So, reading the board, we lost again. 3-11. Sigh.

[Buffalo_Stampede]

 

11 hours ago, UKBillFan said:

We play like we did yesterday against the Chiefs, the Bengals or, if we get that far, the 49ers, Eagles or Cowboys and we get beaten. And there are weaknesses which we are relucant to or cannot address. If this was a one off, fine, but a lot of the issues shown yesterday have been persistent across the season.

 

An excellent win and a strong record this season is all well and good but improvement is required if we want to make and win the Super Bowl. I think that's all most are saying.

It’s a week to week league. What you did last week doesn’t carry over to the next week.

 

 I don’t understand how fans don’t understand this yet. 

Edited December 19, 2022 by Buffalo_Stampede

[ganesh]

1 hour ago, JohninMinn. said:

Possible Super Bowl liabilities:

Saffold- Turnstile

Singletary- slowest back in the NFL

Edmunds- lack of football instinct.

McD- challenging challenged

I think Cook is getting very comfortable out there.  WE don't give enough credit for Singletary for the extra effort on every run.  

 

Our front-seven needs to do better overall 

[John from Riverside]

The problem is, we’re discussing our team in a vacuum if people actually looked around they would see the other teams are also struggling to be dominant over teams with less a record. You need to look no farther than the Chiefs who have actually lost recently then they go out and almost lose to a one win team

 

We all want our team to win by 100 points but that’s not realistic

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

2 hours ago, JohninMinn. said:

Possible Super Bowl liabilities:

Saffold- Turnstile

Singletary- slowest back in the NFL

Edmunds- lack of football instinct.

McD- challenging challenged

Edmunds has been good/great all year.  
singletary seems criminally underrated around here too.  Saffold may not even be in the starting lineup if boettger returns which we’ll find out tomorrow. I would agree that saffold is very much not good though lol

Edited December 19, 2022 by Generic_Bills_Fan

[John from Riverside]

5 minutes ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

Edmunds has been good/great all year.  
singletary seems criminally underrated around here too.  Saffold may not even be in the starting lineup if boettger returns which we’ll find out tomorrow. I would agree that saffold is very much not good though lol

We really saw what our defense looked like whenever Edmonds wasn’t in there we need to make sure that we keep him

[Sammy Watkins' Rib]

14 hours ago, UKBillFan said:

We play like we did yesterday against the Chiefs, the Bengals or, if we get that far, the 49ers, Eagles or Cowboys and we get beaten. And there are weaknesses which we are relucant to or cannot address. If this was a one off, fine, but a lot of the issues shown yesterday have been persistent across the season.

 

and what if the Bills team that played yesterday plays the Chiefs team that played today? Bills by 3 scores?

 

or the Eagles team that played today? Bills by 2 scores? The Cowboys team from today? Bills 60 Cowboys 3?

[Da webster guy]

Great point OP.  There will always be overly negative fans, critiquing is all they know and I guess thats okay.

We were 7-6 last year at this time and ended up a play or two away from probably winning it all.  If we keep the 1 seed oh boy look out.

 

My only beef is Cam Lewis almost cost us another game with another mental error.  I love the kid, his story etc but he can't be trusted anymore. 

Fool me twice.

 

[ganesh]

2 hours ago, John from Riverside said:

We really saw what our defense looked like whenever Edmonds wasn’t in there we need to make sure that we keep him

or they will be drafting his replacement in April

[Royale with Cheese]

17 hours ago, UKBillFan said:

We play like we did yesterday against the Chiefs, the Bengals or, if we get that far, the 49ers, Eagles or Cowboys and we get beaten. And there are weaknesses which we are relucant to or cannot address. If this was a one off, fine, but a lot of the issues shown yesterday have been persistent across the season.

 

An excellent win and a strong record this season is all well and good but improvement is required if we want to make and win the Super Bowl. I think that's all most are saying.

I had no idea football was played in a vacuum.

 

Let me guess….Texans, Jags and Bears > Dolphins.  The one win Texans are actually a lot better than their record shows.

[Utah John]

13 hours ago, JohninMinn. said:

Possible Super Bowl liabilities:

Saffold- Turnstile

Singletary- slowest back in the NFL

Edmunds- lack of football instinct.

McD- challenging challenged

As for Saffold, he recently tweeted something about being willing to do whatever it takes to stay on the Bills next year.  He was bragging about not giving up a sack or holding penalty, as I recall.  So who was that guy in Saffold's uniform against the Dolphins?

[UKBillFan]

12 hours ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

 

It’s a week to week league. What you did last week doesn’t carry over to the next week.

 

 I don’t understand how fans don’t understand this yet. 

 

Poor tackling is a persistent issue. 3rd and long is a persistent issue. Our offence going flat for swathes of game is a persistent issue since the bye (we're not going to score from every drive, but play calling and execution has seen more low moments post bye then before it).

 

And these are things which have carried over week by week. 3rd and long has now become a running joke.

 

We've done well so far, and our record is one which all but the Eagles would happily have. Looking back the Dolphins game was one of the most enjoyable of the season. But seeing similar issues crop up again and again is concerning, perhaps not for the Bears and Patriots, but more so for our game against the Bengals and going into the post season. And if we had lost on Sunday (little things went our way, and about time to) the concerns would be being discussed more freely than they are at the moment.

 

Edited December 19, 2022 by UKBillFan

[BullBuchanan]

On 12/18/2022 at 10:10 AM, ChicagoRic said:

Oh wait, that 11-3.  We won?  Again?  11-3 you say?  Excellent!

 

I guess I just got confused by the endless stream of:

 

The OC sucks.

Frazier sucks.

The defense sucks.

McKenzie sucks.

The tackling sucks.

 

Eff that.  This is a really good football team and a legit Superbowl contender.  Good teams win games, especially the close ones against talented teams in their own division.  Super happy today. 

multiple things can't all be true? Oh, well carry on then.

[Fleezoid]

So, if I understand this thread correctly, the Bills won 32-0. Because I'm only supposed to remember, and talk about the good stuff? 

 

Ok. I'll try. 

 

Edited December 19, 2022 by Fleezoid

[FilthyBeast]

On 12/18/2022 at 8:10 AM, ChicagoRic said:

Oh wait, that 11-3.  We won?  Again?  11-3 you say?  Excellent!

 

I guess I just got confused by the endless stream of:

 

The OC sucks.

Frazier sucks.

The defense sucks.

McKenzie sucks.

The tackling sucks.

 

Eff that.  This is a really good football team and a legit Superbowl contender.  Good teams win games, especially the close ones against talented teams in their own division.  Super happy today. 

 

I get where you are coming from with the overreactions but most of what you said has a certain degree of truth to it and why there should still be concern heading into the playoffs and not a false sense of confidence about this team right now.

 

For me the biggest issue is still the offensive line play and inconsistency with the defense and those are 2 fatal flaws that can end a playoff run pretty quickly.

 

The good news is that most of the other teams in the AFC field have their similar issues to deal with including the Chiefs and Bengals, but those teams also keep winning so at some point something has to give so to speak when these heavyweight inevitably match up in the playoffs at some point.

[NoHuddleKelly12]

On 12/18/2022 at 11:17 AM, Clark Rotary said:

Edmunds sucks, can't believe we let Ertz sign elsewhere...

You forgot our abject failure to sign OBJ! 

[PromoTheRobot]

On 12/18/2022 at 11:10 AM, ChicagoRic said:

Oh wait, that 11-3.  We won?  Again?  11-3 you say?  Excellent!

 

I guess I just got confused by the endless stream of:

 

The OC sucks.

Frazier sucks.

The defense sucks.

McKenzie sucks.

The tackling sucks.

 

Eff that.  This is a really good football team and a legit Superbowl contender.  Good teams win games, especially the close ones against talented teams in their own division.  Super happy today. 

 

Some people's entire fanhood is based on hating their team. The Sabres still have folks talking crap.

[Alphadawg7]

On 12/18/2022 at 8:10 AM, ChicagoRic said:

Oh wait, that 11-3.  We won?  Again?  11-3 you say?  Excellent!

 

I guess I just got confused by the endless stream of:

 

The OC sucks.

Frazier sucks.

The defense sucks.

McKenzie sucks.

The tackling sucks.

 

Eff that.  This is a really good football team and a legit Superbowl contender.  Good teams win games, especially the close ones against talented teams in their own division.  Super happy today. 

 

While I agree with your overall premise here, there are still some things to have some legitimate concerns about.  But yes, this place often feels like we lost even when we win and that is dumb.  

 

Lots of positives right now...we are winning games, even if they are gritty and close, we are finding ways to win.  We even won the Vikings game until we fumbled it away.  Nice to see Knox getting more involved in the passing game (although he did have 2 back to back drops this week despite having the best catch % on the team), nice to see Josh taking care of the football, and nice to see the defense make plays when it has to.  

 

But beyond just the fact we won, we also made them harder and closer than they needed to be in several cases.  And the things that led to it are also why some people still have some legitimate concerns for the playoffs.  I remain confident in this teams ability to beat anyone, but I also remain realistic that because of these concerns below, we leave the door open for several of these teams who will be in the playoffs to be able to cut our season short and send us home too.  

• Despite the stats, the offense isn't consistent and does a lot of shooting itself in the foot still with bad penalties, drops, and miscues.  
  • We lead the NFL in dropped passes.
• Dorsey still is struggling in the second half after teams make halftime adjustments.  This is my biggest concern, we can't keep coming out so bad and flat in the 3rd quarter, better teams like KC, Cincy, or someone like Phi or SF in the SB can certainly exploit that.  
  • This is the entire reason games are so close, or why we lost games like the Vikings game for example.  Because our point differential in the 2nd half went from being the best in the NFL prior to the GB game, to one of the worst for a while.  
  • Dorseys lack of making his own adjustments is slowing the offense down after halftime and letting teams get back into games or take leads.  That is a dangerous game to be playing come playoff team.
• Too much of our offensive production relies solely on Allen extending plays and receivers only getting open when they break off routes to come back to Josh when he is scrambling.
  • Point of this is that we are not seeing our receivers win on their initial route enough, and that has a lot to do with play design by Dorsey.
    • He is not scheming guys open enough and not dictating mismatches.  In the Miami game, on a key play they moved Hill inside to specifically get him matched up on Edmunds for an easy first down conversion because Edmunds can't hang with Hills speed.  We don't do enough creative things like this to get our guys open.  
• Can our pass rush get enough pressure when we face guys like Mahomes and Burrow without Von? 
• How long is Morse out, and if he doesn't come back, can our already struggling OL hold up well enough in the post season?

So yes, totally agree with you about us being 11-3 and to enjoy and appreciate it.  But it also does not mean we don't have some things that have been concerns.

 

These concerns above, while we have been winning, have made games much closer than they needed to be...and when you keep teams close who have guys like Mahomes and Burrow on the other side, worse things can happen.  I think that is what some of the perspective is.  Albeit, too many people are also over exaggerative and dramatic too about a lot of this stuff.  

[Tim Tindale]

11 hours ago, Royale with Cheese said:

I had no idea football was played in a vacuum.

 

Let me guess….Texans, Jags and Bears > Dolphins.  The one win Texans are actually a lot better than their record shows.

I wonder if Chiefs fans are complaining about how that can’t beat the Bills if they play like they did against the Texans.  Or the Bengals fans after getting a 17-0 hole against the dysfunctional Bucs.  
 

I’d check, but I’m too lazy. Or rather, it’s the NFL, and especially this time of year, when the injuries pile up, the talent level delta is razor thin, and everyone has tape everyone’s scheme, the weather gets worse, everyone’s playing for either the playoffs or a job on a roster next year, the games do tend to get more competitive. 

[ProcessTruster]

On 12/18/2022 at 11:10 AM, ChicagoRic said:

Oh wait, that 11-3.  We won?  Again?  11-3 you say?  Excellent!

 

I guess I just got confused by the endless stream of:

 

The OC sucks.

Frazier sucks.

The defense sucks.

McKenzie sucks.

The tackling sucks.

 

Eff that.  This is a really good football team and a legit Superbowl contender.  Good teams win games, especially the close ones against talented teams in their own division.  Super happy today. 

Agree with this take.  As I sit here today in WNY during our holiday trip north to visit to my mother in law this week , I am surrounded by paper editions of the Buffalo News (yes actual newspapers still exist.. I come here to see them, ), pre game headlines in the sports section :  "working toward a relaunch", "Diggs needs another WR to emerge".  Post game headlines were also flat:  "Lewis makes critical mistake that opens the door", "Second Half was a debacle, until winter wonderland.. " or some such.   11-3 and you'd swear it was drought reporting .. wake up WNY, the Bills are freaking amazing and you'd never know it to read the local rags.  

[ganesh]

2 hours ago, Alphadawg7 said:

 

While I agree with your overall premise here, there are still some things to have some legitimate concerns about.  But yes, this place often feels like we lost even when we win and that is dumb.  

 

Lots of positives right now...we are winning games, even if they are gritty and close, we are finding ways to win.  We even won the Vikings game until we fumbled it away.  Nice to see Knox getting more involved in the passing game (although he did have 2 back to back drops this week despite having the best catch % on the team), nice to see Josh taking care of the football, and nice to see the defense make plays when it has to.  

 

But beyond just the fact we won, we also made them harder and closer than they needed to be in several cases.  And the things that led to it are also why some people still have some legitimate concerns for the playoffs.  I remain confident in this teams ability to beat anyone, but I also remain realistic that because of these concerns below, we leave the door open for several of these teams who will be in the playoffs to be able to cut our season short and send us home too.  

• Despite the stats, the offense isn't consistent and does a lot of shooting itself in the foot still with bad penalties, drops, and miscues.  
  • We lead the NFL in dropped passes.
• Dorsey still is struggling in the second half after teams make halftime adjustments.  This is my biggest concern, we can't keep coming out so bad and flat in the 3rd quarter, better teams like KC, Cincy, or someone like Phi or SF in the SB can certainly exploit that.  
  • This is the entire reason games are so close, or why we lost games like the Vikings game for example.  Because our point differential in the 2nd half went from being the best in the NFL prior to the GB game, to one of the worst for a while.  
  • Dorseys lack of making his own adjustments is slowing the offense down after halftime and letting teams get back into games or take leads.  That is a dangerous game to be playing come playoff team.
• Too much of our offensive production relies solely on Allen extending plays and receivers only getting open when they break off routes to come back to Josh when he is scrambling.
  • Point of this is that we are not seeing our receivers win on their initial route enough, and that has a lot to do with play design by Dorsey.
    • He is not scheming guys open enough and not dictating mismatches.  In the Miami game, on a key play they moved Hill inside to specifically get him matched up on Edmunds for an easy first down conversion because Edmunds can't hang with Hills speed.  We don't do enough creative things like this to get our guys open.  
• Can our pass rush get enough pressure when we face guys like Mahomes and Burrow without Von? 
• How long is Morse out, and if he doesn't come back, can our already struggling OL hold up well enough in the post season?

So yes, totally agree with you about us being 11-3 and to enjoy and appreciate it.  But it also does not mean we don't have some things that have been concerns.

 

These concerns above, while we have been winning, have made games much closer than they needed to be...and when you keep teams close who have guys like Mahomes and Burrow on the other side, worse things can happen.  I think that is what some of the perspective is.  Albeit, too many people are also over exaggerative and dramatic too about a lot of this stuff.  

We can't put all the blame on Dorsey,  We don't know if the players are executing or not executing their tasks, Every team makes half time adjustments and sometimes it is purely the flow of the game. 

 

The games are closer because the other teams have playmakers too.  Miami had a strong running game and two WRs who were better than our DBs in their execution. However, I am sure their fans are screaming how Gesecki has not been involved in the offense or why the Dolphins did not run more in the 2nd half.  It is simply possible that the Bills tightened the run game and gave more opportunities for the Dolphins in the passing game and in turn the Bills defense played better pass defense in the 4th quarter.   

Enjoy the ride,  Go Bills !