Your Other (Alliterative) AFC Semi Final Open Thread

Perhaps we could have a competitive contest? Perhaps both teams could show up? I’ve no reason to be salty about the Giants given the season they had but I do like embracing my bitter side apparently. They finally have a good front office and coach in place and now they just need to close the talent deficit they have compared to the Cowboys and Philly. And team speed. There was a reason Wink played up to 7 guys in the secondary because he recognized what fans have been screaming about for two decades-the lb’s are too slow, being drafted specifically to stop the run game. I’ll shut up now.

To The Game!

Bengals/Bills:

-With Cincy down two starters on the right side of the o-line (three if you want to count Collins) look for excellent blocking back Perine to have an increased role as well as blocking tight end Mitchell Wilcox-they’ll chip in to help out the noobs.

-One should remember though that during the Bengals march to the Super Bowl Burrow was sacked 15(!) times in three games.

-We Have Snow Game?: Nope. A light dusting is called for early in the afternoon but that’s it.

-You would think that Cincy would want to slow the game down a bit but they are 29th in the league in rushing. Mixon averages a mere 3.9 ypc which is 32nd among 41 qualifying rb’s. To boot, they tend to run behind the right tackle-there’s another problem given their injuries.

-Last week Allen had two INT’s and a fumble but the damage wasn’t as severe as it could have been because Skylark Thompson. Burrow will pounce on any field-shortening errors made by Josh.

-If there is bracket coverage on Diggs, Playoff Gabe Davis will have to make another noteworthy appearance. He has a considerable height advantage on the opposing cb’s.

-On t’udder side-who does Buffalo put Tre’Davious White on? Higgins? Chase? A combo of both? It’s the old ‘pick your poison’ dilemna.

-There’s talk that lb Logan Wilson will be used as a ‘spy’ on Allen which is a wee bit interesting given that they were teammates at Wyoming. They were in fact so close that they had matching Truck Nutz made for their pickups! (this is not even remotely a fact)

Enjoy the tilt.