Sammy Watkins' Rib

On the plus side, hammer the season over/under on wins for next season.

Meh, players are going to be dumb and hotheads at times. Coaches are never supposed to be.

Agreed. But going into the game I felt a split with the road teams winning being the most likely outcome in the series this year between NE and Buffalo. So not at all surprised or overly concerned yet. The Tampa game does present a problem though. But should the Bills escape with a W in that one I'll feel they are much more in control despite the trip to New England.

Passer rating is very straight forward. No mystery as to how that is calculated.

I had higher expectations for ESPN's QBR for this game for Allen. This one was definitely a W for the anti QBR crusaders'. Mac Jones QBR 4.3 (84.0 passer rating) Josh Allen QBR 20.4 (75.0 passer rating) Really, Jones QBR should be like a N/A. But 20 QBR for Allen really?

The one to keep an eye on is Baltimore. Very unlikely they finish better than 2-3 so they are likely to end up at 10-7 or worse. 2 of their 3 losses are likely to be out of conference (Packers and Rams) which would not be ideal for us in a tie at 10-7. But I would expect 3 or 4 teams to be tied for places 6-8 so it could get really interesting with the tie breakers.

They have to beat more than one good team all year. For arguments sake I'll say the KC game was against a good team even though they were losing a lot when we played them. So they need one more. The Jags loss hurt but they will make it to the playoffs easily if they can win at least one of their two tough remaining games. If not, well then they very well could need some help and honestly they don't really deserve the playoffs.

I'm leaning the Bills cover the spread but not confident enough to say they win.

The most infuriating thing about #6 is that they will call 4-5 designed runs against some scrub team like the Jets or Falcons later in the year as they already have earlier in the year against some bad teams. I don't want to put Allen in harms way needlessly but a pivotal game like today would have been a good one to use his legs.

Actually I think everything you listed is very capable of happening. You missed the thing that is most unlikely and that is beating the Bucs next weekend. Bills lose to the Bucs then they need the Pats to lose to either the Colts or Dolphins or any other team besides the Bills. Bills win next weekend and it might not matter if the Pats win out in all their games except for the Bills game. Carolina, Atlanta and NY Jets are all home games in Buffalo. Could we get a Jacksonville type game? Much less likely that happens at home. The Patriots? Well as we saw tonight that's basically a toss up so of course the Bills can win at New England in what guaranteed has to be better weather conditions for how our team is built then what we saw tonight.

Bills win out they win the division regardless of what the Pats do. Bills still own the tie-breaker. We have Miami to thank for that.

Are they soft or just not good? Or the wrong puzzle pieces? We were building a team to beat K.C. it seems. Well we accomplished that. Problem is we didn't consider beating the Patriots and Colts of the world.

Yep. And they don't give out the MVP after 12 games and there's five more games to go. Teams do go on 5 game winning streaks. It's not like...impossible. And a 5 game winning streak would still give the Bills the division and the current division leader is the #1 seed. So do the math. That said, do I like our odds to win next week in Tampa Bay? No, not at all.

Absolutely. I suspect he'll demand more than #2 TE money. No reason the Bills should pay him that.

Dawson Knox tonight? Does it need explanation? He's not long for this team.

I didn't say he's going to. just that he's still in it mathematically. You may feel the Bills have zero chance of winning out. I'd disagree. Odds are slim yes. But not zero. And winning out would put him firmly in the conversation. His numbers overall are good after all. I'm simply pointing out that three is NO ROOM for error now in terms of the win/loss column. That is an extreme up hill battle. But before this game even kicked off there was always the possibility Allen could go 2-1 in the three games that matter the most (NE x2 and Tampa Bay) and be very much in the MVP conversation. So what difference does it make if that split is win-loss-win or loss-win-win or win-win-loss? You coming in here and apparently mocking this thread and Allen. Okay. Good job.? Glad you are getting your kicks.

he's still in it despite the loss. but there is no room for error now. Bills HAVE TO win out. I think some were afraid he might have a disaster of a game. quite the opposite for Allen tonight but unfortunately his team might be garbage.

The most head scratching things were the burning of the timeouts. Obviously really could have used them at the end there for one last chance. I guess we could question not taking the wind for the 4th quarter too. But I am not totally sure what the process is there. And then folks would complain that we didn't start with the ball either half. But could have possibly won it with a couple FG's in the 4th if we had the wind. But otherwise, the inability to run the ball, the inability to stop the run, the inability for Knox to not make clutch catches and lose his concentration with a killer false start. I'm not sure those are on the players. I do highly question the lack of running attempts for Allen in a game like this one though. Especially when they will run him in some meaningless game against a crap opponent like the Jets or something. If we are going to risk injury to Allen at least do it in a game like this.

Good game by Allen all things considered. I would guess he'll end up with a QBR in the 70+'s for this game. Some huge drops by Knox and Diggs. He's not out of it by their are two clear must wins now. Tampa Bay and New England in New England.

McDermott and Daboll out smarting themselves not running Allen more in the second half. Especially on that last goal to go series.

Yeah I think Carter did a littler more than that.

Knox is a JAG. This team needs a real TE. I wouldn't offer Knox more than #2 TE money. Even in his break out year this year, it's been more about TD's then yards and receptions. TD's are not as sustainable over the longterm. I'd pay Davis before I ever paid Knox.

Allen's QBR is going to be through the roof in this game with all of Knox's drops.

Getting Bass some confidence for the game winning FG later

Really wish we had McKenzie or Stevenson active now. Feel like we are going to need a huge play to either get back in this game or win it.