Groundhog Day 2024 Version

[Mikie2times]

• 2021 at 7-6 people are questioning if this team has what it takes to make the playoffs. We finish 4-0, parlayed with the perfect game, many think this team is Super Bowl bound. They go onto lose to KC in the divisional round
• 2022 at 6-3, suffering B2B losses and playing poorly, people are questioning if this team is really as good as they say. We finish 7-0, many think this team is Super Bowl bound. They go onto lose to Cincinnati in the divisional round
• 2023 at 6-6 people are not thinking we will make the playoffs. We finish the year the year 5-0, many think this team is Super Bowl bound. They go onto lose to KC in the divisional round
• 2024- What could happen?!?!

 

I'm going to play spoiler for you, we will go onto to finish the year as AFC East champions. We will win in the Wild Card round. When the season ends half of the board will talk about how incredible it was to win another AFC East championship and what a great job McD did in holding this team together. The other half will point out that we haven't been able to get past the divisional round more than one time since Josh Allen was our QB.

 

Meanwhile Terry will not give a flying F because at the end of the day his business is a very successful and his customers (you) keep on buying what McD and Beane are selling.  What appears to be a complete lack of progress as a franchise is nullified by our ability to overcome our own midseason ineptitude and you (the fans) ability to completely forget that ineptitude ever happened.  By the time we complete this annual circle jerk we have completely forgotten the moment we are in right now and how in the course of being one of the most dominant regular season teams in the past 4 years we find ourselves in this exact moment over and over and over. Eventually we will be riding that eternal high which is a 4-8 game winning streak into the postseason only to be smacked down under the camouflage of a billion excuses when the only clear answer is we just aren't good enough. 

 

-Our HC who is drawing on near historic levels of regular season success to playoff ineptitude is not good enough 

-The controllable no experienced internal coordinators he has brought in are just not good enough

-The excessive early extensions that led to cap hell, the lack of attention to WR's across multiple teams, the lack of elite talent at any level, using a franchise QB as leverage to not have to provide further weapons is.....say it with me...... JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH 

 

Why would it change? Our fans largely support the leaders of this organization. Why in gods name would Terry go thru the trouble of trying to get new leadership in place for this team? He is not going to be the agent of change and if the fans aren't going to be either, nothing will be. Hope is always what we have had as a fan base and this is becoming one of the most hopeless times I have felt as a Bills fan that I can remember. At least when we sucked all of us knew we needed to do something about it. Nobody questioned that change was needed. It's worse when you feel like we need to do something about it but half the people are saying no, it's ok, it's good enough. 

Edited October 7 by Mikie2times

[Sojourner]

Appreciate the optimism. Refreshing in the desolate period after a loss. 
 

 

[Augie]

3 minutes ago, Mikie2times said:

• 2021 at 7-6 people are questioning if this team has what it takes to make the playoffs. We finish 4-0, parlayed with the perfect game, many think this team is Super Bowl bound. They go onto lose to KC in the divisional round
• 2022 at 6-3, suffering B2B losses and playing poorly, people are questioning if this team is really as good as they say. We finish 7-0, many think this team is Super Bowl bound. They go onto lose to Cincinnati in the divisional round
• 2023 at 6-6 people are not thinking we will make the playoffs. We finish the year the year 5-0, many think this team is Super Bowl bound. They go onto lose to KC in the divisional round
• 2024- What could happen?!?!

 

I'm going to play spoiler for you, we will go onto to finish the year as AFC East champions. We will win in the Wild Card round. When the season ends half of the board will talk about how incredible it was to win another AFC East championship and what a great job McD did in holding this team together. The other half will point out that we haven't been able to get past the divisional round more than one time since Josh Allen was our QB.

 

Meanwhile Terry will not give a flying F because at the end of the day his business is a very successful and his customers (you) keep on buying what McD and Beane are selling.  What appears to be a complete lack of progress as a franchise is nullified by our ability to overcome our own midseason ineptitude and you (the fans) ability to completely forget that ineptitude ever happened.  By the time we complete this annual circle jerk we have completely forgotten the moment we are in right now and how in the course of being one of the most dominant regular season teams in the past 4 years we find ourselves in this exact moment over and over and over. Eventually we will be riding that eternal high which is a 4-8 game winning streak into the postseason only to be smacked down under the camouflage of a billion excuses when the only clear answer is we just aren't good enough. 

 

-Our HC who is drawing on near historic levels of regular season success to playoff ineptitude is not good enough 

-The controllable no experienced internal coordinators he has brought in are just not good enough

-The excessive early extensions that led to cap hell, the lack of attention to WR's across multiple teams, the lack of elite talent at any level, using a franchise QB as leverage to not have to provide further weapons is.....say it with me...... JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH 

 

Why would it change? Our fans largely support the leaders of this organization. Why in gods name would Terry go thru the trouble of trying to get new leadership in place for this team? He is not going to be the agent of change and if the fans aren't going to be either, nothing will be. Hope is always what we have had as a fan base and this is becoming one of the most hopeless times I have felt as a Bills fan that I can remember. At least when we sucked all of us knew we needed to do something about it. Nobody questioned that change was needed. It's worse when you feel like we need to do something about it but half the people are saying no, it's ok, it's good enough. 

 

I think he may be working on correcting the bold for you. 

 

Stuff happens, but why does STUFF always seem so much larger and more dramatic for the Bills? Why do we have to lose in such spectacular fashion? It’s pretty remarkable, but you don’t want that to be the one thing you are known for. 😂 

[US Egg]

So Bill Murray isn't doing a sequel?

[Mikie2times]

Just now, US Egg said:

So Bill Murray isn't doing a sequel?

Doing a sequel of a movie that always repeats is Brandon Beane level witchery. 😆

[GoBills808]

If you're upset over how this yr is likely going to play out your expectations were too high imo

 

This was never a SB caliber roster

[LABILLBACKER]

I guess this new era of Bills fan was so beaten down by 17 years of drought that what's going on now is paradise in comparison. Regardless of whether we ever sniff another SB, I for one will not support stupid coaches that refuse to surround Josh with what he deserves and has earned. Without Josh, McDermott would've been fired ages ago. If Terry is more concerned about some revenue earning stability over pushing this team to a championship,  then shame on him. And if this new age of Bills fan could care less about a Lombardi,  then enjoy your Schottenheimer ride.

[Mikie2times]

4 minutes ago, GoBills808 said:

If you're upset over how this yr is likely going to play out your expectations were too high imo

 

This was never a SB caliber roster

I was upset before the year started. It has only grown with seeing the final product. I don't accept rebuilding years from teams that are building on Wild Card victories with Hall of Fame QB's. 

Edited October 7 by Mikie2times

[LABILLBACKER]

6 minutes ago, Mikie2times said:

I was upset before the year started. It has only grown with seeing the final product. I don't accept rebuilding years from teams that are building on Wild Card victories and not Championships with Hall of Fame QB's. 

Even this season should never have been a rebuild year.  It should've been a reload year.  But I guess you can't reload offensive weapons that were never there in the first place. In Josh's 7 1/2 year career he's had 1 wr for 4 yrs that you could consider a WR1.  Teams like Cinncy, Mia, Houston, Philly, SF, and even Chicago have 2 wrs that you could consider #1's.  What Josh gets is scraps. We wouldn't want to deplete Sean's injury prone D.

[US Egg]

20 minutes ago, Mikie2times said:

Doing a sequel of a movie that always repeats is Brandon Beane level witchery. 😆

Haven’t seen the first one yet.

[GoBills808]

15 minutes ago, Mikie2times said:

I was upset before the year started. It has only grown with seeing the final product. I don't accept rebuilding years from teams that are building on Wild Card victories with Hall of Fame QB's. 

I mean of course I agree but it's spilled milk at this point

[Richard Noggin]

Should have maybe been more obvious to any seasoned Bills fan: this was the McDermott Special 2-Game Swoon. There is a 2-game crisis nearly every season under McD, usually followed by a much-improved on-field product. It's later in the season most years, but it's a thing.

 

Recipe: significant defensive injuries, plus Josh Allen secret concussions/injuries (2 weeks in a row he got his bell rung imho), then add in poor gameplans. Teams that look physically overmatched. They get bullied a bit. 

 

Let sit. Get angry/dejected. Toss it all in the trash.

 

Then start over. (We hope.) 

[RiotAct]

4 hours ago, LABILLBACKER said:

In Josh's 7 1/2 year career he's had 1 wr for 4 yrs that you could consider a WR1.  

6 1/2.

[Simon]

4 hours ago, LABILLBACKER said:

Teams like Cinncy, Mia, Houston, Philly, SF, and even Chicago have 2 wrs that you could consider #1's.

 

Good for them.

How many titles has it brought them?

[Billz4ever]

So this makes me wonder...does Josh continue to believe in McD and Beane out of some sense of loyalty, or at some point in the next few seasons does he come to the realization it's not going to happen for him with this current regime if the Bills can't take the next step or actually starts to go backwards, and either asks for a trade or decides not to re-sign with the Bills at the end of this contract?

 

It's got to start to wear on a player after awhile.

[LABILLBACKER]

52 minutes ago, RiotAct said:

6 1/2.

✅️

[LABILLBACKER]

12 minutes ago, Billz4ever said:

So this makes me wonder...does Josh continue to believe in McD and Beane out of some sense of loyalty, or at some point in the next few seasons does he come to the realization it's not going to happen for him with this current regime if the Bills can't take the next step or actually starts to go backwards, and either asks for a trade or decides not to re-sign with the Bills at the end of this contract?

 

It's got to start to wear on a player after awhile.

I think there will come a time in the near future when Josh finally speaks up for himself.  And about the lower tier weapons he's been given.  

[Billz4ever]

1 minute ago, LABILLBACKER said:

I think there will come a time in the near future when Josh finally speaks up for himself.  And about the lower tier weapons he's been given.  

He's always the guy that takes the high road and never says a bad thing about anyone, but at some point he's going to get tired of just continuing to go along to get along and it may get ugly when that boils over.

[US Egg]

I’m of the mindset Allen did in fact speak up about a WR last season to his bosses.

[Mikie2times]

1 hour ago, Richard Noggin said:

Should have maybe been more obvious to any seasoned Bills fan: this was the McDermott Special 2-Game Swoon. There is a 2-game crisis nearly every season under McD, usually followed by a much-improved on-field product. It's later in the season most years, but it's a thing.

 

Recipe: significant defensive injuries, plus Josh Allen secret concussions/injuries (2 weeks in a row he got his bell rung imho), then add in poor gameplans. Teams that look physically overmatched. They get bullied a bit. 

 

Let sit. Get angry/dejected. Toss it all in the trash.

 

Then start over. (We hope.) 

Sort of the point of my post. Great, lets recover. Set our hopes and dreams on a Divisional game we have no chance of winning. Forget everything, do it again next year. Just be good enough to keep most our fans complacent saying it's ok, at least it's not the drought years. Give the guys that couldn't get us further than a Wild Card game the keys to rebuild the whole thing around the molds of a Devin Funchess or Kelvin Benjamin. The peak of Beane and McD's tenure was 2020. It's been 4 years and it's going backwards. 

 

I think the biggest difference between where I am mentally with this leadership and where I see optimism on the forum is I don't think it's possible they can get us to a Super Bowl. I don't see any possibility this team somehow "finds it" come playoff time. We don't win close games and we don't perform well defensively in the postseason. We are a sub .500 team in games that are decided by 7 points or less over several years. How in gods name are we just going to figure it out in the playoffs when we have never figured it out? Then how are we going to do that for what, 3-4 straight games? The thought is laughable. If I was going to have any hope this year something about this team needed to be different, anything. But it just isn't and in many ways we look even worse than years prior. We will recover, sure, I'm basically certain of it. It will just result in the same ending we have seen for several years now and just like the prior years we will have the exact same conversations this offseason about being close, defensive failures, injuries, and bla, bla, bla. 

Edited October 8 by Mikie2times