Comparing this game to Bengals playoff game

[billieve420]

Believe a number of external factors affected that playoff game against the Bengals. No excuses but it appeared that the team had no juice from everything that had gone on that season.

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

10 minutes ago, Ga boy said:

Ok, in the cancelled regular season game, we were being rag dolled by Cincy.  They looked like the better team, and proved it in the playoff game.  Just one TD for the good guys and running game was nothing.  Fast forward, Ravens stomped us this year.  There may be some similarities, but I think Cincy had a better D than purple burds, and our team this year is better than the 2022 version.  Thoughts anyone?

 

Inability to run and stop the run killed that cinci game.  I also felt like frazier called a pretty poor game with a ton of zone stuff fearing getting beat over the top.  

 

I'd say the line upgrades from Saffold to Edwards, Morse to McGovern (morse was a solid pass protector, but never had a ton of juice as a run blocker), and Bates to Torrence are big.  I also think Dorsey to Brady has been an upgrade from a playcalling perspective.  We seem to have ways to scheme open in man and blitz packages, ty johnsons a better 3rd down back from a blocking side than anyone we had.

On the defensive side of the ball - 

 

Rousseau and AJE are still here, but rousseau is not a rookie anymore.

Poyer was not the same poyer in 2022 with the elbow, and marlowe/johnson are both currently unemployed.  

DQ didn't play.  Phillips played with a shoulder injury that he had surgery on right after the season ended.  

Von didn't play.  

Edmunds is fine, but i find bernard has a better ability to create negative plays in run and pass game.  

[CaseyatBat]

I see some similarities, the Bengals were on a roll at the time and the Ravens appear to be on one now

 

I dont think the Ravens have the pass rush that the Bengals had for sure, but at the same time I dont think the Bengals ran the ball as good as the Ravens do

 

 

Edited 4 hours ago by CaseyatBat

[Ga boy]

1 minute ago, Bleeding Bills Blue said:

 

Inability to run and stop the run killed that cinci game.  I also felt like frazier called a pretty poor game with a ton of zone stuff fearing getting beat over the top.  

 

I'd say the line upgrades from Saffold to Edwards, Morse to McGovern (morse was a solid pass protector, but never had a ton of juice as a run blocker), and Bates to Torrence are big.  I also think Dorsey to Brady has been an upgrade from a playcalling perspective.  We seem to have ways to scheme open in man and blitz packages, ty johnsons a better 3rd down back from a blocking side than anyone we had.

On the defensive side of the ball - 

 

Rousseau and AJE are still here, but rousseau is not a rookie anymore.

Poyer was not the same poyer in 2022 with the elbow, and marlowe/johnson are both currently unemployed.  

DQ didn't play.  Phillips played with a shoulder injury that he had surgery on right after the season ended.  

Von didn't play.  

Edmunds is fine, but i find bernard has a better ability to create negative plays in run and pass game.  

Good points.  We had an all-pro Milano then, we need that guy again.

[Simon]

6 minutes ago, K-9 said:

 beat me to it 

[somnus00]

23 minutes ago, 0017 said:

I’m very worried about that, physical teams tend to give our nickel defense lots of trouble, I think offensively we are way better, and more physical than when we played the bengals in the playoffs. 

With Milano's return, the staff seems to be tinkering with 3 lb sets. Sometimes base defense, sometimes with 3 down linemen.

 

I think the coaches will be trying something different against this Ravens offense. Not saying it's going to work. But it will be a bit different. Plus, the Bills have all their horses on D this time. 

[T.E.]

Those two Bengals games happened like three weeks apart. The Ravens game this year happened three months ago.

[K-9]

3 minutes ago, Simon said:

 beat me to it 

Great minds, Simon, great minds.

[Simon]

2 minutes ago, K-9 said:

Great minds, Simon, great minds.

 

Yep.

And ours too!

[TheBrownBear]

3 minutes ago, CaseyatBat said:

I see some similarities, the Bengals were on a roll at the time and the Ravens appear to be on one now

 

Yes, but the Bills are hot as well (10-1 over their last 11 meaningful games w/lone loss being by 2 points at a playoff team while scoring 42 points).  2 score win over an undefeated Chiefs team and a convincing road win at Detroit.  We are also at the healthiest we've been all season, and have two former all-pros on defense who seem to be finding their old form (Von and Matt) at the exact right time.  There's a lot to feel good about this Bills team right now.

 

As for the Ravens, they are a very good team, but the schedule lightened up considerably over the last third of their schedule.  Outside of Philly, they haven't really been tested too much to end the season.  (I will say their dismantling of Houston was frightening).

 

As for Sunday, two great, playoff experienced teams with good coaches and HOF quarterbacks.  I expect a great game!!!

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

18 minutes ago, eball said:

 

Baltimore's opponents since W11:

 

Steelers (trash) -- a loss

Chargers

Eagles -- a loss at home

Giants (LOL)

Steelers (trash)

Texans (minus Diggs/Dell)

Browns and their 3rd string QB

Steelers (trash)

 

Hey man...you take whatever you want from that.

 

 

Idk how this is flying so much under the radar but that browns team that the ravens played  starting zappe at qb and Donta foreman at rb after trading Amari cooper weeks before with njoku out are probably the worst offense the league has seen in many many years 

 

they make the drew lock giants the ravens saw a few weeks prior look like the nfc all star team and they are dreadful  🤣

Edited 4 hours ago by Generic_Bills_Fan

[Casey D]

Bills were mentally and physically exhausted from all that happened that year.  In both regards, the team is in a completely different place this year.  And they got beat bad early in the season by Baltimore when Bills were 3-0 and Ravens were 1-2 and in a must win situation.  I could not agree with Simon more, zero similarity-- actually less than zero as Bills have the mental edge IMO because of the beatdown they took in Week 4.

Edited 4 hours ago by Casey D

[Ethan in Cleveland]

No resemblance 

 

Bills were without their two best players on defense earlier this year. 

 

Bills didn't have Cooper.

 

Game plan this week should be Allen throwing 45 times. Forget the run. Spread these guys out and beat them with the pass. Keep scoring quickly and Henry running is no longer a factor. 

 

Oh yeah. Hailey is way hotter and more sophisticated than whatever tramp Allen was arguing with the night before the Bengals game. 

 

Allen is so locked in right now. He is taking us to the SuperBowl 

Edited 4 hours ago by Ethan in Cleveland

[Kirby Jackson]

That 2022 team was emotionally exhausted by that point in the year. It was just too much. 
 

This year’s team should have a giant chip on their shoulder and are healthy. This is a huge game against a team that we do not match up with well on paper. The motivation though will be there and they’ll play for Josh. If he goes Superman and wins this game, they put a lot of narratives to bed. 

[JP51]

26 minutes ago, Bleeding Bills Blue said:

 

Inability to run and stop the run killed that cinci game.  I also felt like frazier called a pretty poor game with a ton of zone stuff fearing getting beat over the top.  

 

I'd say the line upgrades from Saffold to Edwards, Morse to McGovern (morse was a solid pass protector, but never had a ton of juice as a run blocker), and Bates to Torrence are big.  I also think Dorsey to Brady has been an upgrade from a playcalling perspective.  We seem to have ways to scheme open in man and blitz packages, ty johnsons a better 3rd down back from a blocking side than anyone we had.

On the defensive side of the ball - 

 

Rousseau and AJE are still here, but rousseau is not a rookie anymore.

Poyer was not the same poyer in 2022 with the elbow, and marlowe/johnson are both currently unemployed.  

DQ didn't play.  Phillips played with a shoulder injury that he had surgery on right after the season ended.  

Von didn't play.  

Edmunds is fine, but i find bernard has a better ability to create negative plays in run and pass game.  

Not having to feed Diggs... 

[without a drought]

Sorry, I'm not playing.

[Dillenger4]

Bills destroy these frauds. They aren't who you think they are.

[Wraith]

40 minutes ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

I want to believe we had some cleat issue in that light snow but that could definitely be cope lol. The niners bills game actually reminded me a lot of that bills bengals playoff game but that time the niners were on skates so if my cope is somehow true maybe we figured that issue out 🤣

Agreed on both counts. The snow during the Cinci game was not forecast and started right at game time. The entire game I felt like the Bengals were wearing the right cleats and the Bills were not. The same thing happened again this year against the 49ers (the snow had stopped by Sunday afternoon and wasn't expected to start back up again the way it did) except this time it was the Bills equipment manager who won the day.

[Kelly to Allen]

Allen playing with a serious elbow never gets talked about for whatever reason in this game. I remember him holding it during the Miami playoff game. Yet everyone always brings up when burrow was hurt and that's why he struggled. It's frickin weird 

 

I never thought we had a great chance in that game. 

 

The team was beat to hell physically and emotionally. We all saw it coming down the stretch in 22. 

 

One of the most exhausting and least enjoyable seasons I can remember. Not to mention the worst off season in bills history IMHO. Throw that year into the sun 

Edited 3 hours ago by Kelly to Allen

[Big Turk]

No comparison can be made...that team was essentially mentally exhausted after the year they had with snow moving games to Detroit, dealing with Hamlin's situation and all of the emotions, etc. 

 

They had nothing that game and you could see it right from the outset.