Ray Stonada

Thanks for this topic, OP. Something happened to me this season that never happened before. In the 4th quarter and overtime of the Bucs game, I felt numb. Normally, a great comeback to tie up a game against the Super Bowl champs and the winningest QB of all time, would have me jumping up and down, pumping my fists, yelling and generally super pumped up and simultaneously nervous as hell. Instead, I just watched, kind of waiting for us to lose. It was like the Steeler, Titans, Jags, and Pats games had left me unable to care that much, because I couldn't expose myself to another heartbreak. Hence, numbness. I never felt that before. This has been a tough season. After KC I thought Buffalo would be the 1 or 2 seed in the AFC, no problem. But not once since KC did it feel like they were doing better than expected. (Last season, I felt that way in at least 8-10 games.) Feels like this year there hasn't been one happy surprise, only heartbreaking futility or beatdowns of bad teams. And the team hasn't felt as close to each other or the coaches.

Tyler Matakevic??????

Buffalo 33, Patriots 18

I too have been wondering about this, and came the following reasoning: I think some professional athletes, like dancers and others who rely on elite body performance, can be extremely careful and anxious about what they put in their bodies. There are enough anecdotes and stories circulating out there of athletes having enlarged heart muscle, fatigue and other issues to freak athletes out. I hear them from my friends' kids who are high school and college athletes. I am not saying this to defend any position (I am triple vaxxed myself and my own judgment is that the risks of being unvaxxed are worse). I'm just saying I do understand why a world class athlete like Cole might be incredibly cautious about injecting his body with a substance that was developed this year. Especially if he has issues with trusting "the authorities" already, which might be the case. And I believe we have to respect that choice even if we make the opposite one.

This was my thinking too. My understanding from our family doctor is being vaccinated gives you have a much lower chance of being infected, and if you are, a much, much lower chance of being hospitalized, and eventually dying. Seems the NFL is saying, we won't protect you anymore at the cost of our schedule, because you can make your own choice of what to do to protect yourself. Which kinda makes sense (to me at least)!

It is weird. But they've crushed a lot of teams and then lost four heartbreakers (Titans, Jags, Pats, Bucs). If the Bills were 3-1 in those games, like last year, it would all make sense. They haven't been able to execute with the O line woes, but more than that, they've been one-dimensional. If Daboll mixes in outside run, screens, and plays based on a defense thinking downfield pass, it opens up easy plays like the TD to Gabe Davis yesterday. Not enough easy plays for the Bills this year. Still time to clean it up though!

Solid win with a hobbled O line. Diggs deserves credit for keeping us together. Gabe is our starter. Obada deserves more PT. Dane is solid. Edmunds is becoming a better and better tackler. Singletary needs 10 outside runs per game. Allen is able to do things very few can. Bring on the Pattycakes!

Maybe a spy on Cam?

I agree with you; we can't only have one back. I just don't think it should be Moss. Brieda actually made another nice cut back and got a good gain against the Bucs. I'm not sure he's not the better backup. At this point, I'd rather see Antonio Williams get some carries than Moss. But maybe I'm biased against Moss. When he tweeted "They did me dirty" when he was scratched for the Pittsburgh game, I felt like he wasn't a team player. Then I had the same feeling when he was partying the night before the game in New Orleans.

I loved John Brown here, but the dominant offense we developed last year was entirely while he was injured. When he came back, we were not as effective (other than the Miami blowout). There's something to our offense with Diggs, Beasley and Davis as the wideouts, Knox at TE, and SIngletary at RB. Davis' size works as a better contrast than having another smurf-style wideout like Brown/Sanders. Going forward, I would keep this basic package and sub in Sanders some of the time, vary it to a 2 RB or 2 TE set from time to time, and use McKenzie and Stevenson on 4 or 5 wide plays, and to give our starting WRs a breather.

As the OP points out, we finally played a great half of football, with guts and heart and skill. We should just stick to the plays and players who did that. No need to interrupt that by bringing back Moss at this moment. 100%. The team may have come together. My only worry is that overtime didn't look great again.

Let’s go get this! ps we play so much better with Gabe on the field instead of Sanders

On third and goal from the three they knew we wouldn’t run. That’s on Daboll.

So excited that Moss isn't in... nothing against the guy but this is just a rational move by McD. Let's go get Tommy's lunch.

Thanks for updating me, dude. I had no idea!

We have the number one ranked defense in the league. We have an offense that can drop 40 while without even looking like we're playing that well. If we get up early, and get our swagger on, we can win this in a blowout. LET'S GO BUFFALO LFG

I agree with everything but the last two sentences. All the Bills need is to come together again, as a team. It hasn’t been that way this season for many possible reasons, but it can happen in a flash, and bring them back together to fight against a common enemy. Maybe Jerry Sullivan?

I just pray the Bills don't start thinking programmatically under some diktat from McD, like they HAVE to run at least X percentage of the time. The Bills, like all offenses, need to run plays that the defense is not expecting: to show run, but pass. Or show pass, but run. That's why we are more successful operating under center, because it threatens both options. Way too many plays this year have been obvious passes. It's arrogant and unnecessary. However, our backs have poor field vision, so running plays need clear lanes. When I rewatch Bills games this season, I see Singletary and Moss getting good gains when the hole is immediately in front of them. The minute the hole requires bouncing it to the outside, or a cut back, they never make the play and are tackled at the line. When running with the backs, I wish we would run more counters and other plays designed to open a hole. Our linemen are not road graders but they are mobile and can run counters and pulling pays well. We scored a nice TD running Josh on a counter on our first drive against KC. A few nice gains on those and they can go play action and should have easy pickings for Josh.

I totally agree with this. I still secretly believe the Bills are going to win the Super Bowl too. Just need them to get together and one win in tough circumstances might be enough to do it.

I agree. But we didn't have that sense of apathy last year.

I was texting last night with one of my best friends, a lifelong Bills fan like me. In high school we went to the 51-3 AFC championship game and about 20 other games together (paying our own money cause we didn't have parents with season tickets). We live a couple thousand miles apart now, 30 years later, but we text every week leading up to games. Last night, we were both predictably frustrated about the coaching and play-calling and we agreed McD seems to have a real knack for making the wrong call on fourth downs and challenges. But we were both worried about something more difficult to define: the feeling of team unity. There seems to be a weird Bickering Bills feeling floating around, like the team isn’t fighting as one. We remembered the 1989 season well and how there was a sense that Jim Kelly throwing Howard Ballard under the bus broke the team's unity back then. It took Thuman Thomas calling him out and the two of them getting over it to bring the team back together. (By the way, for my money Thurman was the MVP of the 90s teams.) Back to this season: when one of our guys makes a dumb mistake, penalty or whatever, I don’t have the feeling that they feel bad they let the team down. It's like they’re not playing for each other the same as last year. As my friend said, last year's team had that good feeling and this year's doesn't. Did the vaccine issue drive a serious wedge into the team? Is the disappointment of the season slowly breaking them down? I rewatched the Kansas City game last night and the Bills looked totally together, and McDermott looked like a different coach: cool, calm and collected. (Also worth noting, for those who think we need to pass 60 times tomorrow night: the Bills put a stamp on that KC game with a TD on our first drive using three called Josh Allen runs, and a couple of runs with our backs, which then set up the deep passes to Sanders, Diggs and Knox later.) Flash forward to the Pats game and McDermott looks like he's losing it, meanwhile players (like Knox) are making mistakes left and right, they're fumbling handoffs, the whole team just has a sense of malaise around it. The player's efforts don't seem to add up. So the question is, why has a team that seemed like they were on a mission together the last two seasons suddenly unable to win close games, make clutch plays when we need them, and get out of their own way? Why can't they elevate when the chips are down? What happened to their team spirit?

Look If you had One shot Or one opportunity To seize everything you ever wanted In one moment Would you capture it Or just let it slip? You better lose yourself in the music, the moment You own it, you better never let it go You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow This opportunity comes once in a lifetime (Lyrics from Lose Yourself by Eminem. Message sent.) LET'S @%##^$#% GO

Great post, OP. It's nuts to think of the Bills with bandwagon fans, especially in New England! One of my favorite uncles moved from Buffalo to Albany and then to Boston. He's the nicest guy ever, but at some point in the late 90s he became a Patriots fan. It hurts me to this day. I also think the whole country has done a 180 on Buffalo. When I was growing up, seemed like everyone thought of us as provincial rubes from a snowbound cave. Nowadays, when Buffalo comes up, seems it's all about how authentically awesome and real it is, a place that never lost its identity and sold out. Both are kinda true! 😂

Very comprehensive response, much appreciated, Hapless. I take all your points. I guess my response was based on watching him play against Chicago, where I didn't think he looked particularly special at WR or on teams. Your point about draft position is really fascinating and I gotta think about that more, certainly makes Kumerow's lack of playing time thus far more explicable. Maybe we're gonna keep him and he will bail us out in some tough moments this season! That said, I also feel like if they only go with 6 WR I would still keep Stevenson, who fills a need (returner, given Roberts leaving and McKenzie being kinda muff-prone). If they go with 7WR, I would be fine with keeping Kumerow too. Kinda crazy how many pass-catchers we could have on opening day: Diggs, Sanders, Beasley, Davis, McKenzie, Stevenson, Kumerow, Hollister, Knox, Singletary, Moss, Brieda, Gilliam, plus any O linemen reporting eligible. That record for number of different receivers with a TD that we tied last season might be toast.

I get that he plays teams... But it didn't help him make the active roster on many gamedays last year, and I haven't heard of him as a special teams "ace." And Stevenson obviously looks good on teams, as well.