cwater10

Are assumptions going to hold up over Omicron Christmas? I'm not banking on any assumptions or specific outcomes.

This is exactly the issue first came to mind when I read the OP question. I HATE NE as much as anyone could. But I'm also pragmatic in that I don't mind seeing the Colts taken out. I love Frank Reich. He is a wonderful man. I wish him success. And I most definitely prefer not to face his team again this year. They are kryptonite for this year's Buffalo Bills. Nothing personal... And that is the point that I wrestle with and what makes this Pats/Colts game so interesting. It's easy to hate that Pats and let everything flow from there. But if I stand in the future... say its early March and Bills fans, Patriots fans and football fans in general look back on the season, nobody will remember that we won the division if we get bounced by the Colts early and NE goes on a deep run. And on the flip side, nobody will remember or care if NE won the division if we bounce them from the playoffs. Does anybody still remember or even care that Miami won the division in 1992? Nope. What we remember is the Houston comeback, the road win with with Frank the following week in Pittsburgh, and beating the Fish in Miami in the AFCCG and going to the Super Bowl that year. And then the screen just goes black, kind of like the final episode of The Sopranos. Don't stop believing...

If you had to choose a playoff opponent between Patriots and Colts, which would you choose? Does that impact your answer to this question in any way?

No time for logic and reason, when we have :

You're covered.

Having grown up as a sports junkie of a certain era, I often joke with people with that my boyhood idols were OJ and Pete Rose, so hey... what do you expect from me? As an adult, I had an opportunity to meet and converse with Pete Rose over the course of an evening. With no evocation, I can honestly say for that one evening, I would consider him for any short list of the most contemptible, awful human beings that I have come across. He was rude, condescending and verbally abusive to those around him without provocation. I still believe that he belongs in the HOF. He was a GREAT baseball player. I remain in awe of his baseball career. Same with OJ. I can say with conviction that he is the greatest football player that I have had the privilege to watch play. He played with absolute mastery of his craft, both aesthetically and statistically. He obviously has developed some serious personal demons, and appears to have demonstrated literally horrific behavior years after leaving The Bills and football. Should he remain in the football HOF? I believe that he should. The Bills Wall of Fame is a different situation as it is a franchise specific honor, with franchise specific criteria. Ralph Wilson chose to leave his name there. The Pegulas will have a chance to re-choose when opening a new stadium. They can continue to honor Ralph's decision or they can make their own statement. They will alienate a portion of the fan base regardless of that choice. I really don't care which way they go. My opinions on OJ are my own. No wall or hall will change them. We don't get to rewrite history. We do get to change our minds about what that history means for us today. That is an individual choice and in no way requires uniformity. OJ Simpson was the most exciting Buffalo Bill I ever saw play. His play and his presence on this team cemented my lifelong love affair with this team. It took me a while to reconcile that fact with the events of his life after football. Now that I have learned to separate those things, I am surprised how ambivalent I am on the issue of The Bills Wall of Fame for OJ. That decision cannot change history now. It can make a statement on how the team regards that history.

I'll take a season like this over the drought. At least there is a possibility of good things. That was never so during the drought.

For me, it doesn't. None of those drought era teams had what felt like credible and legit Super Bowl level expectations, both locally and nationally. This is a special kind of gut punch that we haven't fully reconciled yet. The playoffs may or may not still lie ahead, so much story left to be written. But to date, this has been a season of unmet expectations. I think the drought really did meet expectations in the end.

I had no idea he had passed. Just checked the google machine when I saw your reply. Wow. That sounds like a tragic end. Indeed, RIP.

I'm all excited for the draft and looking forward to James Hardy 2.0

I will considerate a moderate victory if we make it through today's game with no sightings of mediocre international soccer coaches hanging out in Terry and Kim's suite during the game.

I'm getting a sense that there is very little wiggle room for you on this. So 1989 is not your thing. May I interest you in a conversation about the '75 Bills? Now there is a pre internet mind bender of a season that we could have all lost our composure over. Go look it up or remember it if you can, or if you were there. It might look a little familiar in retrospect. What a year, complete with over reliance on a superstar, high expectation and hot start including a dominating win over the team that knocked us from the playoffs the previous year, all seemingly in a flash just gone up in flames, a little national TV spectacle with the undefeated Bills (20 point favorites) taking an unthinkable loss to a dreadful team (NY Giants on MNF) featuring a fan doing a Nick Walenda impression on the guide wire holding up the net, the free-fall from 4-0 to 8-6 and right out of the playoffs, a highly respected coach having meltdowns on the sideline, defensive collapse and frustrated angry fans... Good god, I can smell the parallels from four or five decades away. If I just close my eyes, I'm sitting right there in section C soaking in the sun and taking on the snow all over again. Don't even get me started about that freakin' Bert Jones game. Tell me I'm wrong. I'll trust you to interpret it all for me. And be certain about it dammit!

Not sure. Maybe we can ask Marv Levy why he had a historical war reference for almost every football situation when those situations really aren't similar at all. Or maybe we can just acknowledge that historical patterns, references, memories of past teams developmental curves and such phenomenon provide interest and insight for some and not so much for others and just leave it at that...

My knee jerk reaction is to agree with this. The OL seemed to be KC's obvious weakness in the Super Bowl. My hesitation is that looking at the Chief's offense this year through a more holistic lens, it's clear that this offense is not even remotely as effective as it was prior to the change out of the OL. All other factors are constants. Is that all defensive adjustments? Maybe the chemistry is off... Is that what you risk with such drastic change? On the other hand, it already appears that The Bills entire offensive chemistry is off from last year. OK... Do it Beane!

The idea that teams win by "not running" is an illusion. When did passing and running become mutually exclusive? There is little evidence to suggest that the future is exclusively passing. That idea is an analytics trick of the tail. You must do both. Call it physicality, toughness or whatever fits, but it is football 101. And it has everything to do with the ability to move the ball. Blocking and tackling are the cornerstones or the game. You can do it or you can't. Passing had a moment in the very recent past, but that moment isn't now. Defenses have adjusted. You don't need to look too closely at recent standings to see the pendulum swinging back. The future, the past and the present are all about balance and versatility. This is hardly news worthy. If you look at the groundbreaking offenses over the past 30 years, with the possible exception of KC in 2019, which could be as much as an outlier as Trent Dilfer winning a SB, all of the great passing teams, all of the truly great teams had a strong complimentary run game. Brady ALWAYS had a dominant OL and imposing run game to fall back on, even with no names on the line and in the backfield. Payton Manning had his HOF RB in Edjerrin James. Even the Jarred Goff Rams brief moment a few years ago was set in motion by Todd Gurley. When he fizzled, so did they. Kurt Warner and greatest show on turf had Marshall Faulk tearing it up behind Orlando Pace and friends. Troy Aikman had Emmitt and an insane offensive line to set the tone. Montana and the West Coast Offense had Roger Craig and Ricky Waters running behind All Pros on the OL. Elway never really won anything until he had Terrell Davis. Look in our own historic backyard and you see the recipe. The K Gun was awesome and fun, but powered by a dominating running game featuring a HOF RB, and imposing OL. It was the backbone of those teams. Tell me how many Super Bowls we sniff without Thurman Thomas, Kent Hull, House Ballard, Jim Ritcher and co. They only lost the Super Bowls, because they inevitably came up against a team that was tougher and more physical than even they were. And now we have Josh Allen and highly talented receivers that had a moment of their own last year. They've hit a wall. What do you suppose has gone wrong? What is missing from this team compared to the teams that actually succeed with great QB's year in and year out?

Obviously. Sorry to steal St. Doug's words. The moment was too inviting. In reality, it may not be that obvious at first blush. This team has a glowing "recent past". Still, barring McDermott taking a rare and shocking opt out of the remainder of his contract, PSE has some decisions to make. And holy mother of God... if that prospect doesn't make us queasy, then we will have proven sufficiently courageous to look at the foundation of this roster and see the cracks before our eyes. Skilled as they are in so many areas, still this team cannot block or tackle when they need to. They consistently back down and just expose their throats by way of silly rookie mistakes by veterans, turnovers and penalties too often in the face of adversity. It's really that simple. That is fundamentally unsound and screams for change. Maybe that change is as simple as adding some big nasties, but the good ones don't grow on trees. Maybe it's as simple as addition by subtraction. Is it possible that the "buy in" for many on this team is no longer buy in to "the process", but to the reputation and to the thrill of some brief recent success? Purging those lacking full "buy in" types created stunning results in 2017. Are there some Sammy, Marcel and Darby type of characters once again hiding right in front of us? Who identifies the masqueraders this time? Is Daboll one of them? Is McDermott? There is a lot of good talent and a lot of good character guys here, but there is clearly something wrong. Something is missing or something is rotten, maybe both. To paraphrase the theory of Occam's Razor, the best explanation is usually the simplest. When I watch this team, I see a team that appears inconsistently interested and easily pushed around the field. What do you suppose is the easiest explanation of that? Any suggestions Sean? So yeah, I totally agree with the premise. Change IS coming. As you say, it has to. Will it be the right change?

Unfortunately, it has become plain to see that playoffs are not what this season is about. Whether or not The Buffalo Bills make the playoffs, this season has shown itself to be about other things. It is 1989 all over again. The analogy seems almost too easy to call out, probably because it really is and it has become that obvious. Sorry... I'm as disappointed as any of you, but this season is likely not going to end the way that we would all like. This team still has some significant growth to do and the past 13 weeks have revealed that to be what this season is all about. This hope dousing downer of a season is about learning that the road to the post season is not a red carpet, rolled out by preseason visionaries. It is about developing mental toughness and grit. It is about learning from tough losses. It is about committing to, and becoming obsessed with winning. Back then (1989) there was a mental softness about the team. There was distraction with self inflicted internal strife and egos. Now there are vaccine distractions and social media obsessions. Pick your own villains and storylines. They are just symptoms and not the real story. That real story is about finding which players are capable of stepping up in big moments and which are not. It's about letting go of some Ronnie Harmons and finding some Glen Parkers, some guys with heart, and some guys with talent AND character. It's about finding an identity on the field that can sustain. It is about building a roster based upon physical strength on both lines. My best hope right now is what we are seeing on the field is THAT process already in motion. It would be a nice consolation to make the playoffs for the 4th time in five seasons. But still, without the necessary ingredients to win when there, there is more value to be found in finding solutions to the puzzles that we all see on the field right now. This is team has been good, but you have to be blind not to see them in a broken state at this moment. It is time to acknowledge, at least internally, that the feel good storylines of 2019 and 2020 are done. Expectations have not been me. The road to a championship is never totally linear. Will this management team recognize that this is not a bad game, or a disappointing season as much as an inflection point for the fortunes of the franchise in seasons ahead? Let's hope so. Time to move forward. Does it feel like a lot to do it one off season? It does. It is. Lets see what you got McBeane

I didn't even know New England was next on our schedule until I just read this thread.

It logically follows that this will also allow more teams to retain pending free agents and keep them off the market. Either way, this should make free agency way more interesting than last year.

Looks like a couple of feet trapped beneath it. Did Rex get distracted and roll his pickup?

Holy *****. I had forgotten about him. He was a horrible, ear grating, rage inducing... I don't know... better stop now before have to find an old cathode ray tube to resume throwing things at. Thanks man...

Indeed a great summary of the extremes of Bills Mafia. And yeah... this board can be a magnet for the extremes. And no doubt, we've all witnessed these extremes, never more so than this season when the glass of cold water in the face came our way on opening day. After a euphoric 2020, that was a sobering wakeup call. That game presented that all too familiar and all too abrupt arrival at a crossroads where Bills fans of all ages have often found themselves, the Bills crisis of faith if you will. Do we pretend it wasn't real, an aberration... or do we decide it portends end times of our football pleasure days? Which brings me to what I think the author has left out of an otherwise great insight, and what I think and hope describes a significant share of Bills Mafia. Its easy to see only two roads to go down at this intersection and the author summed them up perfectly. But there is another road, hopefully not less traveled that I would consider a viable choice for a significant percentage of Bills Mafia. This group, a familiar bunch is not just underrepresented, but it seems they are ignored entirely by the writer, is those who are loving this particular team, root for them passionately, hope and almost always expect good outcomes, but have lost the Pollyanna approach to their fandom. Acknowledging the vulnerabilities of the team we root for and the strengths of our opponents is rarely a reflection of a doomsday mentality that also exists. I don't like to lump them together. There is ample room for balance and objectivity between fantasy and paranoid delusion. I can, and do, absolutely despise New England, but I also understand that they are playing some good football right now and merit being taken seriously. I can, and do love the Bills, spend a disproportionate amount of my newfound retirement free time, digesting every nugget written and opined about them, and still understand that they have some "things to clean up" as they like to say. Call me a rabid moderate. Can that be a thing? I think so... And I love all the naysayers and yaysayers too. Go Bills!

Yeah! Us good old boomers just would never stand for this kind of blatant "look at me" or "look at us" proud crap...