Casey D

Well, they threw a flag on the Kincaid play and picked it up after he dropped it. Were they going to flag the Bills and negate the play, but then did not need to?

These are not excuses, they are facts. Could the Bills have overcome the officiating, sure. If that's an excuse for losing, OK. But it is a fact that the playing field was tilted.

I really think there is an implicit bias for KC by the refs. It's not overt, but deep down the thinking is KC is good, they are not mere mortals, so they don't make many mistakes. It's a problem and makes the NFL boring. Another two penalties not called on Kelce for taunting Elam twice.

Sure. There were multiple calls and non-calls that were wrong. On the Elam facemask, the receiver had Elam's facemask too. On the 4th down tush push that failed, on the play before (3rd down) Knox or Dawson(can't remember which) made the line to gain but was marked short. On the subsequent play Allen clearly made it from multiple angles that he got about 1/3 of the ball over the line to gain but was called short. Other examples, on a key short yardage Chris Jones was clearly offside-- 2/3 of his head is over the line-- which allowed him to blow up the play. On the KC punt return, a flagrant block in the back was not called. The Bishop/Worthy call, clearly the ball hit the ground. Hollins was called for an illegal formation when he asked the ref if he was OK, the ref said yes, then called a penalty anyway. There were more. He also points out that Allen reverted to hero ball at times, and did not take critical gains he could have gotten on checkdowns. Also, a key bad throw to Samuel that was a short pass that would have been a huge gainer. Says Allen makes the pass 999 out of 1000.

I Have to add, it is really kind of depressing.

https://buffalonews.com/sports/professional/nfl/bills/jim-kubiak-josh-allen-buffalo-bills-kansas-city-chiefs-film-review-afc-championship-game/article_4650eea0-de87-11ef-a2e7-a3585994bafc.html Really good stuff. He points out how Josh-- who he is a huge fan of-- did not play his best game, although he did lots of good things. And the officiating was even worse than I thought based on his analysis. Bad calls and lots of bad no-calls on KC that almost certainly changed the outcome.

I get that!

I don't feel that way at all. They have done a great job of taking a laughing-stock franchise and turning it into a fantastic organization. We are the envy of most fans and franchises. If the standard is firing people when the team does not win it all, then 31 teams would turnover each year. KC just changes the whole dynamic because they defy the odds of everything.

Could not agree more. I just thought it was nice to have our situation as Bills fans recognized. But wallowing in pity is not an option.

Different kind of suffering. Their suffering is more like our drought suffering. Bills have unique and exquisitely painful ways(plural) of suffering IMO.

https://wapo.st/4hd9686

Happiness is the gap between expectation and reality. If you expect nothing, you will never be disappointed, but life is dull. This one hurts the most because this team just seemed better and different. Thus, expectations were high. If we all did not care so much, it would not hurt so much today. But it's the journey, and we are blessed to have such a good team with a great bunch of guys. And maybe, just maybe, we reach the promised land one day. I may not get there with you, I've been doing this for nearly 60 years, but I would not exchange being a Bills fan for anything.

And they find a way to beat everyone. It's not just us, it's everyone. Sad to be this good but have them in the way.

Tough loss. 31 teams end this way. We were #30.

They own us.