Old Coot

Question: Assume a short kick to the 5 yd line. Returner catches it & immediately kneels down, does the clock stop then or only when the returner is touched? I think only when the returner is touched and that the rule is different for a kneel down in the end zone.

Interesting thing about statistics: 1. Odds of coin coming up tails 11 times in a row is quite small. But 2. The coin doesn't know that. There are only two sides to the coin so on the 11th flip, the odds are 50-50 that it lands tails.

How do you effectively cover Kelce and Hill for most of the game and then let them run wild at the end of the 4 Q & OT? It's either terrible defensive calls or our D wore down at the end. Maybe a bit of both.

The receivers were wide open because the Bills were playing Prevent defense, as in Prevent your team from being victorius.

I think the key is how the respective OL's perform: Does our OL avoid execution errors & give Josh time to throw? Does their OL give Mahomes time to throw?

Watching the receiver's hands & eyes can tell you alot about where the ball is.

This will be a battle of the offensive lines. Whichever line plays better wins the game. I hope that's the Bills' line. I was struck by how well our line protected the QB and run blocked cmpared to the Cards OL tonight. Give Allen or Mahomes a clean pocket and they'll shred any D. Conversely, pressure on either and they play like mere mortals.

30 years from now 200,000 guys will claim they were at the game

Why don't you guys like Romo?

Un-Bill-leviable. It's a grand larceny theft

The O line should get a game ball for this win. They gave Josh time to work his magic and opened some holes for Motor, to say nothing of those pulling center plays.

You make a good point. Thankfully our O kept us out of 3d & long most of the night.

More details on possible ways to break down Bills' execution: Twists & stunts by DL; blitz/ fake blitz, particularly showing double A gap blitz and then back out or run the blitz. This stresses the Bills' interior OL which is not the beast If NE can confuse our OL as other teams have done we are in for a long day.

I did not say that. It's more complex than that. It all depends on why a strategy did not work. In the second game the Bills out-executed the Pats.

Yes but that doesn't mean its a bad strategy. The Bills responded after each Pats score. You can bet that Belichick will scheme to break down the Bills' execution (assuming we don't do that ourselves). We have the better tean. WE just need to go out & show that.

If I were Belichick here's what I'd do: 1. On Defense: Take away the intermediate to long ball and force the Bills into runs & short completions> The idea is to make the Bills consistently execute the ball down the field. Consistent execution has been a weakness of our offense. Mix in a few well-timed blitzes. Change up coverages every series to confuse Josh. 2. On offense: Establish a running game so Jones can get his play-action passing game working. Mix in a few deep balls to keep the defense honest.

I think the basis of decision-making must be heuristics; that is, relying on rules of thumb based on experience. That said, analytics should inform heuristics. Take for example, the 4th & short decision from your own end of the field. Maybe the analytics say there's an 80% chance of success. But you need to dig deeper. What factors led to the 80% success rate & what factors account for the 20% failure rate. Further, waht is your own team's experience with short yardage pickups. I would not expect the Bills to have an 80% chance of success on 4th & short & I don't think they have. Why? Their OL. My 2 cents

oops. Guess I need new glasses. I didn't see the date on the article

ESPN is reporting that he agreed to a 3 yr $30 mil deal with the Dolphins

The flanker or flankerback was originally a halfback motioned out or set out to the flank of the T formation. He was the receiver off the LOS. On the other side, the end split out to the flank was the "split end." The other end tight to the tackle was the "tight end." Clark Shaughnessy is usually credited with the innovation of motioning out the halfback. Note that Shaughnessy did not invent the concept of man in motion but maximized its effectiveness. Shaughnessy was one of the greatest innovators in the game of football. I'll end with a question: why are offensive tackles called tackles? They don't tackle anyone.

There must be a reason they run shotgun so much. It gives Josh more time to read the D. Under center the QB must turn his back to the D to get to his throwing spot. Also shotgun enables Josh to see a free rusher more easily.

Probably film study by the DB. As far as I can remember when Josh looks to dump off its never a fake so the DB knows that as soon as Josh looks to dump off he can come up on the RB.

That's a difficult play for any LB to make. Edmunds is the MLB and he has no outside help -- the LB on that side Milano blitzes. Looks like the DB who normally would cover the receiver doubles one of the receivers to the other side. The receiver crosses behind Edmunds. At no point does Edmunds have a shot at making the tackle -- he's behind the receiver, who is faster than him. A good play call against our D. The blitz didn't get to Brady in time.

Excellent post. You obviously know your X's & O's. I have a question for you about Josh's ball placement on his dump off passes to RBs. First the content: Josh throws behind the RB forcing him to turn his back to the D to receive the ball. This allows the D to rally to the RB and the result is that the play gains minimal yardage. When I see similar plays executed by other teams the gain often is 5-7 yards. Here's the question: are QBs coached to lace the throw behind the RB or is that just Josh?

This game is reminisent of last year's Superbowl. TB blitzed the daylights out of Mahomes. Same here. The difference? KC was down two starting tackles.