UKBillFan

It feels like, if we win this, we'll be 6-6 coming off the first Pats match up, 6-7 after the Bucs. We seem lost. Saying that, an Around the NFL podcaster on Sky in the UK said that the Bills always go through a struggle and come out the other side so he isn't too worried about us. Wish I had his confidence.

To be fair, whether he got vaccinated or not doesn't really count towards today. If he misses the Colts game, however... (unless he comes down with bad symptoms). Hope he recovers quickly.

The odd thing is the Titans defeat was down to a struggling defense; our offense kept us in that one. Since the bye, our defense has been fine (against weak offenses) but our offense has been poor to awful for all but one quarter out of eight.

The big game - defeat here and quite frankly a winning record would look like a success from this season, let alone anything else on top of that. A victory and it will be a step towards putting the wheels back on track. Unlike last week, we go into this with waivering confidence at best but maybe that isn't a bad thing; if the team doesn't or cannot take note of two warning signs in two weeks then there's little more that can be done. Go Bills!

We are for now, I agree. I think Sunday is huge if we want to remain in that contender slot, though.

Human nature - taking it to a personal level, I think I’m right in saying it’s a case with a lot of people that if they hear ten good thing about themselves from others but one bad, they’ll dwell on the latter instead of the former. Same in sports, a defeat will be dwelled on more than victories. As a species we’re a negative bunch!

And if he’d had an average game on Sunday his 2021 stats would have probably been ahead of 2020. Saying that, at this point last season you could argue we had played a tougher schedule - minus two matches against the Jets plus the Dolphins we had faced the Rams, the Raiders, the Patriots, the Chiefs and the Titans.

So are we going to go into a growing pains year where our offensive struggles do not improve as we give Josh an opportunity to develop - and pray he does for a go at the Super Bowl next year? Alternatively, optimistically, does he learn quickly and we see rapid improvement on that score which helps confuse defences and help move the chains? Or, pessimistically, does Josh struggle to adapt and regress even further?

If we lose to the Jets it will feel like season over and the heat will really turn up on McDermott and either/or Daboll and Fraser, depending where the game was lost. The thing is even a sloppy win like against the Dolphins won’t feel like enough, it won’t feel as though the wheels have been put back on the track. Just looking at what happened around the Bucs being blown out by the Saints, they narrowly beat the Giants 25-23 (ignored warning sign) prior to the 38-3, then comfortably overcame the Panthers 46-23 in the following game. That’s the kind of response we need. I know it sounds bad, but I have no faith in the team at the moment that they’ll respond.

To be fair, Sunday was an utter embarrassment - people won’t forget quickly, even if we somehow blowout the Jets.

And we’ve done very little since. We played our Super Bowl in October.

A bit like the Bucs losing 38-3 to the Saints. But the Chiefs and the Saints are/were good sides; that’s the difference.

I agree - have fun if doing well. The next week should be hell for the offense in training.

It feels like the Chiefs was our Super Bowl and we've ranged from average to 0-17 level since then.

I wonder if he continually looked (looks?) to escape the pocket because he does not trust it to hold?

It's not the defeat, it's the manner of the defeat. It's a humiliation - how many teams hold their opponents to nine points and lose?

When are we expecting Knox back? I understand why we rushed Beasley back but I don't think he was with it today.

No, but there's a difference between saying Josh had a bad game (he did) and pointing the finger on one play which would have been a miracle play.

Oh sorry, misunderstood the topic!

At the moment we'll be lucky not to be blown out by the Colts, Saints and Pats. The Jets is a huge game.

Isn't OBJ going to sort something out so he's out of waivers and can take his pick? Though he says he wants to go to a post-season team - he might turn his nose up at us!

He'd fit in well here going by tonight.

You think he is or he isn't the QB you think he could be? He's obviously proven himself on and off through times but that consistency is needed from him desperately; he said himself he played **** today. Saying that, he was under so much pressure I can't completely blame him if he started seeing ghosts. There was a reference earlier in the thread about whether he picked up an injury because he suddenly stopped running - I hope not.

After that utterly miserable performance the whole offensive side is at a crossroads. It's going to be long week.

Drops from Beasley, Sanders and David didn't help. I agree, he was a mess today in the second half but at the same time he couldn't win - he tried to throw and there were little options, he held on and got sacked. This is season defining now. Our team has the capability of being Super Bowl contenders, even now, but we need to wake up in every single department on Offense (bar Bass). No more excuses, no more days like today. And if there is just one more, we're done.