Utah John

When OJ was playing, RB was the most important offensive position. Now it's QB. When Bruce was playing, DE was the most important defensive position. Now, I really don't know. You can make a case for pass rushers, LBs, CB, and safeties. OJ and Josh are clearly the best player on their team. OJ played behind an O line constructed specifically to set him loose. Bruce was on a loaded Bills team, and on defense he had a lot of co-conspirators, which helped him succeed. It all comes down to what you saw yourself and what you remember.

If the Bills lose to the Pats on Sunday, while the Steelers beat the Ravens and the Chiefs beat the Texans on Saturday, that will lock the Bills out of the 1 seed, and it will put the 2 seed for the Bills into question. So imagine this all happening, and the Bills needing to root for the Chiefs to beat the Steelers on Christmas. Boy if THAT wouldn't put a sour taste in our mouths while trying to enjoy Christmas dinner. I hope McD has the Bills ready to steamroll the Pats this weekend.

Agreed about the Texans. Despite their woes they have the AFCS locked up and no realistic chance of getting the 3 seed. So they may be coasting. We'll see. Whether the Chiefs have Mahomes at all, or if Mahomes is limited, will be a big factor. But KC's defense is so stout that even without Mahomes I might pick the Chiefs in that game.

Yeah, that could happen. Probably not, but it's possible. So depending on what the Chiefs do, the Bills can either get the 1 seed and get the true bye, or lock up the 2 seed before the final game against the Pats, and treat that as a bye, sitting as many starters as possible.

As a Bills fan part of my brain is always pessimistic, and asking what could go wrong. In this case, it's the Bills' schedule. Not impressive. Sure they beat the top team in each conference, that's really great, but look at the rest: Cardinals (W) currently 7-7 Dolphins (W) 6-8 Jags (W) 3-11 Ravens (L) 9-5 Texans (L) 9-5 Jets (W) 4-10 Titans (W) 3-11 Seahawks (W) 8-6 Dolphins (W) 6-8 Colts (W) 6-8 Chiefs (W) 13-1 49ers (W) 6-8 Rams (L) 8-6 Lions (W) 12-2 Teams currently above .500 are in bold. Against them the Bills are 3-3, and in the losses it was only the Rams game where Josh played well. In fact Josh's poor play (completing 9 out of 30 passes) was really the reason the Bills lost to the Texans. That game was a wakeup for Josh. He stopped trying to connect downfield all the time, and turned into smart and deadly Josh. You can only play the teams on your schedule, and the Bills and Josh deserve great credit for winning all the games they've won. Even mediocre teams have some good players and coaches. But still, just 3-3 against teams with winning records is not impressive.

Now I'm convinced you didn't see OJ. He played in an era when the best RB was really king. And for three years he was by far the best RB in the league. He was simply dominant and was a threat that every defense tried to game plan for.

I see your point, but I think all the MVP talk is actually a motivation for the rest of the team. They love each other, Josh most of all, and they are going to play out of their minds if they have to, to make him look good.

To me, the Josh game against the Rams is a lot more impressive than the Josh game against the Lions. He played great in both games, don't get me wrong. The Lions D is completely wrecked by injuries, but the Rams D was mostly there and Josh still lit them up. Lamar Jackson fans will point to his 5 TD game and say Josh really didn't earn all the praise, but as good as Jackson is, Josh really is playing better. (And getting 5 TDs against the Giants D -- come on, that's not bragging material.) As for the Bills D, I think it will be OK depending on the severity of injuries from the last two games. The D played pretty well (except the D line) against the Rams and the big score against us was due to Stafford and Nacua playing out of their minds. Two outstanding players, and both showed up at the same game, making some incredible plays. And Kupp is also still very good. The Rams record indicates they aren't showing up every game, not to that level. All those points yielded to the Lions is not that concerning, really, since they are a tremendous offensive team, and they got a lot of their yards and points while McD tried to yield yards slowly while draining the clock. (The "slowly" part didn't work, and it took Taron Johnson's KO recovery to save the day. McD will be the death of me.) Now, if the Jets and Pats score more than 40, I'll be concerned. I don't expect the Bills to keep getting 40 per game against these weaker teams, because they won't need to. I think they'll go vanilla and settle for 25-30 points per game, holding those lousy teams to 14 or less. Were you not around for OJ? Or Bruce?

It really could be that the fact that the governor is from WNY is why the money was available. I don't live in NY anymore so I don't have a good idea whether Hochul is a good governor or not, but in this case she helped get the stadium built and the locked in the Bills to stay in town.

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The ball was loose after Taron Johnson touched it. Whew.

How did no time come off the clock?

One play. Just make the play.

NOOOOO. The Bills taking a TO on defense ALWAYS backfires.

I think the next pass is into the end zone.

The ridiculous holding call that cost the Bills 4 points is just so bad.

Goff escaping there -- otherwise the game is over.

Did you see the penalty? I did not.

I would have like to see the holding call instead of another replay of the pass.

Detroit's gonna have to use time outs.

I think if Josh needed to score he could have, but he wants to burn more clock and THEN score.

They had Gibbs in the backfield but Sewell makes it a TD.

Kincaid: silk LaPorta: stone

Yeah. Goff is really good.

I want 600 yards of offense.