Dear NFL ..........................................

[Fezmid]

It's one loss. Was it a tough one? Yes. But it's ONE loss. In fact, I think this loss might be a GOOD thing. It'll refocus the team on the primary goal...WINNING. Too much other nonsense after the Patriots win. it'll also teach them that they need to bring the "a" game every week, or they too can get beat. I think we beat Philly this coming week, they're a lame duck team. Now quit your bitching and get back to football, girls.

 

I would've rather lost next week though.... 4-1, 4-0 in the AFC is pretty nice.

 

But oh well, we'll see what happens!

[Dirtbag]

while i agree that the stevie call was atrocious, i don't see any compelling reason why the nfl would prefer a bengals' win -- especially since the bills have been one of great unexpected storylines this season.

 

bad calls happen sometimes. that doesn't mean there's a greater conspiracy at work.

 

i would point to the bills' lackluster offensive and defensive play as the real culprit for the loss. good teams should be overcome the occasional bad call. blaming the officials seems a bit easy in my opinion.

Edited October 2, 2011 by Dirtbag

[r00tabaga]

Bills get a FG there and game is DRASTICALLY altered. TD and the game is essentially over. That call mattered. The closest ref saw it and called it good. He had an agenda......period. Bills fan or not. He hosed the call.

[Buffalo Beeeews]

Wait...you mean to tell mean Professional Wrestling is SCRIPTED?!?!?! You mean to tell me I spent $39.95 on a PPV tonight that's not even REAL! Boy, this day sucks even more now!...What's next, you gonna tell me that there is no Santa Claus???? WTF?!

 

I knew Earl Hebner secretly snuck into Paul Brown Stadium today, threw on the NFL referee shirt, just to do the Bills in like he did Bret Hart in 1997 in Montreal. All we need to say now is "Buffalo screwed Buffalo"...

[amgouldi]

Awful call, but do fans seriously believe there is some sort of NFL conspiracy that involves influencing the outcome of a week 4 matchup between the Bengals and the Bills. Seriously?

 

I never used to think so, but I now I'm starting to. Vegas, baby.. Vegas

[Dirtbag]

Bills get a FG there and game is DRASTICALLY altered. TD and the game is essentially over. That call mattered. The closest ref saw it and called it good. He had an agenda......period. Bills fan or not. He hosed the call.

 

i see no evidence of an agenda. he was just an idiot.

 

plus, the bills defense had an opportunity to stop the bengals after that play. they did not.

[amgouldi]

i see no evidence of an agenda. he was just an idiot.

 

plus, the bills defense had an opportunity to stop the bengals after that play. they did not.

 

 

They point is, though, that the bills defense shouldn't have had to make a stop if the refs were fair and did their jobs. We get that first down and run the clock and get some points and put the game away.

[r00tabaga]

Thank you Amgouldi. Thank you.

[Mango]

I saw a lot of the O line holding and no calls on da bungels! The SJ13 incompletion call was complete B%l#sh$t! They seem to make all the calls on US though, maybe i am biased?

 

THANK YOU!!! this was actually my biggest gripe(other than 99.9% of off pass int). In 2 almost consecutive plays merriman gets punched in the face(literally) and then held in an attempt to sack dalton. Bungles end up punting, our very next passing play pears(i think) gets called for the most tickey tackey hands to the face. Not only did it happen to Merriman, the entire sideline complained, next play all the way back. calls where poor.

 

i didnt realize that fitz played with a splint on his throwing hand either, bad calls, plus half of his super poor passes back to open recievers would have been a win by 2 posessions.

 

end of the day defense has to stop dalton and your offense has to score more points

[Repulsif]

The refs blew it.

The defense blew it too.

 

But, how in earth do we talk of bad calls in this sport, which have 7 ( SEVEN ) officials PLUS video reviewing ?

That's insane.

 

Every week, there are bad calls, or questionnable.

 

Either the refs crew is choosen randomly in population, or they're something under.

[Bacchus44]

Yeah, but you would have thought that the Bills defense would have responded to that bad call by coming out even more fired up trying to make a big play - they did not. They looked deflated and even more out of sync than previous drives. The Bengles exposed that...big time.

 

Even Fitz hung his head on the sideline after the call which was disappointing to me. He should have been angered enough on the sideline to get his defense and team pumped to make a play to get the ball back - he did not.

 

This was a badly officiated game, I won't deny that...but the Bills had their chances and squandered them. This game showed shades of some of their losses in previous years - they have to move beyond those types of distractions.

 

They need to look at their deficiencies in this game and work hard to correct them for next week. If they focus more on how they got hosed by the refs (like a lot of us are doing now), they aren't going to win a whole lot of games.

[Formerly Allan in MD]

What's incredible was the catch, that was a catch but was not called one, was called by an official way across the field. How the reviewer saw anything but a catch is the mystery of the year. Obviously, overturning it would've caused great embarrassment to a certain official so they let it slide. It's kind of like the Sabres/Stars "no goal" situation. The problem is it always seems to happen to a team from Buffalo.

[Just in Atlanta]

Yes I do! there is corruption in any big business why not in the NFL?

There has to be a purpose for corruption. Like money. Or power.

 

What is the purpose of purposely miscalling a game against Buffalo and Cinci? So Cinci can win?

 

C'mon guys. We didn't play all that great. We got some bad calls, one really bad. And I still don't understand this tuck rule.

 

There is no massive conspiracy.

[Dirtbag]

They point is, though, that the bills defense shouldn't have had to make a stop if the refs were fair and did their jobs. We get that first down and run the clock and get some points and put the game away.

 

so the porous defense and uninspired offensive play are not responsible for this loss? you're being way too easy on the players that actually play the game.

 

blaming the refs for any loss is a cop-out, particularly one in which the losing team had ample opportunity to win.

[Pilsner]

The refs blew it.

The defense blew it too.

 

But, how in earth do we talk of bad calls in this sport, which have 7 ( SEVEN ) officials PLUS video reviewing ?

 

 

This didn't seem like just a bad call to me. It seemed almost purposeful. Not including the muggings our DL and LB's took.

[BuffaloBud]

Awful call, but do fans seriously believe there is some sort of NFL conspiracy that involves influencing the outcome of a week 4 matchup between the Bengals and the Bills. Seriously?

 

 

Thanks for the moment of logic. Now back to your regularly scheduled anti-Bills programming.

[John in Jax]

So you are saying the official on the field made a mistake AND the replay official did as well?

So they were both wrong and you are right. Okie dokey.

 

I am with the group that says the Bills lost this game because they played crappy, both on offense & defense......but, FWIW, even Tony Dungy, on the NBC pre-game show to tonight's game, said that it was a good catch, and the Bills got robbed.

[DrFishfinder]

can we get an official explanation as to why the play to SJ was called incomplete on the field?

 

Also, can we get official clarification as to what an offensive hold is?

 

Great job today, zebras. They were just as bad as the Bills' D.

 

Simple. Because the ref thought it was an incomplete catch. And from the replay camera angles, there was NO conclusive evidence to prove that it WASN'T an incomplete catch. Bad call by the ref, bad luck the camera angles couldn't show that the receiver maintained possession all the way through the play.

 

Happens. Sucks. Happened to happen at a REALLY bad time.

 

Regardless, the NFL conspiracy against the Bills continues.

[Estelle Getty]

Everyone is saying the refs cost us the game. I am just as upset about the blown stevie j. call as anyone. But the fact of the matter is if the Bills deserve to be in the playoffs they will be. Teams don't just get "lucky" to make the playoffs. So let's stop whining about the refs because we had plenty of chances to win that game and we didn't win because we didn't deserve to.

[Cotton Fitzsimmons]

Agreed... it was a bad call, no doubt, but it shouldn't have come down to that. We needed to take care of business when the Bengals scored on their final 2 drives and couldn't get it done.