NFL Week 10 Overreactions
Sports Seriously’s Mackenzie Salmon breaks down games from NFL Week 10.
ORCHARD PARK – On the heels of a Sunday afternoon where the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns solidified their playoff positions with 6-3 record, and the upstart 5-4 Houston Texans moved into the seventh and final AFC spot, the Buffalo Bills are facing a game Monday night where there is almost no margin for error.
The 5-4 Bills host the 3-5 Denver Broncos and they will do sitting in ninth place in the conference standings, still behind the No. 8 Cincinnati Bengals.
A victory would enable the Bills to inch past the 5-4 Bengals, while a loss creates all kinds of problems for Buffalo as it would be their fifth, the same number of the Broncos, Indianapolis Colts, Las Vegas Raiders, New York Jets, and Los Angeles Chargers.
Buffalo’s playoff chances are already hovering in uncommonly low territory, at least since they entered the Super Bowl contention window in 2020, and they would take another big hit if they were to lose to a Denver team that is on the upswing
This story will be updated throughout the night.
Bernard spent the week in the NFL’s concussion protocol, practicing on a limited basis in the red non-contact jersey. However, he made it through and after being deemed questionable for the game, he is active. Now we’ll see if he’s ready to play, but you can assume he is.
As we knew a couple days ago, both safety Micah Hyde and cornerback Christian Benford are out with injuries, while the other four inactive players are offensive linemen Germain Ifedi and Alec Anderson, linebacker Baylon Spector, and defensive tackle Poona Ford.
With Benford out, it would appear that Rasul Douglas will start along with Dane Jackson. And taking Hyde’s place will be Taylor Rapp.
It’s one thing to pore over game video to study that week’s opponent. It’s entirely another to paint the opponent’s logo on your practice field, but that’s what the Broncos head coach had done last week at the team’s training center.
What this is is further evidence that football coaches are a different breed, and some of them border on lunatics.
“It’s nothing to do with the opponent,” Payton told reporters. “It’s more of us getting the mindset that, ‘This is the logo; we’re at the field trying to simulate.’ We started doing that. And when you start building something, everyone wants to help. And so, the field guys – who do a great job here – it’s kind of like … they want to help. And so, a lot of it has to do with getting prepared to play on the road.”
Payton had plenty of time to think about this because the Broncos have not played since Oct. 29 as they had their bye last week, plus got the extra day off by not playing Sunday.
In another interesting decision, the Broncos flew to Buffalo on Saturday, a day before teams usually arrive in the visiting city, and they are also going to stay in Buffalo Monday night as opposed to flying home immediately after the game which is customary.
“The challenge when you went west was always the next week,” Payton said. “So, I think when we looked at this itinerary at the start of the season, we looked at, ‘Get out there, get rest, (Sunday) morning meetings, just like we would here Saturday. We’ll get a half-hour walk-through.”
We’ll see if the unique travel itinerary makes a difference and if it does, you can bet other West Coast teams might decide to try it at some point.
The running back sent a tweet out earlier Monday with a message to Bills fans that his “time was coming.” That led many to believe that he might get elevated from the practice squad for this game
Not happening. The only player the Bills elevated was cornerback Josh Norman because starting cornerback Christian Benford is out with a hamstring injury. It would appear that Dane Jackson and newly-acquired Rasul Douglas will start at corner with Norman in reserve
As for running back, the Bills will stick with Ty Johnson as the third man behind James Cook and Latavius Murray because he has been serving as their kickoff returner, something Fournette would not be doing.
- Date: Monday, Nov. 13
- Time: 8:15 p.m.
- Place: Highmark Stadium
∎ Network TV: ABC. The game will be available locally via the following stations: WHAM-TV (Channel 13, Rochester); WKBW (Buffalo area); WSYR (Syracuse area); WUTR (Utica area); WENY (Elmira area); WTEN (Albany area); WIVT (Binghamton area).
∎ Cable TV: ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN+. With your TV subscription you can also watch on your phone or tablet on ESPN.com, the ESPN mobile app, and ESPN Deportes.
∎ TV streaming: You can also stream if you have subscriptions to Spectrum, DirecTV, fuboTV, Sling, Vidgo, Hulu + Live TV, and YouTube TV.
∎ Online streaming services: You can watch games on NFL.com and the NFL mobile app, and you can subscribe to NFL+, the league’s own streaming service, though you can’t cast the games to your TV – you must watch on your phone or tablet.
∎ Radio: You can listen on SiriusXM satellite radio on Sirius channel 83 and XM channel 225 (Bills feed) and Sirius channel 81 and XM channel 226 (Broncos feed), and on traditional radio, the Bills Radio Network has stations all across the state. Chris Brown has the play-by-play, Eric Wood is the analyst, and Sal Capaccio is the sideline reporter. The network includes:
- Rochester (WCMF 96.5 and WROC 950 AM)
- Buffalo (WGR550, 550 AM)
- Syracuse (WTKW 99.5/WTKV 105.5)
- Binghamton (WDRE 100.5FM)
- Ithaca (WIII 99.9/100.3 FM)
- Bath (WVIN 98.3 FM)
- Newark (WACK 1420 AM)
- Dansville (WDNY 93.9 FM)
- Elmira (WNGZ 1490 AM)
- Auburn (WAUB 98.1 FM/1590 AM)
- Geneva (WGVA 95.9 FM, 1240 AM)
- Play-by-play: Joe Buck
- Analyst: Troy Aikman
- Sideline reporter: Lisa Salters
The theme song is “Heavy Action,” composed by Johnny Pearson.
Sal Maiorana: Bills 23, Broncos 16
Once again, it’s all about when you play teams, right? And at this moment, with all of Buffalo’s injuries on defense, it’s offense not functioning up to its capability, and the Broncos’ recent resurgence after their disastrous start to this season when they looked like one of the worst teams anyone had ever seen, this game suddenly looks much more competitive than it would have been early in the year.
Given the difficulty that lies ahead on the schedule, if the Bills hope to remain viable in the AFC playoff picture they cannot lose this game. Buffalo is still the superior team and is playing at home, and while this isn’t going to be a layup, the Bills should understand their circumstances and get the job done on another night when the sellout crowd may have to stick around until the very end.
- Mon. Sept . 11: Jets 22, Bills 16, OT
- Sun., Sept. 17: Bills 38, Raiders 10
- Sun. Sept. 24: Bills 37, Commanders 3
- Sun. Oct. 1: Bills 48, Dolphins 20
- Sun. Oct. 8: Jaguars 25, Bills 20
- Sun. Oct. 15: Bills 14, Giants 9
- Sun. Oct. 22: Patriots 29, Bills 25
- Thur. Oct. 26: Bills 24, Buccaneers 18
- Sun. Nov. 5, Bengals 24, Bills 18
- Mon. Nov. 13, vs. Broncos, 8:15 p.m.
- Sun. Nov. 19, vs. Jets, 4:25 p.m.
- Sun. Nov. 26, at Eagles, 4:25 p.m.
- Sun. Dec. 3, Bye week
- Sun. Dec. 10, at Chiefs, 4:25 p.m.
- Sun. Dec. 17, vs. Cowboys, 4:25 p.m.
- Sat. Dec. 23, at Chargers, 8 p.m.
- Sun. Dec. 31, vs. Patriots, 1 p.m.
- Sun. Jan. 7, at Dolphins, TBD