RunTheBall

I think it’s really interesting how everyone’s fan experience is heavily influenced by when they starting following the Bills. I’ve got about 45 years of serious fandom under my belt, so I’ve seen them when they really sucked, when they got fairly good in the early 80s for a couple years, then they really sucked again for a while, then the euphoria of the Super Bowl years followed by what I feel is the worst era - the 17 years of mediocrity where we became a laughing stock and rightfully disrespected throughout the league. I think that’s why I appreciate this team so much and am willing to give McD and Beane a lot of leeway while they continue to build a contender. My girls are 16 and 13 and have known nothing but crap football for most of their lives. All those years wearing Bills gear in New England while their friends watched the Pats go to Super Bowl after Super Bowl made them die hard Bills fans. To see them learn what it means to follow a team with your heart through thick and thin (the opposite of bandwagon Pats fans) and FINALLY get to enjoy a winning team which embodies the city of Buffalo is worth a tear or two when the drought was broken. As for shedding a tear again, not for a division title. If they win the Super Bowl I will because my parents have been season ticket holders since the AFL days, sat through 4 SB losses and I’d love for them to see one win before their time is up.

Eh, I think it’s a lot less motivating than people give it credit for. Makes for good sound bites and story lines though. I highly doubt Tre is getting worked up over an opposing QB saying (I’m paraphrasing) “Tre is a good CB but if my reads take me there I’m still going to throw it”. What’s he supposed to say? “I’m afraid to throw it Tre’s way”?

God we like grasping at straws. This team doesn’t need bulletin board material. They don’t have trap games. We don’t need a dome. We can play in less than perfect weather. We are better in the third quarter. We have improved running the ball and stopping the run. We can survive without John Brown (yes we are better with him). We have one of the most talented and well coached teams in the league. We don’t need anything other than to stay healthy and execute at the level we are capable of. Doesn’t mean we will win the Super Bowl but we have the team to make a run this season.

That’s your BBFS kicking in. McD’s teams don’t have trap games, they’ve never overlooked anyone. He’s been preaching that from day one and it’s obvious the players have bought in. I mean Tremaine was talking in the locker room after the last game about unfinished business and not getting complacent. Some in the media may think it’s a done deal but I think most fans and the team know there’s work to be done. I have zero fear this team will overlook Denver. Doesn’t mean we will win but a loss won’t be because they were looking ahead. That’s not in their DNA thanks to McD.

Unless I’m misunderstanding you, if the Bills win Saturday they win the Division not just secure a post season slot. I’d like to see them win out but they don’t have to.

Can we please dispense with the “trap game” tripe before every game? This team doesn’t have trap games, its just an expression of Bills fan insecurities. McD has been preaching a game by game approach since day 1 and you can hear the players have bought in totally when they talk. I’m sure there will be games they come out flat like the Titans, it happens to every team. But the reason won’t be because “it was a trap game” and this team was overlooking the one in front of them. It just doesn’t happen with a McD coached team.

Trevor Lawrence is not Andrew Luck. He’s the best of a mediocre QB crop and benefits from having the best college players next to Alabama at almost every position. There is absolutely no guarantee he’s going to be a good pro QB and its silly to talk about him as this can’t miss prospect. I could care less if the Jets draft him because they will likely destroy their next QB too. There are going to be a lot of coaching vacancies this year and just because the Jets might have the #1 pick doesn’t mean good coaching prospects will be flocking to go to that sht show of a franchise.

Why are so many posters still so bent out of shape over Murphy? Who gives a sht if the guy is getting paid to sit on the inactive list? It’s not like we let someone else go just to keep him. McD obviously felt Espeneza wasn’t ready for a starters load and kept Murphy to allow him time to develop and now we are seeing the transition. I never understand why people harp on moves like this. It’s not your money, it made sense at the time, and its good to see Espeneza earn his time instead of being plugged in just because he was a high draft pick. Let it go, Murphy will be gone next year.

You are only speaking for yourself here. There are plenty of us who couldn’t care less about getting praise from the national media. There’s no better feeling than winning in front of the country when the other team has been ball washed like the 49ers were, whether we get praise or not after is irrelevant. As for Josh, his fire comes from within and to think a man of his character would be a bust if he didn’t care what people said about him is a ridiculous take. The whole chip on your shoulder thing can only take you so far and is given far more lip service than it deserves. Special athletes have an inner drive that isn’t derived from what other people are saying about them. There may be a small component of that but its minor compared to an inner will to be great.

Have so many forgotten the 2 decades of an outright horror show that this franchise has been?? These guys turned around the franchise and culture in 3 friggin years! 3 years! We were a graveyard for 2 decades and now coaches and players will be clamoring to get here. Expectations have absolutely been raised and rightly so, but to lose track of how far we’ve come in such a short period of time is an absolute travesty for most. I don’t get it. We’ve finally got a team that competes every week, that can win against any team on any given Sunday and some people are still bitching about the fact that we passed on Mahomes when we have a QB who is the epitome of Buffalo or dumped a guard who sucked for us and now seems to be playing well for Cleveland. You have to be kidding me. I seriously feel sorry for many of the posters on this board who can’t enjoy the journey. I’ve got no problem pointing out the mistakes and errors that need to be corrected but people need to keep things in perspective. We are just getting started. There is a lot of good football that’s going to be played in Buffalo over the next decade. Enjoy it because we of all fans know how fleeting it can be.

I don’t buy this argument at all. Daboll definitely deserves credit in Josh’s development but Josh is well on his way. He’s not going to all of a sudden forget how to read a defense or not recognize man vs zone. He’s not going to backslide in mechanics because Daboll isn’t there to call some plays. I’d love for Daboll to stay, I think he’s improving as an OC like the rest of the team is improving, but if he moves on we will be fine. Josh is far enough along in his development that changing coordinators will not result in a regression. The OC is important, but franchise QBs can adapt.

I agree. I don’t know how there is any possible way that gets credited to Allen when it was clear Moss closed his arms too early and coughed it up.

You know it was a nearly complete game when we haven’t heard a peep from the 3 or 4 miserable posters who add their black cloud to every W in the post game thread. “Yeah but Allen didn’t throw for 400 and should have had a pick that was called back” STFU. Loved seeing Ike out there instead of Winters. Felt bad for Moss but that was a horrible gaff and I’m glad they sat him the rest of the way. He will get plenty more chances, that’s how you learn. Nothing to add about Allen that hasn’t already been said. Announcers were forced to praise Allen and the Bills after getting on their knees for SF at the begining. Love to see it. No one gives a sht about your fantasy football team. Go Bills!

I could care less what the national media think and actually enjoy that we are always overlooked. Any other 8-3 team that’s leading their division, getting healthy, improving on D and improving in the run game would be favored overwhelmingly against a 5-6 team missing their starting QB, game changing TE, and relies solely on a running game and short passing attack. Mullins is a game manager at best. We are going to commit to stopping the run and short passing attack and dare Mullins to beat us over the top. It’s not going to happen. We aren’t going to blow them out because we never do but as long as we don’t turn it over a bunch I think this game will be pretty straightforward in the Bills favor.

There is a disconnect between what many fans want in a middle linebacker and what McD wants which contributes to the constant “Edmunds should be moved outside” comments every week. First and foremost McD wants his MLB to be captain of the defenses and get them lined up correctly and by all accounts Edmunds does a tremendous job at this. The next objective for McD is to clog those middle zone passing lanes and this is where Edmunds excels. You can’t quantify the number of passes that weren’t made because he was in the lane with his 8 foot wing span and QB’s dumped off or looked in another direction. It’s unfortunate he seems to have stone hands because if he just caught the balls that hit him in the chest we wouldn’t be having any conversations of him not being a “game changing LB”. McD doesn’t put a premium on his MLB shedding blocks and stopping the run. The MLB can’t be a disaster at it but McD is willing to give up rushing yards to prevent those middle zone passes. It would be nice if Edmunds could shed blocks a little better and fill the right gaps but he’s still VERY young and I think this is something that can be improved upon (like Allen’s inaccuracy) with time. Edmunds isn’t going anywhere. He’s going to man the middle for the next 10 years so people on here should try and get comfortable with it.

Has there been one game where this team has come out and looked like they’ve taken a team for granted? Seriously, someone says this before every game and I’m trying to think of one time where I thought they overlooked someone. I can’t. Sure they’ve come out flat at times, every team does at one time or another, but I think McD has done a tremendous job at getting our team to take every opponent seriously no matter what their record.

Except for the 5 times we beat at team which had a top 12 rushing attack. 5-2 according to Richrider. Guys are way too hung up on the running game. Look at my username, I love running the ball, but even I recognize it’s a passing league right now. We will slow their running game down enough to force Mullins to beat us through the air and I don’t think he can

What are you basing this on? Your gut? There is absolutely no reason to believe Allen’s trajectory won’t continue to improve. It’s great that he’s had the same OC/QB coach for his development but after 3 years he’s not going to just fall apart because there’s a new coach. Franchise guys are franchise guys and we have no reason to believe Allen can’t excel in a different offense.

I’ve had 2 small Bills footballs for over 20 years. One is really soft like a marshmallow and can be launched at the tv, dog, my kid, etc with zero impact. That one gets a lot of use. The other has some mechanism in it that when dropped, it plays the Shout song, or has Van Miller yelling “Touchdown Bills!” I have no idea how this thing keeps going, but it does!

How far we have come on TBD that now we complain about the style of wins. It wasn’t that long ago our threads were full of “Yeah we lost but here’s something good that happened...”. I find it absolutely hilarious how many posters we have that are miserable after W’s. I’m thinking most of you weren’t here through the lean years well before the drought and can’t appreciate how difficult it is to win in the NFL We are 8-3. Another W. We are on to the 49ers.

Seems like that clock hit zero for a full second on that 3rd down

The micro dissection of every decision made in relation to this team is at an all time high this season

I think we read way too much into the injury report and make way too many assumptions based off it. McD has become Belichickian in his use of the injury report and non answers during press conferences. I love that there are zero leaks and he’s keeping even guys like us who dissect this team to the atomic level off balance.

Just another example of how wrong many knee-jerk posters here are about player development. 3/4 of our young guys including our starting QB would have been cut by them already.

I haven’t read this thread because I know how many of our members will be in total meltdown sky-is-falling mode. In no way do I think it’s good we lost the game, especially in the manner we did. That stings bad. But, in the long run, maybe this type of gut wrenching defeat helps us out. That’s a nasty, bitter feeling we and the team get to enjoy for the next two weeks. I expect our team to play hungry and angry after the bye. I think this is going to give them a nasty edge we’ve been lacking. It sucks to lose, but getting humbled right before the stretch run may have some unintended positive effects.