Matt in KC

Another great post, Mike. I always like reading your stats-driven posts.

I agree there's rarely a penalty on kneel-downs, and if there is, it is against the defense (the ref's know the D would love to stop the clock). What caused this scuffle was that there was was a defender on top of McGahee at the end of the run repeatedly pushing his head into the ground after the play. Bennie Anderson saw this and lunged at the guy, and pushed him off. As a few Chiefs went to grab him, CV saw what was happening and stormed in to support his teammate. As a long-time hockey fan, I went from thinking Bennie was undisciplined as usual to appreciating his support (and CV's) of his teammate. Tell me you wouldn't want one of our linemen to go after a defender blatently pummmeling McGahee when the game outcome was (nearly) certain.

I agree, MW just doesn't look right (injured). Why do you think he wasn't listed on the injury report for the Bills?

Holcomb's concussion heads injury report

Starting after 2:00 warning 1st Down: kneel (40 seconds run off, 1:20 left) 2nd Down: kneel (40 seconds run off, :40 left) 3rd Down: kneel (40 seconds run off, no time left) No need for fourth down, but if a couple seconds are left, go ahead and punt, or take a 30 yard sack...

Does anyone know when his cast comes off (or is it already off)?

I'd prefer to think someone was confused (is it possible the scoreboard said they did have a TO?) than to think they couldn't figure out that they could kneel to win.

I watched the McGahee fumle 3 times. It did not look at all close to me. Yes, the Bills could have kneeled to run out the clock. The various posts aout 25-second clocks ae boggling my mind. But, the math meant it would have been close: but there were 3 40-second clocks the bills could have run out (after 1st, 2nd, 3rd downs). The announcers said at the end of the third quarter they were having trouble with the clocks <I have to mock them here> For some reason all of the clocks in the stadium are black, they have zeros where the numbers usually are... and because of that, all of our clocks also say zero.... uum, oh, now they say 15:00. We'll be back with the start of the fourth quarter.... </mocking> Is it possible there was a real problem with the clocks/scoreboard that meant the Bills might not realise/remember KC didn't have any time outs? Anyone at the game notice any problems ith the staium clocks?

And he forced a fumble when he sacked Green that almost lead to a TD on the recovery by Posey (oh, yeah, the offense also ha a chance to score). I agree with all of your choices, thoug I might chooe McGee before the O-line.

I assumed they were referencing that force = mass x velocity. So, say a football weighs exactly twice as much as a baseball, then a 50 MPH football pass would have the same force as a 100 MPH baseball pitch.

I generally agree with your summary (great post, by the way!), but it looked to me like a huge difference in the TB game was that Fletcher went out in the second quarter, and was replaced by Crowell, who was dinged up and wasn't even active week 1 vs. Houston. It looked to me like we suffered from a lack of "gap discipline" (and heat exhaustion) in that game, with Crowell hitting his gap hard, but forgetting to look for the runner (running right past the runner a couple times). I do agree that Edwards was also abused in that game, most getting twisted perpendicular to the line of scrimmage by a single blocker.

This is exactly what I thought of: Division winners get in, but whoever has the better record hosts the game. I think it would be great to incent the second-place team in a hot division.

Great stuff as always, Lori! Yours is my favorite football article each week. Cool. Where'd you get this Raiders-fan feedback? (Or are you a Raiders fan...?)

It's bizarre since Mularkey was a TE. I think they've felt the O-Line has needed extra help since week 2.

It wasn't Carwell Garland Gardner?

I care, I'm just not quite sure what to make of these. So 26% of plays were passes? ..or 26% of passes were completed? I'm not sure I get it. (sory if I'm thick) Really? This is yards per completion adjusted based on how many yards per completion these teams allowed elsewhere? Negative twenty-nine seems a bit low.... So for every pass we were sacked 28 times? Are you sure some of these aren't the reciprocals? I like the concept, and could geek-out looking at the Excel, but I'm having a hard time engaging with these numbers. Okay, I should apologize even before I even post... I just realized those are the ranks! Wow, I'm usually a bit quicker... What does the defensive QB rating mean? That we made opposing QBs look worse than all but 3 teams did? Also, did you look at time of posession? Please do post about the Oakland matchup!

OMG ...is our long-snapper the MVP of the team?

In my pysch class they called it basking in reflected glory (BIRG). I agree that the more other things you get into, the less the performance of a sports team (even the Bills) will affect you. I think it's unhealthy to care too much about a sports team unless your livelihood depends on it. But with the Bills it's also very unhealthy to not care enough .

I think Lindell and Crowell both deserve some kind of "rags to riches" honor, but not MVP. There are only 4 or so players I think you could really argue are the MVP this year: Sam Adams McGahee Clements Maybe McGee and/or Lindell... but I think both have simply played quite well, more than changing the outcome of the game(s). I sure hope to see MCGee earn a nomination by the end of the year. Damn he's exciting when he gets the ball!

So, do you guys think it's a sure thing we don't try to re-sign Teague? Besides playing a bit light, what faults do you see with his play? I saw him whiff on one play (for a sack) this year, but overall he's loooked like our best lineman to me. I agree Preston's play has been good. After preseason I felt he was not ready to play, but he holding his own - - very impressive for a 4th round rookie! We do need to find him a permanent home on the O-Line if he continues this way. To add to ans4e64's praise: he looked good next to Jerman!

Wow. Not one mention of the NHL yet. Overall, I think the accuracy of the calls is the best in MLB, understanding that each plate umpire will call a slightly different strike zone that the players need to learn. But, I think MLB being the best is mostly a statement about their job design, not the refs' inherent quality. NHL refs/linesmen often miss calls, but they are in a very challenging position, moreso I think than any other major sport. I'm hesitent to say they are the worst (tho it sure is fun to boo them! ) As for the NFL... they are far from the best, and I distinctly think they are getting progressively worse over the last couple decades. The NBA may have the worst refs today, but don't watch enough to give any specifics.

Yes, I saw it. It said Roscoe Parrish 1 rush for -3 yards in the "fantasy stats" at the top after a McGahee run. They obviously typed in 11 instead of 21.

I also think that our defense is okay. The injuries (esp. Crowell, Fletcher, Spikes) and heat in TB caused big one-game problems, but I don't think it's valid to extrapolate that into a horrid season.

Wait a minute... didn't we get rid of our TE's? (Or do you mean Jason Peters?) I hope we also play our defense that is better on 3rd down this week. Thanks for your thoughtful post and optimism.