BADOLBILZ

It's true that all HC's have games where their teams don't show up to play. What is concerning with McDermott is that it's like this for a 3-4 week stretch in the middle of every season..............it's not just been "a game" here and there randomly sprinkled throughout a long season. It's been a near-month-long funk each time. The Bills are a "continuity" focused organization.........its fair to say that these stretches are now part of what the players expect to happen every season and therefore, despite McDermott likely changing things up to prevent it, it's perhaps become self-fulfilling to an extent.

Yeah, Terry Pegula isn't going to go for knowing that this is being done to his team.........and you can bet that every NFL owner ultimately knows what their own league is telling officials to do. However..........human nature.......empathy/sympathy for struggling/underdog teams.........or the desire to be involved in exciting games.......could lead to officials doing what you are talking about quite voluntarily. The reality is that bad officiating really, really bonds fans to their teams........"the product"........so it's not going to ever "really" get fixed. It's an entertainment product and all you have to do is watch how intentionally bad officiating stimulates the "us against them" in wrestling fans to know that it does the same to NFL fans.

I hope they find a way to win either way but do tend to believe that the Jets probably aren't enough to wake them from their slumber and play a good all-around game. McDermott has to know this is a thing by now. It strikes me that they might need an emotional moment to flip the switch...............like when McD apologized to the team for benching Tyrod back in 2017 and they came out firing the following week. The narrow escape against NE seemed to provide the emotional spark to flip the switch last season.

In 2019 they had that stretch that included the bad loss to the Browns and the inexplicable, horrible home performance against the Eagles. In 2018 they got completely WAXED by NE, Indy and Chicago in a quick stretch that had people calling for Daboll's head. In 2017........of course the worst 3 game defensive stretch in team history...........followed by the surprising road win in KC. It's a thing with the McDermott regime........EVERY season they've had a stretch in mid-year where they play terrible and to date they've always bounced back.

Chiefs, Titans, Jets and Patriots. Got out of it 2-2. They should have lost the Patriots game but Justin Zimmer saved the bacon with that strip of Cam as the Pats were about to put the ball in the end zone and run Belichick's record against McD to 7-0.

Every season under Sean McDermott they have gone thru a few game stretch in the middle of the season where they play like they are just tired of "the process" and put on a series of inexplicably, uncharasterically, pathetic, listless and undisciplined performances. It's been like the "dog days of summer" in baseball. Every season. After looking pathetic they've always bounced back and finished the season strong. Was really hoping they'd figure out how to avoid this sh*t this time around........especially with such an easy schedule........but nope........both the Dolphins and Jags games have been shite. I would expect the light will come back on in a couple weeks.

When much of the rest of the offense head wasn't in the game........he eventually totally lost his composure. He's been pretty good about keeping his sh*t together when things aren't going well the past season and a half but today was not one of those days.

Actually he filled in some for Incognito as a rookie and looked GREAT at guard. I don't think he'd look good anywhere this season though......clearly diminished by the illness.

Sweeney really stinks as a receiver. Lofton was kind to him when he critiqued Sweeney leaving his feet for no reason to catch that football............you just can't be any good in the NFL is you are so uncoordinated that you can't catch THAT easy of a pass without shutting off your feet. Any backup receiving TE should get a first down on that play. The OL is the biggest problem..........but not having players who can make plays once they get the football in their hands(sorry Beasley and Sanders, but that's you guys) is a problem and teams know it. If you can't get RAC yards then teams will let you throw that underneath sh*t all day. That's why, as @MAJBobby noted.........they gotta' get the ball in Diggs hands. With Knox out, he is the only threat to get yards after the catch that they have. I know they are probably trying to limit the beating that Diggs takes during the season........but they are going to have to feed him the ball to make teams pay for trying to keep everything in front of them.

Dawkins f*cking himself up by waiting to get vaxed then getting gravely ill with covid has lead to him being significantly diminished. He and the Bills are kinda' lucky he is even out there this season. Williams is traditionally up and down from year to year and this year he is way down. Feliciano decided to shed a bunch of weight to get more athletic for the outside zone and he's gotten worse. Yeah their regression is definitely a problem.

Those two terrible Flutie home losses were maddening...........the NFL was WIDE OPEN that season. 1999 was a "steal a Lombardi" season. People remember the Rams as some awesome team but they almost got beaten at home in the NFC Championship by a team QB'd by a guy named Shaun King. Chances like that come around RARELY. HR Throwback hurt but they earned the right to lose that game by being on the road.

I think that one is still my worst. That defense was just so physically dominant........they had the feel of a team that could bully their way to a SB championship like the Bears and Giants had recently done. Sickening is definitely the word.

1.........You thought the 2014 team was a SB contender? Bad loss.......but I don't know anyone who had delusions of that team reaching a SB. 2........huge disappointment........but the Steelers were 14-1 coming into that game. One of the more dominant NFL regular season teams of the past 2 decades. 3.......that was another bad one..........VERY frustrating game that they just sleep walked thru. Those 91-93 SB teams had too many clunkers and they got away with it because they were so clearly the best team in the AFC. But that Bills team was a 2x defending AFC champ.........it felt like they were going to re-gather and get themselves home field at the time. They did not. But then they won in the playoffs anyway. We will see how this one ages but this Jags team was literally terrible. The Raiders were just off to a slow start. They were a divisional round playoff team in 1991 and finished that season 6-5 to end up 7-9.

SB XXV is a good answer...........at the time it was a big surprise.............but the Giants did beat the 2x defending SB champs on the road to get to that game........and I think the perspective of that game has changed since the author of the gameplan that beat the Bills subsequently became BY FAR the most successful HC in SB era history.

Disappointing? Sure. But 1966 Chiefs were 11-2..........the 1966 Bills were 9-4..........the Bills had home field advantage but it wasn't really an upset, the Chiefs were better that particular season.

The Jags came into the game 1-7. Hadn't won a game in Jacksonville since the beginning of 2020. That's definitely worse than any of the other scenarios mentioned. I do think the Jags will win 5-6 games.........which would put them in the same category with the 5-11 1988 Buccaneers.........a game that stunned the Bills fan base. And close games to divisional opponents shouldn't be nearly as surprising as against epically bad teams you don't play regularly. I remember that game in NE well though.........it brought back memories of that Tampa game but they had a lead in the race for home field then too. This year, they are chasing despite regularly being cited as "the best" team in the AFC.

That was another bad one but that Pats team had 3 wins coming into that game and they finished 6-10.

In terms of times when the Bills had a team with legit SB aspirations and were playing such a clearly inferior opponent............Jax is epically bad this season...........I'd say this one ranks up there with the mind boggling 10-5 loss to the woeful, creamsicle era Tampa Bay yuccaneers late in the 1988 season that cost the Bills home field and a likely SB berth. That team was 11-2 coming into that game and the yuccs finished 5-11. Definitely the worst one, IMO, since the two inexcusable 1999 home losses by Flutie to the Raiders and Giants that ultimately lead to Buffalo playing on the road in Tennessee. But those teams were at least mediocre 7-9/6-10 quality teams without those huge upsets in Buffalo. That said.........still 9 games to play.........might mean they have to win on the road in the playoffs if they make it..........but still all in front of them like it was in those other two seasons.

1. It's Sherlock, thank you. And you don't draft positions like RB and OG early "for need". That's how they ended up with Cody Ford and the two RB's you don't like. 2. The Bills are 8th in the NFL in rushing. Singletary is averaging over 5 yards per carry for the second season in his career. 3. Just as you know where Derrick Henry and Alvin Kamara were drafted..........you know that there are A LOT more productive RB's found late in the draft and FA than there are productive starting QB's.

No he goes by OBJ because those are his initials. If ODB hadn't preceded him in pop culture he'd never have been referred to as ODB on purpose or accidentally. OD are the first two letters of his first name. Not his capitalized initials. Get it? But if you don't think a lot of people don't refer to him as Old Dirty Bastard or ODB........then you haven't been to an NFL game where he is playing. People like calling him a bastard because he has a history of acting a fool. Like he did this past week posting that sh*t under his father's previously inactive social media account. Nobody in their right mind believes his 60 year old dad created that and scored it with some emo REM song. That was all ODB.

I think if you look at the upbringing of a good deal of the players on an NFL team you are going to find people who have gone thru a lot of tragedy and overcame a lot to get where they are so if it seemed to roll off of their backs.........it probably did. The Chiefs are a team that has played A LOT of football over the prior 3 seasons............they earned home field 3 straight times............that is very difficult and takes a toll. Even the 4X AFC Champ Bills of the 90's didn't earn home field advantage 3x in a row. I think we as Bills fans are a little jaded because Belichick won the AFC East almost every time for two decades but he ran a cut throat operation personnel wise, turning his roster over more than anyone and wouldn't suffer let downs. The Chiefs........like basically every other good team in the NFL for decades..........are more player driven so a down regular season was not out of the realm of expectation.

Yeah he was in the 6th round of basically all my mocks that winter so that's probably why I thought he got picked. Once they took Moss that put that to bed. I think what people are really missing with RB's coming into the league is that the type of athletes that used to be able to endure the beating at the position until age 30 are really not playing RB anymore. You are lucky to get their best past age 26 now. These RB's today are the guys that would have been backups or flashes in the pan (like a Barry Foster). They produced when given a chance but came and went and couldn't withstand the punishment of the stud RB's of their time. What's more........even the really exceptional talents of today who should be able to start for 10 years......... like Zeke Elliott.......they know that they are only getting one bite at the apple so once they get paid I think they tend to lose their edge. On one hand, there are less really dynamic RB's...........on the other they are an even worse investment than ever for a number of reasons.

1. Henry and Kamara weren't first round picks..........lot's of RB's are drafted so pointing out a couple out of a sea of disappointing selections isn't a strong argument.......it just further proves that you are better off finding them after round 1. 2. The assumption that the Bills are the only team that struggles to run the football is wrong......they are pretty average in that regard........but your boy Kamara has been sorry running the ball this season with 35-year-old-Frank-Gore-esque 3.6 yards per attempt average. He's not as good as some fans who don't actually watch him play think he is. Certainly not worth the $15M per he's getting paid. 3. James Robinson from Jacksonville is a great example of good RB drafting. He had an excellent 1,000 yard plus rookie season and is averaging 5.5 yards per rush this year. 6th round pick. That's how you do it. Of course, Jacksonville idiotically selected Travis Etienne in round 1 this year so they more than negated anything they gained taking Robinson in 2020.

I read recently that calf injuries tend to be slow to heal because the blood flow isn't as good there as opposed to a hamstring injury..........so perhaps that is the issue.

Beckham is Irish though........and Odell in Irish is O'Dell.........so ODB is still acceptable, IMO.