01-17-2023, 08:17 PM
(01-17-2023, 07:17 PM)Mafioso Wrote: Friendly Bills fan here. 20+ year member on the forum linked in the Op. I’ve been perusing your board off an on since our MNF meeting. I’m very impressed with your fan base and I appreciate the fan bases level of concern regarding Damar and the team.
First off- congrats on winning the AFC last season. I loved every second of that AFCCG. Well played. Your team is set up for a decade+ of being a SB favorite. I love the feel of your stadium and how loud your crowd gets. That’s what football is all about. Not every team has a true home field advantage. You guys have one and i hope to witness it sometime in the near future.
I’d just like to give my impressions of your team and hear some feedback and correct me if I’m off base. I’ll start with the D, because I don’t think it gets enough credit. Hendrickson and Hubbard are quite the duo. With reader and Hill in the middle, Pratt and Wilson at LB and bates and Bell you guys have the middle of the field on lock. Mike Hilton is one of the best slot corners in the league. Straight baller. Sad to see awuzie get hurt this year. I loved him at Colorado and was hoping the Bills drafted him before Dallas scooped him. Huge fan of Cam Taylor Britt, as Nebraska is my college team. He has all the tools to be a great CB and has huge hands. That said- I don’t know much about the enigma Eli Apple. Lots of negative things said about him (and his mother) league wide. I never really looked into any of the negativity. What are your guys’ thoughts on Apple? OSU kid playing at home. I figured he’d be loved.
the offense- good lord. Joe and Jamar won me a grip their last season @ LSU. I became a huge fan and was praying that Burrow would end up in the NFC. Now the AFC is stuck with the best 5 QBs in the league and they’re all just kids still. I’d put Mahomes-Burrow-Allen as 1A/B/C. Any given year, one of them will be the man. And that could change from year to year, with the other 2 coming in a close 2nd and 3rd. We should feel fortunate. We are fortunate. Herbert could join the club if they get Payton, but he failed in his first playoff game. Most of that loss is on Staley and Lombardi, but Herbert left a lot of plays on the field and failed in the 2nd half. With Burrow, you have a future HoF and possibly multi time super bowl champ-
Your playmakers are the best in the league imo. Chase and Higgins are both legit superstars imo. Boyd is the quintessential slot wr and an all time member of Bills Mafia. Thanks again Tyler (and Andy). You created one of the most memorable moments in my football life. I’ll forever be thankful. Hurst is a top 10 TE and a great locker room guy. Mixon, I’ll refrain from expressing many of my thoughts on the person, as that one moment in time will forever be one of the most disgusting things I’ve watched. He’s a helluva RB. Speed, power, elusiveness. He brings it all. Perine is one of the best backups in the league and I’m hoping the Bills can sign him if we let Singletary go via FA. Perine and Cook would compliment each other well imo. The OL is the question mark and what I know the least about. We faced a banged up Miami OL last week and didn’t provide very much pressure. If that happens again this week- we’ll need to score 40+ to have a chance.
I don’t think our D, without 2 all pros Miller and Hyde have much of a chance to stop your O. Our pass rush has been meh and our corners haven’t been playing the ball very well. They’ve been in decent position most of the year, but rarely, if ever, to they turn their heads and play the ball. Dane Jackson being the main culprit. We’re hoping that Elam can build on the Miami game last week. He has all the tools physically, but very little experience playing zone, which is what we play 70%+ of the time. Poyer is a stud but he’s been playing with a partially torn MCL (iirc) and an injured elbow most of the year and hasn’t been himself. The biggest weakness is the S opposite Poyer. With Hyde and Hamlin out, it’s manner by Dean Marlowe. He played his first snap (with the bills) last week. He had a pick but can be exploited like he was in Atlanta to start the season. You WRs are a matchup problem for the league, but especially for us as we lack speed in the back end. Elam is the only one with any semblance of speed. You guys should put 35+ on our heads.
I don’t like to talk about the O very much because we never know what we’re going to get with Ken Dorsey calling plays behind a poor OL. Josh is Our lord and savior and his play (or a coin toss) will likely determine our fate. Not much else to say about him. Diggs is a legit superstar and we thought we had a viable WR2 in Gabe Davis. But Davis hasn’t lived up to our hopes for him. He broke out last week vs Miami, so maybe it’s not too late for him, but most of our fanbase sees him as a WR3. Beasley, Mckenzie, Shakir and Brown are all capable but all are small, short armed targets with little to no catch radius. Shakir being the wildcard- he can go up and get it as well as RAC. It just seem as if Josh (or Dorsey) trusts him very much. Knox is a top 10 TE, possibly higher. He’s a great blocker and has turned himself into a dependable receiver. At RB, I’m happy with the combo of Cook and Motor. Cook looks like he could be special. He’s very patient and had the best hands of all RBs in the 2022 draft class imo. Dorsey just doesn’t dial up many passes to him. Some of us are hoping that we’ve been keeping his receiving prowess off the radar waiting til the games matter. Well, they matter now. I hope we throw him the ball. Motor is an unsung RB and always seems to move the chains when called up. Lacking speed but has a great feel for making the first defender miss. The OL is trash. Dawkins and Morse are solid. Bates is a JAG and Saffold and Brown are pretty terrible. Both are HUGE liabilities in pass pro, but decent road graders. Too bad we rarely run. Similar to you guys, the OL must be upgraded and the unit could end our season if they don’t play a good game. They can be downright terrible and get Josh killed. I feel that Josh’s first read should always be our OL- see who is going to get destroyed and avoid that pass rusher first, then scramble and unload.
Coaching- I can’t comment on your coaches very much other than I thought Taylor was awful as a Nebraska QB after I had high hopes for him. He seems like a class act. Does he call the plays? I don’t know much of anything about Lou. Mcdermott is a spiritual man and conservative coach by nature. Over the 3 seasons, he’s become more aggressive (thank god). The jury is still out if he can lead us to the promised land and his clock is ticking. 13 seconds will be on his head until he gets a Lombardi. Losing Daboll was a MASSIVE loss for Josh. They were pretty much best friends and he tempered Joshs enthusiasm for trying to make every play. Dorsey has been a roller coaster and has yet to give our O an identity. Time will tell if he’s cut out for the job of being Allens OC. Frazier is a steady influence and knows how to lead a defense. He too, is very conservative by nature. It’ll be interesting to see what he does if we can’t get pressure with 4. He blitzed twice in the MNF game vs y’all and got burned both times. He has his work cut out for him. Losing Von was about as big a loss as we could’ve suffered (other than Allen and Diggs). It’s up to frazier to somehow recreate the pressure we lost when he was injured.
ST- meh it matters but after this huge wall of text, I’ll spare you guys.
Thanks for reading of you made it this far. We’re all extremely nervous about the matchup as this was supposed to be “our year”. We were the Afc favorite to at least make the SB this year. Lots has happened since the beginning of the year and we are currently not the team we were hoping for. That’s said- every game is an opportunity to write a new story. We have a qb capable of beating anyone and the leadership in the locker room to inspire. All we can do now is ?? that the nfl gods declare us the Victor come Sunday. Both teams are worthy. I wish you guys luck. I hope it’s one for the ages.
Great post Mafioso. Couldn't really breakdown the teams any better than this myself. The Bengals are obviously my favorite team,
but the Bills are my second so if we do somehow lose I will be rooting for you guys the rest of the way. Honestly, I think it will be a
high scoring game the opposite of this last one against the Ratbirds who know us so well. Burrow has yet to really have a great
playoff game besides maybe the AFC Championship game last year against the Chiefs, so he is due.
I also think if the OL blocks somewhat well we match up very well with your Secondary. Bottom line, the Offense that scores TD's
and not FG's is going to win this game and it will probably be the team with the ball last.
Should be one for the ages. Sucked what happened to Damar, but hey, he is alright now thank God we get to play this game.
