Questions to ponder during the bye week

[FilthyBeast]

On 10/19/2021 at 8:37 AM, FilthyBeast said:

This was a crappy loss but not necessarily unexpected given the nature of this league and this team likely wasn't going 16-1 anyway. With that said there are a lot of questions to ponder in the next few weeks:

 

1) How good is this team? Are they really a SB contender?

My biggest concern with losing against the Titans is the totality of the season as a whole thus far. Yes we dominated 3 lessor teams and beat what we assume is also a playoff team in KC, but there will be critics that now look at the Bills as paper tigers especially if the Chiefs continue to play inconsistent football. By default the Bills are certainly going to be an AFC contender given the weak remaining schedule and clear path to division titale, but after last night I'm really not sure if they are in the same class as a team like the Cardinals who dominated this same Titans team on the road, and several other contenders in similar fashion. Still plenty of time to go but right now I think the Bills are just another good team that's probably in the secondary tier until proven otherwise.

 

2) Speaking of the Chiefs, was this the Bills 'Super Bowl'?

As of right now I would say check back with me in a few months. But no matter what the players say, there's no question there was an extra motivation last week to have a good showing and get a win if anything to exorcise a necessary demon. I keep thinking back to the 2018 Jaguars who ironically started the season 4-1 that year and destroyed the Patriots (who they lost to in the AFCCG) and them completely falling apart the rest of the way after putting all their eggs in the proverbial basket for that specific game. Obviously this bills team is not a one  hit wonder like the 2017 Jags, and they also have a favorable schedule on deck but you can't argue how emotionally drained they were last night against the Titans particularly on defense. And to essentially lose the game on the last play of the game coming up short on 4th down play could foreshadow a similar end to the season come playoff time.

 

3) Can the Bills overcome the glaring flaws that were on full display again last night?

No team is perfect, but the same specific issues that cost this team against the Steelers (and have still lingered to a certain degree during the Bills 4 game win streak) are why this team lost again. Starting with the oline, they are way to inconsistent and simply not built to handle physical teams. John Feliciano in particular continues to show why he's not an NFL starting olinemen and both tackles struggled mightily again including Spencer Brown crashing to earth in a major way. On defense once again the pass rush was non existent against a QB and team that has been among the worst in the league until they played the Bills off course. As a result once again Levi Wallace was exposed as the weak link getting throw at and completed on over and over again. Just not sure the Bills can overcome this even if they attempt to address at the trade deadline and this is why sadly I don't think they ultimately go very far in the playoffs this year especially if they match up against the Titans or a simliar team again.

 

4) Defense owned and exposed?

Piggy backing off the last question, it's really hard to know if this defense simply had a let down or just isn't as good as we thought. Realistically for me it's probably somewhere in between. Yes there is a talent on defense but it's more a collection of really good role players/above average players and no true game changers (at least against other playoff caliber teams). And once again this is why I've always hated this scheme and the whole 'bend but don't break' style because when it works great, but when it breaks it truly breaks as we saw pretty much the entire game after the 1st quarter against the Titans. I'm sure this defense will come out of the bye week and look great again against the likes of the Dolphins, Jets, etc but there are still going to be a lot of question marks until we play a legit team again.  Also no matter what way you spin it,  a defense that some were comparing to the 2000 Ravens has lost to a washed up Big Ben and Ryan Tannenhill so far this year in just 6 games.

 

Anyways, hopefully this team comes out angry and has a similar finish to the season after last years pre bye week debacle.

 

Normally not one to bump my own thread but I think I made some valid arguements as to the current state of this pretender (to be nice).

 

Bottom line:

 

1) This team is in a fact a pretender as they are 0-2 against teams with a winning record and just lost to a horrendous Urban Meyer led team.

2) This team peaked against the Chiefs putting all their energy into beating another mediorce team.

3) We are terrible in the trenches and Beane needed to make some moves at the deadline, he didn't and now will be exposed big time.

4) I don't blame the defense for todays dumpster fire but I've said all along they aren't as good as the stats indicate and had many chances to win this game today but couldn't do it because we don't have a star players.

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

40 minutes ago, FilthyBeast said:

 

Normally not one to bump my own thread but I think I made some valid arguements as to the current state of this pretender (to be nice).

 

Bottom line:

 

1) This team is in a fact a pretender as they are 0-2 against teams with a winning record and just lost to a horrendous Urban Meyer led team.

2) This team peaked against the Chiefs putting all their energy into beating another mediorce team.

3) We are terrible in the trenches and Beane needed to make some moves at the deadline, he didn't and now will be exposed big time.

4) I don't blame the defense for todays dumpster fire but I've said all along they aren't as good as the stats indicate and had many chances to win this game today but couldn't do it because we don't have a star players.

 

The dumb defensive penalties didn't help today either.