Big Turk

You'll understand someday when it happens to you.

No. You simply sound clueless. Direct quote from John Wawrow's article in the AP from a guy as connected as anyone in the local media: https://apnews.com/article/buffalo-bills-cincinnati-bengals-von-miller-nfl-super-bowl-184cba878a8cc0a3168231096f6aab1e "Adversity finally caught up to the Buffalo Bills, who were left depleted and defeated while closing an emotionally draining season two wins short of their Super Bowl aspirations. Unable to draw on the motivational inspiration of injured teammate Von Miller displaying the Super Bowl trophy he won last year in the locker room this week or injured safety Damar Hamlin’s surprise appearance at the stadium Sunday, the Bills delivered a dud in a 27-10 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in a divisional playoff game. “Keep their head up,” coach Sean McDermott said he told his players afterward. “Even though this hurts, I’m proud of them in the way that they handled themselves with class this year in the ups and downs and the adversity they faced. “They’ll take that with them, but for right now, this stings. I wish it were a different result.” The Bills were flat from the beginning, seemingly spent from a two-month stretch in which they watched in stunned horror as Hamlin went into cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated on the field in Cincinnati on Jan. 2, had their schedule disrupted by two winter storms, and showed signs of fatigue in a sloppy 34-31 playoff-opening win over Miami last week." But yeah, you must be right.

Oh it's certainly valid. Well...let's see. Tops Shooting in the summer Massive injuries to the secondary seemingly the entire 1st half of the year(Hyde out/Poyer hurt/PS corner starting most of the Miami game) Heat Exhaustion game in Miami Snowvember game moved to Detroit followed by a short week again for Thanksgiving back in Detroit Loss of Von(who was talked about as the "final piece on D") 3 games in 12 days Second massive snowstorm/blizzard that killed 40+ people and having to leave early and come back to a crazy scene after missing Christmas with their family Damar Hamlin situation and the emotional energy that it took to come play the next week It's been a really tough 6 months for WNY. Maybe the toughest I have ever experienced here in totality. There are times *I* felt drained this year from going thru all of this. With a team that connects and feels as part of the community more than any other perhaps in all of sports would it be any wonder they felt that heaviness and the emotional and mental toll it took? Trying to win and play for all of WNY? Let alone them having to go thru all of the stuff with the football aspects and trying to keep it together(which they did a better job than I think any could reasonably have expected). They are humans...eventually you simply run out of gas when you don't get a chance to refuel.

If I have to tell you, you obviously don't live here. If you do, you are too clueless to bother with.

Oh...I think you should probably count better then. No team dealt with anything close to what we had to deal with starting with the offseason.

Yes, if they were robots maybe. Unfortunately with human beings that is often not how it works.

But yet during the season with the same players they play relatively well?

If you have ever had a series of events that repeatedly cause you to have to "dip into the tank" mentally and emotionally over a long period of time, at some point you simply run out. There is only so much left in there and that tank doesn't get refilled during a season. When it runs out, you see what happened yesterday. It eventually exerts itself physically. They had to dip into the tank against the Fins last week again and that seemed like it emptied the tank. Honestly, the tank was far bigger and deeper than I expected, but even that ran out at some point. I can't even really be mad, these are people, not robots.

You don't draft RBs in the 1st round if you want to not waste draft picks.

No, you just saw a team that was mentally and emotionally drained from having to climb countless mountains during the year and it finally exerted a physical toll on them.

Then what explains the 3 playoff losses then? It's the same story in ALL of them. Timid defensive scheme that allows the other team to do whatever the hell they want all game long. 38,42 and 27(could have been 50) points. There is no way that is simply on players when they were one of the top D's in the NFL in terms of points allowed all 3 years. That is being afraid and giving up way too much soft stuff underneath while trying to prevent deep balls over the top.

That's not necessarily true...they led the NFL in stuffs this year by a wide margin...that didn't have anything to do with making mistakes, that is simply playing on the other side of the LOS. The issue is in big games against good offenses they play timid.

We saw the impact DaQuan had all year. Missing him hurt badly, but we weren't winning that game even with him. They just had nothing on either side of the ball yesterday.

How many good players do you need? The answer isn't the players, it is the timid schemes giving up easy throws to wide open receivers without any Bills within 5 yards of them all too often. I am willing to bet other DC's would have a much better plan in those games.

KC doesn't rely on the deep ball very much either tho...Mahomes has a ton of short stuff, taking what they give you. My biggest issue is the defense doesn't stop anyone in the playoffs when they lose. They are a good to great regular season defense that gets bludgeoned in the playoffs against good offenses. 38, 42 and 27(going on 50) in their last 3 playoff losses. That simply isn't good enough. Look at the SB Bills teams defense in the playoffs in big games. They performed far better than their rankings during the year(at least in the AFCCG). In the 4 AFC Championship games they played, the defense allowed 3, 7, 10 and 13 points. They didn't need the offense to do much to win those games, they held it down. Bills allowed more points to KC in their lone AFC Championship game(38) than that era's teams allowed in all 4 combined(33 points)! It's unacceptable and if McD REALLY wants to take a look in the mirror, he can't keep trotting Frazier out there on D in the playoffs. He needs to trade some regular season success for playoff success.

No Schottenheimer lost in the first round most years. Eventually they will fire on all cylinders and make it. Likely will rely on some bounces to go their way but in the playoffs who doesn't get bounces in a SB run? He looked exhausted too honestly. Hell, I texted my friend that *I* at times was exhausted this year with all the crazy stuff that happened during the year. This team desperately could have used a bye more than any team in NFL history most likely to reset and take a breather but they didn't get it. I think the extra energy they had to expend last week was probably energy that completely emptied the tank.

They can't keep getting destroyed on D in every playoff loss. It's one thing if they lost and the D played well. But in all 3 losses it looked like they were the worst defense in football. 30 first downs?? They allowed the same number to KC last year in the playoffs. It's embarrassing. The defense gets ultra timid and is so afraid of getting beat deep they give up constant free first downs underneath. I mean how many times did a Cincy receiver catch a ball with no Bill within 5 yards of him?? It was ludicrous. There has to be a better answer than whatever they are attemtping to do. Teams that are worse defensively during the regular season seem to play much better in the playoffs...why do we always play worse??

It's kind of amazing how often it works. That's not true either. They were exceptional this year at stuffing runs, led the NFL by a wide margin. Also led the NFL by a wide margin in forcing teams into 3rd and 11+ yards and 3rd and 7+ yards. Led the NFL in both of those by a wide margin also. DaQuan was a huge loss. He was a force inside that allowed everyone else to get favorable matchups. However he would have mattered little yesterday.

Not familiar with that area too much...that's down by Xavier and UC isn't it? I stayed and worked in Kenwood for 6 weeks in a motel when I first got there(company paid), and when I moved out there I believe I was in Mount Washington. I know I was east of the city and there was a long bridge I went over to get there. Milford was the next town over. Worked in Eastgate for a while also and downtown Cincy.

I mean that's not entirely accurate. They finished 2nd in the NFL in points allowed. The problem is against good offenses, they don't look like that team.

I mean it sounds good when you are 14 beers into a case...

Frazier needs to go I'm afraid. He consistently has no answers in the playoffs with top shelf defenses during the regular season. Defense has sucked in last 3 playoff losses and basically looked inept.

Yes let's trade Allen and Diggs for a bunch of draft picks and hope we strike gold again and likely come nowhere close to what we already have

#4 is the main thing I took out of it. They looked spent. Once you get to the point where there is nothing left to give it manifests itself physically and it was obvious both on the field and in the interviews where so many players said they had no energy today. Nothing else really matters because the team wasn't winning today no matter what they did or tried.

Yeah he is making $4.8 million next year and has $0 guaranteed so they can cut him and realize full cap savings.