Silver Linings

RocCityRoller · December 2, 2022

So what a season so far. 9-3 feels good.

SF/MINN/CINCY could help us out big this weekend.

I'm really proud of this team. They just effectively won 3 road games in 12 days.

The 3 losses are by a combined 8 points.

The fact 2 of those 3 were to divisional opponents who have been building to beat our beloved Bills adds spice to the story.

The usual mid season doldrums are over.

This reduced some of the out of control hype train from the media and some fans.

The Bills have been injury lucky for multiple seasons. The 'Law of Averages' caught up in a big way, It may not have been in total games lost, but to key players and have been peppered all over. Parts of 2-3 games the entire DB unit has had backups playing except our NCB.

OL has played multiple quarters with LT and C out at the same time.

JA and Poyer have been beasts playing through injury. Poyer drove to a f&^$ing game he couldn't fly to.

Young guys and journeymen players have had to come in and play. They are battle hardened now. They have won, and have had a few really tough losses.

Hamlin/ Van Roten/ Quessenbury/ Hart/ Benford/ Elam/ Cook/ Dodson/ Klein/ Rhodes/ J Johnson etc have all had to play meaningful snaps, and this team is 9-3.

8 points from 12-0.

Beane has had to pull in veteran reinforcements in Rhodes/ Klein/ Brown/ Hines. Moves I don't think would have been made otherwise.

Brown and Klein both came back as soon as the call went out. Lawson, Phillips, Klein and Brown couldn't wait to be Bills again.

Says something about the organization and how it's run.

Rhodes and Klein both basically jumped in quickly and added steady veteran play.

Rhodes is allowing the young DBs to take a bit of a break and absorb what happened.

Klein gets Bernard and Dodson off the field, they aren't ready yet.

Hines is the PR/KR the Bills needed. He will break a big return when needed, I just know it.

Happy Brown is back for another run, I thought he got a bit of a raw deal.

One or many of these guys may or may not be on the roster through the end of the season, but they all answered the call.

The injury to Josh Allen has forced Dorsey to balance the offense out and find a running game.

Cook is stepping up now, Motor is getting more carries, McKenzie is alive and well, and JA can still can zip it when needed.

Davis and Knox have been down, but we know Davis saves his best games for the playoffs (Indy, KC etc) and Knox just shows up when not expected.

Tre White is back and rounding into form again. (He showed up after I put him on a milk carton 🤣, sorry Tre had to do it)

The Bills dodged what could have been terrible luck with Von Miller. Rest up Closer, we will need you in 3 weeks.

Hyde could come back for the playoffs. No team has faced Poyer/ Hyde and White since Thanksgiving of 2021. No team wants to see that.

The schedule has been tough, but the schedule gods gave Buffalo this 10 day reprieve in the final 1/3 of the season.

Crazy expectations/Snowmageddon/ injuries/ getting the band back together/ blow out wins/ heart stopping wins/ tough losses this team has seen it all this season.

9-3

8 points from 12-0

They beat the Super Bowl winning Rams in week 1, and the Rams never recovered.

They took care of business against the Chiefs

They made the AFC South leading Titans look like a JV team

They had a big come back win against the Ravens

They own Bill Belichick and the Pats now

I think this is the most battle tested team McDermott has had.

Injuries forced solid depth moves to be made, and Beane made it happen.

This is now the deepest team McDermott has had.

McDermott kept it all together when things could have gotten ugly.

He won early when all the hype and pressure was on.