DabillsDaBillsDaBills

Good thing he was asking to "here" me out!

There was a moment there were I thought my remote was going to go through the TV. Angriest I've been at officiating since 2016 Seahawks game. Any thread about officiating also needs to include the 1998 "just give it to them" game vs the Patriots.

Can you elaborate on the ticky-tack calls against Arizona? I included this in my original post, but there were only 2 penalties on the Cardinals that were not pre-snap violations. They had an offensive holding that was 100% the right call, and a hands to the face that I don't remember a replay on. I do watch a lot of football outside of the Bills, and yes, refs are generally bad. However, this was one of the most biased games I've seen this year. There might not have been any egregiously bad calls, but every single close call went against the Bills (with some blatant no-calls against the Cards).

That's why I waited a day... I didn't want to have an overly emotional reaction to the game. I've been stewing on it since and haven't changed my mind. I realize that bad calls and no calls happen in every game, but I think it's worth bringing up when there were 5 bad calls against the Bills and zero for the Cardinals. Not to mention 2 critical no-calls that favored the Cardinals. That's more than enough to change the outcome of a game. This was easily the most lop-sided game by the officials all year. The INT call during the Rams game was the worst individually called play, but that game ended up fairly even (including a borderline call to get the Bills the last second TD). I don't think I'm being a homer here, but wanted to post to see if people agreed with me or not.

Not sure if this deserves it's own thread, but the bad calls in the game yesterday have been eating away at me all day. The final stat line doesn't look that uneven, but watching the game I felt the refs gave the Cardinals a handful of borderline calls/no calls that helped change the outcome of the game. The Cardinals had 7 penalties for 40 yards and the Bills had 9 penalties for 69 yards. 5 of the Cardinals 7 penalties were pre-snap violations, and the remaining were for an illegal hands to the face (don't know if we got a replay of that) and an offensive holding (Murphy got mugged plain as day). Critical penalties that were not called: On Murray's 2nd TD run there is a pretty clear offensive holding, as well as a blatant block in the back. Josh Allen scrambling to the right, throws it away, and is hit a good 2 seconds after releasing the ball. I understand that defenders get more lee way against mobile QBs, but that hit was not remotely close to being legal. Critical penalties that were called, but shouldn't have been: Unnecessary roughness by Singletary. Singletary gave the defender a slight nudge <1 second after the ball fell incomplete. I don't think there was enough there to warrant a 15 yard penalty. To add insult to injury the refs ruled it a dead ball foul, so the Bills lost the down as well. Holding by Winters (the play where Brown made a heroic catch, and the play directly after the bad call on Singletary). This would've been a ticky-tack call by 2019 standards. It's absolutely atrocious to make that call in 2020 when the league is only calling offensive holding if it's clear and obvious. DPI by Worley. There was a tiny bit of contact, but not nearly enough to warrant a call (the refs had been letting a lot of contact go by both teams the entire game). Cardinals should've been facing a 3rd and 6 from the 24 yard line, instead they got a 1st down at the 15. Block in the back by Knox. This penalty had his own thread, and I'll add that the call on Knox was ticky-tack. It's nonsense to me that the defense actually benefited by committing a penalty. Had the Cardinals not jumped offside, the Bills still would've gained ~10 yards on the play as Knox's penalty would've been a spot foul that occurred well down field. Holding by Neal on a punt return. We never got a replay, although CBS did show Neal was quite upset by the call on the sideline. TLDR: The Cardinals scored on a play while committing blatant penalties. Bad calls/no calls killed 2 Bills drives in the 2nd half (the Singletary/Winters calls, and the non-call roughing the passer). BOTH of Josh Allen's interceptions came immediately after borderline calls (Knox and Neal). Maybe he wouldn't have tried forcing those throws if the refs had not made bad calls on the previous plays? Maybe with balanced officiating this game isn't close enough to be determined by last second Murray/Hopkins heroics?

Bills 31 Cardinals 27

The official rule is if there's a clear recovery of a loose ball after an early whistle that team will be given possession. In this replay you can see #36 pick the ball up right before the camera cuts to Peters celebration.

I think my favorite part is that the defender making the play (Peters) didn't act like he had intercepted it. He knew he didn't catch the ball. Only one defender even went half heartedly after the loose ball. This call really is mind boggling. If the initial call on the field had been an INT, I think there's conclusive evidence that the call should be overturned and called an incompletion.

Seattle 42 Bills 35

Kelvin Benjamin trade Quinton Spain 3 yr deal to be cut a few months later Going into the 2018 season with a QB depth of 1) Nathan Peterman 2) Josh Allen

I still think it's funny this play is getting so much attention. Sure, Norman got stiff armed into a parallel universe, but he slowed Henry down enough that it was only a 4 yard gain. And the play had offsetting penalties anyway so it was 100% irrelevant to the outcome of the game.

Bucs 23 Saints 34 Panthers 17 Bucs 31 Bucs 28 Broncos 10 Chargers 31 Bucs 38 Bucs 19 Bears 20 Packers 10 Bucs 38 Bucs 45 Raiders 20 Bucs 25 Giants 23 The Bills and Bucs are both 6-2 and both just struggled to win against bad teams. The comparison ends there. The Bucs have a +82 point differential on the year, and had back to back blowout wins over quality opponents. The Bills are -1 point differential and are still looking for a blowout win, let alone a blowout win against a good team. As far as spotlight/narratives go I think it's pretty easy to see why the national media is more interested in the Bucs.

The Bucs did just beat the Raiders by 25 and the Packers by 28 in the 2 previous weeks.

Looked like pretty blatant face guarding to me

For what it's worth.... If the Dolphins and Raiders both lose this week the Bills would only have 1 win against a team with a winning record.

I'd argue that McBeane have been building that way (racing to the top). This team is built more through free agency/trades than the draft. We just traded away our 2020 first round draft pick. Our roster is older than most. Of the top 14 cap hits on the team, only 2 of those players were drafted by the Bills (Tre and Dawkins). Look at all the FAs we brought in this offseason (Addison, Jefferson, Butler, Klein). We went quantity over quality, but we were still big spenders. We don't have a lot of long term contracts out there, but most of the contracts we have coming off the books in the next 2 years are going to go towards re-upping Josh. We might not be "all in" to the extent that the Rams or Eagles were, but we're still in win now mode. Frankly, we should be. I'd gladly trade a year of cap hell for a superbowl victory.

Good QB's will be successful by their 3rd season in today's NFL, and should have their teams competing for a championship. Take a look at what these guys have done on their rookie contracts Mahomes - regular season MVP, Superbowl MVP Jackson - regular season MVP Watson - 2 pro bowls and 2 playoff appearances Goff - 2 pro bowls and 2 playoff appearances. SuperBowl loss Wentz - 1 Pro Bowl and 2 playoff appearances (injured for the first one) good chance he would've won MVP in 2017 without the injury. Eagles still went on to win the SB that year Paying your 1st round draft pick QB $30mm+ under "fair value" gives teams a tremendous competitive advantage, and good teams will use that advantage to become Superbowl contenders. All 5 of the teams above were legit Superbowl contenders while their rookie QBs were on rookie deals. After giving out mega contracts the Rams and Eagles went from "elite" to "borderline playoff contender". It remains to be seen what will happen to the Chiefs, Ravens, and Texans (the Texans have already imploded - they may not be a great example). If the Bills are a borderline playoff contender while paying Josh $30mm+ under fair value, what the heck are we going to look like in 2022 and on?

Were you asleep for the entire Chan Gailey era? We were one of the best screen teams in the league with Jackson and Spiller. One of the very few strengths of that era

Should we ask Chiefs fans if their 35-9 win over the Jets was "ugly" ? That's what a championship caliber team does to a bottom feeder. They don't let a team like that hang around and only beat them by 1 score. I'm not overly concerned about this last game against the Patriots. What I'm concerned with is the season long trend that our Defense is bad. I'm also concerned with the 4 consecutive weeks of average/below average play from our offense. With our franchise QB on a rookie contract we should absolutely be serious SB contenders. The fact that we're halfway through season #3 for Josh and we're looking like a one and done playoff team should be concerning to everyone.

Bills 20 Patriots 13

That's the funny thing when we're talking "signature" wins. Obviously none of those really mean the Bills "arrived" even though they might meet your definition. Fun factoid: The last 2 times the Bills beat the Patriots, the Patriots went on to win the SB that year (2016 and 2014).

Technically the Bills beat the 14-2 Superbowl winning Patriots* in 2016. Jacoby Brisket was the starter with Tom Brady suspended.... We also beat the 12-4 Superbowl winning Patriots* in 2014. In week 17 when they were resting starters.... I believe someone pointed this out, but we beat the Titans last year and they made the championship game. Although, that was a game that Marcus Mariota started and they missed 4 FGs....

Took the words out of my mouth. I'll add that I f**king HATED Dan Fouts. Thank goodness he was fired/retired.

That's pretty cool stuff. I guess it makes sense for the sellers if Tre's offer is for enough more $$ that it will cover the damages and then some. Do you know what a ballpark figure for damages would be?

Can the sellers breach the contract with the original buyers and owe them damages ?