jletha

Lamar is decidedly better against zone though, and there is less tape of us playing man. I think if we sit in zone, especially in base defense, we will get passed on.

I agree that the vibes in this game are mismatched from the reality of how close we are. But I keep seeing that Shakir was out in the previous game but its wrong. Shakir played! And he had the biggest play of the game in the 3rd Q.

There is an experience factor in how to effectively keep warm. They players talk about using viagra, vaseline on their skin, thermal clothes, etc. At this point Josh knows how he prefers to dress in the cold. Lamar and Baltimore may not have it all figured out, and that could help us. Its minor but ill take anything I can get.

This made me chuckle for some reason. What exactly is not accepting FGs? go for every 4th down? I thought its the opposite, that sharps are on a line early and sports books will actually use sharps as guidance on a line.

ah ok that clears that up.

I keep seeing this everywhere, but the Vegas odds havent moved off of Josh (yet at least). So I dont get it, because Vegas isnt in the business of losing money. If anyone is positive that Lamar is going to win, then there is some money to be made. You can get Lamar at +300 on DK.

McD has a better regular season record and a better record in the playoffs (Payton is under .500 in the playoffs despite having a HOFer the majority of the time)

At a high level: If the Bills lose it would be the worst loss of the entire season. The losses to Houston and the Rams were against lesser opponents but both were on the road and in Houston we had significant injuries to guys playing now and we didnt have Cooper on the team. We have not lost a game at home at all this season. Despite over achieving pre-season expectations, the Broncos could have clinched a playoff spot by winning week 16, 17 or 18. Instead, when the pressure was on they lost against LAC and CIN before beating the Chiefs in week 18 playing backups. Yes I know Denver has some good units and arent an easy out, Buffalo is the superior team. Digging into the details a bit: Denver leads the league in sacks which is the biggest strength of Buffalo. Josh has been sacked fewer than any QB in the league this season. If Im a DC that relies on getting to the QB to get stops, this doesnt make me feel good. Yes Surtain can shut down a single WR by himself, but our "spread it around" philosophy on offense makes this less signifncant. Case in point is the game against Detroit where Cooper had 0 targets and we scored 48 points. So the two key strength of Denver are up against our strengths as well. On the other side of the ball, Buffalo philosophy in keeping things in front of us and making the other teams make a mistake is the exact strategy that works against rookie QBs. Bo Nix has 12 ints on the season, and I dont expect him to orchestrate 6-7 scoring drives against us without a turnover. Ultimately, while I dont expect a cake walk, over the course of 4Q I expect Buffalo will win comfortably.

I do hope that McD and Babich have learned that you do require a new wrinkle in the playoffs and that they havent put everything on tape this season. Relying on turnovers against Batimore isnt likely to get it done. There have been hints from people that watch the tape that we are better at man defense than the defensive alignment slips would have you believe. So maybe we will reveal man blitzes that teams arent prepared for. Whatever it is, I think this is a box McD would have to check, this season especially.

This exercise is fruitless. All it takes is getting a good QB. You mention that NE is a mess and a "cold weather city"...what does that even mean? They have Drake Maye and its being cold didnt stop them from winning 6 superbowls.

We also had different coordinators at that time... Beating the Lamar in the playoffs to go to the AFC champ doesnt count as beating a good team? This is some weird circular argument: We beat Lamar, they dont make playoffs (partly because of the loss to us), not making the playoffs means they arent a "good team", therefore Buffalo hasnt beat a good team... Either Lamar is a tier 1 QB or he isnt.

Josh can hit "deep balls" when defined by yards down field because he has zero problem with deep crossers and deep dig routes. He just struggles with straight go routes at the hashes that require over the should catches.

I dont think people really expected us to have a top 3 O-line. With all of the offseason discussion around our offense and how it will handle the loss of WR talent, I never heard anyone suggest we can offset WR talent loss with improved O-line play. But so far thats what we are seeing.

I liked the play where Allen held him with his eyes and then threw a laser to Shakir in the middle of the field. Gave Poyer a real taste of what its like to play against Josh.