Beck Water

The Packers were missing what, 4 starters on D? Or 3 going into the game then lost a guy early on? The Lions were missing 3 guys too, but they handled it better whether that’s coaching, belief in themselves, higher quality backups - I don’t know. Dan Campbell definitely has them believing. I was wrong about Campbell, I thought he was a buffoon. DOG is what, 5 yards? Is a 43 yd field goal that much different?

They don’t look like a team that is likely to fulfill your hopes. And the Bills are getting them off a mini-bye with West Coast travel.

Are those cajones or just crazy jones?

Brain fart sorry to trouble you to respond

I think they just don't post their injury report on their team site until later in the week. Here's a link to their injury report Weds in a fan post. They're still pretty dang healthy, but it's not zero. They've got Alaric Johnson, their starting LT, who DNP with a foot; and Demarcus Robinson limited with a hand. I'm kind of anxious to see whether/how much Johnson practiced today. I was gonna say that. Smoke in 2019/2020. ? Hail Murray game was a home game for 'Zona?? We had a neutral field the next week when Bills @ Niners was also played in 'Zona.

Agreed, but the Laws of Physics are still against them.

I think that's a fair take. The Bills scheme takes the attitude, "yards? Meh. It's points we'll keep from you." It's built to defend against the pass, and ordinary RBs. But it's susceptible to a Brute like Henry, because our "nickel" linebacker (Taron Johnson) and our linebacker "nickels" (smaller lighter LB) are built to defend the pass and OK at defending ordinary size RBs. But put 'em there with 300 lb Patrick Ricard followed by 247 lb Travis Henry coming at 'em all game and the Laws of Physics are against them. Still, we have to remember that when Henry ran us over, we were without Milano, Bernard, and Taron Johnson. That's almost 30% of the Bills starting defense that the Ravens didn't have to worry about. Kind of analogous to when KC got to face the "Little Sisters of the Poor", AJ Klein and one-winged Dodson along with Dane Jackson and one-foot Douglas at CB in the playoffs.

They may, but Hyde got "his bag"; there are a bunch of young 'n hungry guys on the PS who've been good soldiers all year. "Need" will drive the decision, but if there's no perceived need, I would expect them to feed the kids first.

Yeah, there was a play against the Rams in 2020 where Aaron Donald horse-collared Josh and absolutely spun him around and Allen was LIVID there was no flag. Well, he was in the pocket, so by rule, Good No-Call - but by common sense, if a horse collar tackle is illegal because it's dangerous, what makes it less dangerous to a QB in the pocket? Allen has never missed a game other than Game 7-10 as a rookie when he had a UCL injury. He did sustain a hit in 2019 where he was running, upright, being tackled by one defender (thus going down) and Jonathan Jones came barreling in helmet first and clobbered him on the chin. In the box score play by play I can find, it isn't listed as incurring a penalty; there was an OH on Dawkins commented as "offsetting", so I do think it was flagged as UR. But, it knocked the starting QB out of the game into concussion protocol, and wound up with no consequence at all to the defense because of the hold. (Allen didn't miss a game) Which perfectly illustrates the other side of the story. A defender can eliminate the most important player of the game, the QB, by putting them into concussion protocol and maybe be flagged for unnecessary roughness. That's a pretty clear advantage to the defense, and in fact, it arguably won the game for Houston when Al-Shaair knocked Lawrence out. I don't think he figured he'd be ejected or suspended, and if he'd kept his head and not gone on to throw other players around and continue after the ref told him he was done, it might have stopped with the penalty.

You know, we're running a big-ass pity party for defenders over the wrong things IMO. These are elite athletes. The offensive skill players decide to change direction in an instant in response to defender moves. Defenders change direction in an instant in response to offensive player moves. Now all of a sudden they aren't able to go over a sliding QB or divert off to the side? There's no question in my mind that Al-Shaair deliberately forearmed Lawrence in the neck/head trying to knock him out. You don't forearm a guy to tackle him, so where does the "oh poor Al-Shaair had no time to react" pity party come from? Refs do use some discretion with their flags, if they believe the defender is legit trying to avoid the QB and go over them, put an arm down etc etc. I do think it's legit that some QB (*cough* Mahomes *cough* Williams) fake like they're going out of bounds, defender pulls up and he dances down the sideline for another 10, defender hits him as he's stepping out of bounds it's a penalty. I don't think that should be a penalty unless the QB is clearly OOB when hit. I also do think that Brady has a point, if we want to protect QBs, why are OCs drawing up designed QB run plays like the QB draw that resulted in Lawrence getting hit? This is true. What on earth was he thinking putting his head down and running into Hamlin?

If they start flagging fake slides, they better be damned careful they don't start flagging jukes, which is what Allen did in the Pittsburgh game. @JGMcD2 posted video clips of several runs that were jukes and an actual fake slide for contrast. In a fake slide, the QB tucks one leg back.

I thought they both looked as though they'd fallen off physically. But I don't think Hyde is coming back to be a starter. I think eventually he will be good, but I don't think it's entirely coincidence that the Bills lost the 2 games where Rapp went out with concussion and Bishop played 72% and 100% of the snaps. Of course correlation is not causation. Missing Bernard as well for the Ravens game and having him be coming back (too soon?) vs Houston surely didn't help. We'll see how the Bills use Hyde. Hyde went from JAG to top-notch when the Bills moved him from nickel/dime (where GB had been playing him) to safety. It wasn't his thing and I don't think that's changed. I don't think the Bills would elevate him just to take a dime role I agree, best if Hyde doesn't see the field because the guys who are currently out there continue to be healthy.

Yes. But the player can also just say "nope, I'm good, thanks!" and stay on the practice squad. He's a free agent, he can make his own choice. So when a team tries to sign a player on another team's practice squad, one of three things can happen: 1) player says "nope, I'm good, I'll stay on this practice squad, Thanks" 2) original team says "OK, we'll match them and sign you to our 53 man roster 3) new team signs the player and must pay him as though he's on their 53 man roster for a minimum of 3 games Since rostered players get paid a lot more, a young guy would usually NOT refuse an offer to sign to another team's 53-man - but it has happened when they really feel they have a much better chance to be developed and have a career with the team they're on.

You got some great stuff here that I'd missed somehow. But for "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas", your version is fine, but I gotta give flowers to the original Gayla Peevey version. She was 10 years old when she recorded this fine tune in 1953. Then her non-stage-parents said "we want a kid who can be a kid" and "Nope'd" out of show biz for her. Especial props to the gleeful way she announces "Mom says a hippo would eat me up but then...teacher says a hippo is a vegetarian"

I agree with you, which is why I was surprised at Tom Brady's POV on this. You're absolutely right that Al-Shaair went braced arm to the neck/helmet, and I don't at all see how that was unavoidable to him. By the way, Trevor Lawrence still looks like a horse.

It's an interesting question. Hamlin himself told teammates it was harder on them than it was on him, because he didn't know anything about it while they had to watch it unfold. That said, there are some interesting learnings about the unconscious state - that patients who are unconscious and later recover can hear and remember things that occurred while they were 'out of it'. There's also some interesting stuff about somatic memory where people who have no conscious memory of a traumatic event can still register stress responses when put in the location where the event occurred or into a similar situation. It's not rock-solid research but it's interesting. So as far as the events after his collapse - the CPR and so forth - Hamlin is probably right that it was harder and more traumatic for his teammates than it was for him, for the reasons you cite. As far as having no imprinted memory, though, I'm not entirely sure about that. Either imprinted, or just the learned knoweldge of what happened, I think there probably was some stuff Hamlin had to work through when it came to actually giving and taking a hit (he said some stuff in an interview about needing to work through some things last year).

For whatever it's worth, I agree with you. People give Hamlin grief for staying back and letting up too many yards, but forget that was a Hyde trait as well. The coaching is "keep it in front of you". Hyde watches incredible amounts of film and is very good at digesting it. I expect part of his role will be injecting some late-season energy into the DB film sessions for the young guys. Listen to the interview I linked and tell me it sounds that way to you.

When the Ram-a-Lambs won the Superbowl in 2021, their safeties were Eric Weddle and Taylor Rapp. Weddle signed to the practice squad after the season when Rapp was in concussion protocol and their other starting safety Jordan Fuller (the defensive play caller) went on IR. He had to learn the defense (which allegedly took him just two days), but wound up wearing the "green dot" and calling the defensive plays in the Superbowl. Eric Weddle had retired after 2019 and literally spent 2020 and 2021 at home with his kids and coaching Pee Wee football or something like that. So sometimes signing the ghosts of the past works out.

A practice squad player is officially a free agent, with a few extra wrinkles. So like any free agent, when a team tries to sign them they can say "no" or "yes". Back when the Bills were a bad team, they actually had several players they tried to sign off another team's practice squad who said "thanks, I'm Good." There is a minimum salary, but a vet player can be paid more. I think I heard $890,000 per season is the practice squad maximum, which is pretty much $50k per game.

So about 3 minutes in Hyde is talking about his expected role. He doesn't at all sound like a guy who "only signed because he's going to start once he's reacclimated". He talks about how "it's a new role for me" He sounds like a guy who's excited for where the team is and wants to help any way he can. At least, he sounds that way to me. Judge for yourself. I think he's lost weight though, his face looks really skinny. LOL at the part where he talks about how his locker was still there but Taron and D Ham went through it and got a lot of his stuff, but he's going to see him wearing it and s n a t c h it back.

I don't think that at all. Rapp and Hamlin have been doing a capable job. I think Micah is this year's help with the film room, sideline coach, "break glass in emergency" AJ Klein. I think it looks like the Bills may have something and he hopes he can be part of it, even a small part. I think what players really lose as they age is their recovery. They don't recover as well during the week. So the 2nd week let's say they're 85%, then the next week even less, maybe 70%, so then by week 12 or so they're down to like 35-50% of their off-season peak. It's like Steve Smith and Zo Alexander said on one hilarious piece they did about the difference between vets and young players "They don't listen 'cuz they young. They roll out of bed on Tuesday and go. We "unh-uh, not this day, I need that deep acupuncture" If he's just playing 2-3 games Hyde may have more left to him.

I dunno. I think Poyer kind of left with hard feelings. He had signed a 2 year contract "intending to retire a Bill", the team cut him, and it was pretty clear that he wasn't happy about that. He has a house in S. Florida and his wife loves it there. I don't think he'll want to return to Buffalo. Hyde was a free agent and was reportedly unsure whether or not he wanted to retire. Different situations, different outcomes. Edit: now that I've watched the interview with Hyde, I think family has to do with it too. Apparently Hyde's wife loves it in Buffalo and feels part of the community. Rachel Bush was open about "hating that she has to live in New York State".

Yes, that was one of the plays this guy did more analyze and not just "fanboy" I would want to see a different view of that but I think DPI was involved and it wasn't as close to a pick without that - BUT, clearly there was a 'surer' throw underneath that Josh could have had. I thought Shakir was getting interfered with a lot during the game, which is a testament to how dangerous the 49ers assessed him to be. And statistically, yeah, if you interfere with a guy and prevent a reception on 8 plays and 1 gets called, you're quite possibly ahead. Agreed, he was a fun listen. I'll see if I can carve out some time to check out his coverage breakdowns, you know that's "catnip" for this cat

Fun watch, thanks for sharing! It's kind of a fan piece with a few pieces of professional insight spliced in. He does point out a couple places where Josh got greedy and went for a deep shot when there was a wide open alternative underneath, although on at least one of them I thought DPI was involved.

Just found this video of Tom Brady discussing the hit with Colin Cowherd. It's Tom Brady, so, his POV is worth listening to (especially since he's the one Al-Shaair grabbed by the throat) https://youtu.be/NOU6-IEMeDw?t=31 I will say that his POV kind of surprised me a bit, but then, he did spend many years playing before some of the new rules came into being.