The Brutal, The Bad and The Ugly

[Matt]

Good luck. FWIW I think Allen is a good dude but for your sake I hope he is who you think he is. All or most of us last year thought the same thing about Jackson and he took a step back. We’ll see if the same happens to your QB. I still think your comparisons of Lamar to Vick and/or Manuel are lazy though

I never made those comparisons.

 

[Grim]

I never made those comparisons.

Must’ve been one of the other Bills fans who came around. Good luck either way (sincerely not sarcasm). I meant what I said, I think Allen is a good dude.

 

[OURavensFan]

Had to login just to reply to this absurdity, when did EJ Manuel ... you know what, F it, I’m pulling for the Chiefs just because of this. EJ Manuel, show some respect, god forbid the Bills finally have a good year and we get this level of insufferableness.

 

[OURavensFan]

Exactly. People seem to forget that Joe won a playoff game where he went 4/10 for 34 yards 0 TDs 1 Int with half of his yards coming off of one pass. If Lamar had the same defense that Joe had early in his career Lamar would be seen in the same light as Joe.

Well to be fair the defensive performances Lamar got against the Chargers and Bills were great

 

[Truth]

Sourcing Stephen A. Smith as a knowledgeable sports personality is the equivalent of citing Wikipedia pages in a dissertation. What's this world coming to?

 

[rmcjacket23]

I never made those comparisons.

Congrats on the victory.

I think its key to remember what I referenced earlier in the week... this is playoff football. Its actually quite rare for things to go the way you think they should, and especially true when you're basing it off the regular season.

You and others spent the entire week talking about how the Ravens D was a bad matchup for the Bills offense, how blitzing Allen doesn't work, and others suggested that they couldn't see how we could cover all those great Bills receivers. And it turns out... none of that really mattered at all. Allen didn't win the game but didn't lose it, which is more than we could say for Lamar, and the only thing that really mattered the whole game was the Ravens offense vs the Bills D, which is what several people alluded to throughout the week.

In the playoffs, it rarely comes down to best players vs best players or studs making plays, etc. It's usually something innocuous that changes a game. Special teams was a huge factor on Saturday night. Neither kicker kicked well, an all-world kicker missing back-to-back field goals, and an all-world punter shanking probably the worst punt of his life. Sprinkle in Lamar throwing his first red zone interception of his career, and you've got several things nobody was expecting that pretty much determine the outcome of the game.

That's generally how playoff football works.