Did this year just hurt more than the last 16?

[BillsFan130]

 

Yuuuup! What hurts so bad is that if the Defense was just above average, we would be in the play-off hunt. How could it drop off this far. ANSWER: Poor coaching.

Ya that's the most frustrating part. If someone told me before the season that Tyrod would have this kinda year I would have said the bills would have won 10 or 11 games with their defence but apparently not

[Beerball]

I expected a good defense & running game. I hoped for average QB play. I am impressed w parts of Taylor's game and look forward to watching him continue to grow. The running game has been what I thought it would be although Roman does forget about it from time to time. I think I'll leave it at that.

[Nick the Greek]

The Jauron years hurt the most for me. Especially that season we were like 5-1.

 

We were always about .500 this. There has not been a huge let down, or overriding optimism.

[chaccof]

Both of those positions were absolutely addressed. A new QB was brought in, granted it wasn't Aaron Rodgers, but if you know where someone like that is available, please let the Bills know. The O-line has 2 new starters, that's 40% change You had a rookie last year who showed promise at RT that you'd expect him to improve more, that didn't happen, maybe the illness has been bothering him all year or maybe he isn't going to get any better at all, but he was just playing through it. Eventually got so bad he had to sit. Is it the front offices fault for not anticipating one of the starters was going to develop Crohn's Disease?

 

Did the changes work out as well as expected, actually most would argue those were two areas that the changes made worked out much better than anticipated, particularly with Richie and TT

 

 

Ed - I respectfully disagree. The team has a starting QB that probably won't kill them. I don't think they have a QB that can lead this team past a a wild card game or two. As for the O-Line, yep, 40% change just like what seems like the last 16 seasons....we'll see, my only point is that from my vantage point there didn't seem any particular reason to buy in to Rex's hype this year.

QB is not the reason the bills are going to miss the playoffs. Bad coaching, defence and penalties are the main reasons

But wasn't part of the hype that we finally had a good coach?

[Mark Vader]

Coming into the season I expected playoffs. Not a division championship, but a wildcard. I figured the Bills had the talent for at least a wildcard.

 

I was ready to see the defense wreak havoc on our opponents, while I figured our offense would play at an average pace, and that would be enough to get us into the postseason.

 

My only concerns with the team were depth at Tight End, and our LB corps. Let's face it, if Charles Clay were to get a serious injury, who else did we have? Our LB's overall were our weakest position on defense, but I figured our D-Line could play well enough to hide that.

 

Well we saw how it turned out. The offense became the strength and the defense became the weakness, and I was not expecting that.

 

Once again we played inconsistently. A lot of the blame goes to coaching.

 

Penalties have killed us moreso than injuries.

 

This season really hurts, because I saw with all of the talent on this team, expecting a wildcard seemed very reasonable.

 

There is talent on this team, and somehow we are wasting it.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

Was there any reason to buy into the hype when the key issues with the team weren't addressed like O line and QB? What was very disappointing to me is the step back the defense took. I am interested to see if, as I've read on this board, Ryan doesn't have the right players to run his style of defense. I just think a good coach takes the players he has and comes up with something that those players can execute.

 

I felt the Bills did every reasonable thing they could to address the QB issue by trading for a vet, signing a dark-horse FA, and planning on a run-first D. While I wish they'd opened the bank a little more to bring in a top tier FA OLman, they did sign a FA and draft a guy. Maybe it's just me, but I don't feel the offense has been the big issue.

 

The D has taken a clear step backwards, and while I was worried I was also....Hopeful

Edited December 19, 2015 by Hopeful

[Playoff Bound]

I thought this was the 16th straight year they have missed the playoffs, which means does this season's failure hurt more than the last 15. Or are you just ahead of the game in predicting next year will the the 17th straight year? I wonder what the Vegas odds would be for a professional team to miss for 16 straight years. My feeling is this is just another year for the Bills. Nothing new.

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

I can't help but feel profoundly disappointed in the Bills this year. Some years I drink the Kool-Aide knowing we will end up 6-10, 7-9 maybe even 8-8 if things really go well. We watch, we lose and I kind of accept it as typical Bills football.

 

The distant memories of the glory years help me smile a little on Sunday and I would love to relive them with the next great Bills team. And here we charge into 2015 fresh off our first winning season in awhile. We seem to acquire all the right pieces in the off-season and we are primed to challenge the Patriots in the AFC East.

 

I really thought this Bills team would be a bully and I bought Rex's hype and was really excited for this year. I could finally wear my Bills gear with pride and not be the object of pity.

 

But alas, REX RYAN does indeed suck as a coach. He was run out of NY for a reason and a good one. He completely destroyed a well-oiled machine on defense and although the offense got a bit better, I can't help but feel he didn't have much to do with it.

 

Rex's undisciplined, reckless style and chatter were infuriating to watch. Penalties piled up and momentum swung against the Bills everytime we seemed to be getting close. Injuries, mistakes, bad play calling, poor clock management, players out of position, lack of focus, no game time adjustments, it was the same bad Bills football we had seen over and over and over again.

 

What is going to change to make me drink more Kool-Aide in 2016?

What can we possibly do to inspire hope into this mess of a franchise?

 

I thought the Pegula's would be a breath of fresh air and not the same, silent but deadly football fart we've been smelling since the '60's minus a few good years.

 

AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! The frustration of growing up in Bills Country.

 

The reason I really think it hurts is because the team peaked last year. Instead of building on the positives from last year the biggest strength now needs to be rebuilt. now 2-3 years from being a playoff caliber team

[Talley56]

As someone who didn't buy into the hype nearly as much as everyone else, this hasn't hurt any more than the rest. I think the year I bought into the hype most was 2012. We had a promising offense in 2011 but our defense was just so bad it couldn't keep pace. Then we sign Mario. I thought by signing Mario and making some other moves our defense would be good enough that year to compliment a playoff caliber offense. I bought into that season much more than this one. Then we get smoked week 1 by the Jets and our defense which I truly believed would be much improved was run over...... by Mark Sanchez. That season was the one I felt most disappointed in.

[Max997]

This year hurt because after initially hating the Rex hire I was sucked into the BS hype of what he could do with the talent on this defense and what Roman could do with the playmakers on offense.

 

I read so many excuses when he was hired that he wasn't given the talent he needed to succeed in NY the last couple years now we are hearing similar BS about how the players on this defense don't fit his scheme.

 

At some point it isn't the players that are failing

Edited December 19, 2015 by Max997

[DanInUticaTampa]

I think last year stung a lot worse. Too many highs and lows. Lows being Ralphs passing and seeing our Star QB fighting his cancer for the second time. Then things looked up when the pegulas bought the team. We get a winning season, but we look back at some frustrating games and with that talent we really should have been in the playoffs. Then comes the offseason, and even though I wasn't a fan of Marrone, it really sucked that he quit instead of us firing him. Such a slap in the face to get walked out on by that guy. Totally insulting. I think of all the years, last years really drained a lot of energy from me more than the others. Too many highs and lows, and it lasted throughout most of the year.

[Buffalo Barbarian]

I can't help but feel profoundly disappointed in the Bills this year. Some years I drink the Kool-Aide knowing we will end up 6-10, 7-9 maybe even 8-8 if things really go well. We watch, we lose and I kind of accept it as typical Bills football.

 

The distant memories of the glory years help me smile a little on Sunday and I would love to relive them with the next great Bills team. And here we charge into 2015 fresh off our first winning season in awhile. We seem to acquire all the right pieces in the off-season and we are primed to challenge the Patriots in the AFC East.

 

I really thought this Bills team would be a bully and I bought Rex's hype and was really excited for this year. I could finally wear my Bills gear with pride and not be the object of pity.

 

But alas, REX RYAN does indeed suck as a coach. He was run out of NY for a reason and a good one. He completely destroyed a well-oiled machine on defense and although the offense got a bit better, I can't help but feel he didn't have much to do with it.

 

Rex's undisciplined, reckless style and chatter were infuriating to watch. Penalties piled up and momentum swung against the Bills everytime we seemed to be getting close. Injuries, mistakes, bad play calling, poor clock management, players out of position, lack of focus, no game time adjustments, it was the same bad Bills football we had seen over and over and over again.

 

What is going to change to make me drink more Kool-Aide in 2016?

What can we possibly do to inspire hope into this mess of a franchise?

 

I thought the Pegula's would be a breath of fresh air and not the same, silent but deadly football fart we've been smelling since the '60's minus a few good years.

 

AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! The frustration of growing up in Bills Country.

 

 

unfortunately no, but I believe the Pegulas will get this turned around eventually

[BillsBytheBay]

Every year it becomes easier to deal with. I really thought we had a shot this year.... When we blew it, I laughed and watched the JAGS score 50 points......

 

Lol

[CSBill]

Of course, we as fans have a propensity to be overly optimistic. If you check the national media, very, very few had the Bills making the play-offs - most had us at or around 8-8. Which it looks like we will be. . . . If we feel bad, we have only ourselves to blame.

 

What is so hard is how we got there, with a reasonably successful offense, and a terrible defense and special teams; the two units where there were no major personnel change, and yet both digressed significantly. That's what hurts.

Edited December 19, 2015 by CSBill

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

No... I'm used to it. The second Brady had his suspensions lifted I thought "well there goes any shot at the division".

[SoulMan]

I too had a lot of excitement, because of a few reasons.

 

• The Bills had the 4th best defense, leading in sacks, and how could a defensive guru make it worse?
• When in NY, Tannenbaum picked up some nice players for Rex, but he had voerspent and the cap was not healthy. What does woddy do, but bring in a non-football GM who is a number cruncher who decimated the talent for NYJ, and Rex still had a top 10 defense all but one year of six.
• He went to the AFC Championships twice with Sanchez.
• TT came on strong in camp, and the Pegulas really opened the wallet truly reaching to the cap with McCoy, Clay, Incognito, and in the pre-season the draft picks looked sharp, but Darby.
• I believed in Roman what he could do with Kaepernick, so he should be epxerienced enough to get what we needed out of this offense. I was hoping for a top 2-3 defense, a top 5 running game, and a top 15 offense.

The obvious things happened with the defense, penalties were absolutely ridiculous, poor game management, and an extensive amount of top talent injured.

 

I don't blame Whaley, and I don't blame the Pegulas in their first year. I'm sick of Rex's bravado, so just shut up and coach, and show improvement. Improvement in performance, more disciplined players, more effective offense, and a team that looks like it can compete with the Steelers, Patriots, Broncos, Jets, and the playoff NFC teams.

 

So yes, the expectations given the talent in years past, idiots like Jauron, G. Williams, and so on were not as high. This year i thought we cna be a 10-6 to 11-5 team. We are competitive in the first couple of rounds of the playoffs and maybe two years away from a SB run.

 

This sucks.

I was going to write a long response but can't capture it better than this.

The coaching miscues and penalties (coaching again) and defense crash (oh..coaching) were the most disappointing.

 

I get that Ryan gets a mulligan this year, but no playoffs next year....he gotta go.

[finn]

I was optimistic when Marrone left because of the good defense and then the spending on offense. But the Rex Ryan hire really disappointed me and dampened my expectations, for the reasons that have played out. I was surprised that other Bills fans bought into him so enthusiastically (I wanted Lovie Smith or Jim Schwartz). Hope triumphing over experience?

 

The lack of a top QB and OL have been constants since Kelly retired, but I would argue that a more important element in the Bills persistent mediocrity has been coaching. We've had just one head coach in this era worthy of the title, and that was Chan Gailey, who was given a weak hand, did a lot with it and fired too soon by a skittish front office. The rest have been shite. We might have the worst of all in Ryan, for the reasons posters have been repeating here. He brings nothing valuable to the table and has cost the team dearly. Since "he can't be fired!" we will have lost yet ANOTHER five years waiting for him to get done failing and giving yet another coach enough time to prove himself.

 

And so it goes around and around and around. We'll be having a similar conversation in 2020.

 

[billsfan_34]

Not at all to be honest. I have grown numb to it all and expect bad/mediocre play and of they do better than that I am pleasantly surprised- the defense mechanisms of a long time Bills fan. I will feel better when Rex is shown the door next year.

[NOVABillsFan]

no. Another year another QB experiment. SOSDY

[Manther]

I can't help but feel profoundly disappointed in the Bills this year. Some years I drink the Kool-Aide knowing we will end up 6-10, 7-9 maybe even 8-8 if things really go well. We watch, we lose and I kind of accept it as typical Bills football.

 

The distant memories of the glory years help me smile a little on Sunday and I would love to relive them with the next great Bills team. And here we charge into 2015 fresh off our first winning season in awhile. We seem to acquire all the right pieces in the off-season and we are primed to challenge the Patriots in the AFC East.

 

I really thought this Bills team would be a bully and I bought Rex's hype and was really excited for this year. I could finally wear my Bills gear with pride and not be the object of pity.

 

But alas, REX RYAN does indeed suck as a coach. He was run out of NY for a reason and a good one. He completely destroyed a well-oiled machine on defense and although the offense got a bit better, I can't help but feel he didn't have much to do with it.

 

Rex's undisciplined, reckless style and chatter were infuriating to watch. Penalties piled up and momentum swung against the Bills everytime we seemed to be getting close. Injuries, mistakes, bad play calling, poor clock management, players out of position, lack of focus, no game time adjustments, it was the same bad Bills football we had seen over and over and over again.

 

What is going to change to make me drink more Kool-Aide in 2016?

What can we possibly do to inspire hope into this mess of a franchise?

 

I thought the Pegula's would be a breath of fresh air and not the same, silent but deadly football fart we've been smelling since the '60's minus a few good years.

 

AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! The frustration of growing up in Bills Country.

 

Agreed!