dave mcbride

It already has worked for the Rams. They're in the championship game and playing at home.

Mack's cap number ($17.8 million next year, which doesn't include the bonus: https://overthecap.com/player/khalil-mack/2944/) is a problem unless the Bills do a serious restructure of the contract. I suppose much of it could be converted to bonus given that the Bills aren't on the hook for the Bears' bonus. But why would the Bears trade him? He's an elite player and they want to win next season.

Hughes is still a better player than Shaq, as is Addison. Whether they'll be better *next* year -- a year older -- is the question. Also, I think the Bills like to roll with 9 d-linemen. I'm pretty down on Epenesa. He not only doesn't make plays, he doesn't play within the framework the Bills use -- DEs getting pressure without overpursuing toward the QB. By running too far upfield, he was responsible for that one long 3rd-and-long run by Mac Jones on the Pats opening drive in the playoff game.

The SB was a combination of both starting tackles being out and Mahomes playing with turf toe. I remember at the end of the AFC championship game last year when Fisher, their LT, went down in garbage time with an achilles. I thought, uh oh. It truly had a domino effect on that line in the SB. The combo they ran out there was total trash.

The problem with Mahomes is that he's not only a generationally great thrower, he's a ridiculously good scrambler who regularly makes defensive lines look bad. Even our two sacks of him were negligible; he ran out out bounds on both just behind the LOS. Basically, he presents the same problems that Josh Allen presents. They are both generational talents who are better than the guys they face on defense.

Btw, here's that passage from Albert Breer's SI MMQB column the other day: '3) This one’s more of a trend thing. “You look at Jameson leaving Ohio State, and he was the fourth receiver there, and then [Chris] Olave and [Garrett] Wilson opt out of the Rose Bowl, Jaxon Smith-Njigba breaks every record and Marvin Harrison Jr. steps right in. And no one can cover them,” said an AFC exec. “Those two things show the stark difference between receiver and corner right now. You look in the third and fourth rounds last year, and see Amon-Ra St. Brown, and Josh Palmer, and Nico Collins, and all these receivers that can play. And good luck finding a corner at that point of the draft.” The overarching point should be driven home again this year. There’s no Ja’Marr Chase in 2022. But there is depth, as there has been the last few years, at receiver. And it will, again, be a challenge to find good corners in April. 4) Along those lines, and this is something I brought up last spring: I don’t think it’s a coincidence that so many corners coming into the league are NFL legacies. The top two corners drafted last year (Jaycee Horn and Patrick Surtain II), and four of the top 13 taken (adding Asante Samuel Jr. and Elijah Molden) have NFL dads. This year, the presumptive top corner, LSU’s Derek Stingley Jr., had an NFL grandfather. What’s the hook here? Well, with the proliferation of seven-on-seven and explosion of spread offenses at the high school level, the best athletes all want to play receiver. A dad who played in the league sees that, and realizes, because of it, there’s a better chance that a great 6' 1", 200-pound athlete can make it at corner than at receiver. Bottom line, there are a lot of wideouts who profile athletically like Horn and Surtain, but far fewer corners. It means, ultimately, a better chance to get drafted higher. And a better chance, because of the scarcity of corners in the league, to sustain NFL earning power.' https://www.si.com/nfl/2022/01/17/mmqb-wild-card-weekend-kyle-shanahan-49ers-cowboys-rivalry

Sounds like his players at OSU and Florida spent a ton of time in college classes.

The PAC-12 isn't as bad as you think it is. This is the sort of thinking that makes teams shy away from Justin Herbert because he was a PAC-12 guy instead of an SEC guy. There are tons of good HS players on the west coast and they tend to stay there for college. Obviously the SEC is the best conference (although with regard to aggregate numbers bear in mind that they have two more teams than the PAC-12), but a bunch of PAC-12 schools have 20+ players in the NFL: https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2021-09-06/nfl-players-college-2021-rosters. (Scroll down for individual schools.) When comparing the PAC-12 to the Big 10, ACC, and SEC, factor in that they have 12 schools vs. 14 for the latter three.

I'll push against this a little because being a head coach is about so much more than tactical problems in just one game - it's hiring a staff, having a vision, a particular culture, etc. The Bills got the better of KC's offense in a big game early in the season, and in the playoff game they did a decent job of containing a truly explosive offense (holding them to 26 points) for the first 59 minutes. There's a bigger picture to consider then just those final 4 minutes (including OT).

If there was ever a time to call a second timeout, it was before that kick. I am pretty sure that they didn't cut to an ad after the Bills second TD.

I'm willing to give him more than 2/3 of a season to prove himself at RT. He had some shaky performances but some good ones too. I mean, the leap from Northern Iowa to the NFL is huge.

As I have said repeatedly, in playoff football against elite qbs, it is not a fair fight. Defenses are exhausted.

There are ... other games.

this is fair. I think QB is a push, and I think edwards-helaire is a little better than singletary. As for CB, minus White I think they're a push.

Other teams' defenses have stopped the Chiefs or at least held them in check. Tennessee held them to three points. The Bills held them to 20 with White playing. Green Bay held them to 13. They struggled against the Broncos two times and had a hard time dealing with the Denver CBs. It can be done. The Bills need better physical talent at CB.

Seemed to be a ton about bets for me, but what do I know -- i regard gambling as boring and as a poor tax. https://www.pff.com/.

the lack of Tre was huge. The physical talent for the Bills main CBs is not great. I like Wallace, but neither he nor Dane can keep up with those guys - as you saw on the crosser that Hill took to the house when matched up against Wallace.

@Hapless Bills Fan, it's weird -- today I checked out the PFF home site for the first time (i've always gotten there via links to various stats/ratings). It's basically ... a straight-up gambling site. Very weird. But then again the NFL spends most of its energy promoting gambling these days.

An elite CB would absolutely have helped. The Bills had no passes defensed on 44 throws.

I dunno about that .... I think it's always going to be a collective decision in such a crucial moment. It's his job as the HEAD coach to be involved in that. That's what he's paid to do. I wouldn't read too much into it. The BIlls D was great this season and destroyed NE last week. They just ran into their nemesis this week - uncoverable guys on crossers and the other qb in the league who is as good as Josh. KC has been destroying good defenses for years.

I am rooting against Kroenke. Don't really have any hatred of the other three teams, and I will confess to liking Mahomes's game. Not that I actually like the Chiefs.

Ha! Melvin Ingram, I mean. I have always confused their names going back to their SD days.

It's like arguing that a game of random chance is as much fun and entertaining as the game of football. Going back to 2011, 6 of 9 OT playoff games have been won on opening TD drives and the coin flip winner has won 8 of 9 times.

This isn't correct. Manning beat Brady on his third try, in 2006. He lost in 2003 and 2004. He also won in 2013 and 2015 vs. Brady, ending up 3-3 overall.

If Melvin Gordon played against the Bills every week he'd break the sack record.