Mango

“Win on 3. 1, 2, 3 Win!”

I think anything below 3 I tend to start to disagree with. 4 is a grey area. 5 would be waaaay too low IMO. Power rankings are imperfect, is it a review? a look forward? record? all encompassing? trending? Buffalo and Philly should be 1 and 2 at this point. Doesn't matter what order. Detroit can still live in the top 3 based on what they have done. But with injuries do you move them out? I don't put KC there. They just have not been good despite winning games. I think Minnesota, KC, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and GB are a hodgepodge. I could flip flop them around depending on what I am looking at.

100%, playing on it twice in 4 days is crazy. I don't know how you don't sit him vs Houston. If he had a full week between games I think he likely plays through it and I feel a bit less strongly about the whole thing.

I don't disagree, which to me makes me lean further into sitting Mahomes against Houston. You might beat Houston, who has nothing to play for, with Andy Reid and Wentz, but you will want your first ballot HoF QB ready for Pittsburgh and Denver. KC can drop one game but they can't drop 2. KC can win all three if they go Wentz, Mahomes, Mahomes. I think they can drop 2 if they go Mahomes, (4 day, high ankle sprain) Mahomes, hobbled Mahomes. Give him 10 days rest then shoot him up to close out the next two before he gets another 14 days off.

Baring any injuries vs Baltimore I think Pittsburgh has a great chance of beating KC at Heinz even with a 100% healthy Mahomes. Not a lock, but I would call them a close favorite. Mahomes with a high ankle sprain on 4 days rest against TJ Watt in a hostile environment? I am sure KC isn't afraid of Pittsburgh, but I would worry about seriously hobbling Mahomes in the lead up to the playoffs.

It is stupid to play him this week. He has 6 days this week, which is likely fine, but the week after is a short week. He has 4 days. It will be tough to play on a high ankle sprain twice in 4 days without making it worse. That is the kind of decision that could hobble Mahomes for their playoff run. He can likely manage every week. The extra 3 days are huge. Nearly double the recovery time. If this were Allen I would be furious if we marched him out there. You are basically putting the Super Bowl at risk.

I still think it is special teams that is giving him the nod in nickel. A bit of a reward for buying into the process. Which I don't hate at a high level. But, when Taron was went down last week, Ingram was the call up and I thought played well in his limited snaps at the end of the game. Better than Taron did against Puka (via eye test). In general there have been so many weird usages of players over the years. Constantly marching Lewis out there is one of them. I think Elam flashes in his limited snaps (not dressing him is insane to me). Amari Cooper at 45% this week seems wild. The unwillingness to put Dorian Williams back out there. I certainly trust the staff, overall they have been really good, but it seems so strange sometimes.

Cam Lewis was brutal…again. I get it UB guy, work ethic, special teams, improved, process guy etc. but he is one of if not my least favorite player to see on the field for the defense. He gets targeted and abused constantly. He was terrible to start the season, had a couple of games where he was decent and now he sucks again.

I generally agree, but they have a short week this week (Saturday/Houston) and follow it up with another short week (Wednesday/@Pittsburgh). If I am the Chiefs I am maybe more concerned with him playing injured twice in 4 days then I am with seedings and wins and losses. Not even speaking as a Bills fan fighting for the 1 seed, I would rather give Mahomes 10 days rest. If he had a full week between games I would be much less bothered.

He has been above average since he made that 61 yarder. The offense has been scoring a ton and he's been good on a lot of XP attempts and he got a 50 yarder for us. I think part of it was that broken ankle that happened right before, but that's also part of being a kicker. So not a great excuse. But still a talking point. If he hadn't missed the short one I might have let him have a go at that 66 yarder. But Bass missing two kicks in row, even though one was a bit of a hail mary, wasn't something I wouldn't want to risk. (plus field position. EDIT: For reference he is 23/24 on XP and 9/11 since that FG vs Miami https://www.espn.com/nfl/player/gamelog/_/id/3917232/tyler-bass

I was just talking about this in bed last night with my GF. Week 18 Bills at Pats is maybe the most meaningless game on the calendar, it is likely to get flexed because it has absolutely zero implications. The league will likely want Browns/Ravens, Chargers/Raiders, Bengals/Steelers, KC/Broncos, 49ers/Cardinals, and Seahawks/LAR on at the same time. A lot of moving parts for seedings and the wild card in there.

IMO It is partially because of Derrick Henry. He is a sure fire hall of famer who will end the season as his second best rushing season of his career. Sorta a similar reason why its tough to call Jalen Hurts the MVP when Saquan is the best player on the team right now. I don't disagree with you. Lamar is having a killer year. Better than Allen'? I don't know. But I think part of it is a correction on last years MVP, part of it is Derrick Henry taking some shine, and part of it is the idea that Josh Allen is due.

I agree here and I’m in the same timeline. Josh is officially crossing the line from “awesome in his era” to even without a SB is a first ballot HoF player. While Bruce is almost universally considered a top 5 pass rusher ever, and Allen isn’t a top 5 QB ever (yet) the positional importance at least gets him close if not above Bruce.

The disrespect for Brian Moorman is unforgivable.

Allen winning MVP would be great and all but I’m rooting for a Super Bowl. MVP is the frosting. It’s nice, tasty, but useless without the cake. (I have a friend who coaches the Olympic Team and constantly preaches “all cake, no frosting”)

The Houston game is a bit iffy because Houston has clinched. But otherwise Pittsburgh and Denver will almost certainly have something to play for and KC will get their best shots. Mahomes missing this week and losing to Houston sets the Bills up nicely. I think Pittsburgh can beat KC at home with or without Mahomes.

Not just targets, I think his snap count was super low.

I am not sure I saw him on the field once.

I also thought that through the first 3 quarters or so we were in position to end drives early or TFL but there were a number missed tackles/opportunities. Where as the Rams we seemed to have just gotten smoked. Cam Lewis was abused today. I know. Special Teams and all. But also….no.

Later

2 things: 1. Did I miss something about Cooper? I’m not sure I saw one snap. 2. Why did it take 3.5 quarters to get Williams on the field? Spector does little for me.

I don’t think it’s been all Josh all year. But the last two weeks have been. Sometimes your all star QB needs to be an all star and we’ve gotten that. I think the defense will find their feet again.

I think “high” is a relative term.

The Elam thing is so weird. I don’t get it. He’s played between “OK/Meh/Fine” and “Pretty Well” since being drafted. This camp he was reported to be playing as well as anybody. I’m really high on Ingram and fairly low on Lewis, but Elam not getting the nod would be nutty to me.

Might be pedantic but I think we’ve gotten more value than his contract by a pretty large amount. He’s getting (cap number) $1.6M (2024), $2.3M, and $2.575 this year and the next 2. He’s well out playing his contract. But there’s no real reason to move on, and upgrading will cost us at least 2x what we’re paying now.