Last Guy on the Bench

I thought Davis looked heavy in all the off season footage. And it’s showing in his sluggish play. Don’t think he is in great shape.

Ha ha. I can't say it was my proudest moment, sitting in my office for 20 minutes forwarding through this Dolphin Fan reaction video to get to all the juicy parts. He wasn't even an interesting personality or commentator, really. I should not have been enjoying it as much as I was.

Yeah, there's no benefit to not calling the timeout at all - that puts total control with the Bills. Its your second scenario that was kind of interesting to me (call it at 15 or so). It just had never occurred to me until I heard the Dolphins fan, but it could have resulted in at least a kickoff and one play for them.

I don't know. If the Bills decide to kick at 15 seconds, sure, Baltimore doesn't have much of a chance, but they have at least a glimmer (as we know to well from Illegal Forward Pass Homerun Throwback Shoot Me Now). Or the Bills take the knee and kick with the clock running, but with a lot less time to switch units. Now that I think about it, why don't you just have your field goal unit take a knee? Too much room for error, since they are not used to it? That's true. The Bills can snap it if they time it right and ground it. Again, though, there is at least the Hail Mary chance. Why not? Baltimore loses nothing by it, unless you think that with 30 seconds to take the knee and bring on the FG unit, there is a better chance of something going wrong for the Bills than there would be for a Hail Mary. That might be true.

Heard an interesting point from a Dolphins fan (I was watching a reaction video and enjoying their crushing disbelief). At the end of the game, when the Bills were just downing it, forcing the Ravens to use up their timeouts so the Bills could kick with no time left, Harbaugh could have forced them into more of a scramble drill. After the 2nd Down knee, Harbaugh uses his last timeout right away at 32 seconds. The Bills can now down it one more time and than have a relatively leisurely half minute to get the kicking team out there, which is what happened. Instead, Harbaugh could have let the clock run down a bit to maybe 15 seconds or so. Then the Bills have much less time after the knee to get the field goal team in place. They could still do it, but it would be rushed. In fact, he could have caused quite a panic even before that - the Bills are expecting the timeout there, but was the FG team ready to run on if Harbaugh didn't call time out at all? If he just let the clock run. Even if they do react well and run out there in good order while the clock is ticking, Harbaugh can still call his time out with enough on the clock that they don't want to kick on third down, so they have to go through the condensed knee/switch units deal. Maybe they decide to just kick on third down with 15 seconds left, rather than risk it, but then the Ravens at least get a kickoff and Hail Mary. Anyway, thought that was interesting, from a very depressed Dolphins fan. Sorry if this was already discussed. I tried to read everything, but may have missed it.

Love it, but we've all seen that kind of hit get flagged. I don't think it should be, as it was totally in the flow of play, and not cheap or late to my eye. But watching it makes me nervous. Lucky some "over-officious jerk" didn't pull the hankie and end the game for us right then.

Could we have Offensive Player of the Week (most likely) AND Defensive Player of the Week (Ed - monster, game-turning stats and impact) in a week where we gave up 40? I haven't caught up on all the games, so I'm sure there are other defensive players that had big weeks. Heck, I'd give Special Teams Player of the Week to Grandpa "Just Got Off the Plane, Where I am I" Slater too, but that is likely my Bills specs.

He did look like he was limping a bit as he walked off the field after that third down play.

He does have a nose for fumble recoveries though- I think going back to college.

I was actually impressed throughout the game with our pass rush. Sure, we were getting whipped in general, but that was all about the Run D and we were facing two lethal HOFers. Obviously I thought we were going to lose, but I was actually seeing some light for this defense down the road, even before the comeback. Run D will look better with more practice on fits, the young DTs getting more time, Bosa settling in (if he stays healthy), the suspended guys coming back, and not facing Lamar and Henry every week. I don't think we'll be a great defense - secondary is hard to love right now. But I think the pass rush might be a lot better than last year and might help us be stronger on 3rd downs. Plus, you know, Josh can always drop two fifty in a quarter when we need him to . . .

Lots of Premier League too plus it’s cheap. I love it.

Isn’t the whole point of “the placebo effect” that placebos do have an impact?

Stupid quick lateral step. Really hard for guys to stay squarely in front of him.

Hadn't seen these. They are absolutely amazing. Loved them and laughed throughout each one. They are like Luis Buñuel meets Gen Z. I'm 60 years old and they fill me with delight.

The RB got in his way for the pitch back. That was awful.

I should feel more empathy seeing as that kid is basically me in my forties and fifties talking about Tom Brady. But that made me laugh with great delight. (And a touch of empathy. We've all been there, little brother.)

Thank you! It is soooo hard to just look at playoff outcomes and make meaningful numbers-based conclusions. The sample is so small and the variables so large. You are much better off looking at the details of what happens and the longer-term patterns over many games/seasons of a given coach. The idea that you aren't a great coach if you don't win a Super Bowl never made sense to me. Too reductive. And even sillier is the idea that you are a great coach if you do win a Super Bowl. As a fan, while I am dying for the Bills to win a Super Bowl once in my lifetime, I can't say I would trade the last several years of phenomenal enjoyment and excellence for one Super Bowl win. If you told me that Norwood's kick would be good, but that subsequently the 90s team would fall of a cliff and not make it back to the next three Super Bowls and that years later the Josh Allen experience would never come to Buffalo, no way in hell I make that trade. I know some of you (many?) would. But not me. I'll take the years and years of deep enjoyment over that one euphoric moment. Of course, if I can have both all the better. Go Bills!

Right. It's funny to watch. But wouldn't have been so funny if that TD got called back because of it.

That interception was on 4th down. We weren't getting a field goal, because McD had decided to go for it (which I like). That's why I don't think it was really a bad interception, though the return made it seem a lot worse.

Ha ha. The replay from behind the goal posts definitely makes it look like it went 70+.

Agreed. I think the Dolphins made the right call. If they make the 2-pointer, then we are in 4-down mode for our whole last drive, giving us an even higher probability of getting at least a field goal. I think their best bet to win was either OT or a relatively quick stop (where we don't go for it on 4th down) and they get the ball back with a little time and a couple time outs and maybe they get the last second field goal. They really played well. Tua only had 3 incompletions. I enjoy dumping on the Dolphins as much as the next Bills fan, but you have to hand it to them. They played a hell of a game on the road, and might well have won it if Poyer doesn't gift us that conversion. (Though the gift might be expensive if Keon is out for a while.)

I've been looking for video of that one. Has anyone seen a link? It was pretty entertaining. And who did that guy bonk on the head with the football afterward (which created the offsetting penalties, thankfully)?

Paste from the comment section of the game article on The Athletic. (No way to know if this is a real Chiefs fan of course.) Eric H. · 1m ago @John P. As a neutral chiefs fan I saw it coming. Sure they shedded some talent but they focused on building a more balanced roster. And as much as everyone (bills fans included) has ***** on McDermott he’s done an excellent job getting good defensive play while dealing with injuries. And of course Josh Allen is still a freak and should be on his way to back to back MVPs (should have won it last year and I don’t see any way he doesn’t win it this year unless he gets hurt). He’s better than Mahomes right now and it’s not particularly close.

If I could translate: "I'm not grading statistics. I'm grading statistics." BTW, I'm not saying your grades are wrong are Alpha's are right. You are just using a different lens than he is, but arguing as if it's the same lens. And your lens doesn't seem to have much of your own analysis to it - it's just the numbers that everyone can see. Whatever Alpha's grades are or aren't, I like it when people take the time to watch and evaluate play beyond what I can see on first glance watching the game or read about it on the stats sheets. Doesn't mean they are always right of course. But they add a lot more value than whatever it is you are doing here. (To be fair, I like a lot of your posts. Just can't understand why you are so cranked about someone else's grading scheme. And why you won't at least critique it on its own terms, if you disagree with it.)

You seem to be grading stats. Which anyone can do. Alpha is grading how well people did what they were asked to do (by the scheme/playcall), in his opinion. You are making no kind of counterargument to what he is actually doing. You're using an entirely different rubric and getting outraged over nothing.