Dr. K

We could afford to lose to the Falcons but we damn well better beat the Jets.

Playing with the online playoff calculators, it seems there are several scenarios where, even if the Bills beat the Falcons, if they lose their final game to the Jets, they are 100% going to miss the playoffs. Of course a number of other things must happen for that to occur, but they are not impossible. The Ravens and Chargers have to win both of their remaining games. and the Patriots have to beat the Dolphins. The Colts, Bengals, and Patriots need to at least split their last two, but as long as the Patriots beat the Dolphins, if the Bills lose to the Jets they are out.

From the little I've seen of Jones, I think he has promise, but he's got a ways to go and Josh has it all over him.

I'm a writer. And Sullivan is a weasel. Has been for years. And no, I stopped reading him a decade ago.

Let me make clear that I posted this as a joke, and a reaction to how tired I am of hearing commentators on the Bills-Pats rivalry say the opposite over and over again.

... just asking for a friend. 😉

This is more or less where I am. I'm just going to follow the team, keep a lid on my emotional reactions, and try not to have any expectations.

When I was 15 I used to ride my bike out to the motel on Milestrip Road where the Bills held their training camp (look it up). This would have been in 1965 or so. Fans could hang out right on the sidelines of the makeshift field they had behind the motel. I don't remember much about those sessions, but I do remember Harry Jacobs coming out of the motel wearing a golf hat instead of a helmet and joking with the other players. He had a Marine's haircut and I thought he was a big guy but by today's standards he would have been a placekicker instead of a linebacker. RIP.

Happy. During the Tom Brady years, the Pats had a lot of wins like this. They didn't always play perfect football, but they won more often than not. We'll see how the Bills do next week.

No. You are wrong. The vaccines have nothing to do with it. But it looks like the season is going down with Covid. This series of outbreaks is not going to go away.

WTF? Appalling.

The most important factor to me is that expecting Josh Allen to play this way is not sustainable. He can do astonishing things, carry the offense on his back they way he did in the second half yesterday FOR A WHILE. But not indefinitely. No quarterback can take that kind of beating without it taking a toll. He'll end up like Cam Newton or RGIII or any number of phenoms who got worn out. They have to find another way to win games. Maybe they can win these last four, and make the playoffs this season, but the clock is ticking on this offensive strategy, if you can even call it that. He's the most valuable player on the team, and they are going to destroy him.

If the Colts win out, that means they must beat the Patriots. If the Bills lose to Tampa Bay but win out after that that means they also beat the Patriots. Therefore the Bills would win the division over the Pats because of their better division record. If the Colts lose to the Pats, but the Bills go 4-1 with a win over the Pats, the Bills finish second in the East, but still are in the playoffs. If the Bills go 4-1, with the only loss being to the Bucs, they are in regardless of what anybody else does.

I'm there with you brother. Became a fan of the Bills in the AFL championship years, saw my first Bills game in War Memorial Stadium in 1966. I feel the way you do frequently, and have to back away at least from time to time for the good of my soul. It would be easier if there were not so many idiots and ***holes among the fans of both the Bills and other teams. But I guess that's just the nature of (some) human beings. Sports fandom brings out a lot of anger and nastiness in people who otherwise are probably decent folk. That's the thing that wears me out the most, more than the troubles of the team. Peace.

I see. Sorry for my confusion.

Reading comprehension is on the decline in the U.S. Where did I say I was "proud" of that game? What I said was, "I'm not saying that The Bills don't have problems, or don't have to address them. But the prevailing wisdom about this game, the way it is being characterized, at least in its immediate aftermath, is not much more than noise."

Where did I say that?

I hope they keep trumpeting the Pats victory over the Bills as some astonishing overwhelming beatdown. I hope they keep saying that the Pats destroyed the Bills' defense, which was absolutely helpless against their brilliant play. That they are some unstoppable juggernaut. I hope the Patriots players believe all this and internalize it. Yes, they won, and in the standings that's all that matters. But all they proved was that in a game played in swirling winds of 35-55 mph, their running game is better than the Bills' passing game. The Pats had 11 first downs. They punted on six of their nine possessions (before their kneel downs at the end). They had drives of -1, 5, 4, 4, and 6 yards (not counting their kneel downs at the end). They out-gained the Bills by a total of 11 yards. Their time of possession was 32 minutes to the Bills' 28. They were 2 for 12 on third down conversions. They scored one touchdown. They totaled 14 points. They won by four points. I'm not saying that The Bills don't have problems, or don't have to address them. But the prevailing wisdom about this game, the way it is being characterized, at least in its immediate aftermath, is not much more than noise. The Bills are a better team than they showed, and I expect them to show it in these last five games.

This place is hilarious. Earlier this season it was all about how the Bills were going to smash this team and roll over that one, people posting testosterone-fueled mockery of Kansas City and Tennessee (and yes, New England) like hormone soaked fourteen-year old bullies on the playground. Or more like the guys who hung around with the bullies so they could make themselves feel big and scary. Now it's all about how the Bills are completely worthless. Fire the coach, fire the OC, fire the GM, they should have done this, they should have done that; no it didn't matter what they tried they are incompetent spineless talentless soft brain-dead losers, worse than Pearl Harbor, what, is my hair on fire? is this a dagger which I see before me? let us sit upon the ground and tell sad tales of the death of kings, exterminate all those brutes! It really is a fascinating, and completely predictable, window into (male) human nature.

I'm calling it now.

I have absolutely no clue how this game will go Monday. Usually I at least have an opinion, but I got nothing that resembles a confident take, positive or negative, on the Bills' chances. I could see them getting embarrassed, I could see a nail-biter, I could see the Bills stomping the Pats.

Chill out. No one is a bigger Bills supporter than I am, but be realistic. The Pats have won six straight, by significant scores, while starting a rookie QB. The Bills have gone lose-win-lose-win for their last six, one of those losses to a one-win team, and the other a wipe out, at home, by the Colts. This isn't some conspiracy by the press; this is the normal short attention span of US media. The Bills got plenty of strokes when they were riding high. If they beat the Pats Monday the narrative will change again. If the Bills sweep the Pats and manage to win four or five of their last six, they will be one of the favorites to win the Super Bowl. I prefer to hear everybody talking about how great Jones is, and how Belichick is a genius. The Bills players and coaches should be ready to play on Monday night.

Gino Capelletti

But this is my favorite football poem, by Pulitzer Prize winning poet James Wright. It was written a long time ago (1963) so some of the language has dated, but it says something a little sad, a little scary, about why people are football fans. Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio BY JAMES WRIGHT In the Shreve High football stadium, I think of Polacks nursing long beers in Tiltonsville, And gray faces of Negroes in the blast furnace at Benwood, And the ruptured night watchman of Wheeling Steel, Dreaming of heroes. All the proud fathers are ashamed to go home. Their women cluck like starved pullets, Dying for love. Therefore, Their sons grow suicidally beautiful At the beginning of October, And gallop terribly against each other’s bodies.

A Villain, NFL by Scott Campbell You never meant anything to me anyway. If I twist my wrist and thrust it down, I flick my hips and slip away. If I smash my forearm into your grill, this is how I get my thrill. You never meant anything to me anyway. I am just a player, playing for fun. But when I begin to play for money, I flick my hips and slip away. Sometimes, brutality and reality collide. Brothers and players stand side by side. You never meant anything to me anyway. Well-off fans and super-rich owners, to the players, are nothing but donors. I flick my hips and slip away. The players always give their all, but always are expendable. You never meant anything to me anyway. I flick my hips and slip away.