JM57

The entertainment factor of that home slate of games....woof

Sorry dude, the world we live in now, it's treated as: you either worship the police or you're the enemy and hate them all. The majority of Americans have lost the ability to think in shades of grey. Everything is black or white, A or B and no in between. You apparently cannot respect the police and also acknowledge that there are bad apples in the force and flaws in the training system.

They were #1 overall because their pass defense was absolutely stifling. Since the trade, their run defense is actually closer to #1 and their pass defense has faltered a bit. But they are still #1 overall, due to the improved run defense. Since the trade, Jacksonville's run defense has improved exponentially and Buffalo's has regressed similarly. What's the common factor? Ah yes, #99. He may not have been popping in the stat sheet, but he was very effective in the role he had. He was occupying the attention of the opponent's OL and allowing the other guys on the line, or the LB's, to have more of a free flow to the ball. Without him here, Kyle Williams is the #1 focus of the interior OL. At his age, he's not well suited for that, and the replacements next to him are JAG, and it shows.

Tennessee, Baltimore, Jacksonville and Buffalo at 10-6. Titans win the AFC South, Jaguars #5, Ravens #6

They don't really need "a bunch" of help if they go 9-7. They just need to NOT be tied with only the Chargers at 9-7 and they are in. At 9-7 with a loss to NE and win over MIA, they need one Ravens OR one Chargers loss to get in. That's it. They will win most, if not all 3-way tiebreakers with BAL/TEN/LAC. The only tiebreaker working against them is head to head with LAC or AFC record of the Titans were 9-7 with a win over the Jaguars.

Interested to know the scenario where they go 8-8 and make it in. Would it have to be a 4-way 8-8 tie with the Ravens, Titans and Chargers?

As long as the Chargers don't have 8 losses, the Peterman disaster game is THE most important loss, point blank, period. Assume that the Bills can get their 9th win against Miami. Based on the games on the slate and the way teams are playing, the most likely scenario is as follows: BUF: L to NE, W vs MIA, 9-7 TEN: L to LAR, L to JAX, 8-8 BAL: W vs IND, W vs CIN, 10-6 LAC: W vs NYJ, W vs OAK, 9-7 BAL is the 5th seed, LAC the 6th seed due to....what was that tiebreaker again? OH YES. Head to head victory. And who started that game and promptly threw up all over himself again? I am not a huge Taylor fan, I think he is what he is, which is a flawed, low end starter that needs to be carried by a strong run game and a strong defense. Nor do I think that Peterman is as bad as he was against the Chargers. They very well could have lost that game if Taylor started it, or if Peterman started and didn't put together one of the worst halves of football in NFL history. But Taylor didn't start, and Peterman did have one of the worst halves of football in NFL history. To pretend that that game doesn't matter more than any other right now, when it is the most likely deciding factor in playoff tie breakers, is just foolish.

That's correct. We should be aiming for all time great HOFers only and if not we should just middle around next year with the great white hope 5th round pick while convincing ourselves maybe he, against all odds, is the next Brady

I really wish McCown didn't get hurt because I think the Chargers have some vulnerabilities but there's a very small chance that Bryce Petty can exploit them. The Jets were the perfect spoiler team prior to that.

I have watched 7 games in person and 7 on TV. I had much more fun watching them in person 6 of those times than any of the times on TV. That leads me to believe that A) results may vary based on alcohol consumption and B) no, they're probably not fun to watch

Nope, Titans would get in at 8-8 based on conference record (7-5 vs 6-6)

You can't help the health or availability of the players when you face a team. Does the Bengals win over the Bills mean less because Matthews was out and Clay got hurt early? Does the Chargers loss mean less because Benjamin didn't make it through a drive?

Saying beat a good team or you shouldn't play in the playoffs and then saying a win over a good likely playoff team doesn't mean anything within two sentences. If it weren't for a certain world leader who has a penchant for talking himself in circles, this would be a new record for an about face! ?

I agree with you here. It really seems to me that the most likely scenario is Titans 8-8, Ravens 10-6, Bills and Chargers 9-7 and the Peterman debacle is the deciding factor. If the Titans could pull off a win against the Rams this week I would feel a little better about their chances. But that's a huge longshot

They were paper thin on offense going into the Bengals game. When Charles Clay got hurt, that was the end. The WR depth chart for that game: Zay Jones (who had not yet figured out, and then forgotten again, how to catch an NFL pass), Andre Holmes, Brandon Tate, Kaelin Clay.

AFC Championship game as the 5 seed against the 6 seed ?

The thought process is likely this: 2-0 would be great, but you know, not many wins against New England in the Brady era. Taking that into account, IF they go 1-1 instead, it is better for the Bills loss to come against the Patriots than the Dolphins, as the Dolphins are a common opponent between the Bills, Ravens and Titans (along with the Raiders, Colts and Bengals) and would give the Bills the best shot at winning tie breakers at 9-7. Winning against New England and losing against Miami means they would need a lot of help, as they then lose the common games tiebreaker with Baltimore. I believe they would need the either the Titans and the Chargers both to go 8-8, or those two and Baltimore at 9-7 to make it without beating Miami.

Oh no, I'm not saying it was an automatic win. What I'm saying is it's not an automatic loss, which is what 5 INTs in a half is. That obviously isn't what anyone expected to happen, but it did, and it will likely come back to bite this team in the ass. They weren't on him if you don't want them to be. You can blame #1 on Dimarco because it hit him in the hands. Or you could watch the replay and see Peterman threw it awkwardly off his back foot which will have a negative effect on accuracy. He then threw #2 and #3 (or #3 and #4 I can't remember anymore but they were back to back) as desperation back foot heaves that should never, ever be made outside of a hail mary situation. I honestly hope I am too. Like I said, I'm no expert but I don't remember him ever being that inaccurate, at least not throw after throw after throw. Usually he misses one or two and then hits a few on a bad day, you know?

Oh come on PTR there is not a coach in the world that is going to look at that game film, then walk into the defensive room and go "Alright boys, you really botched that one but we'll get em next week!" The defense was put in terrible position for almost the entire first quarter. They allowed a sustained drive to let LAC go up 10-7 and the offense followed that up with INT #3 at midfield, which led to another TD. The offense followed that up by opening the 2nd quarter with.....INT #4, then two 3 & outs and another INT for the cherry on top. They had no chance, but they held for about 1.5 quarters before the dam burst. At the very least, if we're going to assume that the OL got worked and the passing game would have been brutal with Taylor as well, let's call it fair to say he wouldn't have thrown 5 INT. And instead of those drives ending with the Chargers getting the ball in the red zone or at midfield, Schmidt at least gets a chance to flip the field and make them earn their points.

Not trying to be adversarial, but you didn't read the whole post, did you? I watched both games. Against NO he absolutely, flat out, refused to push the ball downfield. He didn't miss throws to open receivers, he didn't make them at all. Against NE, the throws were attempted at least, and were just completely off target. I am not the biggest Tyrod fan. I think he is what he is. A bottom end starter with limitations in his skill set, but a starter nonetheless. What I saw against NO and NE were completely out of character for what I've come to expect of him, but for two different reasons. NO was the most frustrating to watch. I have never seen him be that overly cautious. It felt like watching Trent Edwards before he got the hook for Fitz. Against NE....I cannot remember another game where he so obviously missed so many easy throws. It was clear to me that, even though he was saying he was fine, that knee was not fine. It was limiting his plant or his drive in some way that altered the accuracy of his passes. It's easy to say that now, but how would we know? The defense never had a chance. The Chargers only needed like 270 yards of offense to score 37 points. Every time the D came off the field, Peterman continued to poop in his hat and chucked the ball right back to the first white helmet he found, regardless of jersey color. The Bills very well might have lost that game with Taylor under center. But I feel pretty confident to say it wouldn't have been a 54-24 loss with 30 points (and a missed FG!) gifted to the Chargers in the first half due to turnovers. I don't know what happened to the kid that day, but it was by far the worst QB performance I've ever seen in the NFL.

Because the coaching staff let him gut out the knee issue for most of the game even though he was clearly struggling as a passer. The weather was beautiful that day and he was more inaccurate than I've ever seen. Something with his mechanics was clearly off in that game. It was completely different than the NO game where he just refused to push the ball downfield. He was throwing it and just missing high, wide, behind, you name it.

So if you're a runner, the play is dead as soon as you break the plane. But if you're catching it, turning, extending and falling into the end zone you have to hold it the entire time. Sure, makes sense.

It may have been established earlier in the thread, but can anyone answer this question? Do we remember the Oakland(?) game where Tyrod ran a sneak at the goal line and basically jumped into the pile, extended his arms, broke the plane, and then had the ball swatted out of his hands, but it was ruled a TD? What is the difference between Tyrod breaking the plane on an extension and the play immediately being dead, and Jesse James breaking the plane here and the play not being dead? Is it because TT was a runner, and James was not yet considered a runner because he hadn't completed "the process of a catch" whatever that means?

Almost as stupid as starting him against the Chargers which is almost certainly going to come back to bite this team when they end up tied with LAC at 9-7, eh?

They would be in, as a wild card team. Buffalo would win the division based on division record (4-2 vs 3-3). Buffalo would also have the head-to-head tiebreaker over a 10-6 Chiefs team, which would make them the #3 seed.