Miyagi-Do Karate

your best write-up of the year. You are absolutely right about coaching. We lost the coaching battle in the pre-game prep work. The gameplans didn’t work.

Before last game, I would have easily rooted for the chiefs. Now I hate those guys. On a whole, a lot of terrible guys on that team— a solid guy like Mahomes can’t make up for all the other garbage they have on that team.

you can disagree now with the confidence of hindsight. But we could all see at the time that the offense was out of sync and we were struggling to get a yard at a time, especially in the red zone. I can tell you now that there was like zero percent chance we were scoring a TD there. The playcalling and execution were totally unhinged. hindsight is 20/20, but I figured the thinking there was get the points, get something to build on, and make adjustments to Come out with more confidence in the second half. it didn’t work. But the media painting McD as being overly conservative or out of touch isn’t quite right. If we were playing like our usual selves, he would have gone for it. He has done so all year long.

McD’s decision to kick in the first half based on “morale” was absolutely the right one. You could tell the team was shell shocked. They had to get points. I thought it was very astute coaching. The national pundits didn’t see how aggressive he was all year, and how this was a total change from what he normally does— based on his very good instincts of looking at his team at that moment. The second half decision was too risk averse, as I think McD will now concede. But hindsight is 20/20. If the D had gotten a stop or turnover, it would have probably worked out pretty well. But they didn’t, and we spiraled down.

No one disputes that there are absolute game-changer RB’s, like Henry, CMC, and Kamara. I guess the issue is weighing whether you can get a comparable or better back for less in free agency or lower in the draft. Kamara himself is a great example. Fournette was the first RB off the board at 4 overall. The Saints got Kamara in the third round.

And when the chiefs run this year, can you tell a meaningful difference between 1st rounder CEH and undrafted Darrel Williams? I suspect the chiefs are fine with a luxury 1st round pick like CEH, but he is not exactly important to anything they do.

Agree completely. I don’t get it— people want to replace the entire offensive line and draft a bruising RB. We have a top-5 offense. We also ran the ball pretty well for stretches this year. Grinding out the clock against both the Steelers and the Dolphins, for instance. i have a feeling that the improvements to the run game are going to be tweaks, and if we upgrade the RB position, it will be with more of a speedy pass catcher type of guy.

haha— love the Bach reference. Re Duke, I think he is too short to covert to TE. 6’2”. Everyone wants a 6’6” type target like a Kelce, Andrews, Hunter, Gisecki. Knox really can be that guy. He needs to just take it to the next level.

The future is now, Duke. The future is now.

don’t get me started on Angelo Badalamenti. What an epic soundtrack.

I am anticipating that due to the lower cap and the number of teams that are cash strapped, we will actually see more guys try to take short 1 and 2-year deals, to wait until the market re-sets. That may make the Bills a more attractive destination. Come to a winning team for a few years to then hit a homerun on a huge deal in 2 years. my hope is we are targeting some of the stop-gap type of free agents.

i think we are mostly on the same page. I just want to avoid a reach. If Etienne is there and he is BPA, take him. I think you will find the successful teams at the bottom of the draft stay true to their draft boards. But based on where we are drafting, we can’t afford to reach on guys. That said, my separate (though related) point is that you shouldn’t reach, because you can find good RB’s elsewhere, including as even UDFA’s. There are a lot of RB’s diamonds in the rough.

Isn't it funny to have post-season pressers like this? In the past, there would be 15 minutes of technical issues, an empty podium, and then they would shuffle in, and we would hear who might get fired and how they could improve on a 5-win season.

In my view, CEH is just a guy, and proves my point about RB’s not really being worth drafting high. chiefs have CEH—1st round pick—who looks pretty solid, but they have a guy in Darrel Williams who is just about in the same league, and he was undrafted. that said, I am not opposed to a RB. What I am opposed to is moving off the order of the board to pick a RB in the 1st with a big name when we can probably get an upgrade either later in the draft or in FA. That was the Bills MO for years, reaching to get splash RB’s like Lynch, Spiller, and McGahee. I don’t like the strategy.

It is a total waste. RB’s are a dime a dozen. People need to understand that when you draft around 30, the philosophy also changes. you really have to stick to your board. Oftentimes you can get one of the higher rated interior linemen or ILB or safety around there. The Bills can’t be reaching for gadget guys or niche players.

Twin peaks will suck you in. In college, my buddies and I binged it— it was so memorable. I have thought about re-watching.

yeah, it’s a joke. All we heard about for years was needing to get Spiller in “space.”

This sounds like me ten years ago arguing why we needed to keep fred Jackson over marshawn lynch!

I was watching the game highlights today from the Bucs/Chiefs game to see how they defensed Brady. it was pretty similar. How did Brady handle it? Check downs. Gronk and Jones had huge days on simple crosses and dump downs. I think those were there last night and josh didn’t take them. I also think the little crosses to Knox were there all night— but were rarely called. Once, I think. The chiefs can’t cover those very well. Other teams target their LB’s and Sorenson in coverage on those.

Um— you do know rosy cheeks is a symptom of mumps? Unreal.

I feel like I remember Pettine sending a delayed blitz on a Hail Mary when he was with us, and it was brilliant. Super effective—QB couldn’t get the pass off.

I believe he is now employed by NASA.

it’s called the “Bile chick heritage classic” per the thread title. I am not sure if it is connected to the “josh has yellow coloring” thread.

Time to amputate that liver.

Wow re Beasley. That’s even more impressive now that we know how gimpy he was.