Saffold said guys were "exhausted" this week and "out of gas"

[Buffalo03]

1 hour ago, Einstein said:

Ouch.

 

“Guys were exhausted during the week and our coaches did the best they could try to modify the week . . . but there was just uncharacteristic things that were kind of happening . . . I have to kind of put that into effect and not as an excuse just this team has been fighting for so long and fighting through all of this adversity you almost run out of gas at some point,” Saffold said

 

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2023/01/23/rodger-saffold-on-bills-loss-you-almost-run-out-of-gas-at-some-point/

I'm tired of hearing that. Were the Bengals or Jaguars out of gas? Part of going to a Super Bowl is winning these extra games. Saying that you're too exhausted is not an excuse. You have to keep going until the end, they clearly didn't 

[Royale with Cheese]

I think this team was mentally defeated when the Bengals went down the field and scored on the first drive without getting to 3rd down.

 

Allen said that energy comes from execution.  We follow up with a 3 and out on offense.  Mentally the game was over by Cincy’s 2nd drive.

 

We weren’t going to fight our way back. Only way we had a chance was someone doing something spectacular.

No one did anything and why we were completely dominated.

[CapeBreton]

Or the team just isn't that good and it all came to a head yesterday. But it certainly did look they had nothing left in the tank, especially when you look at how much they struggled with Miami.

[TheFunPolice]

It's a lot more fun to the the heel and the underdog who can play the "everyone is against us" card and wreck plans and spoil parties. 

 

That was basically Brady and NE for his first 10-15 years there. First with Manning, then Mahomes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[zow2]

4 minutes ago, SCBills said:

Dont want to come off insensitive, but I cringed whenever our reporters kept talking about Hamlin to the players/coaches.  
 

Agreed.. bad juju.  Poyers weird goodbye.  The Bengals talking brazen all week while our guys apparently were just sulking sadboys at practice. 

 

I felt it man.  Drove hundreds of miles to be at the game. I felt and heard no intensity all week.  It was palpable. Just goodbyes, interviews and Good feels because Hamlin was in the building. I swear, the fans care more.

Meanwhile Joe says the Super Bowl window is open as long as he’s playing…and the entire Bengals were pissed and felt disrespected.  

[astb41]

1 hour ago, Toledo Bill said:

Or we don’t have Allen and lose 12 games. We are nowhere without him… get off his case.

Didn’t mean it to come off as an Allen bashing thing. Just meant in the game of inches, 2 inches could’ve changed where we are today.

[TheFunPolice]

37 minutes ago, SCBills said:

Dont want to come off insensitive, but I cringed whenever our reporters kept talking about Hamlin to the players/coaches.  
 

Agreed.. bad juju.  Poyers weird goodbye.  The Bengals talking brazen all week while our guys apparently were just sulking sadboys at practice. 

 

I get it 100%.

 

As a player there is a tremendous pressure to SHOW OTHERS in these interviews how much you are elated/how much you care/etc. Say just the right things, be "on" and excited. I mean, AREN'T YOU PUMPED! Let's take you back to that day though... 

 

FFS let these guys just play football! It is 100% OK if that event isn't in the forefront of their minds every second of every freaking day! 

 

It doesn't mean they care any less if they don't re-live that event every day. 

 

It was even referenced in the tweet a handful of posts above. HAMLIN WAS THERE how could the Bills not walk on water, run through steel doors, and be unbeatable?! As if his mere presence should make the Bills superhuman, and the Bengals quake in their shoes. Anything less is letting their guy down (is the inference anyway). That's more pressure than anything football can bring. 

 

"We're being told that Hamlin is in the locker room at halftime" they say on the broadcast yesterday. 

 

IMO the fans were out of gas too. "This is going to be the craziest, loudest, most insane and epic reaction by a fanbase ever!" can only work for so long. 

 

It is EXHAUSTING for there to be an expectation that you react/act a certain way for the consumption of others.

 

Fans might understand this on a much, much less important and smaller scale. Maybe you have a friend group that knows what a fan you are of the Bills and are like "when the Bills win the Super Bowl someday your reaction will be EPIC! we can't wait to see what you do! It's going to be CRAZY! It'll go viral online!"

 

Maybe, maybe not. Maybe you'll just cry tears of joy on the couch. Definitely not epic, and not fit for social media. That's totally, 100% OK.

 

But for a player it's not. You've got a camera in front of you, or a radio spot, or whatever, and you need to play the role and talk about something you'd honestly probably rather forget. Over. and over. and over. Because every interviewer is going to start fresh next interview. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 23, 2023 by TheFunPolice

[DrDawkinstein]

The team opened OTAs to the Buffalo Mass Shooting, and wrapped training camp to Knox's brother dying. Then rolled through a season plagued with devastating injuries to our starters and leaders EVERY. WEEK. Then the weekly routines and games get messed up with weather. Then a player dies on the field...

 

It was all too much.

 

Frankly, we were setup for an early exit all the way back in Week 2 when Hyde went out for the season.

 

Amazing the guys managed to keep it together to a 13-3 record and #1 seed for most of the season, and ending with an 8-0 run and #2 seed.

 

Emotions are raw right now. Everyone go home, heal up, rest up, and get ready to make a run next year.

 

Beane has his work cut out for him tho...

 

[B-Large]

35 minutes ago, stevestojan said:

A team being “out of gas” by the divisional round is a terrible reflection on McD, Frazier, and Ken. 

 

Then take a couple of pseudophedrine and run through somebodies face... man that pisses me off..... 

[DrDawkinstein]

36 minutes ago, Buffalo03 said:

I'm tired of hearing that. Were the Bengals or Jaguars out of gas? Part of going to a Super Bowl is winning these extra games. Saying that you're too exhausted is not an excuse. You have to keep going until the end, they clearly didn't 

 

Not physical exhaustion. Or rather, not just physical exhaustion.

 

The mental and emotional exhaustion that comes from playing through deaths, playing through injuries, having schedules and routines thrown for a loop, and then seeing one of your guys die on the field.

 

We were toast before the Cincy MNF game, and certainly toast after. We lucked out that the games after Cincy were a couple of cupcake divisional teams we were already familiar with, but we barely got through those even.

47 minutes ago, zow2 said:

Such bad mojo all week with fans openly talking and planning trips to Atlanta.  I know a few people that booked hotels around Phoenix.  Coach interviewing, Poyer was blatantly saying goodbye to Buffalo even before the Bengals game. As much as i love Hamlin recovering i thought it was a distraction for him to be in the building all week.  Don’t get me wrong it’s fine, I’m happy for him but the guys played like this was a preseason game.

 

"Fan Mojo" has literally 0 to do with it. We have no effect on that game.

 

Everything else you listed certainly does, and didnt help.

 

The team was done with this weird, tough season.

[boyst]

2 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

Not physical exhaustion. Or rather, not just physical exhaustion.

 

The mental and emotional exhaustion that comes from playing through deaths, playing through injuries, having schedules and routines thrown for a loop, and then seeing one of your guys die on the field.

 

We were toast before the Cincy MNF game, and certainly toast after. We lucked out that the games after Cincy were a couple of cupcake divisional teams we were already familiar with, but we barely got through those even.

 

"Fan Mojo" has literally 0 to do with it. We have no effect on that game.

 

Everything else you listed certainly does, and didnt help.

 

The team was done with this weird, tough season.

Check ur texts. 

[TheFunPolice]

mental/emotional exhaustion > physical exhaustion

 

and it isn't even close. You can take a few days off, sleep 10 hours a night and put a huge dent in physical exhaustion. Mental/emotional is much, much more debilitating. 

 

 

Edited January 23, 2023 by TheFunPolice

[FireChans]

Just now, boyst said:

Check ur texts. 

DM me jboy 

[boyst]

Just now, FireChans said:

DM me jboy 

I was sending him the coupon to my OF. You want it too? 

[FireChans]

Just now, boyst said:

I was sending him the coupon to my OF. You want it too? 

Yes

[DrDawkinstein]

Just now, boyst said:

Check ur texts. 

 

I have ALL my groups blocked right now, lol. Cant deal with every single person going to the Dark Places right after a 13-3 season ends.

 

DM me!

[Gunsgoodtime]

38 minutes ago, TheFunPolice said:

It's a lot more fun to the the heel and the underdog who can play the "everyone is against us" card and wreck plans and spoil parties. 

 

That was basically Brady and NE for his first 10-15 years there. First with Manning, then Mahomes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You talking about SB winning qbs.  We talking about the Bills

[Toledo Bill]

16 minutes ago, astb41 said:

Didn’t mean it to come off as an Allen bashing thing. Just meant in the game of inches, 2 inches could’ve changed where we are today.

Understood, thanks. He was far from perfect this year… didn’t mean to be overly sensitive 😀.

[Logic]

6 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

The team opened OTAs to the Buffalo Mass Shooting, and wrapped training camp to Knox's brother dying. Then rolled through a season plagued with devastating injuries to our starters and leaders EVERY. WEEK. Then the weekly routines and games get messed up with weather. Then a player dies on the field...

 

It was all too much.

 

Frankly, we were setup for an early exit all the way back in Week 2 when Hyde went out for the season.

 

Amazing the guys managed to keep it together to a 13-3 record and #1 seed for most of the season, and ending with an 8-0 run and #2 seed.

 

Emotions are raw right now. Everyone go home, heal up, rest up, and get ready to make a run next year.

 

Beane has his work cut out for him tho...

 

This.

I get that emotions are raw right now and everyone is disappointed. Emotions are raw for me, too, and I am as disappointed as anyone. Hell, I made a thread yesterday saying that the front office, coaching staff, and players all deserved to share blame for the absolutely horrendous butt whooping yesterday. There are lots of valid FOOTBALL reasons -- from personnel, coaching, and execution standpoints -- for the loss.

That said...

It's pretty amazing how quickly fans went from "no matter what happens from this point forward, I understand. The players have been through so much this year" to "no excuses, suck it up Buttercup!".

People saying it's a bad reflection on McDermott and that it's a failure in coaching and blah blah blah...

There's a lot of valid reasons to be mad at the coaching from yesterday, but the players being emotionally exhausted is in no way a reflection on coaching, in my opinion.

Anyone discounting or minimizing the adversity this team went through this year is not being realistic. From the mass shooting to Kim Pegula to Knox to the multiple weather events to Damar Hamlin...this has NOT been a typical year. Just about no team in the history of the NFL has ever gone through a season like this. These are human beings. The amount of fortitude and dedication and focus it takes to win a championship in the league is off the charts. Can anyone REALLY blame these guys for not being able to summon the necessary "stuff" to get to the finish line?

Not every hardship automatically galvanizes a team to "win one for the Gipper". This isn't Hollywood. These are human beings. I'd like to see how some of YOU would do after having experienced what these guys experienced and then having to perform in an atmosphere like the NFL playoffs.

I'm disappointed, too. I really am. But there's a definite lack of compassion going on in this thread. These are human beings.

[John from Riverside]

I didn’t want to bring this up while everybody was venting and upset. I was upset too, but we didn’t hear anybody talking yesterday about everything that has happened to this team over the course of the year, leading with damar Hamlin’s near fatal on the field incident.
 

These guys are not robots I was amazed that they were able to play the next week given what they had experienced, and when they did play the next week, I thought that after an initial they looked flat as hell. Then you go into the Miami game, and I also felt in that game that they looked flat.

 

This team was emotionally spent