Beck Water

WGRZ Channel 2 weatherman Pat Hammer My notes from the podcast: Today (Friday): quiet Tonight: sun goes down, "rain/snow combo platter", away from the lake 7 or 7:30 may snow, will warm up tonight/tomorrow and change to lake. Tomorrow (Saturday): windy day with snow showers, maybe 1-2" but high wind of 35-40 mph winds gusting 60-65 mph widespread across area Falls through OP, w to Rochester Tomorrow night: snow will focus and increase, "Lake Effect" process. Band will be there, but very challenging to predict actual location of heaviest band - S. Buffalo or OP? Sunday during tailgating: temperatures in upper teens, snow band either right overhead or just to the north, we won't know location for sure until band sets up. Sunday during game: could be replica of Colts snow game, could not. Chance of heavy snow during the game. Wind will be lighter, 20-30 mph with odd 40 mph gust from Southwest. "Wind will be a thing, but it's not going to be debilitating wind". "Best case": Snow band sets up over Buffalo, Orchard Park gets some snow but only 1-2" during the game. He talked to someone with the Bills this morning, and they are discussing where the players should stay Saturday night - in Buffalo, not in Cleveland.

I assume this is from the McDermott segment on WGR? Douglas and Dodson "questionable". Guess we'll see Hamlin active at safety, and possibly AJ Klein - both for ST if nothing else.

Calf injury

I am an honest Beck. 🌊 I keep receipts, and when I'm shown wrong, I will "belly up" to the bar for my Crow Pie helping. You were right, I was wrong. FWIW, in his post-practice presser this week, Josh said he has had "bumps and bruises" through the season that affect his mechanics. He said he and "Coach Brady" started doing some individual drills again before last week's game and he felt his mechanics were improved. I think that's as close as we're going to get to Josh admitting "yes, I've been hurt and it's affected my throwing mechanics"

Exactly. It would be slightly analogous if the KC sideline was protected from the wind and had heat lamps for the spectators lining the rail at the edge of the field that provided some reflective heat to the players, and under-field heaters, while the Miami sideline was exposed to the wind and had packed snow and ice lining the rail and ground. From experience growing up in Buffalo and then winter camping in the Adirondacks and White Mountains (NH) ..... then moving to Missouri and dealing with Midwestern summers - the German saying "there is no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing" has truth to it when applied to cold weather. People can dress to be safe, if not comfortable, living in the Arctic. In theory it's possible to have cooling clothes for summer with cold packs and fans built in, but it's much more difficult especially when you have to wear protective gear like shoulder pads, kidney pads, thigh pads, and helmet.

You sure about that, abstractly? TBH I haven't delved into the Chiefs run game, but their passing game is not as scary to opponents as it has been in previous years. But the Fins run game is all based upon getting teams to fear their super-fast passing game then running into the resulting confusion. The wind is forecast to be reasonably light - 10 to 12 mph. So if the Dolphins can get their passing game going, they can run better than the Chiefs. But I don't think they have much run game based on 'teams know we're gonna run, and they can't stop us'. Hill obviously knows how to play in KC. The Dolphins, in theory, have a much better passing defense than the Chiefs, but it may be because in some games they get a lead and they know what's coming?

That's exactly my thought. Be careful what you wish for, McDaniel.

Speaking of brutal weather, since this is a KC/Miami thread.... I think that's a wee exaggeration since the Peacock Premium Plus subscription is $11.99 and the cheapest tickets I saw on Stubhub/Ticketmaster were $43. But wow. And this Dolphins fan shows true team spirit about it: "Dolfanatic" LOL

Yeah, that would explain it. Diggs must have some experience playing in snow, but he makes his disdain for weather games clear. I became kind of nervous when I heard the Bills practiced in the field house today. There's nothing like actually getting out in the weather to prepare you for weather. I'm not sure if we have anyone with that life experience on the Bills today. Trent Sherfield (Danville, IL) might be the closest? Or Kincaid, with his 3 years on the Utes?

Wait, I thought Baker was a good QB now at age 28? All in the playoffs and everything? 64% completions, 4044 passing yards, 28 TD, only 10 INT, 238 ypg and all that.

Cook is a very talented runner. But McCoy had this uncanny ability to cut and maintain his balance no matter what the weather conditions, including the Snow Game. Now perhaps Cook will show that ability on Sunday. But as of now Not Proven. What playoff game has been moved to Cleveland?

Wish we had a runner like Shady McCoy

officially, "knee"

I See No Lies

Eh, the "feels like -30F" isn't expected until 3 am. "Feels like" -11 to -14 with windchill during the game. Not that juiced up fans who lose their gloves and mittens can't get into trouble, but if they dress decently and pack on the hand and foot warmers and the battery-operated socks and vests, should be fine. Not quite sure KC fans have that routine down as well as B'lo fans, but they'll manage.

I have no idea where in that PC you feel that "he and Josh aren't close" is coming from. He specifically mentioned "your QB gets banged up" as an injury the Bills had sustained, so that reinforces that maybe Josh's shoulder has been worse than the team has let on, but he knows about it. He was asked about his relationship with Josh evolving this year, he said not so much this year, he's been here 4 years, and when there's adversity that's when you get closer to people. The obvious conclusion to be drawn from what he said is that he's gotten closer to some guys in the locker room (including Josh) during the adversity of injury this season. I always thought their "bro-mance" was more of a media creation than a real off-the-field friendship. Not that they don't have real respect for each other and liking, and not that Diggs didn't have warm fuzzy feelings when he racked up a league-leading 127 receptions for 1535 yds back in 2020. But without a pandemic shutting things down, I don't think Diggs is a big video gamer. He's not a golfer either. You never saw pics of Diggs going to Sabres games or baseball or what have you with Josh, that would be like Davis Webb and Josh and Dawson Knox and sometimes Gabe Davis. Diggs thing is fashion and also "playing" with the ladies, and I think he keeps that "under cover" (pun intended) during the season. I just don't think he and Josh have a lot of interests in common or ever have had. Doesn't mean they're not "locker room family" and don't have a solid professional football relationship. I just never thought they were really 'besties' off the field. I also really liked what I heard from Diggs about the rest of the receiver corps and how he roots for their success and he expects big things from them. He came across as a mature, steady teammate with a positive vibe is what I got from it, little trace of the Diva and the petulant-appearing guy we saw at the end of last season.

Really good suggestion - and after all, Miami won't be using their facility McDaniel wore a tshirt last year "I Wish It Were Colder". Be careful what you wish for, me bucko.

You're responding to someone who took a single quote in an interview entirely out of context. Oh, and he's also a well-known TBD Troll.

How do these guys come up with these stats? Week 12-18 means 6 games for the Bills (Week 13 bye) Week 12-18 means 7 games for the Steelers (Week 6 bye) I mean, it's not a big difference, 231 vs 220, but it's not an even basis set. Why not say the last 6 games or something? OK, I'll put away my "junk NFL stats soapbox" now.

Sounds like there's a bug. Morse missed a practice due to illness Friday of last week and was initially designated "questionable" for the game, though later upgraded. Now it's Knox and Dawkins missing, hopefully they have time to recover. Big issue is, does anyone else get sick?

Davis is a damned good blocker. Our best blocking WR. Not liking Knox and Dawkins missing practice either.

Regardless of who he was throwing to. Kurt Warner became a starter with the Rams with Mike Martz as his offensive coordinator. Kurt Warner has phrased it diplomatically as "Mike Martz was very hard on quarterbacks". I have a little tiny sliver of inside insight and another way of putting it was Mike Martz was a perfectionistic demanding ####### of a control freak. He knew how to scheme up an offense, and he demanded that it run like a swiss watch. Kurt Warner doesn't start for the Rams unless he is able to read the field and make the correct throw to the correct spot with a perfect spiral at the perfect time. Warner understands ball very deeply. He made a living playing the position in structure and parlayed his relatively meh physical talents to their max in his career by having that deep understanding.. The fact that Warner was throwing to high level talent doesn't change Warner's understanding or his processing speed or his precision passing (in his good years). By the way, Faulk and Bruce and Holt and Hakim with the Rams also made their livings playing their positions in structure. Not that they weren't great athletes, but it was called the "Greatest Show on Turf" for a while because it was a very very tough scheme to defend. It didn't depend on them to "beat their man, get to the spot", it depended on creating confliction for defenders with precise route execution.

That is NOT at all Kurt's point. Sheesh, people. Kurt's point is that sometimes it would benefit Josh, and the team, for Josh to operate a bit more within the designed structure of the play. Remember when the Bills were dreadful in the red zone last year? That's at times, because Josh was overlooking the plays available within the designed structure, in favor of free-lancing. And since that tendency is on tape now, sometimes that led him into trouble. I think the reasons are pretty clear. 1) Josh is a fierce competitor. If he thinks he can "go for the gusto", why take the 6 yard gain off the 2 yard route to the flat? 2) For most of his formative football years (HS, Juco, College) Josh pretty much was the team. He only had 1 or 2 other players at most he could count on. So he would go to them, or take it himself. 3) The throwing style Josh came out of college with legit made it hard for him to hit those dump-offs to the flat or little slants. It wasn't until he changed his mechanics in the 2019 off season that he legit could hit them consistently, and he still reverts to his previous mechanics when he's injured. The problem with 1) is that at this point, his tendencies are clear, so the "gusto" routes are getting jumped and picked at a higher rate.

Wiki says "no" but may be out of date:

Because Josh has all the turnovers? Our running backs (other than Josh) do have 6