TheCockSportif

Maybe it is a "reductionist hot take", but Diggs (and maybe it's an injury?) has been kinda absent as of late. Davis seems really good. Knox, who I thought was finally awesome this year, finally started to turn the hot water tap on yesterday again. Sanders is not the answer. Beas can still catch, but he seems kinda slow to me. Breida, well... Breida. Moss sucks. Singletary has his moments. But I think that you know what I was getting at... And it's not just Daboll. It's McD as well. I've had great bosses over the years who weren't great enough for the company, and they were forced to move on. I'm 100% for McD getting another year (although I think that the franchise should figure out longer term plans -- oh, wait. hang on... they own the Sabres as well?!), but at some point this team is like shaking a raw pork belly. Second half of yesterday you kind of hope that they keep up that intensity through the end of the year.

Was a staple at The Continental back in the day.

What's your top 5? Here's mine. Benny Mardones "Into the Night" Toadies "Possum Kingdom" Gary Glitter "Rock and Roll Part 2" "Goodbye Horses" by Q Lazzarus The Normal "Warm Leatherette" (which, strangely, is also one of my favorite songs)

Weed is in my town now. I have no problem with people getting high, so long as they don't kill someone in their cars. I know plenty of people who like booze and weed and yet manage to behave like normal people behind the wheel. Having written that, the weed culture takes over a city as it's doing with mine. A local veterinarian's office has converted into a weed shop. Have you seen Denver? The green crosses kinda make everything else expensive. And it's happening here as well. Guess that I'm in the wrong industry.

Sounds good.

So you would be the Max Cleland of NFL fans?

You aren't wrong, but what's a 10-7 team gonna do in the playoffs given their own competitive imbalance? Jack *****, I say.

Only if you foot the Bill.

What's this all a-boot?

Rex Ryan was going to take this team to the playoffs? Marrone? No. They sucked as HC. This regime is the most sane that I have seen since the late 1990s, and that's saying a lot. This team was awful for 17 years, and you can't ignore that.

I like how you talked about lack of emotions as fans. I only got really pissed once OT started and the team wasted an opportunity. Everything else was par for the course with this largely moribund franchise. You get old, and yeah, you have ***** to do. I was doing this stew last night, and at some point, when it was 24-3, I had to focus on that. Hate me if you want, whilst I had YouTube TV in the background, but I've seen both the best and the worst of this franchise, and the first half was a total, and steaming garbage fire. Excuse me if I am unmoved, because I've been through this drill before.

Oh, come on. While I don't happen to think that McD is that great of a HC, at the same time I've seen worse. Much worse. He's not BB, but then again he's not Dick Jauron. Frankly, if our worst problem is changing HC in the offseason, then I admit that this is something that as a Bills' fan for 45 years (give or take a year) that I have not seen before. Watch the 1984/5 seasons if you get the chance. That is some *****.

The only consistent weapon in the Bills arsenal on O is Allen. He's exceptional. This team would have probably 3 or 4 wins at this point in season without him. He's a ***** stud. Thank goodness that he plays for our favorite team. None of us know what lead to a sudden resurgence of heart on this team in the second half. And I'm glad that it happened. Maybe they go 10-7 and make the playoffs, which is my hope. Who knows? But for any Bills fan who's followed the team for an eternity, and I say this as a Bills' fan who's followed for about 45 years now, don't blame the refs for what the team didn't execute. They have trended towards not converting 3rd downs all year. Red zone offense is an abomination. They can't run. They can't block on the OL. They tried this abortive punt fake on a 4th down. ***** the refs. Seriously, ***** them right in the eye. But at the end of the day, if a team can't execute and rely on "hail mary" type of *****, then they will lose. And they did. Of course TB grabbed that jersey, because they could. Know what would've kept TB honest? Winning the game in earnest.

And that is what happens when you don't show up to play a full game, and rely on a trick play and pulling it out in OT to overcome (OT was a total waste of time). This is reminiscent of MCM game in a way where you hope for something, anything, to go your way after doing nothing offensively for large stretches of the game. Or maybe it was reminiscent of the 1998 game in Foxborough, the game where the Bills walked off the field in disgust only to return to let the Pats kick a FG to finish the game. As some claim, I am not an apologist when it comes to officiating, but you have to factor the crappiness of NFL officiating into your game plan. If the NFL wanted to fix officiating, or to go to a more tennis-like approach of automating its officiating, it would've years ago. The Bills have to do better. If you pray for a miracle, you might get one. Then again, you might not.

Yeah, I got you. I'm just offering $.02 around the narrative that he's pedestrian as some are wont to believe. Yeah, I got that. I think that Bull used to post here or on one of the other former boards.

Not in the slightest. Without Josh this team would be an abomination on O. He's a legitimately great player, and I can easily see him winning a SB. This team wasted a great opportunity in the first half and then in OT. Blame officiating all you want, and yes, their miscues are all on film, but either you complain about balls and strikes or you execute a game plan to win for the entirety of the game. In that light, I hope to erase the first half of this game from my memory as well as OT.

Great take, but you didn't mention officiating and how some on TBD believe that it resulted in the outcome of the game. In that light, your points seem totally superfluous. (That was sarcasm.) A gut punch from this gut check game. The first half was awful, probably the worst football I've ever seen from this regime. It sucks. And your criticisms and insights are spot on as always.

According to some it comes down to officiating though.

You are stuck in the "bad officiating" trap. Again, how many rushes did the Bills have in the first half? Could our D stop TB? Did we get clowned by Brady and his running or not?

Of course that is NOT what I said, and that makes you a liar. SHOW ME where I wrote what you said. Show me one place. You can't.

And...? A GAME HAS TWO HALVES AND YOU HAVE TO SHOW UP FOR BOTH; else things are left up to chance. It isn't that hard to understand. Sure there were bad calls, but for anyone who witnessed myriad close Bills losses over the years, it always comes down to executing early and often. And the Bills didn't do that until the sand was entering the lower portion of the hourglass today. Don't blame the officials. It's like having frozen brakes on your car and realizing that parking in the garage makes this problem go away. So when you don't park in the garage, while knowing that your brakes have these issues, why don't you just park in the garage? It proves that the Bills didn't show up in the first half and were hoping for a miracle if they were hoping for officiating to come through. Again, I don't really remember these complaints earlier in the season when they were winning. Don't rely on officiating at all. Win.

Absolute nonsense on your part. Everybody knows that officiating is broken in this league. So the only way to win is to execute your game plan and make adjustments in game.

How many rushes did the Bills have in the first half of the game? How many yards? Did Tom Brady clown us with his running or not? Absolutely, they got the calls, but the only way to avoid relying on officiating is to play the game to win.

Of course it's a problem, but it's certainly not one that's going to be solved in game. If the NFL wanted to solve this problem, they with millions and millions of dollars of resources, they would've fixed it already. They want parity, and they want teams to dominate others for a win. Carping about officiating, given this dynamic, is a cop out plain and simple. The Bills sucked first half, and no rational fan can un-spill what we all saw.

If you are playing a game counting on PIs being called, then you are lost at sea. Has no one learned anything from the Academy Award winning (this is sarcasm) film "The Mighty Ducks"? Don't take a dive; win the game.