THE ROCKPILE REVIEW - I've got Nuthin'

[Hapless Bills Fan]

This comes to mind

 

Got to pay your dues if you wanna sing the blues,
And you know it don't come easy.

 

 

 

[DCBongo]

There is something about this team that has me thinking about the right before the super bowl runs.

In 1988 the team goes to Cincinnati and get beat in the AFC championship game.   In 1989 they lost a heartbreak in Cleveland on a missed catch by Ronnie Harmon that hit him in the numbers and he blamed the throw.  What happened next was 1990, team tore up the league, got the first round bye and went to their first super bowl.

This loss sucks, we should have won.  This team will get better in the offseason.  The core is not going anywhere and this left a bad taste in everyone's mouth.  It will be the fuel for greatness.  We are witnessing the next golden era of Bill's Football.   For now, just enjoy having your Sunday back and remember, prior to the past 4 years, our season was over two weeks ago and nobody was talk about how good this team is.  

[Jrb1979]

22 minutes ago, DCBongo said:

There is something about this team that has me thinking about the right before the super bowl runs.

In 1988 the team goes to Cincinnati and get beat in the AFC championship game.   In 1989 they lost a heartbreak in Cleveland on a missed catch by Ronnie Harmon that hit him in the numbers and he blamed the throw.  What happened next was 1990, team tore up the league, got the first round bye and went to their first super bowl.

This loss sucks, we should have won.  This team will get better in the offseason.  The core is not going anywhere and this left a bad taste in everyone's mouth.  It will be the fuel for greatness.  We are witnessing the next golden era of Bill's Football.   For now, just enjoy having your Sunday back and remember, prior to the past 4 years, our season was over two weeks ago and nobody was talk about how good this team is.  

That was said last year too about leaving a bad taste in their mouth and it will push them this season. Nothing changed except for losing a round earlier. As good as Allen is, the defense is far from elite and was very overrated this season. They were number 1 due playing a lot of weak teams. 

[Governor]

The Colts eventually hired Dungy to add toughness on defense to win a SB.

 

The Bucs hired Gruden to fix an anemic offense and then went on to win a SB.

 

A similar decision will have to be made in Buffalo after next season if no changes are made sooner.

[Peace Frog]

21 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

When your team loses a game like that, and my team has done it twice, I’m here to tell you that everything in your life goes numb for a day or two.  It’s not a tragedy, it’s not life changing; after all, it’s just football, but when you’re emotionally invested and a game like that happens, it’s stunning.  It’s as though you’ve seen and heard a large explosion, so large that for a few seconds or minutes or even hours, your eyes are recovering from the flash and your ears are ringing.   “OMG!  What just happened?”

 

 

 

I know exactly what you are saying.  As soon as I read the bolded part above, I immediately thought back to this scene from Saving Private Ryan.  I felt like Tom Hank's character.  

 

Edited January 25, 2022 by Peace Frog

[Xwnyer]

18 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

I’ve written this column for about 15 years.  It varies from week to week, sometimes about the stadium experience, sometimes about an important play, sometimes about what players or coaches did or didn’t do.  I write about trends, prospects, shortcomings and needs.  Sometimes it might be funny, sometimes quirky, and certainly sometimes boring or pedestrian.  When I start writing, I don’t always have a plan – the essay just seems to go where it needs to go.

 

Last night in Kansas City, in the second round of the playoffs, the Chiefs beat the Buffalo Bills in overtime, 42-36.  This morning, I sit before my keyboard, numb.

 

I’ve got nuthin’.

 

If you watched the game, you understand.  If you didn’t, I cannot go all Grantland Rice on you to explain.  I’m not Shirley Povich.  Where is Frank Deford when we really need him?  

 

I’ve been a fan of the Buffalo Bills since 1960.  There were several years when work and family and geography left me less involved with the team, not going to games or being able to see them on television.  Still, fan-wise, I’ve had a pretty good run.   I can say figuratively, if not literally, I’ve seen it all.

 

The only way to describe what happened last night is that it was Wide Right, 31 years later.  (If you don’t know what Wide Right was, look it up.  It has its own Wikipedia article.)  I was in Tampa that night, I sat in the stadium stunned as the winning field goal sailed past the right upright.  (I was in Buffalo on the Monday night when the Cowboys beat the Bills with a long field goal on the final play – that game gets honorable mention, but wide right and Chiefs-Bills stand together on top of the “OMG -what-just-happened?” list.)  The day after Super Bowl XXV, I walked aimlessly through Epcot Center, and it seemed every third person was wearing a Giants sweatshirt.  This morning, everything is Chiefs red. 

 

When your team loses a game like that, and my team has done it twice, I’m here to tell you that everything in your life goes numb for a day or two.  It’s not a tragedy, it’s not life changing; after all, it’s just football, but when you’re emotionally invested and a game like that happens, it’s stunning.  It’s as though you’ve seen and heard a large explosion, so large that for a few seconds or minutes or even hours, your eyes are recovering from the flash and your ears are ringing.   “OMG!  What just happened?”

 

A week before the game, I thought that this game might be the real Super Bowl, that these were the two best teams playing for all the marbles.   No, that couldn’t really be true, because the King was back leading the Titans, there was the G.O.A.T., trying for another repeat, and if it wasn’t going to be Brady in the Super Bowl, it was going to be Rodgers. 

 

Then, one by one, Derrick Henry lost, Rodgers lost, Brady lost, and the surviving teams lacked the key ingredient – the star quarterback.  Burrows may be a star on the rise, Stafford may be a star postponed, and Tannehill may be, well, a nice guy, but nobody is crowning any of them as a legendary signal caller, at least not yet.

 

So, by Sunday night, the game between the Bills and the Chiefs actually was looking like the Super Bowl, without the halftime show.  These were the two hottest teams in the playoffs, each coming off blistering blowout wins the previous week, each having overcome early season inconsistencies to look now like powerhouse winners.  Each with an already certifiable superstar quarterback.  Before the opening kickoff, people knew it was a big game.  I got my pizza and sat before the TV.

 

What happened was epic. 

 

There have been a lot of great football games with spectacular plays and dramatic finishes.  I can’t sit here this morning and say that Chiefs-Bills was the greatest, but it has to be in the discussion.  This was two great teams with two great quarterbacks playing their best games.  Two teams and two guys refusing to lose in a game where ultimately someone would win.  

 

A couple of days before the Bills-Chiefs game, I looked up the playoff passer rating records.   If you’re not a fan boy like me, know that the passer rating is a number that is calculated using a formula and some of the more important statistics that demonstrate passing effectiveness.  The passer rating isn’t perfect, but it’s a pretty good measure of who’s the best.  After last week’s games, Patrick Mahomes (did I mention that he is the Chiefs quarterback?) was number 1 on the all-time playoff passer rating list.  Josh Allen, the Bills quarterback, was fourth.  Now, that data is skewed by a variety of factors, so it isn’t necessarily the definitive measure of greatness, but it isn’t bad.  Bart Starr and Kurt Warner, two legendary QBs who are in the Hall of Fame, were number 2 and number 3 on the list.  Hall of Famers Joe Montana and Troy Aikman are in the top 20, along with future Hall of Famers Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees. 

 

This morning, Patrick Mahomes is still number 1.  Josh Allen is number 2. 

 

The game was a display of modern quarterbacking excellence that rarely has been seen in the NFL, dual excellence that probably never has been seen in a playoff game.  Mahomes and Allen performed superbly from the very beginning of the game, passing and running, confounding the opposing defenses.  But their excellence through three quarters was simply prelude. 

 

When Harrison Butker kicked a field goal to give the Chiefs a five-point lead with less than nine minutes remaining in the game, there seemed to be only one question:  could Josh Allen and the Bills mount one more drive for one more touchdown and win the game?  That, as it turned out, was merely the first question.  Allen and the Bills went on an excruciating 17-play, seven-minute drive for the touchdown and, with the two-point conversion, a three-point lead.  Mahomes answered with a touchdown in five plays, dashing the Bills’ hopes for a victory.  Incredibly, truly incredibly, Allen returned the favor in six plays to retake the lead.  And yet, in the 13 seconds remaining, Mahomes managed to get the Chiefs in position for the tying field goal.  The Chiefs won the coin toss at the beginning of overtime, and Mahomes continued the scoring onslaught, hitting Travis Kelce with another touchdown pass.  The overtime rules didn’t afford Allen and the Bills the opportunity to respond, and the Chiefs won.

 

Undoubtedly, this morning thousands of Chiefs fans are talking about how great their team is and how this decision or that play won the game.  Thousands of Bills fans are talking about how that decision or this play lost the game.  I can’t do that, not now.

 

My only consolation after Super Bowl XXV was that for fifteen or twenty years, sportswriters and fans everywhere said it was the greatest Super Bowl ever.  I could be proud that my team was part of it, but it hurt to think about it.  Eventually, memories dimmed and other games awed the fans.  Eventually, I didn’t have to respond politely to people who thought they were making me feel good when they said, “You’re a Bills fan?  That was the greatest Super Bowl of all time!”

 

“You’re a Bills fan?  Bills-Chiefs was the best playoff game I’ve ever seen!”

 

Yeah, right.  Thanks.

I think Music city Miracle was just as bad.  We had a great game winning drive only to lose on lousy special teams play.  We lost this game on lousy D play and maybe a gaff by special teams in the last 13 seconds.  Been a Bills fan since 1965 after we scored with 13 seconds left I was thinking damn we left time on the clock really wanted to score the TD with less than 6 seconds left.  I am hoping that someday long time fans like you and I will see our team hoist the SB trophy.   The major difference with MCM a and 13 seconds is we had the lead! Wide right we had to make the FG to  win and if on turf or 5 yards closer we might have seen our first SB a win.  Also enjoy your write ups and many of us are like you Numb from what we witnessed just like we were numb after music city which  after seeing reviews was a forward pass!

[Irv]

I agree with you 100% that this game felt like the Super Bowl to me.  Whoever won that game was going to be Super Bowl Champions.  I still feel that way.  The Chiefs are going to roll any team they face.  We would have done the same had we won.  Tough way to get eliminated.  Actually I am still in denial stage.  Gonna take a week or so.  

[Shaw66]

2 hours ago, Xwnyer said:

I think Music city Miracle was just as bad.  We had a great game winning drive only to lose on lousy special teams play.  We lost this game on lousy D play and maybe a gaff by special teams in the last 13 seconds.  Been a Bills fan since 1965 after we scored with 13 seconds left I was thinking damn we left time on the clock really wanted to score the TD with less than 6 seconds left.  I am hoping that someday long time fans like you and I will see our team hoist the SB trophy.   The major difference with MCM a and 13 seconds is we had the lead! Wide right we had to make the FG to  win and if on turf or 5 yards closer we might have seen our first SB a win.  Also enjoy your write ups and many of us are like you Numb from what we witnessed just like we were numb after music city which  after seeing reviews was a forward pass!

You know, a lot of people are talking about why the Bills didn't do some kind of squib kick, rather than take the touchback, arguing that that would have run some time off the clock.   

 

Some people, like you, are saying that this game hurt as much as the Music City Miracle.  

 

People should recognize that if the Bills had taken the touchback in the Music City Miracle, instead of the squib kick, the Bills would have won.  

 

Reid is the master of the trick play.  Squib kicks are unpredictable for the kicking team as well as the receiving team.  There was good reason not to do the squib kick against the Chiefs, and painful history, too. 

[Billsatlastin2018]

Wonderful summation, Shaw- minus one critical component that I will get to. 
 

First off, as mentioned before, not being a Buffalonian, I don’t go back as far as yourself, with interest in the Bills. In my early teens, when I ‘found’ the NFL, I quickly became a fan of the excellence of the Lombardi Packers. I wrote an essay about them in HS, highlighted by the 3 peat and the Ice Bowl. Post Lombardi, with interest in the sport rising, searched for a team of my own that I could adopt, follow and witness in person. Buffalo was the obvious choice.
 

Having married an American and watched tailgating on TV, I cheered on OJ’s 2000 yard season. Then, became a 3x Season Tix holder in the 80s, culminating in a 20 year Glory Years run!  Like you, I was at Wide Right, sitting in that corner of the End Zone, as Norwood’s boot came tantalizing close. Crushing and disappointing.

 

Zoom to Sunday night. This was arguably the greatest, most heart attack exciting, most impossible, improbable, historic contest of All Time. Taking over, from my rusty memory from the 1981 OT slugfest of the Chargers- Fish, the magnificent, last seconds catch of Santonio Holmes for the Steelers, the Butler step in for the Cheatriots. TWO QBs, so outstanding, that BOTH zoomed by the immortal Bart Starr’s All Time Playoff QB Rating- by a lot! A Bills Receiver who surpassed another immortal- Jerry Rice, with a TD recept record. THAT is something to salute. 

But for disaster, ‘13 seconds’ goes into the lexicon as the worst Bills defeat in their history- crushing a historic Superman performance by their magician leader- Josh Allen! 
 

To whit, the entire thirteen second sequence was a HC decision making failure of CATASTROPHIC proportions! 

 

1) Clearly, Bass was instructed to kick it normally. As EVERYONE from me to Romo on the telecast said at the time (and here on this forum at 9:41p.m.- just after it happened) where was the squib kick? And a squib kick cannot be auto dead balled. The rule is, you need to go to the ground to give yourself up. Therefore, an immediate loss of time for KC’s only enemy- TIME. NEITHER Hill, nor Kelce were out there. I checked.
 

Instead of celebrating, Josh’s magician like play, McDermott had to immediately get to Bass and the kicking team, to tell him what to do! There is even a cheat sheet of an Analytics nature on this very scenario for under 30 seconds and TOs. Over 30, you don’t. Under 30... wayyyy under- you must.

MASSIVE FAIL.

 

2) That would have left nine critical seconds. Bringing you to the next profound ineptness of our HC. He knew his D was gassed. He needed to instruct them to line up, right on Kelce AND Hill and knock the ***** out of them! That brings the clock to 4 seconds and even with a Personal Foul and ball say at the 50, there is only time for ONE Hail Mary! I’ll take that chance.

 

McD didn’t! Even though, he specifically called not one, but TWO TOs!! To do what exactly, if not instruct that? As though, unlike Bellichick, he’d never even thought about this aspect, for this situation, under these circumstances.

 

SUPER BOWL WIN FAIL!

[Billsfan1972]

22 minutes ago, Billsatlastin2018 said:

Wonderful summation, Shaw- minus one critical component that I will get to. 
 

First off, as mentioned before, not being a Buffalonian, I don’t go back as far as yourself, with interest in the Bills. In my early teens, when I ‘found’ the NFL, I quickly became a fan of the excellence of the Lombardi Packers. I wrote an essay about them in HS, highlighted by the 3 peat and the Ice Bowl. Post Lombardi, with interest in the sport rising, searched for a team of my own that I could adopt, follow and witness in person. Buffalo was the obvious choice.
 

Having married an American and watched tailgating on TV, I cheered on OJ’s 2000 yard season. Then, became a 3x Season Tix holder in the 80s, culminating in a 20 year Glory Years run!  Like you, I was at Wide Right, sitting in that corner of the End Zone, as Norwood’s boot came tantalizing close. Crushing and disappointing.

 

Zoom to Sunday night. This was arguably the greatest, most heart attack exciting, most impossible, improbable, historic contest of All Time. Taking over, from my rusty memory from the 1981 OT slugfest of the Chargers- Fish, the magnificent, last seconds catch of Santonio Holmes for the Steelers, the Butler step in for the Cheatriots. TWO QBs, so outstanding, that BOTH zoomed by the immortal Bart Starr’s All Time Playoff QB Rating- by a lot! A Bills Receiver who surpassed another immortal- Jerry Rice, with a TD recept record. THAT is something to salute. 

But for disaster, ‘13 seconds’ goes into the lexicon as the worst Bills defeat in their history- crushing a historic Superman performance by their magician leader- Josh Allen! 
 

To whit, the entire thirteen second sequence was a HC decision making failure of CATASTROPHIC proportions! 

 

1) Clearly, Bass was instructed to kick it normally. As EVERYONE from me to Romo on the telecast said at the time (and here on this forum at 9:41p.m.- just after it happened) where was the squib kick? And a squib kick cannot be auto dead balled. The rule is, you need to go to the ground to give yourself up. Therefore, an immediate loss of time for KC’s only enemy- TIME. NEITHER Hill, nor Kelce were out there. I checked.
 

Instead of celebrating, Josh’s magician like play, McDermott had to immediately get to Bass and the kicking team, to tell him what to do! There is even a cheat sheet of an Analytics nature on this very scenario for under 30 seconds and TOs. Over 30, you don’t. Under 30... wayyyy under- you must.

MASSIVE FAIL.

 

2) That would have left nine critical seconds. Bringing you to the next profound ineptness of our HC. He knew his D was gassed. He needed to instruct them to line up, right on Kelce AND Hill and knock the ***** out of them! That brings the clock to 4 seconds and even with a Personal Foul and ball say at the 50, there is only time for ONE Hail Mary! I’ll take that chance.

 

McD didn’t! Even though, he specifically called not one, but TWO TOs!! To do what exactly, if not instruct that? As though, unlike Bellichick, he’d never even thought about this aspect, for this situation, under these circumstances.

 

SUPER BOWL WIN FAIL!

As I've said elsewhere the Bills were #3 in kick coverage, the longest run back all year was 31 yards.

 

Massive screw up by McD.

[blitzboy54]

16 hours ago, Buffalo Barbarian said:

 

The other 3 Superbowls are above this and throwback. This loss sucked but its a just a playoff game , nothing is higher than the Championship.

 

 

 

I consider the other 3 Superbowls and extension of wide right. It was like the we were chasing a ghost that got away. I've always thought if we won the first one I don't think we go back. Certainly not to 4 and no way we win the 2nd or 3rd. We were completely outmatched. 

[Buffalo Barbarian]

5 hours ago, blitzboy54 said:

 

I consider the other 3 Superbowls and extension of wide right. It was like the we were chasing a ghost that got away. I've always thought if we won the first one I don't think we go back. Certainly not to 4 and no way we win the 2nd or 3rd. We were completely outmatched. 

 

There is no reason we dont go back, once a player gets a taste of success they want more, we were the best team in the AFC those four years and there's no reason we dont go back. Look at the Chiefs four consecutive AFC championship games, should have been us this year  but didn't happen.

 

Yeah we definitely were the underdogs in the 2,3 SBs but we should have won the first and the last.