Bleeding Bills Blue

The bears had 90 yards and a TD, and turnover on downs on their first 2 possessions. What was going to change? Football stuff - penalties, drops, bad throws, things that happen over the course of a game. Good plays, good tackles, pass break ups, tipped passes...

Cincy ran like 8 plays though... you're projecting an entire game based on 8 plays? They didn't even get through their walk through script.

Buffalo has a better offense than the bengals (who can't run the ball particularly well... could be a problem in i dunno buffalo?), and the bengals pass defense is nothing to write home about. Both their best pass rushers are banged up, and they play 6 games against cleveland/baltimore/pittsburgh, so their defense stats are probably even inflated by that point. Not to mention this list: Bridgewater, Cooper rush, Dalton, Mariota, and Walker/Mayfield. As for KC, their offense is a beast but they also can't run the ball well so dare them to do so. Defensively they are young in the secondary, and they have a really solid front 4. This being a neutral site game is huge though - i went to the KC game in arrowhead, and while it does give you the "big fight feel" of a college rivalry game or something like that, its a HUGE advantage to KC. They get all the crowd noise, the drums, the chants - and buffalo sprinkles some blue in. They lost one home game this year and it was to Buffalo. 4/5 of their highest points allowed games were on the road- while 4/5 of their fewest points allowed games were at home. I meant specifically on the lack of prep showing in some of the vanilla looks they presented.

I think they looked like a team who had a tumultuous week, practiced maybe once and had a walkthrough.

It's probably a combination of both. But we were tied in this one going into the half - tre white makes a play to kill a drive. Offense gives it right back in the red zone - and defense got a stop. So offense took 3 off the board, then gave them great field position - and we were only down 3. A lot of these offenses today are very much based on timing - its hard to "feel" that timing right away. Late in the game they did a good job taking that away. The scripted plays early are practiced a bunch so they tend to have great timing. Later in the game its tougher - you see jones sailing some out routes others going lower. You also see the defense knowing where he wants to go with the ball - stevenson is going to catch a swing route but milano is there, etc.

that means he was 9/23 with 3 interceptions on the rest of the drives though. You can't bring pressure all the time, teams tend to figure out the tells on pressure vs. simulated pressure - you also leave throwing lanes open for easy stuff over the middle, and ask a lot of your secondary to not get beat.

Yep - man defenses tend to have lower comp% numbers and sometimes yardage too. But then you have 1x1 deep balls to worry about, and you tend to get fewer takeaways.

yes - winning puts it on a neutral site. Losing puts it at arrowhead.... i think?

Ryan Grant tore his achilles, and i put in a waiver claim for brandon jackson - and the commissioner somehow got him ahead of me. It was an auction free agency league, so i protested and he put him back in for auction - he used his entire 75 dollar budget on Jackson and i used 69 cuz reasons. After that i picked up Hillis for a dollar and won the league.

Is TJ expected to miss time beyond a week? Buffalo is 8th in NY/A surrendered this year. 18 pass TDs allowed, which is 6th in the NFL. 14 interceptions which is tied for 8th. And they have missed hyde for most of the year. White missed a ton of time. Poyer, Edmunds, Milano, Benford, Elam have all missed time. We also don't have the benefit of some cupcake schedule either. Of the top 5 passing offenses by NY/A they played 3 of them across 4 games. The team has been banged up ALL year - and i would not bet against them.

And yet - we haven't had a 300 yard passer since the cleveland game. And that was almost half in garbage time (they were down 3 scores). Hard to play outside technique and break up a pass inside. Mediocre throw, maybe you can get there, but on a good throw even if you make a play its probably a TD. They tend to give up a lot of short stuff early in games too as they tend to play off early.

What did they run 8 plays?

That 2nd piece is kind of interesting. You either get winner of 4/5 or you get home field against the other team.

I mean - the purpose is to execute plays you anticipate the other team might run. So he's probably good in film study. Sure did - Joe Webb to Deonte Thompson was the big play in that one. 34 yards on 3rd down with less than 2 minutes in OT.

He's gotta be a great scout team QB.

He just always seems to fall funny? Like he was getting tackled from behind... and smacked hte back of his head. The hip injury in college was another awkward fall Watching them last week he looked terrible.

Yeah, when you're slower you have to be faster in your reaction. He's both slower, and still probably pretty rusty with no camp.

No one has to agree to anything - commish gets to decide. Or just do it anyway.... they don't have to be willing to do anything.

I thought the PI was... i dunno - thats like the first play of the game and while there was some hand fighting it didn't seem to be that bad. The TD was quarters so... he has outside leverage and hamlin drove on the post underneath so it created a space. I'm not sure Tre can do much more than what he did

Throw an 8th team in the mix, 7 WC playoff games (would people complain about an extra MNF game?) and no AFC bye. They still get home field, but they don't get the coveted bye week.

Tie helps Cincy - guarantees them a division win. They lose a shot at a bye week, but they basically get one against baltimore since division is no longer in doubt. Tie hurts buffalo - they now lose tie breaker to KC and are basically a lock for the 2 seed. Both teams are likely to rest starters in that situation. The one benefit to all this is KC playing Saturday. If they lose, buffalo scenario changes completely and they can still earn a wildcard bye week. Coin flip hurts cincy - if they lose there's a chance they can lose the division, and therefore any additional home games. Winning the flip gives them a chance at a 1st round bye week. Coin flip helps buffalo - They already won their division and a flip gives them a chance to earn home field with a win over NE. Or rest starters should KC lose. A coin flip loss means very little since they would be pretty well locked into 3 seed at that point, and also would use week 18 to try and get healthy. Add 8th playoff team - probably have to do it for both conferences. No bye weeks, home field is still important as a 1 seed, but everyone's playing WC weekend.

I'm saying having a few days for some processing, conversations, counseling, etc. is a lot different than 5 minutes to get your s--t together.

I think... watching a close friend receive CPR and AED is traumatic. Trying to resume "business as usual" at that point is impossible. Regarding the future if things take a turn... you have some time to process things. It's less about your last moment with a person, and more about their life, their memory, their impact.

Poyer didn't play against minnesota, and edmunds was out at that point in the game. Hamlin made his run fit, i think benford missed the tackle? and dodson had a terrible pursuit angle.

I don't have a ranking on it - but they have given up a first down on 24 pass plays from 3rd and 7 or longer. there have been 84 pass attempts and 4 sacks - so 24/88 plays. The offense has 19 conversions on pass plays across the same time. If that seems low in comparison - note that we have only faced 3rd and long 67 times this year. So my guess is its high - for both offense and defense. At least we have a veteran CB coming back, and all of the other guys have taken their lumps through the season. It's an area that I think they can improve upon simply with the reps their getting, not necessarily strategy.