seattlebillsfan

Not sure if this point has been made but to me the bigger issue on the accepted penalty was clock management. No matter what happens, you are giving up an extra 30 seconds by accepting the penalty. Those 30 seconds were solid gold. Bizarre to even think about it. Time trumps all in that situation…

That’s it. Simply a binary thing and inexplicable to misunderstand the situation. Seems to me after this game there are 3 long term potential solutions: 1) replace McDermott; 2) keep him but with a new title, “chief team executive and culture officer” or something like that, and then hire a new head coach; 3) bring in a specialist to call the game in the last 5 minutes. The problem with 2) is that it is unlikely a good coach would take the job. So it seems to me it is 1 or 3, and I am not sure how feasible 3 is. Probably best just to promote Brady to head coach and move on…

It’s rare to see a coach make such a dumb, pivotal call as McDermott did with the timeout on the goal line. Either get a new coach to make those decisions and promote McDermott to chief culture officer or get a new coach. Just can’t afford these brain farts in critical moment

Why are most of the Bills’ defensive starters still on the field?

Yes, there are 2 options: 1. Old school: complete human accountability with no replay. Add a ref or two if needed to cover the entire field effectively 2. total technology solution. Just 1 human as mouthpiece for sensors, video review, total tech.

Since I live in Seattle, no excuse for me to miss the game! Can’t wait and hope everyone heading into town, from distances short and long, has a wonderful time in the Emerald City. Go Bills!

Me too; just hoping his turf toe is lingering and when better so will he be

Who plays instead of him?

Josh took vicious shots on the failed trick play in Baltimore and then yesterday on the play that sent him to the blue tent. He also has been playing since the end of the Cardinals game with a damaged left hand, how severe we don’t know. My concern is that we are simply seeing the natural result of a freak of nature getting the freak knocked out of him too frequently. If I were Pegula I would be asking some hard questions about the long term plan to maximize the effectiveness of the extraordinary Josh Allen for the next 10 years. And if I didn’t like the answer I would start making a plan to clean house.

The slow-mo also seems to capture him grimacing in pain. How I wish Josh could reliably hand to Cook or Davis on a sweep or draw for a TD, the way Kelly used to with #34 and #23...Please Joe Brady, help #17 finish his 7th season intact and play for another 7 after that (all with the BIlls!)

YoutubeTV problems? I missed the entire first quarter. Wonder if I could email Google and get 1/68 of my $420 season subscription back

Those two also high on my list. Would add Earl Campbell.

Since “jaded” has no relevant meaning in this context, I assume he got his “j” words mixed up and meant to say “jilted”. Typical Pats moron

Big personality, self-deprecating, funny, from the wrong side of the tracks, has worked his tail off to get here and knows It’s just the beginning of a whole new ballgame…that is the vibe I got. Plus an obvious gratitude for hitting the lottery with #17 about to be throwing him the ball, and a strong commitment to hold up his end of the stick. What’s not to like?

Lots of thoughtful comments in this thread so I hesitate to weigh in, but I would assert one thing, which is that if your definition of a #1 is someone like Kelce, Moss, Gronk, or Lofton, then you have set the bar really, really high…Clearly most teams won’t have a #1 if that is the bar, because most teams won’t have a Hall of Fame receiver. So it seems either like we need a lower bar, or we need a new label—don’t call the player a #1, call him a HoF wide receiver…

That is really unfair to James K. Polk. In 4 short years he seized the entire southwest from Mexico, drastically reduced tariffs, made the English sell the Oregon Territory, and built an independent Treasury Department. Having done all this, he sought no second term! (Source: They Might Be Giants, the James K. Polk song.)

RIP Carl and has great wisdom about how to “get a stew on” !!!

Bummer

I was there; first home playoff game since the Kelly era. I really had a feeling when the touchback took place and the Allen fumble was recovered that the football gods might finally be on our side. Then getting down to the 25, first and 10, a plausible path to beat the clock and keep Mahommes off the field…it just felt like it was meant to be. Something special in the air. Then it all went south in ways being discussed ad nauseum on threads here. The instant Bass trotted out to kick I looked up at the sky, and said, “and here comes Patrick Mahommes. Why god?” So for me the disappointment was big in the sense that I went from a feeling that fate might be turning, to—very rapidly—the opposite. All in the space of about 3 minutes (if you include the 2 minute warning TV timeout). But as soon as the “our time has come” spell was broken I kind of took it fatalistically, which is how I am feeling now. My other feeling is a deep sense of relief that it did not seem, from Highmark, as though Ed Hochuli cost us the game. That would have been very hard to take. This was different: Hope. Poof. Resignation.

4 of the 7 were members of the Philly officiating team

So it looks like 4 of the 7 refs (Hochuli, Holt, Killen, and Padroza) for the Chiefs game on Sunday also refereed the Eagles game in November. The remaining 3 (Fremont, Hall, Meyer) were not on the crew that gave the week 12 game to the Eagles. Never clear of course how much of the bad officiating is free lance stuff based on personal bias or incompetence and how much is imposed from NY based on the perceived financial interests of the east coast media elites and NFL. What we do know is that 4/7 of the crew, either on its own or at the behest of NY, was part of a set of egregiously bad calls that nearly put a dagger in the heart of the Bills’ 2023 season.

Ravens divisional win in January 2021. Stifling defensive performance.

A key question is, who is the accountable decision maker? A strong GM would fire McDermott tomorrow and probably would have after the Broncos or Pats games. But Beane did not do that then and is unlikely to do so tomorrow. Is that because Beane is compromised in some way given his tight interrelationship with McDermott throughout their tenure? And if that is the case must Beane and McDermott go together? And if that is the case how much confidence should we have in Terry getting these choices right without Kim there to call the shots as she may well have done when they drafted #17? Or is there another path forward? Can Terry just call Beane in the morning and say look, I need to roll the dice with one of you chuckleheads, clearly it’s not Sean; he is a loser. The whole world can see it … so bring me a plan in 7 days for how to turn this thing around or else you are done, too? it is an interesting management and governance moment…

The reality is that the NFL remembers how Super Bowl ad rates stagnated during the Bills’ Super Bowls. They will never let the Bills back; too expensive.

I am still simply blown away and incredulous at the challenge