HappyDays

I usually have a good feel for 4th down decisions but I have no clue on this one

Yeah it actually depends. If LA loses to Denver as one of their losses then KC gets in over them at 10-7. Couldn't tell you why but that's what the playoff machine says.

I was wrong. A tie is as good as a win for LA. If they tie or win this game they need to win 2 more games and they keep KC out no matter what, even if KC beats them.

A tie kind of helps KC too I think. LA needs to get to 10 wins.

They're not just playing for the FG... are they?

Don't get me wrong McConkey is a good player but your WR room is in really rough shape when a short slot WR is the best you have. Chargers can't block the edges and can't get open outside and as a result their offense looks totally non-functional.

Wow that's two big drops for AJ Brown in this one

They should have let him score a TD. Now they will kick a FG as the clock runs out

Nobody wants to win this game

I can't believe that punt. Netted like 25 yards of field position

Okay maybe KC will make the playoffs after all

I'm only able to follow the game on ESPN gamecast tonight and I cannot begin to imagine what that play actually looked like

That man's family tree already has more branches than the British monarchy

Those two examples you used are ancient history in NFL years. These days there is maybe one defense per year that is able to actually slow down top offenses. This year it's Houston, and they have two top 3 picks that turned into superstars. A team like us picking at the bottom of the rounds, we're never going to have a defense that talented. And just to be clear I'm not saying defense is totally meaningless even with the rules as skewed towards offense as they are today. I'm fine using 1st rounders on DL and CBs and occasionally giving out big FA contracts to legit defensive players. But you can't spend almost your entire set of offseason resources on that side of the ball, and then still get into games like yesterday. We're extremely lucky to have the only QB in the entire NFL that can win yesterday's game for the Bills, but I hate having to rely on that. There have been several games this year where we needed the offense to be the unit that made a play at the end. Same with our last two playoff losses. Sometimes Allen is able to pull it out all on his own but a lot of times he's not. So I'm happy to accept that no defensive coaching could have made any kind of difference in yesterday's game, as long as we're also accepting that no amount of investment could have made a difference either. Whereas a couple legit investments on offense absolutely could have made it easier on us. Allen's ability to have a legendary performance in a shootout should be a bonus, not the only possible win condition.

So I don't necessarily have a problem with a talented offense putting points on the scoreboard. I get it, Cincy when healthy can do that to just about anyone other than maybe Houston. The path to beating them is what we did yesterday, try to put up 40 and create a couple negative plays on defense along the way. My overarching complaint, and this is more about the roster construction than the coaching yesterday, is that we spent all this money and draft picks on the defense only for us to still end up in these shootouts. Like we're acknowledging before the game even starts that Cincy is putting up 30+ no matter what, so why do we not want offensive weapons that can keep pace in a game like that? What is the point of investing in the defense as much as we have at the expense of the offense if we're just going to throw our hands up and say "nothing more we could have done" when another offense has its way with us? Either it's true that we need to keep making big investments in the defense, or it's true that nobody can stop an elite offense when they're clicking. Those statements can't both be true. If the second statement is true (and I acknowledge that it mostly is) then the only viable solution is an offense that can match.

You're right I looked it up, his first grandchild was born in 2010 and that was also the last season he played.

Honest question - would Rivers be the first grandfather to play in the NFL?

I get it. Spent a few years with his 10 children and decided getting sandwiched by Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson sounded more appealing.

The Gesicki TD happened because a bunch of our DBs didn't know their assignments... I've seen less of this since McDermott took over play calling from Babich after the Atlanta debacle, but before that play Cam Lewis and others are frantically pointing at each other like they have no idea who is covering who. Looks like a man call to me but Taron is way out of position to be covering Gesicki and late getting to him, meanwhile Burrow had an even easier TD he could have thrown to an underneath player on the same side that nobody was covering.

One random fun wrinkle that popped up on the all-22. On Benford's CB blitz into a sack we had Ja'Marr Chase being double covered by Shaq Thompson and... Greg Rousseau 😂 Here's the play: Good aggressive play call in a moment where we really needed a negative play. Another note - Hancock is athletic but he doesn't really know what he's supposed to be doing on a lot of his plays. The TD to Higgins with Tre in coverage, Hancock inexplicably comes way downhill seemingly to cover Gesicki who is already bottled up, meanwhile Tre looks like he's expecting help deep and inside and it isn't there. Bishop on the other hand didn't give up anything as far as I could tell and had a couple nice run fills from depth.

This was the one play call that really bothered me in real time. Now you would certainly know better than me. Watching it back on the all-22 based on Tre's drop I would think it's cover 3 (or cover 6?) where he's dropping into his deep 3rd leaving no one underneath to take the air out of Iosivas' route. Easy pitch and catch from there. But are you saying Tre is playing man on Iosivas there? Because if so that's a horrible job by him, so bad that it makes the play call look silly.

I feel like I was right not to be overly concerned about the safety position when everyone else was panicking. Well I'll admit Rapp was much worse than I expected. I don't know if it was the injury or what but he went from being a decent player to an outright liability. My whole thing all along was I didn't need a superstar at the position, just no liabilities. Once Rapp was removed and we inserted a replacement level player in Poyer the whole machine clicked into place. Obviously big credit to Bishop as well who has elevated his game well beyond what I expected based on his early season play.

This is just sad. Exposing him to potentially a lifetime of complications for what a 10% chance of making the playoffs?

Are you sure? Or do you just only look at hyper nitpicky Bills all-22 reviews but don't do the same for the Bengals? Tell me what you think about this play: Looks to me like Burrow has the easy completion underneath but tries to force one over Taron's head and almost gets intercepted. Allen has the lowest air yards per attempt of his career this year. It really isn't the case anymore that he is turning down open short throws to force dangerous passes downfield.