Logic

I'll add this quote, too, from today's Tyler Dunne article. I believe the quote is from an anonymous former Cowboys exec, and the person is speaking about the Cowboys. Still, I believe it applies to the Jets just as much: “You almost have to change the entire organization. You’ll see when they start hiring new head coaches this year, they’re all going to have the press conference and they’re all going to talk about changing the culture, and they're all going to talk about playing hard and talk about playing physical, finishing and saying ‘accountability,’ and they’re going to use all the same words. And all those words are absolutely right. The problem is if the organization isn’t a good solid sound organization, you can change out the coaches all you want. There’s not going to be much of a chance.”

The thing that none of us fans know is what kind of leader and culture builder a guy like Aaron Glenn is. We can look just at the defensive production under his watch as coordinator, but it won't tell us much about his intangibles as a leader. If it IS at all instructive, it shows that the Lions defenders continue to play incredibly hard and didn't have any quit, unlike...some other teams. In any case, while I am tempted to say "he's just another Robert Saleh", that's probably reductive and unfair because, again, I know nothing about the man as a leader. At the end of the day, the Jets still have bad ownership and they still don't have a QB. Until one or both of those issues are rectified, I won't lose much sleep over them.

Such a wasted opportunity. I figure if/when the Bills ever go to the Super Bowl, I'm flying to Buffalo. There's no way I'm watching that game out here in Oregon. I HAVE to be surrounded by Bills fans if/when we finally hoist a Lombardi. I definitely hoped the stadium or field house would be the place.

31st and 32nd!!! If there was ever a week for Kincaid and Knox to be featured in the passing game, this is it...

I really, really hope the Bills offer Brady a bag to stick around, and that Brady is smart enough to avoid Jacksonville. But as soon as I saw Coen shun the Jags, I immediately thought "this is not good news for the Bills". One to keep an eye on...

It's also important to note that every gameplan is unique and opponent-specific, and takes variables like weather into play. It's also important to note that the Bills won.

The Chiefs are always the funniest ones with this "no one believes in us" stuff. Like...I get it. Every team searches for motivation in this stuff. Seemingly every pro athlete on planet earth is motivated by it. But I guarantee that if the Chiefs win the Super Bowl this season, you're gonna hear a bunch of "no one believed in us" and "been doubting us all year" stuff coming out of their mouths. Yes. The 15-2, 1-seed, back-to-back champion Chiefs. No one believed in you. Sure. But you'll hear it! Its a lead pipe lock! Athletes are so funny, man...

Have to wonder if Grable was still working his way back from injury. Either way, the fact that Grable is active over Van Demark in the PLAYOFFS speaks even louder volumes. For this Bills staff to willingly make a 6th round rookie active over a third year player in the playoffs, they must like and trust him, and he must have truly and genuinely beat out the competition.

They've been dressing Grable over a healthy Van Demark for a few weeks now. He seems to have overtaken him on the depth chart. It is my hope that Grable can be the heir apparent to Dion Dawkins after the 2027 season. He's a dude.

For pretty much the entirety of the Patriots dynasty, their calling card was playing smart, mistake-free football and betting that you couldn't match them. They'd run it, throw it short and medium to unimpressive skill players (Welker, Gronk, and Moss notwithstanding), move the chains repeatedly, and play sound defense and special teams. They would out-execute you, out-T.O.P. you, and out-consistency you. When facing the Patriots, you HAD to play a mistake free football game, or you'd lose. The Chiefs have now taken up this mantle. Gone are the days of Mahomes' first couple years where they're slinging it all over the yard. Instead, they too now play time of possession, ball control, take care of the football, out-execute you on the fundamentals, and dare you to play as clean and soundly as them. This is now what the Bills are doing. It's not as exciting as the "sling it all over the yard" stuff, but it's also way less high variance, and it's a proven championship winning formula. The fact that this is the cleanest season of Josh's career (least negative plays, least turnovers) and he was an MVP favorite and the Bills are on the AFC Championship are not coincidences. This is winning football. Don't think for a moment that if and when the Bills NEED to open it up and sling the rock, they won't. But as currently constructed, their strengths are running the ball, moving the chains, driving the ball methodically, and daring you to keep up. It's a good formula. We KNOW it's a good formula because we've seen it win multiple championships, and because the two teams in the AFC championship game this year both employ this formula expertly. Whatever wins a trophy, I'm all for it.

Great post. The 2024 Chiefs do this expertly, too. Sunday's AFCCG is going to be two teams seeing who can out-T.O.P. each other, out-safe/small ball each other. Who can shorten the game most effectively, keep the ball out of their opponents' hands most completely, and limit their opponents' options most dominantly. I predict fast moving quarters, lower than expected final score and, frankly, a more boring game than we're used to when it comes to Bills-Chiefs matchups. This is what the Pats always used to do when they were at their best, it's what the Chiefs do nowadays, and it's what the Bills do. It may not be "exciting", but damned sure is effective!

I would respond that our run game has been the primary engine of our offense as of late. I would also suggest that, on the whole, the production from our tight ends has been average to below average most weeks. Considering that we have a healthy Dalton Kincaid (a 1st rounder chosen ahead of Sam Laporta) and a healthy Dawson Knox (a 3rd rounder who's a pretty good and athletic receiving TE in his own right) at tight end, you'd think the Bills offense would post dominant tight end production, but they don't. We'll see Knox or Kincaid come up with a big clutch catch here and there, but they're certainly not a dominant force most weeks. I can't remember off the top of my head many weeks this season where I thought "Man, the Bills tight ends are dominating this game!". Shakir, of course, has been producing quite well, primarily playing from the slot. I did not mean to imply the teams have completely taken away the middle, only that they are able to devote a lot of attention and resources to doing so because no one on the outside is particularly scary. And some teams -- the good teams -- have done so reasonably well. Obviously, a team producing as many points as the Bills offense does and who is one game away from a Super Bowl berth is doing quite well for itself on offense. My point, though, was specifically in response to the "why isn't Kincaid more productive?" post, which is the purpose of this whole thread. And my answer is "because the Bills don't have threatening enough players on the outside to regularly dissuade opposing defenses from keying on him". That's not the whole answer, of course, but I think it plays a large part.

I agree that its worded poorly and in a confusing way. The website/chart make sense to me. The Tweet is confusing.

I disagree that it disagrees. Shots were called. Guys weren't open. Josh shares blame, too. The gameplan was built with intentionality against a specific opponent, in a specific set of weather conditions. Strategically playing a certain way in certain moments of certain games does not mean that a coach is not aggressive overall. End of the day, Bills won the game.

I agree with both replies thus far. Still, sadly, I fear the "McDermott is too conservative" nonsense will stick around for years to come, even though it's been proven again and again to be outdated nonsense.

https://ftnfantasy.com/nfl/most-aggressive-coaches-of-2024

I joked about it earlier in this thread, but the Bills need to find the "chip on their shoulder" this week. You and I and everyone else can find the notion of needing extra motivation in such a big game silly. But we saw, and had it confirmed by multiple players, how impactful the media all picking the Ravens, the Jerry Coleman comments, etc was for the Bills players. Allen mentioned it right after the game. Just about every pro athlete is motivated by perceived disrespect, and our team seems ESPECIALLY motivated by it. They THRIVE as underdogs. You and I can think that's silly, but that's the reality. Meanwhile, you have Andy Reid saying to the press yesterday "I presume the Bills will be favored, but that's okay, we'll do what we do". He's already planting the seeds in his players' minds that THEY'RE the underdogs. Nevermind that they were a one loss one-seed. I GUARANTEE that they'll be painting themselves as the underdogs all week in their locker room. So I hope the media doubts the Bills loudly and repeatedly all week, harps on how Josh CAN'T beat Mahomes in the playoffs, etc. The Bills need to find their chip for this week.

I truly cannot believe that actual NFL refs have penalized Bills o-linemen for using a sn@tch-trap multiple times this offseason. I, a regular dude on my couch with only low to medium knowledge of football technique and nuance, could tell without a shadow of a doubt that it was a sn@tch-trap. The fact that one or more of the guys who call NFL games for a living couldn't see it is jaw dropping. The fact that the NFL still doesn't have full time officials in general is jaw dropping, especially given that there is now legalized sports gambling.

Gotta hope Benford is one of those dudes who can get through concussion protocol in one week. Kaiir Elam starting at outside corner against Hollywood Brown and Deandre Hopkins feels like a potentially matchup-altering factor.

Two things: One, we have seen again and again the "hot young thing" offensive coordinator be hired as head coach, only to discover that said coordinator doesn't have what it takes as a LEADER OF MEN to be a good head coach. So while I understand the optimism Bears fans will have, a good offensive coordinator is never a guarantee to be a good head coach. Two, the Lions, in my opinion, need to take a page out of the Chiefs' book: Remember when they were perennial playoff contenders with Alex Smith, but they traded way up and took Patrick Mahomes? That's where I believe the Lions are at right now with Jared Goff. He's a steady veteran QB who will get them to the playoffs every year. But in order to take the next step and become a long term DOMINANT team in the NFC, I believe they need to find a DUDE. They need to take a big swing and draft a more dynamic quarterback. Otherwise, they're gonna slowly learn the lesson that Sean McVay learned: Jared Goff is NOT a consistently championship level quarterback.

If you look at Hollins (the most likely receiver, who was wide open) body language on the play, you can see that he was not expecting the ball to be thrown to him. I think the only purpose of the receivers on that play was to run off defenders, and there was no universe in which Josh was going to throw (or intended to throw) the ball one way or the other. To me, that was a 100% Josh run call all the way. Ravens defender #29 did not go with Hollins, as the play was drawn up for him to, and instead rightly recognized that it was all Josh run, and thus crashed in unblocked and tied him up.

As @GunnerBill pointed out in another thread: There WERE some deep shots called, particularly in the third quarter, and Josh generally checked down on those plays. Our outside receivers are, for the most part, not getting deep separation, or separation in general. This allows opposing defense to focus their attention and resources on shutting down the middle of the field, so guys like Knox, Kincaid, and Shakir don't have as much opportunity as you'd like. If you can focus on shutting down the middle of the field, and allow your outside corners to matchup 1-on-1 with the outside receivers, and almost always win those matchups, well... It's all good and well to want Josh to pass the ball down the field more, but if his receivers aren't winning their matchups, then the Bills offense has to find other ways to move the ball, which they have done capably so far.

Such a horrific cesspool. The only thing it's good for is reminding me how awful the internet can be, and how good we have it here at TBD.

100%. There were a couple national media talking heads this morning praising him for not doing so. Dan Orlovsky and Peter Schrager both called it out as illustrating Josh's growth as a decision maker. Watching the replay back this morning, I do not believe he would've been able to get it all the way to Cook, which could've meant a bouncing fumble and potential Ravens scoop and score. Huge play (or non-play, whatever you want to call it).