Mentions the Chiefs several times, so figured you guys would want to see it.
The Bills are the team no one, including the Chiefs wants to see in the playoffs
Forget the Ravens. Forget the Bucs. The team you don't want to play in January is the Buffalo Bills.
With all due respect to the Packers, the AFC's No. 2 overall seed may very well be the second-best team in the NFL.
The Bills crushed the Dolphins 56-26 in a game Miami needed for their playoff hopes. And maybe we didn't see a 30-point win coming, but it's in line with what the Bills have been doing to teams in recent weeks.
Buffalo has had a top-five scoring defense since Week 12. If not for the Hail Murray they would have finished on a 10-game win streak dating back to before Halloween.
And then there's Josh Allen. The third-year franchise quarterback has, in consecutive weeks, set the Bills single-season records for passing touchdowns and passing yards.
What I love most about the Bills is that they aren't even letting teams hang around. Since that Week 10 loss to the Cardinals, not a single team has finished within a possession of the Bills.
I go back to that Week 6 loss to the Chiefs. Head coach Sean McDermott picked his poison and let the Chiefs' run game beat them up so that Patrick Mahomes wouldn't. Kansas City rushed for 245 yards and Mahomes passed for 225 yards.
But with about 5 minutes left in the game and down 23-17, the Bills forced a Clyde Edwards-Helaire fumble that would have given the Bills the ball at the Kansas City 31.
They would have had a chance to take the lead against the Chiefs there. But instead, the replay showed Edwards-Helaire's knee was down just before the ball came out. Mahomes took the Chiefs down for the field goal and that provided the final margin of victory.
Allen is a better quarterback today than he was then. The defense is playing far better ball. And after sweeping the Patriots and beating the likes of the Seahawks and Steelers, the Bills now know how to win big games.
Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501:
Meh, they're still dangerous. I remember the Chiefs beating Houston in a pretty imperfect win. Getting that playoff win under their belt is a huge weight off their shoulder. Especially for Mcdermott. Im not worried about them but the fact that they won and that allen didn't fall apart makes them a tough team to contend with.
He didn't fall apart, but back-to-back-almost-INTs definitely could have screwed the Bills considering the final outcome.
I didn't see the Colts doing much of what KC did in the first meeting - showing blitz, dropping into coverage from it unpredictably (which is weird, because that's the type of stuff Eberflus has excelled with in the past).
That's the best chance with Allen. Playing a soft zone and not doing anything to limit Allen's ability to roll right is kind of the worst way to approach him.
Originally Posted by DJJasonp:
Indy left 4 points on the field by not kicking the 1pt XP, and electing to go for it on the 3, instead of kicking a FG.
Reich was a 12 year old playing Madden yesterday.
Yeah, it reminded me of Harbaugh in the 2019 game here. He out-thought himself chasing points and it ended up limiting his options at the end of the game. [Reply]
Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501:
Meh, they're still dangerous. I remember the Chiefs beating Houston in a pretty imperfect win. Getting that playoff win under their belt is a huge weight off their shoulder. Especially for Mcdermott. Im not worried about them but the fact that they won and that allen didn't fall apart makes them a tough team to contend with.
While I get what you are saying, it was two totally different situations
Last year v. Houston, it was the Chiefs making all the mistakes to start that led to the large Houston lead. Then the Chiefs woke up. Other than the Texans fumbled kick off, the Chiefs made all the plays to win that game.
Yesterday, The Bills were playing their "normal" game, and the it was the Colts that kept shooting themselves in the foot....missing field goals, making dumb decisions on XPs, missing the opportunity on 4th down before the half (I actually liked the call, and the play was there to be had, and Rivers botched it - I absolutely hated the 3rd down call....)
The Colts racked up 475 yards and lost....I believe I read it was the first time in history that a team lost with that many yards. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Megatron96:
Heard a small piece of Reich's post-game presser. He said that those decisions were made based on metrics, and that they were "strong gos."
Yet another reason I'm not a fan of blindly following "metrics." It makes otherwise smart people do stupid things.
Yeah, it's the equivalent of giving employees a script so they don't say something stupid to a customer or enforcing rules to the letter.... it's a tool that shouldn't replace critical thinking or even basic logic.
If the metrics say 95% certainty, then sure... but on the road in the playoffs as an underdog, etc... take the damn points. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Megatron96:
Heard a small piece of Reich's post-game presser. He said that those decisions were made based on metrics, and that they were "strong gos."
Yet another reason I'm not a fan of blindly following "metrics." It makes otherwise smart people do stupid things.
Yeah, I get that and following the analytics is defensible if you're really good on 4th and short... the Colts are not because Rivers can't move and their offense is a little more predictable as a result.
If you have a decently mobile QB, those 4th and shorts are much easier to convert because of the plays available to you.
The Colts struggled in the red zone and on short yardage all season, is my understanding from Colts fans I know. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Megatron96:
Heard a small piece of Reich's post-game presser. He said that those decisions were made based on metrics, and that they were "strong gos."
Yet another reason I'm not a fan of blindly following "metrics." It makes otherwise smart people do stupid things.
While I'm a big fan of metrics and statistics, there is something to be said about real world discretion that should offset pure math.....
And I even liked the 4th down call, because I thought that the winner was going to be in the high 20s - low 30s.....so playing for those points made sense, and they should have gotten it too (Rivers has too much experience to miss that throw, but then again, he's Rivers!). But I also understand the other side of it, as even if the Bills scored before half, you're down 1 at halftime if you kick the field goal. To come up dry there was big....
The XP was the biggest WTF moment I've seen in a long time....Don't care what "analytics" say there. If you make it, it does little to nothing to help you win, and if you miss, then you're chasing points the rest of the game.... [Reply]
