ShakAttack

I really hope the path to the Super Bowl is not Bengals > Ravens > Chiefs. imagine being the #2 seed and having the toughest road to the SB in the NFL. fortunately, Bengals still need a lot to happen, but I just don’t really trust the teams that can keep them out of the playoffs. Ugh.

The fact that many of us had this exact initial thought speaks to how traumatized this fan base is

Replace 30+ with Allen maintains or improves his odds for MVP. Granted, scoring 30+ would probably help there.

if Ingram sucks today, I hope McDermott is pressed hard about it in the post game. He deserves every bit of the criticism. Obviously, I hope I’m completely wrong, but as of right now it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense

This time of the year when “everyone is banged up” there is a certain appeal to starting fresh, high ceiling backups. I will be ticked off if we trot out Ingram instead. Was kinda irritated McDermott brought up Ingram’s pick six (from like week 3) when talking about him earlier this week. That int was as easy as catching a routine fly ball in the outfield.

He also had some nice PBU's in the Miami playoff game a couple years ago. And his one start this season - I think it was against Miami - he had a fumble recovery AND a forced fumble that unfortunately didn't count. He's just one of those guys that seems to have a knack for taking the ball away, kinda like Rasul Douglas prior to this season. But turnovers aside, my fundamental point was that he should be starting over Jamarcus Ingram without question. And if there is a chance that we have anything in this guy, now is the time to find out.

I would have to go back and look, but I’m pretty sure I remember at least a couple that were great plays on the ball. in contrast, Jamarcus Ingram’s pick six was TRULY an “anyone can do it” type of play. Heck, if a DT was in his spot, even he would have been able to run up on that air ball lobbed by Tua and secure it.

That all depends on if we give him the chance in the first place. But I'm pulling for this to happen. Think most of us are. Rasul was an incredible acquisition last season, but he's over the hill and has not looked very good this season. Meanwhile, Elam may very well be in his prime... To be completely honest, I have actually been hoping for something to happen that would give Elam a chance to start this season, and I am glad that "something" happened to Douglas rather than Benford. But once again, the fact that we have to even consider the possibility of Ingram starting over Elam is infuriating. Elam was a 1st round investment. Here we are, in December, there is NO BETTER TIME THAN NOW to see what we have in this guy!!! This IS the chance to see if he should be part of the long term plan. It's right there, on a silver platter. If McDermott botches this one too.... I don't even know what to say. We already know Ingram's ceiling. Elam, on the other hand, could be something special. Yes, we have seen him struggle at times, but we're going up against the Lions. They are not going to have a problem moving the ball on us. Which means we will likely need to be playing for turnovers on defense and Elam gives you the best chance at that, better than any other DB on this roster.

There are 2 decisions that should be no brainers right now that you won’t see McDermott do: 1. Pull Milano for Dorian Williams (at least this week) 2. Start Elam over Ingram (maybe we do this one, but won’t be surprised if McD goes 0 for 2) EDIT- Assuming Rasul is out

In a game like yesterday, a turnover can change everything. If a team is going to run & pass all over us anyway, give me the CB that has made multiple red zone ints in big games despite a very limited # of starts in his career. Many of us expect the Lions game to be similar. Elam needs to be starting over Ingram in this game. This shouldn't even be up for debate and I hate that it is.

It’s because of whoever posted this on Facebook last week:

I agree. He made at least 2 ridiculous catches and it is not a coincidence that the one time we forced a Rams punt was after making a stop on the only 3rd down in which Nacua was not in the game. I was praying that he’d stay sidelined.

I don’t know… sometimes it takes the bills 2 consecutive losses before they flip the switch. Good news is, that usually happens once a year, and it already happened this year. We will see.

If there is going to be a silver lining today, it will be the Chiefs losing. If not, we may have lost the #1 seed today, so I can't really think of any silver linings.

Pretty sure a game only qualifies as "game of the year" when there is a ton of scoring. Which is why these "game of the year" typically involves Allen with some herculian effort to keep the Bills in the game while the defense has one of its annual meltdowns under Sean McDermott.

It also probably cost us Allen's "MVP moment" for this season........ and possibly the #1 seed. Funny thing is, as far as the MVP goes, his chances had to have improved today, despite the L

I am nearly positive that the Bills with Mcdermott & Allen have lost every "game of the year" type of game they've played in... lol And the messed up part is in at least a couple of those games it is pretty much Allen's best game of the year too

We could be in for another 2 game losing streak unless something changes fast. Detroit is like an uber version of LA in many ways...

I can think of one non-health related reason the #1 seed seems more important this season: In years past, we had a CLEAR advantage over the teams we faced in the Wild Card round. In every case, these teams were on a lower level than most of the other playoff teams. This season is different. As of right now, the teams we could potentially face in the Wild Card round actually concern me a bit. There are going to be a lot of great defenses in this year's playoffs, and that in itself can keep games close, and once a game goes down to the wire, anything goes. Not having to deal with that at all and play one less game seems like a major advantage in the AFC this season, more than in the past.

Really isn't. In fact, 37% seems low after what I witnessed when I was at SoFi last year for Bills @ Chargers. Seemed a lot more like 63% Bills fans and 37% Charger fans (at best). And nearly 100% of fans that were in the stadium prior to kickoff were Bills fans. Charger fans showed up later.

I'm not sure why we never give KJ Hamler a shot. He's a former 2nd round pick that flashed at the beginning of his career when healthy, had injury issues that kept him out for a while, but now he's healthy, and we still keep him out. That one always frustrates me because he fills the "need for speed" void, but we never give him a shot. I have a feeling he is going to be the next Isaiah Hodgins or MVS that starts popping up on the highlight reels as soon as he gets his chance with another team. I guess it's a good thing that we keep winning anyway, but I'd love to see a legitimate burner that could chase down an Allen deep ball (how many teams have we seen Allen deep balls that were just barely out of the receiver's reach?)

On a side note, good for Brock Bowers being the leading vote getter at TE. Despite Raiders only having 2 wins, his unbelievable rookie season is not being overlooked. There’s one that fan votes actually did get right.

Sigh... looks like I'm going to have to break it down. In 2020, we lost to the Titans and Chiefs (2 consecutive L's) and then went 9-1 the rest of the way. In 2021, we lost to the Pats and Bucs, and then went 4-0 In 2022, we lost to the Jets and Vikings, and then went 7-0 In 2023, we lost to the Bengals and Broncos, and then went 6-1 In 2024, we lost to the Ravens and Texans, and have won 7 straight since then. I was hoping to avoid writing that up, but I'm glad you made me do it because it appears I may have been wrong as this math actually adds up to 33-2 🤣 but no I am not going to double check it. Yeah that was it. I did the breakdown in a previous post after seeing your response. After doing that, it appears we were actually 33-2 (I think).

The Bills have lost 2 straight games at some point every season since 2020. Their combined record since 2020 after losing those 2 straight games each year is 32-2... No, but we have lost 2 consecutive game once, every season, since 2020... And after losing that second consecutive game, we have completely turned it around, with a 32-2 combined record. Pretty amazing. Maybe the fact that the stat can be initially confusing is why we don't hear about it as much as we should.. lol. But once you realize what it is, to me, that's 10x more impressive that going 16-0 or 17-0 in a single season.

I remember when we lost 2 games in a row early in the season, I heard a statistic about our absurd record after losing 2 straight games (since 2020) and I thought to myself "well that's because it usually happens before we make our November & December runs before the playoffs. Well, this year, it happened on October 6, and we have not lost since that day. The Buffalo Bills are now 32-2 after losing 2 consecutive games since 2020. One of those 2 losses was last year's OT game in Philly. Also, for the record, we have lost 2 straight games in every season since 2020. 32-2!!! Come on now...