Beck Water

Well sure, and I made the same quip in answer to a question “how have any teams beaten them?” But @muppy’s key points (turnovers, key penalties, being physically dominant in the trenches) usually do have a strong influence on that “most points” thing

Another heart-warming story https://buffalonews.com/news/local/bangladeshi-community-rescued-sheltered-and-fed-hundreds-affected-by-blizzard-and-racked-up-4-500/article_344297d2-8799-11ed-9935-7f850480b1b6.html Hope their fines are cancelled because of the lives they saved and helped, just as "Merry Christmas Jay" will not be prosecuted. If not, some of our players were saying they were looking for a way to chip in - quietly paying fines for anyone ticketed whilst helping others would be nice

He did not, but then he DNP two days last week before practicing and playing in the game Scored more points? Three of their losses were really close games which they lost by 8 points total - Steelers, Cowboys, Ravens. Those were all "early in the season" and "they've grown, they're a better football team" now. The Browns really thumped them in Week 8 winning 32 to 13, and the game wasn't as close as the score makes it appear

Diggs is not happy to have aspersions cast upon his cooking prowess 🍳🥘🍲

Yeah, I had the distinct impression from Josh's demeanor and what he said about conversations/discussions - that Joe Burrow wasn't his favorite person. This was mixed in of course with a bunch of polite, praiseful stuff about how he really respects Burrow as a player and a person etcetera Then in Burrow's interview, he said he and Josh are friends and he likes to hang out with him because Josh is outgoing and a fun guy to hang with. Both things can be true I guess - they can enjoy hanging together and be friends to some extent, but also be highly competitive working with Palmer, and maybe as part of that Burrow said some stuff that grated on Josh. They're very different QBs. The piece someone posted of Greg Cosell previewing the game is really good. Essentially my "take" on what he said is that Burrow is the classic QB that Josh Rosen was alleged to be able to become - the elite processor of what he sees pre and post snap, who knows where to go with the ball and is very accurate at getting it there, but who will be aggressive pushing the ball downfield when he sees the opportunity. On defense, since I'm talking about it, Cosell talked about the Bengals being primarily a zone team on early downs, but that on 3D they like to play man from dime by bringing in Trey Flowers and having him cover the TE. He talked about how good the Bengals D is at making in-game adjustments.

I believe if you were to go back and look, there was no "opting" involved. Out of the first 9 games the Bills played, we lost the coin toss in 8 out of 9 cases. In the one case we won (Ravens), we did opt to take the ball 1st, I think because the rain was forecast to become worse as the game went on Josh threw a pick from deep in our own territory and the Ravens took over and scored a TD in a couple of plays But in 8 out of the first 9 games, "confident" had nothing to do with it, the other team won the flip and got to pick.

I think the Bengals feel the opposite - I think they feel they're tired of hearing about Buffalo and KC and Allen and Mahomes. They feel, "hey - who dey team went to the Superbowl and were AFC Champs last season? This team that's who - Bengals!" They feel they're leading the league in pass Yards/Attempt with 8.7. Their QB has the best passer rating in the AFC, #2 overall, the next AFC team is #10 and the Bills are way down there at #16 - this despite being 3rd in the league for sacks and 2nd for sack %. They would say yeah, Burrows has thrown 14 picks, Mahomes has only thrown 1 fewer at 13 and Allen has thrown 2 more at 16. As far as being unpressured, part of that is playing comfortably within the offensive system and taking what the defense gives him, something both Allen and Mahomes fail to do consistently. It leads to them getting the big plays, but it also leads to them laying some eggs at times. Coaches like Dick Vermeil used to think that a QB who could run would fail to develop as a passer because he'd bail and run. While no one could doubt Allen or Mahomes abilities as passers, it's also a point that they'll bail from the pocket and seek the big play at times when they could take the checkdown and move the chains. It's a different style of QB. Anyway, I personally think you can make a case for him being on par with them, based on performance - and his numbers being better in some regards. He out-performed Mahomes in the AFCCG and he out-performed Mahomes in their win earlier this season. If "you are what your record says you are", then the Bengals are right up with the Bills and KC as the Class of the AFC and a game on Monday to prove who's the Big Dawg. It's up to the Bills to prove they're the better team by out-executing on Monday.

LOL you do know that one reason the OL hustles at high speed to wherever Josh just got tackled is that he's apparently a World-Champion Junk Talker and they need to protect him from himself? Josh has a different public persona than Joe Burrow, they're different people who had a different path - Burrow through two Big Time programs and a national championship, one through zero scholarship offers out of high school, one Division 1 offer after JC, and the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl as his biggest stage. It's not like Burrow is all "cocky ass" either: https://www.bengals.com/video/joe-burrow-bengals-bills-week-17-press-conference About a minute in, he says he's hung out quite a bit with Josh Allen, they're friends. Says it's no secret why Josh is so good, he's fun to watch. He runs around and makes plays, makes throws nobody else can make, he's an exciting player, a great player, and it's going to be fun to go against him. He's asked "what do you like about him, why do you hang around with him?" He says (Allen's) just fun to be around, he's an outgoing guy, fun to hang out with. Asked "when did that relationship for you guys start?" says "we both train with the same guy in the off season, so that started when I was training pre draft" He comes across as straightforward and down to earth, and maybe I mis-read Allen's response when he was asked about Burrow. [I also might not be mistaken in that there might be a bunch of competitive smack-talk out there between them, too - I'm sure they're both ultra-competitive guys] Anyway, he didn't come across in that interview as particularly cocky much less sounding like a cocky ass.

I don't think you can make that conclusion. As you point out, the Bears OL is not good. We've been watching Basham all season against some very good OL. So how can you look at a few reps against a bad OL and reach a justified conclusion that there's "basically no drop off"? I agree with this. Part of it is, as you say, that the Bills in AJE and Basham drafted guys they asked to re-model themselves physically, which is always a bit of a crapshoot. I will add that part of my disappointment with Basham is the fact that Creed Humphrey was on the board when they drafted Basham. On the other hand, you can't make much of a case that they signed Von Miller because Basham was a disappointment. They weren't expecting Basham to become Von Miller. They were expecting him to be a rotational DE. The Bills recruited and signed Von Miller because they wanted an elite, game changing DE, and they didn't want to expend the draft resources to trade up as high as they would have had to go to pick one.

Sorry, but anyone who can look at a DT set of Jordan Phillips, Ed Oliver (taken a step), DaQuan Jones, and Tim Settle and think it's "no better" than Vernon Butler, last year's Ed Oliver, Star Lotulelei, and Harrison Phillips, and say "no better than last year" - well, I gotta question whether you're really watching much, or whether you know what you're watching. Yes, we have no "Mario Addison". Wow. We really miss his 7 sacks, 8 TFL, and 7 QB hits playing 45% of the snaps. Add in 1 pass defenses and 1 FF Hughes has had a rejuvenation for the Texans. Whether the scheme suits him better or he had a fire lit under him when the Bills moved on, I can't tell you, but the difference between Hughes his last year here (2 sacks, 1 TFL, 7 QB hits, 3 passes defensed, 2 FF) We are getting better production from Rousseau and AJE this year. That's just a fact. AJ Epenesa has 6.5 sacks, 7 TFL, and 9 QB hits playing 38% of the snaps? 5 passes defensed and 2 FF. Rousseau this year (7 sacks, 9 TFL, 12 QB hits, 4 PD, 1 FF) is not "marginal" Shaq is playing on a 1 year "prove it" deal and he is out to do just that. He has more sacks, TFL, and QB hits than Hughes had last year in B'lo (3.5 sacks, 6 TFL, 9 QB hits, 1 PD, 1 FF in 47% of the snaps. Von Miller is a huge loss for the Bills, there's no sugar coating it. But anyone who brings up missing Jerry Hughes as he played last year for the Bills, while saying Shaq is a "JAG run defender" - again, one has to question whether you're actually watching or just here to troll. "Grade out that well" according to whom? Yeah, OK, we get to the official "this guy makes no sense here". Well, All Righty Then. I mean, it's not like we've already faced the top 3 WR in the league or anything for Y/G, or like we've faced 5 of the top 10 WR in the league for Y/G, or anything. Did they make some plays on us, Yes. Did their teams "Boat race" our D? I guess it depends upon your definition of "boat race". Our D certainly played well enough for us to win both games.

https://thespun.com/nfl/afc-south/tennessee-titans/football-world-impressed-by-titans-performance-tonight I thought Dobbs did well. He didn't have much OL; he didn't have much run game; he kept throwing catchable balls his receivers failed to haul in.

So my understanding, which could be wrong, is that a lot of teams weight their game prep on the most recent 2-3 games. [Evidently, we had some inside info that at times, Pete Carrol and staff just use the most recent game, which is how Daboll double-suckered Belichick and then Carroll in 2020 by having the Bills run the ball down the Patriots throats (which they weren't expecting), then pass all over a Seahawks defense that "had a nice little plan for the run" and had Carroll saying after the game "we were surprised they passed so much". I think Boyd has been shown a lot of stuff from the Bills most recent 2 games, played in horrible conditions. You don't want to do a lot of disguise and extra running around when conditions are slick. You also need simpler game prep when you're playing 3 games in 12 days and your prep and practice time is limited. I think earlier in the season, we did indeed play more disguised coverage than he seems to think. I think this perhaps: https://thespun.com/more/top-stories/joe-burrow-makes-his-thoughts-on-bills-game-very-clear He does acknowledge they haven't played us yet.

We all would. But either the DL is improved enough without Von to bring pressure with 3 or 4, or we are going to struggle in the playoffs, because that was the whole goal of Beane's off-season: improve the DL to where we could affect the QB in the playoffs, while leaving the OL and the WR corps "good enough". The idea is, that protects the secondary

Got some other gems besides Boyd?

I think Simms is more an Allen fan than a Bills fan. He’s especially not a fan of the Bills offense. He say we can’t run, and that our passing game is Allen making things happen.

Thought most people seemed to think that was a broken coverage/miscommunication Tre should have had safety help over the top .

Screen name checks out

Looking pretty likely that Dallas will have more points, and that’s what matters. Style doesn’t

SOOOOOooooo many missed tackles by the Titans And OK, if that is roughing, Titans should definitely have gotten a roughing They are Cutting Dallas slack too

It’s entirely reasonable to point to the Bengals accomplishments this year, especially recent accomplishments, and say they look dangerous and it’s going to be a tough game It’s entirely not reasonable to look at the Bengals last season and say “they’re a better team until proven otherwise”. Last season was last season. This season the Bengals are 11-4 and the Bills are 12-3. The Bengals are an excellent football team, but so are the Bills.

WOOOT! WOOOT! Dak 2nd pick

Should have been RTP. Hit in the helmet. I give it to this Dobbs kid he’s got poise and cojones.

Bobby Trees kind of sucking this game. He doesn’t haul in a 3rd down pass that hits his hands. That ball was pretty well thrown, but he just falls down. C’mon woods

If you look at it as David being sent out against Goliath with his slingshot leather frayed and without enough ammo, it has its points Titans run game is like watching the 2018 Bills try to run, where I used to spend more time than I should have trying to figure out what the run play intent actually was

I was thinking of 7-9 this week and tie next week