Apocalypse Nuts

Why did it need to be treated like a playoff game? Why did they have to do everything they could to win a game that, realistically, had zero impact on the playoffs for the Bills? Please explain. For some reason, many of you got way over invested emotionally in this one particular game and now your feelings are hurt. So now you're appalled by the lack of effort or creativity or whatever. Our coaches are not dummies. They're very slick. They were absolutely not going to give away anything at all that might give the slightest hint of what they would do to the Pats in a potential playoff game. Playoff games need to be treated like playoff games. Not interesting but pretty much meaningless. except for ego, regular season games. We all saw very vanilla play calling on both sides of the ball, for the most part. I think the offense was playing down intentionally especially in the run game. Look, the Bills damn near pulled off an upset win with exactly this basic and unimaginative game plan anyway. How great is that? It almost feels like, because of the playoff situation and the fact that even a win over the Pats would still need a Pats loss to the friggin' Dolphins to take the division away, the all said "hey let's not give anything away. Let's save it for a very possible playoff game meeting that will actually mean something real. And if we can beat them anyway just on simple play calling but great execution and fundamentals, then even better." Something like that. I mean it's really easy to tell which of you on here were looking at this game and this game only on Saturday without keeping an eye on the big picture. The Bills actually have the problem of being able to do just that, finally, because they are already in the playoff with a few weeks to go. That's a great problem to have. If you've made it now to your 2nd playoff round in 19 years, would you not take it a little more seriously and do some major planning ahead for your potential opponents? With this Bills squad as young as they are, you'd better. And you all are getting way to over invested emotionally in how good this Bills team really is and how far they've come along in their development as this version of the team right now. This is practically year 1 for the offense. The D is different but they're playing like they've been together for a while now. Kudos to them. But the offense is still a work in progress. Some of you all are expecting near perfection each and every game and you go back and second guess and pick apart everything. You're expecting each player and each facet and each play to be absolutely perfect, or darn near and you're expecting them to somehow to be scoring 30+ points each game or be failures. Look at the way some of you all over analyze the crap out of each game with your little rundowns every week. This is not a playoff offense right now by any stretch. Frazier and McD are coaching the hell out of this defense and they're playing in serious playoff level and that's why they made the post season again. As dynamic as Daboll will have this offense going in a year or two, with all the new pieces and very young players right now, that's not going to happen overnight. When it does...watch out. They O is still finding it's identity. They'll get there and in the meantime you just gotta really appreciate the success they've actually had this season in spite of all the challenges. Oh, and they've played some really, really good D's the last few games. Hanging tough with those big dogs says a lot too win or lose. And don't give me any junk about 'moral victories.' That's not what I'm talking about.

Now that is wisdom my friends.

But I thought it was coaching on both sides of the ball? Or Daboll's play calling? Or McD being too conservative of a coach? Or Josh missing 5-6 big throws that would have changed the game? According to all those other dumb threads anyway. So which is it? I"m so confused!

How are you going to lead with "End of discussion..." in the first sentence of a new thread that does exactly the opposite? If you're really serious, just stop right there. Everyone needs to stop right there. It's definitely easy to see who got their panties all tied up in a wad after last night's game. Just look at who's starting these ridiculous, knee-jerk threads. They lost. It was close. The coaches were holding back because this game meant nothing (realistically) and the next meeting could mean everything. Bunch of whiners!

I'm no expert but I really felt the overall game plan was fairly vanilla on both sides of the ball. We saw a few interesting ones, but I didn't get the sense that the coaches brought out anything really new for offense or defense. The poor tackling on D seemed to demonstrate this IMO. Could it possibly be, just maybe, that they didn't want to show anything new up their sleeve for a game that largely meant nothing come playoff time? Nah! That means our coaches would have to be smart and know things that we may not be able to see with out untrained eyes. And that, as we all know, is impossible.

I am not Sully 's biggest fan but I do respect him. That comes from nearly 20 years of cursing him for being overly negative only to, once again, come to realize that's he's just realistic. Sully is the ultimate "see it to believe it" guy if there ever was one and he does know his stuff. This is just confirmation of exactly what I was feeling last night. If we had a RT worth a damn in that game, things would be significantly different. Ford got abused all night long. Seriously the weakest link on that line by bar. ZERO CHANCE that Beane and McD start next season with him at the starter at RT. Or even the backup. He just can't do it at this level. The Josh Allen vs BB battle has shifted dramatically now. Something has changed and Allen is figuring it out. You could see it translating into plays as the game went on (ex John Brown 53 yard TD). There were numerous other examples. If anyone else can think of some please feel free to add to this.

What would we ever do without your wisdom?

I think, after all his years coaching at the NFL level now, we can probably say with reasonable confidence that McDermott, AKA "McNasty!", knows what he's doing. Oh, and that Leslie Frazier guy is pretty good at his job, so I hear. We all need to sit back and appreciate what we appear to have going on D in Buffalo right now. I can't recall any time since '99 and the great Wade Phillips' defenses (annually paired with mediocre, at best, offenses) that we've fielded such a consistently dominant unit. Things are getting very interesting around here lately. It's a great time to be a Bills fan.

It might be available on the app or on NFL.com There's various ways to stream it to a big screen but I haven't tried it myself. My Vizio has Chromecast and I have used that before but the picture quality wasn't quite good enough. Probably too many wifi to wifi connections or something. I have had really good luck with that K**i app. Using Chromecast for that is the only way I can get them to work. Isn't the greatest picture all the time but I'm not paying a dime so I try not to complain too much.

I'm with you on that one Billsfanatixs but this season, of all seasons in recent memory, anything can happen. With the Pats this vulnerable it's at least going to be interesting. Maybe Fitz has one of those magic games. You never know.

That's the "gamesmanship within the gamesmanship" as they call it. If someone else who's good at explaining this stuff can please do so. It'll be so much better than if I tried. They're using these formation timeouts as strategy moves. Showing one D formation in a certain situation and seeing how the opposing O reacts to use it against them later on in the game. Someone else can explain it so much better than me.

I love Phillips. What a reclamation project he's turned out to be. What a find by Beane and Co. I think he really like the whole process and culture thing gonig on in B'lo right now. Seems to have really bought in from the get-go. You could see it one the field immediately with all his energy and excitement. That's the kind of energy you can feel through the television screen and it was clear he found a place he liked right away. How about them sacks?!?! Someone please do the numbers. How many sacks in his entire career vs. just this season? He's having a monster of a year.

This is more evidence of how great this coaching staff is. I can't recall any year with this great of a road record since the 90's. Am I wrong? This one stat just speaks volumes about this team. So different that what we've forced ourselves to become accustom to as Bills fans. I could get used to this!

I can assume anything I want to assume, sir! (jk What you say makes sense)

This. Seems utterly ridiculous to throw out Knox based on a few drops in his ROOKIE season. Seems just as utterly ridiculous to give up on the whole lot at this point as well. When everyone at the position is new to Buffalo, I think it's best to give some of them a season to acclimate.

Another good example that eluded my cloudy brain. Appreciate your input. And even more prime examples. I'm not sure what I was thinking.

Duh. I’m so stupid sometimes it hurts. I love Hyde and Poyer. So glad they’re Buffalo Bills.

This ain't the same old boring Bills organization of the past. They're doing all cool stuff like the Kelly and Allen vid, and the Tre and Bruce one, the embedded series. I'll say it again, they could not have made a better choice to rename the stadium. "New Era" is absolutely perfect. All of a sudden they're kind of fun and interesting. I've been a BIlls fan for nearly 30 years now. This fun stuff is going to take a little getting used to. And Beane really made a genius move getting John Brown here. I can't recall the last free agent pick up the Bills had that was so productive and reliable right away esp a wide receiver. Someone refresh my memory if you can think of one.

Peter King just quoted McD as saying he is “blessed” to be in Buffalo. He really understands what being HC for the Buffalo Bills is all about. I mean like no other coach has understood since Wade. He knows the challenge he has and what it will mean to Buffalo and Bills fans everywhere when they do finally win a championship. Beane is the same. I think McD is here for at least 5 more years regardless of record he’s that good of a coach. And he may be here for 20 years if they start winning in the post season and: or a championship or championships. He and Beane literally could not find a better ownership situation as well. He ain’t going anywhere and we don’t want him to go anywhere. The Pegulas made the right choice hiring him. They’ll do whatever it takes to keep him as long they can. This is a very silly thread.

LOVE THIS STUFF, ReeD83HoF!!!! This team is going to be friggin' fun to watch the next few years and probably more. As deadly accurate as Josh was on Thursday, if they get some of this Run and Shoot stuff going well, they're gonna be practically unstoppable! See this is why we've stuck it out for so, so many years of ineptitude and failure with this team. The universe knows what Bills fans have been going through all these years without wavering one bit in our loyalty. We've all believed the better days will come. I don't know about anyone else but this just doesn't feel like the "same old Bills" anymore.

They sure look like they don’t give a bleep what he’s saying. They know who the problem is.

At 45 now myself, and like many others here I’m sure, I can personally testify about what changes when you cross the 40 year threshold. After the military and many years of weight lifting, before 40 I could drop and do 50 push-ups anytime. Haha not anymore. If only. Father Time and Mother Nature will have their way no matter how hard you fight it even if you’re in great shape already. I work out hard regularly but it just ain’t the same. It can be worse for pro athletes who have put their bodies through so much for so long. I don’t care what “performance enhancing substances” they use. You can’t stay on them all the time. They make you feel a lot younger while you’re juicing but it all comes back down to earth when you come off again. I’m sure he feels great in the offseason when he can juice as much as he wants. All anyone has to do is watch Tommy’s accuracy on the short stuff that’s his bread and butter. We saw it against the Bills and it was obvious last night. I for one would probably enjoy watching him deteriorate in front of everyone the next few years . Of course I won’t mind a bit when he finally hangs it up. Either way I still hate his guts.

Seems like their D is has a weak point for underneath passes esp outside. Get those big LB’s isolated with a faster RB or Knox maybe. Gilmore even got worked a few times I saw. Suddenly the Pasties’ vaunted D looks vulnerable. Of course BB will make some adjustments but they may have exposed some fundamental weak points that can still be exploited. I’m suddenly (if not mistakenly) optimistic esp the way JA is slinging those short and intermediate passes. If the Texans truly provided a real blueprint against that D, they could be in trouble down the last stretch here. Hell even the slight possibility of us actually taking the division from them is a welcome feeling. Let’s not get too concerned with the post season this year. This is a tremendous sophomore year for JA. In my wildest dreams I never thought it was in the realm of possibility for any Bills QB to be this successful so soon. You know Beane will shore up some of the weakest area in this offseason. We could be seriously dangerous next year. And Brady is only going to deteriorate more. Father Time isn’t doing him any favors. JA is coming on really strong very quickly now but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. That being said, I still hope the Patsies get the snot beat out of them the rest of the season. Would make this holiday season even sweeter than it’s already shaping up to be.

Hahahaha!!!! Thank you so much for this Peace Frog!!!!!!! Yet another way to enjoy this amazing win! This vid makes my day!

Density! It has to be their Density!