HappyDays

To be fair we got very lucky to not have a 3 and out but good work by Brady after the gift

Do it again

Weird that we can't open any holes in the run game. Rams have a small DL

Aw that was so close

It is frustrating how the opponent's opening scripted drive always looks easy and ours looks lethargic. It hasn't really hurt us yet but it has to change eventually

Didn't look like anyone was open at all on 3rd down

I read Stafford is the best QB against zone this year. We need to switch it up. It's too easy. These awful starts are going to kill us in the playoffs

I really don't get our defense getting gashed at the start of every game

Benford with another incredible textbook pass breakup

I'm not sure I've ever seen such a turnaround for a QB's career.

Honestly no, I can't. The only TD like that the Bills have given up all year is when Bishop was in against Houston. The almost deep pass we gave up to Worthy I'm pretty sure was Benford's fault for not playing the right responsibility. I could see Hamlin hurting us by taking a bad angle as the last man in line to stop an explosive run as he's done a couple times this year but that doesn't keep me up at night.

My take is that just about every defense has a replacement level player starting. Having that one player be a safety isn't a terrible outcome. My fear with Hamlin was that he was below replacement level but it turns out he meets that threshold. If we lose in the playoffs it won't be because of safety play IMO.

Rapp wasn't listed with a game designation yesterday so he will play.

I expected a playoff season but I'm also pleasantly surprised at how well the team has performed. I do credit McDermott for that. Like I said earlier in the thread he has shown me enough this year that in my eyes he has earned another year with this 2nd window of core players no matter what happens in the playoffs. I'm not trying to be unreasonable about my expectations. Nor do I think you're being unreasonable about your continued support. One positive I will give McDermott over Shanahan is his ability to hold the team together in difficult times. Like last year it looked like we were about to be out of the playoffs entirely, but McDermott rallied the team and managed to steal the division with an impressive win streak. This year the 49ers under similar circumstances are seemingly running for the bus at this point. Shanahan looks despondent at press conferences and isn't leading his team. It is the classic culture/leader coach vs the classic X's and O's coach. So I recognize and appreciate McDermott's strengths. At this point though I'm just not patient enough to give him all of Allen's 20s and continue to be the coach beyond that if he hasn't even reached the Super Bowl.

Bills 34 Rams 17 I won't bet on us scoring less than 30 until it happens. Our offense has it rolling right now. In this one I expect James Cook to have a huge day. I worry a bit about our defense only in the sense that Stafford is supposedly the best QB in the league this year versus zone. But the Rams have bad pass protection and Stafford isn't mobile at this stage of his career so I expect us to disrupt him quite a bit. Ultimately the Rams just don't have the talent to keep up with us.

I don't discount that. But it's also true that if Garappolo and Purdy played at even a 75% playoff Josh Allen level the 49ers would have two Super Bowls right now. And so to me it seems that with the 49ers the QB gap has been significantly larger than the coaching gap, and with us it's been the opposite. The 49ers defense this past Super Bowl held the Chiefs to 3 points in the 1st half and then intercepted Mahomes at midfield to start the 2nd half. Can you imagine if we ever had a playoff result like that against them? We're winning by two scores at least. The problem was Purdy couldn't hit a single throw from a messy pocket. It isn't reasonable to look at that result and say "Shanahan can't beat Reid," while simultaneously looking at our result against the Chiefs in the divisional round and say "McDermott got unlucky." The Bills defensive stats in the playoffs are what they are. The goofy coaching decisions in some of our playoff losses are what they are. You can't just hand wave that all away. Eventually McDermott just has to get it done with this QB. I think it is more than reasonable to want a change if he can't get it done this season or next.

Good point about Love, I forgot he was there for the taking in that draft. So yeah they have missed several opportunities to get the position right. I could see Shanahan having the Andy Reid career. Knock on the door a bunch of times but eventually get fired for failing to break through, and then finally get the elite QB on his next team and build a dynasty. Keeping it on the topic of the thread - the main difference between Shanahan and McDermott is there is a pretty glaring reason Shanahan hasn't been able to break though. Maybe it's his own fault for being complacent at QB, but it isn't difficult to foresee him breaking through if he ever gets that missing piece. Whereas with McDermott he already has the elite QB, he has the owner that writes blank checks, so what other conditions does he need to break through? Seems to me like the primary missing condition is that he just has to coach better in the playoffs. On that front I am more optimistic now than I thought I would be coming into the season. If we win the Super Bowl I won't be here saying McDermott backed into it or got lucky, I'll say he legitimately earned it.

And also they haven't had any chances of finding an elite QB since 2018. Honestly their biggest sin was failing to take Mahomes their first year together in 2017, and then failing to either trade up slightly for Allen or draft Lamar in 2018. Those were the last reasonable chances they had to seriously upgrade the position. When they finally took their big swing in 2021 their options were Trey Lance, Mac Jones, and Justin Fields. That's just terrible timing with no possible good outcomes, but it's reasonable to criticize them for not addressing the position sooner than their 5th year together. If they're smart they'll recognize that the current team's window is done. They need to tear it down and take another big swing at QB. Shanahan's curse is that he constantly manages to get top of the league offensive production out of middling QBs, and as a result they talk themselves into staying the course which puts a hard cap on the team's ceiling. If he hasn't learned that by now he never will.

I don't understand this take at all, and it's not the first time I've seen it. You're basically saying that the three best QBs in the NFL right now wouldn't fit into Shanahan's offense. That doesn't make any sense. There's no offensive system where Brock Purdy can be reasonably successful but three elite QBs wouldn't have been able to develop.

Belichick HATES Woody Johnson. He wouldn't accept a billion dollars to even step foot in the building.

Nice prediction Dave. I'll give myself a pat on the back too: Say what you want about Brady, his system has drastically reduced the turnovers. We're the only team in the NFL this season that has zero fumbles by a skill position player (as per Joe Marino). Allen only has 5 INTs, a 1.4% INT rate which is the lowest of his career, and none of them were really awful decisions.

You know I wonder if that incident was not really psychologically traumatic for him. Because he didn't really experience it. One second he was playing football, the next second he was waking up in a hospital and his face was on the cover of magazines. Like when a player tears their ACL it's hard not to think about it every time they cut on that leg after their long recovery because the memory of the injury is vivid. With Hamlin there is no imprinted memory, nothing that would instinctively make him cringe when he goes to lay a big hit. I'm not taking anything away from his courage stepping back on the football field after going through that, but it's something I've thought about.

Late to the party here but I kind of don't like this. With Hyde's neck issues I would rather he just stay retired. I get it, it's hard to give the game up, but one bad hit could cause decades of issues. I really don't want to see that happen. But hey I hope he gets a much deserved Super Bowl ring this year, and that he gets it without having to take the field a single time.

I'm going to state an unpopular opinion - he shouldn't be credited with two TDs on that play. It's either a passing TD or a rushing TD. Personally I would give him a pass completion and then a rushing TD in the stat books. Even though I will always have fun saying "Josh Allen is the only QB in history to score 2 TDs on a single play."