Keep hoping, keep believing

[Brianmoorman4jesus]

The one thing I’ll say is home field doesn’t feel the same after we got the taste slapped out of our mouths at home last year. The bye would be nice but that’s not happening. Saying we will definitely make the playoffs is taking liberties here. Obviously it will be a disappointment if we don’t, but nothing is certain here. Got to go beat the Giants and see what’s what 

[LabattBlue]

This is why you want to spend big on offense.  Even when your defense is substandard, your offense can hopefully win in a shootout

[BBFL]

It’s definitely something that should be discussed by all talking heads tomorrow. However I bet they play it down to the Jags just being the better team. They were… but it was for many more reasons. Doubtful anyone other than Bills fans and ambiguous former players state those cases. 

[dgrochester55]

The loss itself was a fluky set of bad circumstances, but the injuries concern me a lot more.   Losing Milano for the year is going to be painful.   The only consolation is that it looks like Bernard and Espeneza may be ready to help fill that void a little bit. 

[Success]

Just now, Aussie Joe said:

The Dolphins fans have awarded themselves the division already and laughing at the injuries…

 

Ao there is that.. 

 

 

 

We embarrassed that team last week.

 

I'm not sure if Milano being out is a 28 point difference.

 

 

[Mojo44]

13 minutes ago, Einstein said:

Im trying to stay positive but it’s hard. If we had just lost the game, I’d feel more hopeful. But we lost a lot more than that.

 

We aren’t bringing home a healthy team to fight on.

 

From now on we go to battle without our all-star CB that was starting to round back into form. Without our all-star LB who now has a broken leg. Without our high level DT, who likely has a torn pec. With our hall-of-fame DE on a pitch count.

 

 

I know what you mean. Today felt catastrophic. And that’s because of the injuries and not the loss so much. At least for now we fans may have to go into a “phase shift“ from pulling for a team that was clearly top-tier to one that needs to fight it’s butt off to get to the post season.

[Johnnycage46]

Easier said than done.  Massive, key injuries, a streaky O coordinator, brutal schedule.  We need to win these and Jets types of games because we still have some heavyweights on the schedule.  

 

Right now I would say we are looking at a wildcard spot and likely a 1st round exit. Then start the "this is our year" hopes all over again next summer.

[Success]

2 minutes ago, Brianmoorman4jesus said:

The one thing I’ll say is home field doesn’t feel the same after we got the taste slapped out of our mouths at home last year. The bye would be nice but that’s not happening. Saying we will definitely make the playoffs is taking liberties here. Obviously it will be a disappointment if we don’t, but nothing is certain here. Got to go beat the Giants and see what’s what 

 

That's all pretty fair.  I feel very good about this team making the playoffs and being a high seed - but it's a long season, and a lot of stuff can happen. Obviously, if injuries to key players continue, it reaches a sort of critical mass.

 

Just hoping we got the bad injury luck out of the way early.  But yeah - on to the Giants. One at a time and we'll see where things stand in a few months.

 

[Buffalo03]

3 minutes ago, RichRiderBills said:

 

Just stop....we are 1 game out of 1 seed . One game! Chill.

 

Injuries will hit everyone. Miami QB has never played more than 13 games, then it gets cold. KC is just Mahomes and Kelce slinging it around. 

 

We keep our game straight, win one game at a time, damn good chance at 9-2 or 8-3 headed into the tougher games. 

 

 

Just stop? Lmao. How will we get the 1 seed with no Tre White, Matt Milano, DaQuon Jones for an extended period of time. Kaiir Elam is a huge liability in coverage. We have to hope Benford doesn't miss anymore time. It's a mess right now. Just pure fact. It isn't gonna be easy

[ALLinALLEN]

Not even mad at the loss, the injuries terrify me for the season. It’s week 5

[CodeMonkey]

44 minutes ago, Success said:

I feel like making the Bills play in London against a team that was already there for a week ahead of time was kind of like making the players wear hiking boots to play the game.  Or something like that.

Come on man, they could have gone over there in plenty of time to get over the jet lag.  It's on the Bills FO.  They made a painful mistake, now its time to have some fun and kick the crap out of the NJ Giants.

 

The Jets are nothing without Rogers, the pats are less than nothing.  The fish are good but not great.  The Bills could win the AFCE still or get a wildcard if they can manage to get out of their own way.

Edited October 9, 2023 by CodeMonkey

[PBF81]

Last season we lost White, Hyde, and Miller, and Poyer was injured and still went 13-3 and won the division.  

 

Our OL was not what it is now, we didn't have Kincaid or Harris.  Dorsey's in his second season.  

 

Patience.  

 

 

[Einstein]

3 minutes ago, Bills!Win! said:

I’ve been a fan since I was a little eight year old kid cheering for flutie because I didn't know any better. I find myself caring less and less every year. New year, different disappointments and let downs. 

 

Clinically speaking, you spent your Bills formative years in a constant state of hope. Every 3 years you got a new coach and QB and there existed renewed hope for a winning combination that would bring home a Lombardi.

 

Now, you don’t have any new combinations coming. You got the QB - long term. And the coach isn’t going anywhere. You know there is no new combination coming. You just have to hope that your current combination will figure it out. Every year that the long term combination doesn’t work, you feel more and more hopeless… because there is no hope for a different combination in the near future.

 

Or not. I’m not a psychiatrist.

[Aussie Joe]

2 minutes ago, PBF81 said:

Last season we lost White, Hyde, and Miller, and Poyer was injured and still went 13-3 and won the division.  

 

Our OL was not what it is now, we didn't have Kincaid or Harris.  Dorsey's in his second season.  

 

Patience.  

 

 

Oh I’m sure they will still make the playoffs for the 5th year in a row 

[BillzFreak]

1 minute ago, Einstein said:

 

Clinically speaking, you spent your Bills formative years in a constant state of hope. Every 3 years you got a new coach and QB and there existed renewed hope for a winning combination that would bring home a Lombardi.

 

Now, you don’t have any new combinations coming. You got the QB - long term. And the coach isn’t going anywhere. You know there is no new combination coming. You just have to hope that your current combination will figure it out. Every year that the long term combination doesn’t work, you feel more and more hopeless… because there is no hope for a different combination in the near future.

 

Or not. I’m not a psychiatrist.

You always got to hope until it's over. The season is 5 games in and we are 3 and 2, if you're giving up hope now that's on you. As long as we have 17 as our qb I find it hard not to be hopefull but that's just me I guess.

[Bills!Win!]

3 minutes ago, Einstein said:

 

Clinically speaking, you spent your Bills formative years in a constant state of hope. Every 3 years you got a new coach and QB and there existed renewed hope for a winning combination that would bring home a Lombardi.

 

Now, you don’t have any new combinations coming. You got the QB - long term. And the coach isn’t going anywhere. You know there is no new combination coming. You just have to hope that your current combination will figure it out. Every year that the long term combination doesn’t work, you feel more and more hopeless… because there is no hope for a different combination in the near future.

 

Or not. I’m not a psychiatrist.

This is a good perspective, but it’s also like, “if they haven’t figured out how to win it in the past 4 years then they never will”

[KOKBILLS]

28 minutes ago, Success said:

I feel like making the Bills play in London against a team that was already there for a week ahead of time was kind of like making the players wear hiking boots to play the game.  Or something like that.

 

Could we have won?  Sure. But today wasn't a measure of who the '23 Bills are.  It was a weird, stupid game that is part of a series of weird, stupid games that will happen until the NFL either establishes a team in London, or they reign in their greed and don't.

 

We lost some important players to injury.  They might be back, they might not.  But it's early in the season - either their back-ups will look good, or Beane will make some moves.  It's not a termination notice on the season.

 

So many "we're just cursed" comments today.  Bad energy, imo.  No opposing fan has the Bills penciled in as a "W" right now, and likely won't for a long time.  I don't see ANY team in the AFC as being better.  I think the Chiefs and Dolphins are both on our level, but neither team scares me.  A few of the other teams COULD beat us (one did today), but we would be favored against any other team.

 

We'll be there at the end. Teams usually need a break or 2 to make it all the way, and there is no predicting that, or planning for it.  All we can do is hope it happens to us this year. But this team is still a legit SB contender, and we have as good a shot as anyone.

 

 

 

I don't know...I don't think it's as much bad energy as it is the reality of the situation, and the feeling like we've been here...some of us for decades...in one way or the other.

 

The Bills started the Miami game with basically one player down and he was likely rested due (in part at least) to his age. In 2 short weeks they are a walking NFL infirmary on Defense, and you don't replace players like Tre, Milano, and Jones easily. I think the doom and gloom is absolutely warranted today... We'll see what it's like a week from now. It will get better. The Bills are still a really good team. But they got punched in the mouth today and came out limping pretty bad. We'll see. 

[PBF81]

1 minute ago, Aussie Joe said:

Oh I’m sure they will still make the playoffs for the 5th year in a row 

 

Yeah, me too.  

 

My take is that perhaps we've tried too hard during the regular season to be as perfect as possible.  I'd rather lose another couple of games, or three, get in as a Wild Card, and not have the weight/burden of being the #1 or #2 seed.  

 

IDK, maybe that would help.  Doing what we've been doing hasn't helped.  

 

 

[julian]

As long as Allen and Diggs remain healthy, this is a playoff team, just get in and I like our QB advantage in most games outside of KC

[JohnNord]

43 minutes ago, Success said:

I feel like making the Bills play in London against a team that was already there for a week ahead of time was kind of like making the players wear hiking boots to play the game.  Or something like that.

 

Could we have won?  Sure. But today wasn't a measure of who the '23 Bills are.  It was a weird, stupid game that is part of a series of weird, stupid games that will happen until the NFL either establishes a team in London, or they reign in their greed and don't.

 

We lost some important players to injury.  They might be back, they might not.  But it's early in the season - either their back-ups will look good, or Beane will make some moves.  It's not a termination notice on the season.

 

So many "we're just cursed" comments today.  Bad energy, imo.  No opposing fan has the Bills penciled in as a "W" right now, and likely won't for a long time.  I don't see ANY team in the AFC as being better.  I think the Chiefs and Dolphins are both on our level, but neither team scares me.  A few of the other teams COULD beat us (one did today), but we would be favored against any other team.

 

We'll be there at the end. Teams usually need a break or 2 to make it all the way, and there is no predicting that, or planning for it.  All we can do is hope it happens to us this year. But this team is still a legit SB contender, and we have as good a shot as anyone.

 

 

I just want to get into the playoffs.  All that matters is getting healthy.  The #1 seed and the bye would be great but we’ve seen in years past team knocking the #1 in their own house.  
 

If we can’t get #1, I really couldn’t care who or were the Bills play.  it’s a new season.  

Homefield is nice to have but if the Bills are gassed or playing short handed like last season, it doesn’t mean anything.

 

Just get healthy and get in