ShakAttack

Apparently it was Scott Norwood “wide right”. i was too young to understand football, but somehow I was able to understand and process the importance of that last drive, and getting into position for the game winning FG, it was supposed to be the first last second sports win I had experienced in my life, it was supposed to be an exhilarating moment…… and then he missed. Instead, it was utter heartbreak. I started crying uncontrollably. I wasn’t sure why. I called my uncle for support. Then I see them get back to the SB again and again and again. by #3 and #4 , the Bills had become the laughingstock of the NFL at my elementary school. and at that point I was a lifer, wanting nothing more than see the Bills win ONE Super Bowl to shut everyone up once and for all. Still where I’m at today… and until I die. In fact, if the Bills ever did win that SB, I often wonder if I’d care as much afterward, because that’s what it has always been all about for me.

I would be excited with Zay Flowers. In the past, Beane has talked about how valuable a player with a skill set like this would be. Now, let's see what happens if that type of player is finally available to him for the taking... That said, I think it's Bijan Robinson over EVERYONE and an absolute no-brainer if he is actually available at 27, but I doubt he would be.

Corey Davis. If the Jets cut him, he would be very intriguing to me. Former 5th overall pick for a reason. Allen could maximize his talent.

Tag and trade an option here? Kinda surprised we haven't done this with anyone since Peerless Price. I would imagine we could find a trade partner willing to give us more than whatever the comp pick would be...

I agree. You know what REALLY bothers me is there has been so much grandstanding of Mahomes and the Chiefs since they (barely) got their 2nd SB win, Don’t get me wrong, as much as I can’t stand the guy, I respect the hell out of Mahomes, but the Chiefs had about as much “good luck” to get the Super Bowl this year as we had “bad luck”. I was watching the Week 6 matchup between KC and Bills last night and it was really, really hard to watch knowing the Bills had FINALLY figured it out. Von Miller had impacted Mahomes SO MUCH and he was delivering on everything we brought him here to do, with the team we wanted him to do it against! Bills were clearly the better team in that game and that is the team we expected to have when the playoffs started (even though we were still missing Hyde and White). That will probably always go down as one of the toughest games for me to re-watch, because it was after that game that I finally allowed myself to believe we were the best and we could do it, and it was also after that game that everything went down hill for the Bills. I think that’s what makes this season (still) so difficult for me. It’s what could have been. It’s people suddenly dismissing guys like Allen now and acting like Mahomes is untouchable. Is he the best? Yes. But he’s not untouchable. Bills are 2-1 in the last 3 games against KC, all in Arrowhead, and in that ONE loss, Allen did not even touch the ball after taking the lead with 13 seconds left which is enough to walk off with the win 99% of the time… unless your special teams somehow botches a squib kick call (speaking of good luck for KC..) I do prefer the Bills going into next season as less of a favorite than this year though. I think it’s pretty clear NFL teams are fueled on perceived doubt, and the Bills were definitely one of those teams prior to 2022. Well, there will be plenty of doubt going into 2023, for what it’s worth. Now, can we just stay (relatively) healthy? That would qualify as some “good luck” for me!

We will be the Buffalo Post-ACL Tear All-Stars

If anything, what the Chiefs have proven over the past few weeks is the value of coaching and game planning. Against Cinci, they had the pass rushers to take advantage of Cinci's injuries on the OL and won the game because of it. In the Super Bowl, they successfully neutralized Philly's pass rush and exploited their porous secondary (which has been an opportunity for teams against Philly all year long as long as you CAN neutralize their pass rush).

The Chiefs success is what bothers me. Everything they get, is what we envisioned for ourselves. - #1 seed in playoffs (again) - healthy team - We sign Von Miller to be the closer that gets us to the SB, he gets hurt, and meanwhile Chris Jones takes KC to SB - Trent mcduffie (yes ill include it because most of us wanted him and they specifically got in front of us to get him) - nailing their draft despite tight salary cap - getting to the Super Bowl the year bills were everyone’s pre season pick. Not to mention, we were better than KC when we played them this season, but what do you know.. the VERY NEXT GAME WE PLAY against Packers is when the season started to fall apart and the bizarre red zone turnovers started. KC curse?? I mean we COULD go on and on… 13 seconds is the biggest of all… but we all know that. I don’t really care about Daboll and Hodgins. We still don’t get to the Super Bowl with them. But i am jealous of the chiefs.

So let’s say Oline is the priority. Ok, that is understandable. But my problem is, over and over again, when we get to the playoffs, PASS RUSH IS THE PROBLEM as soon as we face off with one of these Top 5 QBs. Meanwhile, when we see those same QBs struggle, why does it happen? Pressure. Consistent pressure, without relying on the blitz. Yes. I realize how much draft capital we have WASTED on the DL… but what do you do if the DL remains insufficient? Knowing it is a critical piece to a Super Bowl team. It’s kind of like teams that miss on a franchise QB in the draft. Just because you tried once and failed, does it mean you have to wait before you try again? No. You have to keep making it a top priority until you get it right. fortunately, we have that piece in Allen. But I would argue that DL is going to be slightly more important than OL for us. They should both be priorities, but there seems to be so many successful starting OL in the league that were Day 2 picks, so I would say, load up on OL in Rounds 3-6, but in Rounds 1&2… I think there are other players/positions that can have a bigger impact for this team, especially in the playoffs. Yeah we’ve got Von, but coming off an ACL, he might never be the same player again for all we know. Do we bank on that? Because if it’s not him, and we meet the Chiefs/Bengals in the playoffs again, it WILL be the lack of a pass rush as the reason our defense gets completely run over and just how pissed off would that make us? OL and DL. Both very important. But one thing I keep noticing is more often than not, when teams make a run in the playoffs, when they take down the top offenses in the NFL en route to the Super Bowl and then WIN the Super Bowl, they also had success against top QBs because they deployed an elite pass rush that cripples the entire offense. And when they lose, like the Bills in 2020, 2021 and 2022… their pass rush was usually lacking. it’s how the giants beat Brady twice its how the Bucs beat Mahomes its how the bengals shut down the bills offense and it’s how KC beat the bengals oh yeah, and it’s how the Rams closed out last years Super Bowl too

Got $400 on KC to win outright… …and I still rather see them lose. but what I’m hoping for vs. what I think is going to happen is very different in this game

I will be disappointed, but not lose interest. If I had the ability to lose interest over something like this, I would have stopped being a Bills fan a very long time ago, probably somewhere during the 17 year drought. But what disappoints me about Frazier is how predictable his defense is, and how unwilling he is to change anything about it, especially in the playoffs. These playoff runs should have been GIFTS to Frazier to teach him lessons about how and where to adjust and change his scheme. Instead, the more our defense shows up in the playoffs, the more it seems to give everyone else an advantage against us.

Well, now that KC has represented the AFC in 3 of the past 4 Super Bowls... While the NFC has had a different team reach the SB each year. That's enough for me to root for the Eagles. Because I AM in the "one before I die" camp and I DO believe we would've had that ONE if the Chiefs did not exist.

When Gabe Davis famously scored 4 TD's in the "13 seconds" game, I think Josh Allen might have developed a trust in Gabe Davis as being the go to guy when it is all on the line. I.e. when the chips are down, when the pass rush is getting home and he needs to get rid of the ball in the red zone, Davis has become the guy that he will "throw it up" to whether or not he is actually open. As opposed to, pre-13 seconds, when Allen seemed to play more freely in these moments and/or looked for Diggs (the better receiver) which resulted in Allen having only ONE red-zone turnover in his career, to that point (might need to be checked on that, but pretty sure it was either 1 or 2). Allen is one of those QBs that plays very instinctively, as we know, and I think he might have put a little too much into Davis' career day. Could it also be part of the reason Diggs has grown frustrated? Could it be that Diggs has picked up on this tendency as well? And could it be he is also frustrated because A) It isn't working; we aren't coming away with TDs in these situations B) Diggs isn't "him" in those moments and C) Diggs knows if Allen was targeting him instead in those moments - especially those in which he becomes "WIDE OPEN" - there would have been a better outcome for the team? Perhaps Davis is hurting this offense more than just the obvious poor 50% catch rate and 10% drop rate. Perhaps he is subconsciously hurting Allen's decision making as well? It will be interesting to see where this goes next season i.e. What will Gabe's role be? Will Allen continue forcing passes to him? Or will he actually step up in a contract year and resemble "Playoff Gabe" during the regular season as well? Now, having said all of that... I'd have to actually go back and look at film (that I do not have) for each of these turnovers to confirm this tendency to be true, but if memory serves me correct, I do remember Davis being the target on some of these throws, even when he was not at all open, which is the concerning part here. But for example, I definitely remember him being the target on Allen's OT interception against the Vikings which is one of many plays in that game that was the difference between winning and losing, the difference between having the #1 seed in the AFC and not having it... the difference between getting a much needed bye and getting to the SB and going home. And I really do not think he would have been the target in that moment prior to "13 Seconds". Also, even though not all of these throws necessarily ended with interceptions, they might have ended our drive, and our chance to put up 6 points, and again, that is disturbing when Allen is forcing passes to a covered receiver, much more than we see him do with other Bills receivers. If I'm wrong here, then I should've never posted this, and I apologize. But if there is something to this, hopefully the Bills are catching it as well.

The time spent writing that post pales in comparison to the years of agonizing over various Bills losses (especially Music City Miracle and 13 Seconds). So I'd say that leveraging this platform to spew my thoughts over the 2022 Bills season was well worth exorcizing some of these demons, for me anyway.

I mean, after seeing what our defense and pass rush looked like when Von Miller was healthy, I do believe we could have met those expectations if he were healthy for the playoffs. After all, this is what makes him such a special player. Most guys with 8 sacks, they were probably registered on random passing plays, etc. but with Miller, almost ALL of his 8 sacks were incredibly timely, and that is what you want to have in the playoffs. Yes, that ONE player could have potentially changed the entire Bengals game. But without a pass rush, there was never a chance. Sub Mahomes in for Allen in that game, and the Bills still lose, probably just as badly. I think the part that sucks the most, when I think about "next season" is that he tore his ACL, so he when he is back, he likely won't be back to 100%, and heck, he might never be 100% ever again. I think if you could tell us "Von will be return at 100%" even if it were in Week 5-8 or so, we would have more hope for the team in 2023 because he really was making that much of a difference, even in Frazier's vanilla defense. I've learned the biggest one of all, is overall health of the team. You look at the 2 teams in the Super Bowl and you've got 2 of the healthiest teams in football. You look at some of teams that went deep into the playoffs and lost and why they lost, and injuries stand out as much as anything... - Bills lost Von Miller and lost a pass rush that was among the best in the NFL when he was healthy - Niners lost their QBs and couldn't even throw a pass for half the game - Bengals lost their OL and it finally caught up to them when they faced a HEALTHY and talented D-Line that was able to take advantage Heck, if we are relatively healthy next season, that's an advantage in itself. It sucks, but that's true with the NFL more so than any other sport.

True, but, I guess my point was, the Chiefs needed us to "lose" 1 more game to get the 1 Seed, and that's exactly what they got, because the 1 team in the AFC that we matched up horribly against happened to be one of the last teams on our schedule. I do agree that we would have lost that game too; I was just trying to point out that the way in which they ended up getting the #1 seed, well, let's just say "ONLY with the Chiefs..." Meanwhile, there were at least 4 games in which they narrowly escaped and arguably should have lost (Chargers 2x, Raiders, Texans, maybe others too), but somehow they win all four of them, which turns out to be precisely what they needed to have. In contrast, the Bills have a game that was literally in the bag against the Vikings, but found a way to lose, and there is your 1 game difference. It's just amazing to me that year after year they do JUST ENOUGH to get the #1 seed. And say what you want about Mahomes, but you cannot credit him for ALL of these wins because I believe 3 of the 4 aforementioned games were won on defense and/or by their opponent making inexplicable self-inflicted mistakes at the worst possible time. ONE of the four did have an absolutely incredible game winning drive by Mahomes, but again, that's one out of four. Their defense essentially turns into the clutch equivalent of their future HOF QB somehow in these close games.

I remember when the Bills had a roster like that... 2013-2014. The best we ended up doing was Kyle Orton. And like the Jets, we nearly made the playoffs.

I am a 38-year-old lifelong Bills fan, so I am old enough to have been there for all the heartbreaking playoff exits over the years. This year’s loss to the Bengals, however, did not qualify as a “heartbreak”. In fact, I was able to digest the 27-10 beatdown faster than any other Bills playoff loss, ever. But what I came to realize soon thereafter was that just because I was able to move on from this game relatively faster than others, that did not mean that I would have an easy time moving on from the season and the missed opportunity that it was. One of the things that sticks with me, and bugs me, is that I cannot help but notice the Chiefs path to the Super Bowl reflects the vision the Bills had for this season in many ways. It all started in the NFL draft, when many of us wanted the Bills to draft Trent McDuffie, so naturally, the Chiefs trade up in front of us to get him. Now, Kaiir Elam has shown promise, I get that, but the point is how the Chiefs continue to be the team that gets everything we want, seemingly every time. And when we do seem to get a leg up onthe Chiefs, something goes wrong instead. Case in point. Before the draft, we signed Von Miller because it was pretty clear that the absence of a pass rush (specifically, a closer) was keeping us from advancing to the Super Bowl. There is a long history of elite QBs that have their way with every playoff opponent UNLESS that opponent has a pass rush(er) that can get home. Von is a textbook closer and he lived up to his reputation in the early part of the season because, not only was he among the league leaders with 8 sacks, but most of those sacks came in critical moments of the game! He had such a feel for the game and was able to turn it on when it was most needed which is exactly why we brought him to Buffalo. Not only that, but Leslie Frazier’s defense actually looked GOOD when Miller was out there, aside from the secondary at times which had also been decimated with injuries. But we had an effective four-man pass rush and Rousseau and Oliver were benefiting from Von Miller getting double-teams. Bottom line… when he was out there, HE WAS WORTH IT!!! Well… Von tears his ACL on Thanksgiving, and our pass rush is never the same after that, nor is our defense. Meanwhile, the Chiefs advance to the Super Bowl after their closer, Chris Jones, comes up with a 3rd down sack of Joe Burrow to end the threat and VERY likely possibility of the Bengals moving the ball into game winning FG range and milking the clock to ensure Mahomes never touches the ball again (i.e. similar to how we beat the Ravens and Dolphins this season, and the vast majority of the time you have an elite QB going up against a non-elite defense, he will win that matchup). But again… Chris Jones. How fitting... right? Who else would it be? Just to rub it in our faces. I don't know how, but it NEVER fails. Yet again, KC plays out the scenario we had envisioned and dreamed of for ourselves after signing Von Miller, and they are going to the Super Bowl… again. Now if you had told me at the beginning of the season that we would be 13-3 and beat the Chiefs in Arrowhead, I would be feeling confident that we had achieved our goal at attaining the #1 seed in the conference. But of course, the Chiefs got it instead, by 1 game, and it literally took Damar Hamlin going into cardiac arrest in a nationally televised football game for the Chiefs to leapfrog the Bills and snag the #1 seed in the AFC right before the season ended. God forbid Patrick Mahomes ever has to play an away playoff game. I mean it’s truly remarkable, isn’t it? Sure, I give the KC Chiefs credit for how well the franchise is run, but the fact is, year after year, they just BARELY get that #1 seed and there were at least 3-4 games this season where Mr. Mahomes did not deliver at the end of the game and put KC in position to LOSE, but something ALWAYS happened and at the end of the day, they had JUST ENOUGH to secure the #1 seed. Greatness with a lot of LUCK sprinkled in. Helluva formula for success. And it sounds much like the NE Patriots dynasty. It's funny though. On the subject of how difficult it has been for me to put this season in the rear view window, I the think Von Miller injury has been the most difficult of all. And I say “it’s funny” because I didn’t necessarily feel that way when it was announced that he had a torn ACL and would be shut down for the season. Yes, I hated it, and I realized that our playoff run would be negatively impacted by his absence, but I guess you could say it didn’t really hit home until the playoffs happened, and we got beat by the Bengals pass rush + not having a pass rush of our own, and then the Chiefs beat the Bengals with a pass rush, and then the 2 teams with the most sacks in the NFL end up going h2h in the Super Bowl. That is when it really hit home. Still, I can’t help but think our path to the Super Bowl – even without Von Miller – would have been MUCH more feasible with that #1 seed (thank you, Vikings game) and that is what made it difficult to move on from the season, even though I had moved on from that final game. Just look at Kansas City’s path vs. our own. We would have started with a much needed first round bye week. The Bills probably needed the opportunity to regroup and refocus more than any other team in the NFL at that time. Then, as it turns out, we would have hosted Jacksonville instead of the Bengals who apparently were THE WORST matchup possible for the Bills, and finally, we would get our rematch against Kansas City. And even though it would really suck to have that rematch without Von Miller, I do not believe for one second that a game against the Chiefs would have played out the way the Bengals game did. Buffalo would not come out flat against KC, period. We knew KC and KC knew us. It would have been a 50/50 ballgame (slightly in our favor if we had Von Miller). But instead, we will never know. Point is, I realized that I could not just pass this off as “Well, this was not going to be our year anyway after everything that happened” because that isn’t true; it might have been because that #1 seed was significant and it is no coincidence that the two #1 seeds are now meeting in the Super Bowl. And, as always, we came up JUST SHORT of that goal. Like we came up JUST SHORT of finishing the game in 2021, with arguably the best Buffalo Bills team in franchise history. And JUST SHORT in 2020, yes, even 2020, because only one team and one QB stood in our way of the Super Bowl that year. So that’s really it. This season, while it felt a lot different initially because of the one-sided loss that ended our season, it was just another chapter in the same old never-ending story. Also, I realize this post was a bit disorganized, so I apologize to those that attempted to follow along. Really, I just needed to use this platform to vent and release these thoughts rather than being bothered by them. 😂

Admittedly, I was not as aware of the (full) recovery time from ACL injuries until we went through this with White and started hearing "it takes two full years for most players" as he struggled coming back this year. That said, I also keep hearing how we expect Von Miller to be back next year, yet nobody is really bringing up the 2-year recovery concern for Von or how he probably won't be himself at first, etc. And why is that? What am I missing here?

I do agree that - old as it is - the recipe for success is still the same 3 years later. You CONTINUE to make DLine a priority. Recognize that Epenesa and Basham were wasted picks, but that you have something in Miller and Rousseau, and you keep striving to build an elite pass rush because that WILL make a huge difference when the games matter most. it’s tricky because OL is also a huge priority now but as much as people wanna scream about getting a WR2, I think priority 1a and 1b is OL and DL (pass rusher) still. Unfortunately you can’t control injury luck (unless you’re KC maybe) , but as far as approach, once you have the franchise QB in place, emphasis on OL&DL and the surrounding skill positions will benefit.

we had a Chris jones. But he got hurt. Chiefs key players never do.

It’s truly amazing how even though Mahomes gets all the glory, their middle-of-the-pack (at best) ranked defense ALWAYS come through the rare times Mahomes is stopped. The Bengals controlled their own destiny at the end of the game. Chris Jones is an Example of the reason we signed Von Miller, as we should have! The Bills recognized the value of having a closer in the playoffs, but naturally, it’s OUR closer that gets hurt. I don’t think it is just a Bills fan’s perspective when I say, the Chiefs are the luckiest team in the NFL. like the old Pats, something, somehow, no matter how absurd, always seems to go right for them at the end of the game…. Even if it’s unrelated to their QB!! I hate football. Really do.

On the one hand, it seems like it is inevitable we are going to have less talent on the roster next season, because of Free Agents and the cap hits from our top players. On the other hand, it's not like we had all of that talent at our disposal by the time the season ended. So, if key players are just more healthy than last season, how much are you really losing compared to where you were at the end of this season? There shouldn't be much of an overall drop-off in talent compared to where we were this season, even if we lost Edmunds & Poyer, for instance. You'd have Hyde, Miller and (ideally) a healthier Tre White. You'd also have an entire off-season to find a safety to replace Poyer instead of having to deal with it in the middle of the season. It's definitely going to be our most important draft since 2018, and it'll be a bigger challenge because unlike 2018, we don't have high picks and lots of draft capital. Another thought... during Beane's presser when he mentioned that lots of Bills players were out there playing "Really banged up", I thought, man... in some cases, if a guy is THAT banged up, would it not be better to consider playing someone fresh? The next guy up? Against a bunch of dudes that are definitely hurting from wear and tear during the season too? Of course, this is depending on who we are talking about too. I couldn't help but think about it, again, with the way the 2nd/3rd string Bengals oline dominated our dline (granted, we were technically missing 2 starters on our DLine too in Von and Daquan) and also the way Cole Beasley has looked... even at his age... he just looked more healthy and fresh than most of our other receivers because of the fact he didn't go through all of that wear and tear during the season. I don't know, I just feel like their might be something to stashing a few players / using them lightly during the regular season and then unleashing them in the playoffs. I think a lot of us hoped for that with Nyheim Hines, for instance.

This is worse than the drought anyway because during the drought all we wanted was an opportunity to contend again, a franchise QB, and now we have have those things, been back to the playoff 4 years in a row with that franchise QB and after going all-in and failing this year, and it’s just NEVER enough for one reason or another. I feel the window closing, and once it does, who knows if we have to wait 10-15 years to be in this position again. 2020 and ESPECIALLY 2021 were better opportunities than this season, so in the back of my mind I did think we would come up short somewhere along the way, but to lose by 17? I did not think that was ever going to be possible in a playoff game in Josh Allen’s career, much like I can’t imagine Mahomes ever bowing out like that, even with a high ankle sprain. But heck, his defense will probably step up for him, keep the game low scoring enough for him to have a shot at the end. I’ll admit though, it would actually make me feel better to see KC get their @$$ kicked… but they won’t… cause their coaching staff is far superior, for one thing.

It's hard not to wonder if we didn't use Shakir enough? He made some great plays when we called his number this season. Makes you wonder, if he were given an expanded role, would he come through? Like Hodgins did for Daboll in NY. Yeah I know, completely different players, but my point is, is it a matter of how we are (incorrectly) evaluating our talent?