Ray Stonada

Yup. Our O-line was really bad a lot this year, and Allen camouflaged it by making crazy plays out of nothing. But Allen got happy feet in the process and stopped trusting the ordinary bread-and-butter plays that you need to win.

I agree with your assessment, OP. The lack of easy passes and screens and checkdowns is screamingly obvious. If you rewatch the Pats playoff "perfect" game from last year (sorry, OP, that might be painful!), you see that the Bills' drives were peppered with dump-offs to Singletary and Singletary runs that went for 6-8 yards a pop. We never went bombs away, even though the line kept Allen much cleaner. The weird thing is that this year our line played much worse and yet Allen and Dorsey didn't slow down the rush with... screens, dump-offs and runs. What the heck! Also agree with Big Turk that this team was flat and exhausted. And your final point really nailed it, OP. Joshua Allen is 26 years old. We will be back for many more seasons. Buffalo needs to make life easier for him, and he needs to let them, and then we will start to dominate on offense again like last year's playoffs.

Enough drama, queens WE’RE IN THIS GAME

Been strangely calm for three days. Now getting edgy. Adrenaline.

In a way, this is the Bills' first game since 13 seconds. We had built towards that game for 3 years, only to somehow lose after winning it. The regular season was just a way of getting back into a better position to try again. Any loss could be avenged later. The Dolphins game was a playoff game, sure, but I think the Bills were not worried or threatened going into it. We are now in that better position, if we win today (neutral site instead of Arrowhead, AFC Championship instead of Divisional round). But this is the first game since 13 seconds where there is a very real chance of a loss of another year's chance at our goal. The ride could end today. (I give the Bengals a 30% chance.) If it does, I want to say thanks to all the posters on this board, you have given this a Buffalonian in Europe a lifeline to share my love of the Bills, and I appreciate the heck out of that. That all said, I feel calm and confident. I think Buffalo has it in them to go on a three-game run of excellence now and change our lives as fans forever. Nothing left to say now except LET'S GO BUFFALO

This means no John Brown, right?

Gotta give it up to Kyle for this. I started out laughing at his Pacino impression, ended with a tear in my eye, ready to follow him into battle. He got me.

I will do my best to attend at this game! Would love to do a tailgate with some of the UK based members and others who travel to London.

Von Miller went into the Bills locker room with a replica Super Bowl trophy. Put it down on the table in front of the entire team and said "There...You said you would do anything for it. Now do it."

Thanks for this clip. I never watched a game from before my time, like this. So interesting to see how much is the same and yet how different it felt in '81. What a crazy call, the curse struck again! WE GOTTA DEFEAT IT THIS YEAR. Yes, I think their best drives are usually their first two drives of the game--the scripted ones--and then they seem to flounder for two quarters. Another reason you can't assume they would have won the regular season game. I think the Bills would have won that one over a full 60 minutes, and I think they take this game too.

I was really bummed, at age 14. We had started 11-1 but ran out of gas and finished 12-4, we had an amazing defense and an okay offense (Kelly threw 15 TDs and 17 picks on the season) with a promising rookie named Thurman Thomas. Recently I read a great oral history of this game from the Athletic. I learned that Bruce was absolutely unblockable until he got injured and that took a lot out of our team.

Interesting theory… sample size is too small to know if this is correct or if the game plan was different. If Josh starts to take checkdowns instantly when available for 5+ yards we are not stoppable as an offense.

Yeah, I didn't see that video that was posted, about him "not caring." I was trying to find it so I could assess... He does seem to be a good clutch player. Gotta say, I think we are gonna take this one, anyway.

A while ago during Bengals week, someone posted a video about Burrow “not caring” about football and that was supposed to be a big edge for him in big games. I can’t find it anymore. If that’s true, that’s probably the biggest difference between him and Josh, who lives and breathes football.

I hope we start Elam over Dane and play Beasley/Shakir over McKenzie most of the snaps in the slot. Gotta go with the best guys at this stage.

I had to put down the beer and make myself a screwdriver in the fourth quarter. Helped. Clean up I’m the turnovers and we’d be almost impossible to beat.

WE DID IT THAYS ALL THAT MATTERS IM TIRED!!!!

We are not looking like a Super Bowl team this game, but luckily many Super Bowl-winning teams had a lucky win in the playoffs

I hope Elam is just cramping?

Feels like without Daboll Josh has reverted to being really careless with the ball, all season—he’s incredible but that’s not okay.

This is arrogant football from Josh He’s so good it’s barely working but it’s not smart and it makes our games feel so hard Meanwhile Mahomes and Burrow take the easy dependable way and dink their way down the field

LET’S DO THIS

Does anyone think there’s a chance the Bengals lose? They didn’t exactly tear it up against the hobbled Ravens last week.

Also, New England fans hate us a lot less than we hate them for the Brady era! We weren’t relevant to them back then, they were worrying about the Manning brothers… I get the feeling they see Buffalo as the little brother who is finally having their moment, and are kinda rooting for us. I think most neutral fans country are rooting for Buffalo to get a ring. The universe needs this! Justice!

P.S. I truly think if the Bills had had Hyde, Poyer, Von Miller, and Crowder the whole year, they would be 17-0 or 16-1 heading into the playoffs. They were on a mission and even when hugely shorthanded they fought like dogs to win every game.