SoCal Deek

Bingo! I had a Business Partner who’d consistently return from new project interviews and report that he came in second…again. He was very well intentioned in his efforts but consistently one step behind the competition. His preparation was excellent but when it came to being in the moment he simply had a problem ‘closing the deal’.

I’ve said it many times on here. I believe McDs heart is in the right place but he keeps failing in the critical moments year after year. It’s just possible that he’s plateaued at the playoff contender level we’ve all witnessed. Good, of course, but not great. You eventually run out of seasons and excuses for failing to get over the hump. And, I have no idea why the fake punt even enters the conversation. It had NOTHING to do with why they lost that game. So I’ll continue to cheer like crazy as I have for the last 60 seasons but I don’t sense that the current brain trust is ascending towards anything much more than we’ve seen over the past few years. Again, really good, and very fun, but not great.

Was I not clear?

What I read in McDs comments is that he is out of ideas. Feels to me like his strategy is to go another season hoping our opponent screws up at our time of need.

Yikes! All I can add is that NEITHER the Bills or Chiefs are dependent on their punter to win them football games. They just aren’t.

It’s been a lot more fun than the drought years but I have literally zero expectations of them making a Super Bowl (let alone winning one) under the current leadership group. So I’m just enjoying the Regular Season success.

What Frank Reich doing next season?

Aren’t we landing on the moon today?

Terry has his hands full with the Sabres. I got to watch the game yesterday against the Ducks as it was televised out here in SoCal. That team is an utter mess…..still! Unbelievable

I’d be looking at the D Line coach with a magnifying glass. We cannot keep drafting these guys and then dumping them back on the street year after year. Groot has all the tools to be a very good NFL edge rusher. And I’d say the same for Epinesa. Neither of these were small school ‘project’ picks. Who’s teaching these young men how to adapt their skill set to the NFL? (For what it’s worth, AJE was a beast in college and then some genius at OBD told him to shed 100 pounds.)

I'm no Cap expert, but this version of the Bills is not like the drought-era version where it was clear that guys were coming to WNY for an easy pay-day with little, to no chance of football success. Fast forwarding to 2024.....There's something wrong somewhere in the Locker Room, Front Office, or Coaching Staff if/when guys like Diggs don't want to play in Buffalo where a playoff run is a virtual lock. So, I'm of the mindset to keep him, along with the rest of the already under-contract 'talent', reworking their contracts, with the Front Office convincing these veterans that reducing today's paycheck allows the Team to acquire more talent around them, while spreading their compensation over a longer number of tax years. A true win-win.

I will say it again. The Bills had the ball in Chiefs territory late in the Fourth Quarter...at home, with the chance to take the lead and go to the Championship Game. Milano would've been on the bench, along with the rest of the defense. The Bills (and their coaching staff) had one job to do at that critical moment....keep the damn ball, and not give it back to Mahomes. They failed once again! Our injuries had nothing to do with it. You cannot go back and relitigate the entire season. They were right where they wanted to be in the end.

You want Congress to investigate the NFL? For what exactly? The NFL, like other sports leagues, operates somewhat differently from other business models, for sure, but they still exist in a basic capitalist environment. I suggest you think of the NFL as a chain of franchised restaurants; not as 32 separate, competing restaurants. And while it might seem that they have a monopoly in a specific location, that's also not true. For example, just a few years ago, the LA market had no teams, and now the 'Corporate Office' decided that they would have two. As we've seen, Teams not unlike franchise restaurants, are opening and closing locations quite regularly based on the perceived market.

With that logic why not limit seating to 30,000? It’s a balancing act just like it is for other businesses that rely on seating….like restaurants, movie theaters, etc

With very exceptions the days of super large stadiums have pretty much gone extinct. The movement is towards a better experience with a smaller capacity. And that’s all because of the television contracts you cite. This isn’t difficult to understand.

I’m not sure I agree. The price of tickets is more related to the price people are willing to pay for them than it is to the price of the stadium itself. I mean what’s to keep the Bills from raising prices now, in the ‘old’ stadium? It’s not like there’s another place that a WNY fan can go see an NFL game. And what good does it do the team to play in an empty new stadium?

It’ll be a significant improvement over the current stadium as the end zones aren’t open. The entire new stadium is taller and much more enclosed.

It’s all about sight lines, not distance.

The new ones will be steeper. They’re encircling the stadium with a tighter diameter. Not this again. Just like the sun casts a shadow that isn’t straight down so does the roof cast a rain or snow ‘shadow’. So while one side will see rain hit the first few rows that are technically under the cover on one side, the other side will receive the equivalent but opposite benefit. Choose your seats accordingly. 👍

Augie, the upper decks in every arena are generally steeper so as to ensure good sight lines. They get progressively steeper the higher up you go. If not, the stadium cross section becomes very shallow and wide…like the Rose Bowl if you’ve ever been.

All of this back and forth and nobody has commented on the roof covering shown in this cross section. Shame on you all!

Not trying to be snarky but who do you think determines the sentencing terms and limits we have now? If not the government, then who?

And it was yet another late game strategic blunder. You’re absolutely correct on the deep pass to Diggs. Once that didn’t work they needed to simply keep the ball. They have the ideal QB to do just that. Pick up eight yards on downs 1 through 3 and let him sneak the final six feet. But do NOT put your depleted defense back on the field. You may be right. I sure hope not, for our sakes.

So if you know that, and I know that, and everyone knows that, can you explain why our coaching staff goes for the deep ball to Shakir instead of methodically controlling the ball, taking four downs to pick up 10.1 yards and keeping your undermanned defense on the bench? It’s still a real head scratcher to me. The Bills worked the ENTIRE season to be right they were late in the fourth quarter, at home, in the playoffs, against the Chiefs…and then….you know the rest.

Understood, but I think you’ll admit this is far from being one of the biggest problems many in our society face on a daily basis.