Was Micah Hyde's injury the key to the Bills' season?

[Giuseppe Tognarelli]

On reflection, I've come to the theory that Micah Hyde's injury is why the Bills aren't moving on. There can be other reasons, of course, but I believe that if Hyde hadn't gotten hurt, that alone would have changed many things.

 

Had Hyde not been injured, he would have been there to knock down the pass to Justin Jefferson; Cam Lewis wouldn't have been playing. This alone makes Bills the #1 seed, with a bye, a win over Jacksonville, and waiting to play the winner of CIN-KC in the AFCCG.

 

Furthermore, if Hyde isn't hurt, Hamlin isn't playing and never gets hurt against Cincinnati. As a result, even if CIN beat KC in the theoretical matchup above, they wouldn't be coming in here with the motivation of the coin toss, ticket sales, etc. because none of that would've happened. Even more importantly, the Bills would be well rested, not having endured the emotional toll that caused them to run out of gas on Sunday.

 

The fact that Micah would have played next week had the Bills won on Sunday just makes it even more fascinating.

[Aussie Joe]

Von Miller 

[RiotAct]

never know how things would have gone if Hyde didn’t get injured week 2.

 

It’s easy to kibitz about this stuff “on paper”…

[BarleyNY]

Just now, Aussie Joe said:

Von Miller 

And Tre White. 

[Marcus Aurelius]

If the dog didn't stop to take a poop he would have caught the mailman 

[H2o]

Just now, Aussie Joe said:

Von Miller 

When Von went down our defense went from 3rd in pressure percentage to in the mid-20's. He was the one opening up things for everyone else, because he still commands that much attention. Hopefully he can come back fully healthy by October. 

1 minute ago, Marcus Aurelius said:

If the dog didn't stop to take a poop he would have caught the mailman 

His faults as a pet are your failures as an owner. 

[Southern_Bills]

3 minutes ago, BarleyNY said:

And Tre White. 

 

They knew Trey wouldn't be 100% this season just like Von won't be next year. 

 

And to the OP if 1 or 2 non QB injuries tank your season that's a huge problem. 

[Houston's #1 Bills Fan]

Pretty sure Micah doesn't play on the offense.....

 

Takes points to win and we's was short!

[947]

Hyde & Von injuries just exposed the defensive issues that were already there. Much like Josh has covered up the weaknesses of our OL the past few seasons, I think Hyde & Poyer together covered a lot of defensive deficiencies. Our scheme is archaic & an awful fit for playoff football. Cincinnati exposed it without even breaking a sweat for the world to see.

 

If that butt-kicking is what it takes to finally get a full Defensive scheme upheaval, then at least there's a silver lining.

[H2o]

3 minutes ago, Southern_Bills said:

 

They knew Trey wouldn't be 100% this season just like Von won't be next year. 

 

And to the OP if 1 or 2 non QB injuries tank your season that's a huge problem. 

Von is in a different spot. His knee injury wasn't as extensive as White. He also doesn't play as demanding a position on the knees like White. I think Von will be a full go by October, and back to his old self. 

[Ethan in Cleveland]

Tre White injury ruined two seasons. If he doesn't get hurt they take OT or WR in round 1. Offense is probably better and deeper. Now we have an excess of CBs and issues on both lines.

[BarleyNY]

2 minutes ago, Southern_Bills said:

 

They knew Trey wouldn't be 100% this season just like Von won't be next year. 

 

And to the OP if 1 or 2 non QB injuries tank your season that's a huge problem. 

All true. But the combination of losing both White and Miller along with the timing of the injuries really, really hurt the team. This is not to say that the coaching staff or many other players performed at an acceptable level. Or even that Beane has drafted well enough. Those are separate issues. 

[Ramza86]

Micah was a massive loss for sure.

 

All I saw were the safeties getting cooked all year.

[dorquemada]

I mean, it's not like homefield made any difference.  They can get whooped at KC or Cincy or Jax just as well as in OP

 

The team was flat, I believe the term du jour is gassed.  There's some valid reasons for it, but fact is Sunday's game looked like a classic run for the bus situation.  I can't call out a single player that played well.

[SoCal Deek]

1 minute ago, dorquemada said:

I mean, it's not like homefield made any difference.  They can get whooped at KC or Cincy or Jax just as well as in OP

 

The team was flat, I believe the term du jour is gassed.  There's some valid reasons for it, but fact is Sunday's game looked like a classic run for the bus situation.  I can't call out a single player that played well.

THIS is the post of the week! Nobody has said it any better. I know because I’ve certainly tried. 

[eSJayDee]

If you wanna go all sci-fi alternate time line thing, that's plausible.  If you remain grounded in our current understanding of reality, not much of an impact IMO.  Losing Von Miller I think had a FAR more significant impact.  We went from having a very effective pass rush using only 4 to being very mediocre even when blitzing.

[SoCal Deek]

Come on people! The Bengals played without an Offensive Line and we STILL couldn’t rush the passer or stop the run! But if we only had Micah Hyde we’d have shown them. Sure. 

[BigAl2526]

Injuries to Hyde and Von Miller were huge, but had nothing to do with the total ineffectiveness of the offensive line in the Cincinnati game.  They didn't have that much to do with the ineffectiveness of the defensive line at stopping the run in the Cincinnati game, or the overall ineffectiveness of the interior defensive linemen.  They might have gotten more pressure on Joe Burrow though.

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

No. They made the playoffs. I highly doubt he would have been the guy to cover all the cinci players running wide open every play. 
 

i am sure he wouldn’t have change the sub 60% completion poor running game and trench domination 

[Matt_In_NH]

QB sneak it out of the endzone and we would probably be playing the winner of KC/Cinci next week.  Sure you can also say the 4th and 18.   You don't need to find an injury though, just execute at the right time in that same game.   Injuries happen to all teams and they have affects....but no excuses.  The Bills need to look carefully at themselves and what happened in that divisional round.