Saturday Wild-Card Open Discussion

If I were to channel my inner RJ, I would say Raiders all the wsy. 

But I do think it will be close and fun.

CIN-27 LV-17 

BUF-30 NE-20

I see the Bengals coming out fired up. First playoffs since 2015 doncha know.

I do think it'll lead to some early fireworks, with Burrow and company putting up 150 yards in the first quarter. I don't think they'll come away with more than a couple FGs though.

The second quarter will probably get each team a td, since the Raiders aren't just going to roll over. I think a 13-10 halftime score sounds right.

I'm expecting the Bengals to pull away in the 3rd quarter and finish it 34-17, which is too bad because the Raiders don't deserve to be remembered as quite that outclassed.

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Raiders have the worst red zone defense ever, allowing a td on 81% of opponent possessions, so of course the bengals score a td. 

Weird.  LV had three consecutive snaps inside their own 5 and didn't call a QB sneak on any of them.  Of course, the second of those was a false start, which they might have avoided if they weren't going the hyper-aggressive route of trying to run a draw play.

Edit: and on third down Carr gets sacked on his half-yard line and somewhere Joe Judge is yelling "See! I told you!!"

Sure looked like Chase pushed off on that long reception. (I have no rooting interest, just enjoying watching a game)

First big 4th-and-1 situation and CIN goes for it at the LV 31.

I hate the play call - slow developing pitch end around to Chase which would be blown up if any of about 5 defenders beats his block - but all the blockers do their job and they convert.

Clearly a whistle blew when ball was in the air.  
 

EDIT:  Now the NBC crew agrees that should not have been a TD

Praise the heavens

Also Bengals rested last week but doesn't look like rust. Ooops, throw momentum out the window

Big end of H1 TD drive by LV to make this a one score game going into half (unless CIN does something with the 13 seconds left on the clock).

Why are these clowns (former coaches/former officials) so stupid?  "Officials can't ignore rules"-- Dungy said.  sure they can when the whistle blew a millisecond before the ball hit the receiver's hands. At the point when no one could possibly have reacted in time-- and of course the nearest defender wasn't even arms length away. That "call" if enforced would have been one of the worst in the history of the league.

is dreadful.  Tirico seems confused on what is happening play to play.  Love Brees but he is super dull.  All the camera work seems a step slow.  I would expect this from the fourth string ESPN crew covering a nothing college bowl game.  Not these guys.  Geez 

The turnover letting CIN get ball at 15 and only get a FG and the terrible ST gaffe leading to a punt from the 1 only leading to a FG. along with Raiders end of half TD with their extra first half possession from receiving opening kickoff, thats a lot to have happen to save this game and only be down 20-13 at half.

And you're looking at a Rodgers-like era of 8-10 straight years of playoffs/contention  Burrow is that good

Which is why I think Mayfield is gone in CLEV-- they can't afford to have an average (At best) QB in that division

And Crosby has undressed him two straight plays 

Boyd was wide open, the ball was already on its way past the defender, and the play should have been a touchdown. If the worst thing the refs do in this game is blow a bad whistle a fraction of a second before a wide-open touchdown that then stands, this is a win for the NFL. 

Where was the whistle stopping that play?

No delay of game call. Now a late review. These officials are really trying to blow this game. 

For Cincy.  Wow 

The Bengals pass rush has vanished 

Very timely 

And the guy cannot stop talking about running the ball

But would have play actiioned to Cincy TE

Go for it 

Boooooo

Five yard penalty wouldn’t hinder the field goal. Save the time out, let the clock expire, move back five yards, and get the same three points. 

Bengals should be forced to forfeit. Cowards. 

And it was leaning go for it. But it was a toss up so just go with whatever and don't waste the timeout. 

Must be great as Carr has forever and keeps having to check down 

Is HORRIBLE. 

It amazes me the brainfarts these professionals CONSTANTLY have.

Feels as if they’ve been outplayed all day, even though yards per play says otherwise. 

Teams still spiking in these situations?

Just a waste of a down that you very well might need.

Welp...guess I wanted Cincy to win anyway. 

4th and goal now..game on the line

edit: didn't get it! Bengals get first playoff win since 1990!

Congrats Bengals

You have enough time for four plays-- easy...

Oohhh that roughing the passer call on the final drive of the game looked brutal based on the replay angles shown in TV.  Wonder if there was anything there from other angles?

Bit of a sloppy game, lots of FGs, a few too many bad officiating moments ... and still a great finish to the game and great start to wildcard weekend.  

Cowher and Esiason acting as if this was some horrible call--- NONE OF THEM BOTHERING TO POINT OUT THE BALL WAS ABOUT THREE INCHES FROM THE RECEIVER'S HANDS WHEN THE WHISTLE BLEW   THEY ARE IDIOTS!!!

Thought that was a throwaway.  

MVP-candidate Josh Allen shows up on the first Bills' drive, aided by Judon and Hightower whiffs on two big Allen runs and capped by a beautiful touch pass to the back corner of the end zone that would have doubled as a throw away if not for the great catch by the TE.

OMFG WTH

Bills with a great opening drive!

Bills D gets an end zone int!

Micah Hyde!!

Picks Agholor's pocket and what looked like a sure NE tying TD becomes BUF ball.

Goodness 

Annnnnnnnnddd..... That's all she wrote.  Pats actively make things easier for Buffalo when the Bills weren't even on schedule.  Hard to imagine things turning out better when Buffalo's plays go as planned.  

40-13 here we come. 

Frazier and McDermott will have to make some adjustments. Defensive line also needs to seal the deal once they get to Jones. Offense is clicking so far, though. 

Really impressive 

Up 14-0, controlled the 1st quarter with ball control offense.

But if they come up empty on Buffalo’s next drive, they might not have much choice. It’s becoming clear that the Patriots still have no answers on that side of the ball, because they still have no answers for Josh Allen. 

playing for NE stuns me given his weak 8ss effort to tackle the back on that play to get inside the 5.  

They have played a mix of man-to-man and some against Buffalo, and it hasn’t mattered at all. Any idea when the Pats last got a sack, got a turnover, or forced a punt against the Bills? Because I think it’s going on seven quarters now. 
 

Edit: I looked it up. As Buffalo takes over with 3:33 left in the second, the Patriots haven’t sacked Allen in a game and a half, haven’t forced a punt in nearly eight full quarters, and haven’t forced a turnover since Matt Breida’s fumble in the first quarter of the MNF game. 

is one crazy good quarterback.

Holy cats

is Allen now the new Asterisk?

Whoa

to find his jock.   

What a great juke by Allen. Tonight he is flawless. 

Bills get to 300 yards! 27-0! As TMQ would say, "I wrote game over in my notebook"

I looked up his worst playoff loss as Patriots coach earlier today and then told some friends that with Buffalo’s game plan and New England’s injuries, I felt the 19-point margin was in play. I’ll admit that I didn’t think they’d clear it with 23 minutes and blast well past it by halftime. By the end of the night, Josh Allen will own the biggest regular-season win against Belichick and should own the biggest playoff win against him as well. 

Now the only real drama is if the pats can even score. 

The lesson, as always: Never bring a Mac to a Josh fight. 

+100 to all comments so far

Pats kick a FG?! Shame on you Belichick. 

Promising start to H2….uh, never mind. 

OMG! 

lol who needs xp's

If the Bills can play like this in the weeks to come, look out!

*not that beating the Pats are a yardstick of greatness*

They’ve beheaded it, chopped it up, and grilled it, and now they’re getting ready to serve dragon burgers to all the Pats fans out there. Oh, and Boston media, too. Those guys said they wanted the bull; hope they’re enjoying the horns!

Fun isn't something one considers when trying to balance the NFL, but this.... this does put a smile on my face.

Wow. Just wow!

I want someone to edit this video clip, put Josh's face on Vision's, change "Age of Ultron" to "Age of Allen," and put Belichick's face on Thanos:

https://youtu.be/nEVsDkJQhIY

With a 37-point lead and under nine minutes to go, the Bills starters should be on the sideline. Every play they're out there in the cold is just another opportunity to get hurt.

Anyone have Tommy Doyle on their fantasy team?

Now they're running up the score..not fair...waaahhhhh

Still waiting for that super-secret defensive game plan he’s gonna unveil to stop 17. Maybe he’s saving it for next year. 

The big man touchdown just makes all this even better and it was pretty great already.

I think part of why this blowout is so good is that NE isn't playing horribly. It's because Buffalo is playing so good it doesn't matter. I enjoy well executed football a lot more than sloppy and a lot of blowouts are because one team is just executing like crap. NE looks like they are having an average game execution wise. Buffalo is just on another level tonight.

After that big man touchdown I feel like I was given an entire chocolate cake for my birthday and decided to eat all of it; it was great, but I'm bloated on sweets and butter now

We’ll, so much for weighted DVOA. 

I'm a bears fan, but I have a bills fan friend who invited me to watch with him at the one bills bar in Chicago, and holy crap was that fun. Congrats, bills fans, and savor this no matter what happens the rest of the postseason. 

When they are on their game, they are the best team in the league. They’re unstoppable on offense, and they have the league’s best defense, which is chock full of players who have been playing in the same system for years now. Not having Tre might get them beat at some point, but this was never gonna be that week. 

1. New England still owns the division.
2. Bill Belichick has a single clue as to how to stop Josh Allen.
3. JC Jackson can hang with Stefon Diggs.
4. Josh Allen can’t play in the cold.
5. Josh Allen can be beaten by [insert defensive game plan du jour here].
6. The Patriots have a better coaching staff than the Bills do.

That is all!

As it happens my family and I were eating Buffalo wings while the game was on.  That headgear is very clever, an upstate answer to the Packers cheesehead.  How long has it been a thing?

According to the local radio hosts, this is the first game in NFL history in which a team didn't punt, didn't have a turnover, and didn't attempt a field goal. And Josh Allen authored that. Josh Allen!

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of Patriot voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

“Bills’ Porn” seems to fit.

I hope they didn’t shoot their wad, to torture the metaphor. Very impressive. Perfect match of effort and execution. Just flying around like crazy. You Bills’ fans in here must have been ecstatic. That kind of game as a fan if you attend especially brings lots of memories.

There sure were a lot of fake story lines pre-game. “Poor circulation”, receivers going to drop the cold hard thrown balls, etc.

Thank you NFL for a very entertaining Saturday afternoon and evening. The LV-CIN game was sloppy at times and had some controversy*. But it was competitive and fun for a fan that has no rooting interest for either team. 

The NE-BUF game was just a thing of beauty. As I've said earlier in the thread seeing BUF just be so lights out on everything except extra points was fun and it stopped right at the point where it was going to get sad. NE made mistakes yes, but honestly they didn't look like they made any more unforced mistakes than the other 3 games I've seen them in this year. They looked like NE playing decently but not being able to do anything against a team that was doing damn near everything exactly like you hope they will when you plan a game. That kept me interested. If NE was completely inept and BUF just playing OK and the score was what it was the game would have gotten boring for me I think. But since NE wasn't just shooting themselves in the foot play after play but playing like NE and BUF was doing something you just don't get to see very often it was awesome.

Actually I may have had some rooting interest. Like every non Pats fan I probably was getting a little more out of it because I'm tired of the Pats. I also have a soft spot for Josh Allen because I get Favre vibes from him and Favre provided me so many years of fun. I also still root for Micah Hyde so seeing him do some great stuff was probably more fun than if it had been Poyer who made those plays. But it's still a small factor.

Anyway, felt like a great start to a playoffs that going into them felt like everyone but PHI, LV, and PIT had a least a punchers chance of doing something. (Comment 5 here if you care more about my thoughts on each team). If tomorrow can give us 2 games as entertaining the other 2 can be snoozers and it's still a first weekend big win.

* I actually didn't understand all of that at first since I was watching it muted I thought the replays were just trying to make sure Burrow was inbounds before he threw it wasn't until after that I realized it was because of the whistle, which turned what looked like an awesome play into a mess.

Patriots were nowhere near an elite team.. Unless Buffalo is head and shoulders the best team in the NFL... Which they might be, but I doubt it.  Mac Jones is an ordinary QB--- barring the construction of a Ravens-like defense by an aging Belichick, that means the days of SB appearances are over....

If the 49ers beat up on the Cowboys tomorrow are you going to take a long hard look at your weighting for blow outs over three scores? Top DVOA has been losing for about 2 decades now and it seems to tie directly into the blowouts getting too much love. You are missing style differences. The 49ers for example tend to step off when up a lot with Kyle. GB and KC do the same. Dallas, Buffalo, and NE run up scores against shitty opponents. I think this is a big problem for the rating even if Dallas wins tomorrow. SF could have hung 50 on the Jaguars but didn't. Also the furious garbage time comebacks are overrated as well. Seems like DVOA could benefit from a bit of weighting adjustments. Open source an old version of the algorithm and the data and we can start cracking the code

Wow what a game by Josh Allen, Micah Hyde and the Bills!!