Beck Water

There's a bit more to unpack there I think. Some media guys who know ball, like Greg Cosell, were saying that Diggs simply wasn't a #1 WR in the league any more by the end of last season (in terms of his ability to release and his speed downfield). Whether he started the season that way and physically wore down, can't say. But it's a fact that by the end of 2022 under Dorsey and with Diggs being force-fed (for example) we weren't seeing the production the latter half of the season. Was that Allen's UCL? Was that Diggs wearing down? Dunno - but Diggs started the season with 7 of 9 games being over (or close to) 100 yds. He finished the season with 2 of 7. And that's under Dorsey. Last season under Brady, Diggs was still targeted 11 times each against Philly and KC. He caught 6 (55%) and 4 (36%) Some posters here with some connections were saying it was an "open secret" as far back as the Senior Bowl last year that the Bills were trying to trade Stefon Diggs. As far as Amari Cooper goes, I think the Bills expected to get more production from him albeit not "Diggs as a focal point" levels. Out of his 8 games with us, he's had 4 over 50 yds and I think that's what the Bills were banking on, 3-4 receptions a game for 50+ yds. He has missed 3 games, 2 with injury and returned playing in a cast. I do wonder if he's still dealing with nagging injuries that are slowing him down. Or maybe at age 30, like a lot of players, he's finding that all the bruises and dings add up during the season. It's hard to tell from the televised broadcast, but I believe I've seen him open at times when Josh went elsewhere with the ball. The throw to Shakir over the middle of the field vs the Ravens, wasn't Cooper beating his guy down the R sideline?

https://operations.nfl.com/the-rules/nfl-video-rulebook/use-of-the-helmet/ USE OF THE HELMET It is a foul if a player: lowers his head and makes forcible contact with his helmet against an opponent; or uses any part of his helmet or facemask to butt or make forcible contact to an opponent’s head or neck These provisions do not prohibit incidental contact by the mask or the helmet in the course of a conventional tackle or block on an opponent. Penalty: Loss of 15 yards. If the foul is by the defense, it is also an automatic first down. The player may be disqualified. That's probably "leashed dog" syndrome. He was going off a decent amount of time BECAUSE they had a leash on him. If you can't get to someone because your coaches and teammates are holding you firmly back, you can yap a bit.

I linked the rule elsewhere

Where do you get this notion? Maybe look at the rules. https://operations.nfl.com/the-rules/nfl-video-rulebook/use-of-the-helmet/ It isn't called nearly as much as it happens but it's not "allowed"

Oh, how short are memories.....Mac Jones rookie year, the Pats went 10-7, Mac threw 22 TD passes to 13 INTs, 224 ypg passing completing 68% ....those aren't world-beating stats but they are absolutely decent for a rookie and he was runner-up OROY to Ja'Mar Chase as a result. Coming into Buffalo, there was a lot of talk about how great he was. Josh McDaniel got a job as HC in Vegas, partly on the strength of how good Mac looked as a rookie. Next year, of course, Belichick got the bright idea to hire Matt Patricia as OC and Joe Judge as QB coach, Mac hated them both and rebelled, and the slippery slope was on. Anyway, that year is pretty much the only argument for Josh McDaniels being a competent OC without Brady and the Patriots Way around him.

Mayyyyyyybe. McDaniels took a young Sam Bradford who had looked promising and won games in his rookie year with Pat Shurmur as his OC, and turned him into a quivering mess who looked as though he totally could not play. 6 TD, 6 INT - in the entire 2011 season. 7-9 and just missed playoffs, to 2-14 and dropping from 26th to 32nd on offense was a big part. Kick McDaniels to the curb, bring in Brian Schottenheimer, and suddenly Bradford looked promising again. Coincidence or not? I think ya gotta keep in mind that outside of his failed stint as a HC in Denver, McDaniels spent the overwhelming majority of his OC career with Tom Brady. In the year he spent as OC in St louis and the 2 years he did not have Brady in NE, he was bad to meh. Did have Mac Jones looking decent though.

But, analogous to McDermott's insistence on DL rotation - if a guy knows he's only gonna be in for a play or two then out, he can go differently than if he's playing every snap. And not sure I agree at all "worst game ever" or even "worst game since he became a starter last year"

Thanks for your explanation! I wouldn't pretend to know what position Bernard was supposed to be in, in zone coverage. I don't have the "key" to the Bills coverage rules. What I saw, especially in the first half, was that the Bills defense as a whole was having success in containing Jackson and Henry - 73 yds on 18 plays was not where the Ravens hoped to be IMO. I thought the Bills did a good job adjusting pre-snap to give themselves success and it seemed clear Bernard was the chief conductor there. I also thought the Bills used multiple guys at the point of attack to compensate for the likelihood that our LB might not be able to shed behemoths like Ricard. Cover1 breaks some of those down I think. In the second half, I thought the Bills wore down, including Bernard. It didn't help a bit that our first 2 offensive possessions were 3 and out then 6 and out. I thought the whole D started to look flat. As a friend said once about a rock singer who came to a sad end, "that's what you get when you take a 60 watt singer and run him at 350W for a few years". At the end of the day, physics is undefeated. I got no quarrel with calling him the 2nd best LB on the field to Milano. I thought Milano looked closer than ever to his old self and just hope his trip to the Blue Tent wasn't anything serious, along with Bernard's trip and the shots of him using the Theragun on the sidelines. As far as Dorian Williams, the guy only played 24 snaps. When you got a guy who is playing Left Bench 60% of the snaps against a physical, large offense like the Ravens, comparing him to a guy who is on the field Every Defensive Snap is a rigged comparison IMO. May your beers be ever tasty and tinged with lime (if that's what you prefer)

We won't get an injury report until Weds. Benford is in concussion protocol, happened on the onside kick at the end of the game.

Drrrrr. I'd like to blame "lack of coffee" but in truth, I'm good there.

All I ask is that the refs this coming week call "illegal formation" and "false start" penalties on the both lines equally, and holding on both lines equally. It was very annoying watching Baltimore clothesline our DLmen in obvious ways and no calls. It would be more annoying watching the KC tackles line up way behind the LOS and false start repeatedly.

Agreed, and even more commentary on players having their "worst game" or "sucking" inside various main threads. The negativity is very annoying.

I think "improve on what they showed last week" is a fairly meaningless way of looking at it. The Ravens were billed (see what I did there?) as having an "unstoppable" offense centered on success in a power run game with DerrickHenry and misdirection with RPOs; on defense, having a league-leading rush defense in Y/R, being 2nd in the league in sacks and having improved their pass D over the last 7 games of the season with a lot of very sticky, physical coverage. The Bills countered by playing to physically controlling the LOS on both sides of the ball against larger and stronger lines. It worked well enough. The Chiefs pose a different set of problems on both offense and defense, so the Bills will need a different strategy to attack them. I don't think we're gonna see 32% base defense against the Chiefs.

Say more. I assume you have some basis for this?

Gotta put in a word for my guy Bernard. If you watch the Cover1 piece on the D, they don't mention it, but Bernard is all over the place before the snap, re-aligning the players. There's no question in my mind that Terrell Bernard is the beat of the Bills defensive heart. And Jesus Christ, where were the officials? Ravens OL was clotheslining our DTs all day. Ed Oliver and BigJ musta had ropeburns on their necks after the game.

Facts: Henry rush in 1st half 8 for 21 yds Henry rush in 2nd half 8 for 63 yds Lamar rush in 1st half 5 for 31 yds Lamar rush in 2nd half 1 for 9 yds They didn't "go away from Henry". He had pretty good success against us in the 2nd half as we were short-handed a bit on D with Rapp out and Milano missing some snaps. 7.9 YPC to be exact If theres a rusher they did go away from in the 2nd half, it was Lamar. They turned a little towards Justice Hill, who had 4 rushes for 30 yds in the 2nd half (2 for 20 in the 1st half). IMO, they decided that the Bills seemed to have a pretty good plan for the RPO so they moved away from it a bit. And you can't say that what they did, didn't work. The Ravens had 182 net yards in the 1st half, 10 first downs. They had 234 net yards in the 2nd half, 13 first downs. They scored 10 points in the 1st half, 15 points in the 2nd half. Objectively, what the Ravens did in the 2nd half offensively, worked better. Absolutely. They would have tied the game. The Bills had time left and time-outs.

This may be a good place to link this TBN article, which goes into the defensive formations the Bills used overall and in a couple of critical situations. 19 plays out of 59 defensive plays is 32%. Describes how the Bills held the Ravens to a FG after they had 1st and goal from the 2: I think that's pretty illustrative about how stopping Henry was a team effort by the Bills D. 3 players had to "win" to enable 1 player to make a tackle. We also needed decent coverage from LB and DE! Milano makes a difference, because he can both cover the pass and rush effectively. According to TBN, Bills ran dime 7x times with a 3-2-6 and 5x with a 4-1-6. Of course the unstated part of this is, Babich guessing correctly on personnel for down, distance, and who the Ravens had on the field.

You could say the Bills played well enough to win, too. Except we did win, and his team didn't. It's kind of a meaningless, consolation prize thing to say. A lot of people are equating Andrews makes that catch, with "Ravens win", and I understand how that feels, emotionally.

It's not forecast to be that cold. 32-ish falling into the mid-20s. Unless you call that "cold as hell". In which case WTF do you call tonight's low of -5F? That's what a 17 yr playoff drought will do for ya

That's quite the generalization. Hamlin has faced a lot of criticism this year for "doing his job" as a safety by making sure he keeps everything in front of him, at the cost of allowing some completions and yards. Now you want to say he "doesn't know how to do his job" because on one play he didn't keep everything in front of him but went for the pick. Can't be both ways. I thought it was gonna be a pick myself.

IMHO he was trying to play the ball and misjudged its trajectory (which is why DBs play defense and are not WR). He was playing for a pick, instead of doing his job as a safety

I surmise you could have everyone on this site watch the video and rate it from 1 to 5 where 1 is "huh? I doan get it" and 5 is "they're slaying it" .... and predict our ages pretty accurately from the rating.

The KC narrative is that Buffalo may beat them in the regular season, but KC levels up in the playoffs and the Bills can't match That's the message behind Kelce's "golf clap" when we beat them in the regular season this year.

Let's GOOOOOOOOOO! Current Wx forecast for KC is 30s at game time, falling into high 20s during the game. Partly cloudy, light wind. Supposed to be the mid-point of a warmer spell, so being a few days off either way should still be decent weather

Gauche to respond to my own post, but snap counts are out. Milano played 51 out of 59 offensive snaps. So he missed 8 snaps on defense.