seattlebillsfan

When I say that I mean it; what kind of desperation move is that, with what’s sort of imbalanced perspective on pros and cons at this stage of the game, would lead to a challenge there? McDermott is not sane

Literally insane to challenge that

Wow, 20 minutes versus 7 minutes time of possession advantage for the bengals; miracle we are only down 7

I feel very good about this game; believe the team recognizes it should have lost 4 straight, but didn’t, has played its worst football, has reinforcements coming in, has #17 about to explode, and is headed for 14-3 and home field advantage. This is game 1 of an epic run.

Watching McDermott is now making me feel like I am at work, watching a low performer somewhere in my team underperform and knowing there is better talent out there but I don’t have time or energy to convince the guy’s manager to do the hard work of writing up a new job description and working the recruiting process, or the painful work of cutting the cord with the low performer. Then you finally do it and lo and behold you find someone great and say, “why didn’t we do this 2 years ago?” I am not sure who is the manager afraid to pull to rip cord in this case. I also know it gets easier with more experience to know it is time to make a tough call. Perhaps the fact that Beane is a first time GM and Pegula still is a relatively new owner is slowing things down: they don’t have much experience moving ahead with this uncomfortable move, and knowing that it will be better in the end. Too bad because they have the trump recruiting card in #17. Would not be hard to find a great replacement. Perhaps they just don’t know and fear the unknown…

Goodell probably has a secret division that sells chemicals to the Iraqis

thoughts on London travel…I live in Seattle but have spent 35 nights over the last year in London for work. Jet lag from the west coast is obviously much worse than from Buffalo, with an 8 hour time difference instead is 5. So…I have a routine. The way the flights and time zones work out, I have to depart at 7pm on, say, a Sunday night, sleep as much as I can in a flat bed pod, land around noon on Monday, take a shower and get clean clothes on at the airport, head downtown on the Heathrow Express, go straight to the office, am in meetings from 2:30-6pm or so, have dinner with colleagues, go for a swim in the hotel pool around 9pm, try to get to sleep by 10:30 or so, and hope desperately to sleep for a 4 or 5 hours before waking up in the middle of the night. Sometimes I get back to sleep and sometimes I don’t after that 4-5 hour burst, but that is typically enough to make me fully functional the following day. Bonus is if I don’t start until 10:30am or so on Tuesday, as that often enables me to get a second burst of sleep. It kind of works. I am in good shape on Tuesday. But Tuesday night is almost always worse. Up for hours tossing and turning. Zombie on Wednesday. And total crap shoot from there until I return home on Friday and then am a mess for several days on the other side. So based on all this I have a few reactions on the NFL games in London and what we just saw: 1. it is brutal that the NFL makes teams play in London. Shame on the owners for going along with this; I bet plenty of these guys have experienced the challenges of trans-Atlantic travel in their business lives. The disrespect for the men who put their bodies on the line week in and week out is extraordinary. 2. Everyone’s physiology is different and goodness knows the challenge of playing a brutal, high speed sport at the highest level is completely and totally different from effectiveness in meetings!!! Still, based on my sleep experience, I would say the Bills picked the worst possible strategy for flying over because of the “night 2” sleep challenge. Their night 2 was Saturday night…I suspect it would have actually been much better for their sleep if they had flown on Friday night, muscled through Saturday, gone to sleep at a hotel by the stadium, and rolled into the stadium to prepare for the game as late as their schedule would permit on Sunday. 3. Interesting to wonder what obligations the NFL places on teams, though. Would the scenario above even have been permissible, in light of London press conferences and the like that the team is on the hook for? 4. If the “Friday night flight” option is not available for those reasons, then I think the only way to do this is to fly over as soon as humanely possible in the week before the game. Like Monday. That would provide enough time to get acclimated well enough to sleep well on Saturday night, I bet… 5. …while also ensuring that the following week the team would be zombies because of reacclimatizing to east coast time. So kind of a “screwed no matter what you do” situation. All of this, in my mind, underscores how awful the London games are, and how significant a physiological advantage the Jags had on Sunday. They may, however, have challenges during the week ahead because of their jet lag upon returning to Jacksonville. Just one man’s opinion…

This is amazing. Thank you so much! At what point do you think you will be heading to seats? I am flying into Newark for work (landing at 5:30pm) and decided last minute to get tix to game. Meeting a couple of friends coming in from Manhattan and will need to fix meeting point with them…

Perhaps the Bills can bring him back for road games versus the Steelers, to wave the coat during “Renegade”

Kim is from a suburb of Rochester, not Buffalo (Fairport High School, class of 1987). The point stands though; western NY roots run deep!

This could be good. Von plays as hard and well as he can, anchors a Super Bowl championship defense, and then retires early, saving the Bills cap space in return for an apprenticeship in the GM’s office. Miller is smart and would be a good GM. Kellen Winslow type.

Curtis Brown off right tackle to go up 21-10 over the Steelers on the way to a 9-3 record in week 12 of the 1980 season. Pittsburgh was the defending Super Bowl champion and it felt like a changing of the guard to this then-6th grader, watching with my dad in Rochester. I still remember, 43 years later, him leaping up and signaling “touchdown” as Brown surged through the Steel Curtain to score…

that was the game for sure. I was sure the bills would use the halftime flip to go up 21-17. But they just couldn’t do it. Sad.

Hope so!!!

This is the 258 million dollar elephant in the corner that I hope is getting serious attention, starting immediately: how much damage has already been done to Josh Allen’s right elbow, what is the plan for sorting out whether rest alone is enough or if something surgical is required, what are the implications for his off-season depending on which scenario he is in, etc. There is precedent in another sport for a late-blooming super-talent to dominate at super-human levels for a few years and retire at age 30 due to elbow pain; his name was Sandy Koufax….

I would love to see data on whether the Bills became more big play oriented after #17 had his elbow injury. My sense was that the frequency and effectiveness of short passes was down from the Jets game onward, and I recall seeing remarks from another QB who had experienced a similar injury some years ago, that his short game accuracy and touch was affected more than his long game. Have been wondering whether some of the head scratching play calling and decision making was a function of these physical realities. If that were the case no one would ever talk about it, to avoid tipping off opposing coaches, but it might help explain some of what we have seen over the past 8-10 weeks. This is pure speculation though; as I said would love to see some data on these tendencies pre- and post- the early November Jets game…And most of all if true I hope #17 completely shuts down to recuperate for the next couple of months and figure out if anything else is needed to get him back to 100%…

This game is not over

I am hoping the Bills have been secretly working up a great screen game and saving it up for the Bengals. Seriously; I feel like there is something special in the offing for next week. And something else for the AFCCG….

I have been asking this question since Richard Sherman took him on back in 2013!

Reserved a refundable hotel room in October in downtown Phoenix and booked a refundable plane ticket on frequent flyer miles. I also placed a bet in September for the Bills to make the Super Bowl that should cover about half my ticket. (I also did all of this last year.) My one in-person Super Bowl experience to date (Seahawks-Broncos) taught me how big a hole in my heart there is from the Bills’ losses in the early 1990s, and forged an internal commitment to going if ever the Bills get back. I am in my mid-50s so feel like this window may be the best shot in my lifetime. And I still Billieve THIS YEAR’S team can do it!!!

??

Wasn’t his arm moving forward? Why do the NFL and east coast media elites feel a need to cheat to get Jacksonville in the playoffs? Is it an effort to start building the Trevor Lawrence storyline?

I still gravitate toward the simple solution of deciding the Bills-Bengals game by coin toss. Eliminates any need for rescheduling or format shifts, and doesn’t automatically hand KC the 1 seed due to a tragic event (though they would have the inside track if Bengals win the toss, just as they would have if the Bengals had won last night). I would think the teams could agree to this on Tuesday, and let the league know this is how they would like to handle it. Imperfect to be sure but it has the virtue of providing quick clarity, starting with the players and coaches, who still have the Herculean task of getting ready to play on Sunday while (in the case of the Bills, particularly) praying for a comrade in critical condition.

Rather than wait for the NFL to do something rational and humane, perhaps the Bills and Bengals should agree to settle the outcome by coin toss. Simple, fair, and would have the fringe benefit of quieting people like Skip who can be counted on to spout nonsense under any circumstance.

I rarely post here but have been a Bills fan for 5 decades; first game in Rich Stadium as a kid was watching OJ run wild over the Colts in the first half but Joe Ferguson getting knocked out in the second and the Bills grinding to a halt, losing 42-35. And so it began. I have not lived in Upstate NY since I left for college in 1987 but have been back for a few games and in Bills Backers bars everywhere I have lived. In Seattle since 1999, and picked them up as my #2 team when the Hawks traded for Marshawn Lynch. And went to the Seattle-Denver Super Bowl. My dominant feeling after that game was that I had not fully realized until then how big the void in my heart is that can only by filled when the Bills win the big one. the point of this long winded wind up is to say that when I see something like the McDermott speech, not to mention his moment with Diggs on the sideline on Sunday in Cleveland, and the craziness of #17 pulling off the 35 yarder to Diggs with half a right arm, which was a gutsy call, and the weariness in that locker room that McDermott acknowledges and treats with respect, I get the feeling that with this special team—and make no mistake, this is really, really special right now—there is a kind of quiet emotional leadership needed that McDermott appears to provide. I also don’t think he is God’s gift to game time coaching decisions; wish he were better. And strongly believe that no coach is perfect, and you kind of have what you have when your run takes place; new head coach midstream potentially can disrupt things quite a bit. But I think we have a good part of the formula of what is needed with McDermott. If I were Beane I would be thinking really hard with McDermott about whether we need a new OC or DC that can complement him in new ways. But would ride McDermott, who brings a lot, just not everything, which no coach does.