I thought 10-3 would feel better...

[EasternOHBillsFan]

I feel the same exact way, but these constant injuries have devastated our lineup and despite that we are still winning games and that to me means we are stronger for it as we get more players back 100%.

 

HOWEVER...

 

Dorsey needs to stop giving up on the damn running game!!!! I hate it that we crank out large YPC runs and then go pass, pass, pass... Dorsey may be the one that costs us a championship because he gives up on the run too soon. That is my only major complaint for a team that has done one hell of a great job getting to 10-3.

[Franco_92]

31 minutes ago, Donuts and Doritos said:

D. Looks Fantastic. Offense doesn't. 2 TDs, tons of dropped passes, O-Line either allowing pressures or holding, not executing at an elite level. They don't look scary enough on O to contend & that is the difference. Sure they got by Jets, but how are you feeling with that performance on offense against Phins, Cinci or KC? It's not good enough (Davis, Mackenzie, Knox, whole O-line w/ Dawkins getting honorable mention)

 

The Bills' week 17 performance against the Falcons would have lost them the wild card game against the Pats. But the Bills didn't have that performance against the Pats. 

 

 

[JAMIEBUF12]

I love being 10-3.The Jets had a awesome draft and are a very tough team.To be where we are with the injuries our squad has had this season is amazing…We lost 3 hames two by a field goal and one by a point.that is 7 points total…i know the vikings game i was screaming at the tv to kick the field goal.

[AlfaBill]

I agree. It’s great where the team is for sure and hopefully the offence will turn it on and blaze through the playoffs on route to a SB win BUT the O seems so bad. 

[newcam2012]

1 hour ago, Inigo Montoya said:

After beating the Jets today the Bills are 10-3 and in the lead in the AFCE and sitting as the #1 seed in the AFC.  If you had taken a poll here at the start of the season and asked if we would take those stats heading into week 15 of the season, I think it would be 80/20 in favor of it.

 

Recognizing the Bills are sitting in a very good position right now, why does it feel like this has been a really rough season?

 

Maybe it's the constant parade of injuries?  The bad loses to the Phins, Jets, and Vikings?  Maybe the fact that we haven't seen the Bills' offense find that gear that they ended the season in last season?  Or maybe it's because the Bills have left themselves no room for error going forward if they want to win the division and the #1 seed?

 

I'm not complaining about where the BIlls are sitting at right now, I just imagined 10-3 would feel a whole lot better than it does. 

 

 

Well said. 

[BuffaloBillsGospel2014]

We're the #1 seed in AFC right now even after weathering a storm of injuries to many of our pro bowlers and losing potentially Micah Hyde/Von Miller for the season. This team has heart, guts, mental toughness, great coaches and the best QB in the NFL. I must be high on the kool aid or something but I think this is a really special team, if we can continue to come out of these games injury free then I believe no team can stop us imo.

[muppy]

44 minutes ago, NUT said:

This team has a chance, but they are just not playing all that well.

this makes me understand the OP better actually. IMO It is precisely This that makes our record seem less than shiny. We want to feel Invincible/ dominant  right? 

 

For me I've been on the bandwagon since 1973 I  think with age comes wisdom. I remember how losing felt. I'll take Ugly wins until the wheels fall off.

 

Which is not a thought I choose to entertain mind you. In fact quite the opposite.  We are in for a fun ride. 🙂 Steady as she goes.

 

[Shaw66]

1 hour ago, Inigo Montoya said:

After beating the Jets today the Bills are 10-3 and in the lead in the AFCE and sitting as the #1 seed in the AFC.  If you had taken a poll here at the start of the season and asked if we would take those stats heading into week 15 of the season, I think it would be 80/20 in favor of it.

 

Recognizing the Bills are sitting in a very good position right now, why does it feel like this has been a really rough season?

 

Maybe it's the constant parade of injuries?  The bad loses to the Phins, Jets, and Vikings?  Maybe the fact that we haven't seen the Bills' offense find that gear that they ended the season in last season?  Or maybe it's because the Bills have left themselves no room for error going forward if they want to win the division and the #1 seed?

 

I'm not complaining about where the BIlls are sitting at right now, I just imagined 10-3 would feel a whole lot better than it does. 

 

 

Good stuff.  I share your pain.  

 

I think fans have unrealistic expectations.   We imagine somehow running away from the field and sitting out there alone.  Well, the Eagles have done that, sort of, and I doubt Eagles fans feel secure.  I mean, they may feel good about home field and the bye, but if they're thinking clearly, they're worried about every opponent and they're worried about the continued performance of plenty of players.  The league is just so competitive, if a fan is comfortable, he probably isn't thinking clearly.  

[Billsfanatic8989]

Chiefs didn't look great today either. I bet their fans aren't in a panic. KC has looked shaky more than a few times this year.

 

The NFL is full of parity. I mean the Texans nearly pulled off the upset of the year today. KC barely beat a wretched Denver team. Philly barely beat Hou & Indy. Minnesota lost to Detroit. Baltimore barely beat two wretched teams in a row.

 

Phi, KC, Buffalo, Baltimore, Dallas, & Minnesota are not suddenly average teams. It's just that the best team in the league is no longer leaps and bounds more talented than the worst team.

 

If you expect the Bills to just blowout every single opponent, no, it just won't happen.

 

The Bills do have issues. I acknowledge that. With Allen, every year is SB or bust. The same can be said for KC, GB, and others.

Edited December 12, 2022 by Billsfanatic8989

[Wraith]

51 minutes ago, Big Turk said:

 

You should watch more football then. Pretty much every team has games like that.

 

KC almost choked against Denver after being up 27-0 and held on for dear life to win 34-28.

I swear most of the people complaining don’t watch other teams/games. There are no style points. They also don’t seem to realize how much better the team is this year versus last year. They have a much harder schedule this year and are 3 (!!!) games ahead of last year at this point.  They were 7-6 on December 19 last year! They have a ton of quality wins this year. 

[Luka]

2 hours ago, Inigo Montoya said:

After beating the Jets today the Bills are 10-3 and in the lead in the AFCE and sitting as the #1 seed in the AFC.  If you had taken a poll here at the start of the season and asked if we would take those stats heading into week 15 of the season, I think it would be 80/20 in favor of it.

 

Recognizing the Bills are sitting in a very good position right now, why does it feel like this has been a really rough season?

 

Maybe it's the constant parade of injuries?  The bad loses to the Phins, Jets, and Vikings?  Maybe the fact that we haven't seen the Bills' offense find that gear that they ended the season in last season?  Or maybe it's because the Bills have left themselves no room for error going forward if they want to win the division and the #1 seed?

 

I'm not complaining about where the BIlls are sitting at right now, I just imagined 10-3 would feel a whole lot better than it does. 

 

 

 

It's been a brutal six game stretch, started by 2 straight losses, one of which was well in hand and just an awful loss, much like the Chiefs playoff game. It killed Josh's confidence and I feel like he's lost trust in his team mates and they haven't done much to earn it back. A stretch of games plagued with poor defense, drops and crucial penalties. The play calling on offense has been questionable at times, the 3rd down defense has been back braking. 

 

What we are witnessing is team that is all-time great, struggling. Still great enough to be 10-3 but clearly not up to their standards set in 2020 and 2021. Beane and McDermott screwed the pooch this offseason. The best QB in the league should be given the best offensive line in the league, or there should an honest attempt to provide that. The Bills brass has ignored it outside of signing Saffold this past offseason and Morse the year before. We are weak at the line of scrimmage on the offensive side of the ball. Teams that can not assert themselves in the trenches typically are not 10-3.

[Ya Digg?]

5 minutes ago, Wraith said:

I swear most of the people complaining don’t watch other teams/games. There are no style points. They also don’t seem to realize how much better the team is this year versus last year. They have a much harder schedule this year and are 3 (!!!) games ahead of last year at this point.  They were 7-6 on December 19 last year! They have a ton of quality wins this year. 

There was also lots of complaining after the Thanksgiving because it was against the Lions, but the Lions are 5-1 in their last 6 and very soundly beat the Vikings today…I will take the least impressive Super Bowl champ over the best non Super Bowl champ any day 

[Donuts and Doritos]

38 minutes ago, arcane said:

The Bills' week 17 performance against the Falcons would have lost them the wild card game against the Pats. But the Bills didn't have that performance against the Pats. 

 

 

 

Played the Falcons week 16. & They didn't make the championship game let alone the SB. So that analogy isn't very comforting. 

[ChasBB]

10-3 feels pretty damn good to me.  Just win - that's what matters.  They won't all be pretty wins.  Other teams are good, too.

[Franco_92]

18 minutes ago, Donuts and Doritos said:

 

Played the Falcons week 16. & They didn't make the championship game let alone the SB. So that analogy isn't very comforting. 

Their offense was dog**** with a bunch of turnovers in a bad weather game much closer to those playoffs, and they scored 12 touchdowns in 16 drives in the playoff games. When you say "sure it beat the Jets, but what if they play like this during the playoffs" i'm just using it as an example to point out why this is a silly point

It has no bearing whatsoever on how they'll play in the playoffs. This team is capable of getting it right, and they do need to take a step up and do that, but we are still a month of work away from this point, so I will not be upset about their performance against a top 5 defense in bad weather

[Wraith]

23 minutes ago, Donuts and Doritos said:

 

Played the Falcons week 16. & They didn't make the championship game let alone the SB. So that analogy isn't very comforting. 

OP was right,  It was week 17. January 2nd. 

[WideNine]

It has been a slog through a lot of attrition and nail-biter games.

 

I think I was starting to get spoiled with our games with no punts last year, but I know that is not the norm in the NFL. We were pegged as the team to beat in the offseason and lost our OC and will likely continue to be raided for front office execs. It was foolish to think the team would never miss a beat. The quick start probably set a few of us up for disappointment when defenses caught up to what we were doing and found ways to shut down more of our offense than we have seen in a while.

 

Different season and thankfully a season where Beane did a lot to shore up the defensive line and some of our prior draft investments are starting to pay dividends.

 

The frustrating thing for me is they just always seem so close to breaking out on offense, but it is a fumble, an interception, a hold, a missed pass, a dropped pass, a shoe-lace tackle in front of an empty field, etc.. So yes, there is a pile of what-ifs that get in the way of the performance that I think is almost there for the taking for this team and I want it for them.

 

Lets hope they can all get healthier and start clicking on offense down the stretch.

 

 

[Joe Ferguson]

I don't feel better with 10-3 becauase we could be EASILY been 11-2.

[JoshAllin]

It's certainly better than last years 7-6, this is the time of year when their rushing yards pickup and then they take the dominant passing O to the playoffs

Edited December 12, 2022 by motorj

[Donuts and Doritos]

15 minutes ago, Wraith said:

OP was right,  It was week 17. January 2nd. 

 My bad it was week 17. It was their 16th game. Thanks. 👍

[LABILLBACKER]

It's absolutely adorable so many fans think we can win playoff games like we won today. We will get destroyed if we can't run the ball nor protect our qb. 

[Donuts and Doritos]

34 minutes ago, arcane said:

Their offense was dog**** with a bunch of turnovers in a bad weather game much closer to those playoffs, and they scored 12 touchdowns in 16 drives in the playoff games. When you say "sure it beat the Jets, but what if they play like this during the playoffs" i'm just using it as an example to point out why this is a silly point

It has no bearing whatsoever on how they'll play in the playoffs. This team is capable of getting it right, and they do need to take a step up and do that, but we are still a month of work away from this point, so I will not be upset about their performance against a top 5 defense in bad weather

 

I didn't say "what if they play like this during the playoffs", I said "how are you feeling with that performance on offense against Phins, Cinci or KC?". (We'll find out the answer to 2/3 of that in the next 3 weeks. I'm not overly confident). Last year you could see the offense snap out of it starting w/ the second half of the Tampa game. This year I don't know about you, but I'm not seeing them snap out of it (& Cleveland, Detroit were hardly top 5 D's in bad weather). Every year is different, you can't use last year to say this year will be the same. Hope they figure it out. But offensively it's been pretty meh for a long time now & the excuses are wearing thin IMO. A win is a win, there's time to round into form. But we're running out of season for that to happen. Next week & the Cinci game will show if they're contenders or pretenders. 

 

Edited December 12, 2022 by Donuts and Doritos

[Ya Digg?]

9 minutes ago, LABILLBACKER said:

It's absolutely adorable so many fans think we can win playoff games like we won today. We will get destroyed if we can't run the ball nor protect our qb. 

KC played bad today, Tennessee lost, Miami looks bad right now, Baltimore is down another QB, Cincinnati won but didn’t look good either…

[Billsatlastin2018]

By 1 or 100… I don’t give a damn!

 

‘Just Win Baby… 4 more x.’

[DapperCam]

Team just doesn’t seem sharp and people are nervous that is going to lead to a loss in the playoffs. We’re winning, but playing below our (perceived by Bills fans) talent level.

 

The offense was super aggressive, but that started leading to turnovers. Now we play much more conservatively which has been winning games. Will the same more conservative approach win in the playoffs?

[Process]

10 minutes ago, Ya Digg? said:

KC played bad today, Tennessee lost, Miami looks bad right now, Baltimore is down another QB, Cincinnati won but didn’t look good either…

Yea, the good thing is there are no elite teams in the AFC. Bengals are definitely the most complete team, they are stacked. But they don't have Allen or Mahomes and come playoff time that will matter.

[BernieBill]

10-3 feels not great because we all know it should be 11-2 ... the Vikings game, pure and simple ... that collapse may hand KC the #1 seed (Bills remaining 4 obviously much more difficult than Chiefs) ... Bills should have a game in hand ... bc of the Vikings debacle, they don't.  

[HappyDays]

My theory is the Bills were the offseason darlings so we all came into the season with ridiculous expectations, especially after how close we came to winning it all last year. Then we actually blew out our first two opponents so the expectations got even higher. But realistically this is how the season of a Super Bowl winner usually looks.

[somnus00]

3 hours ago, Einstein said:

Same.

Glad we are 10-3 but the way we are winning does not feel satisfying at all.

 

Dropping passes, missing tackles, numerous holding penalties… just not what you want to see as we get closer to the playoffs.

Agreed. I'm happy with a win, no matter how it comes. But sloppy play won't get it done in the playoffs. Winning this way doesn't seem a sustainable formula. The offense is leaving too many points on the field.

[Nephilim17]

Good for the Chargers — and the Bills.

 

F*** the Fish. 

 

And a couple takes earlier in this thread haven't aged too well.

[Johnnycage46]

4 hours ago, Inigo Montoya said:

After beating the Jets today the Bills are 10-3 and in the lead in the AFCE and sitting as the #1 seed in the AFC.  If you had taken a poll here at the start of the season and asked if we would take those stats heading into week 15 of the season, I think it would be 80/20 in favor of it.

 

Recognizing the Bills are sitting in a very good position right now, why does it feel like this has been a really rough season?

 

Maybe it's the constant parade of injuries?  The bad loses to the Phins, Jets, and Vikings?  Maybe the fact that we haven't seen the Bills' offense find that gear that they ended the season in last season?  Or maybe it's because the Bills have left themselves no room for error going forward if they want to win the division and the #1 seed?

 

I'm not complaining about where the BIlls are sitting at right now, I just imagined 10-3 would feel a whole lot better than it does. 

 

 

Sounds like a "you" problem.  Get some vitamin D and try to walk at least 20 mins a day.

[US Egg]

1 minute ago, Johnnycage46 said:

Sounds like a "you" problem.  Get some vitamin D and try to walk at least 20 mins a day.

Sound advice, regardless.

[Johnnycage46]

Just now, I am the egg man said:

Sound advice, regardless.

Yeah, probably something we all need in general.

[Mark Vader]

After tonight's Chargers-Dolphins game.....10-3 feels FANTASTIC!

[bobobonators]

4 hours ago, JayBaller10 said:

After today’s win I wasn’t super excited TBH. The Bills feel like a very flawed team. With Von and Hyde out, it’ll be on the offense to lead us to the Lombardi trophy, but they haven’t looked great in 6 weeks. As long as they continue to score one more point than the other team week after week, we’ll win it all, but their current play doesn’t instill confidence and I feel like I’m just waiting for the inevitable disappointment. But hey, win or lose, I’m here for it! 

It’s the NFL. The dolphins just lost to the chargers. The Chiefs almost lost to the Broncos - what an ugly win. The cowboys almost lost to the Texans! The money line in that game was -2,000 Cowboys! They barely squeaked one out. The Vikings just lost to the Lions
 

We have beaten the best teams in the AFC. Our losses are all nailbiters and mostly self-induced. We are elite. Stop trying to fit a square peg in a round hole by thinking otherwise. Every team has flaws. Just watch the games every week and you’ll clearly see how flawed they are. 

Edited December 12, 2022 by bobobonators

[Big Turk]

Maybe come back next week and let us know if it feels any better at 11-3 with a 3 game lead in the AFCE that for all intents and purposes will wrap up the division title after we get done slapping little brother back to reality.

Edited December 12, 2022 by Big Turk

[Franco_92]

1 hour ago, Donuts and Doritos said:

 

I didn't say "what if they play like this during the playoffs", I said "how are you feeling with that performance on offense against Phins, Cinci or KC?". (We'll find out the answer to 2/3 of that in the next 3 weeks. I'm not overly confident). Last year you could see the offense snap out of it starting w/ the second half of the Tampa game. This year I don't know about you, but I'm not seeing them snap out of it (& Cleveland, Detroit were hardly top 5 D's in bad weather). Every year is different, you can't use last year to say this year will be the same. Hope they figure it out. But offensively it's been pretty meh for a long time now & the excuses are wearing thin IMO. A win is a win, there's time to round into form. But we're running out of season for that to happen. Next week & the Cinci game will show if they're contenders or pretenders. 

 

You could see them "snap out of it" until, in week 17, they had 3 or 4 turnovers and struggled to put away the Falcons, and then had a 13-10 lead on a much worse Jets team in the 4th quarter the following week

 

If they were riding high right now, there would be equally valid worry about them being able to sustain such efficient play for the next month into the playoffs. We aren't in the playoffs. Their job is to win the game in front of them. They did that, a division game in bad weather against a top 5 defense, by 8 points

 

 

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

4 hours ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

It feels off because most would have guessed those three losses would have been some combination of the Rams, Ravens, Chiefs, and Titans.  To beat all those teams and lose two division games and then to lose the MInn game the way they did feels unsettling. 

It also feels off because we can all see JA is not playing lights out football.  If he plays this way against KC or Cinci the Bills likely lose.  Cinci defense is every bit as good as the Jets.  At this point I would rather face KC on the road than Cinci at home.  

All that said, we must put all our faith in Josh.  He is the only reason they have a shot at the SuperBowl.  

The cincy defense is good but they aren’t nearly as good as the jets…we just do this thing where we don’t give our opponents any credit after we beat them.

people were calling the win over Detroit a disappointment when we are the only team that has beaten them in the last 6 weeks. 

 

the jets had 0 support from their offense for a great deal of the season and they’re still 3rd in yards per game allowed and 5th in ppg allowed against a pretty tough schedule 

Edited December 12, 2022 by Generic_Bills_Fan

[Awwufelloff]

Nothing really changed from last year. Its Chiefs, Bills, and Bengals at the top again.

[SinceThe70s]

1 hour ago, LABILLBACKER said:

It's absolutely adorable so many fans think we can win playoff games like we won today. We will get destroyed if we can't run the ball nor protect our qb. 

 

I'm not real sure that there are many Bills  fans with the adorable outlook you project on them.

 

I can only speak for myself but I can be happy with the win today but still understand that we will have to play better in the post season to get where we want to go. Stacking regular season wins and sitting atop the AFC while not playing as well as I think we're capable of gives me hope - perhaps you find that adorable as well. But if you don't think we can/will run the ball or protect the QB and you're still watching the games, that's kind of adorable too.