Gameday Bills vs Pats* Postgame Thread

[Fan in Chicago]

5 hours ago, Chandler#81 said:

What exactly is “grand” about bidding adieu on a small market teams’ fan forum? Hell, the amount of Bills fans in WNY alone who've never heard of or visited here is an overwhelming majority. We regulars take pride in our little corner of the world, if only to find like-minded folks to commiserate with..  Like you and I, Casey has bore witness to the near entirety of this teams’ existence. With the exception of little more than a dozen years, this experience has largely been a forgettable debacle of misery and humorless comedy. Everyone here has stood graveside of a dearly departed who passed never experiencing an NFL or NHL title. I won’t even go into John Y. Brown.. We’re Buffalo. We suck and we seemingly always will. No one who doesn’t have family here, moves here by choice. Why are scenes from pregame last night being shown repeatedly across the nation today? Cuz it’s our image to the outside world. Our mantra. 🤷‍♂️

 

The man stopped by to turn in his fan card after a long life of broken heartedness, shattered dreams and anger issues. 
 

I commend our brother Casey and often wish I could do the same. I can’t. The chains that bind me are too strong. 
 

dammit..

Good post. I agree. Esp the part about being able to commiserate with like minded folks. I can understand Casey's point - last season brought hope that we can finally compete with and beat the Pats+BB. If Casey took from the MNF that we will continue to be BB's female canine even with a rookie QB, I cant fault him to feel extra dis-heartened.

 

In my mind, the next game with the Pats is going to be critical. If we lose again, then we may have to resign ourselves to a very bitter truth - that BB will trump any combination of coach and QB that the Bills put up. 

[KOKBILLS]

3 hours ago, njbuff said:

Thru all the b!tching, moaning, crying and complaining………..

 

if the Bills make ONE friggin play, they win the game and we all go into this Tampa Bay game on a high.

 

What an infuriating loss this was.

 

Same could be said about the Jags and Pittsburgh losses...

 

The Tennessee loss was a massive heartbreaker. They had that game...

 

Very, very frustrating...

[Buddy Hix]

I haven't been posting or very active at all since the start of the pandemic, and really missed not being able to use my season tickets with the border closure. After being so excited to get back to the Ralph for a huge game against the Pats, I left completely disappointed. Are we back to only being able to enjoy the tailgating? Because I thought the Bills had finally become a contender... 

[BADOLBILZ]

8 hours ago, Chandler#81 said:

What exactly is “grand” about bidding adieu on a small market teams’ fan forum? Hell, the amount of Bills fans in WNY alone who've never heard of or visited here is an overwhelming majority. We regulars take pride in our little corner of the world, if only to find like-minded folks to commiserate with..  Like you and I, Casey has bore witness to the near entirety of this teams’ existence. With the exception of little more than a dozen years, this experience has largely been a forgettable debacle of misery and humorless comedy. Everyone here has stood graveside of a dearly departed who passed never experiencing an NFL or NHL title. I won’t even go into John Y. Brown.. We’re Buffalo. We suck and we seemingly always will. No one who doesn’t have family here, moves here by choice. Why are scenes from pregame last night being shown repeatedly across the nation today? Cuz it’s our image to the outside world. Our mantra. 🤷‍♂️

 

The man stopped by to turn in his fan card after a long life of broken heartedness, shattered dreams and anger issues. 
 

I commend our brother Casey and often wish I could do the same. I can’t. The chains that bind me are too strong. 
 

dammit..

 

 

Here lies Casey.

 

A dismal 7-5 record in December of 2021 was da' last straw.

 

 

 

[BADOLBILZ]

3 hours ago, Fan in Chicago said:

Good post. I agree. Esp the part about being able to commiserate with like minded folks. I can understand Casey's point - last season brought hope that we can finally compete with and beat the Pats+BB. If Casey took from the MNF that we will continue to be BB's female canine even with a rookie QB, I cant fault him to feel extra dis-heartened.

 

In my mind, the next game with the Pats is going to be critical. If we lose again, then we may have to resign ourselves to a very bitter truth - that BB will trump any combination of coach and QB that the Bills put up. 

 

 

On the flip side.........the Bills have beaten the Patriots two of the last 3 games.

 

This year they made the mistakes to lose the home game to the Patriots...........last year the Patriots outplayed the Bills in Buffalo and they made the unforgivable mistake at the end and the Bills won.

 

But if you want to let what happened from 2000-2019 bother you NOW........then have at it.    It's a self inflicted wound though.   They aren't ever settling the score with Belichick in the regular season.    Anyone old enough to remember Shula domination should know that.

 

[BuffaloBaumer]

A loss to Tampa and there is no way Bills make playoffs, now way. If they don't figure out that the identity of this team is throwing the ball 40 plus times, they will win 2 more games at most. Keep running the ball up the middle just to prove a point and waste a down, it's working great!!

[Fan in Chicago]

23 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

On the flip side.........the Bills have beaten the Patriots two of the last 3 games.

 

This year they made the mistakes to lose the home game to the Patriots...........last year the Patriots outplayed the Bills in Buffalo and they made the unforgivable mistake at the end and the Bills won.

 

But if you want to let what happened from 2000-2019 bother you NOW........then have at it.    It's a self inflicted wound though.   They aren't ever settling the score with Belichick in the regular season.    Anyone old enough to remember Shula domination should know that.

 

 

 

That's why I said that the next game with the Pats** will be important. Right now we have 2 data points (last season) where we beat them and one (recency effect) where we fielded our healthiest units and lost. Is this data point an outlier or a trend? There is a common factor in several of our losses - getting domninated on both lines and not having a balanced O. These will persist. 

 

Maybe the recent disappointment is a realization that we are not a SB contender as many of us believed and were led to believe. 

[ngbills]

9 hours ago, Awwufelloff said:

The crying and blaming In the post game interviews by McDermott and co were also pathetic. 

 

9 hours ago, Doc Brown said:

McDermott especially.  The comment implying he didn't trust Stevenson or McKenzie to field punts really is amateur crap by a head coach.  Not his best moment.

And Daboll blamed a false start and sack. No ownership (even if he does not believe it) of we could have done some things different, needed to do more early, etc. It was a - well we had a chance to win but that false start and that sack really cost us. Due, the game should have not even been in question at that point if you had tried to throw the ball in the first quarter or done a number of things differently. 

[Mango]

1 minute ago, BuffaloBaumer said:

A loss to Tampa and there is no way Bills make playoffs, now way. If they don't figure out that the identity of this team is throwing the ball 40 plus times, they will win 2 more games at most. Keep running the ball up the middle just to prove a point and waste a down, it's working great!!

Meh. I think the Bills still have a good chance going 3-2. Dropping both Pats games makes it tough because of the conference/division record. 3-2 with a win vs. the Pats and Jets all but clinches I think. 
 

The rest of the wild cards all play each other so I don’t think that anybody misses at 10-7. But if they all do we are in rough shape thanks losing to TN, Indy, and Pitt. 

5-5 in the conference hurts us. 

[Low Positive]

6 hours ago, njbuff said:

Thru all the b!tching, moaning, crying and complaining………..

 

if the Bills make ONE friggin play, they win the game and we all go into this Tampa Bay game on a high.

 

What an infuriating loss this was.

And they had so many f-ing chances to make that play. It reminded me of the Rams game last year, except this time we didn't get bailed out by a last-second DPI call.

[Motorin']

1 hour ago, BuffaloBaumer said:

A loss to Tampa and there is no way Bills make playoffs, now way. If they don't figure out that the identity of this team is throwing the ball 40 plus times, they will win 2 more games at most. Keep running the ball up the middle just to prove a point and waste a down, it's working great!!

 

You are wrong about a loss to the Bucs knocking us out of the playoffs. 

 

The other AFC playoff teams have to play each other a bajillion times in the next 5 weeks.

 

I'm more concerned about the team's effort this week. I of course want them to win. But effort and intensity across the board is the #1 key to the game from my perspective. 

 

 

[Logic]

I haven't read through 45 pages here, so I'm sure this has been said already, but...

The thing I can't get out of my head about Monday night is our refusal to use Josh Allen's legs as a weapon. Even if we just did it in the red zone, that would be something. We were moving the ball just fine between the 20s, but we would completely stall out in the red zone ,as we have all season long. To have 1st and goal at the six yard line, with an offense this talented and a quarterback with Allen's skills...and to NOT get into the end zone...is criminal.

When the Bills are in the red zone, I'd love to see them bring an extra o-lineman on the field, some kind of jumbo package, and have Allen run the ball. I'm talking Tim Tebow Florida Gators type stuff. You can't tell me that if we had run Allen four straight times from the six, he wouldn't have punched the ball in. 

Put differently, ask yourself this: If Belichick had a quarterback with Allen's skillset on his roster on Monday night, what would HE have done in the red zone? Right. Exactly.

Lastly, I'll just say that the "Bills can't stop the run!" narrative I see being pushed in the media as the reason for the lost is hogwash. The Pats piled up rushing yards, yes, but it took them 46 carries. Take away the one long run by Harris and the Bills held the Pats to 3.5 yards per carry, 2 for 12 on 3rd downs, and 14 points. This loss is on the offense, point blank period.

[The Frankish Reich]

On 12/7/2021 at 6:08 AM, Casey D said:

I have been a Bills fan for over 50 years.  I have dim memories of Jack Kemp, Billy Shaw  and Cookie Gilchrist.  I remember my Dad being furious for trading away Daryl Lamonica.  I was in a bad marriage in 1981 when the Bills performed a miracle with a Hail Mary against the Pats and it cheered me up when I was in a really bad place. Joe Ferguson limping in San Diego.  I remember it all.

 

I have lived in Washington DC for 40 years.  My daughter who is 32 and about to give us our first grandchild is an avid Bills fan even thought she grew up here.  And my wife of 35 years (second time being the charm) is one too even though she is from down here too.  And collectively we all remember the good and the bad since the 1990s, bickering Bills, four consecutive Super Bowls, the drought, etc., etc.  I had season tix from 2002 until 2016.  Bought Club Seats to help keep the team in Buffalo.  Gave them up because of Rex Ryan.

 

I just want to say that I don't think I can do this anymore.  The pain of being a Bills fan is just too great.  And being the Washington Generals to the Pats for over 20 years, and now again, is just too much.

 

So I am passing the torch to you younger folks.  I hope it goes better for you.  I will try and focus on other pursuits.  After all it is only a game, one the Bills have played very poorly for over 50 years .  And even the Cubs and Red Sox finally one.  It can happen to you.  And I have enjoyed your company.  It has been group therapy here for nearly 25 years. 

 

And to all the trolls and Pats fans on this board.  If your intent was to make a long suffering Bills fan even more miserable, you have succeeded.  Enjoy the good fortune you have, and the additional misery you have placed on others.  I hope it makes you smile.

 

Be careful out there!  🙂

I don't think we've had a post-game thread stay alive for this long. This one has breathed new life into it.

Casey -- I get it. It's frustrating. It's kind of like being a Red Sox fan before 2004, or a Cubs fan before 2016. I guess I'm a new fan compared to you (first season I have a memory of is ... 1970). But my fandom has kind of gone in the opposite direction as I got older. I used to care way too much. Then it became kind of a whimsical thing - oh, you're the guy who's a fan of the team that hasn't made the playoffs in decades! At the risk of getting blowback from everyone else, I have to say I saw what it meant to be a Red Sox/Cubs fan in the bad old days. It got to be an identity, and an almost perversely enjoyable one. The glutton for punishment. In what Billsy way will they destroy THIS season? 

Cubs and Red Sox fans aren't much fun anymore (although the Cubs are headed back in that direction). I went to both Wrigley and Fenway in the last half dozen years. They're popular, corporatized, playing in those twee historical parks but otherwise pretty much like fans everywhere. I think certain old time fans won't admit it, but they miss the clubbiness of being that sad sack who's devoted to the perennial loser. The guy who shows up for that Monday night game in late September with 12,000 other die-hard fans when they're 25 games back just because it's a beautiful late summer day and that top prospect kid is making his first MLB start. 

So I'm enjoying good football in Buffalo, putting it in context, realizing that being a fan is an ultimately ridiculous thing (why am I devoted to these particular 53 guys who tug on a helmet with a Buffalo on it every Sunday when approximately zero of them are even from Buffalo), but a distraction from the more depressing sides of life as I watch the generation above me slip away.

So I had to stop caring to keep caring. Or something very Zen like that.

Stick around! I promise, it'll be fun even when it's bad. Sometimes even more fun.

[Chandler#81]

One last entry on the Pats*

 

[Dr. K]

On 12/7/2021 at 8:08 AM, Casey D said:

I have been a Bills fan for over 50 years.  I have dim memories of Jack Kemp, Billy Shaw  and Cookie Gilchrist.  I remember my Dad being furious for trading away Daryl Lamonica.  I was in a bad marriage in 1981 when the Bills performed a miracle with a Hail Mary against the Pats and it cheered me up when I was in a really bad place. Joe Ferguson limping in San Diego.  I remember it all.

 

I have lived in Washington DC for 40 years.  My daughter who is 32 and about to give us our first grandchild is an avid Bills fan even thought she grew up here.  And my wife of 35 years (second time being the charm) is one too even though she is from down here too.  And collectively we all remember the good and the bad since the 1990s, bickering Bills, four consecutive Super Bowls, the drought, etc., etc.  I had season tix from 2002 until 2016.  Bought Club Seats to help keep the team in Buffalo.  Gave them up because of Rex Ryan.

 

I just want to say that I don't think I can do this anymore.  The pain of being a Bills fan is just too great.  And being the Washington Generals to the Pats for over 20 years, and now again, is just too much.

 

So I am passing the torch to you younger folks.  I hope it goes better for you.  I will try and focus on other pursuits.  After all it is only a game, one the Bills have played very poorly for over 50 years .  And even the Cubs and Red Sox finally one.  It can happen to you.  And I have enjoyed your company.  It has been group therapy here for nearly 25 years. 

 

And to all the trolls and Pats fans on this board.  If your intent was to make a long suffering Bills fan even more miserable, you have succeeded.  Enjoy the good fortune you have, and the additional misery you have placed on others.  I hope it makes you smile.

 

Be careful out there!  🙂

I'm there with you brother. Became a fan of the Bills in the AFL championship years, saw my first Bills game in War Memorial Stadium in 1966. I feel the way you do frequently, and have to back away at least from time to time for the good of my soul. 

 

It would be easier if there were not so many idiots and ***holes among the fans of both the Bills and other teams. But I guess that's just the nature of (some) human beings. Sports fandom brings out a lot of anger and nastiness in people who otherwise are probably decent folk. That's the thing that wears me out the most, more than the troubles of the team. 

 

Peace. 

[ngbills]

Final complaints and then I am moving on...

 

I still dont get the clock run off for an injury in the final two minutes. Who was injured? I assume they didnt make that up, but still why did they run the clock down and then all of the sudden charge the time out and run it down again. It turned into an extra 30 seconds or so. Pats would have then had to punt and who knows what happens there. Bad snap, big return or hail mary. At least they have a final shot. 

 

Another big clock issue in the 3rd at 10:39. NE is stopped and somehow the playclock starts and then is restarted. They dont run the next play until 9:34 so over an extra 20 seconds off the clock. Add that to the above and the Bills are getting the ball with 1 minute left. 

 

Why was the plan on kick offs to not field the ball? Against the wind its like they were so scared of a muff that they told the returners to stay away. 

 

Still dont understand why they did not go hurry up when the Bills had the wind. Not only is it obviously better for us, but gives NE more plays against it. Both of Folks field goals came right at the start of the 2nd and 4th quarter. Differnt clock management and maybe they dont even have those options to kick. 

[Motorin']

Here's what I don't get. You know the wind is blowing left to right into your face in the 4th quarter. 

 

You throw back should to Diggs on the right sideline that you know is going to take the ball out of bounds instead of throwing into the teeth of the wind on the left side line. He gets wide open, but the ball flies out of bounds. 

 

Then you get down to the New England 6 and leave the ball on the right hash for a fg kick.

 

Get the ball to the left hash *****. 

 

Two fg's from the left hash in the 4th win the game.

 

 

 

 

 

[Chandler#81]

On 12/8/2021 at 11:50 AM, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

On the flip side.........the Bills have beaten the Patriots two of the last 3 games.

 

This year they made the mistakes to lose the home game to the Patriots...........last year the Patriots outplayed the Bills in Buffalo and they made the unforgivable mistake at the end and the Bills won.

 

But if you want to let what happened from 2000-2019 bother you NOW........then have at it.    It's a self inflicted wound though.   They aren't ever settling the score with Belichick in the regular season.    Anyone old enough to remember Shula domination should know that.

 

Marv Levy enjoyed more than a decade (HC & GM) of kicking Miami’s a**. A career winning record vs. Shula when Don coached some great teams and had a HOF QB. 

 

But, yeah, the 70’s thing may take the year 2121 to overcome.

34 minutes ago, ngbills said:

Final complaints and then I am moving on...

 

I still dont get the clock run off for an injury in the final two minutes. Who was injured? I assume they didnt make that up, but still why did they run the clock down and then all of the sudden charge the time out and run it down again. It turned into an extra 30 seconds or so. Pats would have then had to punt and who knows what happens there. Bad snap, big return or hail mary. At least they have a final shot. 

 

Another big clock issue in the 3rd at 10:39. NE is stopped and somehow the playclock starts and then is restarted. They dont run the next play until 9:34 so over an extra 20 seconds off the clock. Add that to the above and the Bills are getting the ball with 1 minute left. 

 

Why was the plan on kick offs to not field the ball? Against the wind its like they were so scared of a muff that they told the returners to stay away. 

 

Still dont understand why they did not go hurry up when the Bills had the wind. Not only is it obviously better for us, but gives NE more plays against it. Both of Folks field goals came right at the start of the 2nd and 4th quarter. Differnt clock management and maybe they dont even have those options to kick. 

Simply put, yourearoyalpainintheass. You’d be a bit more tolerable if you injected just a little humor in your posts. Ya know, confirm you’re not a dysfunctional Bot.
 

Anyway, the announcers said it was Milano who was injured when the clock was stopped, then ran off more time since we didn’t have a TO. But Milano didn’t leave the field, so 🤷‍♂️ 

[BADOLBILZ]

51 minutes ago, Chandler#81 said:

Marv Levy enjoyed more than a decade (HC & GM) of kicking Miami’s a**. A career winning record vs. Shula when Don coached some great teams and had a HOF QB. 

 

 

 

Marv had a winning record versus Shula but also was upset a number of times by his Dolphins.  And Shula still won the AFC East twice at the expense of Marv.   So it wasn't anything resembling the domination that Shula had over Buffalo in the 1970's.    The Bills longest win streak versus Shula was 6 games....and that was in the 80's.......before the SB run.   There was never any real threat of them hangin' 20 straight on Miami.

 

Just like Shula.......whom they were 3-0 against in the playoffs.........the only avenue the Bills have to get over on BB is to beat him in the playoffs.

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

On 12/6/2021 at 11:29 PM, Billyhouseman said:

I hope McDermott gets launched into the sun. ***** guy has no regard for 2nd half timeouts. I'm so done with this clown

I’m gonna defend him on that one challenge…he was trying to hold them to a fg before the quarter ended so they had to kick it into the wind and he figured why not this is a close play anyway.  Of course they picked up the first down and kicked the fg with the wind in the next quarter though…we probably win if we stopped them there in the 3rd quarter