Utah John

This does point out the silliness of the Rooney Rule as it currently stands. Teams know whom they want to hire, yet they're required to waste the time and effort of several other people to pretend anyone else has a shot. Overall, the black HCs have done about as well as the white HCs. Tomlin is an excellent HC. Caldwell had great success. Flores himself did a great job pulling the Dolphins up from being terrible to being not that bad -- although he didn't seem to be getting anywhere moving beyond that level. But there have been so few black HCs that the sample size isn't representative of their skill. The rule about how if you have a minority coach on your staff and you lose him to another team, then you get extra draft picks -- now THAT'S something that should help get more black coaches into the game. And yet it still doesn't seem to be working.

This will keep Josh happy, but who knows if Dorsey is ready for this job. Did he ever sit down with Daboll and talk about the thought process Daboll used to call plays? Fingers crossed this all works out, and Dorsey's offense isn't so predictable that opposing DCs can scheme up ways to stop it.

Her eyes are definitely not popping out of her head. Literally. They're wide open but they're still in their sockets. Literally.

I'd go further. Out of four games last weekend and two yesterday, the home teams lost all of them except the Chiefs beating the Bills (and even that one obviously could have gone the other way) and the Rams winning a close one.

I'm interested, not excited. Yesterday's games were more enjoyable in a relaxed sort of way for me than any games this year. The Bills weren't playing, and yesterday's results had no impact on the Bills, so I could just put all that out of my mind and watch the games. If I'd been a fan of any of the four teams playing yesterday, I'd have been a nervous wreck by the end of the day. As it was, I just enjoyed watching tight, close games. OTOH their O line is so bad they have Quinton Spain starting at guard.

Between Jones and Darnold, I'm not sure which New York QB was screwed up worse by their team. Darnold is going the same way as Josh Rosen, QBs who might have been successful if not completely mishandled. Of course there are a lot of other QBs who didn't succeed who probably feel the same way about THEIR teams. OTOH there's Josh Allen, who could have collapsed in his first year or two without the nurturing of the coaching staff in Buffalo and Beane's ability to put good skill players around him. Thankfully it worked out so well.

IIRC, during the game yesterday the announcer said no team had ever won two OT games in the playoffs, back to back. And the reason is probably what you said.

I'd be freaked out too if I saw someone's eyes literally popping out of her head. I am glad I record games and watch them a little after the fact so I can skip commercials like that.

Sorry for my misunderstanding. Yes, I agree about the earlier game.

I agree with everything here except the end. I don't recall thinking Mahomes was off his game in the second half against us. I remember Mahomes and Josh both lighting it up against the other team's defense. If I could bear the pain I'd rewatch the game to check on this, but I haven't worked up the courage to do it yet.

The Bengals won after the Bills lost because Mahomes in the second half played incredibly well against Buffalo and really, really badly against the Bengals. I am not sure what Cincy did differently in the second half, but it couldn't have been THAT different than anything Mahomes had seen before. The difference was that Mahomes started missing easy passes he usually makes without even looking (seriously, he can do that). As a result, KC couldn't sustain drives. The KC defense arguably played better against Cincy than they did against us, either that or Josh played so much better than Burrow did. Either way the loss yesterday is completely on Mahomes. I've never seen a top QB implode like that, certainly not the guy most people think is the best QB in the NFL.

McDermott's part in this would have come much earlier, possibly in training camp when the defensive schemes were installed. He should have made sure Frazier had a scheme all worked out and communicated to the players for a situation like the end of the KC game. And Frazier should have had the scheme worked out whether or not McDermott asked him about it. There was no reason for the Bills to be scratching their heads about what to do.

Does anyone remember why the Bills moved on from Dorenbos? The Bills originally signed him as an UDFA, and he played in Buffalo for two or three years. He had a pretty long, pretty good career so I wonder what the reason was we didn't keep him around.

Part of the explanation is that the teams that made the playoffs are good teams, and during the playoffs they played their best games. Good teams playing well commit fewer penalties. A lot of penalties come about through lack of focus and attention. The number of pre-snap penalties in particular was WAAAY down during the playoffs, and I think that's because everyone was doing their very best. If the officials are just letting the players play, and not calling the minor stuff, teams will get an unfair advantage. The Bengals had one play on offense where they had nine men on the line of scrimmage. That's illegal and it helped the Bengals on that play, but the refs either didn't notice or chose not to flag it. That's just wrong.

It's been a foregone conclusion all year that Daboll would get a HC job somewhere. So are Bills trying to act like they're just getting started now, looking for a new OC? That would be malpractice. They should have been talking to Dorsey to see about his interest in the job, as well as making quiet inquiries around the league or colleges. The Bills should have been in position to pull the chain on a new OC almost immediately after the Giants HC job was announced.

No, if he's offered the Giants OC position it's a promotion, not a lateral move. The Bills would not interfere.

If Dorsey's offered the Bills OC job and takes it, it will be his for as long as he wants it unless it turns out he's a bad play caller. The Bills are built to keep winning, by avoiding salary cap binds and keeping good players on board. Taking a job on the Giants staff would be like Zsa Zsa Gabor having a wash and wear wedding dress. (OK, I'm dating myself.) If the Giants continue to struggle, and there's no reason to think they won't, the OC will be the fall guy, and Dorsey's buddy Daboll and HIS buddy Schoen won't be willing to lose their own jobs to save him. Or Daboll could get canned and Dorsey would lose his job then too. Dorsey might want to leave to avoid the chatter that any success he has will be because of the offense he inherited from Daboll. That's a real possibility.

Moving the team to Southern California. Not worth it.

The first guy on the FA list that SHOULD be signed in Harrison Phillips. He's finally turned into the player that he looked like he was going to be, before his knee injury a couple of years ago. He's a beast and we need him back. Neal is a value performer. He's not going to get many big offers, and he can settle in as a role player with the Bills. But a lot of guys filling role player positions on the Bills think they're good enough to be starters (at starter pay) elsewhere. Neal could be one of those guys who gets an offer the Bills don't want to match.

Frazier's defense won a lot more games for the Bills than it lost for the Bills. It was extremely effective against most teams. That #1 ranking is not the nothing many people are implying. The problem in the second Chiefs game was that Frazier tried to use the same tactics he used in the first Chiefs game. Reid and Mahomes knew what to expect and schemed up route trees that attacked it effectively. THAT was Frazier's mistake, as I see it. He had his system in place and he was going to ride that horse all the way to the end. Reid is too smart and creative for Frazier to get away with that. Considering how lousy the Bills D has been in countless years, I'm not hoping for a big change. If Frazier returns, I think he'll learn a lesson from the loss. Also our JV pass rushers will graduate to the varsity, just like Oliver finally has done, and that's going to make any DC look a lot better.

Yup.

The Colts loss to the Ravens was completely down to injuries to several of the Colts' DBs. The Ravens receivers and Lamar Jackson might as well have been playing against air. That's what allowed the Ravens to be able to come back as they did. No team has enough DBs on their active roster to sustain that many injuries and still be effective against an offense as good as the Ravens is, when everyone on the Ravens is healthy. The Colts loss to the Jags was simply inexcusable. I saw that game and it seemed like the Colts, like the Bills, were in some kind of fog when playing in that stadium. Neither the Colts nor the Bills went with what worked well for them. They both seemed to approach the game like the Jags were pushovers and they could just use it as a warmup for other, tougher games. I think both the Bills and Colts will take a clear lesson from their inexplicable losses, and do a better job of never taking an opponent lightly or playing down to an inferior opponent.

The Onion adds a lot to life.

Objective: Get to and win the Super Bowl. To make that happen: Win AFC playoff games against anyone. To make that happen: Get #1 seed. To make that happen: Win 14 or 15 games out of 17. To make that happen: Actually follow the damn process we've been hearing about for years. Every game is a new challenge against a professional outfit. DON'T PLAY DOWN to inferior opponents. Don't let coaches take a week off against weak teams. Insist on analyzing each team's capabilities for potential problems and potential opportunities. Build effective game plans. Don't let players lose focus. Have tougher practices leading up to games that should be easy wins.

It wouldn't be a lateral move. He's the QB coach now with the Bills and a job elsewhere would be as an OC. If he DOES sign on as the new OC, then it would indeed be a lateral move to another team's OC position, but why would he sign here if he wants to go elsewhere?