BillsFanForever19

That's great. I'd agree with you that I'd rather have Josh and Cook over Maye and Henderson. And if a QB and a RB was all you needed, we'd have the Pats in spades. The difference is, they have a passing game. They have weapons beyond their QB and RB. We simply do not. They aren't "my boys". I hate the Patriots like any Bills fan. But that's not going to change the fact that they (and other teams in the AFC) can take care of business through the air. Until we can develop a passing game, we cannot compete when it matters. If you're "seeing me in January" - that means things have changed. That means against the odds, we were able to make it work through the air with, quite possibly, the worst group of WR's at getting open I've ever seen. But after 13 weeks, I don't see that changing. But all means, bookmark away. I'd be thrilled to be wrong about this offense and the fact that I don't see a Championship roster.

My man - we're not that much better at #23 on that list. You're acting as though us being at a .467 at 8-4 and them being at .429 at 10-2 means we're legit and they're complete frauds. They're taking care of the teams put in front of them. Like the Falcons and the Dolphins who we lost to. And more importantly than that, humiliated us. But beyond that, I'm talking about the makeup of the team. They have a good running game with Treveyon Henderson who has come on HUGE the past couple weeks. A WR core that has Stefon Diggs looking like he's in his prime. A QB who is playing at an MVP level. And an All Pro on Defense. You want to live in fantasy land where us going 4-4 over the past 8 weeks with a one dimensional attack means we're a Championship team? Be my guest. It's just going to make the kind of losses like we had last week that much more painful and confusing - when the answer is obvious. The roster is not built to compete against the league's best at their best.

I can tell you, as I did in the post you obviously just skimmed through - teams like the Patriots and Broncos are much better built teams and much closer to a Championship team than us. Same can be said of the Chargers. These are not one dimensional teams like we are. We just beat a now .500 Steelers and lost to a Backup QB led Texans the week before. We're 4-4 in our last 8 games. And we continue to rely completely on the run game. It's not sustainable and the last 8 weeks have proven that. Fun win. But the reality remains the same.

I kind of talked about it in the previous post: IF Dalton Kincaid can return from injury, stay Healthy, and play at the level he played before injuries... IF Brandin Cooks can turn back the clock, exceed expectations, and draw coverage away from guys like Shakir and Davis... If those things happen, we can get the O-Line healthy and stay healthy, Joe Brady can start calling better game plans, we're able to develop a passing game that we can rely on and win with in the event that we aren't able to run on teams and/or playing from behind - than I'd have more faith. But right now we're a week to week team completely dependent on one thing and one thing alone to win. You can't win a title that way. And that doesn't even take into account the myriad of injuries that continue to pile up (like Joey Bosa hurting his hamstring today).

You also compared Tyrell Shavers to a Hall of Fame WR after our last win. Now you're asking if we can go 5-0 down the stretch and comparing us to the 2023 Super Bowl Champion Chiefs. With all due respect, I think you let your feet leave the ground a little too high after a win. We just beat what is now a .500 Steelers team. And we did it running the same kind of one dimensional offense that lost us a game to a Backup QB led Texans team the week before. You asked a question, I gave an answer. Unless Dalton Kincaid comes back and stays healthy and Brandin Cooks turns back the clock and is able to create a passing game for us, it's the same story. If we win the line of scrimmage on offense through brute force, we're in good shape. But that's not going to happen every week. I don't have a crystal ball. It could be the Patriots. It could be the Broncos. That's not the point though. The point is that the makeup of this team is not built to win 4 games in a row against the best teams in the NFL playing at their best. As we've seen all season - relying solely on the run game and the run game alone is not sustainable. Regardless of what you think of other teams in the AFC, like the Patriots, there are multiple teams that are far less one dimensional. That can win through the air and on the ground.

My thoughts are the same as they've always been. The same as they were when I responded to you after the Bucs game. This is not a Championship team. The win was fun, as was the Bucs game. But it's the same story as it's always been all season. The same story I said after the Bucs game. If we can overcome teams keying in on trying to stop James Cook and through sheer will and skill force it to work regardless of that - we're in good shape. As we were today, as we were against teams like Tampa Bay and Carolina. But when we can't do that - we're f-cked. It's over. Doesn't matter who the team is. It could be the Falcons, Dolphins, or Jets. Stop the run and it's game over. And against the best teams, the Eagles and Patriots of the world - it's unlikely we're going to be able to do what we did today. So, no, I do not think we can win out. Enjoyed the win today, as I do any win. But that doesn't mean we're going 5-0 and can win a title.

That's not a thing that's happened suddenly. He was terrible at it last year too. Said it a million times and I'll say it a million times more, it made zero sense to me that they'd rush to do an early extension on him. I saw a stark drop off between 2023 and 2024. Of the big 5 we had to re-sign, he was easily the 5th most important to me. I wouldn't have signed all 5 and I wouldn't have re-signed him (Benford, Shakir, Cook were the guys I said i'd have re-signed). The absolute most I'd have done is revisited the idea of signing him after seeing how he was in 2025. And he's been worse this year (when he's on the field). I don't know what happened in 2023, but that was clearly a mirage. I couldn't wrap my head around rushing to get his extension done and it's downright enraging to me now.

Just seeing this now. Pretty much confirms what I thought - he took issue with it being Josh. The whole game I was confused. I mean, whatever was said or done - it couldn't have been the first time a big, burly DL like him dealt with something over the line in all the many years he played. For a storied vet like him, it was odd to see him so visibly angry for hours on end. The only thing I could think of was that he took some sort of special offense to it because it was a Face of the League Quarterback. Dude looked like he was on the verge of tears in that presser. I about burst out laughing when he said "Lineman are people too". Apparently, his belly ain't the only place he's soft.

This. May have been intentional. Could easily have not been. Either way, crazier things have been done in a pile of humanity on the turf in the NFL. It's pretty much fair game down there so long as no one sees and no one saw. I'm sure guys have taken some cheap shots of their own on Josh and our players in similar situations and they didn't cry about it. Josh pissed off Heyward and got in his head?

Yeah, that's gonna happen when you're rolling out Backups at both bookend lineman against a stout Pass Rush. You don't want to make your Franchise QB spend much time in the pocket. Compounded by the fact that this is, quite possibly, the worst WR core at getting open that I've ever seen.

These f-cking false starts. They're out manned and playing scared.

That's gonna happen when you're down both starting Tackles and don't want to risk Josh in the pocket long and it's compounded by maybe the worst WR core at getting open that I've ever seen.

Cool - we'll take a look at the All 22 and see what his options were. This idea that Josh is playing like ***** and we have to call him out is ridiculous. He played perfect ball last season. That's why he won MVP. It's unfair to expect perfection every year (especially with what we're rolling out this year) and anything less than that is grounds for holding him to the fire. We've got Khalil Shakir blanketed by Jalen friggin' Ramsey out there bc our core is so bad, he's being keyed in on by CB1's. The options are run the ball every play (like we're pretty much doing), try and force passes, or throw it away (which in that case where we were on the field, a Punt wouldn't have been all that much different in terms of position on a likely touchback). And that's going to result in more picks. I'll take the picks trying to make something happen rather than playing Tyrod ball. Bc that ain't winning you games.

It's not excuses. The option is to force a pass that's risky and may result in the occasional pick or come off the field. Would you prefer that?

He's gotta force passes with this core. No one gets open. No one causes separation. And when you're forcing throws, you're gonna throw more picks.