BRH

Honestly? He just wasn't very good last night. And by that I don't mean "off day for a great QB not very good." I mean "Davis Mills not very good." He still has crazy athletic ability, so he was able to break free for a few runs, but for the most part our defenders contained their lanes and frustrated him up front, and our two-deep coverage forced him into taking the underneath stuff. I lost track of how many passes he skipped or threw in front of/behind his targets. His hands measure only 9 1/4 inches across, one of the smallest hand sizes among NFL QBs, and it showed last night in the rain. (Josh's hands are almost a full inch wider.) You can talk about his lack of weapons past Kelce and Hill, and you can talk about his porous O-line (which had its hands full all night and had to hold repeatedly despite the fact that we NEVER blitzed)... but the truth was, when the Chiefs needed him to step up and execute several competent passes in a row, he couldn't do it. If he hadn't been bailed out by convenient flags in at least two drives (the opening one and one in the third/fourth quarter), this game would have been an even bigger blowout than it was.

It really isn't, though. Also, why are you still here?

This. It's exactly like how Flutie fans who became Bills fans when he was here rooted for him to beat us when he went to the Chargers. Exactly like that, except on steroids (cough).

I am old enough to remember when that fan base basically didn't exist. The Pats* were the fourth pro team in Boston, both chronologically and in terms of fan support. Some locals discovered they had a football team in 1985 (remember this?) and then immediately forgot again after they got steamrolled by the Bears. The team almost freaking moved to St. Louis and from what I remember, few people even cared. The team started gaining relevance, at least in southern New England, in the '90s when Bill Parcells showed up. They drafted Drew Bledsoe #1 overall and changed their uniforms and logo. Then came the Brady/Belichick era. By the mid-2000s if you mentioned Steve Grogan or John Hannah to most Pats* "fans," you got blank stares. For all intents and purposes, for most Pats* "fans," it was almost like Boston got an expansion franchise in the mid-90s. It's not a devoted, long-suffering fan base. There just aren't enough diehards from the old days because there weren't many to begin with. Don't insult Bills fans by comparing these yahoos to us.

Seriously, you don't remember? He wouldn't wear a headset!

Can you imagine the media bile if Josh had done something like that? I'm just glad we no longer have to see that stupid stat about how Mahomes (who is 1-3 in his last four starts) has never thrown an interception in September.

I think someone analyzed it a few years back and showed that we actually were getting the short end of the stick when it came to scheduling. We'd play more teams coming off byes or mini-byes (often the Patriots), we never (ever) got the Patriots when they were coming off a short week, our multi-game road trips were worse, et. cetera. I don't think it was about purposely screwing us over. I think for the most part the league tries to build a fair schedule but it doesn't always fit, and when you need to give the short end to a few teams in order to make it fit, it's only logical that you would pick the teams least likely to impact playoff seeding either way. For many years, that was us. Add to that the fact that Ralph (or Russ) continually asked for as many 1 pm Sunday home games as possible in order to sell tickets and save money, and that meant that we had used up our special request quota with the league. Bottom line: bad teams complain about the schedule. Good teams say "who's next?" We're finally in the latter category again and I'm perfectly happy with that.

NARRATOR: He does not.

I think it's right there in the Constitution. Or maybe the Bible. Not sure.

Let us know how that works out, chief.

I didn't want to make a lot out of it, but prior to that final drive the cameras showed Josh sitting on the sidelines and not saying anything, just sort of taking it all in. I don't go in for the fake rah-rah stuff, but in past years I would have expected to see Josh talking to his receivers, his O-line, his coaches, whatever, either just to prepare for the next possession or to get them fired up and remind them that the game isn't over until we say it is. The look in his eyes told me the game was already over. I tried to ignore it and hope for the best, but then he went out and proved it. I'm not accusing him of giving up. I think he just knew that they didn't have the answers yesterday. Not in Daboll's playcalling, not in his receivers' ballcatching, and certainly not in his line's blocking. That said, I still expect things to be very different next Sunday.

We didn’t play anywhere near our capability and we lost by one score. It wasn’t so long ago that we would have to play our very “best” to achieve the same result.

Outstanding. Thank you.

yeah, but people could still always trot out Wide Right and Boy I Love Losing Super Bowls jokes in response, which kept us *somewhat* in check. That said, most of us also knew that football actually existed before we got good, which also differentiated us from Pats* “fans.”

My son is a freshman at Oberlin and is already trying to figure out where he will watch our games. Tomorrow the Browns play the Chiefs at 4:25 so I *think* Bills-Steelers will be on in Cleveland at 1. Can anyone from NE Ohio confirm? Also: any good Bills Backers places west of Cleveland (Elyria area)? Thanks...

One, he's absolutely right; and two, I don't think he's complaining about it at all. He's saying that's how it is. And then when he goes out there he milks it for all it's worth. I get the feeling that like your grandfather or elderly uncle, he's a lot more comfortable these days saying exactly what he thinks.

The mistake you're making is in thinking that 1992 was no different from 2021. As Caveman said, even aside from the culture change, just think about how popular and powerful the Bills' players were in 1992, if you were even around then. And think about the rumors that were going around about certain players who were idolized in this community that never resulted in anything. I was in law school in Buffalo in the late '90s and a team executive (who is still there) came and talked to us about his job... and joked about how many paternity suits he had to deal with. This ***** was happening and Bennett wasn't the only one. Unfortunately it is still happening (see, e.g., Deshaun Watson, Trevor Bauer) but it got swept under the rug a hell of a lot more often back then, and for every brave woman that came forward I bet there were dozens who suffered in silence because they didn't think anyone would believe them. We agree that something happens far too often, but we don't agree on what that is.

I ignore a LOT of stupid ***** on here, but I don't have to ignore you when you say you have a hard time believing a victim of sexual assault. That's what I mean.

Hardly the same thing.

This ain't it. What exactly do you mean by that?

There are not nine players in the NFL better than Josh Allen.

And Pittsburgh.

The Packer announcers and their fans have that Yankee vibe. Nobody ever plays well against them. Either they played badly or they weren’t even trying.

I hope to hell those guys get more than Josh. That's two fewer teams we need to worry about in the AFC.

I still remember the game in November '93 against the Colts when Jimbo got absolutely flattened right at the two-minute warning before halftime. I'm pretty sure there was no flag. He weaved unsteadily off the field, then came back out and on his first play back double-pumped and hit Billy Brooks in the end zone for a 23-yard TD. After the game when the reporters asked him about the sequence, he admitted that he couldn't feel the entire right half of his body during the play - and that was the half that threw the pass. This was like a regular thing for him. Quarterbacks just don't get hit like that anymore, and if they do (a) it's a 15-yard penalty and (b) they aren't even allowed back in the game. And I'm not saying that like it's a bad thing -- it's good for the league to keep quarterbacks healthy. But the fact that we have to go all the way back 20+ years to think of a similar hit on Brady tells you all you need to know about how tough Kelly was.