ShakAttack

Could be a combo of both too, I suppose. Whatever it is, the scary thing to me is this is going to be hard to fix. Just hope it won’t be as blatant once this “historic 3-peat” season is over with. if they get the 3 peat, lets move on. if they don’t get it, well then, gotta start from 1 like the rest of us anyway.

As I was watching the NFL's mic'd up championship week edition, something stood out to me, and I realized it was not the first time I'd seen it either. KC's players and coaches are very chummy with the refs before the game. It's very difficult for me to believe that refs are intentionally making these calls, but I do believe the Chiefs are intentionally playing the refs to the point they are basically considered "buddies" by the refs. And that is leading to subconscious favoritism toward the Chiefs in those borderline call situations. And after all, it's human nature to favor your friends in difficult situations, whether you realize you're doing it or not. For instance, I'm watching the 4th and 1 play in the mic'd up video, and as soon as the play is over, the Chiefs are so animated about stopping us short; they have NO DOUBT. I didn't see that from the Bills, even though we clearly DID get the first down. These guys are in the refs heads whether the refs are aware of it or not! They are doing this right in front of the refs. And yes, I know that happens a lot anyway, and I know the refs are "professionals" and trained to be neutral, not swayed by the players/coaches, etc, but when you look at how friendly these guys are with the refs before the game, and if you think back to a situation in your own life when your best friend is making their case to you about something important, aren't you typically biased toward them? In contrast, if a JAG (let's say) is in your ear about getting a call wrong, who cares? Who's that person to you anyway? Doesn't quite have the same weight as Mahomes being upset, does it? (from the ref's perspective) The ONE time I recall the Chiefs experiencing a decisive call that did NOT go in their favor was the Kadarius Toney "offensive Offside". And even though it was the correct call, we all saw Mahomes throw a tantrum on the sidelines and continue this hissy fit during the post-game press conference. It reminded me of, dare I say, someone that had just been betrayed by a good friend? And was in complete and utter shock that this friend actually had the nerve to do it? Could it be, that ever since that incident, these refs decided they did not want to cross the Chiefs again? They did not want to interfere with "greatness" again? Boy, I mean, if PATRICK MAHOMES is treating you like his best buddy, wouldn't you feel honored? Wouldn't you feel, maybe even slightly (because that's all it takes) that you don't want to be the one to let him down? Or Kelce? Or Swift? Or hell, maybe even Chris Jones? I just think, if this was being done purposely, the optics would be a little different. Instead, these terrible calls seem to come in the form of being favored any time there is a "borderline" call. And even when reviewed, they refuse to overturn it, especially in the playoffs. Listen, something is obviously going on here, because it 100% can't be coincidence that throughout this entire season, every decisive flag thrown by a referee has gone against the Chiefs opponent and NOT ONE has gone against the Chiefs. It just has to go both ways sometimes, but it doesn't? But does that mean they are intentionally rigging it? I just don't know. To me, it seems more realistic that they're doing it subconsciously, but the Chiefs, on the other hand, are fully aware of what they are doing and they are 100% intentional about going out of their way to buddy up with these refs...

Listening to Beane right now, it sounds like he wants to pretty much run it back with this same defense. I sure hope he isn't serious. Out of the 7 teams that made the playoffs in the AFC, our defense was easily the worst. My issue is there are some good options out there in free agency, but we are so tied down to the players currently on our roster. For instance, I'd love to bring in someone like Justin Reid at safety, but we are already committed to Cole Bishop (more on Rapp in a moment). I'd love to bring in a new LB, but we are already committed to Terrell Bernard (and I'm fine with that) and Matt Milano. There's more examples, but the problem with 3 of the 4 players I brought up is that they are INJURY PRONE!!!!!!!!!! There are other issues with these players as well, but above all, availability is #1. Beane is saying "we need to do better to protect Milano (from injury)" jeez.. really? What does that even mean? We weren't doing that before? He's always been injury prone and now he is getting older. Difficult decisions have to be made if we want to move forward. I feel like we made those difficult decisions last season, but only because we had no other choice.

Honestly man, going into this game against KC with our 0-3 playoff record against them, I thought of this game as a "mini Super Bowl". I thought that if we were able to beat KC and make the Super Bowl, I could be fine with whatever happened after that because you can't possibly beat KC in the playoffs and think of this season as a failure at that point. Now that we are 0-4 against them in the playoffs, there is honestly no difference between finally beating KC in the playoffs and winning a Super Bowl to me; they are both equivalent at this point. It's kind of become like the playoff drought. Nobody cared about what happened after we got in; we just wanted to finally punch our ticket. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but from now on, Bills vs. KC in the playoffs IS the Super Bowl for me, and I don't care if it's the divisional round or the championship round because beating KC in the playoffs would be the happiest moment of my life as a Bills fan, without a doubt. But don't get me wrong, if it were ever possible to make the Super Bowl without encountering KC, I would be all for it.

To be fair, Dion was just kind of listening to Chris Jones talk at him in that moment. For all we know, he might have been thinking "what are you talking about bro? We still have 3 time outs". But I don't know. I personally thought it was over when Kincaid dropped that pass too. It's the only thing I still think about this game. Once in a while the horrible call on 4th and 1 as well, but mostly the Kincaid drop. I think about that drop, and what might have been for us all right now if he caught it. And it's tough. Because every time we play the chiefs it seems like we have 1 moment at the end of the game just like this. Something that could have so easily gone our way instead.

McD needs a bad b*tch at his side. Not Babich.

One of my issues with the Bills is that they don't seem to play loose until they have a lead (or if they are way behind). When the game is close, they play tight. Stuff like, running a conservative short yardage run on 2nd and 1, instead of being creative. Or, to your point, neglecting to try a sneak to the right, even when KC had been stopping or nearly stopping that play all night. That's why some of our most explosive plays this season seemed to take place when we had a comfortable lead or when we were losing by decent bit (Shakir pass play vs. Ravens, a lot of the big plays against the Rams, Allen's drive and TD strike to Hollins when we were down 21-10 to KC, etc).

Well, I take the silence today as an indicator that many of us have mostly processed the loss and feeling better than yesterday, for the most part. As we are midway through the day I can say things have calmed down for me as well, but as I mentioned in my previous post, I know I’ll have 2 lasting memories from this game in the forms of “if only ___” and those will stick with me until the day Buffalo beats KC in a playoff game.

So for what its worth I started this thread yesterday morning and technically we're on day 3. Can't tell you if it is better or worse for me; it's probably about the same... There's a plethora of things that factored into us losing this game, but considering we always knew a Bills-Chiefs game was going down to the wire, the MAIN THING that sticks in my head is the 4th and 5 drop by Kincaid. And the irony of that after Mark Andrews happened all week is just so Billsy. Only the Bills could match something like that, the very next week, on a bigger stage, right? So, from all of complexity of everything going through my mind yesterday, it's all sorted out and "simplified" down to 2 things that are still bothering me quite a bit: 1. Extreme frustration over Kincaid drop. 2. Sadness over what "could have been". In other words, sadness over thinking about how awesome all of us would be feeling this week, the positive narratives that would be going around, being the only team to take down the Chiefs (twice) and ending their bid at the 3-peat, our team being featured in SB media week. I mean, there it is, right? Just writing that out makes me feel incredibly sad. Why isn't our team allowed to have that ONE moment? And that's when I go back to Kincaid again. That's where I'm at.... and that's where I might be for a while.... when it is all said and done, it always ends up coming down to 1 "if only _______" - 2021 season: "If only we squib kicked!" - 2023 season: "If only Allen saw Diggs running wide open on 2nd and 9 from the KC 20ish after the 2 minute warning" - 2024 season: "If only Kincaid caught the dang ball......................." And I gotta tell you, the first two of those, I still think about them every now and then, so I'm sure this one will be no different; I'll never be fully over it, and it will stay that way until the day we beat KC in the playoffs...

Well day 2 is officially a wrap and was probably worse than yesterday for me, mainly due to thoughts of what would have been, had we won the game. Thinking about our players being featured during SB media week, thinking about the amazing feeling of happiness and calm that I would have had over these next 2 weeks, enjoying the narrative about how far the Bills have come, what a great story this is, etc. You know, for me, that's exactly what hurts the most. It's just knowing how close we were to all of these dream scenarios. And instead, we get hit with more of the same. Yet again. And those thoughts usually segue into the "moments of the game" that have stuck with me the most and wish they could have gone the other way. For a while, I nearly went crazy obsessing over the "what ifs" associated with the terrible turnover on downs call when we had the lead and momentum & the Kincaid drop. The only silver lining here is that if/when we ever do pull this off, this loss just makes it even sweeter. If we beat KC during the Mahomes era, I would not change any one of these losses to be honest, because they would have all contributed toward making that moment as special as it would be, which would be greater than the joy of winning a Super Bowl for many fans. I truly believe that.

Couldn't have been 5 of 6 years, could it? "13 seconds" was the 2021 season's playoffs. The Bills and Chiefs both played on Wild Card weekend that year. We annihilated the Pats. They annihilated the Steelers. And then of course last season, they played AT Buffalo, so obviously not the 1 seed. So, they couldn't have been the 1 seed at least twice. We've had 4 shots at KC in the playoffs and we're currently sitting at 0-4. It's unprecedented as we know, no team has been eliminated by the same team in a 5 year span more than we have been eliminated by KC. And the sickening part is that both of these records are the types that no team and/or player would want to be associated with and yet some how, some way, both are now associated with our Buffalo Bills. Wow. You just can't make it up. At 29 years old, Josh Allen already has the most playoff wins without a SB appearance in NFL history (7). Unless something changes, I am positive this record will be untouchable by the time he retires from the league. Put it this way, he only has 2 less playoff wins than Jim Kelly and Donovan McNabb (9 each) who have the records for most playoff wins without a Super Bowl victory. The "good news" (I guess?) is that unlike Jim Kelly, we will almost certainly get a 5th chance (at KC). True, beating KC is not technically winning the Super Bowl, but at this point, to me and probably some other fans, it would sure feel like winning the Super Bowl, and maybe even better, given the history. That's the thing about all these losses, right? The more we accumulate, the better the first win will feel. Only question is: Will it ever happen? At this point, if we finally defeat KC in ANY round of the playoffs, I am okay with whatever happens after that. That would be my happiest moment as a Bills fan, hands down. The image of stupid ass Kermit running across the field like a dip ***** after they beat us in the playoffs every single year is what gets my blood boiling most of all. While they push for repeats and 3-peats, all I've ever wanted is to beat them ONE TIME and be able to experience the pure JOY that comes with it. It feels like we are prohibited from experiencing ultimate success as Bills fans. The heartbreak is just exhausting man. It was already exhausting last year and now it's just absolutely ridiculous. It was a fantasy to imagine our Bills being featured in the spotlight and featured in interviews, etc. in the week leading up to the Super Bowl, but you know the funny thing about it? It never felt realistic to me, because that's how traumatized many of us have become as Bills fans. Beating KC has become unfathomable to many of us simply because it's what we want more than anything else, and Bills are just meant to suffer, I guess. Then there's Xavier Worthy... Matt Araiza... we knew these things would happen as soon as they became Chiefs, right? Many of us called it. Why can't the "good guys" win... for once! Why can't Mahomes experience defeat by someone other than Tom Brady and Joe Burrow... for ONCE! This isn't just a Buffalo Bills problem; it's an entire NFL problem. We just happen to encounter them the most because we're the second most consistent team in the NFL! But during this "3-peat" span specifically, we have had 2 shots at KC, and the Eagles are now getting their 2nd shot at KC, so our teams are the most responsible for what is happening here (unless the Eagles pull it off). I'll end on a more positive note, believe it or not. I try to tell myself that during the 17-year playoff drought I was feeling a similar level of hopelessness. Making the playoffs for our Bills seemed practically impossible. Every year, it seemed like SO MUCH had to go RIGHT just to have a shot at making it! And then it finally happened. The impossible finally happened. I gotta tell you, the joy I felt in that moment might have been greater than any playoff win that followed because it represented achieving the impossible, much like I feel towards KC at this point.

Defense is still what needs to change, imo. I don't know what or how, but Allen had to constantly thread the needle in the passing game; very few open looks, and for Mahomes it was the complete opposite. Our receivers were getting tackled as soon as they caught the ball. No YAC. Kinda like the Ravens game really. Two defenses playing playoff football (Ravens and Chiefs). And once again, ours can't, and never does. As I said, ours was the complete opposite; we gave Mahomes easy open looks all game long. If you were to rank all 7 defenses from the AFC playoffs this season, let's face it, we would have been #7. I know, the injuries to the secondary didn't help our chances, but let's face it, there have been a lot of games this season in which our opponent's passing game flourished and we couldn't get off the field on third down pass plays even with Benford and Rapp in the lineup.

It feels as though the NFL did whatever they could to hold KC's hand en route to the 3-peat this season. So if I'm looking for a silver lining, hopefully after they "make history" and become the first team to win 3 straight, the NFL won't favor them as much as they so painfully and obviously did this season. As far as the "refs are human and make mistakes" argument, my counter to that would be... yes they do make mistakes, but why is it that NONE of these flags thrown in critical moments of the games have gone AGAINST KC!? They have ALL been to their benefit. Look at any other team in the NFL and the bad calls go both ways. You want me to believe that it's pure coincidence that KC is the only team this doesn't happen to?

I agree with you. Definitely one of two moments of the game I haven’t been able to shake. But I really - even with the Chiefs history - did not expect a bad call to be among our lasting memories of the game in the event of a loss. Some people have not been able to recognize just how impactful on the outcome of the game that this poor decision likely had. Bills were winning at the time, and the Chiefs had no answer for James Cook. The offense was humming. And we had momentum. Say what you want about calling too many QB sneaks, etc, but guess what… IT WORKED ON THAT PLAY!!! Just got a terrible spot out of it. jeez. Yep. It pains me more today to think about this than it did yesterday. This isn’t going to be easy. One game away from the dream FINALLY coming true… and that’s what we get. Life ain’t fair, I guess, and it has been very cruel to us Bills fans, undeniably so when it comes to football.

I have found that my typical "stages" in processing each season's elimination game is not too unlike going through the stages of grief. The night of the loss is actually the easiest for me because at that point I'm pretty much just numb and probably emotionally spent from watching the game and all of the buildup during the week, but I usually wake up multiple times overnight, which is the segue into... Day #1 this is where I look to fellow Bills fans and familiar sources for what is essentially a form of therapy. Reading TBD, listening to WGR, listening to Locked On Bills, and relating to everything. It helps me to surround myself with others that can relate to the pain, particularly the day after the game. Also, I COMPLETELY avoid ANY and all media related to the Chiefs and their success. Day #2 is kind of where the sadness peaks for me, and that is where I'm at now. So yeah, I feel worse this morning than I did yesterday. Obsession over missed opportunities, feeling of disgust toward KC and worrying about if/when we will ever get back to this game. A lot of the stuff that I kind of block out in the beginning seems to find it's way through on this day. Although I'd like to block it out entirely, it has to be processed in order to move on. Some aspects of the game end up being easier to process than others. When it is all said and done, there is usually one thing that sticks with me for good. Last year it was the 2nd and 9 play on the Chiefs 20 or so yard line where Diggs was wide open and Allen didn't throw it to him. This year I am guessing that "moment" will be the horrible 4th and 1 call that swung momentum back to KC or the Kincaid drop. OR heck, maybe it will just always be both. Sorry this was a bit rushed and I'd have liked to elaborate a little more/differently, but have to take my son to school in a couple minutes. I'll probably chime in again once I return and read some of your responses.

Can we ever please try and utilize KJ Hamler? He was a weapon prior to his injury issues and former 2nd round pick. He’s probably better than Isaiah McKenzie ever was and brings a dimension to our offense that we don’t have now. if we are never going to do anything with him what is the point of these signings? Almost wish he refused to sign and went somewhere else

It's always something with our team vs. the Chiefs. That's what is driving me crazy. That's why the botched call on 4th and inches was so important. We were already up and driving for another score. With our history of late game mishaps vs. KC, we NEEDED to be the team in the driver seat, with them chasing us, and not the other way around.

But the fact that players have learned what the visit with this INC entails, it's very possible that they have also learned what to say and do in order to get final clearance.

I just can't get over the irony with Andrews dropping an even easier catch for the Ravens last week. And at the time, I remember thinking, "What?!? The BILLS won a game like this??? It wasn't OUR TIGHT END with the crushing drop???" MAYBE, just MAYBE it's a sign that our playoff luck has finally turned for the better! And then in a scenario that you can't make up, we suffer the same fate.......... cause of our tight end.

Yeah I never understood that comparison honestly. Kelce is physically imposing. Bigger and faster in his prime. Kincaid is kind of light for a TE. He's tried to become more physical in the NFL, but it's probably why he is always getting hurt, with his frame.

Hence the "potential" I had in parenthesis. But at the very least, we have a first down in field goal range with 3 time outs and under 3 minutes left to play I believe?

MAN...................... If Kincaid catches that ball, imagine the narrative today about Josh Allen, along with our (potential) joy. UGH

Fair point.

And Allen. Which is a mistake if we indeed let our QB have that much influence on our first draft pick. That isn't his job.

Cooper DeJean was commonly regarded as the realistic "BPA" at our draft position, but many of us (including myself) were not open to using our first pick on a non-WR. To be fair, I was hoping to either trade-up for BTJ or draft McConky / AD Mitchell if we stayed put, and if I knew we were going to end up taking Coleman, I probably would have rather just take DeJean because Coleman and Worthy (ironically) were the 2 wrs that I specifically did not want the Bills to draft. But as I watched DeJean against the Commanders and witnessed the undeniable impact he had on that game, it begged the question: Do we think Cooper DeJean makes a difference for us yesterday? Enough of a difference to have a different outcome? Or was it always likely going to come down to Allen and Joe Brady finding a way to deliver a game-winning drive? I tend to think that with these 2 teams, regardless of how the first 3 quarters play out, it will always come down to living and dying with Allen and his cape at the end of the game, but I would like to hear your thoughts...