Success

The Jets game was just weird. The season opener, Rodgers getting hurt early, Allen kind of falling apart. But after that, we tore through September. Allen was firing on all cylinders, and the defense was as good as I've seen in the McDermott era. It was smothering, aggressive, flying to the ball. Man, was that D good. Our D when we faced KC at the end was a shell of that D. Every team has to deal with injuries. No doubt. But seriously, who dealt w/ more, and which team was clearly impacted by losses? We lost Hines & Damien Harris before things really started. Then, in one fell swoop, we lost Milano, Tre & Jones. Arguably the top 3 guys on our defense. Then we lose Benford, Rapp, Spector and Bernard, the latter of whom had picked up the slack in ways that were completely unexpected. So excited to see him AND Milano on the field this coming season. It wasn't just that we had to navigate the playoffs without quite a few of our best players. Even some of the guys playing, like Rasul Douglas, were clearly playing hurt and less effective. People always say the same thing: "excuses, excuses." To which I respond: "reality." If KC had the extent of injuries we had, and we were as healthy as they were, I have no issue saying that there isn't a snowball's chance in hell they would beat us.

You go around to other team's boards to correct inaccurate narratives? Man, that would be exhausting for me. Most boards have very hardcore fans, and the narratives are all over the place. But I think hardcore fans are allowed to have more exaggerated views on their team. It would never occur to me to be some sort of "narrative police" on another team's board, and try to correct fans all the time. Fans are allowed to be excited about their team. They're allowed to think in more partisan terms about their team & their players, on their own board, without getting laughing emojis from fans of a team who has been their main obstacle & who just won another title a week ago.

Maybe not an "inferiority" complex. But I find the fact that KC fans are posting here less than a week after winning their 3rd title, and particularly the tone & focus of their posts, to be a bit odd. It is so far from what I'd be doing if the Bills ever get one.

That's actually a good recovery. But your original post was to get a rise out of Bills fans.

And you're also contradicting yourself here - you said yourself recently that Beane hadn't built a Super Bowl-caliber roster. Much of what you posted above are team accomplishments. I actually laugh when I see the head-to-head in the playoffs arguments now, from anyone. I also laugh when Pats fans say that Mahomes can never be the GOAT, because Brady beat him in both head-to-heads. As though they were playing each other, and not the other team's defense.

Good for you. Then you shouldn't expect to come here & find every single poster bowing down to the majesty of Mahomes & KC. You shouldn't expect to come here and find Bills fans moping around in misery, saying "woe is us, we will never beat the mighty Chiefs." You shouldn't expect to come here finding thread after thread praising your team & coach. And there is already a lot of that. But this is a fan board, and most here are Bills fans. I'm sorry that your main board is one of the most toxic places in the universe, but if you come here, at least be aware that this board is not dedicated to pumping up KC.

I didn't say Allen was the better QB. In fact, I said the opposite.

I have heard than when teams start winning a lot of Super Bowls, their fans get a little bored, and it's not quite enough. They feel a need to go to other team's boards as kind of a "hope police," to make sure those fans don't get any strange ideas about winning a title, or being excited about their team. Your team won less than a week ago, and you're here talking down the Bills' team construction, players and chances for a title, and doing the laughing emoji thing & all that. Not something I would be doing if my team won. Ever.

We've come full circle. You're back to arguing that football is not a team game. Which, as we all know, it is.

I'm so torn on McDermott. He is, without doubt, a SOLID coach. We're in every game, and have winning seasons consistently. He gameplans well. And there is a lot of bad coaching in the league. It's hard to find someone significantly better than McD. I thought a few guys who would fit that description were available this offseason, and some might still be around next year. To me, it depends on that. I think AFCCG has to be the floor next year in terms of expectation. Anything short of that - and if it's not tied to some circumstance like Allen being injured - and I think they have to consider moving on.

The D comes up short in the playoffs. They've done well - as you pointed out - against bad QB's. The Bills defense has a "good QB" problem. Mahomes is part of that. Maybe we can agree on that, but in general, you've spent a lot of time mythologizing a QB who is maybe a tick better than Allen.

You took all the time to put this together - after implying that Allen's playoff victories weren't too impressive because he played against mainly back-up & mediocre QB's? Your arguments are pretty inconsistent. You're trying to support a narrative that isn't really supportable. Did you forget about this post before you posted your last post?

I don't feel like the window is closing at all in the upcoming season. It's as wide open as it was last September, before all of the injuries hit. The Bills are a pretty young team. Whenever I hear an opposing fan say we're getting older, I think it's because of Hyde, Poyer & Miller. If you look at the rest of the team, it's pretty dominated by guys in their 20's, and many who were just drafted in the past few years. If Beane can put together another very good draft, we should be in the top tier again this coming season. And that is repeatable. This has always been a team that Allen basically carries for a large part of the time. As long as he is surrounded by solid, capable players, with a few star-quality guys in the mix, we can beat anyone.

That's certainly fair. But in general, the Bills D has let the team down in the playoffs. They haven't played like their regular season ranking. I think their ranking is often inflated by how well our offense does, and Allen keeping them off the field for large portions of a game. This past season, I saw them as a true top 5 defense, and even top 3. But losing so many players obviously changed that by the time we played KC.

Know what they call that? A goalpost move. It's what people do when they're losing a debate.

Paper tiger. The Ravens basically stopped Mahomes. The Niners limited him much more than we did. Cincy made him look terrible after the 13 seconds game. And don't forget how they looked against Skylar Thompson. I'll give you credit. You're really trying.

And a defense that was clearly a paper tiger come playoff time. And with coaching that is clearly inferior to what the Chiefs have. You lost this debate when you tried to argue that QB's beat each other. They don't. Allen arguably played better than Mahomes in the 13 seconds game, and in this most recent playoff game. His team & coaches let him down MUCH more than what we have seen w/ KC. Regular season stats don't matter if certain units fold in the playoffs.

LOL The previous poster was 100% correct. You're trying too hard. Andy Reid made many NFCCG's and a SB. Pundit narratives are clownish much of the time. Spagnola stopped arguably the greatest offense in history to win a SB. And Veach has quite obviously built a top defense for that team - which, clearly, has allowed Mahomes to win more games without having to score as much as Allen. That big Mahomes offense didn't light up the scoreboard in the AFCCG & SB. You're wrong, quite simply. I'll say it again: football is a team game. No one would argue that Mahomes hasn't had better teams & coaches than Allen. No one.

They also happened to get a world-class HC in that time, a world-class DC, and a top GM. Big coincidence, eh?

Football is actually a team game. Quarterbacks don't beat other quarterbacks, or lose to other quarterbacks. If this was golf or tennis, your post would have more relevance.

NFL narratives have always been QB-centric, but that's gotten even more pronounced. I hear Pats fans say that Mahomes can never be GOAT, because Brady beat him both times head-to-head. One of those was Dee Ford being Offside, and one was a game where Mahomes was missing 2 key O-linemen and was playing a world class defense. And it's the same w/ Allen. He carried the team a few weeks ago against KC - but it felt like all of the coverage afterward was his decision to play "hero ball" and go for Shakir in the EZ (which was the right decision). And it was all "Mahomes bested Allen, again." I agree w/ you. I don't think Mahomes could carry some of the Bills teams Josh has had quite the same way.

Allen didn't get anywhere near the defensive support that most of the other playoff teams got. Watching KC & SF in the Super Bowl was eye-opening. That was much more of a defensive game. And it's really been like that almost every time in the playoffs. The Bills D is usually ranked high and plays well most of the regular season, but disappears in the playoffs. Against KC, the pressure was on almost every drive to score, because our D could not get stops.

They were much healthier than the Bills heading into the game. It's not really comparable.

But KC's receivers didn't have those drops against the Bills. They uncharacteristically made spectacular catches, all game.

Ah yes - the goal line fumble. The only mistake made in the game, apparently. Well, except for the 60-yarder to Diggs that was on a rope & dropped, or the similar pass to Sherfield. And the missed FG. I didn't hear "every pundit" say that the Chiefs looked like the better team. That was a coin flip game.