This will definitely be a Mac game because the Bills will still need to respect the Pats run game. That being said, the confidence I have in Mac is limited recently so it could be a buzzsaw. He did have some success against the Dolphins depleted secondary so who knows, but it'll be tough to keep up with Josh Allen's ability to sustain drives and flip the field constantly.
I'm not trying to be a penis, but at this level? It's about execution, not motivation.
Why would what happened last week have anything to do with execution this week?
I didn't say that. I wish we weren't playing them this week because "Our only shot was them not needing to win and resting their starters after a half. We can’t matchup with the Bills straight up.". The Bills are a MUCH better team than us, recent events aside. We can't beat them, unless we're expecting another epic windstorm.
Tell that to Rodney Harrison; tell that to Bill Belichick; tell that to Knute Rockne.
I dunno. Week 18 betting lines move dramatically based on who has something to play for and who doesn’t. Motivation matters, more so in football than in other sports, and the impact extends beyond which players play and which don’t.
This isn't a particularly good Pats team and it is a very good Bill team but anyone saying we can't beat them is nuts. Teams as good as the Pats beat teams as good as the Bills all the time; a particularly good game plan, or a couple of great plays by the Pats and/or bad plays by Buffalo is all you need.
That's all great and it may well happen, but I'm sure there have been millions of pep talks, pre-game speeches, etc given when teams then went on to lose. We hear about them when teams win because it makes a story. Do we really think every team that lost a Super Bowl or some big game just didn't have enough motivation?
Especially when he puts a message on the stadium jumbrotron. That crowd will be insane Sunday.
When I played in high school, one of our meathead seniors gave this cliche pregame pep talk, which included a line about "giving it your all for 60 minutes". Someone immediately interjected with a deadpan "48 minutes." We weren't very good.
Sure, anything could happen. Just saying that the Bills seem to be the worst possible matchup for this Pats team and it’s hard to see them winning absent extenuating circumstances.
You don't think that a video message from Demar up on the board during a key moment in the 4th quarter won't fire up the fans to 110db and then by extension the Bills D?
Crowd noise is a factor but the Bills fans are going to be loud if there are key defensive plays in the fourth quarter.
I think this is largely true. They’ll be energized to start and then level off because no one can maintain that level for three hours. However, they may also be able to dig a little deeper late in the game if they need to. I just hope it’s a clean, serious injury-free, competitive game and the Pats have a chance in the 4th.
Maybe. But they will have played a lot of football by then. I just think whatever limited value this kind of motivational fuel has, it’s generally at its highest at the start of/early in the game. When the energy level is already at its peak.
That's the other part of the equation. How good of a week of practice did the Bills have? Safe to say, they weren't as focused as a normal week. Still enough talent discrepancy plus opponent familiarity that it may not matter in this game.
You and me both. Not to be too dramatic, but I was going to have a hard time watching any football with that being a possibility.
I feel like this information has the potential to be more impactful on this game than motivational speeches to Bills players but maybe not. At the very least, the Pats will live or die with most of their "weapons" available.
I think it might.
That might be because the players have said "Thank God the unending regular season is over and now we can play for something". I would add that,after 40 years of coaching, intense motivation always seemed a bit over the top while a lack of motivation was a killer. Fine line there, as it mostly depends on one's level of concentration rather than motivation.
