Stop looking for style points

[John from Riverside]

I can totally be happy with this win and still hope for improvement in the next game we cannot afford to turn the ball over against the Bengals. We definitely cannot afford to give up defensive touchdowns.
 

But I guarantee you, those Miami players would love to be in the bills player shoes right now

[Boatdrinks]

8 hours ago, Real McNasty said:

Hell, when is the last time the Bills won 8 straight games in a row?

I think they won 8 in a row in ‘93. I’d have to check but I’d bet that was the last time 

[GreggTX]

The general idea is that when bad things happen you criticise and when good things happen, you praise. There was a lot to both praise and criticise today. Why is this so difficult to grasp?

 

[John from Riverside]

1 hour ago, GreggTX said:

The general idea is that when bad things happen you criticise and when good things happen, you praise. There was a lot to both praise and criticise today. Why is this so difficult to grasp?

 

I generally agree with us
I think it does get a little under my skin whenever I hear people say that we had this super poor offensive performance whenever we scored 33 points Every team has drops. We had ours.

 

And I think the points that they gave up needs to be put in context. I need to go back and look at the film but my recollection is they had one drive that started on their side of the 50. Everything else started at midfield or better they were getting wonderful field position because of our turnovers. 

 

As always, I criticize the turnovers because I believe that is our Achilles’ heel if we can play mistake, free football and not turn the ball over I’m not sure there is a team in the league they can beat us

[nucci]

I don't want  style points. I want the turnovers to stop. Only reason this game was close

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

13 hours ago, Real McNasty said:

Hell, when is the last time the Bills won 8 straight games in a row?

Half past never 

[Donuts and Doritos]

9 hours ago, NewEra said:

I’m worried about wins and losses.  We’ve now won 8 in a row while playing terrible football.

 

maybe Cinci will play poorly next week because they played poorly today.  And didn’t play well the week before.  Or the week before.  

 

I agree with you W's & L's are most important & Cincy's D will be different than Miami's. Just don't think we can count on our opponents playing poorly to win, we need to clean it up. Hope they can do it. Go Bills! 👍

 

 

[BillsFanSD]

A lot of people on this forum would be better fans if they just watched non-Bills football from time to time.  Okay, sure, our win over the Dolphins was kind of ugly.  But we won and we were clearly the better team from start to finish.  

 

If you watched the next game and actually paid attention to what was happening on the field instead of just nursing your stupid little grudge about the fringe WR who got away, you would have noticed the #3 seed getting upset in their home stadium.  Say what you will about the quality of their wins, but that's a 13-win team getting beaten convincingly by a team that nobody had sniffing the playoffs back in week 1.  

 

If you kept watching, you saw the Big Bad Unstoppable Bengals get taken to the wire by a Ravens team missing its best player.  They needed a bizarre, stupid, one-in-20-years 14-point play to secure the win against a wildly inferior opponent.  

 

But sure next week is hopeless.  This team is doomed, I tell you.

[teef]

of all people, ryan leaf made a great point concerning the playoffs.  you read to much into any blow out or any close game.  this time of year, each game is its own creature.  each team is just trying to survive and move forward.  what happened this past weekend no longer matters, and a new season begins this sunday.  that's not to say the bills can't learn from those horrendous mistakes, but i'm ready for cincy, and i think the bills can absolutely win this game.

Edited January 16, 2023 by teef

[skibum]

If we're basing next week's expected result on style points, you could easily argue that the Bengals did not score very many against Baltimore last night. They needed a fluke big-man scoop-and-score to beat a backup QB. I think the Bills had a much better game overall. 

 

Whatever, round one is over, round 2 is a clean slate for all. 

[Wraith]

1 hour ago, BillsFanSD said:

A lot of people on this forum would be better fans if they just watched non-Bills football from time to time.  Okay, sure, our win over the Dolphins was kind of ugly.  But we won and we were clearly the better team from start to finish.  

 

If you watched the next game and actually paid attention to what was happening on the field instead of just nursing your stupid little grudge about the fringe WR who got away, you would have noticed the #3 seed getting upset in their home stadium.  Say what you will about the quality of their wins, but that's a 13-win team getting beaten convincingly by a team that nobody had sniffing the playoffs back in week 1.  

 

If you kept watching, you saw the Big Bad Unstoppable Bengals get taken to the wire by a Ravens team missing its best player.  They needed a bizarre, stupid, one-in-20-years 14-point play to secure the win against a wildly inferior opponent.  

 

But sure next week is hopeless.  This team is doomed, I tell you.

Perfectly stated. 

[CEN-CAL17]

I don’t think it’s so much style points vs being less predictable…..

 

im pretty sure I called 90% of our run plays yesterday. Meaning you know 90% of the time when the Bills are throwing as well.

 

I hate the fact we can’t find ways to get Cook the ball in space, Bills have never been able to execute RB screens.

 

On top of that, schematically in certain situations some of the play calls just don’t make since.

 

Dont really think it’s “style” points…..

[Luka]

I'm just looking for the Bills to stop trying to beat the Bills. I know every other opponent is inferior at this point but c'mon.

[Nextmanup]

Just now, Luka said:

I'm just looking for the Bills to stop trying to beat the Bills. I know every other opponent is inferior at this point but c'mon.

Every other opponent is definitely NOT inferior....in fact, the next 3 teams we play (if we get that far) can all beat us badly if we don't play our "A" game.

 

But I agree, not beating ourselves is the key; that's just another way of saying "stop playing sloppy football."

The problem is we've been doing that for like 8 games now.

 

 

[HomeskillitMoorman]

16 hours ago, Goin Breakdown said:

Clean up the turnovers and dumb timeouts and I'm ok. 

 

Especially in the 2nd half, McD just can't be using multiple defensive timeouts. You gotta save them all. I can understand the 4th and 8 one I guess because we were such a mess, but the other one was brutal. 

 

He's in his what, 6th year now? It's scary at times that these are things he still hasn't learned. 

[Epstein's Mother]

1 hour ago, teef said:

of all people, ryan leaf made a great point concerning the playoffs.

 

And he's watched a lot of playoff football games on TV.😁

[mjt328]

Many fans have been waiting decades upon decades for the Buffalo Bills to bring home a Super Bowl trophy. 

 

They aren't upset because the team lacks "style points."

They are upset, because all objective signs point towards this team falling short of that goal...again...after a season where expectations were higher than possibly any point in the history of the franchise.  At 43 years old, I'm getting tired of watching other teams hoist the Lombardi and saying maybe next year.  And there are tons of fans who have been doing this way longer than me.

 

Since Week 3, we've all been saying "the Bills would be great, if they could just cleanup the dumb mistakes."

Well, we have now had two games of mostly consistent/strong play (Weeks 1-2).  And the 12 weeks since that point have been filled with the team CONSTANTLY shooting itself in the foot and making stupid errors to keep inferior teams in games we should have won by 20 points.  The Bills were supposed to get right after the bye.  Then they were supposed to get right once they were healthy.  Then they were supposed to get right when the weather/snow situation was resolved and practices got back to normal.  Then they were supposed to get right with the emotion surrounding Damar Hamlin.  Then they were supposed to get right for the playoffs.

 

Guess what?  We got lucky our Wild Card opponent was missing it's starting quarterback.  The inferior teams are now gone.  Unless there is a drastic upset or injury to major player, the Bills road now goes through the Bengals, Chiefs and then Eagles/49ers.  All teams that are equal or slightly better than us.  We have no more room for error.  I would like to be optimistic, but I've seen no evidence for 3 months that Buffalo can cleanup the mental mistakes to run through that gauntlet.  

Edited January 16, 2023 by mjt328

[Ta111]

45 minutes ago, Nextmanup said:

Every other opponent is definitely NOT inferior....in fact, the next 3 teams we play (if we get that far) can all beat us badly if we don't play our "A" game.

 

But I agree, not beating ourselves is the key; that's just another way of saying "stop playing sloppy football."

The problem is we've been doing that for like 8 games now.

 

 

Yet we’ve won each game. What does that say for our opponents?

[Boatdrinks]

1 minute ago, Ta111 said:

Yet we’ve won each game. What does that say for our opponents?

Exactly. Everyone wants to see a perfect, clean game. Those happen, but most wins aren’t that way. We know the Bills had way too many turnovers, but some were a bit flukish. Meanwhile our next opponent was on the verge of getting knocked out in their stadium last night and won on a bizzare goal line play call that turned into a defensive TD. Think they’re happy with that win ? Of course the Bills will need to protect the football but that goes for every game. 

[SageAgainstTheMachine]

15 minutes ago, mjt328 said:

Many fans have been waiting decades upon decades for the Buffalo Bills to bring home a Super Bowl trophy. 

 

They aren't upset because the team lacks "style points."

They are upset, because all objective signs point towards this team falling short of that goal...again...after a season where expectations were higher than possibly any point in the history of the franchise.  At 43 years old, I'm getting tired of watching other teams hoist the Lombardi and saying maybe next year.  And there are tons of fans who have been doing this way longer than me.

 

Since Week 3, we've all been saying "the Bills would be great, if they could just cleanup the dumb mistakes."

Well, we have now had two games of mostly consistent/strong play (Weeks 1-2).  And the 12 weeks since that point have been filled with the team CONSTANTLY shooting itself in the foot and making stupid errors to keep inferior teams in games we should have won by 20 points.  The Bills were supposed to get right after the bye.  Then they were supposed to get right once they were healthy.  Then they were supposed to get right when the weather/snow situation was resolved and practices got back to normal.  Then they were supposed to get right with the emotion surrounding Damar Hamlin.  Then they were supposed to get right for the playoffs.

 

Guess what?  We got lucky our Wild Card opponent was missing it's starting quarterback.  The inferior teams are now gone.  Unless there is a drastic upset or injury to major player, the Bills road now goes through the Bengals, Chiefs and then Eagles/49ers.  All teams that are equal or slightly better than us.  We have no more room for error.  I would like to be optimistic, but I've seen no evidence for 3 months that Buffalo can cleanup the mental mistakes to run through that gauntlet.  

All “objective signs” do not point toward us falling short.  Your anxieties point to that.  
 

Vegas still has us as the team second most likely to win it all, slightly behind KC.  THAT world is about objectivity.

[Dan]

37 minutes ago, SageAgainstTheMachine said:

All “objective signs” do not point toward us falling short.  Your anxieties point to that.  
 

Vegas still has us as the team second most likely to win it all, slightly behind KC.  THAT world is about objectivity.

I think vegas is a bit of the problem.  With the proliferation of gambling in recent years, all you hear about is point spreads and the odds.  Its every where.  And, I think, a lot of people equate...favored by 10pts... to we should win easily and blow this team out.    When we don’t, obviously we’re bad.   Its kinda how fantasy football made everyone just look at individual stats and declare players garbage, rather than look at their contribution to a winning team. 
 

Add to it a healthy dose of pessimism. The psychology of predicting doom so you don’t get your heart broken.  Throw in a smidge of the grass is always greener over there.   End result.. constant bashing of a 14 win team that had survived a season that would have doomed most teams and that for 4 consecutive years has been in the playoffs and 3 consecutive years making it to the 2nd round of the playoffs. 
 

I get it.  I just wish they y enjoy how good this team is. 

[hemma]

I look at yesterday as being the Bills absolute floor for complimentary Football.

 

Still won.

 

Better weeks are coming.

[Dan]

12 minutes ago, Dan said:

I think vegas is a bit of the problem.  With the proliferation of gambling in recent years, all you hear about is point spreads and the odds.  Its every where.  And, I think, a lot of people equate...favored by 10pts... to we should win easily and blow this team out.    When we don’t, obviously we’re bad.   Its kinda how fantasy football made everyone just look at individual stats and declare players garbage, rather than look at their contribution to a winning team. 
 

Add to it a healthy dose of pessimism. The psychology of predicting doom so you don’t get your heart broken.  Throw in a smidge of the grass is always greener over there.   End result.. constant bashing of a 14 win team that had survived a season that would have doomed most teams and that for 4 consecutive years has been in the playoffs and 3 consecutive years making it to the 2nd round of the playoffs. 
 

I get it.  I just wish they could enjoy how good this team is. 

 

[boater]

18 hours ago, Ya Digg? said:

The defense played really well

31 points scored by a third string QB and second string RB. 

[BillzFreak]

2 minutes ago, boater said:

31 points scored by a third string QB and second string RB. 

24 points scored sir!!! 

[KOKBILLS]

42 minutes ago, hemma said:

I look at yesterday as being the Bills absolute floor for complimentary Football.

 

Still won.

 

Better weeks are coming.

 

I've been saying for weeks now...We can look at this glass as half filled, or half empty. Because each and every close game this year the Bills were a mistake or two away from winning by a couple TD's...We all know this...We watched it...So...If they put it all together for these last 3 games they will be SB Champs. If they keep making mistakes that allow teams to hang around they still have a good chance, but it's very risky...

[Ya Digg?]

7 minutes ago, boater said:

31 points scored by a third string QB and second string RB. 

7 points from a fumble, so we are down to 24. 1 touchdown drive started on the Bills 18, 2 field goal drives for them started on the Bills side of the field (one already in field goal range), the other field goal drive started at the 40…so yes, I still think the defense played well 

[Ta111]

37 minutes ago, Ya Digg? said:

7 points from a fumble, so we are down to 24. 1 touchdown drive started on the Bills 18, 2 field goal drives for them started on the Bills side of the field (one already in field goal range), the other field goal drive started at the 40…so yes, I still think the defense played well 

Agreed. They only gave up 230 total yards. Dolphins had 1 long drive the entire game. I really wonder if people actually watch the games.

[billykay]

19 hours ago, 78thealltimegreat said:

I was actually worried about this game McDaniels was playing with house money and really could throw the kitchen sink at the bills as no one would blame him for any out of the ordinary decision he would try. 
I honestly don’t think the Bills took the Fins seriously and at 17-0 they where thinking about next week. The Bills do play down to their opponents from time to time.I don’t think that will be a problem next week  

it was actually 21-0, then it was 14-0, and then 17-0.

[Simon Says]

23 hours ago, oldmanfan said:

If we are to be really honest, I don’t think we’ve played a complete game on D, O, and ST since week 2.  It is a credit we’ve done so well given that, but I don’t think it will be enough against teams we’d be facing from here on.

Well said. Yeah,its week to week now,but you can guage a team's effectiveness and chances watching the way they perform in certain situations. 

[Ya Digg?]

4 minutes ago, Herb Nightly said:

Well said. Yeah,its week to week now,but you can guage a team's effectiveness and chances watching the way they perform in certain situations. 

But there’s also something to be said about stopping drives when they need to stop drives or scoring touchdowns when a touchdown is needed. You can’t tell me that they have won 14 games and 8 in a row without coming up with crucial stops or scoring when it is needed