Utah John

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.

Tomlin is the second best coach in the league (second to Reid). He hasn't had a losing season, ever. He routinely figures out ways to defeat opponents with better personnel. The downside of this excellence is not being able to draft a top QB. So they figured out another way. They found two by getting castoffs from other teams. The Steelers have a reasonable chance to win their division. Who saw that coming? It's almost as surprising as the Commanders having the year they're having.

Are you talking about the Chiefs player lining up with his foot offside? Don't be silly.

There were years (I'm sure you remember) when Josh was our best RB. Those were the years when he got most of his rushing TDs. Now that the O line has come together, and we have three really good RBs, it's not Josh left, Josh up the middle, Josh right. Good post. Accurate in all ways except that Josh now has 57 rushing TDs. About OJ -- in his defense, he was completely wasted in his first couple years under John Rauch. When Lou Saban came back with the clear plan to feature OJ (remember, Saban traded Haven Moses away for a much less capable WR, because Moses wouldn't block), that's when the OJ era finally came about.

After 10 games each year: 1994 5-5 1993 8-2 1992 8-2 1991 9-1 1990 9-1 I wonder what the seasons where they were 8-2 or better had in common?

I would put it that the Bills played inconsistently against the Colts. Josh had probably his worst game since the Texans game, with the miss to a wide open Kincaid and a bad interception. But he was still the best player on the field in the fourth quarter when the Bills put a stranglehold on the game with a long drive. The defense was just enough better than they had to be, especially in the second half. The absence of Coleman and Cooper really affected things. Samuel appeared briefly and then evaporated. Hollins is a lot better than we thought earlier.

They made that call in the game last year because it was a clear penalty. It was unignorable.

Carolina made a disastrous trade to move up and draft a QB who's been a bust so far, but I think they've already taken their medicine and should be able to rebound in a year or two if they draft and FA well.

The only reason I care at all about Josh getting MVP is to ensure he gets fair consideration for the HOF. Do not laugh or scoff. By the time he retires and waits five years, a lot of other QB play will come along, and what many sportswriters will remember is that the Bills couldn't get past the Chiefs in the playoffs (here's hoping that changes, but it hasn't yet). Josh usually doesn't even make the Pro Bowl team for the AFC, unless it's as an alternate. With the passing years, memories fade, and his superman years here will be old news. People will want to assign him to the Hall of Very Good. He'll be thought of as consistently the second or third or fourth best QB in the AFC, which will not sound impressive to HOF voters. An MVP award, or a Lombardi, is the best guarantee for a really good QB to get into the HOF. It would be a travesty for him not to make it, but there are a lot of great players still outside the HOF and no one knows why. Wait till the Bills play the Chiefs, and the Chiefs need a 2 pt conversion to win. The refs will call penalty after penalty on the Bills until they get the result they want. There is absolutely no reason that both the penalties committed by the Ravens weren't called. After the game, Fitz said he was OK with a no-call on the defensive holding because Burrow wasn't looking that way. Well, gosh, a QB never looks off a defender, and then goes back the other way, right? And the face mask penalty was clear as day.

So there are two ways this can go wrong. Josh can decline to take the easy underneath throws, either because he's bored (no sign of that) or because the defense baits him into thinking a deep receiver is open which would lead Josh to hold the ball and give the defense time to cover the underneath guy. The other way is for some defense coordinator to do his job and take away the underneath throws. They could keep a LB as a spy on the 8 yard completion area. They could run a zone that doesn't get pulled deep by the WRs on vertical routes. The danger for the defense with that approach is that Josh still has his cannon and can hit deep throws whenever the opportunity arises. The question is whether the deep receivers, who have been running their butts off doing those verticals with no catches to show for their effort, are able to get clear on their own. The NFL is not designed to let you keep doing what's working for you. Brady and Allen better have a bunch of Plan B options ready to go. And I'm pretty sure that's the case. Go Bills.

And those Patriots will be fighting for the top draft pick. If the Bills run the table, and the Chiefs lose one more game, the Bills get the one seed. A lot will depend on the Lions game, which should be a doozy. You would think that with better competition in their division, that the Chiefs would have trouble winning every week. But they're very good at figuring out how to beat each opponent they face -- figuring out their advantages, minimizing their own weaknesses. As good as Mahomes is (very), I think it's Reid that really puts the Chiefs in an elite level.

Especially a first from the Bills, who will draft near the bottom of each round (or, wouldn't it be nice, last in each round). Whether the Bills D can stop the run has a lot more to do with the ability of the opposing O line, and not as much to do with the RBs themselves. The Bills really struggle when the opposing O line can consistently make holes in our line.

The refs, as usual. Both of the holding calls against the Bills at the end of the first half were bogus, and they turned a Josh Allen TD run into a long FG that salvaged some points, but geez guys, what's wrong with the refs? Later on whenever Tua was back to pass on slow developing plays, he had massive time to pass and there was holding on every play. The penalty against Poyer was an actual penalty but considering the timing of it I can see how the Dolphins were not happy about it. Josh Allen, as usual. This is 2024 Allen, making smart decisions while working with receivers who seldom get very open. Two INTs on the season both of which were on the receivers (Cooper slipped, and Coleman has got to make that catch). But Allen's talent hasn't subsided -- he's still just as good a passer as he's been, and when he runs he can turn the other team upside down. But he knows this team has a shot at the SB as long as he doesn't get injured. So he's not exposing himself needlessly.

That's basically it. I guess there's someone watching the game in a studio somewhere, someone with referee experience. I don't know if there's just one guy watching all the games, and what happens if he's busy fixing a mistake in one game when another game has a problem. Or if he's hitting the head. But in theory this should cut the number of egregious mistakes that we all see with the benefit of replay. It can be a good thing. Might have some growing pains.

On the NFL website listing all the injuries and departures from games, there's no mention of Coleman. Fingers crossed he's OK.

OK, good results from the defense so far, but the Bills haven't been beating the NFL's elite. They crushed Seattle after Seattle completely blew two opportunities through their own mistakes, not from what the Bills did. (Although I agree that the Bills did stop the Seahawks on some of the plays, prior to their center launching a snap over Geno's head, or their center stepping on Geno's foot. Did anyone get that center's name? We owe him a beer if he plays in Buffalo in the future.) If the Seahawks score on both those possessions, the game goes a different way completely. And the Bills stats look more average. I expect the Bills crowd on Sunday to impede the Dolphins to some extent, and once something bad happens to Miami, you know they'll be looking at each other, saying, here we go again.

I agree with this analysis, but injuries do happen. I think it's paramount for the twos and maybe threes to get some playing time in any games where the Bills are safely ahead. We need, for example, Bishop to be locked and loaded if needed at safety.

And with their win tonight over the fading Texans, the Jets are erecting the season results I was pumping for. All you have to do is name yourself "America's Team" and you get the most coverage of any team in the league.

What we need now is for the Jets to get four or five wins the rest of the season, just enough to stiffen Woody's resolve to keep Rodgers around, and enough to keep the Jets far enough down the draft board that they can't get a really good rookie for next year. It's all about how stiff Woody's resolve is.

The Chiefs also gave up a lot more money that will hurt their cap space next year.

From a Miami Herald article: Tua Tagovailoa could be lost for the entire season instead of making his return last week from the concussion the Buffalo Bills caused. Excuse me? Tua drove his own head into Damar Hamlin's chest. Tua was trying to make an important first down, and he had succeeded when he wasn't satisfied with that, and kept trying to move forward when no advance was possible. The only way the Bills can be considered of causing a concussion for Tua, is for Tua to beat his own head against a concrete wall at the frustration from losing to the Bills so many times.

I think you're right that teams are opting not to go for comp picks, and that makes sense if they signed more FAs than they lost, and so wouldn't be getting comp picks in the first place.

I wonder if we could maybe get a third rounder for Josh? Or is that unrealistic? Probably no team would want him. Maybe as a backup. Screw them all.