Day #7 after the loss to KC: Feeling better? Worse? Why? (Thread started at Day #2)

[McMuffin]

I feel good about next season and I expect us to be right back in the thick of things.  

[frostbitmic]

It's old news at this point... It's like Deja vu over and over again.

 

 

[Nihilarian]

5 hours ago, CSBill said:

I haven't thought about it much. This has been a much more productive week since last Sunday, as this is the first time I have looked at anything on TBD.

 

This was supposed to be a rebuilding year--lost players, salary cap hits, etc.--but it turned out to be a year where expectations probably outran reality. Our team was surprisingly very good, and with a few days of reflection, we got the most, really, more, out of this team than we should have. We got a little spoiled and greedy. And that is not bad. But because of that, we can too easily forget what was actually accomplished--which was a lot.

 

The future is bright.

 

I will leave it to Marv to move us forward:

 

"A LITTLE I AM HERT, BUT NOT YET SLAIN.

I'LL JUST LIE DOWN AND BLEED A WHILE,

THEN I'LL RISE AND FIGHT AGAIN."

 

https://leasingnews.org/Poetry-football/Fight_on.htm

[ShakAttack]

Alright, it's day #6 and I'm not feeling great.  And it sucks because I was generally fine the past couple of days... so what changed?

 

Made the mistake of tuning into SiriusXM NFL channel while I was on a weekly Saturday morning donut run with my 8-year-old son (who, by the way, was born on 1/11/17, the day we hired Sean McDermott, and the year the Bills snapped their playoff drought).

 

Anyway, listening to the Sirius NFL channel clearly brought to surface some of the thoughts that I had been repressing.

 

The reason I am hurting today is because this year, more than ever, the stage was set for us to make the Super Bowl.  And nobody really knows if or when there will be an opportunity this good again.  We had a lot going for us...

• We had proven that we can defeat ANYONE in the NFL. Defeated Chiefs & Lions in the regular season and clearly outplayed both teams. Baltimore was definitely a tough matchup for us, but more on that soon.
• We got "lucky" in the playoffs for pretty much the first time ever in Josh Allen's career in the win over Baltimore. This is when I started to let myself believe that this year may indeed be "different". And you want to know the most cruel part about this thought process? I was basing it off the fact that Mark Andrews dropped that 2-point conversion to tie the game, friends and family started to blow up my phone to congratulate me, and I would tell them: "Boy, it was nice to finally be on the lucky end of one of these games because that's usually what the Bills do in those moments!" Ahhhh, but it was already written by the football gods, because just ONE WEEK LATER, on an even BIGGER stage with even MORE at stake, our tight end does the exact same thing.  So much for this year being different, eh? 
• The Ravens were probably the most difficult matchup for the Bills in the entire NFL this year, and we managed to beat them in the playoffs. This was huge. Because it represent getting the "hard part" out of the way. Not to say KC isn't a monumental task in itself, but we simply don't have the personnel to match up with Baltimore at all, but we made it work by doing a few things that we didn't do against KC:    1) We had some tendency breakers in our game plan that were effective   2) We capitalized on opportunities when they came up.   3)  We weren't the team dropping the passes or doing the little things to hurt ourselves. They were.
• We were relatively healthy this season in contrast with the past couple of years. Although some fans may debate this after losing Christian Benford at the worst possible time, and they would have a good point, considering that half our starting DBs essentially did not play vs KC.
• The Bengals were not in the playoffs!!!! Because to the earlier point about the Ravens being the most difficult matchup in the NFL for the Bills, the Bengals could have been right there with them... To this day, the only time the Bills were legitimately outplayed in the playoffs (post-2020 AFCCG) was against the Bengals. You really have to expect they will be in the dance next season. They, like us, could take ANYONE down to the wire despite their record.  A

 

When you've got one spot in the AFC championship game basically RESERVED for the Chiefs every season, it leaves 1 for the rest of us.... Bills and Josh Allen, Ravens and Lamar, BENGALS and Burrow, Chargers and Herbert... and then you have the promising up-and-coming QBs like Drake Maye and Bo Nix.  I mean, do you see it now?  This isn't going to get any easier, but the opportunity was RIGHT HERE this season!

 

Now, it's also possible that one of these years another team actually knocks out KC before the championship round, and if that happens and we are still alive, well, that may represent a better opportunity than what we had this season.. maybe?  I don't know.  There are just so many factors, but at the very least, I think KC's division is finally going to be competitive enough to make things a little more difficult for them.  I know the Raiders suck, but hell, they have played KC as close as anyone over the past few seasons.

 

Anyway, bottom line is that my frustration today comes from knowing that WE WERE RIGHT THERE... and you can't get much closer to the goal than we were this year... and it pains me just to write that, but that's why the feelings have resurfaced today.

Edited Saturday at 06:09 PM by ShakAttack

[Ray Stonada]

This is how I feel (except I don't have a Lambo):

 

 

[Riverboat Ritchie]

3 hours ago, Jerome007 said:

That's the issue. 99% of us know this to be true. Yet, falling short hurts as you never know when opportunity will come again. Just take the 49ers, last year's finalists in the Superbowl, that only lost in OT (with refs against them too). They were the odds favorites to win it all this year. They had an horrible season. Same with the Bengals. Or the Lions having their best regular season ever to be eliminated in their first playoff game. You just never know. So yes, realistically, the Bills should be a force still. But missing out opportunities hurts baaaaad.

 

We were relatively healthy and still had lots of team on rookie deals.  I always hopeful but realistically don’t think we can get it done and that stinks. 

[LabattBlue]

1 hour ago, ShakAttack said:

Alright, it's day #6 and I'm not feeling great.  And it sucks because I was generally fine the past couple of days... so what changed?

 

Made the mistake of tuning into SiriusXM NFL channel while I was on a weekly Saturday morning donut run with my 8-year-old son (who, by the way, was born on 1/11/17, the day we hired Sean McDermott, and the year the Bills snapped their playoff drought).

 

Anyway, listening to the Sirius NFL channel clearly brought to surface some of the thoughts that I had been repressing.

 

The reason I am hurting today is because this year, more than ever, the stage was set for us to make the Super Bowl.  And nobody really knows if or when there will be an opportunity this good again.  We had a lot going for us...

• We had proven that we can defeat ANYONE in the NFL. Defeated Chiefs & Lions in the regular season and clearly outplayed both teams. Baltimore was definitely a tough matchup for us, but more on that soon.
• We got "lucky" in the playoffs for pretty much the first time ever in Josh Allen's career in the win over Baltimore. This is when I started to let myself believe that this year may indeed be "different". And you want to know the most cruel part about this thought process? I was basing it off the fact that Mark Andrews dropped that 2-point conversion to tie the game, friends and family started to blow up my phone to congratulate me, and I would tell them: "Boy, it was nice to finally be on the lucky end of one of these games because that's usually what the Bills do in those moments!" Ahhhh, but it was already written by the football gods, because just ONE WEEK LATER, on an even BIGGER stage with even MORE at stake, our tight end does the exact same thing.  So much for this year being different, eh? 
• The Ravens were probably the most difficult matchup for the Bills in the entire NFL this year, and we managed to beat them in the playoffs. This was huge. Because it represent getting the "hard part" out of the way. Not to say KC isn't a monumental task in itself, but we simply don't have the personnel to match up with Baltimore at all, but we made it work by doing a few things that we didn't do against KC:    1) We had some tendency breakers in our game plan that were effective   2) We capitalized on opportunities when they came up.   3)  We weren't the team dropping the passes or doing the little things to hurt ourselves. They were.
• We were relatively healthy this season in contrast with the past couple of years. Although some fans may debate this after losing Christian Benford at the worst possible time, and they would have a good point, considering that half our starting DBs essentially did not play vs KC.
• The Bengals were not in the playoffs!!!! Because to the earlier point about the Ravens being the most difficult matchup in the NFL for the Bills, the Bengals could have been right there with them... To this day, the only time the Bills were legitimately outplayed in the playoffs (post-2020 AFCCG) was against the Bengals. You really have to expect they will be in the dance next season. They, like us, could take ANYONE down to the wire despite their record.  A

 

When you've got one spot in the AFC championship game basically RESERVED for the Chiefs every season, it leaves 1 for the rest of us.... Bills and Josh Allen, Ravens and Lamar, BENGALS and Burrow, Chargers and Herbert... and then you have the promising up-and-coming QBs like Drake Maye and Bo Nix.  I mean, do you see it now?  This isn't going to get any easier, but the opportunity was RIGHT HERE this season!

 

Now, it's also possible that one of these years another team actually knocks out KC before the championship round, and if that happens and we are still alive, well, that may represent a better opportunity than what we had this season.. maybe?  I don't know.  There are just so many factors, but at the very least, I think KC's division is finally going to be competitive enough to make things a little more difficult for them.  I know the Raiders suck, but hell, they have played KC as close as anyone over the past few seasons.

 

Anyway, bottom line is that my frustration today comes from knowing that WE WERE RIGHT THERE... and you can't get much closer to the goal than we were this year... and it pains me just to write that, but that's why the feelings have resurfaced today.

It’s just a game.  If you are still agonizing a week later to the point where you are “not feeling well” because of it, it might be time for a new hobby…or you are just being dramatic. 😂

[Success]

1 hour ago, Riverboat Ritchie said:

We were relatively healthy and still had lots of team on rookie deals.  I always hopeful but realistically don’t think we can get it done and that stinks. 

 

This is kind of what gets me.  It's hard to imagine getting to the playoffs as healthy as we were this year again.  Feels like we didn't take advantage of that.  Of course, KC was actually a little healthier.

 

We had a really good opportunity to finally get a title this year, and it's gone now.  That might always sting if it never happens.  Maybe it will and all of this will be erased, but my optimism isn't as strong as it used to be.

 

[ChronicAndKnuckles]

On 1/28/2025 at 11:46 AM, Saint Doug said:

I’m fine with the loss. Call me a negative Nancy, but I never expected them to make the Super Bowl. As a whole, nothing had really changed player or coaching wise. And our biggest rival, who we are 0-3 against in the playoffs, didn’t change. 
 

In fact, unless there are fundamental changes, the same thing will happen next year. Allen will play lights out (as he always does) and our bend, but don’t break defense will break. This defensive philosophy is fine against rookie QBs and the average starting QB, but it doesn’t work against elite offenses. It just leads to a tired defense and then we break. And this is why we saw our offense suddenly become a ground game first offense in the playoffs. To keep the opposing QB off the field. 

Total loser mentality. Buffalo knocked off two #1 seeds, one on the road, and lost 3 games total. Beat the best team in the league IMO the Baltimore Ravens. Buffalo had just as much a right to be in the SB as anyone. People who watched the games and absorbed what they were seeing knew full well before the season started that Buffalo had the potential to do big things. The loss of Davis & Diggs and JA regressing bc of it was a media manufactured story. Diggs lost a step and Davis dropped everything that touched his hands. It was additional by subtraction. 

14 minutes ago, Success said:

 

This is kind of what gets me.  It's hard to imagine getting to the playoffs as healthy as we were this year again.  Feels like we didn't take advantage of that.  Of course, KC was actually a little healthier.

 

We had a really good opportunity to finally get a title this year, and it's gone now.  That might always sting if it never happens.  Maybe it will and all of this will be erased, but my optimism isn't as strong as it used to be.

 

Benford getting injured was massive. It greatly decreased our chances of winning that game. 

[DabillsDaBillsDaBills]

34 minutes ago, Success said:

 

This is kind of what gets me.  It's hard to imagine getting to the playoffs as healthy as we were this year again.  Feels like we didn't take advantage of that.  Of course, KC was actually a little healthier.

 

We had a really good opportunity to finally get a title this year, and it's gone now.  That might always sting if it never happens.  Maybe it will and all of this will be erased, but my optimism isn't as strong as it used to be.

 

 

Chiefs went through most of the season, and the playoff game vs us, without their WR1 Rashee Rice. 

[BarleyNY]

8 minutes ago, DabillsDaBillsDaBills said:

 

Chiefs went through most of the season, and the playoff game vs us, without their WR1 Rashee Rice. 

Injuries to their OTs DJ Humphries and Jawaan Taylor caused them to shuffle their OL too. 

[reddogblitz]

I'm cool.

 

I don't like the result and the referees.  But whatya gonna do.  It is what it is.  I've seen it all before.  The NFL gonna do what the  NFL gonna do.

 

I watch football for fun so if it makes me mad and depressed, I would need to find a new way to have fun. But I don't wanna do that cuz it's fun.  So I just try to watch the game and enjoy the stress and drama and consciously move on from it shortly after it's over.

 

We'll get 'em next year.

 

But man we got screwed.  Wasn't the 1st time and probably won't be the last knowing how they NFL operates.  If my Dad didn't get me addicted to football, I'd hate the NFL.

Edited yesterday at 08:33 AM by reddogblitz

[Aesop]

I am totally cool. It would be nice if the Sabres can go on a run and make the rest of winter interesting. But if not, oh well. Life goes on and now I can focus on the most important thing in my life, my family. Go Bills!

[BILLS 4 EVER]

Day #6  Echoing James Cook's sentiments.  Pro Bowl sucks and is a waste of a game. First Sunday without football and instead of being super psyched about going to the big game and Josh's first Super Bowl, I have to ignore stupid articles about "Is Taylor Swift good luck?"  F'K the Swifties, Kelce, Reid and Mahomes. If it wasn't so damn obvious the NFL is manufacturing this Super Bowl, I might want to watch because I love football.  Some deep dark part of me still wants to watch the game and root against KC, but I will only be giving in to big ratings and more of the same.  So I'm disappointed it's over.  I'm angry that the NFL has compromised the game I grew up playing and loving.  I truly wish they would fire Goodell and bring someone in who loves the game and not the money. 

 

[LabattBlue]

15 minutes ago, BILLS 4 EVER said:

I truly wish they would fire Goodell and bring someone in who loves the game and not the money. 

 

I bring this up whenever I read a post like this…Goodell works for the owners, and does nothing without their approval.   If you don’t like Goodell, you don’t like Pegula. 

[BILLS 4 EVER]

2 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

I bring this up whenever I read a post like this…Goodell works for the owners, and does nothing without their approval.   If you don’t like Goodell, you don’t like Pegula. 

Pegula is a tiny cog in the machine. The game lost its integrity.  And I'm not a huge Pegula fan. The Sabres are an absolute sh^t show.

Edited 23 hours ago by BILLS 4 EVER

[90sBills]

1 minute ago, LabattBlue said:

I bring this up whenever I read a post like this…Goodell works for the owners, and does nothing without their approval.   If you don’t like Goodell, you don’t like Pegula. 

And what Pegula and all the other owners love most? It’s not Super Bowl trophies. 

[Steptide]

I'm over it, but not over it, if that makes sense. I also don't even know what to do with myself today. It's Sunday and there's no football on 

[Don Otreply]

On 2/1/2025 at 10:12 AM, McMuffin said:

I feel good about next season and I expect us to be right back in the thick of things.  

Me too! 

[strive_for_five_guy]