This one hurts.....

[muppy]

so this is the boo hoo thread eh?

 

Yeah I do shed tears over this team But not tonight.

 

we got straight up Beat Down. No doubting it. we all saw it

 

🤷‍♀️

 

suck it up mates. WE all knew this was a possibility

[Thrivefourfive]

The Bills are we’re supposed to be in the conversation of Super Bowl champs this year. That next step. Instead, Cincinnati has supplanted them, and they and the Chiefs are the class of the conference, and Buffalo is sliding backwards. Not good. Not promising. This year is way worse than 13 seconds, as unbelievable as that may sound. 

[harryS]

16 minutes ago, Houston's #1 Bills Fan said:

I've been a Bills fan since the OJ years, growing up in the Town of Tonawanda. The Bills have been and will always, be my team. I moved to Houston 22 years ago, but still passionately root for my team. I have suffered during the dark years, post the Music City BS. I hated the Rex Ryan hire, which wasted more precious years away. Josh was my pick for the draft that year; no one looked better to represent the Bills than Josh. He's proven to be exactly what we need. I've been so happy watching my team the past few years. 

 

However, this game today just took all the wind out of my sails. I just don't know how much more miserable such an important, home playoff game could have been. This one hurts more than the Kansas City loss last year. It also tops the Texans defeat in overtime. The key difference being that in both those games, we were competitive and could easily have won. This game was over in the 1st quarter. It's like they didn't plan for the Bengals at all. 

 

It will be a long time before I can even read anything about the Bills again. It just hurts.....

 

you were deluding yourself then.

 

the bills weaknesses were on display for most of the season.  poor o-line, lack of quality receiving depth, and can't defend the pass after Von went down.

 

last year hurt.  this loss was basically anticipated.  at the very least, we're not a serious playoff  contender with all of those weaknesses mentioned.

[SirusB]

They choked. Just being in the playoffs isn't good enough anymore. I'm sick of the embarrassing losses. I'm tired of "we will learn from our mistakes". At least these chokers get paid for losing, we're the ones who support them and look like chumps. Blown out in their own stadium in the biggest game in a while. Same old Bills. Flame me if you must, call me "not a REAL fan", but it was more fun when we sucked. You can't choke when you're expected to lose. Embarrassing all around.

[LeGOATski]

Same, it's so much worse when they're not even competitive.

4 minutes ago, SirusB said:

They choked. Just being in the playoffs isn't good enough anymore. I'm sick of the embarrassing losses. I'm tired of "we will learn from our mistakes". At least these chokers get paid for losing, we're the ones who support them and look like chumps. Blown out in their own stadium in the biggest game in a while. Same old Bills. Flame me if you must, call me "not a REAL fan", but it was more fun when we sucked. You can't choke when you're expected to lose. Embarrassing all around.

The loss is not a reflection of your personal life. You're not a chump. Nothing is expected of you, whether the team is good or bad. Your friends and family don't think any less or more of you for being a fan of a sports team.

[Bferra13]

12 minutes ago, SirusB said:

They choked. Just being in the playoffs isn't good enough anymore. I'm sick of the embarrassing losses. I'm tired of "we will learn from our mistakes". At least these chokers get paid for losing, we're the ones who support them and look like chumps. Blown out in their own stadium in the biggest game in a while. Same old Bills. Flame me if you must, call me "not a REAL fan", but it was more fun when we sucked. You can't choke when you're expected to lose. Embarrassing all around.

They didn't choke though. They are what some of us thought they are. Not all that good. They struggled in every game the second part of the season in one way or the other. Paper tigers got exposed.

[SirusB]

4 minutes ago, LeGOATski said:

The loss is not a reflection of your personal life. You're not a chump. Nothing is expected of you, whether the team is good or bad. Your friends and family don't think any less or more of you for being a fan of a sports team.

Don't worry, the embarrassment I mentioned isn't on a personal level, but it is a part of 'fandom'. Isn't being "proud of your team" part of being a fan? Same as being embarrassed. Honestly, are you proud of your team right now?

[Mantis]

37 minutes ago, phypon said:

Nah, last year was way worse.  They were paper tigers this year.  I'm not surprised or nearly as upset as I was last year. 

That is exactly why this is worse.  Last year was heartbreaking, but we had caught up to KC as arguably the best team in the NFL (but for that 13 seconds).  There was so much reason for optimism.  
 

This year we learn that we are a distant 3rd best in the AFC. Jacksonville is for real, chargers are getting better, Pittsburgh won’t be down for long (they went 9-8 with a rookie QB), and Miami and Jets were tough opponents for us.  What’s there to be optimistic about? 
 

At the end of last year, I was thinking it’s just a matter of time (maybe this year) where we win a superbowl.  At the end of this year, I think a Super Bowl win May never happen…because like you said…we’re paper tigers.

37 minutes ago, phypon said:

Edited January 23, 2023 by Mantis

[jcamm1966]

window is now closed 

[Ethan in Cleveland]

37 minutes ago, Trock said:

Lighten up. We made it to the second round of the playoffs and only lost 3 times in reg season. It was a great year.  Your expectations were inflated. 

Your expectations are too low. 

[BillsFan130]

36 minutes ago, Trock said:

Lighten up. We made it to the second round of the playoffs and only lost 3 times in reg season. It was a great year.  Your expectations were inflated. 

Bills were the favourites to win the SB before the year 

 

If someone told you before the year that the bills would get crushed in the divisional round at home, you would be satisfied?

[McBean]

42 minutes ago, Houston's #1 Bills Fan said:

I've been a Bills fan since the OJ years, growing up in the Town of Tonawanda. The Bills have been and will always, be my team. I moved to Houston 22 years ago, but still passionately root for my team. I have suffered during the dark years, post the Music City BS. I hated the Rex Ryan hire, which wasted more precious years away. Josh was my pick for the draft that year; no one looked better to represent the Bills than Josh. He's proven to be exactly what we need. I've been so happy watching my team the past few years. 

 

However, this game today just took all the wind out of my sails. I just don't know how much more miserable such an important, home playoff game could have been. This one hurts more than the Kansas City loss last year. It also tops the Texans defeat in overtime. The key difference being that in both those games, we were competitive and could easily have won. This game was over in the 1st quarter. It's like they didn't plan for the Bengals at all. 

 

It will be a long time before I can even read anything about the Bills again. It just hurts.....

I disagree.

 

Last years KC loss was 100x worse.

 

Hell, I cried and I’m a grown ass man.

[oldmanfan]

Today was sad but not painful like last year.  We clearly lost to the better team today.  Not so last year.

[Johnnycage46]

35 minutes ago, CNYfan said:

Outcoached in planning, that was obvious.

I am anxiously awaiting the reaction and next moves from OBD.  

Looking at that 1st round safety  3rd round-graded DT in the first round

 

Fixed it for you

[Billsfanatic8989]

This loss probably doesn't even rank in the top 10 of toughest playoff losses.

 

Suggesting it is worse than last year is mind boggling imo. That team had a real shot at winning it all.

 

I never felt this team had a very good shot. Slow starts and inconsistency. Too many bad teams hung around to the end of games. Seemed to be no killer instinct.

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

What makes it so tough is the possibility this team has peaked in terms of cap talent and all the young high end picks look like role players at best. 
 

it’s going to be a lot of years of playoff contention- I’m not sure they can get back to championship contention.

 

atleast they are good at regular season games 🤷‍♂️ 

[harryS]

7 minutes ago, Mantis said:

That is exactly why this is worse.  Last year was heartbreaking, but we had caught up to KC as arguably the best team in the NFL (but for that 13 seconds).  There was so much reason for optimism.  
 

This year we learn that we are a distant 3rd best in the AFC. Jacksonville is for real, chargers are getting better, Pittsburgh won’t be down for long (they went 9-8 with a rookie QB), and Miami and Jets were tough opponents for us.  What’s there to be optimistic about? 
 

At the end of last year, I was thinking it’s just a matter of time (maybe this year) where we win a superbowl.  At the end of this year, I think a Super Bowl win May never happen…because like you said…we’re paper tigers.

 

just a difference in philosophy.  to me, it hurts worse when you play great, have a team that could legitimately win it all, and then blow it with stupidity at the end.

 

but when you just have all the weaknesses we ended up having this year, it only hurts if you were fooling yourself otherwise.

 

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

45 minutes ago, Houston's #1 Bills Fan said:

I've been a Bills fan since the OJ years, growing up in the Town of Tonawanda. The Bills have been and will always, be my team. I moved to Houston 22 years ago, but still passionately root for my team. I have suffered during the dark years, post the Music City BS. I hated the Rex Ryan hire, which wasted more precious years away. Josh was my pick for the draft that year; no one looked better to represent the Bills than Josh. He's proven to be exactly what we need. I've been so happy watching my team the past few years. 

 

However, this game today just took all the wind out of my sails. I just don't know how much more miserable such an important, home playoff game could have been. This one hurts more than the Kansas City loss last year. It also tops the Texans defeat in overtime. The key difference being that in both those games, we were competitive and could easily have won. This game was over in the 1st quarter. It's like they didn't plan for the Bengals at all. 

 

It will be a long time before I can even read anything about the Bills again. It just hurts.....

 

I feel the opposite. 

 

Last 2 years looked real good. There was an optimistic wait till next year as were only to get better feeling. This year not so sure.  Need to do something different, not sure what is and have limited money to do it with.  But they need to make changes either players, coaches, or philosophies.

 

Today out of this game early as you said.  They won 8 in a row, but could have easily lost all eight of them too.  Ever since the KC game in Oct, never really looked quite right. 

 

So for all those reasons I feel better about it than the last two years.  I kind of expected it to come crashing down.  Was hoping they'd turn things around and crush them, but not shocked by outcome.

[Brianmoorman4jesus]

At this point it just kind of feels like it’s just not going to happen for us. Just like, I’ll believe it when I see it but probably just destined to never know what it feels like.

[jkeerie]

43 minutes ago, Houston's #1 Bills Fan said:

I've been a Bills fan since the OJ years, growing up in the Town of Tonawanda. The Bills have been and will always, be my team. I moved to Houston 22 years ago, but still passionately root for my team. I have suffered during the dark years, post the Music City BS. I hated the Rex Ryan hire, which wasted more precious years away. Josh was my pick for the draft that year; no one looked better to represent the Bills than Josh. He's proven to be exactly what we need. I've been so happy watching my team the past few years. 

 

However, this game today just took all the wind out of my sails. I just don't know how much more miserable such an important, home playoff game could have been. This one hurts more than the Kansas City loss last year. It also tops the Texans defeat in overtime. The key difference being that in both those games, we were competitive and could easily have won. This game was over in the 1st quarter. It's like they didn't plan for the Bengals at all. 

 

It will be a long time before I can even read anything about the Bills again. It just hurts.....

No.  This one doesn't hurt.  This team stopped thinking about football when Damar happened.  At that point, football became an afterthought.  There was a happy ending but it had nothing to do with winning football games.  And that's okay.  The better team actually won today.  The Bills have lots of work to do...yet again.  But it will be done in the off-season.  

 

I will watch the rest of the season andl enjoy it with no regrets.  This was not a season of "what could have been."  This was a season of what was...difficult, harrowing...but when it comes to football...it was what it was.