fergie's ire

Yeah, I'm not a big believer in bulletin board material because I don't think players need more to get up for a playoff game. However, I wouldn't go after Josh Allen. What was it, 6 years ago that Jalen Ramsey talked smack about him and Josh is STILL going after that guy and making his life miserable.

Bruisers having the advantage in snow is always something I hear...the conventional wisdom. However, I don't agree. You want speed and you want to cut (you know where you are going but the defender does not so has to cut more suddenly). You just have to soften or round your cuts and then use speed. Look at what Davis did against SF. Shady McCoy was famous for being GREAT in the snow. If someone is a bruiser just stand in front of them (they don't have the traction to get push) or just fall down and have them trip over you.

If you can...the problem is that it's hard to hit him. I saw a Steelers player on the edge breaking down into defensive position when he had Lamar in the backfield. He played it safe rather than going for the hit so he could make sure to be ready for a juke and not miss him. Lamar juked and he totally missed him.

I can't wait to see how the Bills look in the playoffs. Before the season, my thinking was that, yes, the Bills were retooling but I had a feeling that if everything worked, if the plan came together, this could be a really good team. Well...that turned out to be true, so maybe it isn't just wishful thinking when I think that this Bills team, including the defense, might be really good in the playoffs. I think it's possible that the Bills have kind of been playing possum. The had the division locked up by about week 6 and since then they have been really conservative with playing injured guys, and maybe even play calling. We saw more out of them in the games they knew going in would be big (KC and Detroit). Could we suddenly see more of Kincaid? Maybe. We have seen flashes of brilliance from Oliver, Groot, and even Epenesa. Might they turn it on and be more consistent? Maybe. Looking at the injury list, it seems like getting them ready for the 2nd season has been the priority all year and I wonder if the attitude, even among those not badly hurt enough to sit out, has been "play hard, but don't go crazy...don't strain yourself." We heard Josh talk about the offense holding back in the 1st Patriots game and I wonder if that has been a theme...do as much as you need...and we might see another gear in the playoffs.

Ty Johnson would like a word.

I think he got one receiving touchdown but zero receptions. Just found the box score. Josh Allen 7 receiving yards and a touchdown on zero receptions.

Hyde was always THE returner that McD clearly trusted the most. If things started getting squirrelly and returners were doing boneheaded things, he would put Hyde back there. He wouldn't expect a lot of yards on a return, unless someone on the return team accidentally kicked the ball and then Hyde would pick it up and run for like 50 yards. He was just a calming influence on the return game.

Yeah, but I was grading on the Trevor Lawrence is worth 55 million a year scale. It's hard to tell what a reasonable QB salary is these days.

Yeah, there are several of those on the Dolphins: Ramsey, Waddle, if he continues to have health problems, Tagavaloa. Don't know what their cap looks like for next year, but it can't be good.

I don't know. I think the Josh slow down was fluky. It was in the snow and the Bengals players were even talking about how the Bills were running routes that don't work in the snow. So, it wasn't so much as the Bengals defense as it was the Bills OC.

I think McDaniel has the same problem that Dorsey has. He might have a great system but it's "here's my system, we're going to run it no matter what." That was the problem when Tua was out. They kept running the offense designed for Tua even when though the QBs they had didn't have his skill set. It's also the problem they had against the Bills. McDermott would do the same thing to beat him and McDaniel would keep running the same offense against it. The last game was the first time there was much of an adjustment. The beauty of Brady is that he adjusts based on who he has, who he's playing, and what the conditions are.

It's not like this is his only bonus and he is being robbed of it at the end of the year. He earns a bonus at 2,4,6,8,10.5, and 15 sacks. It's just that he is at five so the NEXT bonus is just one away. If he can get 3 more, he'll get a 3.5 million bonus.

He was cut, but then re-signed a few days later and put on the PUP list, I believe? I can't remember the details but remember they had to cut him first in order to make it work.

Do you remember the preseason game with Josh and I think he was supposed to play something like a quarter, and then Josh didn't have anyone open and took off running for a first down? McDermott yanked him immediately and said that's enough of that. I hope McDermott reminds Josh of that and tells him, "If you even THINK about taking off running, I'll walk out on the field and pull you mid play."

There's this:

I also don't know if we would have taken Jefferson. LSU used him in the slot a lot and thought it wasn't really true, I remember a lot of people viewed him as a slot receiver and we had Beasley. Also there are a lot of misses on first round receiver picks (look at what the Patriots have done) and so it made sense to get a known commodity for a QB who was learning the position.

Here's what I learned today: swan diving onto the top of a push pile is illegal.

Probably someone has made the comment, and don't have time to read through the whole thread, but I have seen a video that highlighted just how Cooper was even against the Lions. In Campbell's long run, the Bills were in 4 by 1 with 4 eligibles to one side and Cooper to the other. Detroit had a single high safety. You would think he would be over to the side with 4 receivers or at least in the middle but, instead, he was completely shifted to Cooper's side, because, if he didn't, Cooper would be one on one with the whole side of the field to operate. So, Cook broke through the middle but because the safety was shifted over to the side (and then took a bad angle), he couldn't get to Cook. So, not only does Cooper draw defenders away from other receivers he even draws them away from runners so even if the Bills don't throw to him he's hugely impactful. What happens if they don't shift coverage to him? We saw that at the start of the KC game.

Not just the MVP honor but I could also see them taking it as a tune-up game...a bit like the 3rd preseason game used to be. Try to come out and be sharp and have a dress rehearsal and in the process get the win that secures the 2 seed. Then sit everyone next week. Maybe if Josh wants to keep his consecutive start streak going you run him out there for a series next week but that's about it.

Put another way, the Rams offense that went through our D like a knife through hot butter for almost 50 points could only manage a 110 yard 1 to 1 int performance against theirs.

I mean Dan Campbell is older, not Gen Z, seems to be a pretty good leader, and he was crying after a loss to the Vikings. Some people are criers and some of those people are good or even great leaders.

Agreed. The Jets game, in particular, worries me. The Jets have some talent and Jets and Bills players seem to sincerely dislike each other which seems rare these days. I'm sure the Jets would LOVE to mess up the end of the Bills season like the Fitzpatrick Phins did to the Pats in Brady's last year there. It's about all they have left to play for this year.

Yeah, I seem to remember the talk was that they might have to amputate...and then when he miraculously played he balled out passing and running as if nothing was wrong. So annoying.

I remember I had a student years ago because in order to advance her team needed to do something no team had done in the history of baseball. I told her that the good news was that in sports, something happens virtually every day that has never happened. The year? 2004. Her team? The Boston Red Sox.

I would be tempted to put Bruce, but I went "other" because I'm going Kirby Jackson. Everyone knows Bruce was just a vulture getting all those coverage sacks because Kirby had the receivers on lockdown.