Utah John

The Gronk ad is there to make the point that USAA is for the military only. I'm retired Air Force so of course I have USAA coverage. Everyone in the military knows about USAA and I think everyone joins -- the prices and the service are great. My question really is why the heck does USAA pay so much for advertising? Pretty much everyone who's eligible to join already knows about it. As for the State Farm commercials, they're really tiresome, but at least they're a little inventive. There are just too many insurance commercials overall. Progressive and GEICO and Farmer's and State Farm and Prudential and Liberty -- and of course USAA. I think the message here is that there isn't much difference between all those companies so they spend a ton to have catchy commercials to build their market share. Here's a radical idea -- do like USAA and have REALLY better rates and REALLY better service. OK, off my soap box, now back to football. TJ was here Week 1, and look how that turned out. Signing Watt would have meant not signing Milano. That ought to end the discussion right there. The Bills are thriving because they DON'T have a lot of elite players. Instead they have excellent players all across the roster, all making good money but none sucking up xx% of the salary cap. Watt would be an upgrade over most of our Dline right now, but the cost would have meant not having the 9 or 10 starter quality players we are now rotating in and out.

I'm glad Edmunds is getting props. His role on this defense is not to be the splash play generator. It's to eat space and contribute as 1/11th of the unit. His size and speed are what make the overall unit work well. At least in pass defense. He still takes the wrong gap sometimes on run defense. Maybe most LBs do that too, and we don't notice because we don't look for it. It's great that Spencer Brown is working out so well. As things stand though we now have a really expensive guard (Williams) who's drawing tackle pay. It's good to know though that we have such depth at tackle -- most teams couldn't lose even one tackle without hurting their offense. If Brown keeps on playing so well, or better, I can see Williams leaving at the end of the year. That might have been McBeane's plan in the first place, to have Brown take over at right tackle. And then the Bills draft or sign a FA, or two, at guard.

I wasn't aware it was optional. EVERYONE seems to do it. As for behavior while watching games, all I need to say is that marijuana is legal here in Alaska.

Yep, that's the size of it.

I really liked that Josh kept attempting to run from time to time, even though he didn't get much after the first quarter (the hurdle excepted). There were several plays where he tried to run, but the Chiefs were keeping their guys in to protect against it. Happy days, then, with the field opened up.

Remember the old saying, 50,000 attaboys is worth one Oh Shoot (language cleaned up). The Bills can run up scores all they want, but I don't care. What I care about is one W after another.

Sorenson was playing because he was the best person on the roster for that spot at that time. It isn't Sorenson who needs to be bought out, it's the Chiefs management that put all their marbles into keeping the offense humming while neglecting the defense.

The comparison in the number of plays is very revealing. The Chiefs aren't built to grind down the field and score. They can grind down the field for a while, but then something goes wrong, and they can't recover. The Bills have some of that going on too. They can grind down the field but they're also looking for the really big play along with way. If that attempt doesn't work and rushing attempt gets stuffed, the Bills aren't always able to convert the third down. Teams take Beasley away, and no one else seems able to get open and catch the ball. The Bills can work on this aspect and make themselves even harder to defend. They have the personnel to execute it and the coaches to scheme it up.

McBeane aren't about to mess with the team unity that's developed, and he sure isn't going to wreck his long-term cap strategy. The first is more critical this year of course but the second is critical for 2023 and 2024. McBeane don't want any part of the Bills juggernaut to get weaker and not have the cash to address the problem. Look at KC -- keeping the pedal to the metal on offense and having a trash defense. You can't win that way. It's one thing -- a hard thing -- to build a team that can win in one particular year. It's another thing -- even harder -- to manage the roster and the coaches so the success endures. The Bills are on track to accomplish both, better than any other team as far as I can tell. Any move that replaces a cheap player, like someone on their rookie contract, with an expensive player, is probably out. Bringing in an elite player is probably a non-starter, period, just because of the cost.

By the end of the game the Colts knew they had a sieve for a defense. No professional CBs, up against LJ and those Raven receivers. Come on. But they had a chance to win at the end of regulation. They ran out of time, because they let the Ravens use up almost the whole clock before scoring their inevitable tying TD. The Colts should either have use their time outs to conserve time, or let/forced the Ravens to score more quickly. If Wentz had a full two minutes or even a full minute to get into position, the Colts would have had a much shorter FG or possibly a TD to go back in front. That, and winning the coin flip, were the only two chances the Colts had at the end.

They lost to the Steelers so they'll have room to improve next year. I hate to point this out, but Allen underthrew that ball. Diggs had his guy beat by a mile, and if Allen had put it out 5 yards more that would have been a TD. OK, so it was in the air at least 60 yards so I'll cut him some slack. I have to agree/disagree. The goal is 1-0, every week.

Compare this record of drafting with what the Bills used to do. Almost none of their top picks lasted in the league. Better yet, don't go back and check. You'll just spoil the happy vibe.

Looks like the Chiefs really miss Sammy Watkins to give the opposing Ds another serious threat to worry about. So they brought in Josh Gordon who caught one pass to great acclaim, but then vanished. Their other WRs are not much of a threat but maybe the others were playing more because they know the offense and the route trees that Mahomes expects. Maybe after a few more weeks learning the Chiefs' offense, Gordon will be more of a factor. Except for beating the Eagles, the Chiefs have really scrambled to eke out close wins, or had close losses. Their O is down a notch, maybe, but their D is really bad. They are not the team to beat in the AFCW anymore. The Raiders are a good team but not consistent, and the Broncos have no offense and a D that Pittsburgh shredded yesterday. That division is turning into the Chargers' to lose, but they too are just winning close games. The Bills are dominating everyone.

I think the OP was referring to the lack of drives with a steady progression of chunk plays, which is what we're used to. A team with a better pass rush and better CBs could have made life difficult, and I expect other teams to be playing us the same way as the Chiefs did, but with better attention to the really deep routes. Of course that means their safeties will need to be in at least two places at once, so the Bills will have the opportunity to beat them one way or another. The Bills didn't have those long drives because of uncalled DPIs, out and out drops (what was up with Diggs?), phantom penalties, actual penalties, and very rarely a good defensive play from the Chiefs. I had to shake my head when Al Michaels said the refs were calling everything. They certainly weren't called DPI or holding against the Chiefs. I did like it that both announcers said a couple of times that the Bills were playing as if the refs were not going to interfere with them holding or interfering -- if you'll note the response from the refs was that the BILLS got called for those offenses but the Chiefs weren't. The RTP call against Clark in the 4th quarter was a valid call -- he let his whole body weight come down on Allen, and that's not allowed. A normal sized QB with a crushing hit like that could be injured. The consensus I saw from the sportswriters was that the call was BS and the Bills won because of it. Well, THAT'S BS. That call was correct, but it occurred right after the totally bogus holding call on Morse. Take away that holding call, and the Bills have a first down around the 20 or 25, and the rest of that killing drive plays out the same way as it did.

Mahomes can't stop doing commercials. He needs the money. (Says no one.)

The only games on the schedule the Bills had any business losing were the Chiefs, Titans, and Bucs. Pittsburgh was not on the list. Shouldacouldawoulda doesn't count in the NFL so it's there, deal with it. So there are two games remaining where losing would not be a big disappointment. Split those. take care of business, finish 15-2.

Looks like the Chargers will win AFCW, but I can't believe KC will miss the playoffs how that they let dozens and dozens of WC teams in. Or so it seems. Most top teams falter after a couple of years at the top. McBeane seem determined to avoid having this happen to the Bills by having a long-term plan that limits the number of elite players that get huge money. They have a system where a lot of guys make good money and play well, and they will be rotating rookies in to keep salary costs down. This process is underway already -- Lorax and Kyle Williams are long gone, and the arrow keeps on pointing up. Next year Jerry Hughes and Mario Addison will probably be gone, as will Feliciano and Ford. Spencer Brown looks amazing.

To make that work you have to have a deep set of D linemen, who can all play. Most teams don't have that. By rotating so many guys in, they stayed fresh, while the O linemen for the Chiefs all played every snap (as far as I know). The Chiefs ran a lot more plays. Ordinarily that's an advantage for the offense because the defenders get tired more quickly. Frazier McBeane showed how to flip that. Of course it would have been better if Milano had played, but with this game plan I'm not sure how much better. Frazier's game plan protected Klein, letting him do good things and not letting him get burned.

During the AFCCG the Chiefs defenders were holding our receivers egregiously, and they were all injured. They're not particularly injured at the moment, and I think the league put a stop to letting the Chiefs get away with holding. I'm very optimistic that our offense pretty well matches theirs, but our defense is considerably better than theirs. Advantage: Bills.

NFL Sunday Ticket is on DirecTV, not Dish Network. I have DirecTV specifically to get NFL Sunday Ticket. I just checked and I'm getting NBC now, so whatever happened with Dish Network is not affecting me. NFL Sunday Ticket doesn't include Sunday Night Football, anyway.

To me the right approach is to be prepared if the weather forecast is accurate. This puts a premium on getting a lead so that if the rain and wind kick up, it's not going to derail a comeback with passing. Not that this isn't obvious. Who wouldn't want to get a lead in the first place? The only way this could come into play is coaching decisions on whether to go for a fourth and short, or kick a field goal vs trying for a first down.

For one drive, he looked like an NFL quarterback. Which is something I never thought I'd say about Geno Smith. After that, I wasn't impressed. He didn't seem able to take the yardage the Rams were offering, short to mid range in the middle of the field. Going forward, when he has a chance to take more reps in practice, he might be better able to react to the circumstances.

Weather forecasting has improved drastically over the past 20 years, but a forecast more than 3 days out is still not very reliable. Check back in a day or two and you'll have a forecast that's more likely to be accurate. There's no reason Allen can't handle rain or wind. He has a strong enough arm to get the ball where he wants it to go.

The real risk is that by his body naturally protecting the injury, his mechanics will be thrown off and this can possibly lead to another injury somewhere else. He will still try to make the throws, and there will be compensating muscles brought into play. He could twist his back or neck, or who knows what else. The Browns have a strong team and a decent backup QB. They should sit Mayfield for a few weeks and bring him back halfway through the season to get them into the playoffs. So I assume the physical therapy device Mayfield will use is the Dave Matthews Band. Sorry, it was just sitting there.

Carolina will be paying a whole lot for a guy who can still play but not play as well as he used to. They're falling into the trap of being all-in on a particular year, instead of building steadily. Carolina is aiming for the playoffs, but their goal should be to win the Super Bowl, and they're a long way from being a contender.