Dr. K

I'm always nervous before games, but I think this is going to be a tough one. The Lions, right now especially, are not the pushovers they have been in the past, and the Bills are still fighting lots of injuries.

Plus you check to see that there are no penalty flags.

Actually, I am not somebody who goes into hysterical reactions one way or another based on a single game. You can check my history of posts for evidence. After the Bills loss to the Vikings, I did not come on here with my hair (what's left of it) on fire about either the Bills or the Vikings. My opinion about the Vikings is based on how they have played the entire season, their overall points scored vs. points given up, the number of times they have had to come from behind to barely squeak out a win. They obviously have some great players, most notably Justin Jefferson. Cousins can play well enough to keep them in most games. But I do not see their current success as sustainable. I phrased my original post to be provocative, but my basic point is they are nowhere near as good a team as their won-lost record would indicate. Sports Illustrated: "The Vikings now find themselves in weirdly rarified air. Kevin O'Connell's team is the first in NFL history to post a negative point differential (minus-2) across their first 10 games while still managing to win eight times. "

The Vikings are not a very good team. Their record is a mirage. Maybe I'm exaggerating in saying they won't make the playoffs--the chances of the Lions catching them are slim--but I don't expect the Vikings to win more than 2 or 3 of their last seven games, and they'll lose in the first round of the playoffs. If they played the Bills another ten times, they would lose eight of them.

It's possible, but they won't.

They've been pulling horseshoes out of their butt all season. Detroit will beat them in three weeks.

Their record is 8-2, but they have scored -2 points overall. It's all smoke and mirrors. I wouldn't be surprised if the Lions caught them.

Just had a look at the Chiefs remaining schedule. vs. Rams, at Bengals at Broncos at Texans vs. Seahawks vs. Broncos at Raiders I don't see any losses for them there except maybe against Cincinnati. The situation sucks, but that's just the way it is. The Bills probably have to win out just to have a chance at home field, and the Chiefs will have to lose in an upset.

Looks like the Vikings are done pulling horseshoes out of their butts.

I suspect your seat is always hot. Or your head.

I hope you are right. The Bills do seem to play it conservatively with injured players, so that suggests that Allen is not seriously hurt.

I don’t say this because I think it’s a good idea. If Allen is injured (and I think he is) he should be inactive. I don’t really understand what they are doing.

Start Keenum. Play Allen only if you have to.

I wore the wrong shirt.

There are a lot of bitter and angry Bills fans. It makes it hard to read this board sometimes. But I guess the country is full of bitter and angry people right now.

If Allen is out the other guys will get a chance to show that the team is not Josh and 52 JAGs.

It certainly seems that as long as Josh stays healthy the Bills will have a good shot. But I think of the career of Dan Marino, who made (and lost) the Super Bowl very early in his career. Given that and the history of success of the Dolphins under Don Shula, everybody expected Marino to be in the Super Bowl regularly and to win a couple of Lombardi trophies. Never happened. I think the Bills have every opportunity to avoid that fate, but you never know.

Not surprising. Daboll knows him. I expect he'll see the field a lot more in NY.

Yeah, they do! And nobody in the NFL has written a better play than Marlowe’s DR. FAUSTUS. Plus, he’s a great private eye.

If the Bills also traded to Dean Marlowe, I'm much more pleased by that.

I really don't see this trade as improving the running game. He'll be no help whatsoever with the short yardage difficulties. Singletary is much better than he is, and we haven't seen enough of Cook to know whether he could do what Hines does. I'm with those who think Moss is going to show much better than Hines for the rest of their careers. As others have said, this leaves the Bills with zero power running option (not that Moss was tearing it up in that area).

I hope this satisfies those fans who want the Bills to acquire somebody just to acquire somebody. I'm sick of that kvetching and I was not convinced they needed to do this. Or if they did need to, I was more worried about safety and backup o-line than running back, frankly. I don't see how this is going to help the Bills with their biggest problem in running, short yardage situations, at which they have been terrible. But certainly Beane knows more about what they need and who fills the bill than I do.

The ball absolutely hit the ground.

I remember that Falcons game, and yes, he looked really bad, inexplicably, in that game. Especially since it came late in the season right after they had beaten the Pats in New England and he was playing his best ball. I think even a freak like Allen will have those bad stretches. I expect he will get it out of his system against the Jets.