mbowman14

I agree with a fair amount of man-to-man and being aggressive vs sitting all game in a passive zone getting picked apart. The Baltimore success rate by coverage splits certainly backs that up as well. I hope if that is the plan, Douglas does not find his way on Worthy. Keep him on Juju or Hopkins. Worthy's speed vs Douglas will be no bueno in man-to-man and a big play waiting to happen.

I thought the tone for the 2nd half was set with the very first play call (toss to Cook). Harbaugh's halftime interview said exactly what you'd have expected (they needed to stop the run). Buffalo surely knew that as well and that first play was the perfect opportunity to run play-action and get things started aggressively. The Bills should have looked at scoring a TD on that drive as game over. It would have forced the Ravens to largely abandon the run. I am not sure if the decision to be so conservative was on Brady or was influenced by McD. It was very strange because Brady has been excellent this year and McD has proven to really trust Josh and has drifted away from his conservative nature. Thankfully they prevailed and hopefully a lesson was learned. As Romo started pointing out repeatedly later in the half, if you go down, go down firing your bullets with 17. Have to enjoy a win like that over a team as tough as the Ravens, but need to play to win and give our best player the chance to lead the team.

I feel homefield is much more important vs the Ravens than the Chiefs. Reasons: 1. Bills have proven multiple times during the regular season that they can win at Arrowhead and while their fans are great, Bills seem to relish that environment. Also, would have won a playoff game there if not for that period of time which shall not be named. 2. The Ravens feed off their home crowd and I feel that stadium with all of the darkness resembles a dark alley fight for which the Bills are not designed. 3. I don't think Highmark has much impact on Mahomes..he is seemingly unflappable. I do think the crowd and some mistakes can snowball on Lamar and my hope is that is what happens Sunday night.

Not getting ahead of ourselves, but the Bills were massively banged up in the Ravens game. Shakir hurt early, no Cooper yet, Bernard, Milano, Taron all inactive. Those are massive holes to fill. I still think the Ravens are the worst matchup, however that game is not a good indicator of what a rematch would look like.

Correct. Also, they were a moronic Jonathan Taylor play (at home) from having their playoff control taken from them in a very meaningful game just a few weeks ago vs the Colts.

Not a chance. His decision making in preseason prompted the move for Codrington. Playoffs aren’t the time for a debut performance at sneaky-high pressure position. It was mentioned earlier and I actually think they might consider Hyde just to securely catch the ball and make correct decisions inside their own 20.

My guess: Sat aft: lac @ hou Sat nt: den @ bills Sun 1: was @ tb Sun 4: gb @ phi Sun 8: pit @ bal Mon: min @ lar

The disjointed offensive performances against the Ravens (hurt early) and Texans (DNP) certainly provide evidence as to his importance.

This also calls into question the 10 second runoff after the Intentional Grounding. I think with 2 TOs left there, burning one of them would have been preferrable to the 10 second runoff which equates to two plays. I really like McD as a coach, but his time management decisions continue to be poor. Not calling a TO with :01 on the play clock in the 2nd half to get below the 2:00 warning after the fg attempt was also suspect. You know these things are discussed in-depth because they are well prepared seemingly in all facets, but far too often it is not the optimal decision with regard to the clock.

I thought about this at the time, and it is the only logical reason not to throw the hail mary. If that really is the concern, let Trubisky throw it. You have to take a shot there for a lucky bounce or DPI. The play to Shakir had no chance whatsoever and it wasted a small opportunity at points. I would also look at the Hook and Ladder play Detroit ran. That is the perfect play for the next to last play of the half when the Bills needed 5-10 yards for a FG and the Lions took away the short sideline since Buffalo had 0 TOs. Something like that from Kincaid to Shakir flying across the field to then get out of bounds. Curious to see if it is added for playoff time.

A hidden part of the game that hasn't been mentioned much is how well the Bills caught the ball. Josh was slightly inaccurate on a few throws and the hands were unreal and need their kudos: (Ty Johnson sliding catch on 1st drive, Ty Johnson 4th down fingertip grab, Dawson Knox 1-hander, Ray Davis TD, Keon Coleman smoothly adjusting to deep ball over his other shoulder, Curtis Samuel diving 1 yard gain on Goal line out route - all off the top of my head). I love the way this team is catching the ball.

It was defensive hands to the face and Edwards’ hands were inside the framework. Horrible call.

Is Cooper hurt? Haven’t seen him lately.

I think game script is a huge deal. I have always been a proponent of deferring the ball until the 2nd half to try and double-dip. The Bills had the double-dip opportunity and failed on both ends which is when the game really went sideways and forced them into chase mode. The Bills seem to have done a poor job this year of scoring drives when they do get the ball first (Ravens game comes to mind as that set the tone). That said, the way the Rams took it to the Bills on the opening drive last week has me re-thinking the coin toss philosophy. It seemed like that drive set the tone and perhaps the Bills would be better off taking the ball and hoping the O can get points on the board first and play from ahead. I think the Bills are very tough when leading and a huge part of the defense being successful is getting ahead and having game situation dictate or play a role in the opponents' playcalling.

The two uncalled false starts by the RT (ridiculous toe-tap catch by Nacua and Screen TD) are not judgment and have to be made. False start calls are black and white. Both of those ended up being huge plays.