Old Coot

If Mahomes was a full participant in a non-contact scrimmage, that's an indication he's in stage 4 of the 5 stage concussion protocol. I'm betting he'll play against the Bills. His turf toe may be a bigger issue. Though he limped it did not seem to affect this running or scrambling in the Browns game. Apparently it gets worse after 24 hours or so. Who here has experience with turf toe and can speak to how it might affect Mahomes' game? For example, will it affect his passing footwork?

There are many ways to skin a cat

Until we know later in the week whether Mahomes will play I offer these observations from Reid's post game presser. Reid is usually a straight shooter. I don't think lying comes naturally to him. When asked questions he usually gazes straight at the questioner (or the Zoom screen). When asked about Mahomes' condition in the Presser he said several times that Mahomes was "good" but each time he said that he looked down. This is often a tell that the speaker doesn't believe what he is saying. I think that Reid is concerned about Mahomes. This is not to say that Mahomes won't recover sufficiently to play next week. He did, however, look pretty bad today and that may explain Reid's concern. As far as I'm concerned, to be the best you have to beat the best. My 2 cents.

The Buffalo All Americans were swindled out of the 1921 NFL Championship by George Halas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1921_NFL_Championship_controversy

CB Peters was listed a Questionable with a back injury but will play.

Edmunds has a hamstring injury. How will that affect his LB play?

Given that Ravens blitz a lot you want the guy who better at blitz pick up. That would be, Who?

The Ravens key will be to rattle Josh whether by pressure on him, sacks, QB hits, disrupting our receivers at the line or disguised defenses that aren't what they seem to be. Since our offense revolves around Josh they'll want to rattle him. We need to get out to an early big lead to neutralize the ravens run game. ravens play a ton of man when they blitz so we should run concepts with bunch formations & crossing routes. Same key for our D. Get into Lamar's head. Keep him contained when he runs & force him to beat us in the air. This should be a good game.

It's not a fight. They're discussing the efficacy of foreign exchange arbitrage.

Edwards does seem to try a lot of arm tackles. Could his shoulder still be hurting? Was he an arm tackler last year?

Question for the coaches on the forum: Why do so many QB's use the "what's up" call to hike the ball? Why not a one word signal like "hut"? If the ball is hiked on "what's" there is no need for "up" If the ball isn't hiked until "up" the D line knows a split second in advance when the ball will be hiked. What am I missing?

Wentz is as terrible as Ryan Tannehill. Think about that.

Who remembers O'Connell, Lucas & Chelf, the menswear store?

Frank Reich. Frank holds records for the greatest NFL comeback and (until 2006) college football's greatest comeback. We all know about his NFL comeback (Bills comeback win after being down 35-3). He also QB'd Maryland to a 1984 win over Miami after being down 31-0. The greatest backup QB of all time would have to be Earl Morall. He QB'd the Colts to Super Bowl III (Johnny U was injured that year) and Miami for most of their undefeated 1972 season (Bob Greise was injured for much of the year).. Oh, yes, both teams had excellent defenses. That helped.

Bruce had that incredible outside body lean. His body could be at a 45 degree angle to the ground but he still could push to get outside of the tackle. Amazing.

The Rockpile was featured in the R Redford film, "The Natural"

A number of factors may account for the passing game not putting up the numbers it did early in the season. 1. Opponents now have plenty of tape on our passing game & likely use D's that take away the deep ball. This is helped by the fact that our running game is anemic. 2. Injuries to our WR's -- Broen was out several games & he's the one who threatens to take the top off the D. 3. Maybe the weather.

I think Edmunds will continue at MLB. Why? The Bills play Tampa-2 a lot. With two deep safeties there's a hole in the center of the field in front of & between the safeties. Edmunds has the speed to fill that hole. Think Urlacher's role with the Bear's D. A thumper at MLB doesn't have the speed or agility to do that.

I agree with those who say we have a good coaching staff. It is a bit worrisome that the D adjustments are not quicker. Both this game and the last the D let the other team back into the game from the 3d quarter. The slow adjustments may be a function of our team leading at halftime so its difficult to anticipate how the opponent will adjust. It's difficult for even the best coaches to adjust on the fly. The DC will have a call sheet based on what statistically the opponent's O likely will call given down & distance as well as field location. The DC can't just throw away his call sheet. He's got to rely more on what the coach upstairs sees that the O is doing and on the D being able to execute the adjustments.

It's likely that the Rams figured out what we were doing on D at half time & made offensive adjustments. hard to tell without the all-22 view

Hope we win this one. I don't expect to see a lot of deep balls from Josh in this game. Two reasons: Aaron Donald (as in get the ball out quick) plus Rams' DC will try to take away our passing game. They now have two weeks of film on our passing game. I hope we bring a strong running game with us because we'll need it both to move the ball & loosen up the Rams' pass D. Our best chance on O is to run an O the Rams haven't anticipated.

Interesting Youtube video of Chris Simms explaining what an NFL QB will be thinking as he looks over the defense. It demonstrates why so many QBs with the physical tools are busts in the NFL.

Formerly called a crackback block which has been illegal for years!

Here's the Australian solution to the wide right problem: 6 points if bewteen the uprights; 1 point if "behind" (the wider uprights): video at 2:34 Also shows why you occasionally see Aussie placekickers or punters in the NFL.

It's risky, that's for sure. So why do it? As has been pointed out our run game was non-existent except for Josh's runs. With zone blocking you get the DL moving laterally and gap control can be difficult. Invariably, there is a hole which the QB can scoot through. The success of the QB runs forces the defense to account for the QB as a runner and that usually takes a man out of pass coverage which makes the passing game more successful. Still, I'm worried about the wear & tear on Josh's body. Look what happened to Cam Newton.