Mikie2times

I feel like our defensive system is purgatory and I'm worried our otherwise tremendous leader in McDermott is married to that system.

Good post. Sort of the point of my post was to say we aren't the Colts or the Patriots. I think the Phillip Rivers era Chargers is a bit off as well. If we ran with your analogy we fit into what other have said. The Steelers. That is, if the Chiefs and Bengals occupy Brady/Manning, we would be Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh was always in it. They had a year they broke through. We will have that year, within that we will have no more steady incline on our trajectory. We will get to the SB because it's inevitable we do. Not because we are so dominant we hold the spot for multiple years.

I don't think this should be something people view negatively. It's more, just trying to get people to understand what we are. Christ, I bet we go 13-3 or better every year Josh plays a full season. We will eventually breath through, but we should never be considered " the favorite". We will be capable of beating anybody for likely the next 6-10 years. Eventually it will align.

No and no Packer fan would have ever traded Favre. Better or worse, when you get a guy like this you just don't care what negatives it comes with. It will be special the whole time no matter the end result.

This is how I view it. We will get one. We will take on the mold of the Packers in the 90's or Steelers in the 2000's. Led by a gunslinger, in the mix every year. Eventually we will break through.

But Allen is literally nothing like Manning. Favre couldn't have been on the "Manning" Colts. That whole team was about precision. Favre and Allen are the opposite of precision.

Burrow is the modern version of Brady and at the end of the day raw ability was never what made TB great. An ability to get the ball out immediately with intelligence and accuracy is what made him great. You can replicate that behavior. You can't replicate what Josh does.

Josh didn’t lose this game and for years he has made plays no player in FB can make. Favre was the same way and he ended up winning a title, but for how great he was, generating multiple MVP’s, widely considered one of the best of all time…..He just wasn’t consistent enough to be a late season closer. He made deep playoff runs each year, but each year he would typically be the team who lost in the Divisional or Championship round only winning one SB. Josh is similar to Favre. He is adored for his guts and heart and recognized for his freakish ability to do things nobody else can. With this, he’s been the bridesmaid for several years now. At this point I don’t know how anybody could make Buffalo the favorites. They will challenge each year, but at the end of the day, better or worse, we ride Allen’s back on offense and that just doesn’t work against the better teams for multiple games in a row. It’s also not always on Josh where that breakdown occurs. Our version of the Tampa 2 doesn’t seem to hold past the Wild Card. I wish I knew the fix. I don’t think one exists. Like Favre, I think we will win a Super Bowl one day. With that, we will never be consistent. We will constantly be in the deep playoffs but we won’t break into being in the SB with consistency. What allows us to get to that position is also the thing that prevents us form consistently getting deeper. We will remain a lethal team but eventually our style will hinder our ability to get far or deep in the playoffs with consistency.

Burrow is is the threat. He was always the threat.

Allen is Favre. He will win a SB, but that's all he will get. Which is fine by my account.

Wouldn't matter, Burrow is Brady

I almost can't help but laugh at our arrogance. The Bengals are off a SB run and have a QB that is more consistent by any measure that could be a measure. Meanwhile we were acting like we should roll and go to KC (who the team we are playing has owned)

I think he will be back. He won’t have a market so steep that we can’t be competitive and I see him giving us the home team discount to stay.

Nice to see a Sparty on here 👍👍 I think a lot of us exist. Non Buffalo, life long Bills fans. They got a lot of TV exposure in that era. Fun team to watch if you’re a kid. Then for most of us, you can’t go through that experience and just be like, ok, I’m good. Let’s pick another team. In the many years since it never felt like picking another team was an option. In fact, to me, what the team is and being a fan is so linked to the city that even not being from Buffalo, if they ever moved I would stop being a fan. Thankfully that no longer seems to be as much of a risk as it once was.

Interesting topic as I have reflected on this before, I was 9 Years old in 1990. I'm not from Buffalo. Those nights after we lost the Super Bowl would always end in a pillow of tears. The next day I would get teased relentlessly from my classmates. After each SB loss my mom would take me to Foot Locker and I was able to get either a new Bills jersey or hat. I would wear the hat almost non stop the next month almost begging for the negative treatment from my classmates. That Bills team is what did that to me and that sort of outlook carries onto this day.

we're 5-point favorites we're 5-point favorites we're 5-point favorites we're 5-point favorites

Last 10 games Bengals 9-1 (9 Game win streak, 4-0 vs playoff teams) Bills 8-2 (8 Game win streak, 2-1 vs playoff teams) L3 Away / Home PPG Bengals 25.3 / 19.0 = +6.3 Bills 33.7 / 27.7 = +6.0 Burrow/Allen Last 10 Games Burrow 251/368 68.2%, 2,587 Yards, 21 TD / 7 INT, 21 Sacks Allen 209/342 61.1%, 2,437 Yards, 19 TD / 10 INT, 29 Sacks Forget about the wild card, these aren't divisional teams. The wild card says nothing about this game. Broadly speaking, as of now, I feel the data as well as what we are seeing on the field indicates the team played better in the first half of the season. Is it mostly injuries? So have we played our best ball yet? Imagine how you would feel if you were the defending AFC champions, you return everybody, and then you spend 8 months hearing about Buffalo and KC, Mahomes and Allen. Everybody is ready this time of year, but this is a respect game for the Bengals and Burrow. Within all this the Bengals are banged up badly on the offensive line and defensive backfield. I'm certainly not apologizing for the help. This has been the worst year for injuries in Buffalo in some time. Flush it all out and I think this is a dead even game that will approach 70 points. Easily good enough to be the AFC Championship.

I went from no respect, to high levels of respect near the end of his Patriot days. To GOAT after his TB Super Bowl, to low levels of respect almost to the point of feeling bad for the guy now. I don't think it's a mentally healthy outlook to think you're put on this world for sports. I don't care how good you're at them. To be at the point where you won that TB Super Bowl, showed the world it wasn't BB. All the money, fame, GOAT status. Then be so obsessed you lose your family and fade into obscurity. He's basically doing the anti Barry, even the anti Jordan. He had a shot to go out with literally everything and he decided it wasn't time and when it's all said and done I think that decision will haunt him.

That's really my complaint against the "don't worry we won". I'm not going to start a thread saying we are a bad team, but we keep falling into the one man offense style and then a conservative defense that gives away chunk plays at the worst times. That recipe is not going to work against KC or the Bengals.

The book does not say blitz Josh. He actually handles the blitz as well as anybody. Josh has to do everything on his own which leads to a very inconsistent result. I think some of that is on Josh, but some of that is also on Dorsey. We are way past the era that Buffalo will build a game plan to help prevent Josh from feeling like he has to do everything (which might not be the worst idea). As his star has risen it's now become the Josh Allen show and the Josh Allen show by itself has never been consistent. Amazing at times, but never consistent. In addition to this the defense not being able to get off the field. Blown coverages. Constantly conceding yardage to avoid the big play. Lack of aggression in defensive play calling. All of that is very bad right now. Which is along the same very bad reasons we lost last year at KC.

99% of the time I would say yes but we basically have the same defense as last year when we finished first in pass defense by almost 20 yards. This year we aren't even in the top half. This entire defense revolves around Hyde and Poyer and disguising our schemes. We just don't have that element this year.

Right? They didn't play well vs the Titans, but they have been playing very well.

😄 I've been a a fan since 1991 when I was 9 years old. Real bandwagon type.

If it's Pittsburgh it's my late old man F'n with me. Which seems more plausible with each passing day this season. That would be a pretty epic venue given the history and distance for each fan base.

It really doesn't matter/ cash over cap