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Now that the dust on the season has settled (a bit) can we please consider the Elephant in the room?


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Posted (edited)

This is something we all know and acknowledge anyway about the 2022-2023 Buffalo Bills:

 

They went through some *****!!!

 

Tops shooting

Kim Pegula getting sick

Knox's brother dying

120 degree heat game in Miami

Davis lingering ankle injury (multiple reporters, including Dan Fetes, said he just didn't look right in practice for most of the season)

Dane Jackson having to get taken off the field in an Ambulance

Micah Hyde being lost for the season

Josh Allen elbow injury and minimal practice/throwing for a couple weeks and lingering through the season

7 foot blizzard that didn't allow for a week of real practice and then relocated a home game to Detroit

A 2nd home game in Detroit 4 days later

4 away games in 11 days

Getting stuck in Chicago overnight on Christmas Eve because of a blizzard that killed dozens of people in Buffalo

Missing what many would argue are the 2 biggest Holidays of the year with their families

Damar

 

And I'm sure I'm missing some of these things.

 

EDIT: Somehow I forgot losing Von Miller... insane list 

 

These guys are human beings and I challenge anyone to find another team in NFL history that went through as much crap as Buffalo did this year and still managed to go 13-3 in the regular season and win a playoff game with one of the harder SoSs in that year.

 

I had issues with the offensive and defensive gameplan by Dorsey and Frazier.  Obviously a problem--big problem as far as Frazier goes when you're playing zone with guys 10 yards off the line against a QB with one of the quickest releases in the NFL.

 

But let's all take a breath.  This clearly wasn't our year.  But maybe it's more Acts of God than the team just not being good.

Edited by transplantbillsfan
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Posted (edited)

Certainly was a lot of adversity.
 

But adversity didn’t outmatch our offensive and defensive lines on most snaps. 
 

Edit: Elephant in the room implies something big people aren’t talking about. See covered “ad infinitum” above. 

Edited by JohnBonhamRocks
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Posted (edited)

I fixed it for you, you forgot one

 

18 hours ago, transplantbillsfan said:

This is something we all know and acknowledge anyway about the 2022-2023 Buffalo Bills:

 

They went through some *****!!!

 

Tops shooting

Kim Pegula getting sick

Knox's brother dying

120 degree heat game in Miami

Davis lingering ankle injury (multiple reporters, including Dan Fetes, said he just didn't look right in practice for most of the season)

Dane Jackson having to get taken off the field in an Ambulance

Micah Hyde being lost for the season

Josh Allen elbow injury and minimal practice/throwing for a couple weeks and lingering through the season

7 foot blizzard that didn't allow for a week of real practice and then relocated a home game to Detroit

A 2nd home game in Detroit 4 days later

4 away games in 11 days

Getting stuck in Chicago overnight on Christmas Eve because of a blizzard that killed dozens of people in Buffalo

Missing what many would argue are the 2 biggest Holidays of the year with their families

Damar

HOUSE is broke

And I'm sure I'm missing some of these things.

 

These guys are human beings and I challenge anyone to find another team in NFL history that went through as much crap as Buffalo did this year and still managed to go 13-3 in the regular season and win a playoff game with one of the harder SoSs in that year.

 

I had issues with the offensive and defensive gameplan by Dorsey and Frazier.  Obviously a problem--big problem as far as Frazier goes when you're playing zone with guys 10 yards off the line against a QB with one of the quickest releases in the NFL.

 

But let's all take a breath.  This clearly wasn't our year.  But maybe it's more Acts of God than the team just not being good.

 

Edited by HOUSE
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Posted
1 minute ago, GolfandBills said:

Bengals are way ahead of us is what i took from this season and it’s not really close.    Lots of work to do to catch up to them.  

They really are. It isn’t close. They probably would’ve eliminated us last season too.

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Posted

They battled through adversity knocking out win after win and just when they turned the corner...things were looking better, Damar was back in the building...they were 2 games away from their dream...just at that moment they decided they didn't have anything left in them.   Sorry I don't buy it.  I feel for all the players went through this season but Cincy game was a complete coaching mismatch.  

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Posted
1 minute ago, Governor said:

They really are. It isn’t close. They probably would’ve eliminated us last season too.


I do think both teams at full health are fairly evenly matched. But clearly their depth on both lines is superior to ours and even some of our starters. 

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Posted

Eh, it’s excuses.   they didn’t have the leadership and assassin mentality during the week to do whatever it took to beat Cinci.  They didn’t seize the moment during an 3 hour block of time and take it seriously enough. They figured being “home” would take care of things.

 

I blame McDermott,, and pin some on Frazier and Dorsey, and to be honest the team leaders as well. They lollygagged during the week and Cincinnati was incensed and ready to pound the Bills.

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Posted

I have a lot of respect for the way the Bills battled through the insane amount of adversity that they faced this season.  In all honesty I've never seen a team go through as much as the Bills had to.  It was a DRAINING season as a fan, I can't imagine how the players must feel.  They pulled out some wins in some games they probably had no business winning.  So props and respect to those guys for the way they battled this season.

 

But I think if we are being honest with ourselves that Bengals game did expose this Bills team as still being a bit off from being a true Super Bowl team.  We really have some weaknesses on both lines and probably still missing a couple of legit playmakers in general.  Playcalling is a bit suspect.  These things don't have anything to do with the adversity.  

 

They do not have to be mutually exclusive thoughts.  

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Posted

Yes, there was an unusual amount of adversity within the larger Buffalo community, but I think 99% of the non-injury stuff had little to no impact on what we saw on Sunday. 

 

I do, however, believe that the Damar thing was huge.  That was a legitimate trauma inducing event.  And isn't easy to bounce back from.  I think back to the difficult birth of my youngest son and watching him have to be resuscitated in front of me over many minutes while my wife cried and begged to know why the baby wasn't crying and asked if he was dead.  Happy ending as he's fine now, but he was in the ICU for almost two weeks and I would just randomly cry throughout the day for a couple of weeks and really didn't move past it (or stop revisiting it daily) until he had been home for a couple of months.  I can see how the players might have been a little emotionally burned out from the whole thing and have it effect them despite their best intentions to move forward and win it for themselves and Damar.  It's just human nature.

 

Having said that, it doesn't excuse what we saw in terms of strategy or lack thereof, and the first quarter of the earlier game had already revealed that we had serious issues dealing with the Bengals personnel and approach.  The better team won on Sunday.  No doubt in my mind regarding that.

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Posted (edited)

  They got outcoached period as I pointed out in a previous post. Josh could only make magic so many times before the fact the oline and receiving corps being a total joke caught up with them.

  The head coach and defensive coordinator have nearly 40 years combined coaching D…even with the injuries and facing three backup linemen …the Bengals did what they wanted on O. 
  The Bengals are good but not some juggernaut…they were shellacked by the Jacoby Brissette Cleveland Browns before their winning streak. In addition if not for Tyler Huntley being a bonehead they would have lost the week before. 
  This is on McDermott, Frasier, Dorsey, and Beane period. 

Edited by 78thealltimegreat
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Posted

“Excuses are the tools of the weak and incompetent. They build bridges to nowhere and tunnels to nothingness…Those who excel in them seldom do in anything else, therefore, there are no excuses.”

 

At the end of the day you have to overcome, as hard as it is and as sad as all those terrible events are, you have to. Champion caliber teams and people overcome. 


Remember Dion’s player tribune:

 

“There’s been enough talking. But the Mafia knows what’s true. And what’s true is: We’re all in. We’re done waiting, we’re done coming at the king and missing, we’re done knocking on the door of this sh*t, with no answer, for this damn long. We’re keeping it SIMPLE this run. Because — straight up: It’s just football. You know what I’m saying? It’s JUST football!! And we’re better than these other teams at it, so let’s beat four of them and then have a parade.“

 

Forget about the elephant. Enough is enough. Get it done. Finish the job. 

 

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Posted

This is all an excuse, the Bills failed with their mission! All teams fight through adversity, even where there is none teams will manufacture it out of thin air to gather the chip on the shoulder mentality. Of course the adversity was an all time high - things won't get any easier.

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Posted

I have faith that Dorsey and Josh will work out the kinks in the playbook 

I have faith that a defence with Hyde, Von and healthy Tre will be much better. 
I have faith that Josh will work hard to improve again. 
Im worried about having a DC like Frazier who cannot get the max from this team. 
This team is still very good and will be better next year. 

Posted
1 hour ago, GolfandBills said:

Bengals are way ahead of us is what i took from this season and it’s not really close.    Lots of work to do to catch up to them.  

This is the grim reality.  Reminds me of when we lost to Chiefs in AFC Championship game.

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