Anyone Else Having Trouble Dealing with this Success?

[GunnerBill]

Excellent top @Shaw66.

 

The fanbase as a whole does not know how to deal with it.... it is why we still have posts worried about cap space, worried about what some talking head on ESPN who nobody has ever heard of is saying about us and worrying about coaches and personnel guys getting tapped up for other jobs. These are not things to worry about. The Bills are good. They are not perfect but no team in the NFL is perfect. The league is set up to prevent perfect. We are probably not going to have a run like the Pats have had - that will probably never happen again, but the Bills for the next 15 years can be who the Steelers have been. A competitive playoff team most years, .500 in a "down year", and get to 2 or 3 Superbowls. We have consistency and class at the three most important spots in Head Coach, General Manager and Quarterback. The other pieces will come in and out as time passes but we are primed to be good not just now but for a decade or more.

Edited October 6, 2020 by GunnerBill

[Shaw66]

1 minute ago, GunnerBill said:

 

We have consistency and class at the three most important spots in Head Coach, General Manager and Quarterback. 

I've said it, in different words, that the Bills have consistency and class at the four most important spots - HC, GM, QB and OWNERSHIP.  The Pegulas know when they have a good thing going, and they're willing to spend money on it.   The last piece I'm waiting for is Beane's extension.   I hope he's happy and committed to the long term, and I hope the Pegulas write the check that he deserves.   Extending Allen is a no-brainer.    Once Beane is locked in, the franchise is rolling. 

[Billsfan1972]

4 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

Excellent top @Shaw66.

 

The fanbase as a whole does not know how to deal with it.... it is why we still have posts worried about cap space, worried about what some talking head on ESPN who nobody has ever heard of is saying about us and worrying about coaches and personnel guys getting tapped up for other jobs. These are not things to worry about. The Bills are good. They are not perfect but no team in the NFL is perfect. The league is set up to prevent perfect. We are probably not going to have a run like the Pats have had - that will probably never happen again, but the Bills for the next 15 years can be who the Steelers have been. A competitive playoff team most years, .500 in a "down year", and get to 2 or 3 Superbowls. We have consistency and class at the three most important spots in Head Coach, General Manager and Quarterback. The other pieces will come in and out as time passes but we are primed to be good not just now but for a decade or more.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves...... 🤣 I have just wanted to see an offense in the top 5 to get excited about.  I want a QB and a team that is never out of it.  Please don't bring up the Cowboys or Falcons.  

 

Yes I appreciate a great defense, but that is not why I watch football.

[GunnerBill]

2 minutes ago, Billsfan1972 said:

Let's not get ahead of ourselves...... 🤣 I have just wanted to see an offense in the top 5 to get excited about.  I want a QB and a team that is never out of it.  Please don't bring up the Cowboys or Falcons.  

 

Yes I appreciate a great defense, but that is not why I watch football.

 

I don't think I am ahead of myself. I think this team is good and it is in good hands. Sean McDermott is the man. Great organisations need great leadership and it starts with Sean. The moment he walked through the door the destiny of this franchise was changed.

[Billsfan1972]

Just now, GunnerBill said:

 

I don't think I am ahead of myself. I think this team is good and it is in good hands. Sean McDermott is the man. Great organisations need great leadership and it starts with Sean. The moment he walked through the door the destiny of this franchise was changed.

Again I didn't know McD from Adam, but thought the offensive teardown in 2017 was unecessary, his conservative approach to that side of the ball and then his bad decision regarding Peterman cemented my views.

 

I think too (and seeing Herbert & Burrow as prime examples this year) that they had Allen on way too short a leash (and hamstrung with a lack of talent).

 

I am almost ready to forgive him......😜   

[thronethinker]

A lot of people are prone to wing negative, as someone can make a positive comment and it get ridiculed to the point of nonsense by many people. It is as if misery is more welcome than success. I guess so many want to live with failure and not success. 

Edited October 6, 2020 by thronethinker

[GunnerBill]

1 minute ago, Billsfan1972 said:

Again I didn't know McD from Adam, but thought the offensive teardown in 2017 was unecessary, his conservative approach to that side of the ball and then his bad decision regarding Peterman cemented my views.

 

I think too (and seeing Herbert & Burrow as prime examples this year) that they had Allen on way too short a leash (and hamstrung with a lack of talent).

 

I am almost ready to forgive him......😜   

 

I agree the teardown was unnecessary. I thought it was the right decision myself, I think this organisation needed a hard reset but a reload was an option he and Beane did not HAVE to go about it that way. Yes - Peterman was a disaster and a very predictable one. I totally disagree about having Josh on too tight a leash. I don't see any evidence for that. It was just that Josh was raw. They weren't protective of him they didn't scale back the playbook, infact last year they might have cost themselves a couple of games.... possibly even the playoff game because they valued exposing Josh to things and thinking long term about his development where they could have played it more safe. He was hamstrung with a lack of talent. Especially in 2018, but to some extent last year too. Brandon Beane admitted that himself. He called the offense he put on the field in 2018 "a horrible job" and he is right, it was. He even said again after 2019 "I didn't do a good enough job."

 

It is the thing I love most about McDermott and Beane. They preach accountability and then they exhibit those behaviours. There are never excuses. They own and own up to their mistakes. They make them. We all do. It is a marked change from the previous regime where Whaley, Rex and ownership just did a whole lot of buck passing between themselves.

 

[Logic]

Yeah, it's weird.

I can't remember the person who said it, but I agree with the quote: Losing hurts more than winning feels good.

It's not that it doesn't feel good to see the Bills win, of course. It's just that when they LOSE, I fixate on it all week. I think back to each key moment in the loss and imagine how it could have gone differently. I feel a little sick to my stomach all week until about Saturday night, when I'm finally able to flip the page to the next game. But when they win? It just sort of feels like that's what was SUPPOSED to happen. I can't explain why that makes any sense, I can only say that that's how it feels to me.

Maybe it's because we've all seen this "process" (har har) play out, and when you put together a good front office, good coaching staff, good roster, and draft a good quarterback with the drive to be great...this IS what's supposed to happen. So maybe it's just seeing the fruition of what our eyes were telling us would happen. I don't know.

I, too, don't really know how to act or what to say. My wife, who doesn't care at all about football, asked me last night: "So...the Bills are 4-0. That's pretty great, right?!". I said something like "yeah. It's nice to win games. We'll see". Why the cautious optimism? Why the unwillingness to let my guard down and fully enjoy it? Maybe it's the multiple times we've been burned before. And yes, this time obviously feels different. Still. They don't give away trophies for 4-0. The Bills still haven't won a playoff game in a quarter-century. Maybe it's that part of me still doesn't think the NFL will get through a full season due to COVID. 

At some point, maybe it will set in that the Bills being good is "the new normal", but right now...it DOES feel weird. And losing still hurts far worse than winning feels good.

[Turk71]

I have no problem dealing with this. One game at a time, win them all.

 Win them looking good, win them ugly, just win.

[GunnerBill]

1 minute ago, Logic said:

At some point, maybe it will set in that the Bills being good is "the new normal", but right now...it DOES feel weird. And losing still hurts far worse than winning feels good.

 

You can't love to win until you really, really hate to lose.

[TigerJ]

Not really.  The one thing I hope is that, if Buffalo experiences some continued success, fans don't become smug and entitled like New England fans have been for years.  We can be better than that, I hope. 

[stuvian]

I love the success. I love the winning and I love the scoring on offense.

Yet part of me finds that this doesn't feel Billsy. I think our identity as a fan base is rooted in heartbreak.

This is the first year where I don't have that sense of deeply rooted dread from waiting for the Bills to find a way to lose a close game.

When I saw Josh complete that shotput pass in the Raider game while in the grasp, I said to myself "that's exactly the kind of play that would have ended in disaster and lost us a game in years past." 

It was a weird and wild completion for a first down. I knew our karma had changed them. 

That we're doing this in a pandemic season feels eerie like it will somehow be stolen from us by fate. Being in Canada and not being able to cross the border and enjoy what might be the best Bills football in my latter adulthood feels unjust. 

If we go for a deep playoff run it will be ironic not to be on hand for it even in a Buffalo bar

[BillnutinHouston]

Ever since last year's win in Pittsburgh, I take every opportunity I can to wear my Bills gear around town (live in Pitt now).  I love getting the bewildered look of Stillers fans who can't comprehend that anyone could possibly love another team.  

[Success]

This isn't even a flicker of a thought in my head.  We've been through as bad as almost any fan in sports history.  I can point to a few that are close - Cubs fans, Red Sox fans for almost a century.  In football, maybe the Lions.

 

2+ decades of my life - and I'm one of those homers who talked myself into every single team & season.  "Bill Walsh liked Edwards....this is the year!"  One of my kids asked me seriously at one point, "Aren't sports supposed to be fun?"

 

We can go undefeated between now and the day the moon's orbit decays, with 2 50-point blowout wins against the Pats every year, and it still won't be enough for me.  I am enjoying every single second.

[BUFFALOKIE]

2 minutes ago, Success said:

This isn't even a flicker of a thought in my head.  We've been through as bad as almost any fan in sports history.  I can point to a few that are close - Cubs fans, Red Sox fans for almost a century.  In football, maybe the Lions.

 

2+ decades of my life - and I'm one of those homers who talked myself into every single team & season.  "Bill Walsh liked Edwards....this is the year!"  One of my kids asked me seriously at one point, "Aren't sports supposed to be fun?"

 

We can go undefeated between now and the day the moon's orbit decays, with 2 50-point blowout wins against the Pats every year, and it still won't be enough for me.  I am enjoying every single second.

Is your name Julian?

[TheBrownBear]

Ummmmm……..no.

[Charles Romes]

I was sure that was it when Josh went out before the half. I told myself to be thankful for what he brought us in his three and a half games of brilliance. 

[Mark Vader]

Not at all, and I'll tell you why.

 

I liked what Sean McDermott was bringing to the team. It was disciplined but not heavy handed. Family more than team. It was a culture that as a fan was easy to love.

 

Then Beane joins the team along with other new members of the front office. Younger, hungry and ready to make the Buffalo Bills the team they want it to be.

 

To see what these two men have brought to the Bills, has shown us all how committed they are to being winners/champions.

 

Now they have not reached the ultimate pinnacle of success, but this is a completely different organization. Something we have not seen for quite a long time.

 

I have no problem dealing with how the Bills have been successful, because I trusted the process.

[Figster]

57 minutes ago, Mark Vader said:

Not at all, and I'll tell you why.

 

I liked what Sean McDermott was bringing to the team. It was disciplined but not heavy handed. Family more than team. It was a culture that as a fan was easy to love.

 

Then Beane joins the team along with other new members of the front office. Younger, hungry and ready to make the Buffalo Bills the team they want it to be.

 

To see what these two men have brought to the Bills, has shown us all how committed they are to being winners/champions.

 

Now they have not reached the ultimate pinnacle of success, but this is a completely different organization. Something we have not seen for quite a long time.

 

I have no problem dealing with how the Bills have been successful, because I trusted the process.

I remember how I felt when JK was in his prime. Despite losing 4 straight Superbowls I went into every game believing the Buffao Bills were the better team. It was partly the homer in me I know, but its the end product of what a winning culture feels like IMO. We had great coaching back then , great GM, great players. Great chemistry and brotherhood across the board (Oh, and last , but not least, a great QB.)

 

Sound familar?

 

I look forward to that feeling again Mark Vader...

Edited October 6, 2020 by Figster

[{::'KayCeeS::}]

Yes, I'm drinking more now than in past years to compensate.

 

The RPM's in my internal engine have been redlining, because I expect more.

 

 

 

 

[Billsatlastin2018]

I can't remember what it was like 30 years ago when the Bills last were a good team.  I don't remember how I felt or I behaved.  
 

I can!

 

Precisely, because I was a Season Tix holder from 1988-2008. 
I attended 2 AFC Championships, 2 SBs and numerous Playoff Games! 
I watched EVERY play of every game, either in person or in bars with my fellow fans, during those Glory Years.

I met Ralph C Wilson, alone with his daughter, at the All American Sports Bar- watching the 4p.m. Games, after we had all left Rich, following a Bills’ W!
I didn’t believe the Bills would win EVERY game- I expected them to!

 

And so when it turned, oh so terribly, brokenly, dysfunctionally, disastrously, for so long... forever and there were sooooo many here, grasping at faint straws, the Millenium was where I decided to draw the line in the sand!

 

Yes, I have seen greatness and that Clown Car debacle at OBD, sure as h was not it! GMs, HCs, stumblebum, incompetent players came and went!

 

Until, the McD era, building slowly and finally, finally, finally with the gunslinger stud replacing Jimbo at QB!

 

GO BILLS!

 

Shore up the D and let’s get to Tampa again... to dupe my first one... XXV.

[LB48]

11 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

I have to say I find myself not knowing how to deal with success.  

 

I can't remember what it was like 30 years ago when the Bills last were a good team.  I don't remember how I felt or I behaved.  

 

I've spent 30 years wanting the Bills to be good again, and the early indications are that it is happening.  They could collapse, of course, but I believe McDermott knows what he's doing, and he's building a serious winner.  But as the national media begin to notice the Bills, I don't know if I want or like the attention.  

 

On one of the games last night, one of the announcers said something like "Don't leave Buffalo out of the conversation.  Buffalo is for real."   Something.  I heard it and realized it was the first time I'd heard a genuinely positive comment about the Bills, a full-fledged statement that the Bills are among the best, since the early 90s.   It sounded so unusual, and I realized that I didn't know how to react to it.   A few years ago, I was thrilled just to hear an announcer say the Bills could be trouble for some teams.  But this was different.  This was a statement to the effect that the Bills could beat anybody.  I didn't know how to take it.  

 

Then I pick up my local paper, which covers the Jets, Giants and Pats, and there's an AP article about how there's an offensive explosion going on in the NFL, and the accompanying photo is an action shot of Josh Allen.   In the article, Jon Gruden says this:  "You watch Buffalo's offense, they can do a lot.  The quarterback can complete passes left-handed.  The guy's a beast standing back there.  They got a pretty good attack."

 

I find myself hoping friends won't ask me about the Bills, because I don't know what to say.  One thing I do say is, "I told you this was happening."   But then I quickly add, "they aren't good enough yet."  It's like I don't know how to deal with the success.  It was much easier when no one had any expectations for the Bills; losses weren't disappointing then.   But now if they lose, people will want to know what happened, or people will say, "see, same old Bills."  It all feels so strange. 

 

This is going to take some getting used to.  

I'm about your age - - the games are making me more nervous for some reason!

[Hapless Bills Fan]

11 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

I have to say I find myself not knowing how to deal with success.  

 

I can't remember what it was like 30 years ago when the Bills last were a good team.  I don't remember how I felt or I behaved.  

 

I've spent 30 years wanting the Bills to be good again, and the early indications are that it is happening.  They could collapse, of course, but I believe McDermott knows what he's doing, and he's building a serious winner.  But as the national media begin to notice the Bills, I don't know if I want or like the attention.  

 

On one of the games last night, one of the announcers said something like "Don't leave Buffalo out of the conversation.  Buffalo is for real."   Something.  I heard it and realized it was the first time I'd heard a genuinely positive comment about the Bills, a full-fledged statement that the Bills are among the best, since the early 90s.   It sounded so unusual, and I realized that I didn't know how to react to it.   A few years ago, I was thrilled just to hear an announcer say the Bills could be trouble for some teams.  But this was different.  This was a statement to the effect that the Bills could beat anybody.  I didn't know how to take it.  

 

Then I pick up my local paper, which covers the Jets, Giants and Pats, and there's an AP article about how there's an offensive explosion going on in the NFL, and the accompanying photo is an action shot of Josh Allen.   In the article, Jon Gruden says this:  "You watch Buffalo's offense, they can do a lot.  The quarterback can complete passes left-handed.  The guy's a beast standing back there.  They got a pretty good attack."

 

I find myself hoping friends won't ask me about the Bills, because I don't know what to say.  One thing I do say is, "I told you this was happening."   But then I quickly add, "they aren't good enough yet."  It's like I don't know how to deal with the success.  It was much easier when no one had any expectations for the Bills; losses weren't disappointing then.   But now if they lose, people will want to know what happened, or people will say, "see, same old Bills."  It all feels so strange. 

 

This is going to take some getting used to.  

 

I just channel my inner McCoach:  WWSMS?  (What would Sean McDermott say?)

 

I smile with a little nod and say "We've done some good things.  A lot of things to clean up. We just need to take it one game at a time."

When they complement a player, Josh Allen say, "Really thrilled with how he's come on.  Time will tell!"

 

It slips when the mention Stefon Diggs.  All I can say there is: "OH YEAH!"

 

Nothing like a platitude or 3 to give you confidence.

[machine gun kelly]

It’s a process.  Haven’t heard that in 5 minutes.  It’s fun all kidding aside.  I’m almost allowing myself to feel we’ll win this game, we’ll win that game.  TN will be a tough test, but I think we can do it.  I’m a Debbie downer on KC.  They are just ridiculously good.  Even Seattle I have a decent feeling on as their offense is crazy, but they have for once a weak defense.  
 

It was a good question Shaw.  Back then I thought we would win every week, but then again I was young and dumb.

[The Wiz]

apparently this works well for BBFS also!

 

 

[TBBills]

36 minutes ago, The Wiz said:

apparently this works well for BBFS also!

 

 

BBFS means something different to me....

[Tierlifer]

I think the OP makes some good points. Keep in mind there was ZERO social media so the only way to exchange opinions and viewpoints was with our coworkers or pals on Sunday’s. Information was limited to print and limited TV shows. Now that everything is accessible it makes this recent success feel a little different. 

[Punching Bag]

16 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

I have to say I find myself not knowing how to deal with success.  

 

I can't remember what it was like 30 years ago when the Bills last were a good team.  I don't remember how I felt or I behaved.  

 

I've spent 30 years wanting the Bills to be good again, and the early indications are that it is happening.  They could collapse, of course, but I believe McDermott knows what he's doing, and he's building a serious winner.  But as the national media begin to notice the Bills, I don't know if I want or like the attention.  

 

If there is a slippage most of us will know it is due to injury, some on special IR list, etc not coaching 

 

Others will come out from under their rocks and say "I told you so".

[Punching Bag]

3 hours ago, Tierlifer said:

I think the OP makes some good points. Keep in mind there was ZERO social media so the only way to exchange opinions and viewpoints was with our coworkers or pals on Sunday’s. Information was limited to print and limited TV shows. Now that everything is accessible it makes this recent success feel a little different. 

 

 I was on news boards during Bills Superbowl years.

[billsfan89]

Honestly it wasn't even that long ago the team was 6-10 in 2018 so enjoy the success. The team has earned it, the fanbase and ownership have earned it. Just take it one week at a time.