BADOLBILZ

Where the comparison to wrestling comes in is that wrestling promoters/script writers have always known that perceived "unfair" officiating enrages and engages fans so they write comically bad officiating in. But the NFL doesn't have to script bad officiating.........they just make it(or leave it) difficult to officiate and they get the same effect. MLB is on the verge of making the sport virtually free of officiating drama........and I guarantee you they are worried about taking that last real element of uncertainty out of the game.

Eh........we'll see. Very early in this season we had a mod start/title a thread declaring Spencer Brown the biggest problem on the team.........echoing the sentiments of A LOT of other parrots who seemed to have zero perspective on the expected learning curve for an NFL RT from a small school with little actual college game experience. Had he struggled? Yeah but it was a big adjustment for him coming to the pro's and unlike the CB position the Bills didn't have access to a better option so they had to let Brown play thru his struggles. Perhaps for Elam the complicated zone-heavy defense has just proven a struggle to learn like the pro game did early on for the less talented Rasul Douglas. Elam is a very talented player...........I'd be far less than surprised if he emerged as a good starter next season.

Has it been mentioned any time recently that the Bills WR corps isn't very good? 🤔 But yeah, they particularly lack any truly dynamic athleticism at the position. But to be fair, when the Bills had Eric Moulds and Peerless Price those two guys were very good but did not have the ability to make incredible diving catches like guys like Terry Glenn or Shawn Jefferson("just give it to em') with the Patriots. Sometimes you can have a very productive WR corps but not have that kind of acrobatic type talents.

First of all, there is no proof that officiating isn't broadly "fair". It may be very often incorrect but it doesn't appear to tilt the overall results in the favor of just a few teams, so it is therefore "fair". What you are actually asking for is "better" officiating. Not sure how you've determined that you or anyone involved "deserve" better. If you are paying to watch the NFL for all these years then you have been voting for this level of officiating all along with your wallet. So you are getting what you deserve. If you only watch it for free, you aren't paying for it so you don't deserve anything.

Yeah, that's the way it could be changed. By unifying for change. But it isn't going to happen because each fan base is pitted against the other and bad officiating only deepens those bonds to individual teams. That's almost impossible to change at this point. Maybe if some team won like 5-6 straight SB's and benefitted from some horrible officiating calls then the rest of the league's fan bases would unite in revolt against the product..........but as it stands the NFL is the most competitive major pro sport and the only one where every team has a realistic chance to win every week as well as the same chance at long stretches of success and SB wins if managed well. If something really threatened to kill the golden goose the NFL would do something about it...........sorta' like how the Bills organization interjected themselves into the then growingly team-separate "Bills Mafia" culture. The last thing the NFL wants are fan bases(or the collective) becoming self aware of their influence and dictating policy to the league or its teams.

If you want to see how that kind of system works.........follow the NBA. The players run that league and they lobbied hard to have power over officiating by being able to review just about everything. It's slowed the game down and that power has turned the players into outright intolerable assh*les to the officials all game.........which in turn then leads to technical fouls and ejections..........which creates drama and alters scores/outcomes........which ultimately has the same effect as bad officiating.

"For reasons that aren't clear"? Go back to page 1........... @Dancing Fool clearly explains it. The NFL is "sports entertainment". Complicated rules, relentlessly cheating players and part time officials make officiating difficult..........bad officiating creates drama and unpredictability.........those things sell the sport to the masses. The NFL is a customer driven business not a player driven business........when the customer changes(stops responding to drama with increased interest) then the league will change. And that's not likely to EVER happen because I am sure that controversy has always driven demand for any kind of successful pro sport. My advice is learn to accept it as it is.

Preparation creates clutch performance.......therefore it prevents un-clutch performance. When the Patriots beat the Seahawks in XLIX, remarkably the last play they practiced that Friday was the exact play where Butler jumped the route and got the interception in the end zone. Now that was "next level" prep. You don't need that level to beat some douchebag like Nick Sirianni in a big game..........but I am quite certain that the Bills lack of a "clutch" gene is a direct result of them being accepting of a lower standard of preparation. That was the biggest issue for the 1990's SB Bills teams.........they started with modest expectations........got REALLY good but were always sloppy and the conference set a low bar........then when what they were doing didn't quite yield championship results they still remained confident that what they were doing was enough. It wasn't. There is an aspect of that with these Bills. Their GM thinks he's good enough at WR positions.........their QB thinks 6 months away from football is fine........their HC thinks he can be the DC as well even though he wasn't great at late game decisions when he was just the HC. They either don't know what they don't know or they just don't want to pay the price.

Yeah it's a shame that they are this far into their career together and this deep into the season and aren't on the same page. Gabe makes a bunch of inexcusable mistakes because he's just not very good........but every time you see stuff like this you also gotta' wonder about Allen's offseasons. Where Mahomes built a compound in Texas where he meets with his receivers to work on their routes/timing periodically in the offseason.........Allen is all about rest and relaxation. This season has been an inexplicable cluster*ck of bad execution despite it being the same system since 2018.

It's not a cringe term.........it's just being used incorrectly. "Billsy" arose from the drought and is about organizational disfunction.......their almost uniquely bad ownership and the decisions and subsequent results of those actions or inaction.........things far more damning than being a pretty good team and losing some important games in painful ways. By the definition that some fans are trying to mold it to the Andy Reid Chiefs astonishingly blowing a 28 point lead in the playoffs to Indy in 2014 or a 21-3 halftime lead in the AFCCG to Cinci a couple years ago was "Billsy". I mean, they didn't reach a SB for almost 50 years. They blew home field advantage in the playoffs many times. That's just football and that aspect can change with the players/coaches on the field changing. See the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs as examples. The Bills haven't been "Billsy" in quite some time. Same thing happened with the term "Battered Bills Fan Syndrome(BBFS)"...........I also concocted that for our resident idiots who made illogical excuses for the Billsy behavior of the Bills organization..........like a battered spouse so often does for the spouse that beats them. But instead they turned it around to justify their own sad-sack ways "I'm a battered Bills fan, I have BBFS 😭". I get that once something is said and repeated it gradually becomes whatever the masses want it to be but the re-interpretations of those terms really don't make sense to me and frankly they are just a bunch of people using them as a way to wallow in self-pity.

1) The quality of a teams second receiving target has been a remarkable indicator of which teams reach the SB for the past 15 years or so but especially the last 6 SB's.........where the second options on those SB participants all were basically WR1B's or put up WR1 numbers. People express "hate" about Beane stranding Allen with Gabe as his #2 because he's so clearly not in that category.............so you are reading that entirely the wrong way. The Bills lack depth at WR but Gabe isn't a good second option and it's a lot easier to envision Shakir or Sherfield(even) replacing Gabe's wildly inconsistent play than it would be anyone on the Eagles replacing Brown or Smith. 2) The flip side is that Hurts took the better roster........including better blocking, receiving and running game.........and got beat by a QB playing on a high ankle sprain. When Hurts handed the Chiefs those 7 points by setting the ball on the ground and fumbling it to KC for 7 points that totally changed the momentum of the game so I have never felt that he "outplayed" Mahomes.

Yeah the similarities are notable. Putting big time play making talent around quarterbacks with the traits to throw the deep ball and run for yardage works. Athletically, Hurts is a load to bring down but he is less dynamic 2015 Tyrod........who had a higher yards per attempt(8 to 7.5) AND yards per rush(5.5 to 3.6) than Hurts has this season. I'm not going run Hurts down too much because I think he is a very smart, well prepared QB even if he lacks great arm talent.........but it would be interesting to find out what he'd look like if AJ Brown or DeVonta Smith went down for about 8 weeks or so. As you and I know, the quality of that second option is hugely important.

He had 9 sacks and 59 tackles for a team with few pass rushing opportunities last year and had to settle for less than $10M on a 1 year deal($7M to play with Bills)........but you think he will be one of the hottest names in FA going into his age 32 season? Seems doubtful. He might get a 1-2 year deal averaging $10M or so but he's not going to be in the category of one of "the hottest names". That is going to be reserved for deals worth $80M or more.

Hurts has worked hard to make himself into a massive thighed, tough to tackle player who can execute easy throws with accuracy and touch.........a big upgrade over the non-passer he was at Alabama..........but I am quite certain if forced to make the kind of tight window throws that Mahomes, Allen and Burrow so often have to make he would not be held in much esteem as a QB. Teams just can't force that against this stacked Eagles roster.

Win out Win SB Fire McD anyway That's what Howie Roseman would do.

He had a hard time overcoming people's memories of that stupid play and getting respect for his takes..........but he's accomplished it. He's pretty good at what he does.

A "Hermes" is a pejorative term used as slang typically for an easily offended Bills fan who is perceived as demanding far beyond the scope of what is normal.

He doesn't have answers late in the game once an offense has figured out his initial plans. In fairness, with regard to yesterday this is generally what happens to defense's against great offensive teams.........even Belichick had lot's of big games where his second half defense looked bad and blew or almost blew games they had in hand. But to lose games late to bad offense's like McD has this year is unconscionable. And to never have anything in the bag of tricks to stop the bleeding despite having a veteran laden defense and so many years in the same system? It's very discouraging.

They got a flat Philly team but they came out anxious and sloppy and committed 10 penalties and had about 10 more unforced errors in the first half and missed the opportunity to put the napping Eagles away. Should have scored 28 or more on that listless Eagles defense in the first half. Get the Eagles out of their run game and Hurts can't make the tight window throws to beat you.

It shows how naive the folks on this board are that we have gone 5 pages and not stated the obvious: If McD goes to Carolina then Brandon Beane will go with him. Contract-shmontract. Carolina is home for Beane and he can leave behind a bad cap situation and go home to work with his friend McDermott? That's a dream come true for those guys.

Yeah it's been a fine line between winning and losing that doesn't show up well in the stat lines. The Denver game was the ultimate example with that ridiculously overzealous second zero blitz setting up the then too many men on the field penalty and the winning FG. As I mentioned in another thread, if they don't make the playoffs, there have been teams with better stats that have missed. Like the 2010 Chargers who missed the playoffs with both the #1 offense and defense(yardage stats) in the NFL. I've often compared these Bills to those Charger teams but I was hoping the 2021 team that limped out of the gate 6-5 was that version of the Chargers......

Yeah, unfortunately true. I've compared this current Bills organization to the 2000's Chargers many times in the past few years. Amazingly the 2010 Chargers were 1st in the NFL in offense AND defense and missed the playoffs entirely at 9-7 after a season of upsets a lot like the Bills are having. The flip side is the McD lead 2017 team had the worst point differential of any team to make the playoffs from the AFC since the 1980's.

Yeah sometimes bad strategy just works out or is overcome. Case in point.......the Patriots........who should have won at least another 4-5 Super Bowls that they never even reached during their run. They were head and shoulders the best coached and QB'd team in the league for almost 20 years. But with the exception of when they went out and got Randy Moss and speedboated their way to an undefeated regular season........Belichick seemed to relish keeping the cupboard half empty..........and it wasn't just poor drafting. It was like he wanted the challenge more than the ring. He even benched his CB1 for their SB loss to Philly. Imagine Andy Reid doing that. But usually injuries and a totally unnecessary lack of depth would be just enough to let a clearly worse coached and QB'd opponent like Denver or Pittsburgh get thru and steal a ring. We remember their late dynasty flourish of wins but they basically went a decade without winning a SB and should have won most of those. As it pertains to the Chiefs..........I don't think the team that won the SB last season was as good as the one that face-planted in the second half against Cinci in the AFCCG(with Tyreek) the season prior. That was just an aberration, IMO. They don't match up nearly as well without him and they've sorta' turned into that Patriots style team that has to win a lot of games late by one score instead of just running teams off the field.

Have you considered that maybe the strategy was wrong all along and that winning a SB without Tyreek Hill had nothing to do whatsoever with getting intentionally worse at WR but a combination of many other factors that weren't just "made possible" when Hill was traded for picks and to save money? I mean, there was a time many years ago when the Edmonton Oilers traded Wayne Gretzky and then two seasons later won another Stanley Cup. It was still a bad trade in the long run because they probably would have won 2-4 more Stanley Cups with him. If Tyreek Hill strings together a 3rd and 4th year like the first 2 unbelievable seasons he's had in Miami and the Chiefs receiving corps struggles and they do not win the SB this year or either of the two subsequent seasons it could end up looking a lot like that Gretzky trade. I'm still grateful all the time that they made that Hill trade. Yeah he's been tough to defend 4x in a little over 12 months with Miami but the Bills have mostly dominated the Dolphins anyway. It's a matchup league and he is the top non-QB matchup player in the NFL.

That was a culture win. They had a few of those that season.