theRalph

Harrison Phillips is a very intelligent, well-spoken man. His presser is great...he is so real. Which makes it all the more remarkable that, when questioned by John Wawrow (AP), Harrison was not aware the Bills were 0-6 in one score games. Are you shiiiiting me??? I'm sure many fans—me included— have spent a lot of the season worried about this very thing....starting with the week one loss. It was a trend early on, with a L-W-L-W-L-W pattern in the middle of the season that saw the Bills unable to win close games. Hell, they even let the shhiiiitty teams stay close at the end of the season...but ended up blowing them out. That this team has an intelligent player such as Horrible Harry that is unaware of a blatantly obvious and telling stat makes me wonder about the level of "5000 foot view" awareness that's lost when a player or coach is nose-to-the-ground grinding all season. What a silly question....they didn't even know enough to keep 17 off the phuuucking ManningCast.

I'm taking this loss hard also. I'd love to biiitch at McDermott for 60 seconds. But McDermott did not say anything resembling your statement. The threat of an effective running games makes Allen FAR MORE DANGEROUS.

McBeane has been there 5 years. Jerry Hughes a bit longer. I've been doing this for 57 years. I saw OJ at the Rockpile. Attended first ever game at Rich (Bills 9 - Jets 7). So yes, fans take it harder. No one in the Bills organization was there for wide-right, for area code 044, for the Music City *****. But I and many of you experienced all of this and more. I've been waiting my whole life to scream out into the woods on a January or February Sunday night that "The Bills are champions of the football world". Now, I don't know if I can even stomach any more football this postseason.

For those that dismissed the Manning Cast Curse...it struck again this weekend when Jimmy G beat Aaron in the single digit temps. Rodgers appeared on the Manning Cast the last Monday night game of the reg season. Each and every player that appeared got clowned somehow the next game. Did Rodgers go on it just to screw the Packers? We know he's prob leaving there. Larger question is how the Bills ever allowed Josh to appear on it. The hay was already in the barn at that time...5 previous appearances of players had resulted in horrifying results the week hence. Had the Bills beaten the Jags, this post season would have looked a bit different.

All this talk is utter blather. The HC OWNS THE RESPONSIBILITY. If Bass got it wrong, if Harwell got it wrong, even if Andy Reid farted and it affected the KO....MCDERMOTT IS STILL RESPONSIBLE. PHUUUUUCKING PERIOD!!!!

He wasn’t using the word choke to be a dick. He used the word to accurately describe a situation

I’m four years your junior and I understand exactly what you’re saying. An earlier poster asked whether fans take this harder than the team. Of course we do. People like you and I have decades invested into this. McDermott was on another team six years ago.

Number one defense my ass. The problem with rankings is that they are developed using stats from every game played… Including those against bottom feeding teams. This current iteration of the Buffalo Bills will not win a championship until there is a game wrecker or two on the defensive side. There are very few if any Super Bowl winning defenses that don’t have some big names on them. So let’s dispense with his number one ranking crap until there is something to engrave it on.

Where the phuuuuuck are the GAME WRECKERS?????

Based on this game, perhaps Frazier decided he wants to stay on as the Bills DC...he didn't do himself any favors last night. Unless he plans on throwing McDermott under the bus for the deep KO. There are stats that told us the Bills D was #1. They don't feel #1. A #1 D looks like the 2000 Ravens—who seemed like a much nastier group than we have. A calm and sane take. You describe something closer to the Ravens 2000 D. A proper scheme and a game wrecker or two would go a long way. There needs to be more nasty. Has Frazier ever even uttered a nasty word??

You were all saying?

While taking in the Buffalo Rumblings Hump Day Hotline podcast, hosts Joe Miller and JSpence were trying to put their finger on what exactly is the Bills’ flaw that has vexed the team, in different ways, throughout the season. I’ll step out on a limb and lay out a Freudian psychoanalysis of the Bills that tries to answer this question. Now, most NFL fans are able to buy-in on the idea that a team has, or develops an “identity” in a given season. Boiled down, an identity is defined as how the team behaves in various situations, which infers a “collective team psyche”. Freud theorized the psyche is made of three parts: the ego, super-ego, and the id, which is “the part of the mind in which innate instinctive impulses and primary processes are manifest” Another definition states “the id is the set of uncoordinated instinctual desires”. In other words, the id is our instinctive impulse generator. While the ego is more or less the conscious leader, the id has been described as a horse on which the ego rides, with the ego guiding the id where the id wants to go. The Bills entered the season flatly stating a goal of hosting the AFC title game. That heaped expectations on the team, which likely knew it wouldn’t be sneaking up on any opponents after the 2020 season, but they were darlings in the national press. Then the loss to Pittsburgh happened and stung the team far more than we were told, I’m sure. The team, which was supposed to be great, could not beat a weaker opponent in a close game! The team instinct—the id—needed to make things right immediately. So the Bills, in response to the impulse of the id, crushed four opponents in a row. During that stretch, the Bills didn’t lose by less than 18 points, including an historic two shutouts. The week 1 loss was eventually dismissed as a blip, but the successive four wins didn’t age particularly well. Miami, WFT, and the Texans were by now dismissed and the luster of the wins faded with questions of the opponents’ strength. But this questioning of the Bills record over strength of competition wasn’t the trouble for the id—it was still the loss to the Steelers in a close game. Then, the Bills get into a close game against a good team. At the end, the setup is perfect for the id: a desperate 4th down plunge to the end zone—but Dion misses and Josh slips. There is every indication the Bills instinctively put themselves in that close-game position just to secure the elusive close win. The id is however denied and responds by knocking off the Dolphins a week later, but is still desperate for a close game. The actions of the id are now progressing to neurotic: The exact same stimulus/response pattern of a heartbreaking loss followed by a big win that started with Titans—Dolphins now repeats with remarkable similarity for Jaguars—Jets and the Colts—Saints. The id is trapped in this cycle of games, trying for but not getting the coveted close win. This process continued with a horrifying close loss on Windy Monday. Maybe it was because it was the Patriots, but the id, in the repeated cycle of losses and wins all in an effort to satisfy the instinct to win a close game, finally hit bottom. In their current pattern, the Bills were due for a big win, but their id was at a season low. For once though, we can thank Tom Brady. Down 24-3 to the Buccaneers at the half was exactly the jolt the Bills squirming id needed to check this neurotic process that had gone on for six weeks. Then something happened at halftime; we all saw it. The Bills dominated Tampa in the second half, but they got one more gift from the officials to finish the therapy: the refs stole the win. Of course fans were irate, but this sort of “shock treatment” is exactly what the Bills id needed. A psychologically much healthier Bills team then won four straight and, aside from the token domination of the Patriots, it was as if the Bills manufactured close third and fourth quarter scores against lesser teams only to dominate on multiple possessions to end the games. In these “close-for-a-while” wins, the id was satisfying its instinct to survive in tight situations. and finally satisfied the impulse created week one. We know this team is capable of greatness. The Bills Id, which gave the ego a wild ride for a month and a half, now also believes this. The raging Id of the Bills was the flaw. With this healthy psyche, there is no limit to the damage the Buffalo Bills can inflict in these playoffs.

He's not the HC. !@#$ brady

Horseshiit. The refs are as guilty as egg-sucking dogs in this case. Timing is everything. When the public can see it but they can't, it is a major issue that needs to be solved.

That the television audience can see what is happening on the field better than the officials is a major problem. If the NFL wants to protect "the shield" it needs to completely modernize officiating. We heard about the "Eye in the Sky" official that was added this season. Where is this being used? And for what? Coaches still have to challenge plays where the outcome was obvious on a replay available less than ten seconds after the play concludes. Camera angles saw Diggs' stretched jersey, but some old man huffing down the field doesn't see it? Never attribute to treachery that which can be explained by incompetence. NFL athletes are SO advanced over those even 20 years ago. And we have middle-aged men running, RUNNING half the time trying to see what occurs and officiate it??? Are you SHIIITING ME??? Get a crew of officials in front of HD displays and start getting these FRACKING calls correct. Or yes, I will start to believe this league is rigged. Out

He'll be fine.

Well, six maybe, because Star is dimming.

When the Bills learn how to select offensive and defensive linemen, things will improve. If anything has been demonstrated in the NFL, it is this: Teams are successful with mediocre backs when they have studs on the O line. McBean needs to determine what a good NFL linemen looks like. That Feliciano didn't see the field yesterday (Boettger was in that spot) AND Cody Ford was inactive is utterly damning of their OL selection process. ***** figure it out!

Star was out — again — yesterday. What's that tell you?

I agree. The team, in its heart, has to know that it needed to win a close game. All the double-digit wins were actually a bit damaging because the team wasn't challenged. Then the losses came and the team HAD to have thought "maybe we aren't so good with no wins against quality opponents". I imagine there was even the irrational circumstance of testing themselves with self-inflicted deficits. I think this entire process bottomed-out at halftime. Some sort of switch seemed to be flipped right after. Never mind the ***** officiating — Scott Novak should be tied to a seat in the 300s for the winter, that ***** — but I believe the Buffalo Bills finally proved to themselves what they've tried to prove all season: They can come from behind and compete with a quality opponent. And they finally did it against the SB champions and the facelift king. And yes, they will run the table. They've woken from the nightmare.

That, by definition, is "Rigged".

We are halfway through the season and the Bills have yet to win a "close" game. They have lost all three that were within 7 points. Is there a part of the Bill's collective psyche that needs to win a close game? Do they secretly yearn for a close win?

Try him at guard.

Not so sure about that. He remained on the sideline..no bench or tent. Pretty obvious they could live without him for the 2nd half, so he was out. I'm thinking this is a tweak, we're seeing precautions, and he plays Sunday night.

I think he's hilarious. The game context certainly weights this opinion.