PoundingDog

The Bills did more man coverage than ever against the Chiefs and had Bernard or Williams plus some rotation of Taron and a safety to make Kelce disappear. As a strategy, that won't change but actual implementation will differ next time. Interestingly Mahomes did not have a single scramble for yards Sunday. Maybe his ankle is not all healed. You can clearly see the Bills pass rush strategy is keyed to beating the tackles from the edge; DTs hold up at the top so he can't step up in the pocket. Essentially force him to get the ball out quickly. When he did leak outside, backs stayed with their guy, not going after Mahomes --- except Douglas who hesitated on whether to guard the endzone line or follow this man (the TE), allowed Mahomes to throw behind him for their last TD.

On the Chris Jones snap counts. That is a "wow"to me. Let's hope the Chiefs continue to play tight games down the stretch and they need him to exert the most in the 4th quarter every game. They probably count on the first round bye to rest key and old guys like him and Kelce.

The Bills missed Milano, Kincaid, Coleman, Carter, Smoot. The Chiefs missed Hollywood Brown, Rashee Rice, Isiah Pacheco, Charles Omenihu, Jaylen Watson, Harrison Butker. For the Bills, Allen played probably his best game overall this year, and based on his Chiefs game history, I have reason to believe he can play at about the same level. Cook and the running backs ran into a wall last Sunday. I'm sure the Bills will look at that and revamp the running game considerably. I can't believe they could do worse than what they did overall. Receiving wise, how much better can Kincaid & Coleman do topping what Knox and Samuel provided in their place last Sunday? Honestly I don't see much there. For the Chiefs, Mahomes is about as steady as they come for playing at a high level. Rashee Rice is done for the year. I do see Hollywood Brown will do more and better than Worthy - the main reason Worthy opened a lot first half was because the Bills put a lot of attention to Kelce and Hopkins. A healthy Brown should do better but his health, coming of IR without much pre-season/live game action with Mahomes, is something to wonder about. Pacheco will certainly do better than Hunt and Hunt himself actually did pretty well last Sunday, just that Reid kind of got away from the running game a bit like he usually do. This is an area that worries me some because while the Chiefs do not run the ball like Ravens, but they can do damage and potentially derail the Bills defensive plan. If we expect Andy Reid to adjust his game plan, this is certainly where he's looking into. Defensively Rousseau is proven to be a huge problem for the Chiefs - in fact the Chiefs O-line tackles have been exposed for awhile now. This where I don't see the Chiefs improving their passing attack too much because there is really no additional help coming in that area, and the Bills with Rousseau, Von, Epenesa, Smoot are probably good enough to harass Mahomes like they did last Sunday. Milano coming back could be huge for the Bills if he's healthy and close to a level where he was before. We don't know where Carter's level is, but if he's continuing his upward trend like he was before he hurt his wrist, he could be a positive contributer helping to nullify what the Chiefs might do on the ground with Pacheco. The Chiefs defensive will get a small boost when Omenihu comes back. He had 7 sacks last year. But Jaylen Watson is key to their secondary. If he's out for the year, they would have just one quality CB in McDuffie. Lasy Sunday game showed when they moved him to cover Cooper, Shakir took off. Chris Jones looked to me slowed down some, maybe the age (30) and the high snap counts (82% as a DT!!!) is catching up to him. Injuries can certainly change things from now to the playoff. But overall, what we saw last Sunday is pretty much both team playing at a high level while missing important pieces. I don't see it change much when they meet again even when all the missing pieces are back. Last Sunday, the Bills executed a little better and the coaching decisions showed quite a bit improvement from what they did against the Chiefs in the past. To finally overcome the Chiefs in the playoff, they probably don't need to overthink and make drastic changes.

Well said. I might pivot slightly and say it is QB friendly. Protection wise, especially the O-Line, you have to give Kromer credit that the interior O-line has improved significantly in guys like Jones/Simmons/Quinnen Williams of the world being less effective against Josh this season and we were not always double-team them. That said, I think there is more to be done scheme wise and Josh's decision making. I'm not much an Xs and Os guy. Just from the high level, looks like we are either start the ball behind the LOS (run, screen, outside boundary) or throw it 10+ yards. It could also be because the Chiefs D had so many guys between those 10 yards (they were certainly very active, rotating and disguising). One thing I'd say is the Chiefs played zone run defense very very well. Cook really has no place to cut back like he has almost every other game. They probably could try more gap runs, just take 3 yards per attempt. The big plays by Cooper are man beaters and that's what the Chiefs relied upon. When Keon and Kincaid are back, we may have more options in that department.

The Bills converted 9 out of 15 third downs Sunday, 7 of 9 conversions are 3rd and 7+ yards. Two of those 7 long conversions are by penalty. The other 6 failed conversions are all 3rd and long as well. If you are the Chiefs defense, you can live with that because it is not normal to consistently do what Bills offense did. If you are Joe Brady, first say a prayer for Josh playing the best football of his life thus far. But you gotta dig deep into it because it is NOT the world you want to live in - constantly in 3rd and 8 world. In fact I'll say this, if we see the Chiefs again in January, and you still have to Josh to convert 3rd and 7+ yards 10+ times, we will be in trouble.

NFL, like any sports, is a show-me-what-you-have-done-yesterday league. Milano has not shown us anything for .. I lost count .. games, and he's no spring chicken that you expect growth. I'd love to have a pro-bowl Milano back. But I'll proceed assuming he's not in that form; in other words, I'm not banking my hope on him to put us over the top this year. I didn't bank any hope on Von Miller helping us last and this season either. But he showed up this year with sacks now so I expect him to be an important piece on 3rd down pass rush the rest of the season. In fact, him and Rousseau rushing from edges on a must-have 3rd down stop is probably one of the better pair in NFL in my view.

Gold diggers? Belichick does not look to be one of those old men who would go down the path like whoever married Ann Nicole Smith. He may gave her a condo in New York and she makes him feel young again.

That just shows he's not that un-interesting. Can't imagine a 24 year-old have the patience to deal with someone portraited in those press conference.

The Ravens are the worst match-up to the Bills. Detroit might be the 2nd worst. Henry/Jackson and the most complicated run oriented attack match well to the biggest weakness of Bills defense. I want to point out that Jackson's passing game has improved. On offense, man coverage maximizes Bills WR weakness. Watch how Steelers would even discourage the Ravens running Henry. They have guys like Keenu Benton and Cameron Heyward on DL which are relative unknown compared to Watt but key to disrupt Ravens blocking scheme. The Bills have Oliver and Jones, enough said. I'm not saying we can't beat Ravens in January - most likely in Buffalo, but it would be a hard fought, tough game. Handling them then going to KC is indeed a tall order. Ideally you want to face one of them on your way to the superbowl from AFC. If the Bills can get the #1 seed, it is like gifted a win in January. Facing both Ravens and Chiefs in Buffalo then is OK. In the most likely scenario where the Bills getting the #2 seeds, I hope we get a break avoiding the Ravens before heading to KC and there is a real chance for that based on what the Steelers are doing now. If the Steelers wind up winning the AFCN division, and the Bills manage to maintain #2 seed. The Ravens are going to be #5 or #6 seed. After the division round, say the Ravens win and other division winners pass thru, then the Ravens will actually go to KC. Things could change but I caution that Steelers might threaten the Bills with the #2 seed. Based on winning opponents remaining, the Steelers have to face Ravens and Eagles away and Chiefs at home. The Bills have Lions and Rams away and 49ers at home. The Lions might be the best team in NFL.

We know Milano WAS great. Is he still? We have learned from Von's experience, right?

There were reports that Terrence looked not well conditioned in training camp and he was rated the worst among Bills starting O-Line for multiple weeks. I don't know the conditioning thing is true or not, but if it is, he might just have played into shape now. Hopefully he stayed in shape during the bye week.

Looking back on that ep, I found the discussion on the empty formation is very good and of course a lot of examples on Allen. Also they reminisced their success on using and defending empty formations. I also saw Belichick's comment on Chiefs/Bills result today on McAfee show. And it is pretty much consistent with his thought in this video before the game was played: all it matters is in the playoff for the Bills to knock off the Chiefs. By the way, now we see Belichick on all kind of shows and that he is pretty animated in conversations, I wonder it is a shtick he put on when he did his press conferences while coaching.

I'm surprised they let Torrence go one on one with Jones and won that many battles on pass protection. You can see clearly on the tape here.

Are you sure they are going for a TD? I'm not lying that I thought they were likely to get that 1st down from 4th and 2. Chiefs are going to take the 2nd timeout. Most likely before 2 minute warning. So say 2:10 at 22 yard line. You are likely looking at 2 runs and if not getting a 1st down, 3rd and long at 2 minute warning. An incomplete pass + a field goal would give Mahomes almost 2 minutes to drive for a winning TD. A non first down run would give Mahomes about 70 seconds to do so. I'm sure that runs thru McDermott's head, but thank God Allen made all of that to moot.

Shakir, Samuel, Hollins top 3 WRs for the Bills last 2 games. Talent wise. probably ranked near bottom in the league. By the end of the season going into Playoffs, you hope it will be Cooper, Shakir, and Coleman. For reference, Bills TEs snap counts:

Agree on the 4th and 3. To be honest, I was expecting us to run the clock out on them and win by 2. They would be aggressive - to go for first downs. 2 first downs and the game would be over. Didn't expect Josh to run for 26 yards in one shot.

Not sure. I think it's RPO. And I think at the end of first half it worked for Ty. Hats' off to the Chiefs playing it well there. The fact that Allen checks into that on 3rd down is a sign of his maturity to me. I know Romo and most people watching the game think it'll be Allen on the ball, but this year, he's more willing to trust someone else. Maybe that play had influence on KC handling the 4th down play where they didn't have a guy spying on Allen. There is a lot of cat-and-mouse game going on there between offense and defense. There are more unpredictability on Bills offense this year. Used to be either Allen passing or Allen runs. Who could have predicted that Bills going to red zones to have Cook running in for 2 TDs where the run game was not going well the whole game? I'm pretty sure Spagnuolo was not expecting those Cook's runs.

I do think they will do all they can on Shakir extension and so far from his personality, nothing suggests Shakir wanting out of Buffalo if the deal is fair. Cooper? He's a professional mercenary in my mind and he'll be 31 next June. He'll probably go to the highest bidder and then be a trade candidate during the season like Hopkins. If I were Beane, a stout 1 tech DT that can step in to play right away would be high on my FA list this off season. Jones is obvious in decline. The ability to hold up at the point of run attack by D Line is probably the weakest point of the entire Bills team. I'd certainly draft another receiver who can play X or Z using one of my top 3 picks.

Cowher is 67.

So this is a well established guy in the league who came in and saw first hand of Josh Allen and the Bills experience. Very plain and straight "big player making big plays at the big moments" from his mouth describing Josh. Guys know that in the locker room. And I want to point out it is probably THE reason Von, who used to be a big guy, is trying his best to prove he still is that guy to his fellows, even though he has been mentioning 13/14 years in the league a lot lately (hedging his diminishing big guy status).

After his second catch, the Chiefs put McDuffie on him. Film will show whether he beat McDuffie or not. Maybe Allen did not want to take a chance and force an issue (like he used to do with Diggs).

Don't play soft. Just regular defense please!

D gotta take chances and blitz mahomes earlier

Samuel is doing better

Want to see Allen takes another step up. There were easier plays out there in the last 2 series. Still tough moving the ball with no big plays