finn

It's a bad look to get a lot of targets, produce little, and drop the ball--then complain to the media.

Or 21 if the horse collar had been called, or even intentional grounding not called.

The Narrative now is Mahomes is the best quarterback playing, period. But looking over these stats, you have to consider that until last year, he was throwing to TWO future Hall of Fame receivers in Hill and Kelce. Has there ever been a quarterback with two HOF receivers? Seems to me that always be a caveat accompanying the incessant, breathless praise of Mahomes. Even a middling QB like Tua can put up star numbers with two excellent receivers. Maybe I should whisper this: "Mahomes is overrated!"

I like Lawson and of course Floyd, but Settle, Addison, Poona Ford aren't contributing much. I keep thinking about how Beane might have put the money he's spending on them, together with Harty's salary, and spent it on DeAndre Hopkins. The numbers probably don't add up, though. Ford especially was cheap. Plus, who would replace them? I'm just lamenting that our wide receiver depth is so thin. Diggs and.... crickets. Shakier is the only bright spot.

I agree there is no league-wide conspiracy to influence games. Too risky. But I think the "little biases and preferences" play a far larger role than most people think. There's a reason betting on sports was illegal until 2018: human beings are easily corrupted, and no one is easier to corrupt than referees, who can so easily argue that this or that call was justified, or they didn't see a given offence. Money aside, a given ref might just want his team to win. What's to stop him from not seeing, say, a horse-collar tackle when his team is in trouble, and instead seeing intentional grounding? Or throwing 15 flags on one team and one on the other? So there's outrage. So what? It's all forgotten in a week, and you helped your team win. In fact, my biggest concern Sunday is not the matchup, but the refs deliberately calling holding to stall Bills' drives and pass interference to keep Cowboys' drives alive.

What little I've seen of Rapp, he reminds me of Damar Hamlin. Lots of aggression, no instincts or feel for coverage.

But other teams aren't always smart with the contracts they offer. The Gabe Davis name may still have enough cache from the 13-second game that teams may not see that he's no more than a blocking receiver. Let's hope so, because I would say he's a net liability on this team, his blocking and locker-room presence outweighed by his unreliability as a pass catcher. Davis has a catch rate of 56.5% Shakir has an NFL-best catch rate of 83.9%. How many drives this season would have resulted in scores if Shakir had replaced Davis? How many more drives will Davis kill this season? People remember his handful of clutch plays, but they don't see that he's often just taking up space on the field, keeping a potentially more effective weapon on the bench. He's been doing this his whole career with the Bills, save for that small number of plays, which are due as much or more to Allen's perfect passes. Since he became a starter, he's held back the Bills. Time to say goodbye.

Any thoughts on Benford moving to safety if Elam works out? He has the requisite size, speed, and zone skills. Not a new idea, I know; I'm just trying to remember if there was a logical objection. Moving him to safety would allow Beane to use his first draft pick on a WR and move on from Davis, upgrading two positions and saving a lot of money to boot. Might still need a second safety, though.

Having Davis on the team is like having the second-best hand in poker: good enough to lose with.

Did you his whiff on the first throw from scrimmage last game? Allen got the pass off to Cook for a big gain, but only with the DE in his face, courtesy of Brown, who was faked out of his jock strap and fell to the ground. That's our "better than average" right tackle. He's been so awful, mediocre/awful looks good to us. Hoping that Van Demark or Tommy Doyle can replace him next year. He represents a serious weakness on the team.

Weirdly, this is the best Bills news I've heard in a while.

Is Hamlin really that bad to stay on the bench even though Poyer and Hyde are barely hanging on? Yes, he was a liability when he played, pre-injury. But surely he's developed since then, right? Of course, we've been wondering the same thing about Elam. Could be McDermott's judgment is wrong. Or it could be both players just aren't very good.

I remember Reed being a different player in the Super Bowl against the Giants after they hit him again and again.

The trouble is, he's taking someone else potentially more effective off the field, say another pass-rusher or DB. If he can be handled by a single tackle on all but two of his snaps, that works a lot better for the other team than for the Bills. I realize the Bills are trying to strike a balance between getting him back into form and playing an ineffective player. Given their record since he's been playing, I'm not sure the investment has paid off. But if they make the playoffs, and Miller gets back even close to being the player he was, it probably will have been worth having him basically do his rehab on the field all this time.

I saw this. Ingram rag-dolled Spencer Brown last time they faced each other, all 6-8 320 Ibs of him. Kept making impact plays all game. Why is he still available?

Fair. I guess I'll never forgive Davis in the Jets game last year for dropping that absolutely incredible, once-in-a-lifetime throws by Allen, who, with a just-injured elbow and the game on the line, chucked the ball almost 60 yards, hit Davis perfectly in stride. It was the most clutch, jaw-dropping plays you'll ever see in any sport. Rarely do you see such magnificence from someone of our species. And Davis drops it. He just drops it. In retrospect, he should have been traded that day. Better a hole in the roster than a choke artist, no matter what his mamma says.

He calls some of the most exciting plays and situations in NFL history the way you and I would describe unpacking the groceries after a long day at the office. "And now, here is the summer squash. And the milk. Not many people know that milk has 13 essential nutrients."

Exactly. Davis has 39 receptions on 69 targets (56%). Compare to Kincaid's 61/72( 85%). With the game on the line, even Davis' mamma would throw to Kincaid.

You know, no one has mentioned a particularly delicious scenario: the Bills win out, winning the division, and the Dolphins lose out, missing the playoffs and opening themselves to universal, well-deserved, and long-lasting derision. Heh. Would you mind summarizing his response to these questions?

I had the same thought as the O.P. The article and ensuing brouhaha might have lanced the boil, so to speak, exorcising what might have been simmering resentment and helping to focus the team for the stretch run. (Sorry about the mixed metaphors!)

I don't think you're alone. Between the Taylor Swift hype, their crybaby display this week, and just overexposure over the past five years, the Chiefs are no longer everyone's darlings. The talking heads will still be making excuses for them, and it will take a lot more to crack the Holiness of Saint Patrick, but it feels like the tide has turned. Baltimore is the darling of the AFC, and rightfully so; they're playing great. But watch out for Buffalo. That's a Cinderella story in the making.

I was dying watching Hopkins. He would have been the difference maker on the Bills.

If the Bills win out, do they have a chance to be the number one seed? The machinations are beyond my weak brain.

Funny, I'm convinced the Bills will win out and the Dolphins will collapse, or at least lose to the adults in the room (Baltimore, Dallas, the Jets, and the Bills). They've been overhyped all year, a sugar-high team with no bottom, as they showed last night against the Titans. Of course, the Bills have been epic chokers this year, so who's talking. But at least they have a chance of figuring that out and turning it around, as they may have already. I'd rather be the team that loses to bad teams and beats good ones than the other way around.

The question is, would they have won so much if they hadn't gotten so many calls in the past?