seattlebillsfan

Big personality, self-deprecating, funny, from the wrong side of the tracks, has worked his tail off to get here and knows It’s just the beginning of a whole new ballgame…that is the vibe I got. Plus an obvious gratitude for hitting the lottery with #17 about to be throwing him the ball, and a strong commitment to hold up his end of the stick. What’s not to like?

Lots of thoughtful comments in this thread so I hesitate to weigh in, but I would assert one thing, which is that if your definition of a #1 is someone like Kelce, Moss, Gronk, or Lofton, then you have set the bar really, really high…Clearly most teams won’t have a #1 if that is the bar, because most teams won’t have a Hall of Fame receiver. So it seems either like we need a lower bar, or we need a new label—don’t call the player a #1, call him a HoF wide receiver…

That is really unfair to James K. Polk. In 4 short years he seized the entire southwest from Mexico, drastically reduced tariffs, made the English sell the Oregon Territory, and built an independent Treasury Department. Having done all this, he sought no second term! (Source: They Might Be Giants, the James K. Polk song.)

RIP Carl and has great wisdom about how to “get a stew on” !!!

Bummer

I was there; first home playoff game since the Kelly era. I really had a feeling when the touchback took place and the Allen fumble was recovered that the football gods might finally be on our side. Then getting down to the 25, first and 10, a plausible path to beat the clock and keep Mahommes off the field…it just felt like it was meant to be. Something special in the air. Then it all went south in ways being discussed ad nauseum on threads here. The instant Bass trotted out to kick I looked up at the sky, and said, “and here comes Patrick Mahommes. Why god?” So for me the disappointment was big in the sense that I went from a feeling that fate might be turning, to—very rapidly—the opposite. All in the space of about 3 minutes (if you include the 2 minute warning TV timeout). But as soon as the “our time has come” spell was broken I kind of took it fatalistically, which is how I am feeling now. My other feeling is a deep sense of relief that it did not seem, from Highmark, as though Ed Hochuli cost us the game. That would have been very hard to take. This was different: Hope. Poof. Resignation.

4 of the 7 were members of the Philly officiating team

So it looks like 4 of the 7 refs (Hochuli, Holt, Killen, and Padroza) for the Chiefs game on Sunday also refereed the Eagles game in November. The remaining 3 (Fremont, Hall, Meyer) were not on the crew that gave the week 12 game to the Eagles. Never clear of course how much of the bad officiating is free lance stuff based on personal bias or incompetence and how much is imposed from NY based on the perceived financial interests of the east coast media elites and NFL. What we do know is that 4/7 of the crew, either on its own or at the behest of NY, was part of a set of egregiously bad calls that nearly put a dagger in the heart of the Bills’ 2023 season.

Ravens divisional win in January 2021. Stifling defensive performance.

A key question is, who is the accountable decision maker? A strong GM would fire McDermott tomorrow and probably would have after the Broncos or Pats games. But Beane did not do that then and is unlikely to do so tomorrow. Is that because Beane is compromised in some way given his tight interrelationship with McDermott throughout their tenure? And if that is the case must Beane and McDermott go together? And if that is the case how much confidence should we have in Terry getting these choices right without Kim there to call the shots as she may well have done when they drafted #17? Or is there another path forward? Can Terry just call Beane in the morning and say look, I need to roll the dice with one of you chuckleheads, clearly it’s not Sean; he is a loser. The whole world can see it … so bring me a plan in 7 days for how to turn this thing around or else you are done, too? it is an interesting management and governance moment…

The reality is that the NFL remembers how Super Bowl ad rates stagnated during the Bills’ Super Bowls. They will never let the Bills back; too expensive.

I am still simply blown away and incredulous at the challenge

When I say that I mean it; what kind of desperation move is that, with what’s sort of imbalanced perspective on pros and cons at this stage of the game, would lead to a challenge there? McDermott is not sane

Literally insane to challenge that

Wow, 20 minutes versus 7 minutes time of possession advantage for the bengals; miracle we are only down 7