tells them is going to happen. Having said that, I'd be very surprised if they don't want to guarantee home field advantage for as long as possible. One aspect of that might be that the Chiefs stumble, so with two wins, the Bills get home field advantage in the AFC Championship game. Now that's a very different reason for wanting to secure the 2nd seed. As the 2nd seed is only secured if we win, regardless of what happens elsewhere, I think you play your starters, unless any of them (e.g. Beasely) is carrying an injury. You then have the ability to adapt that on the fly, depending on how things are panning out elsewhere, with the opportunity to pull guys as the game goes on. If the #2 seed had already been locked up, then I would certainly be looking to rest key guys, if not just field as many backups as we could. I'm of the opinion that you control as much of what happens going forward, as you can, and ensuring the #2 seed is part of that 'process'.

Marrone was supposedly an Offensively oriented guy, who actually wasn't any good at that side of the ball. What he was good at was finding good DCs, with first Pettine, then Schwartz who created a terrific D. Next up Ryan, a supposed Defensive mastermind, who completely screwed up that terrific D, yet somehow managed to improve the Offense by a fair bit. I've always been somewhat bemused by how all that panned out tbh. Disingenuous Doug, claimed to be fully on board with the EJ pick, yet then looked to move away from him asap, instead of trying to support him. He also made the decision to keep Concussive Kev over tough as old boots Leftwich, to be the stop gap vet.

We could just view this as another aspect of the 'continuous improvement' mantra. Does Stills make our roster better? Very probably. Make the move. Beat me to it. Half of the problem is that we are so used to second guessing moves, we might not see the bit that is right in front of us. While much of what has been discussed has validity, I would still say that when the decision gets made, 'does he make our roster better' will be very high on the list.

Can't think of a guy more deserving currently. You just knew when you saw him wagging his finger at JC, that he was going to be unstoppable against the Pats. It was one of those 'you cannot be serious' moments. Alongside the infamous telephony throwing, it should be part of the highlight reel for that game. Closely followed by every Diggs reception. Well done Stefon. You are a star, my man.

One of the reporters, on a conference call to Daboll, just said 'Rumor has it you were on the phone to Bill, asking if he still wanted that chess game' - it was unexpected, and made me lol.

What do you mean, you missed an eye test!

If it wasn't pleasant and classy, I doubt McDermott would have just let it go. 'Pleasant and classy' may well be somewhat over the top, but I think Belicheck simply made recognition of the fact they were well and truly out-played. If it had been a close loss, it may have been different, but iirc, he has spoken to McDermott in the past, and I think he has respect for him as a coach - and I don't think that that is always the case.

They were there for sure, it's just that we outplayed them. The missed hold when Cam got his TD, was awful. I'd question the timing of the Time Out Belicheck used when Davis caught the pass in the endzone. The PI called on Tre White early on was probably fair enough, but they didn't call worse by Pats DBs on Bills receivers as the game went on. Bills ignored all of it and kept playing disciplined football, keeping the Zebras at bay.