Time to go on record if you honestly believe this is still a SB caliber team or even a playoff team at this point

[dave mcbride]

2 minutes ago, ScottLaw said:

Even early in the game… the false start on 3rd and 3 it looked like Josh snapped. Dude needs to chill and just move on to the next play. He is way too emotional…. This goes back to his rookie year. The guy panics way too much IMO.

Maybe he snapped at himself because the cause of that false start was yet another failed attempt at a hard count. I don’t want to see another hard count from him this season.

[Fan in Chicago]

23 minutes ago, dave mcbride said:

Teams weren’t prepared for how good Allen actually was last season as a passer and didnn’t run the appropriate coverages. This year they are and are defending solely against his passing game. Basically, they’ve figured out the Bills strengths and their weaknesses (poor run game, scheme that de-emphasizes the run, and a QB intent on pushing it down the field and who loses patience easily). It’s amazing how many passes he forces into coverage with medium deep throws once he gets on the other side of the field (which seems like most drives). They stall a lot on the other side of the field because he doesn’t take what defenses give him and instead does long-developing pass plays that result in pressure, sacks, and incompletions due to shell coverage with seven DBs. The Bills offensive problems against teams that are half decent seem to be in that range between the opponents’ 25 and 45 yard lines.  

With all due respect, I dont think it takes a full season for NFL defenses to adjust. Daboll's philosophy and Allen's strengths/weaknesses were evident in the first half of last season and we faced opponent's adjustments throughout the playoffs. Yet we won 2 playoff games. With the way the team is playing right now, I can't see them winning such games. I agree on the latter part of your post. 

I know D got gashed yesterday (I only saw the 1st Q) but if the O had done better early in the game, the Colts would have had to throw more thus playing into our D's strengths.

 

Overall problems, esp on O, are deeper and I don't know what they are. 

[Dr. K]

I think they have the capability to make the playoffs.

 

I think they need a serious attitude adjustment. They think that they just have to show up and they will win, but they are not showing up. Penalties and self-inflicted mistakes are killing them. 

[Maynard]

I do still believe we will sneak into the playoffs this year. However, I do believe we’ll be one and done.

[uticaclub]

13 hours ago, Process said:

What are you 14 years old? JFC people grow up and learn to control your emotions.

 

Those are the only winnable games we have left? Lmao.

that's kind of the point of the board. what other games do you view as "winnable". Kamara/Ingram are run all over us, Pats 3 head-monster, forgetaboutit. CMC might end up having a game against us too. 

[Solomon Grundy]

Was a contender but mgmnt made crucial errors in off season/at trade deadline 

Edited November 22, 2021 by Solomon Grundy

[Nitro]

I have and still believe this is a play off team.  Too many issues to think they will make and win the Super Bowl.

[Fan in San Diego]

Playoffs are very reachable. We play the Pats twice, win those two and we win the division. Superbowl? They will have to clean up all of the mistakes and get a running game going.

[NoSaint]

I think they can, but if not getting a bye that path gets much more difficult. 
 

every team goes through some “working things out” and hopefully we hit the home stretch with momentum and not lingering issues. If we sweep the pats, we are 100% a contender and that’s very possible 

[papageorgio]

ive watched the jauron, gailey and rex ryan teams. this is just a rough patch. Bills vs rams superbowl. 

[Vertig0]

Super Bowl caliber - maybe?  Playoff team - yes.

 

I do think that the 13-3 record of the 2020 Bills and the Super Bowl expectations from earlier this season have swayed many of our opinions and have caused a lot of the reactions.  Do we need OL help? Yes.  Do we need RB help? Yes.  Are we commonly dominated by physical teams? Yes.  I agree with all of those criticisms and do think that they are warranted - but I also think that last year's team wasn't as good as they appeared and you're seeing a similar team to last year even though the results are different.

 

Yes, we ended up 13-3, but...how many "quality" wins did we actually have?

 

Week 2 - squeak out a 3 point win against the Dolphins (coin flip win);

Week 3 - squander a giant lead against the Rams and need a late PI penalty and a JA pass in the closing seconds to win (lucky win due to PI call, etc.);

Week 7 - 6 field goals lead to a win against a bad Jets team;

Week 8 - beat Patriots because Cam fumbles near our goal line with NE tying or perhaps evening winning in final seconds (lucky win);

Week 13 - beat 49ers by 10 on MNF, played a decent game, but also played against Nick Mullens and a injury decimated 49ers team.

 

Of the 5 games that I've listed, 3 of those games could have gone the other way if luck wasn't on our side - 13-3 becomes 10-6 pretty quickly.  We also all seem to remember the offense being amazing, which it was at times, but there were also games with 16, 17, 18, 24, 26 points scored that didn't exactly equate to "dominant Bills offense."

 

So while I'm currently not happy with the team, nor their recent performances, and I definitely think that we have a lot of issues that need to be addressed, it is possible that we're seeing a very similar team to last year, but without those "lucky" type of wins.  Said team made the conference championship - so I truly think that anything is possible at this point in time - as disgusted as I may be with the previous few weeks of play. 

 

 

[Success]

I have always said that I only want to go back to the SB if we had the kind of team that could win it (obviously, any team that makes it there can win - but I wouldn't want to be out-matched, and have to rely on luck or a few breaks).

 

Right now, I don't think this is that team. Of course I'd still want to make it if they got on a run, but that week will be much more nerve-wracking.  It feels like we will need luck the whole way if we want to be that team that's still there at the end.

 

[ngbills]

You can get 9 to 1 odds on Bills to win super bowl...

[major]

I’ll go on record- this is still a super bowl team. Look around the afc. No one is great. We are in the mix. I am concerned about who we will play from the nfc though in LA

Edited November 22, 2021 by major

[mead107]

No SB 

[DasNootz]

I'm not as confident as I was 3 weeks ago, but I still think our ceiling is pretty high (unfortunately we've found that our floor is significantly lower than we thought too).

 

Yes to playoffs, but unlikely a bye
Possible to Super Bowl 

 

IF HEALTHY - and I know that is a big IF - who stands out as head and shoulders better than us in the AFC? 

[RunTheBall]

No f’n way we are making the Super Bowl unless this team learns how to slow down the run and run effectively. We will get destroyed in the playoffs when the intensity goes up a notch. Right now, this team is SOFT both physically and mentally and its only the regular season. I never thought I’d say that about a McD lead team in the city of Buffalo but here we are. I don’t want to believe it but I think winning that KC game really hurt. They lost their hunger and their drive. It’s like they collectively decided they had a one way ticket to the Super Bowl since they gave KC a beat down. Humble and hungry? More like arrogant and full of their own hype.

 

I honestly don’t know if we have the coaching minds to turn this thing around. We are going to learn a lot about McD in the next few weeks.

 

 

[Captain Caveman]

IMO it all hinges on Josh returning to form.  If he goes back to making good decisions and throwing with accuracy, we can (and on most days should) beat any team in the league.  If he plays like he did Sunday and against Jacksonville, we may not win many more games this year.

[hondo in seattle]

I started the season thinking the Bills were a playoff team but not a Super Bowl team.

 

But after watching - live, in person, at Arrowhead - the Bills dismantle the Chiefs, I started to dream of bigger things.

 

Then reality crashed in on us and I'm back to playoffs-but-not-Super-Bowl.   The OL just isn't good enough...  The run D has problems...

 

But there's always next season.

[GreggTX]

Playoffs yes. SB no.