Livinginthepast

Aside from the fumble recovery against Jackson, he did almost nothing in the playoffs and very little during the season. That swagger that characterized him when he first got here that really could have been a plus to get us over the top in the playoffs has completely evaporated. He simply cannot do what he did at the same speed before the knee injury and his age and being out of football for almost a year made things worse. I really thought it was a great signing but it sadly didnt work out. Its time to literally cut our losses and move on. I really wish that they had just benched him for the playoffs and played some rookies because Von was done as a difference maker a long time ago.

"Borderline"? I would argue that being a fan of the Bills for a long time (for me its 46 years) and enduring all those brutal heartbreaking, unusual and against the odds losses of that time period, could be seen as a direct cause of early death on the coroner's report!! I try to rationalize some of the major or minor stupidity of what I have seen in some of these losses (including this game ) but it really is difficult. So many inexplicable decisions where our coaches have hurt us instead of helped us, players who are normally great let you down and then the inept officials complete the trifecta. One day when they win it all it will be all worth it. Like an exorcism of pain from my soul. But like you, I'm worn out by this torment and the unfairness of it all.

For me I am feeling some mixed emotions. Numb to start on Sunday night and a terrible sleep but then that sad feeling Monday that there is no next week to look forward to. I am more annoyed now than angry. Nothing was worse than the day after 13 seconds for my rage at the idiocy of the coaches for letting something that stupid happen, but today I just feel mild annoyance at some of the bad decisions. In the end they had a great season with only 4 losses for a team that had mediocre to bad defense and was retooling on offense. That was a real achievement. Would they have beaten the Eagles? I think they would have because getting over the hump vs the Chiefs would have propelled them with momentum. I also think the Eagles would have taken us lightly and they are definitely arrogant dbags.

The plays that preceded the 4th down play really hurt as well. No James cook on the drive at all . Absolutely stupid! Whose decision is that?? Then they get a a first down and Brady decides that its going to be all passing even though they have plenty of time and TOs. The first and 2nd down play call were f'ing inexcusable. 2 bad incompletions, no yards whatsover. This put the pressure on the 3rd down and though Cooper can catch, the screen to him was likely not going to get you a first down because he is slow and doesnt make people miss. So 3 bad calls in a row and an overabundance of caution lead to the high pressure 4th down situation. Most of the blame is on Brady for that ending!

24 hours later I have more questions than answers. 1. If Kincaid was injured (pcl tear) why bother playing him at all in the last few weeks. I'm pretty sure Quinton Morris would have caught that last pass and the pass dropped against the Ravens. Not too mention he would have been much faster after the catch. 2. Why was Brady so cautious on that last drive? We had the ball in our hands to win the game against the defending champs. Josh needed to ball out. 3. Why was Cook not really used on the last series? Especially on short passes out of the backfield on any potential blitzes. 4. Is the problem with this defense scheme? or personnel? They try hard but last night Rousseau, Epenesa, Jones etc were all non factors. Would another coach like Spagnuolo get any more out of this Bills defense than McD did? 5. I get that Bills were desperately hoping for a Von Miller miracle. Aside from the easy fumble recovery vs the Ravens its been apparent for many weeks now that he is completely done, He is such a shadow of his former self, why even waste a down on him? Would none of the rookies have done better in the past couple of weeks as an edge rusher?

Amazing that St.Doug was one win away from the SB before the refs took over and the Pats won!

And Travis fathered a child before, during and after the game with 3 separate women too!

The injury makes his unimpressive season understandable. But it has nothing to do with dropping that catch. Had he not been able to get back to it after it was thrown behind him I get it , but he did get back to it and had arms on the ball. He also could have bread basket caught it as well. But that seems to be an old school technique that is lost on many of todays players. But whats stupid about all this and very Billsy if this is true, is why, if he had such a bad injury was he on the field? How can you be effective if your PCL is torn? Kincaid obviously was worse for wear this year. They should have shut him down and got him surgery. They have Quintin Morris as well who could have backed up Dawson Knox who has been superior to Kincaid this year anyway. All around , bad personnel management!

Same as last year when Diggs is open but Chris Jones hits Allen and weakens the throw. KC gets all the breaks

I screamed that during the punt! But at the same time I counted 4 missed tackles by the Bills on that play as well. The ST coach needs to be fired today. I dont think we had a single punt or KO return TD, or blocked a punt or FG this year. Combined with all the other gaffes on coverage and the fake punt against us, that is abysmal.

Well to be fair, a Neanderthal being twice as strong and powerful compared to an anatomically modern human would have gotten the first down every time!!

Weirdly my take on the Ravens was that they overlooked us and didnt take us seriously after they crushed us in the regular season. I had confidence we could win against them due to this. I think that somewhat played out. For the Chiefs, it was the opposite. They were shocked that we beat them in the regular season and last week I had the horrible feeling their superior coaches would make adjustments to neutralize us. Last night that happened. Unfortunately, the Bills coaches especially Brady were not aggressive or creative enough and we played right into their hands. In Babich's case, He had a much tougher job getting the D to neutralize the Chiefs and Rapp going down (then Benford in the game) really killed us. He must have been hoping for some sort of miracle from Von Miller, but TBH Von looks like he is a guy in his mid 40s out there. Nobody else on the D stepped up at the crucial time to make a play and KC receivers were wide open. But how Babich and McD dont get a spy on Mahomes and he scrambles several times for 2 TDs is beyond stupid. Mahomes always looks like he is running on ice but it doesnt matter as nobody is close to him or can get to him in time.

Think Ely's throw to Tyree who caught it off the helmet in the SB. A much harder grab also under intense pressure but he did it. Against the Pats no less. Or Edelman's vs the Falcons! Kincaid's was easy by comparison and he bungled it. A professional player should never drop that. It was easier than the Diggs drop last season and far easier than the broken up pass to the end zone that Duke Williams couldnt bring down vs Houston in the wildcard in 2019.

As I say to people, being a Bills fan is a uniquely painful experience, where you find new and excruciating ways to lose every year, where you find out that there is no such thing as karma or justice in the universe, where the law of averages and odds on winning and losing never seems to apply (losing 4 SBs in a row, are you kidding me). And, all that being said, you come back for more! Year after year!!

Like a few of the Bills of the past few years on defense, I have always wondered with Rousseau if its a coaching problem, a scheme or his technique. He shows flashes of brilliance now and again but never is consistent. Would it have been any better under a different defensive coach? Like so many of our players, he has the athletic ability but seems to lack the in game smarts to adjust when things aren't working.

Not coming up with misdirection or disguised plays, trickery or gadgets has been the Bills MO this season. Brady ran a competent (superior to Dorsey) but vanilla offense most weeks . On the few plays that the game hinged on, he wasnt creative enough or didnt have the cojones to do something different and it killed us.

Over and over again I am reminded by the simple fact that the NFL could fix most of this iffy or bad call situations of their officials. There is a chip in the ball at could be shown to exactly a Millimeter of where it is on the field and so could the first down line. VAR just like in soccer. Horrendous bad or non calls could at least be mitigated by one coaches challenge per half (Max). All of this is entirely possible right now. But shts they do not give. The game in the 70s or 80s might have been slow enough and the players slightly smaller enough for officials back then to see things better, but it hasnt been that way for 25 years. The only way to avoid the officials is for the Bills to repeat with a playoff performance like against the Pats in 2022 or the best game ever by a Bills playoff team vs the Raiders in 1991. Otherwise they are at the whim of the incompetent. bias or possibly crooked NFL officials.

Hurts is hurt worse than they are letting on but with our useless secondary we might have been shredded by their offense. But last year we should have won that game. I think we would have beaten Philly.

Kincaid's drop was very Charles Clay vs Miami. I think that one killed our season too. But what troubles me about Kincaid more is that he derailed Knox's development. Would Knox have caught that pass?

Yup another Special Bills stat just like 13 seconds and the Rams game this year.

I was screaming for a fake handoff and an Allen bootleg there. Instead we go with the play that the Chiefs have been stuffing left and right. Brady's lack of creativity and his 1940's style offense where we have 5 plays and dare the defense to stop us backfired on us. Yes that was Brady's fatal flaw all season IMO. He just wasnt creative when he needed to be. People used to criticize Dabol for his gadget plays but Brady had none. Not even plays with the slightest misdirection. Yes players need to execute but Brady had a ton of talent to work with here and didnt utilize it.

We havent been able to do a screen consistently since the days of Tyrod Taylor. I am not sure why we cant. Its bizarre.

Nobody has titillated their fans and come so close to winning a championship and then broken their hearts like the Bills. In any sport at any time. We are unique in that painful aspect!

It was a great season, they went way further than we expected but with all that they still choked with victory in sight. Why? because of inferior play calling and nobody making the plays they had too with the game on the line. Our defense in the final analysis was decent against Mahomes but definitely not good enough and just like the offense failing , they could not get it done. I really think that had the Bills somehow got Myles Garrett at the trade deadline we would have won this game easily. Mahomes was just to comfortable back there. Rousseau, Epenesa, Jones, Von and Ed Oliver were all underwhelming or invisible. McD and Babich's strategy in this game was odd. Was there a spy on Mahomes? At least 4 plays where he scrambled for crucial yards, there was nobody to be seen. In addition, our defensive didnt get their hands up or jump up on pressures. Something that worked well for KC on Allen. The loss of Benford was huge. Every time Elam steps on the field I think, here is the moment, he will step up and his technique is so clueless. In the end Kincaid drops a catchable pass. Worthy of course caught almost the same prayer of throw from Mahomes (which should have been an INT) but its should never have come down to that. The Bills play calling and execution at the end of that drive was amateur hour and Brady (to quote a British slang) bottled it . I cannot blame McD for this one and even though we full on got screwed on that spot on the Allen 4th down, the refs were just marginally bad as opposed to the usual garbage. Now I have that traditional Bills end of the season feeling: Numbness, then grief, then rage, then emptiness. Why can we never have nice things?

Im 56 and I would have caught that floated pass. I am not sure how he drops it. The one last week was bad but this is horrendous and as killer as the Diggs one last year.