Why do some Bills fans refuse to have confidence in this team?

[Lane Meyer K12]

It is shell shock from all the years of shame and embarrassment. It is the disbelief that this team is actually this good and the rug won't be pulled.

Advice to people that hold onto this fear: enjoy the ride.

Like all things in life, what goes up must come down and vice versa.

This team was on a tremendous downtrend for well over a decade and it appears the uptrend is now in place.

Enjoy it. Go Bills! 

[mjt328]

For me, it's a constant battle with my PTSD from the 90s.

 

Logically, I know the Bills are the best team in the NFL.

Logically, I know a quarterback as great as Josh Allen is almost certain to get a ring eventually.

Logically, I know failure from 25-30 years ago has nothing to do with this franchise today.

Logically, I don't believe in sports curses or that certain teams having more bad luck.

 

But at the same time, I've been watching this team since the late 1980s.  I've seen some incredible teams and fantastic players come through, and still have NEVER had our season end on a positive note.  All I can remember is a bunch of heartbreak (1990s), sandwiching a never-ending playoff-less streak of terribleness and mediocrity (2000s and most of the 2010s), and finally now three more seasons of heartbreak (2019-2021).  Football is also the only sport I really care about, so this is really all I've experienced in my life.

 

On 10/26/2022 at 8:48 PM, SACTOBILLSFAN said:

I think I can answer this one...

 

I grew up a Bills, Sabres and Cubs fan thanks to my parents bringing me up in a sports abuse household. My job is basically analytics, probabillities and market projections and I even do my own sports projections (for entertainment purposes only since I live in Texas). But, by 2016 I'd never seen ANY of my favorite teams win anything. The closest thing I had was the 4 Super Bowl losses and No Goal as the pinnacle of my fandom. 

 

However, in 2016 my numbers, Vegas betting lines and the overall mood of the baseball world was the Cubs were a juggernaut and odds on favorites to win the World Series, even though the probability was about 17%. So, watching that team, I missed maybe 2 games that year, was almost painful because of the weight of expectations that I'd never ever had before in my life and I had no idea how to handle it. I scrutinized every little thing that would go wrong, even though there was nothing that pointed to that team being anything but dominant. My whole world is numbers and the logic of math, and I was the most illogical person ever during that season, and the playoff were even worse. When the Cubs finally won that World Series it completely changed how I watched sports. I still get nervous and anxious, especially about the Bills, but it's not crippling like it was in 16, which is ridiculous to even thing about since I watched them 180 times. 

 

What I think is happening with Bills doom boners is that we've never had a team like this. The Kelly teams were never this good, I don't care what anyone says, it's just the truth. The fans are having a hard time not expecting the worst, especially because reaching the playoffs is almost a foregone conclusion, which is all many of us wanted to see and looked forward to every year until we got there. The weight of the expectations and the idea that winning the Super Bowl isn't easy and everything we've had let us down as fans the past 30 years makes a lot of people really anxious. I mean I still get anxious about Josh Allen even though I know if he's not the best QB in football he's the second best. 

 

If this team wins the Super Bowl I really hope the fans stay awesome, because that title turned 90% of Cubs fans (real fans not the people who started watching in October) into completely insufferable #######s. 

 

PS - Got the Bills at 30.5% to win the Super Bowl at this point in the year and Chiefs are 2nd at 16.4%. 

 

Tremendous post.

 

[strive_for_five_guy]

37 minutes ago, Greg S said:

 

If the Bills win the Super Bowl, then the celebration/party in WNY will be legendary. I would make the 6 hour drive from NJ just to be there. I would imagine Bills fans all around the world will try to get to WNY just to be a part of it.

No doubt about that for 99% of Bills fans.  1% will still see the glass half empty, no matter what.

[Greg S]

6 minutes ago, strive_for_five_guy said:

No doubt about that for 99% of Bills fans.  1% will still see the glass half empty, no matter what.

 

If anyone still sees the glass half empty after a Bills Super Bowl win then they should give up on sports. If fans can't be happy after a championship, then what's the point

[NORWOODS FOOT]

Fear of being hurt, letdown, and disappointed.

[muppy]

On 10/26/2022 at 7:11 PM, billsfan1959 said:

I have full confidence in this team

I mean come on.  I've followed this team since the 70's and if there was ever a Bills team to have confidence in, It's THIS team. All the battered fan syndrome stuff needs to be kicked to the curb.  I urge fans to Fight for their mental health and choose to believe what you SEE not what you Remember. 

 

Go Bills!~!~!!!

[BIGFOOTspaceman]

On 10/26/2022 at 9:21 PM, BillsFan619 said:

I’ve been holding off on this post for a couple days but this facetious Twitter post got me off the fence. I know it’s hard to tell tone in a post so please know this isn’t an angry or demeaning rant, it’s more of a curious rant.

 

Why do some fans choose not to have confidence in this team?

 

We’re the best team in the league and there’s still posts about “remember the Jags game”, “any given Sunday”, “this will be the game this team gets out of their  slump”, “we don’t have tape on this rookie QB so he could torch us”, etc., etc., etc.

 

Or, there may be posts that pick out one strength from the opposing team or one weakness from us and they’re worried about that instead of choosing to be confident in the nine strengths we do have going into that game.

 

I’ll only mention this one thing about the game day posts because many times that’s when the worst comes out. There’s posts on there where we’ll have a rough start or a stalled drive or two and people are calling for the coaches’ heads.

I think most fans get that we’re not gonna win every game and that the jags game or any given Sunday game could happen once or possibly twice a year. Why not go into some games (I say some games because I get being nervous going into a game like the Chiefs, Ravens or another good team but against teams like the Steelers, Jets or another middling team?) confident and then if there is an “any given Sunday” or “Jags game” outcome then just chalk it up as such. We’re at a level where we can enjoy this team without having to worry about every negative, weakness or game.

 

We get critique but calling for the coach’s head when he’s the winningest coach in our history?

 

-We’re the best team in football (we know there may be a game or two where it’s any given Sunday)

-Someone in another post mentioned this already but we’ve beaten the #2 seed, #3 seed and #4 in our conference

-JA is one of the best, if not the best, QBs in the league right now

-We have the #1 defense and a top-three offense

-Our point differential is the highest in the league and the next team isn’t even close

-The average points we’ve beaten the Rams, the Titans, the Ravens and the Chiefs by is 15 points

-We’ve blown people out and have won close games

-We’re the #1 seed in the AFC, and again, the best team in football

 

What more do you need to be confident going into games? If you’re one of these fans, I’d love to hear from you. Do you just find something to be nervous about, do you just not have enough confidence in this team, are you just trolling or…?

 

I’d love to hear from a lot of Bills Mafia as well. Curious rant over.

 

Go Bills!

 

See Jets game

[BigDingus]

This thread cursed us 🤣

[That's No Moon]

Because this team repeatedly shows us what they are. Soft and mentally weak. People try to tamp that down and shout down people who say it but they keep doing it. Over and over and over again.

Edited November 14, 2022 by That's No Moon

[harryS]

8 minutes ago, BigDingus said:

This thread cursed us 🤣

 

this and many other threads.  i never want to hear that this team is one of the best NFL teams of all time again, lol.

 

we *will* regroup and play better, though.  but let's keep it on an even keel when that happens.

[Lionel Hutz]

 

[What a Tuel]

On 10/28/2022 at 8:46 AM, strive_for_five_guy said:

We win the Super Bowl, and some will complain that we should have won one earlier, or that this one means nothing until we win a few more, etc.

 

I guarantee that a certain of sub set of posters would start threads that say "Should we replace McDermott? Statistics show he is probably 1 and done" or some dumb crap like that.

[RocCityRoller]

LOL this whole thing aged well.

 

The tone of a lot of media, fans and even <gasp> a few here had shifted from confidence to arrogance.

 

Confidence - Genuine belief your team can beat any team, happy when it does

Arrogance - Expect your team to win every game, miserable when it does not

[What a Tuel]

5 minutes ago, That&#x27;s No Moon said:

Because this team repeatedly shows us what they are. Soft and mentally weak. People try to tamp that down and shout down people who say it but they keep doing it. Over and over and over again.

 

Every team has tough losses. What team last year did not have a couple of them?

 

All 4 of the below teams made the AFC/NFC Championship games, and half of them made the Super Bowl.

 

I think the Bills fan base is demonstrating that we are soft and mentally weak with every loss. Does losing suck? Yes, but the natural tendancy to tear down the team, org, anyone associated after every loss is disturbing.

 

KC? Lost 5 games:

 

To recap that is:

• 1st seed Titans (Blowout)
• 3rd seed Bills (Blowout)
• 4th seed Bengals
• division rival Chargers
• Heart breaker loss to Ravens

 

Cincinatti? Lost 7 games:

 

To recap that is: 

• 1st seed Packers
• Blown out by Chargers
• Heartbreaker loss to 49ers
• Bad Bears
• Bad Jets
• Blown out by division rival Browns

 

Rams? Lost 5 games

 

To recap that is:

• 1st seed Titans
• Blown out by 49ers
• 1st seed Packers (Blowout)
• Heartbreaker loss to 49ers
• Division loss to Cardinals

49ers? Lost 7 games:

 

To recap that is:

• 1st seed Packers (Heartbreaker loss)
• Divisional opponent Seahawks
• Divisional opponent Cardinals
• Blowout by Colts
• Divisional opponent Cardinals
• Divisional Opponent Seahawks
• 1st seed Titans

 

 

[VaMilBill]

BBFS is very real and for good reason. See losses like this past weekend and you know why

[That's No Moon]

8 minutes ago, What a Tuel said:

 

Every team has tough losses. What team last year did not have a couple of them?

 

All 4 of the below teams made the AFC/NFC Championship games, and half of them made the Super Bowl.

 

I think the Bills fan base is demonstrating that we are soft and mentally weak with every loss. Does losing suck? Yes, but the natural tendancy to tear down the team, org, anyone associated after every loss is disturbing.

 

KC? Lost 5 games:

 

To recap that is:

• 1st seed Titans (Blowout)
• 3rd seed Bills (Blowout)
• 4th seed Bengals
• division rival Chargers
• Heart breaker loss to Ravens

 

Cincinatti? Lost 7 games:

 

To recap that is: 

• 1st seed Packers
• Blown out by Chargers
• Heartbreaker loss to 49ers
• Bad Bears
• Bad Jets
• Blown out by division rival Browns

 

Rams? Lost 5 games

 

To recap that is:

• 1st seed Titans
• Blown out by 49ers
• 1st seed Packers (Blowout)
• Heartbreaker loss to 49ers
• Division loss to Cardinals

49ers? Lost 7 games:

 

To recap that is:

• 1st seed Packers (Heartbreaker loss)
• Divisional opponent Seahawks
• Divisional opponent Cardinals
• Blowout by Colts
• Divisional opponent Cardinals
• Divisional Opponent Seahawks
• 1st seed Titans

 

 

2-9 in their last 11 one score games. And these aren't just flip a coin, dude hit a 64 yard FG losses. Many of these are crapping your pants with dumb mistakes or blowing leads types of losses.

[boater]

Quote

Why do some Bills fans refuse to have confidence in this team?

Simple. Because they are sitting in 3rd place in the division. Sheesh, some things are just self-evident.

 

Edit: and one  more loss from last place.

Edited November 14, 2022 by boater

[Marcus Aurelius]

Look man, I have been  a BILLS FAN since the 60s ... will always be one. But have confidence in them? 

I lost that when the Bills traded away Daryle Lamonica.

 

 

[What a Tuel]

1 minute ago, That&#x27;s No Moon said:

2-9 in their last 11 one score games. And these aren't just flip a coin, dude hit a 64 yard FG losses. Many of these are crapping your pants with dumb mistakes or blowing leads types of losses.

 

Why 11 games? 8-11 since 2020.

 

What are we in >1 score games? Oh just 25-2 since 2020.

 

Get a grip. Every team loses games every year since 1972.

 

 

[Sharky7337]

This thread needs to be burned to the ground epic jinx status - where did this smart a** go ?

 

YOU UNDERSTAND OUR PAIN NOW?!

[Johnnycage46]

Just now, What a Tuel said:

 

Why 11 games? 8-11 since 2020.

 

What are we in >1 score games? Oh just 25-2 since 2020.

 

Get a grip. Every team loses games every year since 1972.

 

 

 

Just out of curiosity, how do you see the team finishing the season?  Obviously anything can happen, but just interested to see how optimistic fans think the rest of the season goes.

[That's No Moon]

1 minute ago, What a Tuel said:

 

Why 11 games? 8-11 since 2020.

 

What are we in >1 score games? Oh just 25-2 since 2020.

11 games because it encompasses the last two seasons.

 

Thank you for pointing out how much of a front running team this is. You want to beat the Bills? Challenge them and keep it close because more often than not they'll find a way to gift wrap it for you if you can do that. They buckle. Like a belt.

[JaCrispy]

Bills history is one long choke job….that’s why…👍

 

Even if they went undefeated an entire season, I STILL would not have confidence in the team- believing they would find a way to blow it in the playoffs…

 

In 2020, when the Bills were 13-3, and Allen had his breakout season, I said to friends that I wouldn’t be surprised if he went down in history as the greatest QB to never win a Super Bowl…That’s how much confidence I have in this franchise…😉

[Eastport bills]

How can you have real confidence in a team with our young secondary and a DC that doesn’t adjust to weaknesses that are being exploited. Josh’s problems in the last 2 games will be corrected but that doesn’t explain Dorsey’s reliance on Josh creating plays with 37to 40 passes and running when receivers are covered. This offense is not sustainable without establishing a run threat that slows down the rush. When is Hines going to get touches? How effective  will White be, when he comes back? With all these questions how can a fan be really confident?

[Westside]

50 minutes ago, RocCityRoller said:

LOL this whole thing aged well.

 

The tone of a lot of media, fans and even <gasp> a few here had shifted from confidence to arrogance.

 

Confidence - Genuine belief your team can beat any team, happy when it does

Arrogance - Expect your team to win every game, miserable when it does not

I personally think some posters wait for a loss or two so they can complain about how much this team sucks. Some people aren’t happy unless they’re complaining. Sad 

[without a drought]

The mafia is fragile.

[What a Tuel]

42 minutes ago, Johnnycage46 said:

 

Just out of curiosity, how do you see the team finishing the season?  Obviously anything can happen, but just interested to see how optimistic fans think the rest of the season goes.

 

I see the team winning the division and competing in the playoffs. From there who knows. 

 

The AFC East plays each other a whopping 7 times still this season. That is still 7 more losses to attribute. 

 

I absolutely do not think it is beyond the realm of possibility that we overcome the 2, and 3 pt deficits we had against the Jets and Dolphins despite the hopelessness of some people on here.

40 minutes ago, That's No Moon said:

11 games because it encompasses the last two seasons.

 

Thank you for pointing out how much of a front running team this is. You want to beat the Bills? Challenge them and keep it close because more often than not they'll find a way to gift wrap it for you if you can do that. They buckle. Like a belt.

 

Ah so we want to count prior years, but only the ones that suit our point. Gotcha. 

 

I also don't think your 2nd point is the slam against the Bills you think it is....

Edited November 15, 2022 by What a Tuel

[CoudyBills]

The Bills is the Bills

[BillsFan619]

2 hours ago, Sharky7337 said:

This thread needs to be burned to the ground epic jinx status - where did this smart a** go ?

 

YOU UNDERSTAND OUR PAIN NOW?!

Still here, bro.

 

I’ve lived through the 90s SB disappointments, the Music City Miracle, the drought, the Hail Murray, the Jags game, 13 seconds and other brutal losses.

 

So yes, I understand the pain. It doesn’t mean you can’t have confidence in this team and worry about every opponent like every opponent is the ‘07 Pats.

 

As someone else has said, the combined record of the three teams we’ve lost to (by a total of eight points) is 23-7. And as someone else pointed out, every team that reached the championship games last year had a bad stretch of the season last year.

 

Go Bills!

[QCity]

8 minutes ago, BillsFan619 said:

 

It doesn’t mean you can’t have confidence in this team 

 

 

 

It's easy to conflate confidence with blind fandom. There are people that are confident they will win the lottery this week.

[SoCal Deek]

I’ve been waiting almost sixty years!
Not sixteen.

Not six.

SIXTY!

I’ll complain for a day or two and then be right back with my fandom to the grindstone on Sunday. 

[Clyde Smith]

This is probably the last loss of the season. Pull yer draws out ya Crack and go with the flow. It's going to be a roller coaster ride. Strap in and enjoy the ride. Too many Chicken Littles on here panicking and pointing fingers, chill tf out. 😉

[buffblue]

On 10/26/2022 at 9:36 PM, BullBuchanan said:

Confidence to arrogance is a fine line. There really isn't very much at all that separates the 4th best team in the league from the 4th worst and among the best, there's even less.

Yea, we've run roughshod over a bunch of teams in September and October, great. We've been doing that for 3 years. I'm at the point where even though I enjoy the journey I know none of these games matter. My only hope is that they get out of it healthy. We already know they're going to the playoffs. The whole season is based on what this team does in January and February. The rest is meaningless in the grand scheme.

Unfortunately, this team has made several unforced errors when all the chips were down, and 45% of the time, the #1 seed doesn't win the Super Bowl. The saying "any given sunday" is very, very real. Ask the 2011 Giants. I think a healthy amount of skepticism is warranted.

This was the post I needed to read. Well done sir

[BillsFan619]

11 minutes ago, QCity said:

 

It's easy to conflate confidence with blind fandom. There are people that are confident they will win the lottery this week.

Where did I ever say blind fandom or even allude to that?

 

I never said that we were above criticism or that we wouldn’t lose any more games.
 

Did you read my original post?

[CoudyBills]

10 minutes ago, Clyde Smith said:

This is probably the last loss of the season. Pull yer draws out ya Crack and go with the flow. It's going to be a roller coaster ride. Strap in and enjoy the ride. Too many Chicken Littles on here panicking and pointing fingers, chill tf out. 😉

How can this be the last loss of the season, and a roller coaster ride at the same time?

[SoCal Deek]

11 minutes ago, Clyde Smith said:

This is probably the last loss of the season. Pull yer draws out ya Crack and go with the flow. It's going to be a roller coaster ride. Strap in and enjoy the ride. Too many Chicken Littles on here panicking and pointing fingers, chill tf out. 😉

So you’re saying we have a chance? Nice! 

[Clyde Smith]

1 minute ago, CoudyBills said:

How can this be the last loss of the season, and a roller coaster ride at the same time?

Close games

[ArtVandalay]

Because we continue to blow games in the most inconceivable ways. We invent ways to lose. Poorly coached team.

Edited November 15, 2022 by ArtVandalay

[QCity]

11 minutes ago, BillsFan619 said:

Where did I ever say blind fandom or even allude to that?

 

I never said that we were above criticism or that we wouldn’t lose any more games.
 

Did you read my original post?

 

Where did I ever say you did?

 

I need you to understand that just because someone is critical of an aspect of the team, it doesn't necessarily mean they lack confidence in the team.

[Nextmanup]

3 hours ago, What a Tuel said:

 

Why 11 games? 8-11 since 2020.

 

What are we in >1 score games? Oh just 25-2 since 2020.

 

Get a grip. Every team loses games every year since 1972.

 

 

I think you're missing the significance of the "1 score" statistic.

 

Like, entirely.