When anything and everything that can go wrong, does go wrong...

[eball]

...you get a game like last night.  We are fortunate that nothing like this has happened in a long time, and also lucky it happened now.

 

I'm not about to sift through the threads of gloom and doom this week.  The Bills will be fine, they're a very good team, and they simply ran into a motivated buzz saw last night.

 

See you after Houston.  Have a great week everybody.

 

Go Bills!

 

[zow2]

It's just one L and one W for Baltimore.  

 

What we saw is that a good team played at peak performance and looked better than they are....and another good team played poorly and looked much worse than they are. So the result is 35-10.  Every team is going to lay an egg or two this season. 

 

From what i see, the AFC is nothing special other than maybe Baltimore if they stay healthy.  Joe Burrow also scares me even if their defense is weaker.  The other teams are struggling with poor performances and long term injuries to key guys.  It's not as tough a conference as it appeared to be before the season started.

[Logic]

9 minutes ago, eball said:

...you get a game like last night.  We are fortunate that nothing like this has happened in a long time, and also lucky it happened now.

 

I'm not about to sift through the threads of gloom and doom this week.  The Bills will be fine, they're a very good team, and they simply ran into a motivated buzz saw last night.

 

See you after Houston.  Have a great week everybody.

 

Go Bills!

 

Same. 

The Bills don't suddenly stink. It's been 40 games since they lost by more than six points. Sometimes it's just not your day. They got outcoached, outschemed, outplayed, and had some rotten luck too. 

They got out of it healthy (relatively speaking), are 3-1, and getting some key players back. I don't feel the need to torture myself reliving it all week.

See y'all next weekend.

Edited 2 hours ago by Logic

[Jauronimo]

Just now, Logic said:

Same. 

The Bills don't suddenly stink. It's been 40 games since they lost by more than six points. Sometimes it's just not your day. They got outcoached, outschemed, and had some rotten luck too. 

They got out of it healthy, are 3-1, and getting some key players back. I don't feel the need to torture myself reliving it all week.

See y'all next weekend.

They got completely pushed around all night on both sides of the ball and had no answers in all three phases of the game.  It truly was complementary football.  I don't know what adjustments a coach can make that will overcome your personnel getting mauled by their opponent in one on one battles. 

[Sweats]

5 minutes ago, zow2 said:

It's just one L and one W for Baltimore.  

 

What we saw is that a good team played at peak performance and looked better than they are....and another good team played poorly and looked much worse than they are. So the result is 35-10.  Every team is going to lay an egg or two this season. 

 

From what i see, the AFC is nothing special other than maybe Baltimore if they stay healthy.  Joe Burrow also scares me even if their defense is weaker.  The other teams are struggling with poor performances and long term injuries to key guys.  It's not as tough a conference as it appeared to be before the season started.

 

 

 

 

I wouldnt say they played better than they are, they are good. Their record may not have reflected it, but they matched up well against every team theyve played so far this season and theyve played them tough......took KC to the wire.

We, however, did not play them tough, we got manhandled and dominated from the first play on and we couldn't keep up.

We lost to a good team.

[Logic]

3 minutes ago, Jauronimo said:

They got completely pushed around all night on both sides of the ball and had no answers in all three phases of the game.  It truly was complementary football.  I don't know what adjustments a coach can make that will overcome your personnel getting mauled by their opponent in one on one battles. 

Agreed.

The Ravens have the perfect offensive personnel and scheme to exploit the Bills' banged up defense. The ability to go heavy and run it straight at the middle of the Bills defense and force them out of nickel. 

Defensively, they were the rare team that could send blitzes and play man defense behind it and actually have their corners hold up.

In short, they were perfectly suited on both sides of the ball to beat the Bills as soundly as they did. Add in the intangibles of that fired up primetime "blackout" crowd and the players playing like they were 1-2 and badly needed the win, and you have a recipe for domination, which is exactly what we saw.

The good news? There aren't many (any?) other teams in the league that are built like the Ravens. Collinsworth, who I generally abhor, made a smart comment last night: playing the Ravens this year is like playing Army. They run a style of offense that you just don't get to see often or prepare against much. But again...there aren't many Baltimore Ravens offenses or defenses out there.

We got outschemed, outcoached, and out-executed. It happens. Onto Houston.

 

[T.E.]

One thing that's frustrating is that we're still a finesse team. Thankfully not as much as franchises like Miami, but still soft enough to where winning in a place like Baltimore in the postseason seems like a Herculean task.

[dave mcbride]

28 minutes ago, Logic said:

Same. 

The Bills don't suddenly stink. It's been 40 games since they lost by more than six points. Sometimes it's just not your day. They got outcoached, outschemed, outplayed, and had some rotten luck too. 

They got out of it healthy (relatively speaking), are 3-1, and getting some key players back. I don't feel the need to torture myself reliving it all week.

See y'all next weekend.

Yup. The other thing that should be factored in: the Jets (the Bills' primary divisional threat now) lost a game they had ZERO business losing. Just a mind-blowingly bad loss. The division should be tied today but it isn't because the Jets decided to Jet. I watched that game, and the Jets had 15(!) penalties called against them. Plus it's pretty clear that Nate Hackett is a bad OC.

15 minutes ago, Logic said:

Agreed.

The Ravens have the perfect offensive personnel and scheme to exploit the Bills' banged up defense. The ability to go heavy and run it straight at the middle of the Bills defense and force them out of nickel. 

Defensively, they were the rare team that could send blitzes and play man defense behind it and actually have their corners hold up.

In short, they were perfectly suited on both sides of the ball to beat the Bills as soundly as they did. Add in the intangibles of that fired up primetime "blackout" crowd and the players playing like they were 1-2 and badly needed the win, and you have a recipe for domination, which is exactly what we saw.

The good news? There aren't many (any?) other teams in the league that are built like the Ravens. Collinsworth, who I generally abhor, made a smart comment last night: playing the Ravens this year is like playing Army. They run a style of offense that you just don't get to see often or prepare against much. But again...there aren't many Baltimore Ravens offenses or defenses out there.

We got outschemed, outcoached, and out-executed. It happens. Onto Houston.

 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by dave mcbride

[Cray51]

36 minutes ago, Jauronimo said:

They got completely pushed around all night on both sides of the ball and had no answers in all three phases of the game.  It truly was complementary football.  I don't know what adjustments a coach can make that will overcome your personnel getting mauled by their opponent in one on one battles. 

You could see McD on the sideline reiterating gap control and continuity when Henry was running wild and the Ravens quick pivot offense was eating us for chunk plays.  I think McD caught onto the Ravens relatively early on in the second quarter, but by that point we were already down and a coach can call it out all he wants, he needs halftime to put that in place.

 

Bills came out at half and played much better defence, but then momentum was taken from them via the trick play and we called it halfway through the 4th to save the starters.

 

We were bullied for sure, and the Ravens had a great gameplan.  McD needs to preach gap control and continuity as much as possible if they play them again.

[nucci]

3 minutes ago, Cray51 said:

You could see McD on the sideline reiterating gap control and continuity when Henry was running wild and the Ravens quick pivot offense was eating us for chunk plays.  I think McD caught onto the Ravens relatively early on in the second quarter, but by that point we were already down and a coach can call it out all he wants, he needs halftime to put that in place.

 

Bills came out at half and played much better defence, but then momentum was taken from them via the trick play and we called it halfway through the 4th to save the starters.

 

We were bullied for sure, and the Ravens had a great gameplan.  McD needs to preach gap control and continuity as much as possible if they play them again.

or we need Milano, Bernard and Johnson back quickly

[MikePJ76]

42 minutes ago, Jauronimo said:

They got completely pushed around all night on both sides of the ball and had no answers in all three phases of the game.  It truly was complementary football.  I don't know what adjustments a coach can make that will overcome your personnel getting mauled by their opponent in one on one battles. 

what adjustments did Houston, Detroit, Seattle or SF last year make after the Ravens stole their manhood and bullied them?

 

Credit the Ravens and move on.

[SCBills]

31 minutes ago, T.E. said:

One thing that's frustrating is that we're still a finesse team. Thankfully not as much as franchises like Miami, but still soft enough to where winning in a place like Baltimore in the postseason seems like a Herculean task.

Doesnt seem Herculean to me. 
 

Im not in love with McDermott, but what Baltimore did, isn’t happening again for the second time in a season.

 

Especially when, on paper, if we see them again, it could be with Milano, Bernard, Johnson and an experienced Bishop manning the spots held by Williams, Spector, Lewis and Hamlin that they targeted all game. 
 

Id also take my chances with Playoff Allen vs Playoff Lamar. 

[Cray51]

8 minutes ago, nucci said:

or we need Milano, Bernard and Johnson back quickly

Absolutely they will help, and I do think Spector and Williams were beaten often by overpursuing.  The Ravens would fake one way and then screen back the other way, and our LBs were completely fooled.

 

A healthy defense would go a long way

[Logic]

7 minutes ago, SCBills said:

Doesnt seem Herculean to me. 
 

Im not in love with McDermott, but what Baltimore did, isn’t happening again for the second time in a season.

 

Especially when, on paper, if we see them again, it could be with Milano, Bernard, Johnson and an experienced Bishop manning the spots held by Williams, Spector, Lewis and Hamlin that they targeted all game. 
 

Id also take my chances with Playoff Allen vs Playoff Lamar. 

Agreed.

We've also beaten the Ravens before, including in the postseason. We have historically had no trouble matching their physicality with our "finesse".

The only major differences between this team and the Ravens teams we beat in the past are Derrick Henry and Todd Monken.

Gimme a rematch with a healthier defense and a team eager to get some revenge after being embarrassed, and I like our chances perfectly fine.

[amprov56]

1 hour ago, eball said:

...you get a game like last night.  We are fortunate that nothing like this has happened in a long time, and also lucky it happened now.

 

I'm not about to sift through the threads of gloom and doom this week.  The Bills will be fine, they're a very good team, and they simply ran into a motivated buzz saw last night.

 

See you after Houston.  Have a great week everybody.

 

Go Bills!

 

Always a voice of reason!! Good post!

[SoonerBillsFan]

1 hour ago, eball said:

...you get a game like last night.  We are fortunate that nothing like this has happened in a long time, and also lucky it happened now.

 

I'm not about to sift through the threads of gloom and doom this week.  The Bills will be fine, they're a very good team, and they simply ran into a motivated buzz saw last night.

 

See you after Houston.  Have a great week everybody.

 

Go Bills!

 

Agreed and like usual I'm not looking at stupid shows that will talk **** about Allen all week 

[CodeMonkey]

1 hour ago, zow2 said:

It's just one L and one W for Baltimore.  

 

What we saw is that a good team played at peak performance and looked better than they are....and another good team played poorly and looked much worse than they are. So the result is 35-10.  Every team is going to lay an egg or two this season. 

Just one game as you said is obviously true.  But your second paragraph I saw completely differently.  I saw a ravens team that played up to their potential, and a Bills team that did the same.  I thought both QB's played a very good game.  Josh for example, was dead nuts on yet again.  The only touchdown for the Bills was due to that one super-Josh pass.

 

The difference to me was in the coaching.  The Ravens did to the Bills D what KC does to the Bills D, namely a lot of misdirection.  Combined with that freak of nature Henry punishing the Bills tacklers all game. The Bills had no answer for that Ravens offense. That game also showed that with the current state of the Bills secondary, if the D-Line can't get home on the opposing QB, it's going to be a long day for them.

 

Why the Bills offense was so anemic, except Allen, is far less clear to me.

Edited 1 hour ago by CodeMonkey

[Warcodered]

It was like an avalanche of small little misses and mistakes that became what it was. First drive they weren't doing terrible got to midfield and it was 4th and 2 or 3 maybe  and we punted. Should have been more aggressive, but that and just all these little dropped passes that or missed opportunities killed the offense. Defense missing so many critical pieces really needs the offense to help motivate them.

[Jauronimo]

1 minute ago, Cray51 said:

Absolutely they will help, and I do think Spector and Williams were beaten often by overpursuing.  The Ravens would fake one way and then screen back the other way, and our LBs were completely fooled.

 

A healthy defense would go a long way

I saw Spector running directly into the blocking and being driven down the field most of the night.  Totally unable to get off his blocks.  The Ravens dominated our LBs and defensive backs in the run game and quick passing game.  Ravens receivers and TEs were driving our DBs downfield or completely neutralizing them creating huge cushion on those screen plays and quick hitters.  7 to 10 yards before first contact type cushion.  

 

Healthy couldn't hurt but I don't think our starters were shining all that bright last night either.

[hondo in seattle]

I've read articles, and listened to guru interviews, saying the Bills OL is elite, the receivers form a legit complementary team, our RB room is strong, our DL is strong, our backup LBs are playing exceptionally well for backups, our outside CB pair are among the best, our safeties are doing a credible Hyde & Poyer imitation, Brady is brilliant as is our defensive  coaching staff, Von is on fire, and Josh is the leading MVP candidate.

 

I was starting to believe some of that myself.  But after last night's performance, I don't know what to believe.  If memory serves, we have lost this bad since 2020.  Pass O, Run O, Pass D, Run D, ST...   all phases of the game were a failure.