Day #4 after the loss to KC: Feeling better? Worse? Why? (Thread started at Day #2)

[Doc Brown]

On 1/29/2025 at 6:15 AM, Billzgobowlin said:

Rest assured the Bills and Josh Allen will get the obligatory Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Steve Young, Big Ben Super Bowl.  The league will allow Josh Allen one ring.

I'm cool with that.  Can they make it next year?  Maybe Josh can pull a Peyton Manning or Big Ben and get two.

[SaulGoodman]

On 1/29/2025 at 4:48 PM, Steptide said:

Still pissy. The thing that's annoying me more than anything, is seeing all the kc fans on Twitter that actually believe all the flags that kc gets are legit. I will 100% admit that kc outplayed the bills, but I cannot stand the blind homerism. And I include some bills fans in that. I will admit when a call is a bad call. Example - the pi called on tre white against Coleman against Baltimore. Terrible call. The thing I find so odd too is, I find it so much easier to admit a bad call if the bills win. See my example above regarding the pi on tre white. For whatever reason though, even though kc won and is going to the superbowl yet again, kc fans (at least what I've seen) are absolutely dead set on saying they don't get biased flags. It's such bs. Just freaking admit that you've had garbage flags that have helped your team. 

I think any KC fan will admit that iffy calls have gone their way at times. They’re just not willing to admit it’s evidence of a planned agenda. Every team gets iffy calls. One can say that KC gets more than others, but there’s no evidence of that. 

 

We all know that refs have a difficult job and are inconsistent or, at times, even incompetent. A controversial call shouldn’t automatically be chalked up to conspiracy. Fans complain about calls in literally every game involving any pair of teams. 
 

In all seriousness, the most crushing and impactful calls have gone against KC in the postseason. Four KC TDs were negated by penalty in the last two playoff runs, along with multiple turnovers. Their opponents had zero of either. How can there be an obvious conspiracy to help them if the most impactful calls go against them? 
 

As an example…would the hold at the end of the ‘22 SB have mattered if they hadn’t made a very iffy call to wipe Bolton’s defensive score off the board?

[BobbyC81]

So, do we refer to this game as “The Spot game”?  as the refs spot on that 4 th down sneak was probably the biggest isdue.

[GunnerBill]

8 hours ago, SaulGoodman said:

I think any KC fan will admit that iffy calls have gone their way at times. They’re just not willing to admit it’s evidence of a planned agenda. Every team gets iffy calls. One can say that KC gets more than others, but there’s no evidence of that. 

 

We all know that refs have a difficult job and are inconsistent or, at times, even incompetent. A controversial call shouldn’t automatically be chalked up to conspiracy. Fans complain about calls in literally every game involving any pair of teams. 
 

In all seriousness, the most crushing and impactful calls have gone against KC in the postseason. Four KC TDs were negated by penalty in the last two playoff runs, along with multiple turnovers. Their opponents had zero of either. How can there be an obvious conspiracy to help them if the most impactful calls go against them? 
 

As an example…would the hold at the end of the ‘22 SB have mattered if they hadn’t made a very iffy call to wipe Bolton’s defensive score off the board?

 

I don't think KC won by conspiracy on Sunday. I think both the questionable calls the officials very much erred towards stay on the field. On the 4th down, being perfectly honest, I would not have overturned the call on the field either based on the video and my gut instinct at the time was he didn't make it. When I watch the video back I think he probably did make it but the ball is not in view at the critical moment it's behind someone's back so the refs would be guessing. 

 

They screwed the pooch on the Worthy catch though. That was clearly incomplete and should have been overturned. I'm not getting super mad about it though, they Bills had a hold call on that play anyway (think it was Taron Johnson) so the Chiefs were getting a new set of downs anyway even if it was 15 yards or so further back. 

[Man with No Name]

Feel the same. We've been doing this for a long time. What is there to feel better or worse about? We're the better team. They are either smarter, better prepared, or more composed. or some combination of all 3. Every year, we beat them in the regular season, lose when it counts. Life of a Bills fan. If we stay this competitive, maybe someday we'll beat them. You'd think we could win maybe 1 out of 10 coin flips, even in the coin is slightly balanced to go the other way. 

[ddaryl]

same.. I mentioned a few times that I can feel no peace until the Bills win it all. A SB appearance will not be good enough, we have to win it all.

 

[akinko_kd]

I feel worse and worse.
I don't want to watch the Super Bowl.
I don't want anything red in my eyes.
I don't like black and white stripes.
And the reason is the same as yours.

[SaulGoodman]

44 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

I don't think KC won by conspiracy on Sunday. I think both the questionable calls the officials very much erred towards stay on the field. On the 4th down, being perfectly honest, I would not have overturned the call on the field either based on the video and my gut instinct at the time was he didn't make it. When I watch the video back I think he probably did make it but the ball is not in view at the critical moment it's behind someone's back so the refs would be guessing. 

 

They screwed the pooch on the Worthy catch though. That was clearly incomplete and should have been overturned. I'm not getting super mad about it though, they Bills had a hold call on that play anyway (think it was Taron Johnson) so the Chiefs were getting a new set of downs anyway even if it was 15 yards or so further back. 

 

Yeah, the Worthy call was iffy. I think they just felt there wasn't enough evidence to overturn, since by the rule it has to be indisputable. I get why many think it was a bad call, but that one's complicated. He seemed to tighten his grip on the ball just before hitting the ground. Did the ball move when it hit the ground? Hard to tell. Gene Steratore wasn't sure either. 

 

Steratore did say that he thought Allen had the first on the 4th down play. I tend to agree, but it was close and you can see how a ref would miss that in real time. 

[finn]

12 hours ago, Success said:

I posted after the game - almost incessantly - that I was done, done, done. Done being dedicated so much to this team & sport.

 

It was a self-pity party, for sure.  I apologize to all who encountered me in a thread that night.  I was like a lunatic.

 

But it was good for me. I felt embarrassed that a game should mean so much to me as an older dude.  It's kind of pathetic.  I'm not as extreme about being "done," but there is a change going on for sure.  I think I'm making - finally - the transition to being a much more casual fan.  Not caring about draft weekend, catching games when I can in the regular, and not consuming so much sports commentary & news.

 

I'll enjoy it if the Bills have success, but won't care if they come up short again.  I'll never be a fan at the level that I was.  I've watched since wide right, and it's really too much.  Like, why am I putting so much emotion into it?  It seems crazy.  Life is too short, as they say.

 

I'm in the same place, brother. Am I too invested, to the point of being a bit of a loser, living off the ups and downs of an NFL team instead of living my own life with its own ups and downs? Frankly I think the answer is yes. It's probably healthier to find ways to invest my energy in the real people around me, take pleasure (and pain) in my own plans. The genius of professional sports--the NFL in particular, I think--is its cyclical nature. Soon after the fraudulent Super Bowl is played and the insufferable glazing of Mahomes stops, talk about the draft starts, like little shoots of green in a frozen garden, and I find myself thinking about the Bills again as I go about my life. "If they draft a big DT and sign a real safety and WR, they could go all the way!" Hope rises again, and that's a powerful drug. That's why the media and fan narratives are so important to us, I think; they're the real measure of how the Bills (which is to say we) are doing. It's not just the standings. You identify too closely with your team, the talking heads aren't just describing them as winners or losers, they're talking about us, and that's hard to shut out, even when your team loses. I'm sure, like me, you were right there suffering all those years during the Drought, right? Each year thinking, "This year might be different. This year they [I] will win." 

 

But let's not kid. If this has been my pattern for decades--decades!--there's no way I'm going to give up this drug, especially with someone like Allen as quarterback. They're too close. If (here I go) they're just a little better next year, and the ball bounces their way a few more times, they'll overcome the NFL's thumb on the scale and win the Super Bowl. After that, it's all gravy. 

[GunnerBill]

2 minutes ago, SaulGoodman said:

 

Yeah, the Worthy call was iffy. I think they just felt there wasn't enough evidence to overturn, since by the rule it has to be indisputable. I get why many think it was a bad call, but that one's complicated. He seemed to tighten his grip on the ball just before hitting the ground. Did the ball move when it hit the ground? Hard to tell. Gene Steratore wasn't sure either. 

 

Steratore did say that he thought Allen had the first on the 4th down play. I tend to agree, but it was close and you can see how a ref would miss that in real time. 

 

I think the ball clearly hit the ground with no hand underneath it and that is where I just wish they'd simplify the rule. That is no catch. I thought there was clearly enough evidence to overturn that to be honest but introducing this "control" element which is open to interpretation confuses things.

[jcamm1966]

Just bummed out, that's all

[JP51]

Better... because you go back to life... and life as much as it consumes us sometimes isnt football...  

[HOUSE]

I saw the presser yesterday and now I feel the need to buy 3 used cars

This one drives great for 3 months than stales at the worst possible time

 

 

 

Edited 2 minutes ago by HOUSE

[Fleezoid]

On 1/29/2025 at 5:48 PM, Steptide said:

Still pissy. The thing that's annoying me more than anything, is seeing all the kc fans on Twitter that actually believe all the flags that kc gets are legit. I will 100% admit that kc outplayed the bills, but I cannot stand the blind homerism. And I include some bills fans in that. I will admit when a call is a bad call. Example - the pi called on tre white against Coleman against Baltimore. Terrible call. The thing I find so odd too is, I find it so much easier to admit a bad call if the bills win. See my example above regarding the pi on tre white. For whatever reason though, even though kc won and is going to the superbowl yet again, kc fans (at least what I've seen) are absolutely dead set on saying they don't get biased flags. It's such bs. Just freaking admit that you've had garbage flags that have helped your team. 

 

I'm even beyond pissy. The word that keeps coming to mind is 'fixed'! Folks are using other terms; scripted, rigged, skewed. It's all just another term for fixed! If you're going to fix a game and you're trying to hide it, how do you do it? You can't make it obvious. It has to be subtle. Plausible deniability. I must have said about 4 times during the game, 'that's a bad spot'. I didn't know how bad it was until the videos came out and the National commentary started to emerge. 

 

I know a lot of folks are just writing it off as poor officiating or unintentional bias. So be it. But I haven't seen that level of bad calls in any game I've watched over the last couple of years. Going back a few years, there was the obvious, blatant missed call in the Saints Rams game. But this wasn't like that. This was surgical. 

 

And the football pundits are not going to talk about it. Even if they don't work for the NFL. They'll risk their jobs. I absolutely believe the NFL wields that much weight. 

 

This will be the easiest offseason for me in about a decade. After about 50 years of fandom, I'll be doing a good amount of soul searching the next several months. I feel the worst, and best I've ever felt after a playoff loss.

 

(Sigh....end rant!)