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2013 Bills Season Defining Moments


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I have a rule that not all seasons are created equal and a 6-10 season one season can be more exciting then the prior one. The 2013 season to me was vastly more fun the 2012.  Here we go, Bills 2013 Defining Moments:

 

Alright people we are into 2013 and I promise it’s going to start getting better... well kind of haha. 2013 off-season brought in Doug Marrone as the head coach with newly drafted QB EJ Manuel as the QB of the future. Mike Pettine was brought in as a defensive coordinator and actually used the resources the defense had with Dareus, Mario, Kyle Williams, and Jerry Hughes. Besides EJ on offense also added Robert Woods and Marquise Goodwin to go with Stevie Johnson. For the faults Marrone had I will say this, 2013 felt like a demarcation for the Bills coaching wise in terms of competency. From 2006-2012 it felt like coaching decisions were just so unbelievably awful, that Marrone being average was an improvement. Also this was the start of Bills Mafia in the press for fandom reasons. I believe this was the season a Kiko jersey was acquired in the parking lot for um... “adult favors” haha GOOD TIMES.

 

Week 1 New England Patriots, 23-21 loss: For a first year coach and QB they pushed the Pats to the brink holding NE back until the very end. The bills defense was superb throughout and the offense at times was fun. Up 21-20 the game swing with a minute twenty  to go when Brady found Amendola on 3rd and 9 from the Bills 39 yard line in heavy traffic for a 1st down. The Patriots got in FG range and won the game on last second kick. While a disappointment this game gave a lot of fans optimism things would improve.

 

Week 2 Carolina Panthers, 24-23 win: This game was the coming out party for the Bills defensive with 6 sacks including 4.5 by Mario Williams and the Legend of Kiko building as he had a sack and an interception. The defining moment though was EJ Manuel’s game winning drive capped off by a pass to a wide open Stevie Johnson in the end zone. As someone attending this game was amazing and the place was so loud when Stevie caught the ball.

 

Week 3 at New York Jets, 27-20 loss: After the previous weeks thrilling win Buffalo took on the Jets in a battle of two rookie QBs EJ Manuel and Geno Smith. After the tying the game at 20-20 the Bills kicked the ball back to NY. On 1st down Geno Smith found Santonio Holmes for a 69 yard TD as Bills CB Justin Rogers got burned badly again in the game. The Bills couldn’t respond after and fell to 1-2. Weird note viewing note this game as played at 4:25 pm which I honestly can’t tell you the last time we played a divisional game at 4 or later since then.

 

Week 4: Baltimore Ravens, 23-20 win: The Legend of Kiko hit full bloom as the Bills took out the defending SB champions in Buffalo. The Bills defense intercepted Flacco 5 times including one by my boy Jim Leonard (criminally underrated). But it was Kiko Alonso’s diving interception at mid field with 1:04 left that sealed the game for Buffalo. The Bills were 2-2 with a spunky young team.

 

Week 5: at Cleveland Browns TNF, 37-24 loss: In a wild game which was close to the end Buffalo and Cleveland each saw their starting QBs get knocked out with Brian Hoyer being lost for the season for the Browns and EJ Manuel missing 4 weeks. CJ Spiller had a wonderful TD run for 54 yards to tie the game and Fred Jackson’s 1 yd TD gave the Bills the lead at 24-17 midway in the 3rd. The game swung right after though as Brandon Weeden hit Josh Gordon for a 37 yd TD pass near the end of the 3rd quarter. Buffalo couldn’t respond as Jeff Tuel did well Jeff Tuel things and the Bills fell at the very end.

 

Week 6: Cincinnati Bengals, 27-24 OT loss: Coming into the game the Bengals we’re viewed as one of the AFCs better teams and the Bills would be lucky to stay with them. With EJ out Thad Lewis took the reigns and did a solid job in relief at QB for the Bills. The Bills rallied from 24-10 in the 4th quarter to force overtime after Thad Lewis found Goodwin on a 40 yd TD with around a minute to play. Unfortunately the game swung after a Bills 3 and out when Bengals returner Brandon Tate took a 29 yard return into Bills territory and FG range to win it a few plays later.

 

Week 7 at Miami Dolphins, 23-21 win: In a weird game the Bills pick 6’d Tannehill to start the game and got another INT again in the 1st half. Despite that the Dolphins led late 21-20 with the ball at midfield when Mario Williams sacked Tannehill forcing a fumble which the Bills recovered. The Bills won on a FG near the end of the game.

 

Week 8 at New Orleans Saints, 35-17 loss: At 3-4 the Bills were looking to get back to .500 against a strong Saints team. Unfortunately the Saints offense was too much as coming out of half up 21-10 the Saints extended their lead quickly on their first drive capped by a Drew Brees TD throw to Jimmy Graham for 13 yards. 

 

Week 9 Kansas City Chiefs, 23-13 loss: The Chiefs came in 9-0 on the season, but the Bills gave them all they could handle led by 7th round QB Jeff Tuel. Up 10-3 to start the 3rd quarter the Bills went down the field thanks to a 61 yd CJ spiller run. With an opportunity to go up two scores Jeff Tuel made the worst possible decision throwing an interception despite Stevie Johnson being wide open. The Chiefs took the interception 100 yds for a TD to tie the game. Buffalos defense still kept them in the game but by the Bills offense couldn’t get out of its own way fumbling in their own end which the Chiefs scored to go up 20-13. It was quintessential drought football.

 

Week 10 at Pittsburgh Steelers, 23–10 loss: with EJ Manuel back at QB there was hope maybe he could get the offense back on track. Down only 10-3 with 3:48 left in the 3rd and the Steelers about to kick a field goal from the Bills 11, Marcel Dareus false starts giving the Steelers a fresh set of downs. Pittsburgh scored a TD right after pretty much icing the game as the Bills offense was lifeless.

 

Week 11 New York Jets, 37-14 win: In a rematch of week 3 EJ Manuel had a great day going 20-28 for 245 yds and 2 TDs with heavy winds. The big moment would be his 34 yd TD throw to TJ Graham which literally halted 3/4s of the way in the air and went to Graham. Also this is the game some yahoo slid off the railing from the upper deck and crashed to the lower level. I was a section over and all the sudden the police in yellow coats were there. We thought fight, nope just some dumb*ss who fell.

 

Week 13 in Toronto vs Atlanta Falcons, 34-31 loss OT: This was the game which was the point of no return with the Toronto series. The attendance was awful and it was clear if the Bills were home Atlanta never would’ve mounted a comeback. Instead the Falcons tied the game 31-31 but EJ rallied the team downfield. The first of two game moments happens as EJ hits Stevie Johnson at the Atlanta 30 good to be in FG range EXCEPT Stevie fumbles and the Falcons recover. The game goes to overtime where the Bills again drive to mid field but Scott Chandler fumbles for the second time and effectively ended the game. A Falcons FG ended the game a few plays later.

 

Week 14 at Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 27-6 loss: Buffalo played like they had zero interest, each teams season was toast, and the 1st half had 4 INTs alone. The defining moment is Mike Glennon’s TD before the half to put Tampa up 24-3 effectively icing the game. This was a putrid game across the board.

 

Week 15 at Jacksonville Jaguars, 27-20 win: If you believed in EJ Manuel this was part of a stretch of games once he returned where he had some nice moments and you could buy him possibly being the guy. Against the Jags EJ had 3 TDs and a solid game. Tied 20-20 in the 4th EJ led a nice drive 65 yards and capped it with a 1 yard Frank Summers TD to give the Bills the lead for good. In this game EJs knee got hit again and while initially it was said to be not much, this ended up being his final game of the year.

 

Week 16 Miami Dolphins, 19-0 win: Fun fact the Dolphins would’ve made the playoffs if they could’ve just beat the Bills once this season. Instead with Thad Lewis at QB and the defense playing out of its mind the Bills pummeled the Dolphins with a 19-0 victory. Capping this was Kyle Williams sack up 13-0 with 10 mins to go in the fourth that took Ryan Tannehill out of the game (Bills 7th sack of the game).

 

Week 17 at New England Patriots, 34-20 loss: Capping the season was a spirited soggy match against the Patriots. Down 27-17 with 5:44 to go Thad Lewis failed to complete a 4th and 2 pass to TJ Graham and the Bills essentially ran out of time and chances at that point.

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18 minutes ago, corta765 said:

Week 2 Carolina Panthers, 24-23 win: This game was the coming out party for the Bills defensive with 6 sacks including 4.5 by Mario Williams and the Legend of Kiko building as he had a sack and an interception. The defining moment though was EJ Manuel’s game winning drive capped off by a pass to a wide open Stevie Johnson in the end zone. As someone attending this game was amazing and the place was so loud when Stevie caught the ball.

This is my pic on TBD.

It was my 44 th birthday and my Son’s first and only game at the Ralph.

A great day and a great weekend.

I really thought EJ had something after this game.

Ron Rivera screwed the pooch by not going for it on 4/1 with Tolbert absolutely killing us. 
We were in the upper deck above the corner where Stevie caught the winning TD. What an ending!!!

Edited by Buffalo Boy
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I was pretty optimistic about EJ after his rookie season. Up til that injury in the Cleveland game, he was kind of showing something, as much polish as he still needed. I know Whaley has (kind of) said that he wasn't really sold on EJ, for a guy they spent a high draft pick on, I never felt like he got a real fair chance...

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14 hours ago, Buftex said:

I was pretty optimistic about EJ after his rookie season. Up til that injury in the Cleveland game, he was kind of showing something, as much polish as he still needed. I know Whaley has (kind of) said that he wasn't really sold on EJ, for a guy they spent a high draft pick on, I never felt like he got a real fair chance...


Agreed. I felt after that either EJ or the coaching staff got gun shy about running him. But even so from the second Jets game on there was a decent reason to believe he could be a competent starter

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So much fun reading these with all the memories coming back to me. I can't believe I don't remember anything about the week 1 loss to the Patriots. I thought a last second FG to lose to the Patriots would've been seared into my memory. I remember every gory detail of the 2009 season opener against them

 

Week 7 Dolphins game was bonkers

 

 

If you go to 2:17 in the clip Mario completely destroys Tannehill. Dunno how Tannehill got up and finished the game 

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Lol, Was that the season that Fred Jackson had that run against the Bears and just embarrassed their S? Think it was but not 100% sure. Anyways, I don't consider anything in that season or any other drought years a defining moment myself.

 

But that Fred Jackson run surely got my blood pumping that day...

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4 minutes ago, Patrick_Duffy said:

Lol, Was that the season that Fred Jackson had that run against the Bears and just embarrassed their S? Think it was but not 100% sure. Anyways, I don't consider anything in that season or any other drought years a defining moment myself.

 

But that Fred Jackson run surely got my blood pumping that day...

 

2014 which I cannot wait to write about because he brutalized Chris Conte on the run in OT to seal the game. It probably was the best opener they've had in the last decade or so.

17 minutes ago, Bangarang said:

What the heck is going on here?

 

I took on the epic task of going season by season and game by game from 2010 on with the defining moment of that game. It started rough but now that we are nearing 2014 on the seasons are wayyyy more fun. 2012 was painful to recap. Overall its been fun to talk about memories good and bad from these seasons especially with nothing exciting happening until August.

Edited by corta765
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16 hours ago, corta765 said:

 

 

Week 6: Cincinnati Bengals, 27-24 OT loss: Coming into the game the Bengals we’re viewed as one of the AFCs better teams and the Bills would be lucky to stay with them. With EJ out Thad Lewis took the reigns and did a solid job in relief at QB for the Bills. The Bills rallied from 24-10 in the 4th quarter to force overtime after Thad Lewis found Goodwin on a 40 yd TD with around a minute to play. Unfortunately the game swung after a Bills 3 and out when Bengals returner Brandon Tate took a 29 yard return into Bills territory and FG range to win it a few plays later.

 

 

This was the last game I attended to in person, Thad Lewis had his moments and this was quite a thrilling game as we came back late and of course held them in OT but then Thad struggled as did our ST coverage to cost us the game. 

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18 hours ago, Buftex said:

I was pretty optimistic about EJ after his rookie season. Up til that injury in the Cleveland game, he was kind of showing something, as much polish as he still needed. I know Whaley has (kind of) said that he wasn't really sold on EJ, for a guy they spent a high draft pick on, I never felt like he got a real fair chance...

Agree with everything you said especially the last part...I don't think EJ's ceiling was particularly high and he wasn't a franchise QB, but he seemed like a good kid who was willing to work hard and had most of the physical tools you would want.

 

In a parallel universe, I think he could have been one of the more reasonable back up QBs in the league and it's hard to believe that guys like Nate Peterman have a job over him. 

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20 hours ago, corta765 said:

 

Week 16 Miami Dolphins, 19-0 win: Fun fact the Dolphins would’ve made the playoffs if they could’ve just beat the Bills once this season. Instead with Thad Lewis at QB and the defense playing out of its mind the Bills pummeled the Dolphins with a 19-0 victory. Capping this was Kyle Williams sack up 13-0 with 10 mins to go in the fourth that took Ryan Tannehill out of the game (Bills 7th sack of the game).

 

Week 17 at New England Patriots, 34-20 loss: Capping the season was a spirited soggy match against the Patriots. Down 27-17 with 5:44 to go Thad Lewis failed to complete a 4th and 2 pass to TJ Graham and the Bills essentially ran out of time and chances at that point.

I still recall one of those weeks Doug Marrone got asked who the quarterback would be and he said 100% it'll be E.J.  Liar.  lol 

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3 hours ago, corta765 said:

 

2014 which I cannot wait to write about because he brutalized Chris Conte on the run in OT to seal the game. It probably was the best opener they've had in the last decade or so.

"I don't know what happened on that s---. The fat guy got a pick."

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4 minutes ago, Another Fan said:

I still recall one of those weeks Doug Marrone got asked who the quarterback would be and he said 100% it'll be E.J.  Liar.  lol 

I believe against NE is when he said oh yea EJ is starting... and then he didn’t hahaha 

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