msw2112

And I think it is due to the lack of depth that most/all teams have on the offensive line. It seems like every team is rolling backups on the OL, so they are forced to use the TE to help in pass protection.

While it surely would have been great to have put the game away earlier, we need to have some perspecitve. NFL teams, even good ones, typically punt a few times a game. They also kick field goals. We've been treated to historic offense in many games where the Bills don't punt and/or score a TD on almost every drive, such that we are spoiled and losing perspective. Plus, the Pats have one of the top defenses in the league. So, if we had a few stalled drives and had to punt against a team that has one of the top defenses in the league, it isn't cause for concern. From the point they went up 10-7, the Bills had the game well in hand.

With the injuries on the offensive line, Knox has to help more with blocking, so he isn't running as many routes and getting as many targets. Plus, the Bills are running the ball more than in the past, so, again, Knox isn't getting targets on those plays either. When called upon, Knox has made plays as a receiver. I'm not concerned about his "lack of" production. What I have seen out of Knox in the last three games is that he was part of a winning team, and I'm good with that.

I'm not a big TO fan, but if the guy was being a d*ck and harassing people, good for TO. The guy got what he deserved.

I watched all of the games back then, as I do now, but I don't have any independent recollection of this particular game. I like the way it ended up. In watching the video, I noticed Doug Flutie in uniform on the Pats' sideline. Just an interesting tidbit.

The schedule makers didn't do me any favors on this one. A vendor/friend of mine in Chicago had free tickets reserved for me for this game before the schedule came out. Because it fell on X-Mas eve, I can't leave my family and fly to Chicago for a football game. It doen't end there. I have lots of friend and connections in Detroit, so I was targeting that game too. Of course, that fell on Thanksgiving Day, so same thing. The other 2 games I targeted also fell around holidays: the Rams game was the week of Labor Day and the Packers game in Buffalo was on Halloween weekend (big one for the kids), but I was able to negotiate my way into attending both of those. I was lucky to be able to get a flight out of Buffalo the morning after the Green Bay game and made it home just in time for Halloween night with the family. I'm only going to one more game this year and it's in February in Arizona. It's not negotiable. That's a home game for me, as I live 14 miles from State Farm Stadium.

While I don't think Romo showed any anti-Bills bias, I do agree that he went out of his way to mention Detroit's injuries, but he said little to nothing about the Bills injuries (he did mention Allen's elbow many times, but I am talking about the guys that were not able to play due to injury). Also, Detroit deserved the props they got. As an underdog with a terrible record the last few years, they went toe to toe with one of the league's top teams. While I am happy with the win, the Lions gave the Bills all they could handle and the Bills were fortunate to come out with a win.

A few comments on the Cardinals situation, all of which have been touched on at some point above in this thread: Murray is a great athlete Murray's size is a problem, particularly when it comes to passing from the pocket Murray is immature, self-absorbed, and a terrible leader Most of Murray's success comes on broken plays - he's small, quick, fast and elusive, so he can run around until a receiver breaks off his route and gets open, he chucks it up, and receivers make plays OR he can make big plays as a runner. (Josh Allen does this too, but he is not small, and he can also execute plays out of the playbook) The Cardinals' head coach is terrible. He was unsuccessful as a college coach. For perspective, he was the head coach for 3 years with PATRICK MAHOMES as his QB and was 13-16 in games that Mahomes started. He's not a good leader of men and he's just not very smart as a tactician. The Cardinals' GM is not very good and its ownership is clueless, having given both Kingsbury and Murray large, lucrative extensions after a season in which they started 7-0 and then imploded down the stretch and meekly bowed out in the playoffs. As Bills fans, we've seen our share of ineptitude over the years, so I am very thankful for what and who the Bills currently have in place.

I am impressed with what Miami has done. No win in the NFL is easy. The Bills barely beat Detroit and stuggled at times (beginning and end of the game) against Cleveland. The Bills lost to the Jets. And all the weather and injuries aside, the Dolphins beat the Bills in Miami earlier this season. I think that if the Bills get a couple more of their injured players back, they will surpass the Dolphins in record and will beat them in December in Buffalo, but that doesn't take anything away from what the Dolphins have done so far. And I despise the Dolphins.

I wouldn't be shocked if the Lions beat the Vikings when they play in a few weeks, but I still believe that the Vikings will make the playoffs. They have a great WR, an excellent RB, decent OL and defense. Probably a quick out in the playoffs, however. I also think the Lions will be a handful for the Bills, but the Bills are better and will show it and win on Thursday. The Giants are a nice story and Daboll is squeezing what he can out of that roster, but they will fade.

No question the dropoff is due to injuries. White aside, because he has not suited up yet, we opened the season with Poyer, Hyde, Dane Jackson, Benford/Elam, Milano, Rousseau, Epenesa, Oliver, Settle, all available and playing at the same time. They looked like the #1 defense in the league and statistically were. Hyde is done for the season and all of these other guys have missed time due to injury at one time or another, usually around 3 at a time. I think Baltimore had similar issues last year. It's a rarity, but it significantly degrades the ability of a unit. Hopefully they can get everyone back, except Hyde, plus add White, in time for the playoffs. While not completely connected, if the defense is at full go like it was early in the season, chances are that the offense has to do less, there's less pressure on Allen to win the game by himself, fewer balls are forced, fewer chances are taken, and fewer turnovers occur.

I agree that going for it on 4th down and going for a 2 point conversion can are different. The 4th down decision usually involves field position and the 2 point conversion does not. Also, the 2 point conversion always involves foregoing an almost certain 1 point (unless your kicker is injured or there is extremely crazy weather), whereas the 4th down decision may or may not involve foregoing sure points. While every situation is different, I think the correct decision in this instance was to take the 1 point. I thought that before they went for 2, and I think that now. It would have put them up 13, which is a real and very common mathematical combination (TD+PAT+FG+FG) which is nearly as likely as 14 (TD+PAT+TD+PAT). It was still early in the game that it was unclear on what might unfold later, so taking the sure point would have been the best decision. Also, consider that the Bills offense hasn't been at its best lately, so take the sure point. Also, Cleveland is not a strong opponent, so the value of the additional point you would get by going for 2 and succeeding isn't worth the risk of getting zero (which is what the Bills got). If you are playing Kansas City, you probably go for 2, because you know they are going to score a lot of points, so you have to be more aggressive and try to get as many points as you can when you have a chance, as you will likely need them. It's the same reason that I thought they should have gone for the FG against Minnesota. Minnesota is a good team, but not an offensive juggernaut. The value of adding 3 points and going up by 13 at that stage of the game would be more valuable than the risk of getting zero vs. the reward of getting 7. In the end, that lack of 3 points probably cost them the game. (The final Vikings TD+a 2 point conversion still would have been a point short). An argument can be made that if the Bills had failed to get the TD, but simply turned it over on downs, Minnesota would have been pinned very deep and there would have been a major field position advantage for the Bills, and I could buy that. Throwing the INT that was returned 30+ yards killed that scenario.

Herbert sustained a pretty serious injury in Week 2. Broken rib cartilage. A quick Google search says that it takes 12 weeks to heal, and that's not while playing NFL football (throwing passes and getting hit). I think that Herbert is sliding to protect that injured area. I don't think he's soft.

Good for him

A couple of comments: 1. Davis is not as wealthy as most owners. Most owners made their money in other businesses - real estate, gas & oil, tech, Wal-mart, etc. They are billionaires for whom football is a side business and hobby. The Davis family, to my knowlege, has no outside business outside of football. Al Davis was a football coach who bought a small stake in the team and worked his way up to become the majority owner, and now his son has taken over. The Davis family does not have "outside" money. 2. That said, I believe that the Raiders have enough cash earned through football to fire McDaniels if they wanted to. The real issue is that you don't fire a coach halfway into his first season. While I believe that McDaniels was a poor hire, I also believe you have to give it a chance to see if he can work it out. You to go until at least the middle of next season before cutting the cord. The franchise needs some level of stability. They are on their third coach in a year's time. You can't just move on to a 4th.

I think that folks are overreacting to our use or non-use of Hines. We did not trade a boatload of high round picks for the guy. We traded a seldom-used backup RB and a late-to-mid round draft pick. Hines was not a starter in Indy and he's not a starter in Buffalo. He's a puzzle piece and a weapon that they will use here and there. He's been used in the return game quite a bit and he's gotten a few snaps on offense. The Bills did not have trouble moving the ball or scoring points on Sunday. The issue was mistakes and turnovers killing drives. Giving Hines more snaps probably wouldn't have changed this. The fact that we don't use ANY of our RBs that much is really the issue, not how much or little we use Hines.

Unless the Bills sustain any other WR injuries, this is what is going to happen. That said, what happens if, at the end of the 21 days, the Bills decide that he is healthy enough to play, but they don't want to activate him to the 53? Do they simply waive/release him? I think the plan would be to try and get Stevenson healthy and then find a way to get him to the Practice Squad. Stevenson is an asset who they have drafted and developed, and he has some talent, but I don't believe that he offers the team anything more than any existing WRs (or PRs or KRs) on the roster.

No conspiracy theory here. McDaniels just sucks. He is not a good head coach. And Mark Davis is an idiot. They had a good thing going last season with Rich Bisacchia and he gave up on that in favor of McDaniels. Just stupid.

Not all interceptions and turnovers are the same. Ones that occur on the goal line, in the red zone, and in OT are much worse and cost the team games. That said, I agree with you that Allen will bounce back, set more records and get better.

Hadn't seen this, but wow! Not only is Davis wide open, but it's a completely clean pocket. That should be an easy throw for any NFL QB, let alone one of Allen's caliber. Allen may have been making other reads, but that picket was so clean that he had plenty of time to go to Davis.

I have always been a big supporter of this coaching staff and think they've done a tremendous job, in combination with the front office, to make the Bills a contender and an attractive destination for free agents. But this, as pointed out above, is 3 of these types of losses in 3 years (Hail Murray, 13 seconds, Minnesota mess). The Houston wild-card game a few years ago was not as dramatic, but also a squandering of a big lead on the big stage, could be considered a 4th. Even the AFC Championship game in KC a few years ago started out with a 9-0 Bills lead and they lost, squandering a great start, maybe a 5th? How often do you get spotted a 9-point lead in a huge playoff game? So, yes, I am finally coming around to thinking that the coaching staff has major in-game issues. I'm not going to dig too deep into yesterday's game (I did that in another thread), but just to say that the decision to not take the easy 3 points on 4th and 2 started the downfall of the team in yesterday's game. If they take that 3 points, all of the rest that followed (good and bad) probably wouldn't have happened and probably wouldn't have mattered.

All that said, this was among the most painful losses in franchise history. It was truly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The reason I feel this way has nothing to do with the opponent or the impact on the standings. It's how they responded in key situations. squandering a big lead later in the game failing to take the 3 points on 4th and 2 in the red zone throwing the pick on that same 4th and 2 failing to stop 4th and 18 fumbling the snap on the goal line to give up a TD driving to the 20 in OT with a chance to salvage the win and throwing an unnecssary pick they had all the momentum the Vikings were on their heels there was plenty of time on the clock they had 2 timeouts there were multiple options other than the final throw that was made they were in easy FG range to salvage a tie if it got to 4th and long, which could turn out to a be a key 1/2 game in the sandings. With a tie, they would still be in 1st place in the AFCE and 2nd in the AFC conference standings. Instead, they are 3rd in the division and what, 6th or 7th in the AFC. (So I guess I have to retract my statement that the pain isn't related to impact on the standings.) They had complete control of this game, and had the win in their grasp so many times, and failed to capitalize any of those times. That's why it was painful. In contrast, the Miami game was anomoly based on the heat and injuries, and the Jets game was just a clunker. They were never in a great position to win that game. The Jets beat them. Plus, we'll get rematches with the Dolphins and Jets. In this game, the Bills beat themselves. There were at least 3 different situations where they had this game won, and failed to deliver.

Allen has had a bad stretch where he's forced too many throws, which have resulted in interceptions. Many of these have come at critical times and have cost the team a couple of games. He's still one of the best players in the NFL, and among the top 3 players any GM would take if they were starting a franchise and could pick any player they wanted off of an NFL roster. Josh is a humble guy and a hard worker. I believe he will sit down with the coaching staff and work this out of his game. The Bills' road to home field and the SB has gotten much more difficult, as they now have to make up a game on KC and others. Those early wins against KC, Tennessee and Baltimore could loom huge down the road when it comes to playoff seeding (and if we end up behind KC, the Baltimore and Tennessee wins will still be huge). I believe that the Bills will beat Miami and the Jets in their rematches, right the ship, and win the AFC East. I don't think they'll catch KC for the 1st seed in the AFC and will probably be back at Arrowhead in the AFC Championship. All that said, this was among the most painful losses in franchise history. It was truly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Perhaps I need counseling and/or medication, but I had trouble sleeping last night because of the loss. That had not happened since 13 seconds. That one took a couple of weeks for me to get out of my system. Given that this one was before the midpoint of the season and there's a game on Sunday, I think this one will be gone much sooner. The Browns and Lions are two very winnable games and the Bills should be 8-3 in a couple of weeks with their confidence and swagger back for the home stretch.

It really depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for basic shirt or hat that says "Bills" and/or has the logo, you can probably find that anywhere, including grocery stores like Wegmans, or big box retailer like TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Walmart or Target. If you are looking for higher quality or specialized stuff, I'd say Dick's or the Bills Store at the stadium. Another idea is the New Era flagship store on Delaware Ave., which will probably have the best selection of Bills caps you'll find anywhere.

Both have issues in the pass game, but Brown is superior in the run game. The run game will be more important this week with Allen either playing hurt or out. Thus, Brown should start and get most of the reps if he's healthy and in game shape. As mentioned, Brown is a tough, feisty guy that brings a little bit of extra attitude to the team and they definitely need that this week.