Rubes

I still just cannot fathom how this team allowed him to drive 75 yards in the final minutes to a game winning touchdown. I mean, that is just a colossal failure. I can't even understand it.

I hate whining about it as well, but for whatever reason it just seems so much worse this year. Even when it's not a Bills game, it's hard to watch. It seems like every game I watch has one or more calls happen or not happen in the final minutes to have a huge impact on the game.

Totally agree. At a time when the NFL is under intense criticism for the officiating, it was insane how that entire last drive, with the game on the line, was just one long session of “look at how indescribably terrible our refs are.”

Fair enough.

Pretty much everything you said is true. But like @corta765 says, when you have a QB like Josh in his prime, missing the playoffs is an inexcusable catastrophe, an embarrassment to the organization. There’s no way around that.

From the Buffalo News: I mean, you don't pay a defensive-minded coach to excel at defense for three quarters and then ***** the bed at the end when it counts.

The thing that really gets me is that it's the defense that ultimately failed us in all of those catastrophic losses. And defense is supposed to be his specialty.

Who own da Chiefs?

If they go 5-0, or even 4-1, their chances are still reasonably decent. From the Buffalo News:

Well, honestly, it was the perfect play call. They had called it earlier in the game and it worked perfectly as well, except that Josh threw a bad pass that hit the defender in the butt. Still, I was thinking the same thing on that 3rd down, which is that I hadn't seen or heard from Kincaid in a long while, so I was looking for a quick throw for a first down on that play. Turned out Philly blitzed and went Cover 0, so I saw Kincaid staying in to block.

I mean, Josh himself said they were playing Cover 0 on that play. All Gabe needed to do was keep running straight, not turn outside and go to the corner. But what do I know.

Seriously. He played for OT instead of playing for the win. Did he really learn absolutely nothing from the 13 seconds debacle? I mean, he had a whole 7 more seconds. and could have had 2 timeouts to go with it.

I don't know...if the refs/NFL really wanted Philly to win so badly, I can't imagine them really making that roughing-the-passer call against Josh in overtime. I mean, that was a serious acting job, and it was (er, should have been) a huge game-influencing penalty on the Philly side of the field.

Screw that, we don’t need Isabella out there on offense. You want to see this offense hum? Put more Gilliam out there.

With Chris Jones back in all-pro form, not many offenses will have a chance at Arrowhead.

Good post, I agree with just about everything. My only comment is that I think Benford would look even stronger out there if he wasn't wearing a number in the 40s.

Holy smokes, I come here every day, multiple times a day, and I just noticed now that you're back. Good to see you again!

Don't worry, I'm sure by some quirk of the NFL schedule we'll get to play them in Cincinnati every year for the next 6 years.

I say this all the time to my friend, a Browns fan, and he gives it right back to me. That's one fan base that could easily equal us in terms of torture.

Shaw, this was an outstanding post, I agree with everything you said. I couldn't have said it better myself. With regard to the quote above, I think you nailed it here: McD's defense, especially with the injuries, has played reasonably well. This isn't a D designed to dominate other teams; this is a D designed to keep teams to 25 points or less. That's what this team needs, when you have the QB and the offense we (should) have. As long as the O does what it knows it can do—score 30 or more with relative ease—then the D is more than enough to carry them to victory. It's when games are tight at the end when you see the weaknesses of the D show up and occasionally get exploited, but this team was designed to have a big enough lead at the end of games to make that a non-factor. The offense wasn't doing its job, plain and simple. McD held the defense together and had them performing admirably, I would say well enough, but the offense was the one letting us down game after game. Dorsey couldn't adjust and find the answer.

Not to mention getting screwed by the refs on the 2nd half kickoff that should have been a touchdown. Instead, the refs interpreted the kick returner's intention, despite the rules, and then the league changed the rules so nothing like that could happen again. Bastards.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my years on this planet, it’s that it can always be worse.

I hated the call, but I’ll also admit that the defense balled out in that game. At least until the final drive.

Well I guess I'm going to assume that Dorsey was the one to make the call to go to London on Thursday.

He was totally engaged in the 13 second game, trying to fire everybody up, especially on defense. Fat lot of good that did.