Buffalo Bills (5-10): Next game 12/30 vs. Dolphins (7-8); Kyle Willams Announces His Retirement

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Chiefs-Rams Is The Week 11 Super Bowl — But Probably Not The Actual Super Bowl

By Neil Paine

There’s a new team atop FiveThirtyEight’s NFL Elo rankings this week, and it’s the one we discussed in this space last time around — the red-hot New Orleans Saints. Fresh off an impressive victory over the Los Angeles Rams, New Orleans turned around and walloped the Bengals 51-14 in Cincinnati. Based on how they’ve been playing recently, there’s no team more deserving of the No. 1 slot than Dem Saints.

However, New Orleans is also the fourth different team to hold the top spot in Elo so far this year, joining the Patriots, Eagles and Chiefs. That’s tied for the most handoffs of the No. 1 spot through Week 10 of a season since 2002 (when five separate teams held No. 1 to that point in the schedule). So we still don’t have a great sense of who exactly will be meeting up in Atlanta in February. In fact, there’s still a decent chance it might just be the two teams that are scheduled this week for an epic Monday Night Football clash — the Chiefs and Rams.

Both teams sport 9-1 records, and they have similar strengths and weaknesses. According to Pro-Football-Reference.com’s Simple Rating System (SRS) metric, the Chiefs rank second in the league on offense and 19th on defense; the Rams rank third in offense and 14th on defense. K.C. is led by a couple of 23-year-olds: quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who leads the NFL in passing yards, and running back Kareem Hunt, who ranks fourth in rushing. L.A.’s pair are both 24: QB Jared Goff (second in passing yards) and RB Todd Gurley (first in rushing).

 

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[yahhockey]

Any NFL representatives are going to be neutered in their attempts to leverage an outcome outside the United States. They will have essentially no authority in Mexico and more difficult legal recourse. Essentially, it's just a pretty-please request.

I think you're also implicitly assuming any money paid up front by the NFL (or paid post-event) would be directed to whatever the contract arrangements specified. Not clear to me that would be a valid assumption. i.e., corruption could be in play.

You are reading far too much into my post. When the NHL plays games overseas there would be an understanding of what is considered suitable ice conditions, probably even a contractual declaration about the ice conditions, that could be monitored by a league employee leading up to the games or at least in a reasonable time period before the event that alternative arrangements could be made before the teams are already overseas. Think of the time and care that goes into the rinks for the outdoor games. The games are played in the same country however it is a different playing surface that someone meticulously fine tunes until puck drop.

According the the article below it was an Oct 11 Shakira concert that damaged the turf and the grass has not been able to regrow. That means four and a half weeks ago the turf was in terrible shape and whomever is in charge of the field seemingly took the wait and see approach. I wasn't talking about money in the sense of payments or corruption but rather the NFL being a large business entity with a head office that employees X number of people and seemingly no one was in charge of ensuring that one of their marquee out of country games had a suitable field. My expectations would be that someone from the league office has regular contact with the head groundskeeper in Mexico as well as visually inspecting the field as the game draws near. That said, portions of NFL playing fields are resodded as needed with the Chicago and Pittsburgh fields generally known for being potential hazardous to players from time to time.

Poor field conditions at Estadio Azteca force NFL to relocate Rams-Chiefs game to L.A.

 

[brian_griffin]

^^I fully understand.

Equally likely the NFL wasn’t negligent at all and tried to remedy the situation with pleas and/or money, and were given platitudes and assurances, followed by inaction.

 

[26CornerBlitz]

The Buffalo Bills are on their bye week, and after a big win over the New York Jets, Joe Buscaglia and Matthew Fairburn get together for their lone episode of the week. And along for the ride joining in on the fun, as promised, is well-known fan Michael Parthum as co-host for the bye week extravaganza. And not to mention, Tim Graham joins us, as only Tim can.

 

[Fezzy126]

What's the deal with cutting Pryor?

Was looking forward to seeing what he could do.

Would rather they cut Benjamin at least we know for sure that he is useless.

That's an excellent point, and one you might think the media would ask. In fact, the WGR afternoon guys thought to ask that very question to their own beat reporter. And... according to Sal C, the Bills are more likely to keep Benjamin because when he resigns with another team in the offseason it could factor into the compensatory pick formula for us.

I repeat - the full time Bills beat reporter thinks that a team with $80M in pending cap space could possibly have a net negative impact in FA and be eligible for compensatory draft picks

 

[brian_griffin]

I understand Dodge Ball 2 (the sequel is set 20 years after the original is in development). If Rip Torn, Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, and Owen Wilson have it in them, Kelvin Benjamin would be a natural for a role in that movie.

"If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a football."

 

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Why these young Bills are ready to make a major impact after the bye week

Sit back, for a second, and imagine that you’re building a house. While it’s only natural to think about the finished product, you must first lay a strong foundation, a base that will help your home stand tall through any adversity it may encounter.

Though the actual ‘home’ is far from completion, the base that head coach Sean McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane have built in Buffalo is rock solid, a foundation on which the duo hope to build a mansion.

It’s taken McDermott and Beane less than two years to completely revamp the Bills’ roster in their image. Only 12 players on Buffalo’s current 53-man roster were on the team when the two executives arrived in the 2017 offseason.

Included in the duo’s roster overhaul was a youth movement, a concerted effort to get younger at just about every single position. Over the past 20 months, the Bills have acquired franchise players at quarterback, linebacker, and cornerback among other key positions - establishing a young core that Buffalo hopes will ultimately transform the team into a perennial contender.

 

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ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — With little money to spend and few impact players interested in signing with the Bills given the uncertainty at quarterback this past offseason, general manager Brandon Beane understood Buffalo’s offense was going to struggle.

Little did he realize how much.

“There’s nobody that goes into a season and looks for either side of the ball to have a down year and to be statistically where our offense is,” Beane told The Associated Press during a wide-ranging interview before Buffalo entered its bye week.

He then recalled something former coach John Fox once said when the two worked together in Carolina.

“There’s nobody going to rescue you in-season,” said Beane, in his second year in Buffalo. “You’ve got to dig out of it yourself. And all you can do is put your head down and keep working.”

Much of the heavy lifting will have to wait for the offseason when Buffalo is projected to be more than $90 million under the NFL’s salary cap, plus a current stockpile of 10 draft picks.

 

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11-16: The NFL Draft Network's Kyle Crabbs with Howard and Jeremy on WGR (11:12)

 

[Dubi Doo]

That's incredible given how bad the offense has been.

 

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5 opinions on the Bills 2018 season so far

1. Best performance of the season so far ...
2. Reason for optimism after the bye week ...
3. NFL ranking that you expected at this point in the season ...
4. NFL ranking that has surprised you the most ...
5. Area where the team needs to improve the most ...

 

[missingmika]

That's incredible given how bad the offense has been.

Or, it's due to how bad the offense is. The opponents average starting field position is the worst in the NFL, so teams have less possible yards to get each drive.

 

[Baccus]

Or, it's due to how bad the offense is. The opponents average starting field position is the worst in the NFL, so teams have less possible yards to get each drive.

McDermott's sinister plan comes into focus....

 

[Dubi Doo]

Or, it's due to how bad the offense is. The opponents average starting field position is the worst in the NFL, so teams have less possible yards to get each drive.

I mean, that may inflate the stats a bit, but to be number one? That's crazy.

 

[Rowley Birkin]

Or, it's due to how bad the offense is. The opponents average starting field position is the worst in the NFL, so teams have less possible yards to get each drive.

But that's cancelled out by the sheer number of opportunities opposing offences get. How many times have they gone 3 & out this year giving the ball straight back to the opposition ? I'd bet the bills are near the top of the league in number of drives against. Would be interesting to know.

This defence - it might actually be elite.

 

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[Taro Tsujimoto]

 

[Tsujimoto]

Detroit making a late push for the first overall pick