PBF81

IDK, you'll have to talk to them about that. No "grousing" here. LOL I was and continue to be as happy as a clam in mud. Just a little perplexed as to why more games haven't been closer to that than closer to many of our others.

BTW, post a poll, let's find out. Q: Are you less satisfied when we underachieve with Allen as our QB, or equally satisfied whether we make the playoffs or not, or lose in the early rounds to inferior teams or not? A: Yes or No No team is perfect. Perfect and underachieving and losing to less competitive teams are two different things if we're going to be honest. Absolutely no one expects perfection, not even the most critical of fans. ... except in the GDT here. LOL

I'm pretty sure that if we miss the playoffs both the players/team and fans will disagree. Otherwise, totally unrelated? Well, OK.

Well, and again, it's easier to appreciate what you have when you make the most of it, not underachieve with it. Then it becomes more difficult to accept. Pretty simple.

This will be a blowout if even half the effort of what showed up yesterday hits the field to open the game. Jiminy Glick will be overwhelmed. Our @Chargers curse will finally be broken.

Red did what he did on longevity. In 16 seasons he posted only four 1,000 yards seasons. Only for times in the top 10 for TDs and only the times on the top 10 for yards, peaking at 5th in both. ... to your point that is.

That makes sense Gunner! But I would also add that the players themselves get sad when the season ends prematurely, aka no Championship. Their expectations are for nothing less than a Championship, so why shouldn't ours be. We do need to appreciate what we have, but consider, we have Allen. I told the guy sitting next to me at the Bills Backer bar yesterday that I sometimes still can't believe that we have Allen, the most exciting, if perhaps not the fan/media-favorite "best" (Mahomes), QB in the league, quite possibly in league history. If we could build a QB in a lab made for Buffalo, Allen is that QB. Having said that, the bar is a little bit higher, particularly for those of us fans that actively went through the four-year string of Super Bowl losses. When you have Allen, the QB leading the charge in the topic of this thread, it's almost tragic to not win a Lombardi, or even multiple ones. It's certainly not beyond the realm of reason to question why that did not occur and then to hope for the requisite changes. Not too many people after losses to New England, the Jets, Jax, Denver, and near losses to the Giants and Bucs, were too happy afterwards. It was pretty dismal here in fact. LOL What bothers many is how we did what we did yesterday, but then lost all of those aforementioned games. Frankly, we should be 11-3 or 12-2 right now, shaking hands with the #1 Seed and homefield advantage. Instead, we're hoping to squeeze in as a Wild-Card with help from other teams, again, as we did in 2017, McD's inaugural season with Taylor. Having said that, you know that I posted prior to and earlier in the season, that I'd rather get that 7th Seed, sneak in unassumingly, and win the whole damn enchilada. But consider, right now the pattern from the season is that we might be able to beat Baltimore, KC, or Miami in the playoffs, but that getting past Jax, Cleveland, Cincy, Indy or Houston might be a problem. ... purely for the sake of discussion that is. Yesterday was phenominal, and what has been expected all season by many of us, but where has that team been? Was yesterday just another emotional blip in home-team energy against a team that spent itself last week in a more important game, or are we on a roll and peaking? That's anyone's guess. Let's hope it's the latter. Anyway, the point to your post was that winning a Championship has to figure in there somewhere given that we do in fact have Allen. If our QB were Taylor, Fitzpatrick, or any of the others we've had since Kelly, then yeah, just getting to the playoffs would be satisfactory and watching the games without those expectations would be reasonable. But when you do in fact have Allen, and when it's considered that other coaches would have done more with Allen, then it hurts and probably should, and the bar is much much higher. Not trying to stir things up, but also not sure it's fair to yank a Championship/Lombardi out of the mix for fan contentment, when even the players and coaches aren't content with that. Fully agree with you on those that take their lamentations into the week and let it affect their personal lives however. It would be a whole lot easier to handle had we actually won one or two of those Super Bowls, as we should have then as well. But as Bills fans, or any fans, by default we set ourselves up for sadness by being fans, when our teams do not play to the level of their talent. That's simply natural.

Yeah, I remember that, but also, or division sucked rhino nuts for six games every season too. Throw in a few more games against siht teams, ... Just sayin'. Dallas is one of the two best teams in the league arguably, it's likely that they square off against SF for the NFC championship. If we can beat them ... 🤞

That's always concerning. Vegas doesn't like to lose. Either way, we need Diggs to step up in this game. He's averaged only 4 catches for 40 yards with only one TD over the past four games, and a 49% Catch%. It's a slump he needs to shake this week.

So you think that Baltimore & Jax have better receivers than we did then? BTW, Kincaid has both the highest Catch% & Success% of any TEs in the league. ... as a rookie.

Brady gets props for doing it with Brown, Patten, Branch, & Givens though too. I'm not sure that there's a 1,000-yard season in the batch.

Miami too. And for all the complaining we do about our receivers, in the AFC the only teams that arguably have better receivers than we do are Cincy and Miami. But Cincy's on a backup QB and Miami has Him and Waddle, that's it. If one of them goes down they're in a world of hurt and will have to turn to their "Sherfield" again. Diggs, Davis, Kinaid, and Shakir have about 2,600 Yards & 18 TDs. Chase, Boyd, & Higgins have about 2,100 Yards & 11 TDs. Hill & Waddle have about 2,400 Yards & 15 TDs. No other receiver on their team has more than 207 yards or 2 TDs. We easily have the best receiving TE, possibly in the AFC, given Kelce's age & looming retirement.

Funny you say that, in a league where everything is about money, why would that not include this general topic. Goodell & the Owners water this league down for an extra buck any chance they can get. More games, probably more playoff teams, increasingly more games in more countries, probably more teams, etc. It may be naive to think that they'd let officiating stand in their way. We see players & coaches complain about the officiating, but how often do we see owners publicly complain about the officiating for their teams. It's not as if they don't have the money for the fine.

Be nice to know who the OC is going to be and what their plans for the O are first. Some team will surely relish him in a role that he's more suited to.

STD: 187 snaps, 2 tackles (1 solo/1 asst.), 3 QBHits, 0 Sacks, 0 TFLs.

No doubt. But the point is that our OL could have been a whole lot better but we've never done much to make it that way when Allen's the centerpiece of our entire team.

Yeah, it was incredibly noticeable. I'm wondering to what extent Brady has anything to do with that. But absolutely, we've put nearly no significant resources into our OL, not one 1st-round OL pick in any of the 5 Drafts since drafting Allen, only two 2nd-rounders, one having been Ford, and Torrence only late in the 2nd round. Only one overall offensive player in the 5 Drafts since then, none in the first four of those Drafts, only Kincaid this year. How someone doesn't focus around a franchise QB is mindboggling. In fairness, Josh was having to run evasively all but immediately on many plays, particularly in the 2nd half where we couldn't even average 3 yards-per-play and put up on 121 net yards.

Little? LOL I didn't see any prior to your post. But oh my, had the intended receiver been Gabe and anyone else wide open like Gabe was, and AHEM, is at other times too going unnoticed, then everyone would have been appoplectic. I just hope that we get a whole lot more out of our mid-4th round WRs in the future.

No doubt. Rage and venom vs. poignant criticism, ... some define the latter as the former. I for one didn't think that the 9/11 comments were all that big of a deal. Horrible judgement, absolutely unwise, but clearly not supportive of terrorism, but that alone does take into account judgement, which many do have an issue with. But I did take issue with the whole truck thing, and I'm not quite sure how one keeps the personal aspect of that out of the discussion, ... for example. Think about it, if we read that about Belichick, ... LOL, people here would be all over that like dimples on a golf ball. But many want to dismiss it because it's our coach. I'm not trying to rehash those things, rather simply using them as an example of a mob mentality in both cases, one anti, one pro, respectively, but neither making sense like that. Well, in order, those decisions have all been McD's. He bears a good amount of responsibility for the situations he's put himself in. But let's keep in mind, he's made horrible decisions at all levels now, and with and w/o those guys here. Aka common denominator. At least to some extent. Wouldn't you agree? No one forced him to not hire a DC or let one of his senior coaches, like Washington, who's "Assistant Head Coach" according to TOS. Those were entirely his decisions. As to Brady, it's fair for everyone involved to wait and see what the next four games bring into something as close to a steady-state re: him as we're going to get. The one thing that no one can argue is that there's no shortage of excitement to finish out the season.

None of us think exactly alike on everything. That's entirely unreasonable. We all have our opinions on how best to win a Lombardi. Discussing the team should be fun and engaging, not laced with ad hominems. I personally love a good argument and discussion, as long as it's civil. I discuss things with many posters on which we take opposite sides, but it's usually civil and very respectful. Taking things as personally as so many seem to do, that would seem to create a lot of internal emotional stress for them and it certainly adds provocation in a public forum. What's the point. You're right though, certain topics get beaten to death, no doubt I've played my part in that. Sometimes you simply have to wait and see what the outcomes are. It's a very reasonable guess that we're far from past serious criticism of this team and its coaching at this point in the season. Time will tell.

They're called counterperspectives and unless they're way off base, why the ad hominem at large? This should be a place for discussion and exchange of ideas. If we were all that, then we'd all be talking about how we'd only need to go 2-2 to clinch the 1st Seed, which frankly, given the talent that we have, contrasted with every other team in the AFC this season, is where we should be. I'm still chuckling at MLB's (OP) "... wail and moan ..." comment, in good nature, truly, imagining some Bills fans at home actually wailing and moaning. LOL But leaning a little more seriously, talk about "wailing and moaning," we wail and moan, and I'm not talking about those that you label as "negative types," largely talking about the others, but we "wail and moan" over our "inadequate" receiving corps of Diggs, Davis, Shakir, and Kincaid, but imagine if we had a 34-year old Kelce, Rashee Rice, Justin Watson, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling for a moment. Imagine the complaints coming in then. We have better WRs than any other AFC team besides possibly Cincy and that's even debatable. At the end of the day we're a 7-6 team currently "seeded" 11th and incontention for the 6th and 7th seeds with 6 total teams, none of which we have the tiebreaker over. There isn't a team behind us that has a realistic shot if even a mathematical one at making the playoffs. Much like 2017, we need help from other teams, or at least a slump by most of them. Unlike 2017 when we were the worst team of any in playoff contention, we're arguably the best team in the AFC this season on paper. Do we have more talent than all of them? Absolutely, and with Burrow being out for the Bengals. So why are we 7-6 along with the other five then? It's a fair question. To label everyone that sees that and acknowledges it as some sort of negative type is simply not fair to them, do as one may there. Every single one of the teams that we're in contention with also has the ability to go between 3-1 and 1-3, Denver and Houston in particular on the high side and possibly 4-0 with Denver being the one of the hottest teams in the league right now at what, 5-1 their last 6 I think. We play Dallas next, which is arguably the most balanced team in the league from O to D and pass-to-run alongside San Fran. Then we're @ the Chargers where we haven't won since the '70s under Knox, and where we'll be playing a game starting at 11 p.m. our time. The last time we had time-zone or jetlag issues we didn't fare so well. Then vs. New England, but most of us will be on pins and needles going into that game, don't you think, considering the way that they played us in the first game and given Belichick v. McChoke-in-Big-Moments? Then @ Miami to finish the season, which will be like a playoff game. Need we be reminded of last season where they nearly beat us with Skylar Thompson who hasn't taken a snap this season, or them nearly beating us at the end of the season, both games in Buffalo, with Tua. Nothing is a given at this point. Everyone's stunned the Miami lost to Tennessee. If they manage to lose to the Jets while we beat the Cowboys, incredibly and against all odds the division is back in play, particularly with them hosting Dallas and @ Baltimore after that before they play us. Our game could very well decide the division, which many thought to not even be possible if that happens. Your association between contrarian comments and people being negative is misplaced imo. This team is far from having an identity of stepping up in the biggest of games. Factor in that our point-differential over our last 9 games is a mere +26, and -6 if we do not include the Jets game at home. The combined record of teams that we've faced is 59-58. On paper we're not all that different than the teams that we're competing with for those last 6th and 7th seeds. There's nothing wrong with being critical of your team, particularly when it's 7-6 but should have been 11-2, or at least 10-3 and in the driver's seat, and we haven't even mentioned having Allen yet. Anyone being critical and concerned about playing a team that's playing better than us, a team that already beat us, a team that we have never beaten on their turf in over 40 years and in a 3-hour different time zone with a game starting at 11 p.m. our time, and @ Miami is hardly being negative. And lest we forget, absolutely nothing that anyone here says or does makes one iota of a difference in how our team plays. I guess I don't understand the hostilities towards fellow Bills fans in simply discussing varying aspects of our team.

Trends and patterns. What happened in the first four weeks is much less relevant than what happened more recently. What's our PD over our last 9 games?

Our 2nd half was horrible. 121 total yards, not even 3 yards-per-play. To say that it was pedestrian is overstating the matter. It's a good thing that KC has no true #1 or even #2 WR. We complain about Davis, if they had Davis yesterday they've been much better offensively. I don't know what we did to adjust in the 2nd half, but KC's 2nd half was better than their 1st half and they put up 175 total net yards. It seemed like another game where we came out strong on emotion and faded down the stretch, in the 2nd half, where we can call it what we want, but caling it pedestrian is understating it. We'll see what happens against Dallas. What's our PD over the past 9 games?

The week to week waffling is its own special set of entertainment. LOL

Dallas and San Fran are the most well-rounded teams in the league at the moment. O to D, Pass-to-Run, etc. I don't see them hitting a trap game. We have to come back from KC also, them from Dallas, same trip, ... different days I suppose. Philly has a much easier schedule with the Giants twice and Arizona after @ Seattle, so Dallas knows that they may have to win out to win their division. We'll need to play much better than we did yesterday if we want to win that one, even at home. Yesterday in the 2nd-half we didn't even average 3 yards-per-play.