Success

I could see losses to the Ravens, Bills & Bucs. I think the Bengals is a stretch, though - that's a bad team right now, and they won't have Burrow back by then (I don't think). I'm hoping a team like the Saints or even Jets can pull an upset (the only reason I'm even mentioning the Jets is because it's divisional, the Jets can be surprising at times). I'm sure you're not hoping that, but I'm kind of curious if we'll see that Pats team from yesterday against some of the lesser teams. They were so hyped for the game last night.

With the Pats schedule - every game we SHOULD win is now a "must" win. I'm assuming we beat them the next time, but they are likely going to win a lot of games. I think we could get away w/ losing to the Chiefs & Eagles. We need to win the basically easy ones, and probably beat the Bucs (or if we lose to the Bucs, beat the Chiefs or Eagles). 3 losses will win the division. 4 probably will, but it gets more iffy.

That is 100% true - but man would I be shocked if that team swept us. We made so many uncharacteristic errors yesterday, had a pretty bad ref crew, and they still needed a long FG to win. That kind of stuff could happen again, but I'd bet we win it next time w/ some comfort in the final margin.

I was pretty whelmed by how he played compared to much of the national reaction. We make so many bad QB's look good, and average QB's look great. I think Maye is above average, but we made him look great at times yesterday.

Yep. It's like the old adage that insanity is doing the same thing & expecting different results. We were outcoached last night. It's kind of a theme in bigger games that we lose, and certainly a theme in the playoffs. If we bow out early in this playoff year, I think we'd have to make a change and the timing would be right. Allen will be turning 30 and you can't wait much longer to make that kind of change. Obviously, I'm hoping we at least make it to the SB and it doesn't come to that. But if we have another bad exit, they have to consider it.

Sorry to hear that. Losing a pet is so hard.

Not a rookie, but really his 1st season - Gonzalez was the most impactful player on the field yesterday. He's an elite CB.

A couple of decades of success has really deluded that fanbase.

A relatively meaningless ranking at this point in the season. Literally, you're the 1st person I've seen try to argue that our defense is solid. I've been checking the Pats boards, and even most posters on those forums know our D isn't good. Clearly, last night was the 1st Bills game you've seen this year.

I haven't seen that AT ALL. On the general forums, it is widely acknowledged that Bills defense is downright bad. You seem detached from reality on this one.

The refs took over the game. No flow. Some of those calls were really phantom, too - and then they missed very blatant ones. That miss on Shakir near the end turned the game completely, and the narrative would be very different today if they called that PI. It was right out there in the open, and they missed it.

Are you trying to argue that we're above average? I think "average" is actually very generous for how this D has played so far this season. If you're not watching the games & just going by stats, you're kind of missing it.

To say it's the final year Buffalo will be favored to win the division - well, that's somethin'.

Some of the calls in that game - there were a couple that you couldn't even see on replay. They were so quick to pull the flag out all night. No fans want to see flags flying all over the place. That crew wanted to be the star of the game. I think we win that game w/ any other crew. One flag too many yesterday.

It doesn't really work that way when a QB as good as Allen is in the division. They got so used to owning the division that it seems like they think once they get back in 1st place, there won't be any looking back & it will be the Brady years all over again. Even if they continue on their current trajectory (still kind of a big if), it's not like the Bills won't challenge for the top spot every year that Allen is here.

Last night reminded me of when we beat them w/ Fitz - I think that was the 6th game of the season. I remember thinking we had turned a corner, and would challenge for the division. Then we crumbled. And like the Pats last night, we really only won because they turned the ball over so much.

Maybe. We'd need more luck than other contenders.

Obviously, he had a good game. And the standout "amazing" play was when he was getting dragged down and got it to Diggs. But the hype I've heard today is off the charts. He had a good half - but I thought his big throws were more a product of our defense faltering in that half. The receivers were pretty wide open, and we stopped getting good pressure on him. He didn't throw a TD all night. I still didn't see "elite" out there, and some are already putting him on Allen's level. It seems like some analysts and others want him to be that guy more than he actually is that guy. But we have a proud history of making a lot of QB's look better than they are.

They might lose to the Saints next week. On the question of "did the Pats win, or did the Bills lose?" - we lost. We gave that game away. This isn't denial. They're a mid team. They're not back.

It's funny that we now see this kind of game as a "bad" Allen game. He made some pretty ridiculous plays, and brought us back from another 2 score deficit in the 4th. He made some mistakes, but man is he good. Another fun thing - watching Pats fans celebrate online as wildly as they are. And I mean it -that's a fun thing. Because would you ever have imagined in the 1st couple of decades of this century that they'd feel that way about beating Buffalo in week 5 of an NFL season? The turntables, and all that.

We usually play great the 1st couple of months. We haven't so far. Maybe that's not a bad thing. We'll get 3 key defenders back (not sure on Hairston's timeline, but 2 very soon). We definitely need Hairston to play like a 1st rounder, but if he does, it really solves a lot. Tre is one of my favorite Bills of this era, but he's just too slow now. Tonight was sort of a perfect storm of Diggs playing probably the best game he'll play this season, the Bills uncharacteristically turning the ball over 3x, and the refs doing too many ref things. If we play tonight's game 10x, we likely win 8. As some others are saying - the worst part is that it's the Pats. I was hoping we'd have a lopsided record over them in the Allen era, but they've played us more or less even. Those couple of decades really did a # on me, but it's a process.

I'm a little worried about the division. The Pats schedule is - well, it's somethin'. At minimum, there is a very good chance they take the division lead at some point in the next 6 weeks. We absolutely have to win the rematch, which we should. But we have the Chiefs & Eagles - and they don't.

This is a really good point. I mean, they basically won by a long FG after we turned it over 3x and committed more penalties than I can remember us ever committing. I'm starting to calm down. It's good to put it in perspective.

It just feels like we'll need some luck to actually get a title. I guess you can say that about almost any title team - but it's just more so w/ us. Allen is as good as anyone out there, but the team is just lacking. Always. We don't have the big playmakers that you need on both sides of the ball. I'm reserving full pessimism until we get Hairston & the suspended guys back & see if it makes any kind of dramatic impact. I'm not holding my breath, though. I hate to be so negative. I mean, we MIGHT win it all this year. But we'll need some bounces w/ the way this team is.

Such deja vu. The D got a big stop in the Ravens game - but those are so rare when the game is winding down. In the KC playoff game this past season, you could feel that we weren't going to stop them to get another chance, and it was the same tonight. What I'd give for one of those drought-era defenses that came up big even though we couldn't score at all.