Virgil

After the 3 game losing streak, my hope was in the toilet. Doesn’t make you any less of a fan

You’re not wrong. But I’m not speaking ill of the man right now ?

Every time I write one of these, I try to give myself some time to process the game and my feelings about it so that I can hopefully write something objective. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I fail. Today was an interesting day as I woke up sick. I didn't have my normal Week 17 dread, knowing that another season was about to come to an end. I didn't feel optimistic either. I really can't describe it other than faint hope. I did some cleaning and tempered the time until 4:25pm when the roller coaster emotion ride began. With that.... 1 - Tolbert - On a day where we all need to find forgiveness and appreciate what we saw this season, I need to start with Tolbert. At the beginning of the game, I was quickly taking notes asking why this guy is on the field. Why we were throwing passes to him in the flats and why won't we ever learn that he can't do the job. But when Shady went out, Tolbert stepped up. I was pleasantly surprised with how he handled the back-up role today. Because no matter what I think about his signing, performance, or anything else, he was still a piece in the final puzzle. 2 - Poyer - Did we just become best friends? Yup!. Three weeks in a row this kid has pulled in an INT and twice to seal the games against the Dolphins. Even better, he got into Landry's head and finally won the battle we wanted since the Aaron Williams incident. Poyer does a great job of being in the right place at the right time and has come up clutch for us. His interceptions, in combination with Hyde, are the most by a Safety duo in the NFL. Just amazing pick up's and another piece in the puzzle. 3 - Mills - I've been very critical of Mills this year and last. However, I haven't called out his name as much in recent weeks. As I watched this game, I payed attention to his matchup with Wake. He was left to handle Wake 1 on 1 for most of the game. Besides 1 sack, Mills did a pretty good job against the man who terrorized him twice last year. I may go as far as to say that maybe he's growing into a serviceable RT. Like Tolbert, I have to give credit here to the piece that led us to the final puzzle. 4 - Then, one day, I was not alone Everything had changed, everything was strange 5 - Kyle Williams - I don't even know what to say about his Touchdown. To see how excited he was to perform the touchdown celebration, how the sidelines erupted, how you could just feel the emotion of the moment. Then, within 30 seconds, the Bengals scored on a Pick 6. That was the first moment I felt that maybe it was all possible. It was a feeling I hadn't had in 17 years (back to that later). I read how Kyle gave the pre-game speech this week and last and how the players just rally to him. Kyle was the biggest, most central piece to this puzzle. 6 - Pass Rush - With a inexperience quarterback playing for the Dolphins and their starting LT out, I was really hoping to see Jerry Hughes step up and the Frazier dial up some more blitzes. On the Humber sack, he tore through the line like butter. Unfortunately, that was about it for the pass rush. I just can't understand why we give these QB's all day to pass. When we did get in his face, the throws were off and errant. I understand that coverage is key, but we need to generate more of a pass rush going forward or we will continue to get carved up by the greats. 7 - Gaines - This guy is going to kill me this offseason. We are such a different team with him on the field. He almost had two INT's today and made some great plays. If we could stay healthy, I would lock him up to a big contract. Hopefully, he takes a "prove it" deal or something incentive based. He's just to injury prone to get the long term money, but there's no denying that we are perform a whole lot better when he's out there. 8 - Tyrod - Another game, another typical Tyrod performance. Off on his first drive, even though he did score a passing TD, Tyrod was very sharp and poised for the rest of the first half. He made some tight throws, waited for plays to develop, and looked well on his way to a 300 yard game. Then the second half kicked in as did our normal struggles. Only throwing for 50+ yards in the second half, the offense was as anemic as it's been during the second half of our recent games. I'm not sure what the issue is and I'm starting to wonder if it's part of the play calling in our bend, but don't break system. The dolphins defensive line was spread out and left the center of the field open, but TT never took advantage of it. He took a few sacks, but mostly had time to throw. End of the day, love him or hate him, he's officially a playoff quarterback now and we aren't in this without him. He's flawed, makes great plays, and misses others. But he's our quarterback and he's another piece of the puzzle. 9 - McDermott - When you are the boss, every decision you make is scrutinized. When he went for 2 today, I didn't get it. When he punted in OT against the Colts, I was angry. When he started Peterman against the Chargers, there was a huge debate. Here's the thing, it doesn't matter. He did what no one else in the past 17 years before him couldn't and he did it in his first year. McDermott, I hope you bought your house here because you aren't going anywhere. We can attack his play to not lose style and all the roster moves, but in the end, he was right. 10 - Bengals Game - When the Ravens went up by 14 after the pick 6 and we were up by 19, I started to feel it. It was hard to let it out because we are Bills fans and we know how this goes. Everything that can go against us will happen. In that Ravens game, there was a the 4th and 3 where the Ravens were stopped, but the HB reversed field and scored a TD. There was a Ravens catch and fumble that got called incomplete and wasn't challenged. There was the Ravens taking the lead with 3 minutes left and the 4th and 12 play where you could just feel it all coming crashing down. This, was after the Dolphins recovered an onside kick and could win outright against us. This is where we lose. This is where 17 becomes 18. This is where we are the Bills. But Poyer makes the INT. Dalton hits the 4th and 12 for a Touchdown. Flacco comes up short on 4th down. Even with the Preston TD called back, the onside kick, the 4th and 3 TD, the non-Ravens Fumble....the Bills won and the Ravens lost. 17 years and in. I'll be honest, I screamed. I had tears in my eyes. I didn't know what to do with myself. I just sat on my couch for over an hour and watched the NFL network, listened to WGR on the app, and watched all of you celebrate on here. I just had to take it in. It's been 17 years of misery and feeling like the biggest joke as a fan of a franchise. For it to finally be over and to have it be with this team when we were supposed to be rebuilding, when TT got benched, when we got rid of Dareus, Sammy, Darby.... Thank you McDermott. Thank you Pegula's. Thank you TT, and Tolbert, and Shady, and Kyle. Thank you to SDS and everyone here for building everything up to this moment. Thank you to BillFromNYC for letting me take over this tradition in reviewing the games. Thank you to everyone else who brings their unique perspectives and opinions to the board. Agree or not, we are all in this together and suffered a lot together. We all won today. Other teams make the playoffs on a yearly basis and this is just another drop in the bucket for them. But this is more to us. This means something and we all endured it together. Someone said it best earlier when they asked "Can you hug through the internet?" Let's find out. Let's go Buffalo

Just be happy and let it all go. You'll feel a lot better

You mean his blah-playoff caliber play? ?

We have the best fans

Got to love the guy in McCoy jersey putting his coat on to leave

I screamed like a girl, had a tear in my eye, and thought the cops would get called

I worked at Circuit City

I’m not crying, you’re crying

Are you referring to McGod, the man born an hour ago?

This ^

I was talking retrospectively. People will flip out about any contract he gets, but the deal Rodgers will get after will make it look like a steal in comparison.

Dunkirk Donnie

While it was meant to be a joke, that was a great moment of television. They really lucked into that

C’mon man. You can be miserable after Tucker misses a last second field goal, but there’s a BS flag on the play and he hits the second kick

Anyone worth bringing in as an offensive coordinator?

Those mustaches are glorious

I just don’t understand. Carr has a !@#$ing broken back. Why are people flipping out over their performance. I see no reason why the Raiders aren’t back to form next year with him healthy. Rio’s been a solid coach. This is just stupid. They couldn’t get him out of Tampa fast enough as his players absolutely hated him. This is would be the Raiders version of doing something Billsy

We sign Cousins, keep our draft pics and sign a few mid level FA’s, this team is going to be in good shape for a long time and probably rule the east when Baby retires or has his hip fall off from all the steroids

If it makes you feel any better, I’ve been here almost 15 years and haven’t received the honor of DC Tom calling me an idiot.

Am I supposed to say “F5” or “ground up in the freezer?” I’m very confused

185 pages....how?