BADOLBILZ

How is that a "gotcha"? It was just a year and a half ago and talked about by astonished observers for the rest of the season......... how could you forget that? And one of those 2012 games you are talking about the Bills won 19-16 in Arizona. I don't care about comparing the 2012 Wannstedt defense to the 2017 team...........that has nothing to do with the point.......the 2012 defense was an abomination............the point is that the 2017 Bills defense came apart without Dareus. That's why they desperately overpaid for Star. That's a reality and one of several significant judgement errors by McBeane in 2017, IMO.

135 points allowed in 3 games ring a bell? Grasp that..........that's 45 points per game. Is your memory that short? Worst stretch in Bills history and 4th worst by ANY team since the AFL/NFL merger.

Well start with Harrison Phillips' stats. The rookie had 35 tackles and made 6 plays in the backfield(TFL + QB hits) playing in 38% of Bills snaps. Star had 17 tackles and 1 backfield play(a TFL vs. TN) in 47% of Bills snaps. Better yet.........stay away from stats.........you are making one mistake after another on them in this thread.

That 3 game stretch was statistically the worst stretch of performances in Bills history............they couldn't stop anything. And the reaction by McDermott after the first two of those games? Bench Tyrod. Like that's going to stop teams from moving the ball at will on your run defense.

There isn't anything to it, actually............all of the best teams of the 2000's rose to that level from a state of mediocrity.........in some cases several years of it. The teams that bottomed out in the 2000's? Hasn't worked out well. The last team to be rewarded for that with a SB win were the 1998 Colts..........who got one. The days of needing to bottom out to break the chain of mediocrity ended before the Bills even started their run of mediocre to bad teams.

Go back and watch some of the Cover-1 stuff on Dareus from that time. Tell me if Star can stack and shed like that. Two weeks after Dareus was traded the defense went on the worst stretch of play in team history. They were fortunate to limp to a 4-5 finish because of 3 wins against woeful Dolphins and Colts teams.........and the Colts and second Phins game were much too close considering Brissett and Fales were the opposing QB's. And not only was Dareus good in Buffalo but he went to Jax in 2017 and they instantly went from the bottom of the league in run defense to near the top. It was a very suspect decision to trade him and only exacerbated by replacing him with a ridiculous contract for Star. But if they had traded Dareus in the preseason they surely miss the playoffs.........no question........so I guess that's a plus for McBeane.

Well in fairness, they did win 2 AFL titles........which was the most they could do at that time..........and were a win away from SB I the following year.........and had a couple contenders under Knox. They weren't out of contention for 19 straight years like the current Bills run of futility. After watching you interact with Gunner(calmly debating you) and myself(sarcastically mocking you) and seeing that your responses in both cases were a very similar level of unflattering petulance.............I think you should research the phrase "once a man, twice a child".

First of all let me say I object to your use of the highlighted. It's virtual paraphrasing of my "only you can make you happy" ...........which is ONLY to be used for eternal apologists. Second.......yes you will be watching Scott because you need a place to channel your Bills issues. Funny how unrelenting you are with your complaints about the Pegula owned Sabres organization.....but here........well you got excuses. I guess because of the fact that most Sabres fans are fed up with the losing you can't find enough people to take your frustration on there so you just put it where it actually belongs......on the organization. Try it here. Fun fact: Scott hasn't lost a game for the Bills yet.

Excuses are the death of process. Plenty of Bills fans from your area that would gladly give you free rides to the game since they are going anyway.........you just don't want to ride your bike to their house in the dark. And you could get on a Bills budget. First thing, stop ordering take-out for dinner every night. There is your season ticket. And the $10 a day you save on tipping for takeout(why?)............that's your club seat upgrade right there.........you could be sitting next to @teef and getting free dental advice.......which is worth more than the damn seats! But if you don't have the process in you then keep raking your leaves from one side of the lawn to the other on Sundays and then coming in to complain about the takes of people who actually watched the games. SMH.

400 is a lot but I count preseason games too and I tailgate with people who have surpassed that number and are still walking vigorously without assistance. I think Kenny will surpass 350 just in the 2000's this season. Some years the preseason games have been one or more of the most fun games of the season. And I'm not kidding. Short of making the playoffs there is little more satisfying than seeing young players emerge in the preseason. I'm pretty psyched about seeing Tyree Jackson play 8 quarters this ps. Plus beautiful sunny warm weather, happy fans and scantily clad women......or even entirely unclad women. Definitely be a few of the preseason games in my top 25 of the 2000's at least. It's impressive that you've gotten to 250 living mostly outside of WNY.........that's a lot of games.........but that's my main point. This isn't like MLB or the NHL where it's nearly impossible to attend all games so seeing or even being there for franchise historically significant ones isn't just a stroke of luck. Most dedicated Bills fans see every Bills games the day they happen whether in person or broadcast. So these threads kinda' read like the old Chris Farley talk show sketch were he asks the guest "remember when you did that?..........That was awesome". But anyway I apologize for letting Gugny hijack the thread with his bickering...........I was just pointing out that to out-of-towners who have to plan travel and take vacations to attend games these always seem like 50 page threads waiting to happen. But the reality is that as long as there are actual living and breathing human beings that live close enough to the stadium to roll out of bed by noon and comfortably make it to kickoff it's not going to be a feat of fandom to make it to A LOT of games.

I also have other controversial opinions..........I believe that no matter where you go, there you are..........and water isn't dry........there's a bunch of 'em. We'll just have to agree to disagree.

Here is what you said that I said: "Among others when a few pages back he talks about when you are new like Allen you have to learn to be a bust or words to that effect." You have to learn to be a bust? That's utter nonsense. Mine were not words to "that effect". My take was a joking play on easy answer, low content, self-help quotes............I don't know WHAT was going thru your mind...........you have to learn to be a bust? That's not a thing........that's two things that don't belong in a thought together. If you can't see that you shouldn't be here you...........you should either see a healthcare pro about your thought process or maybe run for political office.

The 1990 AFC Championship is the obvious one but otherwise couldn't possibly narrow it to 5. I know you don't always watch the games but most of us watch them all...........it's a 48 hour time investment annually..............but you got leaves to rake so we understand.

Absolutely. They haven't earned the goodwill on the field to assume they will succeed though. Perhaps more than any other regime in recent memory CLEAR paths not taken have resulted in greater success by organizations that picked up what the Bills passed on or tossed away. That's actually added a lot of fun to the mix..............gifting Patrick Mahomes to a traditional AFC rival is not the kind of thing that happens with every regime..............but neither is being all-in on a QB on draft day like Josh Allen. There is a lot of intrigue with this group really. Allen could guide them to great heights or this regime could prove to be the least competent in team history. Everything is TBD.

Oh has it been easy to think the Patriots were going to miss the playoffs for the past couple decades? Or that the Yankees will have a losing season when they've had 25 straight winning seasons? I understand there are a lot of people out there with varying degrees of depression or other mental illness issues that need to avoid all negative thoughts..........they really shouldn't be here, I'm sure their therapist would tell them that........maybe focus on non-competitive interests like music or poetry or theatre But then there are those of us who realize that this is just competitive entertainment and it's OK to be objective and rational about it. And yes..........past history is a big part of the picture objectively. The Bills have sucked for two decades...........the Pegula's ownership has been very ineffective on-field/on-ice............the burden of proof is on the teams not the fanbase.

WTF are you talking about? Assisted living dude...........it's time.

So let me get this straight.............you don't bother to educate yourself about football............you don't live or work in WNY but you live close enough to attend all games but make little effort to do so.............you openly admit you care a lot more about the Mets than the Bills...........but you are questioning my fandom? GTFOH. You are a poser. ?‍♂️

The reason these "these are the cool games I attended" threads rarely have the legs the OP expects is that there are literally thousands of Bills fans who have been to 300-400 or more Bills games.

19 years in a row where the team hasn't been in contention? Say all you want about the management not being the same or whatever...........but it starts at the top and the Pegula's have owned the Sabres and Bills for a combined 12 full seasons and have 1 skin-of-teeth playoff appearance to show for it. It's definitely warranted to be skeptical of an anemic track record like that.

Yeah good point about the 2019 draft implications of not making the deal earlier. The Pelicans getting Zion was just a stroke of luck but I think LA getting the #4 pick worked out better for LA too because then they didn't have to give up Kuzma. Can't see that deal getting done without Kuzma without the Lakers getting that very high #1 pick in the lottery.

New Orleans could've got that deal back in February.......so much for the new GM doing better..........not having to give up Kyle Kuzma makes it a great deal for the Lakers, IMO. Lakers now the very early Vegas favorite to win it all in 2019.

Terry Pegula and Whaley being in on Mahomes..........and McD(and presumably Beane from his office in Carolina) wanting to buy a vowel instead......... is one of those stories that becomes more important if "the process" goes off course in 2019. After the early success of Mahomes and Watson it's going to be hard to accept more mediocrity or losing in exchange for just modest improvement from Allen in year 2...........he's not going to throw 50 TD passes but he needs to look VERY GOOD.........which likely isn't made easier by the modest assembly of weapons.

Season actually started Thursday night with a Hamilton Ti-Cats 23-17 victory over Saskatchewan. ESPN just saw fit to put the game on ***** ESPN+..........hoping to get some football desperate fans to sign up.

Actually Dareus has played mostly nose tackle(0-tech) for Buffalo and Jax since he signed that Bills contract. In the 1-technique for his entire career Lotulelei has been better positioned to make tackles and plays in the backfield than Dareus has been since Rex moved him to NT. Dareus was tremendous in his partial season at the 1-tech for Buffalo in 2017 and of course the impact of his loss was massive in the subsequent two months. Star just fell off a cliff last year. He wasn't that good in 2017 which is why the signing was almost universally panned as one of the worst if not the worst value of the 2018 crop.......but he was BAD on the field in 2018. I've heard excuses about Edmunds...........but if Edmunds struggles would have lead to anything it would have been more attempts by Lotulelei to make plays. It was the exact opposite.......he simply couldn't impact OL and disengage.......he was running in quick sand all season. I entirely expected some physical excuses but apparently he just sucked. As for Dareus..........it's my understanding that he will return to starting at the 3T position this year for the first time since his 2014 first team all pro season. Contrary to what Bills fans want to think Dareus has been playing well in Jacksonville and his base salaries weren't prohibitive the first couple seasons...........he had to re-do his deal because the backloaded base salary portion of his Bills contract came up.

What I brought up was Lotulelei's anemic production and untenable contract..........that's not a hypothetical........it happened. And btw.........yet again you stumble over statistics in this thread...........Phillips played 39% of his teams defensive snaps in 2018(versus Star's 47% and Phillips 38%). You literally pointed out that he didn't start playing for Buffalo until week 5 then cited the % of snaps he played out of Buffalo's 16 games? I'm not even sure what your point was bringing it up but........again you just don't seem to understand how stats work and what they mean. My take is this.........Lotulelei is the most one dimensional and least productive of the Bills top 3 veteran DT's......and the other two aren't that good. The only thing he does well at this point is not miss games to injury..........but barring significant injuries if he doesn't play a lot better he could start missing games due to lack of impact. Which would be an absurdly poor result for a 2018 free agent pickup with a fully guaranteed $11.5M cap hit in 2019.