The Red King

Why at a Madden tournament?

Really? Well drat... ?

I'm curious to see how Shady plays. He's used to running into brick walls as defenses stacked the box against Tyrod, Peterman and McCarron. Last week when Allen came in, the Browns were forced to ease up and cover a lot more of the field out of respect for his arm. It'll be interesting to see if that opens up things for McCoy.

Oh please, oh please, oh please...

That was mentioned earlier in the thread. Gruden loves Peterman. This might all be waiting on Sunday's game. If Allen plays well and secures the starting role, the very trade you suggest might go through.

Look at Cleveland's defense. That team is going to follow Buffalo's game plan from last season to the letter. Lean on a strong D, rely on Tyrod not making mistakes and hopefully doing just enough to win. Mayfield is their Allen. There are a number of parallels between the Bills' and Browns' rebuilds. Wouldn't be surprised to see both teams emerge as serious threats together next season.

Isn't that how the Hurricanes won the Cup that one year? All of their opponents suffered key injuries just before or while playing them. That part isn't remembered, just the names on the Cup.

We play Brady twice a season...tell me again how well we've done without a decent pass rush this whole time?

This would be a hundred shades of amazing if it could be done. And it might even be possible. Buffalo might be holding off waiting to see how Allen does Sunday before pulling the trigger on such a deal. ...oh, I can hope, can't I?

You don't keep viewers for future games with lines like..."Whelp, that unit sucks arse..." ?

Just remember, if he plays the same way in Cleveland as he did in Buffalo, the media will still blame Buffalo, claiming we ruined him. ?

Let me translate the original post... "Stop being excited about the Bills! Everyone should think they're awful like I do." On paper, the Bills D was not good last year. Hell, the Bills outright on paper were not good. But paper doesn't play football. We got to 9-7 and a playoff spot despite what the paper said. We held the Jags to 10 points on their own field, despite what the paper said. Stop looking at the team on paper. Let's wait for the regular season to start before passing judgement.

That has got to be rough. You can just tell the guy wants to be in camp right now, but knows he really can't. It's got to be eating at him. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. But in the end, his life and family come first. All he can do is move on, and all we can do is thank him, and wish him the best.

Do the Jets even have draft capital to trade? Didn't they trade away their future to move up to #3?

I think he's still undecided, but I think this game means everything. If Allen does well, there is no way they start Peterman, or frenzied fans with torches and pitchforks will show up at the stadium. I think it's pretty clear. This is Allen's final exam. If he shows the right stuff and doesn't crumble under pressure, I think he wins the QB battle right then and there. I also think McD didn't expect it. Start with 3rd string, start with 2nd string...I think the original plan was expecting Allen to falter at some point. He hasn't. So, this is it. The big one.

Excellent. Would be the Chargers then. That first bolded statement made the difference. The Titans would make it and the process would immediately restart without completing the step (and eliminating the Chargers). Thanks, was driving me nuts!

Earlier, I posted on a thread the tie-breaker formula that led to Buffalo making it in. But in doing so, thought of another scenario that stumped me. What if Baltimore finished 8-8? Say, if they lost to Indy as well in Week 16? That would have resulted in the Titans, Bills and Chargers tying for the Wild Card spots. If that happened, the Titans would still have been the 5th seed, but would the Bills or Chargers have made it? Three-way tie, first tie-breaker would be head to head, but that only applies if a team beat or lost to all the teams they're tied with. Didn't happen, so next up is conference record, and here is where it gets tricky. The Titans had one more conference win then Buffalo, who had one more then the Chargers. The Titans had the best conference record, and so would have locked the 5th seed. But...at the same time, the Chargers had the worst. In the same step, the Titans would nab a spot, and the Chargers eliminated, leaving the Bills the Wild Card. But...when a team is locked in or eliminated, the process is supposed to start over with the remaining teams. If the process restarted immediately after the Titans were locked in, then the Chargers would have gotten the sixth spot, since they beat the Bills head-to-head. So, I guess it comes down to just when does the process restart? Would it restart immediately after the Titans locked up #5? Or would the whole conference record tiebreaker play out simultaneously, resulting in the Titans getting #5 and the Chargers getting knocked out at the same time, leaving Buffalo in #6?

You need to look at the intangibles. For example, Brady would crap himself if the Bills signed Mack. ?

Average/consistant/baseline play is Tyrod's MO. It's why they wanted him.

Oh, I get you. Wasn't saying you were wrong, just that it was ironic that the two Cleveland wins/strength of victory came back to bite the Ravens in the rear. ?

There were four teams tied for two Wild Card spots. The Titans had the best conference record, and so got the top Wild Card spot. The Chargers had the worst, and were eliminated. That left Buffalo and Baltimore tied at 9-7 with identical conference records. Next tiebreaker was strength of victory. Basically add together the final win totals of all nine teams beaten. Higher total gets in. Two of the Ravens victories were against the Browns, so two of the nine wins contributed nothing to the Ravens' tiebreaker. The fact that two of the Ravens' wins were against Cleveland helped propel the Bills into that playoff spot.

Ironically, this is exactly why Buffalo edged out Baltimore for that Wild Card spot last season.

It makes sense. Look, you normally get three points for being the home team. So, really, the odds are just saying the Ravens are three points better. Now, both teams finished 9-7 last year, with Buffalo edging them out of the playoff spot based on strength of victory tiebreaker. Since then, Buffalo lost talent on the offensive line. Worse, our starting QB is either going to be a second-year player who threw five picks in a half, or a rookie that hasn't played a regular-season game yet. Considering all that, I think it's fair that the Ravens are six-point favorites. Don't get me wrong, I think Buffalo is actually the better team and might just win it...but from a neutral standpoint setting odds, it's really not that outrageous a line.

A fiend that leads the Bills to 9-7 and best season in the 21st century, ending a seventeen year playoff drought? Truly the worst. ?

Let me start a poll..."Which rookie QB has gotten the most media exposure and praise?" ...well, what do you know...same outcome... ? People who do not actually watch the QBs, and instead rely on the media to tell them who's doing good or bad are going to vote the way we see above. Mayfield winning that poll is no more important then winning Class President in grade school.