Livinginthepast

The shot of the Jags D on the bench after the FG was pretty telling. They looked exhausted. They would have been ripe for run up the gut. Not to mention they had just got the Bills off the field and then had the gut punch penalty. They were probably pretty deflated. We should have punched it in with Tolbert or better yet sneaked it with TT. Why is it that Brady (the most important QB ever) is OK with sneaking the ball and is very successful but the rest of the NFL is too scared to risk their QB getting pounded in the pile? Hell if TT was too scared or fragile, sneak Mighty Joe Webb and make the Jags stop you. Instead this was the play of the game and swung momentum right back to the Jags. If we score a TD there the Jags D is tired and frustrated. Instead we give them a boost with a really bad playcall. Just like the days of Kevin Gilbride.

Roman had some decent scripted plays but he also didn't call plays to TT's strengths. He also tended to go off script and be stupid. That being said he was better than Dennison who you could defeat quite easily at chess it would seem. Actually I think you defeat Dennison at tic tac toe easily as well.

Peterman looks like a QB who telegraphs his throws too much thus giving the Dbs time to step in front and intercept. That happened in the SD game. Yesterday's INT looked similar. I think he does have the arm strength though but if he gives away his intentions so easily that doesn't matter. Felt bad for him yesterday. Imagine the pressure of being thrust into that situation, 1 min left in the game, 4th down and you have to produce a TD or end of the season against a very tough defense. Probably the most difficult high pressure first playoff appearance ever.

I'm with you on the Saints, or maybe redemption for the Falcons?. The Falcons looked surprisingly good on Saturday night. I cannot see anyone stopping the Pats before the SB. The only possible way NE loses is to the Steelers and that wont happen at home. But yes anyone but NE.

So you don't even try?? You've obviously not watched too many Jags games this year, he's a much better runner than passer. Somehow in their prep for Bortles last week the Bills didn't clue into what Lebeau and the Titans did to him last Sunday. They forced him to pass and prevented him from running. The result? 15/34 no TDs and 2 INTS

I cannot believe how painful the Bills offense was today. Possibly one of the most inept Bills offensive performances ever and probably the worst in a playoff game I can remember. Imagine had Shady not played !! He had 119 yards of offense. What I don't understand is that 30 years after the K gun even with stronger faster players and so much analytics, our offensive game plan looks like it was designed in the 1950s. To me its a combination of mediocre at best QB combined with an O coordinator who doesn't play to his QB's few strengths and then plays a really bad chess match with his playcalls. Absolutely putrid today and there is NO excuse for it with the resources available.

Wow you were seriously worried about "opening up the defense " to the passing of Bortles? This caused you some concern doing the game?? He is one of the worse playoff passers I have ever seen in almost 40 years of watching football and somehow you were worried that the Bills D couldn't handle him with 1 less guy in coverage? This post isnt about how the "defense lost us the game" There is no debate. Yes the defense overall did a great job, they are not the reason we lost this game. Nobody is blaming the D here. But as the OP and others have said on this thread, the simple adjustment of taking one of the DBS or Lineman and making them a spy on Bortles would have stopped his runs and most likely forced him to make some ill advised throws. He did this throughout this season and during the Titans game last week. They could have done this easily and a pick 6 would have likely won the Bills the game outright. Which is precisely the Point , our offense stunk so bad that not only did we need the D to stop the Jags we needed them to score points and win the game themselves. Its pretty crazy that was the situation but it was.

Um Yah , I think I got that part. but thanks for the insight.

The problem with TT all season was that he didn't improve on any of his positives from the last 2 years. He still was extremely limited in his passing game, could not see open guys, checked down and threw passes way too short. In addition his touch on deep passes was mediocre to poor. But the big problem wasn't all those things. The big problem is that TT lost his elusiveness and running ability in key situations this year. Maybe I am imagining this but TT looked older, slower and seemed to take way more sacks (esp in really bad situations). There were some glaringly bad examples of this today. About the only positive of TT at this point is he throws very few INTs and if the D can score points or give him a short field he can win you games. Other than that the TT era should be over.

Exactly!! All these people saying that not spying the QB wasn't relevant are missing the point hugely. If they had adjusted and spied Bortles, he doesn't get those first downs and they don't get ANY points. So yeah giving up 10pts is great, but giving up ZERO pts is considerably better when your team cannot get anything done on offense. Also Spying Bortles would have forced him into his usual bad decisions and he might have actually thrown some INTS, which for us was one of the keys to victory today and all year.

Why would the NFL outlaw horse collar tackles but allow the head to be tackled ?? especially on a QB??!! Its so stupid!

Yes the loss is on Dennison and TT but the officials incompetence and ticky tack penalties were just enough to inch the Jags over the finish line.

I don't which is more surprising Mularkey winning a big game, The Titans D manning up in the 2nd half or Mariota's pass to himself for a TD. What was not surprising was Alex Smith and Andy Reid choking yet again. They are so NOT money

wow that's a huge blunder. no fair catch??

Wow the Titans D looks kitten soft.

OMG what the hell kind of explanation did Jerry Austin just give??? Like setting off a BS cloud grenade. Mariotta's forward progress was stopped?? He was standing still!!! got hit and clearly fumbled the ball. but his forward progress was stopped?!!!! what utter idiocy is this!!

One of the worst parts of the drought for me was how it seemed that the Bills situation seemed to fly in the face of the law of averages, defied chance and luck and almost seemed like a curse. There were way too many times that we should have made the playoffs and the most freakish things happened that went against us. All those times we needed a Dalton/Boyd play for us we never got one instead we got McKelvin fumbling to the Pats or an insanely bad officiating decision. Just a horrible time to be a fan.

If the Bills are going to win this, they have to get up early and force Bortles and the Jags to chase the game. If they can get the Jags to abandon the run and Bortles panics it will rain INTs. If the Jags get the run game going, the Bills are dead meat.

I do still respect Marrone as a coach but he looked out of ideas and pretty frustrated with his team yesterday. The jags looked really bad overall and got a lucky TD. Bortles was abysmal and his INTs made him look noodley armed. If the Bills can take advantage of turnovers, they will win this!

I cannot get over how great these college qbs look esp in the bowl games and then they turn into Jamarcus Russel in the NFL . How can scouts for NFL teams possibly know if they can make the jump to the NFL.? Seems like guessing to me.

I watched the home run throwback game in an American sports bar in Antigua, Guatemala while travelling through Central America in 1999/2000. The sparse crowd in there was mostly indifferent to either team. As a Bills fan I was loudly cheering for the Bills by myself much to the amusement of a sympathetic Jets fan at the next table. When the Bills went up on the Christie FG I was elated, only to be crushed seconds later. When the Bengals scored yesterday it was like an orgasm of liberation for me from that terrible moment in that bar all those years ago! So awesome!

Had to watch the Bills game online because I’m at Disney in Orlando. The local station had the jags game on so I watched that one on the TV. Jags looked awful and only got a lucky TD on a gaffe by Mariotta. Bortles looked really, really bad. This is a very winnable game!

I loved that call! Fairytale for Kyle! The love on the sidelines was awesome as well. Really cool of McD and Denn to do that!!

I can understand your frustration at the lack of buzz, but surely you and the rest of us have seen this movie before and we all know how it ends. We fall just short because of one stupid loss (insert your selected game here). A winnable game blown by drops, officiating, bad coaching or acts of God. Its Charlie Brown kicking the football for the Bills whenever we are in this situation and the mirage of the playoffs is always cruelly taken away. At the same time do you have any confidence that TT can get it done vs the Fins in Miami? I really wanted TT to play the game of his life last week vs the Pats but he was really lacking when it mattered most. He just doesn't seem to have it when he needs to take the team on his back. So you can probably understand that most fans have little optimism that we can finally get over the hump on Sunday.

I didn't feel that bad that Dareus got traded. I thought that his suspensions, the sloppy attitude and his meagre pass rush sealed his fate. However his run stuffing ability or even the fact that his humungous size made RBs run around him and be tackled by others I completely missed. His value was there and nowhere else. Too bad the monster contract made Beane nervous. Had he been signed to something reasonable he might still be there. In any case the run defense has been absolutely abysmal since. You would think though that Beane and McDermott would have been aware of this strength of Dareus and at the very least had a plan B for the run stopping.