Boatdrinks

This seems related to our familiarity with the Bills and knowing every detail of their tendencies plus emotional investment in the games. They are among the best in the NFL in 3rd down defense and have been for years under McD.

Overall the Bills defense fell from 1st overall on 3rd down defense in 2021 to 7th in 2022. Still a top 10 unit even with a lot of injuries. It seems any 3rd down issues are perceived rather than real. Most teams would love to be where the Bills are on 3rd down defensively.

Dolphins were 4/16 on 3rd down

Josh’s accuracy was fine. He overshot Diggs on first drive ( not unusual for him on early series)and there was no issue on his part with the 1 on 1 to Brown. Of course you take that shot; it looked like Brown lost the ball in the sun or broke the wrong way. The other INT went off Beasleys hands right to a defender. The OL had issues and Josh needed to just cover up and take the sack. That scoop and score was a bit reckless on his part.

Except when it’s called against the Bills in the playoffs vs Texans

Yep. Bruce clearly had Esiasons jersey, not the face mask and Merlin Olsen pointed this out on the replay. It felt like the Bills never recovered from those penalties in a close defensive game.

Right? The Bengals are not some perfect team and neither are the Bills. The Bills are favored in this game and that seems about right. The Bengals are somewhat mythicized now , and their QB hasn’t earned his stolen nickname of “ Joe Cool “ ( sorry that’s only for one Joe - Montana) This will probably be a close game and I believe the Bills will emerge victorious. The closest thing I see to a perfect team right now is the 49ers ; maybe just maybe the Bills will finally meet that franchise in the Super Bowl.

Was so disappointed after that game. That was my first experience as a Bills fan seeing the team play in an AFC title game. That loss was so much worse than just losing a playoff game. The Bills and Bengals haven’t met in the playoffs since.

Well, companies want to buy any commercial spot the NFL will sell them. That’s because the NFL is ratings gold ; pretty much the surest thing in TV these days. Viewing habits have changed and the amount of commercial breaks in football games reflects that. If you had a product that was in seemingly unlimited demand, would you sell less of it ? Of course not. So the commercial break situation is another change brought to you by the millennial generation that you simply have to live with. There are alternatives though: redzone as you mentioned , Sunday ticket or just DVR the game and skip through it later. Maybe just get up and grab another beer.

The Bills don’t have too much trouble scoring points.

Exactly. Everyone wants to see a perfect, clean game. Those happen, but most wins aren’t that way. We know the Bills had way too many turnovers, but some were a bit flukish. Meanwhile our next opponent was on the verge of getting knocked out in their stadium last night and won on a bizzare goal line play call that turned into a defensive TD. Think they’re happy with that win ? Of course the Bills will need to protect the football but that goes for every game.

Vikings were a fugazi

That terrible plan produced 34 points - really should have been 41 if Knox doesn’t drop a TD. You think Allen played 4 quarters going away from the game plan ?

I think they won 8 in a row in ‘93. I’d have to check but I’d bet that was the last time

Trolls have multiplied

Would be a good idea if the Bills could actually execute an effective screen. We’ve seen enough to know they cannot.

He was not “ sniped” from the practice squad. He was released and claimed off waivers. They were probably going to re sign him the next day. It was a calculated risk that came up snake eyes.

Exactly. They thought they could sneak him through waivers and re sign the next day because he had done nothing up to that point. Joe Schoen and Daboll were familiar and grabbed him. It wasn’t anything to do with evaluation but rather a calculated risk vs releasing another player. It backfired and that happens when you have a deep roster.

Agree. The only perfect solution was playing the game. Otherwise there were going to be “ inequities”. I’d have to think that if the situation had occurred in say, the first week of December the game would have been made up. With just one more week to go, resuming the game would have meant delaying the entire playoff schedule or reworking the format altogether. Those ideas were jettisoned in favor of certain adjustments if a few scenarios came about. They did the least amount of modification possible, but definitely not perfect.

It absolutely was. A lesser block cost the Bills a TD in playoff game vs Houston a few years ago.

Maybe , it seems like a lot of things were considered. In the end the league just wanted to “wash its hands”of the Bills/ Bengals game and deal with it only if certain scenarios came about. Other proposals required a complete rework of the playoff schedule or even format , and those were just creating new problems instead of resolving one. Irrelevant. 3 decades is too far back as the WC format ( and caliber of team) was different. The Bills went 13-3 and would have had the second conference bye in years past. They would not have been playing a Wild Card weekend game. Going back 3 decades is comparing apples to oranges.

Most likely, but the Bills were not awarded the #1 seed even though they actually owned a tiebreaker over KC. Provision for neutral field was only in championship game / playoff game involving two teams that played unequal amount of games. So no neutral field for BUF/ CIN. That may have been different if the records were tied.

Key word is IF. The game never happened and the league wasn’t dealing in what if’s. The records were what they actually were. There was a provision for a potential neutral site AFCC game involving CIN and KC (they played a different number of games ) but that went away when the Chiefs won their final regular season game.

He sure did , I noticed that too… cheap shot artist . Hopefully he gets his comeuppance next Sunday

Oh damn I thought for sure they’d be covering KC