Scott7975

A team is a contender to win a superbowl if they have a team capable of getting to the superbowl. The Bills have a team capable of it. They just havent done it yet. The Bills went to the playoffs with Tyrod Taylor.... I would not call that team a contender. The Pats last year made the playoffs... I would not call that team a contender. All 32 teams are not contenders. Some that make the playoffs arent contenders and its usually pretty obvious who they are. But you know this.

I think the Ravens complete collapse against Miami in the 4th quarter this year with a huge lead was worse. The Bills messed up two plays. The Ravens messed up an entire quarter and lost when they were ahead 35-14. Allowing 4 tds while only scoring 3.

Be real contenders for the superbowl every year. I dont look at it as a failure if they dont get there. Its not something easy to do even if you have the best roster and best QB in the NFL. It takes a lot of things going the right way than just having the best team. NE has skewed that but its still true. Thats why the Chiefs didnt make it last season. They are certainly a better team than the Bengals IMO. It just didnt fall into place. Same reason we didnt beat the Chiefs last season. I feel our team and the Chiefs are a coinflip and last year the Bills screwed up at the end of the game and lost that coinflip. Obviously I want to win one and its disappointing if we dont but for me its just be competitors every year to be in position to get to one and win one. I enjoy each game every single week win or lose.

My point is that the 2021 Ravens with Lamar wasnt any better than the Bills are today. People freak out over ugly wins and Im not exactly happy with the ugly but the team is finding ways to win. All teams have ugly wins. You are correct. About Josh's arm was fine when he threw those ints. His arm is not fine now. Probably it is getting better though. At least I hope it is. Allens a tough guy and a gamer. Wouldnt trade him for anyone else. Agree. This team is done without Allen.

Can we get this thread pinned?

We are 8-3 with those types of injuries plus the QBs arm over the last few. All 3 of those losses were by a fg. The Ravens last season played a lot of close games too. Even with healthy Lamar. The Ravens this year... what is their "excuse?" They are more dumpster fire this year than they were last. Blowing the Miami game in itself was probably the biggest catastrophe of any game this year. Then they have lost to *gasp* the Bills, the Browns, the Giants, barely beat the Bengals, struggled against the Panthers. They have had way more dumpster games than the Bills have. No team is just regularly blowing everyone out. They are all having bad games and sloppy play. With or without injuries. The expectations are unreal.

Good question. On one hand you have a guy like McD and really you hear it around the league so its not just him with liking to stick with routines. On the other hand these guys need practice and they just had victory friday which is usually victory monday so I would like to think so. At least Sunday I would hope.

There is definitely an enigma this season. Probably just expectations based and people cant handle disappointment from not blowing every team out. Even on twitter Sal C and another Bills guy said they had to start blocking people and that they dont like to do that but people were getting nasty with each other.

We dont have 10 days until next week because we play on Thursday again this week.

Judon is a beast. This will be even rougher if Dawkins cant go. Expect TE and FB help if he cant. Diggs/Davis/McK better win their matchup.

They blitzed a lot against detroit. They got burned on a lot of them.

I dont think your post is very well thought out. First " keeping McDermott forever." Not many if any are saying that at all. Now onto the quoted... I recall a lot of interviews where McD has said "we have to get better and that starts with me" or "I have to do a better job"... or something along those lines. Saying he doesnt own his mistakes is not very truthfull. Just because he doesnt get into specifics with the media about him or anyone else for that matter doesnt mean he doesnt own anything. He wants to win his way? What do you think his way is exactly? He is a defensive coach and we have one of the most pass happy offenses in the league. He is also one of the most aggressive coaches in the league. Defensive coaches typically arent like that.

Yeah I'm not buying this chart. For all I know the person writing the "quality" could have the Jets losing Breece Hall having the same effect as us losing Hines. Even if I were to believe it our bubble size would indicate injuries kind of are an "excuse."

I know this is a joke but it actually is a big game for NE. All of NE's games are big right now because they currently sit in 8th on the bubble with the Jets in the 7th seed. Our division has the potential to put 3 teams in the playoffs as weird as that sounds. Also likely the Jets falter and NE can take that 7th spot. Well yeah considering our next 4 out of 6 games are against divsion opponents thats a pretty obvious statement.

Just give it to em

Losing a guy here and there is not a big deal. Yesterday we were down Von Miller for over half the game, Micah Hyde, Tre White, Elam is on pitch count with an ankle, Benford I dont even know if he still has a club or not on his hand, Tremaine Edmunds, Groot, Poyer has a softball coming out of his elbow, Rousseau, Dawkins. This isnt like losing just Tre White. These are our best players on defense. Its been like this since week 2. Against Miami we were missing a ton of our starting defenders and also lost half our oline and our WRs were in the locker room every other play getting IVs in both arms. If you think this stuff doesnt make a difference then might as well just sign a bunch of scrubs to the roster and pay them league minimum instead of wasting money. Again, there is a difference between losing a guy or two and what we lose every week. Zero chance the Bills dont make the playoffs. Im not going to sit here and tell you we definitely win the division but they will at least get a WC. The only difference there is no home games instead of maybe one home game. Big deal. I think we will but thats not a definite. Thats because unlike last season when I was sure, I do believe in Miami and I also am not sure how our injuries will be. Full health, there would be no doubt in my mind. Injuries matter when its half your starting roster that is injured. This isnt the "next man up" bs because if that were true then people wouldnt pay for stars.

I meant to say Pats but I am pretty sure you once said that you wouldnt be surprised if the Bills finished last in the division last season. The Dolphins while playing great are not the division favorites nor SB contenders IMO. Just because they beat some weak schedule doesnt make it so. Playoffs for sure. I think the SB talk is premature. Injuries are not excuses. Saying you lost a game because one guy is out may be an excuse but saying that you arent playing up to expectations because the entire back end of the defense and some of the front 4 and Josh Allen has an injury to his throwing elbow is not an excuse. Its a reason. There are other reasons too but its a reason none the less. If you honestly dont think injuries play a big part in how a team plays then you are out of your mind. If Tua lost Hill and Waddle or Tuas already weak arm was banged up that team would be dumpster fire. Thats just two players. Id go so far as to say even just losing Hill would end their seasons hopes and would make them a mediocre team. Every single starter on our defense has missed time outside two rotational role players. Almost our entire season has missed half our defense. A few games our #2 WR had a bumb ankle.

Subjective. Chargers have avgeraged 22.7 ppg on the season and are 5-5. I'll believe they might be a threat in the playoffs if they actually get there and win a game. Personally I think Herbert is over rated. He makes some nice wow throws but he doesnt seem to have any dawg in him. Gotta have the dawg. The desire to win. I just dont see it. I see a guy that is mechanically sound and has a good arm but again, no dawg. He is pretty much a statue back there with not much mobility. When he does run he Kyle Ortons it. Multiple times I seen him slide a yard short of the first down with guys still 2 yards a way with the game on the line. Im not saying he is a bad QB. He is very very good. I cant call him elite. He has an elite throw but I dont think he has an elite game. Just my opinion. Some would agree. Probably more wont. Thats ok.

Yes our offensive design is a dumpster fire right now. It expects our guys to win their battles when we dont really have guys that do that regularly. It puts too much pressure on Josh to be perfect and throw in small windows for most of the game. Its a damn catastophe that Matt Patricia can scheme guys open and Dorsey relies on this. It also relies on our o line to hold their blocks well to give Josh and the receiver time and they dont which is part of the reason Knox is not part of this passing offense. This offense design might work really well if we had players like Hill and Waddle but we dont. We have slow guys that rely on crisp route running to get open and Diggs is the only crisp route runner.

Yet you hype Miami and Jets in the same way every season. KC doesnt struggle? How about the Colts game? How about playing like crap for the first half in a lot of games and having to make miracles to come from behind? How about getting stomped in their last super bowl? How about losing to the Bengals at home last year? How about losing to the team you dog every week and are supposedly a fan of? Yeah, they dont struggle ever.

Have they operated and replaced Millers knee with Josh's elbow yet?