corta765

I got Minnesota. I think GB makes WC, but I am not bullish on their offense with Adams gone and there are advanced stats that said their defense is a bit of a paper tiger. Conversely I think Minnesota's offense is far deeper and their new coach will maximize the talent and players they have. Also GB's schedule is a straight up bear. Lions maybe push for WC spot if things fall together ok. Bears its a preference thing and I think they are a year away still from competing although Fields will do better having a coach who isn't trying to kill him. I still think they have the worst pass catching crew in the NFL and that is with Mooney being a decent WR.

At least with these two hires they were considered prototypical or with the times on what to do. Donahoe especially was considered a good move at the time as PIT had been quite good and the Bills needed a true Czar. Whaley was what many teams did promoting a good scout with a decent reputation. Donahoe and Whaley kinda flamed out but their teams had talent and they were just misses in terms of outcome. The middle three are the true errors as they were over their heads from day 1 and I fully blame for the worst of the drought. It should also be said that the Donahoe experience soured Ralph on outside hires basically the rest of his time which to me caused the worst elements of the drought as no one objective was around to say "we shouldn't be doing this". Even Buddy Nix had ties to the Bills going back to his scouting days.

I watched it back in 2020 during the shutdown when ESPN had it on. I knew what was coming and even so I was still in a stunned state on how they managed to give a game away they had won ten times over in such an epic fashion.

Doesn't work that way though saying "we weren't really a playoff team" because they were. The 2017 Bills were the worst of the teams from 2014-2017 that all had roster that easily could've made the playoffs talent wise even with limitations at QB. IMO the 2015 Bills were the most talented squad we had since 99 until the 2020 team rolled into the picture. Rex single handedly wrecked what was an 11-5 team and using the lens you had I would say that was a playoff team. The beauty of sports in general is sometimes the impossible or incase of the 2017 Bills unlikely does happen and you get a fun ride out of it. I will agree with you that even though the drought ended in 2017, to me the true end of the Bills being the bad Bills that the drought gave us was 2019. They did that on their own with a QB they drafted and roster they built not one they inherited like in 17. 2017 was the reward of so many years of bad breaks and luck to finally just be back in the dance and have fun. 2019 was the validation of being a competent org that did things properly and truly taking that big step into being a relevant good team.

Agreed. Truthfully had he been 10 years earlier as a coach he probably makes the playoffs a bit. Football when he coached the Bills was literally changing to an open passing attack style and the best teams took advantage of this. Instead Jauron tried playing a ball control running esq style with minimal passing and everything else you said. With football evolving though it had a lower ceiling compared to the prior decades for success.

IDK if there was a worse time to have seasons between awful losses and just the team not being remotely competitive. At least you got the Pats and Raiders wins in 2011 to see

I think it was Prescott Rossi's down and drought series that said the drought truly took form with Jauron and I couldn't agree more. It started the trends of "in the hunt", "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory", and under Jauron we got to witness some of most soul crushing losses in team history: 07 Pats 56-10 07 Cowboys MNF 08 Browns Wide Right 08 49ers loss (look at the stats in this one on how bad we outgained SF, ooo boy) 09 Pats McKelvin 09 Browns 6-3 I mean those are 6 games in a 3 year period which if you attended you deserve paid therapy by the Bills for. 2006 to 2011 was just such a god awful time of irrelevance and lack of talent. Sure in 2012 they failed expectations but at least you could start the see the needle slowly move up with talent and signing Mario was a big boost to the fans moral.

I think I am still stuck on the part where he mentioned beers were only $8 lol

It is funny the Packers game does nothing really for me. I think part of it is because Green Bay looks weaker then they have in the previous few years and I think they are tops an 11 win team even with Rodgers. Also as a non conference game it does not really impact the Bills the way the Titans could or Baltimore. The Bengals is so late in the year that it could be important OR it could be not nearly as crucial with seeding and the playoffs. So I guess for me those games which are bigger matchups do not have the same luster and intrigue. The Dolphins I am very interested in.

That was like #6 for me on the best, def thought of it. Miami at least is intriguing this year to say the least.

Agreed. Ravens people seem to really be underselling and forgetting until Lamar was hurt they were 8-3 and the 1 seed. They had a historic amount of injury problems last year. Miami is the 2 in the division but I think they have too much they need to have all go right this year to fully challenge. I could see in future years they win the division over Buffalo due to the Bills having a tougher schedule and McDaniel having more time for his system.

We are less then a month from the hall of fame pre season game and football really kicking into gear. My football juices are amping up and figured have a fun discussion on the season games your most excited for vs least. To me I love every week even if it is the Jets or Bears especially watching Josh play. Here is what I got, feel free to join in or dissent! Top Games: 1. at Rams NFL opener- Goes without saying this is the game most fans wanted from day 1 and the biggest spot of the regular season 2. at Chiefs - Revenge game and opportunity to put them behind us in standings. Watching Mahomes vs Allen is beautiful to the eyes in terms of QB play 3. Titans home opener- Place will be rocking and the fans haven't seen the team since January. Plus after last years MNF game good opportunity to set the tone early 4. at Ravens - This game quietly is a 1:00 pm start yet could have more fireworks in terms of explosive plays of any. I think Baltimore is healthy and a lion of a team this year which should make for a great game. 5. Vikings - Minnesota has a very deep offense and tends to play very entertaining games plus Jefferson/Cook are awesome. Factor in the storylines of Diggs and Cook's brother on the Bills this is my darkhorse game for what could end up being one of the best of the year. Least Interesting: 1. either Jets game - I actually think the Jets take a step forward and win between 5-7 games. But they are still far below Buffalo and just not much to get excited with 2. at Bears - This game comes during the Xmas holiday which kind of stinks as people have stuff going on. Mix in the game itself feels like a 23-13 snoozefest as Chicago plays a super boring brand of football and yea... 3. at Lions - I think this will be a game based off how you do thanksgiving for how excited you are. For me its a complete pain as I travel during the day so I will miss out on a portion of the game. Additionally thanksgiving weekend I really enjoy going through the holiday and capping it with a Bills game on Sunday. Add in the Lions have proven nothing and it does nothing for me. 4. Cleveland - The whole Watson mess makes this a buzzkill. The dude is a creep and predator and whether he plays or not the stench will surround this game. 5. Patriots at home - I hate that we have NE week 18. There is a good chance the division is wrapped up and possibly the 1 seed where we are not playing for much. Additionally it would be nice to finally get NE early in the season and not on what will be a 10 degree game for what feels like the 8th straight year.

Does DunkirkDon get an invite in....follow the dots?

The 98 season is the first I truly remember as a fan where I look back and kinda know watching a bunch of games week in week out. This one I distinctly remember watching with my father and he lost it when the refs did this. The PI afterwards was even worse because it is a call that never happens. I watched back the Bills Phins 98 playoff game and that game was freaking wild. You really felt like Flutie was going to tie the game as he was magical all year. I remember the moment he fumbled I went upstairs to rip up my Dolphins trading cards I was so mad, Dad stopped me haha.

Yea probably my only gripe of his post which was good is this. They made the playoff and it was a known rebuilding/reset the deck yea we werent thinking playoffs. If anything people were crediting the Coach/GM for making the playoffs AND trading up to get a franchise QB prospect as that is super tough to pull.

This is the first time in human history the words Jauron was not conservative have ever been spoken or typed.

I can't even imagine being there. You could feel on broadcast the entire place just get sick the moment the TD happen. The worst thing was the defense blew a fourth down they could've just knocked down going for an INT.

Oh don't worry we got Robert and Finn we good haha.

I think I have mentioned this before that my wife and I since we got out house in 2013 do a Bills party typically week 1 (two years we have done week 3). We started with 30 -40 people now it is like 50+. Well 2018 we were pregnant with our first child and we found out the gender right when opening week was so hey lets do a small gender reveal (we cut a cake we didn't burn down a forest lol). This game/party is always a big deal for us and we just hope for a good game, so with the reveal mixed in at half time we were fingers crossed a decent game. NOPE. Haha talk about an absolute disaster of a game which made the gender reveal the only highlight of any form on that day. I think when Josh got a first down in the fourth quarter people actually cheered a little just because it was something of note that wasn't a turnover or TD for Baltimore.

Oh geez that game was buried in the back of my drought memory probably for the reason you listed. I was a sophomore in college and we knew the moment the play ended it wasn't good. On broadcast I do believe they said he was stabilized at some point, but you knew it was probably uber uber bad. True miracle he lived. I 100% believe if you were there it would've been just such a drain/scary thing. When Aaron Williams got carted off in 2015 against NE week 2 it happened in front of us and you could feel the intensity leave the moment he didn't get up. And yea the Broncos ending was a ball buster to the max.

I can 100% buy that. My youngest son was born on 9/10 and we came home that Sunday. I swear to god the only reason I didn't get upset was lack of sleep and general happiness to have our new guy. Otherwise yea incredible buzz kill with some truly awful play calls on offense and bad coaching decisions in general. I will say going into the game wayyyyy too many Bills fans thought we would cake walk to like a 30-13 win and I kept cautioning PIT was a better team then that just because of their D.

Didn't the fans take down the goal posts if I am not mistaken?

We are finally ever so slowly inching towards the start of the football season and this year is pretty neat with the Bills going to LA to opener the NFL year. I am willing to bet the game will probably be a thriller with some end of game drama either way. It got me thinking about what my favorite/worst/best opening season games were as a fan and figured I would list mine and see what other people had for theirs. As an 80s baby my memory starts in the 90s so if you are before that would love to hear about some past games good bad or just a favorite. FYI for the worst game putting something like the 2018 Ravens game doesn't hold much weight to me because yea the Bills lost bad but expectations were incredibly low heading into that season. Favorite: 1996 Giants win- On TNT Sunday Night the Bills rally back to win 23-20 in OT in the Meadowlands. It was the last ride with Jim Kelly and a fun game 2014 Bears win - Freds run was amazing and with the offseason the Bills had with Ralph passing, Kelly fighting cancer, and the team for sale it was a needed boost 2019 Jets win - Insanely wild game with Allen technically having four turnovers even though two were due to his own teammates making mistakes. But coming back from 16-0 to win 17-16 on the road I think set the table for long term where this team was headed and what Josh could do. Worst: 2004: Bills lose 13-10 to the Jags on the final play of the game on a rule that no longer exists and cost the Bills a playoff spot. Earnest Wilfords "TD" happen because the Bills pushed him out of bounds as he caught it never getting any feet inbounds which was an automatic catch at the time. Absolute gut punch of a loss. 2009: Bills lose 25-24 to the Pats on Monday Night Football thanks to Leodis McKelvin and that is all I need to say. 2012: Bills get blown out in NYC 48-28. This hurt in a different way as the Bills had added Mario and beefed up the defense with additions like Stephon Gilmore and Mark Anderson. Add in an offense which was pretty solid in 2011 and a weaker schedule it felt like the Bills finally would end a playoff drought and jump back into the fray. Instead they were utterly embarrassed removing any optimism out of the gate that things would change. 2016: Bills lose 13-7 in Baltimore. This is quite possibly the most boring football opener in the history of the sport as literally the only exciting play was a Mike Wallace 66 yard TD. Other then that if you like 3 and outs and punting this was your game! Factor in strong expectations for playoffs or bust and it just felt depressing Best: 1991: 35-31 win over Miami - Coming off the Super Bowl loss in 25 nothing felt better then squishing the fish to open the season as the Bills roared back from a 17-7 deficit early on. 2003: 31-0 win over New England- Nothing else needs to be said this was awesome 2008: 34-10 over a Seattle team that had been in the playoffs for years. It felt at the time like we had a guy with Trent too. 2015: 27-14 over Colts - For the first game of the Rex Ryan experiment it couldn't have gone better and the place was rocking.

This is super well articulated and covers everything well. I would add timeframe mattered here big time. Besides Ralph and the Pegulas etc.. the city of Buffalo and NYS was not in the position in the 2000s to do much to help keep the team here. Buffalo is far from a perfect community but the economy and population in general has stabilization where there is some growth and NYS in the last decade has shown at least a little interest in helping the cities outside NYC. Again not perfect but I think even if you had a Pegula in 2007 trying to keep the team it would've been an uphill battle at that time. And year the Rodgers piece is 1000% on. Ralph would've sold and maybe after a year or two they were heading up there.

I got a few random memory games: 2003- Bills Skins 24-7 win This was the game Rob Johnson came in to replace poor Patrick Ramsey who got wrecked all day. 2010- Bills Ravens OT 37-34 loss Fitz was amazing and I always felt the Bills got hosed in OT as our TE Chandler I think might have been Robert Royal was stopped in terms of forward progress and the refs instead of blowing it dead let Ray Lewis pick him up and Raven ripped the ball out 2012- Bills Browns 24-14 win The Bills did their business and the defense looked good for a second straight week after an awful opener. It was fools gold as it felt like ok maybe they can get it going to at least make the playoffs. That team had too many games they snatched defeat from victory and the schedule was so dang light. 2013- Bills Phins 19-0 Thad freaking Lewis and the Bills ended the Phins playoff hopes. More importantly the tailgate had the wildest wind storm/gust I ever saw as this massive front game through and flipped over every tent imaginable. It was like something out of a sci fi movie.