Question about 90's Bills

[Billsfanatic8989]

By the 92 season, as a fan, did you not want the Bill's to get back to the SB? Mainly because you knew they were unlikely to beat the 49ers or Cowboys, and it was too tough to take? I know it sounds crazy. But Marv Levy said fans would come up to him and plead that they not get back to the SB. Mostly because they didn't have a great shot of winning, and they ( Fans) couldn't deal with more dissapointments.

 

Furthermore, how did you feel about their chances going into the SB's against the Redskins & Cowboys (X2)?

[H2o]

I think that Giants game ruined them mentally. The Redskins mopped us and after the first loss to the Cowboys you knew how the 2nd game would go. At that point I didn't mind an L as long as it wasn't in the SB. 

[plenzmd1]

I would have taken 5 more in a row. Only one i thought they would lose is #2 . 

[Kwai San]

Well they did shoot themselves in the foot in Miami against the G I Ants......going out and partying until the wee hours didn't help their cause at all.  Thurman showed up......had Norwide made that kick and lets face it the dude was $$MONEY$$ all season we would all be singing a diff tune.....dems da breaks.  I liked the fact the Bills kept showing up....it was awesome to say yup MY team is back in the SB and YOURS isn't!!!

[Boatdrinks]

Nope. I absolutely wanted them to get back to the SB. The Giants game was a near miss, and the team did very well vs the big bad NFC during the regular season. After ‘91 and especially early into the ‘92 season I was hoping they would be matched vs San Francisco in the SB, not Dallas. The Cowboys D was just too talented and had too much speed. Their O line was a fortress. SF was a very similar team to the Bills, and I felt was a more even matchup. Even in SB XXV I felt everyone was a bit too overconfident when the G men beat SF. It’s always tough to beat a team twice in a year. The NYG weren’t a team that depended on passing the ball, and had an excellent D. There was a reason that their late season MNF matchup with SF was being called “ the real Super Bowl “. I think the 90’s Bills would have won a SB if they had been up against SF in one of them. 

[Another Fan]

Losing 35-3 against the Oilers I was feeling a little like that, thinking well at least not another Super Bowl loss is coming up.  Then after the comeback I fully believed anything was possible so no I always wanted to see them there.

 

Super Bowl 28 was the underrated killer though to take.  I liked Levy but I think he did a terrible job there after the Thurman fumble. Someone needed to step up and get control of the demons which soon took over 

[Orlando Tim]

The only one I thought we outclassed in was the Redskin game. the other ones I thought- and still believe- that we had about a 50% chance to win it was simply us not playing well or bad luck. The first cowboys game Kelly went down in and the second Thurman fumbled at the start of secodn half and team crumbled. 

 

[Tuco]

Nah. Going to the Super Bowl and losing is still a hell of a lot more fun than sucking for 20 years.

[Augie]

9 minutes ago, plenzmd1 said:

I would have taken 5 more in a row. Only one i thought they would lose is #2 . 

 

The only one I went to. I had high hopes! Wait! Where is #34 on the opening play? Have we done something clever?

 

No. No we did not do anything clever. 

 

I actually thought we’d win #1 vs Giants, and we should have, but we got out-coached/QB’b. Run the ball Jimbo. Should have won that by a couple TD’s. 

[Boatdrinks]

7 minutes ago, Kwai San said:

Well they did shoot themselves in the foot in Miami against the G I Ants......going out and partying until the wee hours didn't help their cause at all.  Thurman showed up......had Norwide made that kick and lets face it the dude was $$MONEY$$ all season we would all be singing a diff tune.....dems da breaks.  I liked the fact the Bills kept showing up....it was awesome to say yup MY team is back in the SB and YOURS isn't!!!

I agree with the last part of this. Norwood was money in 1990, if the kick was within 40 yards. Christie would have made that kick 95 times out of 100. As for the partying? Overrated imo. No one partied heartier than the Raiders in the 70’s and 80’s and they did just fine. The Bills were a great team with a fatal flaw, and drew a terrible matchup in 3 of four games. They should have had enough to beat the NYG with a little better clock management on the final drive and without a miraculous non- fumble by JH in his own endzone. 

[GRHater69]

We lost the first SB because of Andre Reed.....period. After the safety if he didn't hear Myron Guyton's footsteps and held on to the ball for a critical 3rd down conversion we go in and score. That would have taken the Giants out of their gameplan and forced them to throw more which would have unleashed Bruce and Biscuit. To me the whole game swung on that series. We get 2 pts. on the safety, and then another 7. That's 9 points when we already had the lead.

 

 

[BobbyC81]

9 minutes ago, Another Fan said:

Losing 35-3 against the Oilers I was feeling a little like that, thinking well at least not another Super Bowl loss is coming up.  Then after the comeback I fully believed anything was possible so no I always wanted to see them there.

 

Super Bowl 28 was the underrated killer though to take.  I liked Levy but I think he did a terrible job there after the Thurman fumble. Someone needed to step up and get control of the demons which soon took over 

 

Yep, and the team had a lot of pressure (heavily on themselves) in the last 2 after losing the first 2.  Only us Bills fans will remember that the score of SB 27 was 14-10 late in the first half with the Bills in the red zone.  Kelly gets dinged, stays in the game, and lobs the ball into the end zone for Big Pete M, only to be picked off.  Two big passes make it 21-10, then another turnover on a play that knocks Kelly out for the game and it starts totally unraveling at 28-10.

 

Then in SB27, the Bills played a very good 1st half but the Thurman fumble, which only tied the game, deflated the team.  I'll admit, after that one, in hindsight I was somewhat glad there wasn't a fifth in a row.

[Boatdrinks]

There were many missed opportunities in SB XXV on both sides of the ball. However , if you had told Bills fans going in that the game would be decided on the final posession and the Bills would have the ball we’d all have said “ great”. 

[Another Fan]

21 minutes ago, LittleJoeCartwright said:

 

Yep, and the team had a lot of pressure (heavily on themselves) in the last 2 after losing the first 2.  Only us Bills fans will remember that the score of SB 27 was 14-10 late in the first half with the Bills in the red zone.  Kelly gets dinged, stays in the game, and lobs the ball into the end zone for Big Pete M, only to be picked off.  Two big passes make it 21-10, then another turnover on a play that knocks Kelly out for the game and it starts totally unraveling at 28-10.

 

Then in SB27, the Bills played a very good 1st half but the Thurman fumble, which only tied the game, deflated the team.  I'll admit, after that one, in hindsight I was somewhat glad there wasn't a fifth in a row.

Actually if I remember right in Super Bowl 27 they were still within stricking distance in the 4th quarter.  Reich hit Beebe for the last play of the 3rd quarter to make it 31-17.  I think they even got the ball back only down 14 in the 4th qtr.  Needless to say we both know what happened next 

[purple haze]

2 hours ago, Billsfanatic8989 said:

By the 92 season, as a fan, did you not want the Bill's to get back to the SB? Mainly because you knew they were unlikely to beat the 49ers or Cowboys, and it was too tough to take? I know it sounds crazy. But Marv Levy said fans would come up to him and plead that they not get back to the SB. Mostly because they didn't have a great shot of winning, and they ( Fans) couldn't deal with more dissapointments.

 

Furthermore, how did you feel about their chances going into the SB's against the Redskins & Cowboys (X2)?

Were you of age when the Bills had consecutive 2-14 seasons?  There was never a time I didn't want the Bills in the Super Bowl.  The alternative

is what was unbearable.  And those Bills teams did very well against NFC opponents, in general, during the Super Bowl years, so it wasn't unlikely they

would beat Dallas or San Francisco.  The Bills beat both of those teams in the regular season as well as the Giants; on the road at that.

 

Super Bowl XXV, the Bills gave away.

Super Bowl XXVI, the Bills didn't have their minds right, (thought they could just show up and win) but still had chances to come back in that game.

Super Bowl XXVII, Kelly got hurt, and the Bills were sloppy with the ball.  The Cowboys took advantage.

Super Bowl XXVIII, The Bills ran out of gas in the second half, and again, were sloppy with the rock.

 

Edited July 29, 2018 by purple haze

[Buftex]

56 minutes ago, GRHater69 said:

We lost the first SB because of Andre Reed.....period. After the safety if he didn't hear Myron Guyton's footsteps and held on to the ball for a critical 3rd down conversion we go in and score. That would have taken the Giants out of their gameplan and forced them to throw more which would have unleashed Bruce and Biscuit. To me the whole game swung on that series. We get 2 pts. on the safety, and then another 7. That's 9 points when we already had the lead.

 

 

Rediculous.  Why was it Andre Reeds fault, "period"?  Why not Darryl Talley, and the 3 other Bills who whiffed on tackles as Mark Ingram killed them on 3rd &22, and helped the Giants, essentially hold the ball for the entire 3rd quarter...or Jim for throwing a meaningless pass for 2 yards, to Keith McKellar, which wasted about 8 seconds on the clock during the final drive? Or hell, why not Keith McKellar for not having the prescense of mind to "drop" that same pass, inistead of making a great effort for the shoe-string catch? Of mayve blame Jim for getting a little pass-happy on that final drive, when Thurman was having an MVP type game. Blaming Reed for the loss,, "period" is absurd.  The Giants/Bellechiks' defense game plan in 25 was to punish the Bills WR's.  To their credit, they did...look at the boxscore for that game.  Reed caught 8 passes for 62 yards....Lofton caught 1 pass for 61 yeards.  McKellar 2 for 11.  The Giants were determined to shut down the Bills potent passing game...and they did for the most part.  Plenty of mistakes made that day...Andre Reed was far from the only reason they lost.

 

 

[Fadingpain]

I never had that feeling of not wanting them to get back to the Superbowl!  

 

I will admit to having become pretty jaded by the time #4 came up.  I had given up hope at that point and assumed it would be a loss.

 

Of course once the game started, I was right back into it again believing we'd finally get the job done.

 

1 hour ago, Kwai San said:

Well they did shoot themselves in the foot in Miami against the G I Ants......going out and partying until the wee hours didn't help their cause at all.  Thurman showed up......had Norwide made that kick and lets face it the dude was $$MONEY$$ all season we would all be singing a diff tune.....dems da breaks.  I liked the fact the Bills kept showing up....it was awesome to say yup MY team is back in the SB and YOURS isn't!!!

Tampa, not Miami.

 

 

[Buftex]

1 hour ago, Billsfanatic8989 said:

By the 92 season, as a fan, did you not want the Bill's to get back to the SB? Mainly because you knew they were unlikely to beat the 49ers or Cowboys, and it was too tough to take? I know it sounds crazy. But Marv Levy said fans would come up to him and plead that they not get back to the SB. Mostly because they didn't have a great shot of winning, and they ( Fans) couldn't deal with more dissapointments.

 

Furthermore, how did you feel about their chances going into the SB's against the Redskins & Cowboys (X2)?

I always wanted them to make it to the Super Bowl...honeslty, the only one I felt they might not win was #27, the first loss to the Cowboys,  Their offensive line was the most dominatnt unit on either team, and, IMO, were possible the best offinsive line I have seen in my 40 something years of watching football.  I live in Texas, so I saw them all season, and they just destroyed teams...after two Super Bowl losses, my feeling was that, as great as some of our individual players were on defense, they couldn't dominate a really strong offensive line like the Cowboys had.  

 

I will say, I do remember at one point, sitting at the bar, watching a late regular season win against the Colts (or some bottom feeder team at that time) during that last Super Bowl season, and just thinking..."man, I know they can crush all these crummy teams...I wish we could just fast forward to the Super Bowl, becuase that is the only win that means anything at this point".  I was getting kind of bored by all the blowouts of ****ty teams...I would trade places now of course!  But regular season wins seemed almost meainingless.  Like Marv, and others said at the end of their careers, "you start to feel the losses much more than the wins."  It many have been the same for a lot of fans. But, I remember just saying to people "c'mon, the law of averages says they have to win one of these damn games!"

 

[greenyellowred]

2 hours ago, Billsfanatic8989 said:

By the 92 season, as a fan, did you not want the Bill's to get back to the SB? Mainly because you knew they were unlikely to beat the 49ers or Cowboys, and it was too tough to take? I know it sounds crazy. But Marv Levy said fans would come up to him and plead that they not get back to the SB. Mostly because they didn't have a great shot of winning, and they ( Fans) couldn't deal with more dissapointments.

 

Furthermore, how did you feel about their chances going into the SB's against the Redskins & Cowboys (X2)?

 

 

The entire nation did not want Buffalo to return to the SB. In fact, Jay Leno of the Tonight Show joked at the beginning of the season this was the time where all of the other 29 teams get to battle it out to see who plays Buffalo in the SB.

 

Also, we did not know who the NFC rep would be. SF and Dallas were good, but no one could have predicted them in the SB. The Bills, however, were the clear favorites in the AFC.

[Fadingpain]

3 minutes ago, Buftex said:

I always wanted them to make it to the Super Bowl...honeslty, the only one I felt they might not win was #27, the first loss to the Cowboys,  Their offensive line was the most dominatnt unit on either team, and, IMO, were possible the best offinsive line I have seen in my 40 something years of watching football.  I live in Texas, so I saw them all season, and they just destroyed teams...after two Super Bowl losses, my feeling was that, as great as some of our individual players were on defense, they couldn't dominate a really strong offensive line like the Cowboys had.  

 

I will say, I do remember at one point, sitting at the bar, watching a late regular season win against the Colts (or some bottom feeder team at that time) during that last Super Bowl season, and just thinking..."man, I know they can crush all these crummy teams...I wish we could just fast forward to the Super Bowl, becuase that is the only win that means anything at this point".  I was getting kind of bored by all the blowouts of ****ty teams...I would trade places now of course!  But regular season wins seemed almost meainingless.  Like Marv, and others said at the end of their careers, "you start to feel the losses much more than the wins."  It many have been the same for a lot of fans. But, I remember just saying to people "c'mon, the law of averages says they have to win one of these damn games!"

 

The O line Dallas had at that time was indeed dominant and fantastic.

 

Erik Williams, Stepnoski, Nate Newton...a hell of a unit and those guys were HUGE, particularly by the standard of that era.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ronin]

3 hours ago, Augie said:

I actually thought we’d win #1 vs Giants, and we should have, but we got out-coached/QB’b. Run the ball Jimbo. Should have won that by a couple TD’s. 

 

You hit the nail right on the head Augie!

 

We were entirely outcoached.  Parcells, Gibbs, & Johnson all outcoached us.  Some of that evidence can clearly be seen in how the Cowboys came out of the locker room contrasted with how our Bills emerged.  They came out fist-pumping, Bruce came out walking, looking at the field, helmet in hand.  

 

While those guys were in the locker room strategizing and throwing chairs (literally), Marv was (literally) reading Hemmingway quotes.  

 

Swap coaches and we have 3 championships.  

 

Marv was a good but not a great coach.  He was clearly bested in all four SBs.  That Giants SB shouldn't even have been close, we easily had the better team, particularly on offense.  

 

Having said that, to the OP, I don't ever recall thinking to myself that I didn't want us to go back to another SB nor do I recall any Bills fan at the time expressing such nonsense.  

Edited July 29, 2018 by TaskersGhost
Update

[#34fan]

I always wanted to go back... -ALWAYS,

[Buffalo Barbarian]

Hell no, I wanted them to go every year and win. Someday we will win four in a row and many others besides.

 

 

[RocCityRoller]

4 hours ago, Buftex said:

Rediculous.  Why was it Andre Reeds fault, "period"?  Why not Darryl Talley, and the 3 other Bills who whiffed on tackles as Mark Ingram killed them on 3rd &22, and helped the Giants, essentially hold the ball for the entire 3rd quarter...or Jim for throwing a meaningless pass for 2 yards, to Keith McKellar, which wasted about 8 seconds on the clock during the final drive? Or hell, why not Keith McKellar for not having the prescense of mind to "drop" that same pass, inistead of making a great effort for the shoe-string catch? Of mayve blame Jim for getting a little pass-happy on that final drive, when Thurman was having an MVP type game. Blaming Reed for the loss,, "period" is absurd.  The Giants/Bellechiks' defense game plan in 25 was to punish the Bills WR's.  To their credit, they did...look at the boxscore for that game.  Reed caught 8 passes for 62 yards....Lofton caught 1 pass for 61 yeards.  McKellar 2 for 11.  The Giants were determined to shut down the Bills potent passing game...and they did for the most part.  Plenty of mistakes made that day...Andre Reed was far from the only reason they lost.

 

 

 

The third and 22 in Super Bowl XXV is to me the seminal play. Bruce, Biscuit, Talley and Smith allowed that to happen, not Andre Reed.

 

It was a back breaker for a potential football empire. That play alone sums up the 90's Bills.

[nucci]

Yeah, who would want their team in the Superbowl?

[Peace Frog]

SB 25: we underperformed in the first half because of Jim Kelly's playing calling.  The defense let us down in the 2nd half with shoddy tackling.

SB 26: this game was not as close as the score indicated.  Washington dominated us on both sides of the ball.  The worst loss of all four SBs, IMO.

SB 27: people think I'm crazy but I would've kept starting Frank Reich.  He engineered the greatest comeback against Houston, went on the road and beat Pittsburgh, and certainly could've done just as good as Jimbo at Miami, if not better.(Kelly had 2 ints)  I think Dallas would've still beat us but it wouldn't have been as embarrassing.

SB 28: we choked in the 2nd half.  there is no other way to put it.  The Bills lost their genitals in the 3rd quarter after Dallas took the lead, and by the 4th quarter, they lost their heart.

Edited July 29, 2018 by Peace Frog

[Seanbillsfan2206]

7 hours ago, GRHater69 said:

We lost the first SB because of Andre Reed.....period. After the safety if he didn't hear Myron Guyton's footsteps and held on to the ball for a critical 3rd down conversion we go in and score. That would have taken the Giants out of their gameplan and forced them to throw more which would have unleashed Bruce and Biscuit. To me the whole game swung on that series. We get 2 pts. on the safety, and then another 7. That's 9 points when we already had the lead.

 

 

We got out coached in the first Super Bowl. Period 

[Fr. Jerk]

Although the outcomes were not favorable it was still exciting every year they made it. So no. 

[Kwai San]

7 hours ago, Fadingpain said:

I never had that feeling of not wanting them to get back to the Superbowl!  

 

I will admit to having become pretty jaded by the time #4 came up.  I had given up hope at that point and assumed it would be a loss.

 

Of course once the game started, I was right back into it again believing we'd finally get the job done.

 

Tampa, not Miami.

 

 

 

Thanks - my bad....sheesh - how did I ever forget that.......tough gitting old...

Edited July 29, 2018 by Kwai San

[BillsPride12]

7 hours ago, Buftex said:

Rediculous.  Why was it Andre Reeds fault, "period"?  Why not Darryl Talley, and the 3 other Bills who whiffed on tackles as Mark Ingram killed them on 3rd &22, and helped the Giants, essentially hold the ball for the entire 3rd quarter...or Jim for throwing a meaningless pass for 2 yards, to Keith McKellar, which wasted about 8 seconds on the clock during the final drive? Or hell, why not Keith McKellar for not having the prescense of mind to "drop" that same pass, inistead of making a great effort for the shoe-string catch? Of mayve blame Jim for getting a little pass-happy on that final drive, when Thurman was having an MVP type game. Blaming Reed for the loss,, "period" is absurd.  The Giants/Bellechiks' defense game plan in 25 was to punish the Bills WR's.  To their credit, they did...look at the boxscore for that game.  Reed caught 8 passes for 62 yards....Lofton caught 1 pass for 61 yeards.  McKellar 2 for 11.  The Giants were determined to shut down the Bills potent passing game...and they did for the most part.  Plenty of mistakes made that day...Andre Reed was far from the only reason they lost.

 

 

My little league football coach used to always say after a bad loss..."well the only positive we can take from this one is we lost as a team" and I've always thought that summed up Super Bowl 25 in a nutshell.  As a team so many guys contributed to losing that game it really wasn't fair Norwood became the scapegoat.  It's also crazy that for as many things that went wrong for the Bills in that game that they still had a chance to win it at the end.  

[Kwai San]

9 hours ago, Boatdrinks said:

I agree with the last part of this. Norwood was money in 1990, if the kick was within 40 yards. Christie would have made that kick 95 times out of 100. As for the partying? Overrated imo. No one partied heartier than the Raiders in the 70’s and 80’s and they did just fine. The Bills were a great team with a fatal flaw, and drew a terrible matchup in 3 of four games. They should have had enough to beat the NYG with a little better clock management on the final drive and without a miraculous non- fumble by JH in his own endzone. 

 

Ya a totally different era those Raiders played in.....things not as structured as it was in the 90's.  Bills shoulda been able to overcome the partying but it certainly didn't help.  110% agree on the Fatal Flaw theory......they could sneak by on the lesser teams but the top teams had the personnel and coaching to see it and exploit it.  All in all - thems were to days to be a Bills fan!

[The Process]

9 hours ago, Billsfanatic8989 said:

By the 92 season, as a fan, did you not want the Bill's to get back to the SB? Mainly because you knew they were unlikely to beat the 49ers or Cowboys, and it was too tough to take? I know it sounds crazy. But Marv Levy said fans would come up to him and plead that they not get back to the SB. Mostly because they didn't have a great shot of winning, and they ( Fans) couldn't deal with more dissapointments.

 

Furthermore, how did you feel about their chances going into the SB's against the Redskins & Cowboys (X2)?

Any fan that came up to Marv Levy and said please don't go to the Superbowl may have mental issues where they can't deal with a big loss. Thats like saying I'm not going to take that six figure job because I might lose it. Or, no way I'm gonna marry the girl of my dreams because it might not work out. In reality the potential loss might be leaving a more stable lower paying job or risking spending years with a lady that gets wasted.....so risk reward may be considered......but if you lose the bowl....it's only a game. A more accurate comparison would be someone handing you a mega millions lottery ticket for free.....you decline because you can't stand the thought of not winning. There is no sane logic for seriously telling a coach not to go to the dance.

 

[Freddie's Dead]

On 7/28/2018 at 11:21 PM, GRHater69 said:

We lost the first SB because of Andre Reed.....period. After the safety if he didn't hear Myron Guyton's footsteps and held on to the ball for a critical 3rd down conversion we go in and score. That would have taken the Giants out of their gameplan and forced them to throw more which would have unleashed Bruce and Biscuit. To me the whole game swung on that series. We get 2 pts. on the safety, and then another 7. That's 9 points when we already had the lead.

 

 

That was a critical play, but the 3rd and 13 (fixed) to Mark Ingram, where no less than 7 Bills failed to tackle him, sealed our fate

Edited July 30, 2018 by Freddie's Dead

[Buffalo Boy]

9 hours ago, Billsfanatic8989 said:

By the 92 season, as a fan, did you not want the Bill's to get back to the SB? Mainly because you knew they were unlikely to beat the 49ers or Cowboys, and it was too tough to take? I know it sounds crazy. But Marv Levy said fans would come up to him and plead that they not get back to the SB. Mostly because they didn't have a great shot of winning, and they ( Fans) couldn't deal with more dissapointments.

 

Furthermore, how did you feel about their chances going into the SB's against the Redskins & Cowboys (X2)?

     I wanted them to get back to the SB every year. The year we played the Titans we would have gotten back if we hadn’t been screwed on that call. Not sure we would have beaten the Rams but I wanted it and was pissed at the time!!!

     Our Oline was shot for Washington and that was a ROUGH game to watch.

     I firmly believed we would beat the Cowboys in the first matchup and remember being stunned as that debacle unfolded. The thing about the Kelly led Bills is they would often have games where they just didn’t show up, screw off for 50+ minutes and then pull it out. I’m not saying they quit but at a certain point they were being toyed with and it was embarrassing ?

      The second game I went into with my eyes open and felt good to start but once the shoe started to drop in the third quarter.... oooofff.

[oldmanfan]

They should have won the first one but Parcells and Belichick way out coached our guys.  The other three they lost to much better teams.

[Dr. K]

10 hours ago, Kwai San said:

Well they did shoot themselves in the foot in Miami against the G I Ants......going out and partying until the wee hours didn't help their cause at all.  Thurman showed up......had Norwide made that kick and lets face it the dude was $$MONEY$$ all season we would all be singing a diff tune.....dems da breaks.  I liked the fact the Bills kept showing up....it was awesome to say yup MY team is back in the SB and YOURS isn't!!!

This is not true. Norwood missed a LOT of kicks, crucial ones, during the season, but the team covered for him. Look at that Denver game the Bills came back to win in the fourth quarter. Norwood missed TWO extra points in situations that theoretically could have cost them the game except the defense bailed them out with turnovers and touchdowns. 

[Another Fan]

When I think about it and after reading this thread, I don't know how much better those Cowboys teams were than the Bills.  Super Bowl 27 we were still within striking distance to start the 4th, and then Super Bowl 28 we were dominating until the Thurman fumble.  In Super Bowl 27 and the second half of Super Bowl 28 we just played some really ugly football. 

 

Also add in to the mix we beat the Cowboys in Dallas in the regular season in 1993 and just a few years later in Buffalo in 1996.

 

I think we are still the last Super Bowl losers to make it back the next season, never mind three times in a row.  That's gotta show some resiliency. 

[Augie]

9 hours ago, TaskersGhost said:

 

You hit the nail right on the head Augie!

 

We were entirely outcoached.  Parcells, Gibbs, & Johnson all outcoached us.  Some of that evidence can clearly be seen in how the Cowboys came out of the locker room contrasted with how our Bills emerged.  They came out fist-pumping, Bruce came out walking, looking at the field, helmet in hand.  

 

While those guys were in the locker room strategizing and throwing chairs (literally), Marv was (literally) reading Hemmingway quotes.  

 

Swap coaches and we have 3 championships.  

 

Marv was a good but not a great coach.  He was clearly bested in all four SBs.  That Giants SB shouldn't even have been close, we easily had the better team, particularly on offense.  

 

Having said that, to the OP, I don't ever recall thinking to myself that I didn't want us to go back to another SB nor do I recall any Bills fan at the time expressing such nonsense.  

 

We seemed to think some of the points we scored against the Raiders would carry over to the SB. Sorry, guys! New game! You have too show up to win it! 

[Green Lightning]

9 hours ago, #34fan said:

I always wanted to go back... -ALWAYS,

Of course. And if if wasn't for a BS kickoff return we could have done it again!

[Boatdrinks]

3 hours ago, oldmanfan said:

They should have won the first one but Parcells and Belichick way out coached our guys.  The other three they lost to much better teams.

This “ outcoached”line of thinking is often cited as fact, but I don’t believe BP or BB made a tackle that day or made the Bills defenders miss so many.The late Bill Walsh opined that the Bills lost on clock management during the final drive, a fair point without preconceived notions of the Bills superiority.  One thing for sure ( as you imply here) is that the Bills and Giants were far more evenly matched than most Bills fans would admit. Their late season game at NY showed this. While both teams lost their starting QB in that game, it still was a down to the wire win for the Bills. If any NFC team was built to sustain an injury to their starting QB, it was the G Men. They disposed of the defending SB champ fortyniners on the road and turned it into a low scoring slugfest. They also knocked Montana out in the process. We as fans were on a high after the blowout of the Raiders, but the Giants style was the perfect antidote to the no huddle fast break Bills. Sure, there were some head scratching decisions made by the Bills staff that day ( Thurman’s lack of carries being the main one) but the game was way more of a physical undressing of the Bills than a coaching chess match. The Bills defense took one on the chin in SB XXV. It was no surprise that they coveted Ted Washington out of Louisville in the ‘91 draft. Polian waited it out and missed out on Washington by just one pick when he went to SF. Perhaps that draft choice would have helped the Bills win one of those next three Superbowls.