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Franco_92

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    Biggest Positives on the Season

    in The Stadium Wall Archives

    Posted

    I can feel the emptiness that comes from a big playoff loss in the first game, highlighting how far we still have to go. 

    But teams don't just become Super Bowl contenders with the snap of the finger. It takes several seasons of strict adherence to a good plan to get things into place. For 17 years we had been trying as hard as possible to get the first steps in place, and failed miserably. 

    This year we've finally taken that first step. We've established culture and accountability. We now have tasted postseason football and know what it takes to get there, and know how hard we have to work and how well we have to build to do well there. It's going to happen. McD has some ironing to do in his game management, but it is nowhere close to being as bad as we've seen during the drought, and quite frankly, I'm skeptical that there are any non-Belichick coaches out there that would make us completely satisfied in this regard. Deeply flawed coaches have won recent Super Bowls. 

     

    In just a few months our team was transformed into one of my least favorite sports teams in Buffalo history to a team that we were thrilled and proud to watch come on the field every Sunday, a team that made up for its talent deficiencies by getting back up and trying harder time and time again, staying disciplined, staying the course. I was proud to watch these guys battle and show respect to each other and their opponents unlike the Rex teams of just last year and their 13 penalties per game. This stuff isn't just cliche, it's important, and we've finally got it. 

    Then, there are very real QB options in both FA and the draft, and we are loaded with assets to improve the roster deficiencies that were supposed to give us a 4 win season.

    The team is in the right hands, the expectations are now raised to a level beyond what we've been searching for the past 17 years, legitimately, and I now have confidence that the guys are in place who can get this team to meet and exceed those expectations.

    Jags Fan here!

    in The Stadium Wall Archives

    Posted

    16 minutes ago, Sacksonville said:

    Great game guys. Unfortunately both offenses looked absolutely dreadful. Shocking that Bortles had so many rushing yards. Bills have such a bright future. Defense is legit. If Bortles plays that way next game, no chance they win. Good luck next season. Thanks again for the welcome. 

    Enjoy that defense as much as you can. It's special. They never seem to dominate as long as they feel like they can. 2014 feels like 10 years ago.

    Rick Dennison's performance

    in The Stadium Wall Archives

    Posted

    After moving their DT's all drive, with 1st and goal from the 1, we called a fade against perhaps the best CB out there and it blew up spectacularly. 

    Then we gave Jacksonville a short field with 2 of their timeouts left. 

     

    Instead of being up 7-0  at half, it is 3-3 directly because of Rick. 

    Combined with the countless other massive errors and hair-pulling 2nd and 25 screens to tolbert for -3 yards, will he be fired in the offseason? 

    • Like (+1) 3
    • Thank you (+1) 1

    [Vague Title]From this Fan

    in The Stadium Wall Archives

    Posted

    One time Ralph picked Rob Johnson to start over Doug Flutie in a playoff game, and the Bills lost on a forward lateral that wasn't noticed in real time. Bill Clinton was in the White House for a couple more weeks. I was 4. The house I have spent 82% of my life in didn't exist. My little sister, about to be old enough to drive, was still 2.5 years away from gracing us with her presence. A lot can happen in 18 years.
     
    The Bills are a huge part of what helps distract WNYers from the worst parts of life. They are a mediocre franchise, but even so they have provided all-time-great memories to people with the most luck and success, and to people who desperately need more hope and luck. My personal favorites include, but are not limited to:
    -JP Losman hitting Lee Evans for identical 83 yard TD passes in Houston, and then winning with a strike to Peerless Price with less than a minute to go
    -Practicing those three routes from that game in the front yard with my brother for dozens and dozens of hours after, during halftimes, before and after big wins and crushing losses, no matter what
    -My first games with my brother and father, watching us clown the fish in horrifically snowy weather, my brother's favorite Lee Evans always putting on a show
    -Trent Edwards looking like the real deal en route to a 5-1 start in 2008 before a concussion ruined his career
    -Watching Kevin Everett walk again
    -Watching Fred Jackson in the preseason with my brother and father for 3 consecutive seasons, waiting for the Bills to notice what we did and stop sending him to the practice squad, while he just worked harder and harder and eventually carved out a career which put him on the wall and onto my computer background where he still resides
    -Watching Fred Jackson finally slay that team with the gigantic asterisk next to every shred of success they have ever had
    -Watching Fred Jackson lead us to another 5-2 spot in an MVP caliber first half of the season before falling to injury
    -Watching Fred Jackson's psychic powers as he busted off an 80 yard TD run against NYG and veered left at the perfect moment to evade capture
    -Watching Fred Jackson steamroll Chris Conte to all but seal the win in game 1 of the first winning season I ever got to witness, 2014
    -Watching the defense that entire season, completely and utterly dominant
    -Mario with the strip sack on Rodgers to seal the biggest Bills win in my life
    -Shady McCoy blowing my mind each and every week of his tenure here
    -Kyle Williams fighting through blood, sweat, and tears each and every snap for this city and the fans
    -Sean McDermott restoring law and order and getting a bunch of rag-tag pieces to this position
    -Tre White's pure enthusiasm and insane talent for this game
    -The entire sideline rallying around Brandon Tate, jumping up and down as he generates a huge first down on 3rd and 15, showing the world that here in Buffalo, we are family
     
    But today there's a chance to acquire the memory that would top all of these. Even taking into account the perspective comes with age, responsibilities, tragedies, opportunities. Perspective that forever alters the awestruck gaze with which we saw our favorite sports and teams growing up. For me, these things have actually strengthened my love for the teams in WNY and the silly games they play. They are so essential to lighten the load of so many lives. They mean so much to so many people going through so many things. They bring us all together in a way that nothing else really could. They connect a homeless, lost soul to a billionaire oil dude that may be aloof and have misplaced trusts but who ultimately bought these teams to try and help lift up the region we all call home and pay absurd airfare to come back and see whenever we possibly can.
     
    I know that objectively there is a good chance that today is just another letdown to add to a 17-year-long list. But today is also the best chance we've had in my 12 years as a fan. It's a chance for 53 guys from wildly varying backgrounds, who have overcome so many of their own demons, to bring pure elation to a once-dying and still-hurting rust belt city. Even if it doesn't work out, we are just so happy to have this feeling of hope in week 17 again, or in many of our cases, for the first time ever. Vegas agrees that this post may look pretty stupid at 7:35 pm. But until then, I am feeling the strongest hope I ever have as a Bills fan, the hope that brings me back every single Sunday.
     
    No fanbase deserves the next 24 hours more than this one.
     
    Let's go Buffalo.
     
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    • Like (+1) 9

    Small Sample Size....Yes - Garbage Time....Maybe Not As Much As You Think

    in The Stadium Wall Archives

    Posted

    2 hours ago, dulles said:

    I think you have to throw out at least the first 3 throws.  You should probably throw out the fourth throw, an incompletion as well.  So, now he's 4-6 with about 40 yards and a TD.  Definitely a small sample size, but then again, they aren't making the change based on what they have seen from Peterman in games.  They are making changes based on what they've seen from TT in games.  That is not a small sample size anymore.

     

    I am in favor of the move, btw. 

    Because otherwise he doesn't look as good and that makes us sad?

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