Bengals @ Bills - Post Game Thread - January 22, 2023 - NFL Divisional Round Playoffs

[White Linen]

7 minutes ago, klos63 said:

Agreed. Did it ever look like we had a game plan specifically for our opponent? It was backyard football, let the big guy do it all and hope you win.

 

It sure hasn't.   Even in the wins it just looked so disjointed.   We benefited from playing the type of teams that eventually let you back in or implode.   

[klos63]

1 minute ago, UKBillFan said:

 

The Bills have had:

- The supermarket shooting pre-season which affected the team and community

- The Matt Araiza situation which would have affected the locker room, no matter what was said to the contrary

- The scary Dane Jackson injury against the Titans, which he thankfully bounced back from quickly but was horrible at the time

- Miami heat, where Tommy Doyle had to play with a torn ACL to finish the game and players were dropping with dehydration

- Losing Micah Hyde and Von Miller to season ending injuries

- Josh playing with a bad elbow since week eight and I can't recall if his ankle was on the injury report this week but may explain the lack of running plays

- Snow game against the Browns, where they were stranded for Christmas

- Damar Hamlin's collapse at The Jungle

 

It felt like there was a rearguard action against something not completely in their control from the off. I think changes do need to be made but, at the same time, I do think hitting a wall was partially the reason behind today.

 

ridiculous excuses.

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

1 minute ago, UmbrellaMan said:

The Bengals are a terrible matchup for Buffalo. Had Baltimore pulled the upset last week the Bills would be going to the AFC championship game.

 

Cincy is built to exploit all of our weaknesses. Chase is arguably the best WR in the NFL. 
 

Plus, to all of you talking about firings, do you remember where we were for almost 2 decades!?! I am enjoying this run. Josh Allen makes you a contender all by himself. Maybe next year the ball bounces our way.

It's gonna take more than bounces. This team is replacement level outside of 17/14

[78thealltimegreat]

Just now, WideNine said:

 

His piss poor line held up far better than our starters.

 

Just saying.

 

And i like their backup LT - could start for a lot of teams and would certainly push Dawkins the way he has been playing.

 

 

 

 

Joe Mixon was picking up 6 yards a carry a QBs life is very very easy when that happens 

[Meatloaf63]

8 minutes ago, SoCal Deek said:

 

   13 minutes ago,  FrenchConnection said: 

I know, eastern suburb of Dayton. I'm right here in Cincinnati. Burrow is an emotionless winner. A cold assassin. Josh Allen is a golden retriever chasing a tennis ball.

THIS is the post of the day!

And 100% spot on. 

Lol Joe Burrow had all the time in the world. Cold blooded assassins don’t lose the Super Bowl to an average LA  team, hell he should have lost to the Ravens last week. How about we swap defenses, who wins today?

[Brand J]

1 minute ago, Brianmoorman4jesus said:

They never come off that. Doesn’t matter down or distance. I literally hate this defense. I’d take an aggressive Defense that gets greedy and makes mistakes over this ***** passive aggressive shell anyway. It’s infuriating. You will beat the impatient, lazy ***** QBs. The decent ones are going to carve you a new #######. They have all day to do anything 

Andy Reid said after the Jags game that blitzing was his favorite thing to do. I agree that I’d rather run a high risk/high reward defense over one that is reactionary and cautious. You’ll get more boom or bust plays, sure, but the cautious one isn’t stopping a good offense, so what are we doing? Give me some boom plays that translates to our offense getting the ball back. Frazier is out of his element with blitz calls, they’re not his forte. 

[UKBillFan]

2 minutes ago, klos63 said:

ridiculous excuses.

 

Not excuses. The Bills would have lost today, whatever. They were not good enough. I do think the players were/are mentally exhausted and that made the defeat worse than it may have otherwise been.

Edited January 22, 2023 by UKBillFan

[quincy]

Outcome today feels a lot worse compared to the Houston game - we got humiliated to the same level as Tampa last Monday.

 

Why cannot we have a game plan to play in snow? We heard that the Bengals are so pass happy etc - look what happened Mixon and Perine produced. Perine was, it seems, dragging 10 guys with him and always falling forwards.

 

We could not tackle. Tre got scorched today. Could not stop the run. Didn't attempt the field goal when we should have in the 4th quarter.

 

A start to finish disaster, unfortunately.

 

We can cope with the regular season, win 10 plus games but fall against the elite teams.

 

People were pining for the 1 seed and we don't have a team that excels in those conditions.

 

I give credit to the Bengals, they came to play and were almost flawless.

 

First step - fix the offensive line - out top 5 got outplayed by the Bengals backups. Josh undisputably has the worst OL compared to Burrow/Mahomes.

 

Blessings to all Buffalo fans from Europe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[klos63]

2 minutes ago, UKBillFan said:

 

The Bills have had:

- The supermarket shooting pre-season which affected the team and community

- The Matt Araiza situation which would have affected the locker room, no matter what was said to the contrary

- The scary Dane Jackson injury against the Titans, which he thankfully bounced back from quickly but was horrible at the time

- Miami heat, where Tommy Doyle had to play with a torn ACL to finish the game and players were dropping with dehydration

- Losing Micah Hyde and Von Miller to season ending injuries

- Josh playing with a bad elbow since week eight and I can't recall if his ankle was on the injury report this week but may explain the lack of running plays

- Snow game against the Browns, where they were stranded for Christmas

- Damar Hamlin's collapse at The Jungle

 

It felt like there was a rearguard action against something not completely in their control from the off. I think changes do need to be made but, at the same time, I do think hitting a wall was partially the reason behind today.

 

I'm waiting for a reporter to ask how much the Araiza situation hurt us today.  Comical excuses.

[Iverwig]

2 minutes ago, klos63 said:

Jesus, you're going to blame the shooting at Tops as a reason the team underperformed? So is that also an excuse if the Sabres miss the playoffs? That's just ridiculous. If not making it home for Christmas contributed to this loss, then I stand by my comment of a weak organization.  God , if those are valid reasons, then this team is weak, but I think you're way off. The oline was no good and that hurt most. Defense missing key players and didn't have the depth to hold up. 

I’m not blaming the shooting, but things build up. Did the Sabres witness their teammate’s heart stop? Ultimately, the Hamlin situation is the biggest thing that may have broke the camel’s back for the team. That’s not being soft it’s being a human. Yes, the OL, the DL and the coaches sucked and my other posts note that. I was saying we can’t take the other things for granted especially the Hamlin situation. 

[Brianmoorman4jesus]

You are almost in the mode now of fast forward through the regular season because all that matters is the playoffs….but how can anyone think this ***** changes? If anything we are further away than ever before. It’s 9 months now until a game matters again. Absolutely embarrassing. You don’t go into the offseason thinking next year we got this. Feels like we are further away then we were after the Texans loss. What a disgrace 

[Dan]

2 minutes ago, SoCal Deek said:

I’ll be back next year as I have been for six decades but I have zero expectations now. These last to or three years are as good as it will ever be for this current version of the Bills. Good yes, but seriously not good enough. A real shame. 

Pretty much it.   This is the off season to self scout and make some really hard decisions about how to get over this hump.  Keeping the same staff for yet another year, gives you the same results we’ve had for 4 years. 

[Solomon Grundy]

8 minutes ago, Ray Finkel said:

So many holes on this team

The Bengals roster is more Buffalo made than the Bills. They handled the weather better than the Bills

[skibum]

Very disheartening after all the investment in the DL this offseason. I honestly thought the depth players were better than this, but we just saw what happens when all the grown men on the D line are out. Rousseau/Oliver/Basham/Epenesa - all young guys who don't seem to have 'it'. Will any of these high draft picks ever be more than a solid rotational player? We confirmed tonight that it was Miller/Jones/Phillips carrying the line all year. 

[stlbills13]

This team has a handful of elite players and then a bunch of replacement level guys. 

 

The coaching staff needs some sort of shakeup

 

And wow did we get destroyed in the trenches 

[klos63]

1 minute ago, Iverwig said:

I’m not blaming the shooting, but things build up. Did the Sabres witness their teammate’s heart stop? Ultimately, the Hamlin situation is the biggest thing that may have broke the camel’s back for the team. That’s not being soft it’s being a human. Yes, the OL, the DL and the coaches sucked and my other posts note that. I was saying we can’t take the other things for granted especially the Hamlin situation. 

Not sure that there are many cities in this country that don't have mass shootings. Shouldn't even be mentioned as a factor.

[QLBillsFan]

4 minutes ago, UmbrellaMan said:

The Bengals are a terrible matchup for Buffalo. Had Baltimore pulled the upset last week the Bills would be going to the AFC championship game.

 

Cincy is built to exploit all of our weaknesses. Chase is arguably the best WR in the NFL. 
 

Plus, to all of you talking about firings, do you remember where we were for almost 2 decades!?! I am enjoying this run. Josh Allen makes you a contender all by himself. Maybe next year the ball bounces our way.

Why should they be a terrible match up? Down 3 OL starters and Bills neither could pressure or stop the run. This falls completely on McD. Yes   Josh makes us a contender is the reason to makes changes now. It’s not about the bounces. NFL is about coaching and today and last year with 13 seconds McD demonstrated he’s not capable. 

[Gunsgoodtime]

Get some OL help, some WR help, or get out gunned every year in the playoffs.  Im not the smartest guy in the room, I may be stupid, but with a great QB I would think better protection and better wrs would actually help him.  Maybe I'm just too stupid to understand 

[WideNine]

5 minutes ago, 78thealltimegreat said:

Joe Mixon was picking up 6 yards a carry a QBs life is very very easy when that happens 

 

Yup, those "scrub" OL players starting for the Bengals were driving our DL players 4 yards off the ball on many of those carries.

 

It does make life a whole lot easier on your QB when you can keep down and distance short and have Chase and Higgins that defenders give huge cushions.

 

Made it look real easy just driving down the field on us.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 22, 2023 by WideNine

[BearNorth]

We have 21 UFA's in 2023.  After this performance, you have to wonder how many will be back. 

 

Our UFA's with supposed value are Poyer [aging], Saffold [let some one else have him], Edmunds [maybe but he got abused today], and Motor [do we want to spend $5MM on a RB?]. 

 

The other 17 are basically JAG's. 

 

Josh's cap starts escalating next season.  Some of our aging vets may lose a roster spot to younger faster athletes [Matakevich, Formosa, Marlowe, Klein]. 

 

Shaq probably played well enough to be brought back as depth.   Looks like we will be drafting 26th or 27th.

[UKBillFan]

1 minute ago, klos63 said:

I'm waiting for a reporter to ask how much the Araiza situation hurt us today.  Comical excuses.

 

It's a build up of one setback after another eating away, until mental exhuastion becomes a thing. I think that's where the Bills were but, as I said, even if half of the stuff hadn't happened and the Bills were mentally fresher, they would have still lost today. Nowhere near good enough in terms of talent or play calling.

[Billsfan1972]

Came out with no passion or cohesion and was punched in the mouth and took it.

 

Back to back TD's and three and outs by the offense.

 

They were beaten at every facet of the game and the coaches had no answer.  

 

One of the worst playoff performances I've ever seen by a home team.

[Brianmoorman4jesus]

2 minutes ago, JayBaller10 said:

Andy Reid said after the Jags game that blitzing was his favorite thing to do. I agree that I’d rather run a high risk/high reward defense over one that is reactionary and cautious. You’ll get more boom or bust plays, sure, but the cautious one isn’t stopping a good offense, so what are we doing? Give me some boom plays that translates to our offense getting the ball back. Frazier is out of his element with blitz calls, they’re not his forte. 

I want my defense to dictate play. Not sit back and hope the offense makes a mistake. Why would any good QB be just allowed to stand there freely and find an open guy? The good guys are going to do it 80% of the time. The name of the game is making them uncomfortable. It’s like we are the dumbest team in the nfl that accidentally has good players. It can’t get better if this staff comes back

[KOKBILLS]

Just now, skibum said:

Very disheartening after all the investment in the DL this offseason. I honestly thought the depth players were better than this, but we just saw what happens when all the grown men on the D line are out. Rousseau/Oliver/Basham/Epenesa - all young guys who don't seem to have 'it'. Will any of these high draft picks ever be more than a solid rotational player? We confirmed tonight that it was Miller/Jones/Phillips carrying the line all year. 

 

I guess this is the wrong time to remind Beane I would have Drafted DK Metcalf over Oliver that year, and he could have had him over Cody Ford anyway...

[Meatloaf63]

9 minutes ago, BananaB said:

Control what? Without Josh this coaching staff would have been gone long ago. Our O put up 34 points when our staff let him play football and 10 when they tried to play conservative. Down 14-0 and you run back to back run plays, that’s MCD

Control the hero ball, third and two in your own end you don’t lob 30 yard passes in a snow storm. You get the first down. You all said no problem last week we scored over 30 points. Well this week exposed the flaw in your thinking. It’s a combination of play design and hero ball mixed with a pathetic o line. Recipe for play of disaster. 

[78thealltimegreat]

Just now, WideNine said:

 

Yup, those "scrub" OL players starting for the Bengals were driving our DL players 4 yards off the ball on many of those carries.

 

It does make life a whole lot easier when you and keep down and distance short and have Chase and Higgins that defenders give huge cushions.

 

Made it look real easy just driving down the field on us.

 

 

 

 

I think this was truly a look in the mirror moment Brandon Beane really missed on some of these draft picks 

[Marcus Aurelius]

13 minutes ago, Sargent Hulka said:

Like I said in the game thread, this was like, and had the feel of, the 31-7 blowout loss to the Chiefs in the AFL Championship game at home in War Memorial in December, 1966. For comparison, we went on to win 4 games in '67 and 1 game in '68. Then we got OJ.

I remember 

[Budkin]

It was flat out embarrassing for sure. Worst game in years. 

[Sargent Hulka]

7 minutes ago, UmbrellaMan said:

The Bengals are a terrible matchup for Buffalo. Had Baltimore pulled the upset last week the Bills would be going to the AFC championship game.

 

Cincy is built to exploit all of our weaknesses. Chase is arguably the best WR in the NFL. 
 

Plus, to all of you talking about firings, do you remember where we were for almost 2 decades!?! I am enjoying this run. Josh Allen makes you a contender all by himself. Maybe next year the ball bounces our way.

Sorry, some heads must roll; Frazier's at a minimum, and I'm not crazy about either Eric Washington, or Aaron Kromer either.

[0017]

Diggs is good! But I think he’s becoming a problem, I’d try to trade him this offseason. What could we get for him? 

[Bermuda Triangle]

very similar to the KC game in '20.  Same issues 2 years ago as today.

[pigpen65]

Completely uncovered receivers. Sufficed to say the Bills had no idea what to expect from the Bengals while the Bengals knew exactly what the Bills were going to do. Definitely a horrible performance by the coaching 

[KOKBILLS]

Just now, 78thealltimegreat said:

I think this was truly a look in the mirror moment Brandon Beane really missed on some of these draft picks 

 

Yep...Let the BBB memes die the death they deserve...

[Buffbills716]

For all those who said an ugly win is a win, well it came back to haunt us today!

[hondo in seattle]

17 minutes ago, NUT said:

His slow progression approach to building a championship team was just passed by a franchise who has done it in two offseasons. McDermott is never going to win a SB let alone get to one  Pegula is too much of a you know what to do anything about it.

 

McD isn't the best HC in the NFL, but he is one of the top 5 or 10.  

 

People calling for his head are like the people calling for Tony Dungy's head in Tampa.  In Tampa, they didn't believe Dungy could win a Super Bowl despite his success getting his team into the playoffs.   So, after Tampa canned him, Dungy won the Lombardi for Indy instead.  

[Moulds 808080]

We were not pumped at all!!

Love our BILLS but not a good performance at all.

 

 

[GunnerBill]

The worst game we have played since the Colts mid last season. It was a point of interest to me that in 2022 we had avoided that seemingly standard one clunker game per season of this regime. Sadly we just saved it for today. 

 

Bad coaching. Bad Quarterbacking. Bad execution. 

[Nator99]

33 minutes ago, FrenchConnection said:

This is so much worse. I wasn't embarrassed to be a Bills fan last year. This is the worst loss in Buffalo Bills history, given the stakes and the context. This was also the last year that we will win the AFCE. It's the Fins division now.

I’m afraid you’re right. The fins are coming and let’s be honest should have beat us every game. They will come charging and will make improvements and we will do nothing and expect to win by just showing up. 

[Billsfan1972]

Just now, Bermuda Triangle said:

very similar to the KC game in '20.  Same issues 2 years ago as today.

KC was the better team and at home.  This was just terrible in every way.

[FireChans]

Just now, GunnerBill said:

The worst game we have played since the Colts mid last season. It was a point of interest to me that in 2022 we had avoided that seemingly standard one clunker game per season of this regime. Sadly we just saved it for today. 

 

Bad coaching. Bad Quarterbacking. Bad execution. 

We had two.  Losing to Zach Wilson was also a bizarre clunker.