BADOLBILZ

Well.......that's obviously not the case. Fan support thru the drought says it all about the willingness of fans to support the team thru thick and thin. Bills fans are rabid fans of the team.........but maybe not as understanding of the league as they need to be yet. The dominant team doesn't just go away so you can have "your turn" to win for a decade and a lot of people are mad because it's not that way. As supportive as Bills Mafia is..........understanding the NFL as a whole isn't a strength yet because the Bills haven't been in contention enough for the past 2 decades for many fans to feel compelled to follow the entire league closely enough to understand that it's not going to be "easy" just because you have a QB now.

As usual, you are wrong. Most long term successful regimes still lead thru fear and cutthroat personnel management and at the very least the HC's keep players a bit more at arms length than Sean McDermott. And relying on fear really helps Belichick stay on top of his X's and O's because he's not dealing with everyone's feelings and headspace every day. McDermott has his hands full now just managing his teams mindset. Especially now that they have such familiarity with him and feel comfy and cozy with all the continuity they've had. It's not an accident that they might be the most inconsistent football team the NFL has seen in the past 40 years (as DVOA suggests in addition to the eye test). As I've said though........Arians was dealing with very similar issues in Tampa last year.........but they got hot in the last 4 weeks of the season and went on to win the whole thing. One of my concerns is a coach like Arians really started to be perceived as a slam dunk great coach at his SECOND full time NFL HC job. When he left Arizona his style wasn't getting it done there anymore. When he went to Tampa it was like "hey, he won with Arizona for chrissakes" and then he basically had the old Marv Levy "if you get a reputation as an early riser you can sleep til' noon" thing going on where he could do little wrong despite flat out sucking early on there. Hopefully McD and Beane can figure out how to reign things back in before they have to go somewhere else to get the most out of their teams again.

Nah. Sorry, Casey. When I was growing up the old men used to say things like "once a man, twice a baby" to describe their moodiness and "once I hit 60 better find someone else to operate this machinery, etc.." because they were self-aware of their increasing tendency to lose their patience quicker. Not sure when we stopped realizing that was natural. I think you actively gotta' fight that tendency to get emotionally upset or resign yourself to less stressful activities.

I think he knows it's the offensive line. There is more top end OL talent coming out than top end RB talent as well so that is probably for the best to help prevent something regrettable like drafting a RB in round 1. I see them making their biggest FA focus adding a very good offensive guard. And tend to expect an offensive tackle in round one and Dawkins being kicked inside. No question they need better results from their coaching and they need to find more talent later like they did with Teller. If McD chooses to shake up the OC and OLC positions he should be able to pull some decent talent because he is pretty secure in his position and has the elite QB to make good coaches look great, IMO.

I'm not sure why people that "age out" have to have these grand announcements here on TSW. Most of my father's generation that used to go to games religiously are sippin' Coors lights on the golf course down south when the Bills are playing now. None of them put back of hand to forehead to tell us why and remind us of the context. Some people can stomach the ups and downs of following sports teams when they get older........a lot of others don't have the patience for it any longer. Good luck in fan retirement.......but please people..........writing your own Bills obituary is super Lampy.

Last week NE allows 270 yards rushing to guys TN picked up off of the street. Last night NE runs for over 200 with a couple RB's who'd look like trash if they were running behind the Bills OL. Today some Bills fans are blaming RB's for the team's lack of a consistent running game. It's not like this is happening in the NFC west...........these are teams that the Bills are competing for playoff position with that are putting up big yardage numbers without talented RB's. Dumbest response ever is to use a high pick on a RB to address the issue. Some knucklehead was lamenting not trading up for Najee Harris..........the dude's running for a pathetic 3.6 ypc on the season. Give it up already, the jury weighed in and went home like 20 years ago. Block it up and the yards will come.

Here is a much simpler rational and actually FACTUAL thought: The Bucs were 7-5 last year........blown out twice by their division rival Saints in the process.........and went on to win 3 road playoff games and the SB. Their structure is similar to the Bills........a talented team with a great QB whose coach puts a lot of trust and faith in his players and looked very bad at times for doing so after 12 games last year. So anyone making absolute conclusions at this point of the season is getting ahead of themselves.

As many of us said in frustration last offseason.........they were clearly just trying to "run it back". But I've never deviated that I hate the spread. Allen can make it work to some extent but this is not the way to use him. With the exception of Morse, who has been about exactly as expected..........every OL that has gotten significant snaps has either been extremely disappointing or has been too often unavailable(Brown). That's the issue with their running game. They could use a better lead running back but if they were simply blocking it up their running game would be a positive. Very few things have been proven more right than not needing a stud RB to run the football. Look at the street trash that TN picked up to put 270 yards on the Pats a week ago. Block and it will look like you have good RB's. As for drafting DE's.........I loved Rousseau, didn't like the Basham pick. But that position is something of a long term play. I suspect Rousseau has had a foot injury that's hampered him since the KC game and he's only played one college season so not surprised if he's hit a wall as well. I have to admit that Basham has shown flashes but yeah give me Creed Humphrey or a WR there. I'm all about drafting offense early........its more sustainable. But I am definitely not on the idiot train to drafting RB's early-ville. Maybe one of those will win a SB for the team that drafted him one of these decades but the odds are against it.

They don't need to go back to the stone age. They need to be able to get under center, utilize play action and let Allen beat teams over the top. Offenses like that have produced some of the highest point totals in NFL history. Like they looked in the Jets game. That's not really how they are built though. They are built to run a spread offense and get the ball out quick, which leaves you vulnerable to a myriad of mistakes and negates the advantage of having such a gifted thrower of the football. Wouldn't take a lot of expensive changes to become that team. Not sure wicky-wacky Daboll is the right guy to call that offense though.

Allen was outstanding last night. As much as I'd be happy that we won if I were a Pats fan...........I would have come away from that game a little discouraged knowing that my long term solution at QB is likely Mac Jones in a division with Josh Allen in it. Allen was far better last night than he was in that Ravens playoff game last season in similar wind conditions.

It's astounding how far their OL has fallen off of a cliff from last year. I knew they were middling in the middle.........but they have gone from that to terrible this season. Feliciano has been a bust after losing a bunch of weight and apparently power and then getting injured again. Boettger went from promising long term backup type to garbage. And I have long been critical of him, but can't even believe how Cody Ford has managed to regress. And the tackles..........Williams has been atrocious at RT after being excellent there last season. I could see a drop-off but this can only be explained by a lack of preparation and want-to. The other tackles: Dawkins f*cked around and ended up nearly dying from Covid and has subsequently been a weakened and inconsistent version of himself. Then Brown misses games after passing on the vax. The OL is a prime example of what can happen when you promise love and trust in a sport that has survived on fear and accountability as the primary motivators for all of its existence.

The challenge of building a program on "love" is that you then have to trust 53 players to do the work in the offseason and off-the-field and then be in the right mindset on game day. The only control you have is the practice setting. When you lead by fear.........like Belichick.........you are in their head 24/7/365..........it's much less complicated. There have been a lot of abuses of trust by the players on this team since the end of last season. Some players obviously didn't put in the work last offseason. Then they were one of the teams that were the LEAST on the same page with vaccination status. And they clearly don't feel like or care enough that they will be held accountable for mental errors or simply not showing up prepared and the right frame of mind to play. It's a tough game. Everyone in every field hates competition and the fear of losing their job...........but there is a reason why commanding respect and performance thru those tactics has been the most successful form of leadership in football. McD has made his job more complicated by going this route. Now he's gotta' figure out how to keep it together.

McKenzie became a Buffalo Bill because he was a horrific fumbler on special teams with Denver. He has mostly avoiding issue this season but when you were THAT BAD...........people always worry about you falling off the fumble wagon again. I don't trust the ***** either. That said.........would like to see him used on offense. In addition to the misdirection they've used him on they should have been using him out of the backfield all season to add some speed to their run game and give them a RAC threat on RB screens. I'm not giving up on this team but very disappointed that the coaching staff hasn't used their continuity to their advantage here by making their offense and defense more complicated to defend. It's like they have never practiced a 5 man D Line to guard against a "run-only" game plan or a series of plays where they just run the QB in the event of the wind being so outrageous they can't throw the ball at all.

One of the guys I tailgate with is an attorney who was traveling back from Charlotte and he said there were a lot of Patriots fans flying up from there to Buffalo but they were telling him they weren't actually going to the game. They were just up to watch the game in the area and enjoy the partying atmosphere around Buffalo for the game. That seems to jive with some of the reports of fans at the hotels etc.. I'm not even sure I would put the numbers of Pats fans in the "thousands" at the game.

Hammer's lot was packed at 3:30 when we rolled in where we tailgate next to his house. So people were trying hard, it wasn't anything to do with the opponent or attitude of the fans. I didn't go over there but if there was less activity compared to most games that's probably because Hammer's Lot is very exposed to the weather and the wind was violent. The neighborhood lots are much more sheltered. If you were out in the wind using a propane grill you most likely weren't able to cook at all..........and if you didn't have a charcoal chimney getting charcoal going was probably close to impossible either. It was just a normal but longer tailgate for us and the people in our lot.

There were very few Pats fans there last night. They were mostly in the obstructed view lower/lower bowl seats on visitor side. They weren't a factor.

Go Billllllllllls!!!!!

The Oregon 2022 recruiting commitment list: https://247sports.com/college/oregon/Season/2022-Football/Commits/

THIS is ACTUALLY accurate It's raging outside

I do think the thought of 2 games in 5 days was probably in their head.

There are days when the right message is "We're outta' here". Not many in recent years......but that one was a PRIME example. Just a pathetic effort and performance combined with miserable weather.

There are many millions of reasons why Manny Diaz would be an idiot to quit his job on principle. He isn't walking into another multi-million dollar AAV coaching deal anytime soon. As far as pride.........all he has to do is cite Jim Harbaugh accepting a 50% pay cut to not be fired last winter and how that worked out.

As we all know..........it really depends on how urgently they view addressing their weaknesses is..........the cap is EXTREMELY malleable. We heard last offseason that the numbers dictated that they wouldn't be able to do anything at all in FA and were going to lose several players..........then they signed Milano back........and Williams..........and Feliciano........and brought in Sanders........and kept Morse.........and were in on Gronk...........and JJ Watt. They have lot's of contracts they can adjust.........more than just Klein that they will likely cut.........and the promise of BIG cap increases several years down the road once the impact of Covid has diminished.

Yeah could really help the Bills do some work they couldn't get done last winter. Might be able to compete for a G like Laken Tomlinson and pursue a finishing pass rusher or FA or trade for one like Khalil Mack etc..