Buffalo Bills Week 15: New England (3-11) at Buffalo (11-3), 12/22, 4:25 PM (flexed), CBS

[Deep Blue Metallic]

Not the biggest concern right now, but anyone else nervous about Bass in a must FG situation in the playoffs?

 

[misterchainsaw]

Broncos D has been good, but they also haven't faced a murderer's row of offenses. Baltimore put up 41 on them. Jameis Winston put up 32 (and gave them 2 pick 6's, but still). They can very much be had by an elite offense.

Same thing goes for the Chargers, who are in the 7 right now.

The AFC West just didn't face too many good QB's in their divisional rotation, and the non-1st place teams saw even less.

 

[5 Minute Major]

The jets game will be interesting as they’re a bad team with all the weapons they need to theoretically do damage save for Rodgers being toast

The Bills are going to smash the Jets. The Jets damned near beat us the first time we played them and McDermott and the coaches will remind them continually about that the week leading up to the game.

 

[misterchainsaw]

And yeah, thinking on the drive home, the defense absolutely did enough early to put the Lions into chase mode, and they never got out. They got the Bills in the 4th in garbage time with the Bills' 4th and 5th string safeties in the game (and 4th string LB) but here's Detroit's first 7 possessions with game state:

Score entering drive - result:
0-0 Punt
7-0 Punt
14-0 TD
21-7 TD
21-14. missed 50 yard FG
28-14 Punt
28-14 Fumble

That's a solid 7 possessions against the highest scoring offense in the league. They didn't run on us at all, and basically ate up deep roster backups late in the game to pile up yardage.

They only faced one more possession where Detroit was within two scores, and the Lions used up almost all of their remaining time scoring on it.

I think Bishop and Elam are both starters next year.

 

[Der Jaeger]

It really worried about the defense. If I’ve learned anything over the past few seasons watching the Chiefs, it’s the team who can score early and not stop who wins. The defense needs to hold early and key drives in the game, which allows the offense to put the team ahead.

The defense gave the Bills a 14 point lead and forced enough punts and a turnover to allow the team to win.

 

[TehDoak]

Not the biggest concern right now, but anyone else nervous about Bass in a must FG situation in the playoffs?

My concerns:

1) Run Defense
2) Pass defense
3) Tyler Bass.

 

[yahhockey]

I hope the team doesn’t listen to any media this week so they don’t buy into the hype that they may be the best team in football. You don’t play football to be the best team on December 16. Eyes on the prize. Same goes for the fans.

Not that anyone here is like that.

 

[tsujimoto74]

Not the biggest concern right now, but anyone else nervous about Bass in a must FG situation in the playoffs?

I’m more worried about our defense. They’ve given up 90 points in the last 2 weeks. Expecting Allen to perform at this level every game just to have a chance at winning is kind of unreasonable.

 

[Zman5778]

Playing with the NFL playoff machine a little bit:

We need to stay 1 game ahead of the Steelers for the 2 seed. Any tie with Pittsburgh going forward means that we finish with a worse conference record.

Pittsburgh finishes with the Ravens, Chiefs and Bengals. One loss from them and 2 Buffalo wins guarantees us 2 seed at minimum.

So root like hell for the Ravens next week and the Steelers the following week. Then the chips fall where they may for the 1 seed.

 

[ValJamesDuex]

Positives:
Thought prime Ed Oliver was back today
Smoot back helped on the line
Good experience for Bishop today
Coming off a short week with the snow storm thought they looked prepared on both sides
Brady called a very good game
Ty Johnson is a weapon
Having Kincaid back opened things up a little bit more
Good bounce backs for Bass after missing the shorty

 

[OkimLom]

I’m more worried about our defense. They’ve given up 90 points in the last 2 weeks. Expecting Allen to perform at this level every game just to have a chance at winning is kind of unreasonable.

Against one of the top minds offensively with two great weapons and really good QB in the league where they were finally at 100% and then against another great offensive team with a plethora of weapons in clear conditions indoors.

The only great offense we would be seeing the rest of the way(outside the SB) is possibly Baltimore, and I like our chances in our building against the other options.

 

[yahhockey]

 

[ValJamesDuex]

He's insane and deserves rings!

 

[Husko]

Playing with the NFL playoff machine a little bit:

We need to stay 1 game ahead of the Steelers for the 2 seed. Any tie with Pittsburgh going forward means that we finish with a worse conference record.

Pittsburgh finishes with the Ravens, Chiefs and Bengals. One loss from them and 2 Buffalo wins guarantees us 2 seed at minimum.

So root like hell for the Ravens next week and the Steelers the following week. Then the chips fall where they may for the 1 seed.

I dunno. I don’t really want a world where the ravens take the division froM the Steelers.

 

[Zman5778]

I dunno. I don’t really want a world where the ravens take the division froM the Steelers.

In a perfect world -- the Ravens win the division and play KC in the 2/3 game while we get the Steelers as the 1/5 game in the divisional round.

 

[ValJamesDuex]

Capaccio: Arrow Up/Arrow Down: Bills at Lions​

https://www.audacy.com/wgr550/sports/bills/capaccio-arrow-up-arrow-down-bills-at-lions2024

 

[VaporTrail]

Not the biggest concern right now, but anyone else nervous about Bass in a must FG situation in the playoffs?

Yes, I've wanted that clown off the team for a long time..I actually was hoping they'd cut him and get the guy they Lions got out of the UFL
...

 

[TehDoak]

Honestly this is probably the absolute worst timing for mahommes to get injured. The Saturday game then Wednesday game means he essentially gets zero rest. I have to think you rest him the next two games and hope for a split then you can clinch the bye at Denver.

 

[Fly Boy]

Hey guys. Panthers Fan, but born and raised in Detroit and bandwagoning for the Lions. That was a great game. I would love to see a Superbowl rematch with a healthy Lions D and healthy Bills team.

Already a barn burner but damn if it couldn't be more.

 

[misterchainsaw]

In a perfect world -- the Ravens win the division and play KC in the 2/3 game while we get the Steelers as the 1/5 game in the divisional round.

It's going to be real interesting to see how Wentz plays if Mahomes misses time. Houston then Pittburgh isn't the easiest, but it honestly feels like all they're missing without Mahomes is the offensive 4th quarter magic the way he's playing this year. Although if KC's line actually is that bad and it's not just Mahomes holding it too much it could get ugly with a guy like Wentz in there.

 

[misterchainsaw]

Honestly this is probably the absolute worst timing for mahommes to get injured. The Saturday game then Wednesday game means he essentially gets zero rest. I have to think you rest him the next two games and hope for a split then you can clinch the bye at Denver.

Think we're hoping for Denver to lose to the Chargers and Bengals so that the last game of the season isn't a "who cares" game for Denver. Denver's played KC more than tough over the last couple of seasons.

Of course, that could leave the window open for Cincy to sneak into the playoffs if KC beats Denver anyway.

 

[Djp]

Playing with the NFL playoff machine a little bit:

We need to stay 1 game ahead of the Steelers for the 2 seed. Any tie with Pittsburgh going forward means that we finish with a worse conference record.

Pittsburgh finishes with the Ravens, Chiefs and Bengals. One loss from them and 2 Buffalo wins guarantees us 2 seed at minimum.

So root like hell for the Ravens next week and the Steelers the following week. Then the chips fall where they may for the 1 seed.

The ideal...
Hou beat KC, balt beats PIT, bills W
PIT beat KC, balt beat Hou, bills W

Then Bills are tied with KC and control top seed
Pit/Bal are tied but PIT controls fate with div lead and tiebreakers

Bills need the two W to finish above balt and hou. If both L one then BUF just needs one E to be ahead of them

Pit -Buf tie goes to pit on better conf record

 

[Djp]

In a perfect world -- the Ravens win the division and play KC in the 2/3 game while we get the Steelers as the 1/5 game in the divisional round.

I'm fine with
Bal/Hou face off then they go to KC as #1 while BUF faces PIT/#6 seed after beating #7

If balt won div...they likely are #3 then that could create a matchup with buf as 2.

Then you wonder if balt LL they could be the 7 seed .....

 

[Djp]

Denver and baltimore need one W for playoffs
Chargers need 2 W or 1 W and the right 6-8 teams lose for playoffs

Buf, kc, houston clinched div
Pitt clinches eith a W next week over baltimore

In the NFC...

DET/MIN in week 18 could decide division and possible top seed. The loser is 5 serd.
GB is likely seed #6

PHL magic number is 1 to clinch div

week 18 Seahawks/Rams could be for div title

TB is ahead of ATL for div

WAS is clinging to the 7 seed but it could go to ATL or NFC west 2nd place if they lose some of their games

 

[ValJamesDuex]

Hey guys. Panthers Fan, but born and raised in Detroit and bandwagoning for the Lions. That was a great game. I would love to see a Superbowl rematch with a healthy Lions D and healthy Bills team.

Already a barn burner but damn if it couldn't be more.

and a healthy Bills D as well. We were missing 3 starters in the secondary (both safeties) and lost 2 linebackers during the game.