Week 17: Bills vs Dolphins [ Fitz Tested Positive for COVID-19]

[Ann]

 

 

Bills open as 4.5 point favorites.
 

Game time: Sunday,  January 3rd at 1 pm eastern on the CBS
 

If the Bills beat Miami, they are the #2 seed in the AFC.

Starting this early due to injury news and updates.

[Ann]

This is bad...
 

 

[Ann]

 

 

 

[Ann]

 

 

 

[Doc Brown]

One out of the box option about how McDermott should approach this game that maybe hasn't been discussed is you start most of your backups while watching the Browns/Steelers score.  If you think Pitt may win then maybe play your starters in the 2nd half to win in order to avoid Baltimore in the WC round.  

[Chandemonium]

1 hour ago, Doc Brown said:

One out of the box option about how McDermott should approach this game that maybe hasn't been discussed is you start most of your backups while watching the Browns/Steelers score.  If you think Pitt may win then maybe play your starters in the 2nd half to win in order to avoid Baltimore in the WC round.  

It’s an interesting idea, but IMO you either value the 2 seed and play for it due to the guaranteed extra home game and possibility of being home for the AFCCG, or you don’t. Once you start getting cute trying to manipulate who your opponent will be, all you’re doing is signaling to the team you’re avoiding, and perhaps more importantly your own team, that you’re afraid of them. I don’t want this team playing afraid, and there’s no reason for them to. Over the past month the Bills are playing the best football in the league, bar none. Other teams should be worried about how to avoid us in the playoffs, not the other way around. 

[Nanker]

1 hour ago, Chandemonium said:

It’s an interesting idea, but IMO you either value the 2 seed and play for it due to the guaranteed extra home game and possibility of being home for the AFCCG, or you don’t. Once you start getting cute trying to manipulate who your opponent will be, all you’re doing is signaling to the team you’re avoiding, and perhaps more importantly your own team, that you’re afraid of them. I don’t want this team playing afraid, and there’s no reason for them to. Over the past month the Bills are playing the best football in the league, bar none. Other teams should be worried about how to avoid us in the playoffs, not the other way around. 

Yes. I agree with that. I just want The Bills to stay healthy and enter the post season on a high note. 

[Boyst]

Also it's poor form and opens injuries to come in cold off the bench in the 2nd without a proper warmup and a routine being broken. These guys who start have a routine and breaking that routine could be enough to cause injury or poor performance. We don't want someone going in to the playoffs without their mojo.

 

Play the starters to start the game. Watch the scoreboard for the Steelers game. Tomlin won't &#%$ around and try to play to win with backups. He will give an honest effort but he's not going to play his entire hand for a week 17 insignificant game. 

[Keukasmallie]

Seems simple to me:  Continue to do what got the Bills where they are.  

[plenzmd1]

Not sure if it was here or on Twitter...but should the Bills start to consider isolating Barkley instead of Fromm? 

 

Make Webb backup for this game?

Edited December 30, 2020 by plenzmd1

[Alaska Darin]

12 minutes ago, plenzmd1 said:

Not sure if it was here or on Twitter...but should the Bills start to consider isolating Barkley instead of Fromm? 

 

Make Webb backup for this game?

We're not beating anyone if Barkley has to play significant time.

[IDBillzFan]

2 hours ago, Chandemonium said:

 I don’t want this team playing afraid, and there’s no reason for them to.

 

Years of disappointment can easily make anyone keep an eye on the easier path, but I agree here completely. The team we're watching right now can beat anyone, and they know it. This is not the team that got its ass kicked by the Titans, or that lost a close one to KC.

 

Baltimore poses one of the more concerning challenges because their strength of running is the Bills' weakness, except now the Bills can score on Baltimore, and the formula during this final stretch seems to be "Stay aggressive. Score with every possession and make the opponent become one dimensional by taking the run game out of their arsenal in order for them to keep pace."

 

The one comment I hear a lot now is that the Bills are the only team able to get into a shootout with KC. 

 

Alternately, you could easily argue that KC is the only team able to get into a shootout with the Bills.

[Ann]

 

[Ann]

He's describing Tua as Tyrod Taylor 2.0. If that is who Tua is, the Dolphins need a new quarterback.

 

 

[KD in CA]

3 hours ago, Boyst said:

Also it's poor form and opens injuries to come in cold off the bench in the 2nd without a proper warmup and a routine being broken. These guys who start have a routine and breaking that routine could be enough to cause injury or poor performance. We don't want someone going in to the playoffs without their mojo.

 

Play the starters to start the game. Watch the scoreboard for the Steelers game. Tomlin won't &#%$ around and try to play to win with backups. He will give an honest effort but he's not going to play his entire hand for a week 17 insignificant game. 

 

This.  No one has ever won a championship playing scared, plus this team is on a roll and doing anything to disrupt that is a mistake.  Go out and win the game, but play smart (no RPO plays Daboll) and hopefully start subbing guys out in the 2H when the game is in hand or when the Steelers have given up.

[Just Joshin]

2 hours ago, Ann said:

 

Flores "believes his team will be prepared to win a very important game" but starts Tua?

[Nanker]

14 minutes ago, Just Joshin said:

Flores "believes his team will be prepared to win a very important game" but starts Tua?

Shades of Flutie/Johnson

[Ann]

 

 

 

[Ann]

 

[Fansince88]

11 hours ago, plenzmd1 said:

Not sure if it was here or on Twitter...but should the Bills start to consider isolating Barkley instead of Fromm? 

 

Make Webb backup for this game?

I say Isolate Barkley, Play the starters for the first 2 series and sit them and play Fromm. 1) Jake gave the Bills the season in the back row. 2) Lets see how he plays in a non important game. 3) keep the Starters in the rhythm of game day