ShakAttack

That was the young KC chiefs. As evidenced by the Kadarius Toney offensive Offside game, they've changed. They are still the most resilient team in the NFL, but you definitely can't say they don't pout anymore.

As expected, trigger week has arrived. And even though I go out of my way to avoid it, it’s ultimately inevitable. Taking my son to elementary school this morning, start the car, Sirius NFL channel is on, and there’s Brett Veach. Of course, I changed the channel almost immediately, but then on the way back home, I am channel surfing past the Sirius NFL channel, and there’s Chris Jones. My exposure to national media has been VERY limited since the AFCCG, but when I do hear anything about the Super Bowl, it’s exclusively about KC. Philly has been completely ignored. Barf city.

yeah, no, will be 32 soon, and the last thing we need is to depend on more injury prone players. Availability is the #1 asset. If you can't be depended on to be available in big games, doesn't matter how good you are frankly. Focus on Crosby/Garrett. You want this team to improve? DLine is how. At least Beane and Mcdermott recognize that great teams excel in the trenches. We have finally solidified the OL. Now we need to do the same with the DL. We never get to Mahomes in the playoffs including this year when they had issues with their own OL, and 3 years ago couldn't sniff Burrow who was also behind a bad OL. This is getting very old. We had the right idea with Von, but wrong guy; too old. Our wr room is almost full and with the 1 remaining spot we need someone with a unique skill set not already on the roster.

Definitely past where I was when I posted this thread, but I genuinely think we were good enough to beat any team in the NFL this season. I think the toughest matchup for us, by far, was the Ravens, and we got past them. This isn't like 2020 when we got to the AFCCG. This time around, I know we could have won the Super Bowl. And that realization is what still make it tough to think about every now and then.

There are some good points here, but I was referring to the fact that there have been no calls against them in decisive moments since the Kadarius Toney offensive Offside penalty last year when Mahomes threw a massive tantrum, which remains valid. I do agree that there have been significant calls against the Chiefs prior to this season, but this season, there have been none that I can think of. This season, KC seems to be getting different treatment, whether you want to say it is coincidental or not, the bottom line is the same. Regarding the Bills lucking out in the Ravens game, that is 100% correct. In fact, when friends & family congratulated me after that game, my initial reaction was, "Wow, I am not used to seeing the Bills get the lucky breaks in the playoffs; maybe this season is different after all," and then after Mark Andrews drops the pass on the Ravens final play on offense of the season, we all watch Kincaid do the same thing. Does that mean the Chiefs got lucky? I mean, yes, we were clearly outcoached in that game, but regardless of what happened in the first 3 quarters, this game was always going to come down to the 4th quarter one way or another, and in that quarter, the Chiefs had 2 extremely lucky moments. First being the terrible spot on 4th and 1 (refs and out of our control), and second being the Kincaid drop (self inflicted by Bills).

I personally don’t think that, actually. But at the same time it is also hard to believe that ever since the Kadarius Toney offensive Offside last season (a correct call) the Chiefs have not had ANY decisive calls go against them, while having numerous go in their favor, and it just seems like too many to be merely a “coincidence”. Especially when you consider this is a team that played almost every single game down to the wire this season. I have my own theory on it, and it’s not that refs are “intentionally” doing it, but it’s very difficult to believe it’s pure coincidence (unless they really do just have four leaf clovers up their a$$es)

Problem is this. Most fans want Hollins back, right? Ok let’s say he is back, then we have 4 receivers returning shakir hollins coleman samuel not a whole lot of room for an upgrade. Maybe 1 guy? Funny thing is, If we do that, it may be at Coleman’s expense, so they continue to bet on Coleman despite his inability to separate and try to let him develop? Or do we look for an instant upgrade?

All I know, for those of us that are "over it" or "moved on" by this time, do yourselves a favor and stay off sports radio, espn, pft, NFL network, etc this week because as I recall from last year, week 2 leading up to the SB is generally a lot worse than week 1 due to all the KC a$$ kissing and player interviews that will take place this week. This is the type of sh*t that will trigger a lot of us. For me, its gonna be strictly WGR and Locked on bills until KC loses the super bowl or combine/draft coverage takes the spotlight. Whichever comes first...

Yep, it does. That about sums it up for me too at this point. I’m over it for the most part, but the sting will always be there when I do think about it, simply because it was a giant missed opportunity and this was the closest we had ever been to the SB in Allen’s career.

Alright, it's day #6 and I'm not feeling great. And it sucks because I was generally fine the past couple of days... so what changed? Made the mistake of tuning into SiriusXM NFL channel while I was on a weekly Saturday morning donut run with my 8-year-old son (who, by the way, was born on 1/11/17, the day we hired Sean McDermott, and the year the Bills snapped their playoff drought). Anyway, listening to the Sirius NFL channel clearly brought to surface some of the thoughts that I had been repressing. The reason I am hurting today is because this year, more than ever, the stage was set for us to make the Super Bowl. And nobody really knows if or when there will be an opportunity this good again. We had a lot going for us... We had proven that we can defeat ANYONE in the NFL. Defeated Chiefs & Lions in the regular season and clearly outplayed both teams. Baltimore was definitely a tough matchup for us, but more on that soon. We got "lucky" in the playoffs for pretty much the first time ever in Josh Allen's career in the win over Baltimore. This is when I started to let myself believe that this year may indeed be "different". And you want to know the most cruel part about this thought process? I was basing it off the fact that Mark Andrews dropped that 2-point conversion to tie the game, friends and family started to blow up my phone to congratulate me, and I would tell them: "Boy, it was nice to finally be on the lucky end of one of these games because that's usually what the Bills do in those moments!" Ahhhh, but it was already written by the football gods, because just ONE WEEK LATER, on an even BIGGER stage with even MORE at stake, our tight end does the exact same thing. So much for this year being different, eh? The Ravens were probably the most difficult matchup for the Bills in the entire NFL this year, and we managed to beat them in the playoffs. This was huge. Because it represent getting the "hard part" out of the way. Not to say KC isn't a monumental task in itself, but we simply don't have the personnel to match up with Baltimore at all, but we made it work by doing a few things that we didn't do against KC: 1) We had some tendency breakers in our game plan that were effective 2) We capitalized on opportunities when they came up. 3) We weren't the team dropping the passes or doing the little things to hurt ourselves. They were. We were relatively healthy this season in contrast with the past couple of years. Although some fans may debate this after losing Christian Benford at the worst possible time, and they would have a good point, considering that half our starting DBs essentially did not play vs KC. The Bengals were not in the playoffs!!!! Because to the earlier point about the Ravens being the most difficult matchup in the NFL for the Bills, the Bengals could have been right there with them... To this day, the only time the Bills were legitimately outplayed in the playoffs (post-2020 AFCCG) was against the Bengals. You really have to expect they will be in the dance next season. They, like us, could take ANYONE down to the wire despite their record. A When you've got one spot in the AFC championship game basically RESERVED for the Chiefs every season, it leaves 1 for the rest of us.... Bills and Josh Allen, Ravens and Lamar, BENGALS and Burrow, Chargers and Herbert... and then you have the promising up-and-coming QBs like Drake Maye and Bo Nix. I mean, do you see it now? This isn't going to get any easier, but the opportunity was RIGHT HERE this season! Now, it's also possible that one of these years another team actually knocks out KC before the championship round, and if that happens and we are still alive, well, that may represent a better opportunity than what we had this season.. maybe? I don't know. There are just so many factors, but at the very least, I think KC's division is finally going to be competitive enough to make things a little more difficult for them. I know the Raiders suck, but hell, they have played KC as close as anyone over the past few seasons. Anyway, bottom line is that my frustration today comes from knowing that WE WERE RIGHT THERE... and you can't get much closer to the goal than we were this year... and it pains me just to write that, but that's why the feelings have resurfaced today.

I have an easy answer to this. The curse has to be lifted for us to get past KC and into the Super Bowl. That is all. Trust me. If it is not one thing, it will always be another. Sure, there is a common denominator of bad defense in these past 3 playoff losses, but the way in which we ultimately lost each game was very different each time. If we have an improved defense next season, the offense will take a step back, or maybe we will have key injuries like 2023 instead. Remember, even though it may not seem that way when the season ended, we were relatively fortunate injury wise this season. The issue is that we are comparing ourselves to KC, the luckiest team in NFL history. I know I sound insane and I believe that I'm probably wrong because everything in my gut is telling me that what I'm saying right now is nonsense, BUT this is what 30+ years of rooting for the Bills will do to you. And on a side note, I was REALLY hoping that X-Files actor successfully lifted his own curse on the Bills this season, and I was hoping that Allen would follow the MJ vs. Pistons pattern. I had a bit of faith when I became aware of these things in the week prior to the game... just to be let down yet again Same thing every year unfortunately. Since 2020 the only time that we were legitimately beat was against Bengals. The one team not named KC to eliminate us.

I think what bothers me the most is that 2 of our "failed" tush pushes are misleading. On the first failed 2 point conversion, Josh overthinks it and hesitates first, something that he had never done all season, and arguably cost us the play. And then, we all know that it technically did succeed on the 4th and 1 play. So that means the "2 out 5" success rate statistic would have been more like 4 out of 5. Not to mention, the 4th and 1 play had Chris Jones lining up Offside just to give them a shot at stopping it. That said, I hope we don't give up on this play next year. It should still have an incredibly high success rate when executed properly and when refs aren't screwing it up for us.

Yep, and no coincidence the refs have not dared to make a decisive call against them ever since that day. An entire season has gone by. Plenty of decisive calls for them vs. ZERO against them. That simply doesn’t happen with any other team in the NFL. To his credit, Mahomes made sure to voice his displeasure after that game (in the most immature way possible, but I’m also glad the entire country saw his true colors that day) and the refs have not DARED to make a decisive call against them ever since. and you know what the best part about it is? THE CALL WAS CORRECT!!!!! He was complaining about the RIGHT call!! How ridiculous is that? In the Texans game, when I witnessed Mahomes with the most egregious “flop” I have ever seen AFTER multiple massive bad calls against the Texans, I realized that this guy does not care one bit how he wins, as long as he wins. Whether he wins the Super Bowl legitimately or by cheating makes no difference to him.

Could be a combo of both too, I suppose. Whatever it is, the scary thing to me is this is going to be hard to fix. Just hope it won’t be as blatant once this “historic 3-peat” season is over with. if they get the 3 peat, lets move on. if they don’t get it, well then, gotta start from 1 like the rest of us anyway.

As I was watching the NFL's mic'd up championship week edition, something stood out to me, and I realized it was not the first time I'd seen it either. KC's players and coaches are very chummy with the refs before the game. It's very difficult for me to believe that refs are intentionally making these calls, but I do believe the Chiefs are intentionally playing the refs to the point they are basically considered "buddies" by the refs. And that is leading to subconscious favoritism toward the Chiefs in those borderline call situations. And after all, it's human nature to favor your friends in difficult situations, whether you realize you're doing it or not. For instance, I'm watching the 4th and 1 play in the mic'd up video, and as soon as the play is over, the Chiefs are so animated about stopping us short; they have NO DOUBT. I didn't see that from the Bills, even though we clearly DID get the first down. These guys are in the refs heads whether the refs are aware of it or not! They are doing this right in front of the refs. And yes, I know that happens a lot anyway, and I know the refs are "professionals" and trained to be neutral, not swayed by the players/coaches, etc, but when you look at how friendly these guys are with the refs before the game, and if you think back to a situation in your own life when your best friend is making their case to you about something important, aren't you typically biased toward them? In contrast, if a JAG (let's say) is in your ear about getting a call wrong, who cares? Who's that person to you anyway? Doesn't quite have the same weight as Mahomes being upset, does it? (from the ref's perspective) The ONE time I recall the Chiefs experiencing a decisive call that did NOT go in their favor was the Kadarius Toney "offensive Offside". And even though it was the correct call, we all saw Mahomes throw a tantrum on the sidelines and continue this hissy fit during the post-game press conference. It reminded me of, dare I say, someone that had just been betrayed by a good friend? And was in complete and utter shock that this friend actually had the nerve to do it? Could it be, that ever since that incident, these refs decided they did not want to cross the Chiefs again? They did not want to interfere with "greatness" again? Boy, I mean, if PATRICK MAHOMES is treating you like his best buddy, wouldn't you feel honored? Wouldn't you feel, maybe even slightly (because that's all it takes) that you don't want to be the one to let him down? Or Kelce? Or Swift? Or hell, maybe even Chris Jones? I just think, if this was being done purposely, the optics would be a little different. Instead, these terrible calls seem to come in the form of being favored any time there is a "borderline" call. And even when reviewed, they refuse to overturn it, especially in the playoffs. Listen, something is obviously going on here, because it 100% can't be coincidence that throughout this entire season, every decisive flag thrown by a referee has gone against the Chiefs opponent and NOT ONE has gone against the Chiefs. It just has to go both ways sometimes, but it doesn't? But does that mean they are intentionally rigging it? I just don't know. To me, it seems more realistic that they're doing it subconsciously, but the Chiefs, on the other hand, are fully aware of what they are doing and they are 100% intentional about going out of their way to buddy up with these refs...

Listening to Beane right now, it sounds like he wants to pretty much run it back with this same defense. I sure hope he isn't serious. Out of the 7 teams that made the playoffs in the AFC, our defense was easily the worst. My issue is there are some good options out there in free agency, but we are so tied down to the players currently on our roster. For instance, I'd love to bring in someone like Justin Reid at safety, but we are already committed to Cole Bishop (more on Rapp in a moment). I'd love to bring in a new LB, but we are already committed to Terrell Bernard (and I'm fine with that) and Matt Milano. There's more examples, but the problem with 3 of the 4 players I brought up is that they are INJURY PRONE!!!!!!!!!! There are other issues with these players as well, but above all, availability is #1. Beane is saying "we need to do better to protect Milano (from injury)" jeez.. really? What does that even mean? We weren't doing that before? He's always been injury prone and now he is getting older. Difficult decisions have to be made if we want to move forward. I feel like we made those difficult decisions last season, but only because we had no other choice.

Honestly man, going into this game against KC with our 0-3 playoff record against them, I thought of this game as a "mini Super Bowl". I thought that if we were able to beat KC and make the Super Bowl, I could be fine with whatever happened after that because you can't possibly beat KC in the playoffs and think of this season as a failure at that point. Now that we are 0-4 against them in the playoffs, there is honestly no difference between finally beating KC in the playoffs and winning a Super Bowl to me; they are both equivalent at this point. It's kind of become like the playoff drought. Nobody cared about what happened after we got in; we just wanted to finally punch our ticket. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but from now on, Bills vs. KC in the playoffs IS the Super Bowl for me, and I don't care if it's the divisional round or the championship round because beating KC in the playoffs would be the happiest moment of my life as a Bills fan, without a doubt. But don't get me wrong, if it were ever possible to make the Super Bowl without encountering KC, I would be all for it.

To be fair, Dion was just kind of listening to Chris Jones talk at him in that moment. For all we know, he might have been thinking "what are you talking about bro? We still have 3 time outs". But I don't know. I personally thought it was over when Kincaid dropped that pass too. It's the only thing I still think about this game. Once in a while the horrible call on 4th and 1 as well, but mostly the Kincaid drop. I think about that drop, and what might have been for us all right now if he caught it. And it's tough. Because every time we play the chiefs it seems like we have 1 moment at the end of the game just like this. Something that could have so easily gone our way instead.

McD needs a bad b*tch at his side. Not Babich.

One of my issues with the Bills is that they don't seem to play loose until they have a lead (or if they are way behind). When the game is close, they play tight. Stuff like, running a conservative short yardage run on 2nd and 1, instead of being creative. Or, to your point, neglecting to try a sneak to the right, even when KC had been stopping or nearly stopping that play all night. That's why some of our most explosive plays this season seemed to take place when we had a comfortable lead or when we were losing by decent bit (Shakir pass play vs. Ravens, a lot of the big plays against the Rams, Allen's drive and TD strike to Hollins when we were down 21-10 to KC, etc).

Well, I take the silence today as an indicator that many of us have mostly processed the loss and feeling better than yesterday, for the most part. As we are midway through the day I can say things have calmed down for me as well, but as I mentioned in my previous post, I know I’ll have 2 lasting memories from this game in the forms of “if only ___” and those will stick with me until the day Buffalo beats KC in a playoff game.

So for what its worth I started this thread yesterday morning and technically we're on day 3. Can't tell you if it is better or worse for me; it's probably about the same... There's a plethora of things that factored into us losing this game, but considering we always knew a Bills-Chiefs game was going down to the wire, the MAIN THING that sticks in my head is the 4th and 5 drop by Kincaid. And the irony of that after Mark Andrews happened all week is just so Billsy. Only the Bills could match something like that, the very next week, on a bigger stage, right? So, from all of complexity of everything going through my mind yesterday, it's all sorted out and "simplified" down to 2 things that are still bothering me quite a bit: 1. Extreme frustration over Kincaid drop. 2. Sadness over what "could have been". In other words, sadness over thinking about how awesome all of us would be feeling this week, the positive narratives that would be going around, being the only team to take down the Chiefs (twice) and ending their bid at the 3-peat, our team being featured in SB media week. I mean, there it is, right? Just writing that out makes me feel incredibly sad. Why isn't our team allowed to have that ONE moment? And that's when I go back to Kincaid again. That's where I'm at.... and that's where I might be for a while.... when it is all said and done, it always ends up coming down to 1 "if only _______" - 2021 season: "If only we squib kicked!" - 2023 season: "If only Allen saw Diggs running wide open on 2nd and 9 from the KC 20ish after the 2 minute warning" - 2024 season: "If only Kincaid caught the dang ball......................." And I gotta tell you, the first two of those, I still think about them every now and then, so I'm sure this one will be no different; I'll never be fully over it, and it will stay that way until the day we beat KC in the playoffs...

Well day 2 is officially a wrap and was probably worse than yesterday for me, mainly due to thoughts of what would have been, had we won the game. Thinking about our players being featured during SB media week, thinking about the amazing feeling of happiness and calm that I would have had over these next 2 weeks, enjoying the narrative about how far the Bills have come, what a great story this is, etc. You know, for me, that's exactly what hurts the most. It's just knowing how close we were to all of these dream scenarios. And instead, we get hit with more of the same. Yet again. And those thoughts usually segue into the "moments of the game" that have stuck with me the most and wish they could have gone the other way. For a while, I nearly went crazy obsessing over the "what ifs" associated with the terrible turnover on downs call when we had the lead and momentum & the Kincaid drop. The only silver lining here is that if/when we ever do pull this off, this loss just makes it even sweeter. If we beat KC during the Mahomes era, I would not change any one of these losses to be honest, because they would have all contributed toward making that moment as special as it would be, which would be greater than the joy of winning a Super Bowl for many fans. I truly believe that.

Couldn't have been 5 of 6 years, could it? "13 seconds" was the 2021 season's playoffs. The Bills and Chiefs both played on Wild Card weekend that year. We annihilated the Pats. They annihilated the Steelers. And then of course last season, they played AT Buffalo, so obviously not the 1 seed. So, they couldn't have been the 1 seed at least twice. We've had 4 shots at KC in the playoffs and we're currently sitting at 0-4. It's unprecedented as we know, no team has been eliminated by the same team in a 5 year span more than we have been eliminated by KC. And the sickening part is that both of these records are the types that no team and/or player would want to be associated with and yet some how, some way, both are now associated with our Buffalo Bills. Wow. You just can't make it up. At 29 years old, Josh Allen already has the most playoff wins without a SB appearance in NFL history (7). Unless something changes, I am positive this record will be untouchable by the time he retires from the league. Put it this way, he only has 2 less playoff wins than Jim Kelly and Donovan McNabb (9 each) who have the records for most playoff wins without a Super Bowl victory. The "good news" (I guess?) is that unlike Jim Kelly, we will almost certainly get a 5th chance (at KC). True, beating KC is not technically winning the Super Bowl, but at this point, to me and probably some other fans, it would sure feel like winning the Super Bowl, and maybe even better, given the history. That's the thing about all these losses, right? The more we accumulate, the better the first win will feel. Only question is: Will it ever happen? At this point, if we finally defeat KC in ANY round of the playoffs, I am okay with whatever happens after that. That would be my happiest moment as a Bills fan, hands down. The image of stupid ass Kermit running across the field like a dip ***** after they beat us in the playoffs every single year is what gets my blood boiling most of all. While they push for repeats and 3-peats, all I've ever wanted is to beat them ONE TIME and be able to experience the pure JOY that comes with it. It feels like we are prohibited from experiencing ultimate success as Bills fans. The heartbreak is just exhausting man. It was already exhausting last year and now it's just absolutely ridiculous. It was a fantasy to imagine our Bills being featured in the spotlight and featured in interviews, etc. in the week leading up to the Super Bowl, but you know the funny thing about it? It never felt realistic to me, because that's how traumatized many of us have become as Bills fans. Beating KC has become unfathomable to many of us simply because it's what we want more than anything else, and Bills are just meant to suffer, I guess. Then there's Xavier Worthy... Matt Araiza... we knew these things would happen as soon as they became Chiefs, right? Many of us called it. Why can't the "good guys" win... for once! Why can't Mahomes experience defeat by someone other than Tom Brady and Joe Burrow... for ONCE! This isn't just a Buffalo Bills problem; it's an entire NFL problem. We just happen to encounter them the most because we're the second most consistent team in the NFL! But during this "3-peat" span specifically, we have had 2 shots at KC, and the Eagles are now getting their 2nd shot at KC, so our teams are the most responsible for what is happening here (unless the Eagles pull it off). I'll end on a more positive note, believe it or not. I try to tell myself that during the 17-year playoff drought I was feeling a similar level of hopelessness. Making the playoffs for our Bills seemed practically impossible. Every year, it seemed like SO MUCH had to go RIGHT just to have a shot at making it! And then it finally happened. The impossible finally happened. I gotta tell you, the joy I felt in that moment might have been greater than any playoff win that followed because it represented achieving the impossible, much like I feel towards KC at this point.

Defense is still what needs to change, imo. I don't know what or how, but Allen had to constantly thread the needle in the passing game; very few open looks, and for Mahomes it was the complete opposite. Our receivers were getting tackled as soon as they caught the ball. No YAC. Kinda like the Ravens game really. Two defenses playing playoff football (Ravens and Chiefs). And once again, ours can't, and never does. As I said, ours was the complete opposite; we gave Mahomes easy open looks all game long. If you were to rank all 7 defenses from the AFC playoffs this season, let's face it, we would have been #7. I know, the injuries to the secondary didn't help our chances, but let's face it, there have been a lot of games this season in which our opponent's passing game flourished and we couldn't get off the field on third down pass plays even with Benford and Rapp in the lineup.