Utah John

My mistake.

Maybe the players care about SNF, for bragging rights among the rest of the league. Certainly many fans do too, as validation that their team is important. But I don't. The late game on Sunday, particularly if it's on the road, disrupts the schedule for the players and especially the coaches for the following week. I would prefer it if the Bills got scheduled for 1 pm Sunday every game every year, except for the West Coast games. The Bills next game is a MNF game at home against the 49ers, followed by an afternoon game in Los Angeles against the Rams, which screws up the prep for the big game against the Lions the following Sunday afternoon. It could be worse (thank God some other unlucky teams have to play on Thursday night). After the NFC games, the Bills play the Pats and Jets at home, and the Pats on the road, with the first two on Sunday at 1 pm and most likely the final game also on Sunday at 1 pm. The schedule makers did the Bills right for their late season schedule. The bye coming now is so much better than an early-season bye, and the Bills have only one long trip for an away game (Los Angeles).

Unless KC loses another game, the only reason the Bills have pressure to keep winning is to get the 2 seed or even the 1 seed over Pittsburgh, whom no one seems to be paying attention to. The Steelers have 2 losses too, but only 1 loss in the AFC. The Steelers have three games left against tough opponents (Eagles, Ravens, Chiefs) and if they sweep those games plus the cupcakes, they'll get the 1 seed. Frankly if the Steelers can sweep those three games this late in the year and finish 15-2 they deserve the 1 seed. The Bills, Steelers, and Chiefs will all have 2 losses (in a best case scenario for the Bills, winning out) but the Chiefs lose tiebreakers to both others. Even if the Bills win out and also finish 15-2 I think the Steelers will get the 1 seed by virtue of a better AFC record. (Pittsburgh's easy games are division games -- two against the Bengals and one against the Browns -- and those are always tough, nasty, close games, so wins there are not a foregone conclusion.) The Chiefs have three walkovers (Raiders, Browns, Panthers), two who knows? (Texans, Broncos) and two tough games (Chargers, Steelers). The Bills have three walkovers (Patriots, Jets, Patriots), two who knows? (49ers, Rams), and one tough game (Lions). Of the three I think the Steelers and Bills are playing the best right now. KC has been winning by force of habit, even games they should be losing. They're an aging slumbering giant who roused himself to play the Bills but will have a tough time getting back up for all the remaining tough games, or even some of the others. Mahomes isn't quite as good this year (still great) but Kelce has withered into a JAG -- KC has better TEs on their roster now. Interesting coaching comparisons, too. Reid >> his boy McDermott, and it shall ever be thus until Reid retires. But McDermott and Tomlin are actually equivalent rivals (and good friends and former college teammates) so it's anyone's guess who's better. I think the Bills beat the Steelers 7 out of 10 times, but it will probably come down to one game in the playoffs.

I was at that game and saw the Bills come back twice to win. It was a long time ago and I don't recall whether Rashad had to make a spectacular catch. I know he used a very good move to get separation, and Ferguson hit him.

For pass blocking, the O line did great. But for running up the middle, no team has stopped the Bills better than the Chiefs did. Was that due to the Chiefs strong personnel, to the absence of Spencer Brown (this one gets my vote), to blocking schemes, or to the Chiefs mixing up their D line and LB assignments?

Thinking Bills-centric as I do, my concern about HC vacancies elsewhere is the potential loss of our coordinators here, or our position coaches who move on to become coordinators for other teams when their coordinator job opens up. During the Bills-Chiefs game, Romo said Bobby Babich is for sure a future HC. Really? I think he and McDermott have done a great job re-engineering the Bills D, but he's been in the DC job only a short time. Has anyone else heard that Babich might be moving up to a HC job somewhere else? Similarly Joe Brady was considered damaged goods when he came to the Bills from Carolina, but he has the Bills offense working great.

For players, yes, but McDermott forgot to pack his brain for the trip to KC.

Last year's playoffs, the defense was decimated and yet the Bills came close to winning. Today the offense is decimated. Will the Bills ever have their complete team to face the Chiefs? I know injuries are a fact of life in the NFL but when one or two positions get hit hard (LB and DB last year, WR this year plus Brown) it throws off everything.

Yeah, well. Josh became Josh for a lot of reasons, chief among them really hard work and determination to improve on Josh's part. He spend offseasons with Jordan Palmer working on fundamentals, learning how to pass properly and how to think like a QB. That was 70% of the reasons for the improvement. Daboll gets most of the rest of the credit for understanding what Josh was good at and developing an offense tailored to those aspects. Jones has never had the raw talent that Josh has, never. He was on track to do the equivalent of sleeping yourself to the middle, in corporate speak. Whatever hard work he put in was never going to make him even above average. Watching him now is painful. He's really bad.

In some quarters, two Lombardis equals automatic HOF induction. I don't buy it. He was usually just an average player.

Kincaid is much more respected as a receiver than Knox. When Kincaid is in the game, the openings for other receivers are better. And when Kincaid is targeted, he's much more likely to make the catch. Overall, the difference between what the two TEs bring to the field is more, what can each guy do, instead of, is one guy clearly better to have on the team. If the Bills have their other pass catchers available, the absence of Kincaid (if it goes that way) against the Chiefs won't matter all that much. But that assumes Coleman and Cooper are both back. It was no accident that Josh's passing efficiency went down against the Colts, when he didn't have his best receivers. The KC game is a milestone for the Bills but it's not what makes or breaks their season. The Bills are good enough to beat KC in KC in the playoffs if it comes to that, and they're also able to lose to KC at home, as we saw last year. It is NOT worth putting any player's long-term health at risk to improve the odds for this one game.

Dodson wasn't as good as Bernard or other LBs, so he wasn't going to play unless injuries. But he's substantially better than other alternatives at LB. Isn't the nature of a substitute the fact that the guy isn't as good as the starter? Why should we reject a very good substitute because he's not as good as the starters? We would be signing him so we don't have to get AJ Klein off his couch for a playoff game against Mahomes -- that's why.

Yeah, and if Miami finally gives up on Poyer -- nah. Really nah.

Defenses know there's no middle ground. If it's not a screen, the Bills O line does its pocket thing and never deviates from protecting Allen. If they do something else on a pass play, red flags go out, and they cover the RB.

This is exactly what I figured for the season, back in March. Win the AFCE, maybe win a playoff game, call it a day and wait till next year when the Diggs cap issues go away. But I didn't count on all the replacements for the departed defensive players working out so well, or McGovern filling in well for Morse, or Coleman being a really solid draft pick. Or the Jets and Dolphins both collapsing. Now I'm thinking 11-6 at the absolute worst, 13-4 as the most likely result, and 15-2 an actual possibility. Both the Lions and Chiefs pulled out games yesterday they should have lost, and the Texans and Broncos showed how to attack them.