UKBillFan

What will the schedule be for the play offs? Saturday late afternoon, Saturday night, Sunday early afternoon, Sunday late afternoon, Sunday night and Monday night?

I can just see us being the Monday night game; I hope not as I'm supposed to be in the office the following day and I know I'll have a nightmare sleeping. I'm working from home on Monday so it'll be easier to handle it if I can't sleep!

Other than the Colts, we've tended to look pretty sharp against the good sides and sloppy (post bye) against the average to poor sides.

Would like us to finish above seventh seed so we can say we would have been in the Play Offs under the old system as well as the new. Should be possible!

The bye would be useful but I don’t think we have much of a home field advantage this year.

I said yesterday on the GDT (or somewhere) whether finishing behind the Pats and having to go on the road may not be a bad thing. Jacksonville excluded, our away performances seem much better than those at home - narrow defeats to Titans and Bucs, which on a slip and dodgy officiating could have been two wins, plus comfortable victories over the Chiefs, Pats and, albeit injury strewn, Saints who still have an strong defense. When compare that to the home performances and we have the limp start to the season against Steelers, the low scoring loss to the Pats, being blown out by the Colts plus the figures above. But what’s changed from last year? Was the weather better? But it was hardly dreadful against the Steelers. We only lost one game all season at home in 2020, a nine point loss to the Chiefs. Something isn’t right this year in comparison so maybe a trip elsewhere wouldn’t be such a bad thing. I’ll cling onto that should the unthinkable happen next Sunday.

In all honesty, this is what bugs me as this is what we hear a lot - hope Josh learns, hope Josh learns, hope Josh learns. But we’ve seen this creep back into his game just when we do think he has learned; the Steelers was a shaky performance all round, then (yes, with a bad O-Line) the Jags, then the Pats, then the first half against the Bucs, then the Pats at home, then the second quarter yesterday. Others have rightly said it’s great we adjusted, utilised his other strengths and won, with Josh managing to recover mentally in the second half to lead us over the line, but for someone who has all the capabilities of being one of the best QBs ever, not just for the Bills, he has these passing games more often than I like and, more concerning, more than he had last year.

Just did the Play Off Predictor where we lose to the Jets and the Steelers or Browns win out; in either case we fall to seventh seed (edit: If all other results go as expected).

This is what I'd love to see - the learning and adaption. Considering what happened at home to the Pats, and then the subsequent amendments from the second half against the Bucs through the trip to Foxboro, it seemed odd that our offense in the first half seemed be going away from what had worked before. I get it's important to switch things up and become unpredictable but, in turn, we harmed ourselves. Second half, with more use of the run game, worked much better.

Want to say Colts but could be wrong.

Thanks for replying rather than simply reacting. I guess a huge positive today, reading your post and thinking about it, is Josh and Daboll adapted the game (admittedly, they were given a chance to adapt) to pull clear. I think, previously, Josh would have become glazed over, started panicking, forced the ball more, and possibly falling apart completely after the three INTs. Today, there was a reset and we were able to pull away. The existence of a running game helped with this but Josh was a massive part of that too.

And against a better team we do not get out of it. But, Colts aside, Josh has done pretty well against the frontrunners this year despite the plethora of narrow defeats.

Considering the Jets ran the Bucs close today, it does. I guess it depends which Bills turn up whether that rating looks high or low at the end of the game.

The thread title is right - too Jekyl and Hyde. The best QB in the league at his best but far too inconsistent. His passing today was horrendous; three INTs at home to the Falcons and regressing back to forcing the ball rather than taking what the defense gave him, which is what he seemed to finally adapt to in the second half vs the Bucs and the following week against the Pats. He was great on the ground today but franchises do not sign a RB for $258m. His heart and toughness got us pass what was a poor team but a performance like that in the Play Offs and we're out. A performance like the second half at the Bucs or at the Pats? Then we have a chance of the Super Bowl.

I'm slightly worried that he keeps returning to forcing it. He seems to pick up the best way forward but not sustain it. How much time does he need to settle in this form of play? Last week he was a £258m man; this week it seems like we've overpaid. The inconsistency in the passing game needs to be sorted out and quickly. Fantastic on the ground, though.

Anyone good at social media, apparently there's a video doing the rounds of Brown laughing and joking on the way to the airport.

Did anyone ask him why Stevenson is allowed bye after bye but McKenzie gets short shrift?

Perhaps he was annoyed he wasn't on the field before?

Sky UK (via NFL Podcast) - Brown got into a New Jersey police cruiser and went to airport shirtless.

Sky in the UK just showed mobile footage from the game where Mike Evans was talking to Brown just before he stripped. Guess he was trying to stop him.

No - and to be honest I think we could beat the Titans and the Chiefs, we've already managed one and come close to the other. The Colts seem like a bad match up for us. Before today I'd have more confidence but all the bad habits which seemed to fade away in the second half against the Bucs and stayed away versus the Pats seemed to come back with a venegence today.

Bizarre timing; he'd only have to wait a week or so surely? Unless Arians decided to tell him then and there he wouldn't be playing for them again!

Whoever gets there between the Chiefs, the Titans and the Colts, depending how the Play Offs pan out.

True - we have quite a few of onlys this year though. The blocked punt against the Steelers?

Thought Beasley was blocked and Josh didn't realise until it was too late. The tipped picks were unfortunate; Prescott nearly had an INT just now but got away with it.