Saffold said guys were "exhausted" this week and "out of gas"

[RocCityRoller]

10 minutes ago, Gunsgoodtime said:

How do you fix it?  They obviously can't draft them

I believe this is a retool moment. Look at the cap/ players under contract etc.

 

The Bills need to focus in on making the offense as strong as possible.

 

The investments on offense have been poor. One OL drafted in the 1-3rd round over a 5 year window is pathetic.

Swing and a miss on Ford, it happens. Doesn't mean you stop drafting OL for your franchise player.

Cincy/ KC/ Eagles etc have all retooled OL in 1-2 seasons.

 

if Beane can't do it, it is on him.

[Alphadawg7]

5 hours ago, Process said:

Earlier in the year Josh was running guys over and getting up laughing in their face. We haven't seen that guy in a while. 

 

Something has been off with this team for two months now.

This team stopped having fun playing football.  Too much heavy stuff lingering over them.  

[NoSaint]

1 hour ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

I can tell you even as a fan in the stadium I was gassed yesterday.    I'm not a young man prone to letting disappointment get me down so I caffeined up and still screamed my head off every play on D.   But I didn't want to.   That Damar incident took the wind out of the sails on this season for me.    This game is supposed to be a distraction and when every week at the stadium is another story about someone or some people who got f*cked up by a tragedy it's just not fun.    And it if ain't fun.........it's hard to get energized.    Having high expectations sometimes takes you out of the moment..........but having lived thru the 4 SB years and those hard climbs back up the mountain.........those were a piece of cake emotionally compared to this season.    

 I liken it a bit to working in a disaster zone - the jobs off the rails with no routine, your dealing with chaos at home and after a month or so you have one of those days at work where you just sit staring at your desk without purpose cause you are just burnt and there’s no more adrenaline to just muscle through it. 
 

blizzard to thanksgiving to Thursday to losing von to Christmas blizzard to damar… they went over a month with no routine or normalcy and just a lot of energy drain 

[Nextmanup]

6 hours ago, Success said:

It was pretty easy to see.

 

I've gotta give 'em a pass on that. They're human beings.  Buffalo has been to hell & back over the past year.

 

Garbage! 

 

Eric Wood played in this league for a long time and he was on the field 10 feet away from the players during pre-game warmups and he said (today on gr-55) that without question, the enthusiasm, energy, passion WAS THERE TO SEE.

 

He said it's hard to sustain that in the game when things don't go your way, which is more or less what Josh said in some of his post-game comments as well.

 

 

1 hour ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

I can tell you even as a fan in the stadium I was gassed yesterday.    I'm not a young man prone to letting disappointment get me down so I caffeined up and still screamed my head off every play on D.   But I didn't want to.   That Damar incident took the wind out of the sails on this season for me.    This game is supposed to be a distraction and when every week at the stadium is another story about someone or some people who got f*cked up by a tragedy it's just not fun.    And it if ain't fun.........it's hard to get energized.    Having high expectations sometimes takes you out of the moment..........but having lived thru the 4 SB years and those hard climbs back up the mountain.........those were a piece of cake emotionally compared to this season.    

That's fair enough from your perspective as a fan.

 

I pray to God the players on the team do NOT see things the same way.

 

This is not a fun distraction for them.  

 

 

[Coach Tuesday]

1 minute ago, Nextmanup said:

Garbage! 

 

Eric Wood played in this league for a long time and he was on the field 10 feet away from the players during pre-game warmups and he said (today on gr-55) that without question, the enthusiasm, energy, passion WAS THERE TO SEE.

 

He said it's hard to sustain that in the game when things don't go your way, which is more or less what Josh said in some of his post-game comments as well.

 

 

Both things can be true.  They had energy but no more resilience left.  

[IronyAbounds]

7 hours ago, jhh9327 said:

You really think this team beats Cinci if this game happened two months ago?  I honestly don't.  I'm not saying the emotional toll didn't play any factor yesterday, but this was a flawed team that has been showing those flaws for quite a while and Cinci is designed well to take advantage of those. 

They looked to be heading for a beat down in Cincy before Hamlin dropped, so I'm not quite buying it.

[boyst]

37 minutes ago, Coach Tuesday said:

Both things can be true.  They had energy but no more resilience left.  

Resilience is a hard word to grasp. After being down 2 scores this team didn't have the energy to recover. They didn't have the resiliency to put in another level. They didn't have the fuel. It's like they had only been eating salads when they needed a juicy steak. 😝

Edited January 24, 2023 by boyst

[SCBills]

1 hour ago, RocCityRoller said:

I believe this is a retool moment. Look at the cap/ players under contract etc.

 

The Bills need to focus in on making the offense as strong as possible.

 

The investments on offense have been poor. One OL drafted in the 1-3rd round over a 5 year window is pathetic.

Swing and a miss on Ford, it happens. Doesn't mean you stop drafting OL for your franchise player.

Cincy/ KC/ Eagles etc have all retooled OL in 1-2 seasons.

 

if Beane can't do it, it is on him.

If Beane is aggressive in the re-tool, I’ll have faith this team still has the ability to win a Super Bowl with McDermott. 
 

To me that means:

 

-Letting go of Frazier and bringing in an aggressive/innovative DC 

 

-Out of the box personnel moves.  We all know Poyer likely walks.  Edmunds 50/50.  Nobody on this Defense outside Von, Daquan, Rousseau, Milano and Elam should be safe.  If we want money to invest in the Offense, it’s going to have to come at the detriment of the Defense.. a Defense that will have to be built around a few core pieces with schemed up/coached up modest/middle-tier contract vets and mid-late round draft picks. 
 

Edited January 24, 2023 by SCBills

[SectionC3]

2 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

I can tell you even as a fan in the stadium I was gassed yesterday.    I'm not a young man prone to letting disappointment get me down so I caffeined up and still screamed my head off every play on D.   But I didn't want to.   That Damar incident took the wind out of the sails on this season for me.    This game is supposed to be a distraction and when every week at the stadium is another story about someone or some people who got f*cked up by a tragedy it's just not fun.    And it if ain't fun.........it's hard to get energized.    Having high expectations sometimes takes you out of the moment..........but having lived thru the 4 SB years and those hard climbs back up the mountain.........those were a piece of cake emotionally compared to this season.    

This.  All day long. 

[BullBuchanan]

Saffold looked exhausted since we signed him. These guys are professionals. They really don't have any reason to be more "exhausted" than the other teams who are still playing football. Everybody faces adversity and outside of the Hamlin incident, which ended up working out as well as it possibly could, it wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

[GunnerBill]

8 hours ago, Einstein said:

Ouch.

 

“Guys were exhausted during the week and our coaches did the best they could try to modify the week . . . but there was just uncharacteristic things that were kind of happening . . . I have to kind of put that into effect and not as an excuse just this team has been fighting for so long and fighting through all of this adversity you almost run out of gas at some point,” Saffold said

 

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2023/01/23/rodger-saffold-on-bills-loss-you-almost-run-out-of-gas-at-some-point/

 

What was his excuse the other 18 games? 

[The Frankish Reich]

39 minutes ago, IronyAbounds said:

They looked to be heading for a beat down in Cincy before Hamlin dropped, so I'm not quite buying it.

That's the thing. The Bengals drives against the Bills INCLUDING the canceled game (which didn't count in the stats, but that actually was played for about a quarter):

 

- 7 plays, 66 yards, TD

- 5 plays, 79 yards, TD

- 10 plays, 72 yards, TD

- 6 plays, 14 yards, Punt

- 14 plays, 65 yards, FG

- 6 plays, 44 yards, end of half (Bills saved by the bell)

- 12 plays, 75 yards, TD

- 5 plays, 61 yards, FG

- 8 plays, 29 yards, Punt

- 2 plays, 0 yards, End of Game

 

So, not counting the garbage time "drives," the Bengals had:

 

- 7 of 8 drives moved the ball at least 44 yards. The 44 yard drive resulted in the end of the half, so you could say 6 of 7 drives gained at least 61 yards.

- again, not counting the garbage time or end of half drives, 6 of 7 drives resulted in points

 

It was total domination. I am a Leslie Frazier defender, but ... here, the Bills saw what the Bengals were going to do to us on January 2. And then seemingly changed nothing, and let the Bengals do it all over again 20 days later. This wasn't close, and at least from the defensive standpoint, the January 22 game was a resumption of the January 2 game, nothing more or less. If the defense was exhausted and out of gas on January 22, I guess it was exhausted and out of gas on January 2 too.

[prissythecat]

30 minutes ago, BullBuchanan said:

Saffold looked exhausted since we signed him. These guys are professionals. They really don't have any reason to be more "exhausted" than the other teams who are still playing football. Everybody faces adversity and outside of the Hamlin incident, which ended up working out as well as it possibly could, it wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

 

+1    thought i did read here earlier that the Bills were emotionally spent because of the two Blizzards and the Tops shooting

 

[LABILLBACKER]

8 hours ago, Success said:

It was pretty easy to see.

 

I've gotta give 'em a pass on that. They're human beings.  Buffalo has been to hell & back over the past year.

 

Did Damar meet with the team right before opening kickoff?  Could this have been some type of emotional deflation?  Hopefully next season the team doesn't have to deal with the all the stressful events of 22/23.

[TampaBillsJunkie]

8 hours ago, Patrick Fitzryan said:

There's something weird going on with this team mentally, and it has nothing to do with Hamlin or blizzards. Tough to put my finger on, but it's there. Wonder if there's some type of infighting we're unaware of.

 

I'm betting it comes out sometime after the Super Bowl.  Once the league year ends and players know they won't be back, some will talk about things that went on. 

[AlCowlingsTaxiService]

5 hours ago, Dan said:

This isn’t war... it’s entertainment.  Football players should not be compared to soldiers, IMO. 

 

Military lessons carry over to everyday life … loyalty, honor, discipline.  Those concepts carry over to professional sports as well 

[CoudyBills]

7 hours ago, frostbitmic said:

We do need a Safety (ducking for cover) we might not have any ...

 

Poyer - A FA 30+ who will likely price himself out of the Bills range

Hyde - I'll believe he'll play again after he tackles someone in preseason and gets up.

Hamlin - I think his career is over as a football player

Marlowe - FA that maybe we'll re-sign because he'll be cheap and knows the system

Johnson - FA I wouldn't bring back for vet minimum.

Might be down a corner too.  Hope Tre doesn't retire, and gets back to form.  

[Georgia Bill]

The vast majority of us wanted to believe that somehow, some way, the Bills were going to band together and rise up and win themselves and the city of Buffalo a Super Bowl championship - despite everything that had been thrown at them.  What a grand documentary that would have made.  One for the ages.  But I suspect deep down inside as the difficulties mounted and turned from bad to worse, most of us started to realize it just wasn't likely that it was going to be our year.  It takes a combination of skill and a degree of good fortune to win a championship.  And luck was something we absolutely did not have. 

 

The result yesterday wasn't what we hoped for, but if we're honest with ourselves I think we knew it wasn't going to be our year.  I'm looking forward to better seasons in the future.  Like someone said - when football can be fun again!

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

3 hours ago, Alphadawg7 said:

This team stopped having fun playing football.  Too much heavy stuff lingering over them.  

Interesting take… they need to get younger 

[AlCowlingsTaxiService]

5 hours ago, SectionC3 said:

Unless, of course, you’re the emotional crutch of the community like these guys are following Tops and crippling, deadly, back-to-back snowstorms.  Then deal with the Hamlin situation.  Enough was enough for them.  They’re tired, and it shows. 

If they were the emotional crutch of the community, then maybe they should have provided the poor downtrodden residents the emotional uplifting of a championship parade, rather than that uninspired mess. 

[CoudyBills]

6 hours ago, LabattBlue said:

“Amazing” that you feel that these highly paid professionals fell apart because of the items listed above. 

This.  The mass shooting didn't directly affect any of the players or coaches, unless I am mistaken?  Injuries happen to every team, every year.  Damar dying on the field was traumatic but he lived.  Luke Knox dying will obviously take Dawson a lifetime to get through, but he was able to bring it on Sundays.  Using any of these events are a reason for failure is just an excuse.  Many people go through tremendously stressful and emotional things in life and rise to the challenge.  

[5ths the charm]

9 hours ago, Success said:

It was pretty easy to see.

 

I've gotta give 'em a pass on that. They're human beings.  Buffalo has been to hell & back over the past year.

 

Ya, one and done...but your tired. Poor things. The hell with the playoffs if they need more sleep. Saffold needs to go. Along with the right side.of the line and anyone not on a rookie contract for d line

[HappyDays]

The more I think about how this season ended the more I hate it. Our 2020 season ended with the motto "on the cusp." 2021 ended with the motto "Superman will get it done." 2022 ended with the motto "ran out of gas." I mean what the hell man. That is embarrassing.

[Beck Water]

7 hours ago, frostbitmic said:

We do need a Safety (ducking for cover) we might not have any ...

 

Poyer - A FA 30+ who will likely price himself out of the Bills range

Hyde - I'll believe he'll play again after he tackles someone in preseason and gets up.

Hamlin - I think his career is over as a football player

Marlowe - FA that maybe we'll re-sign because he'll be cheap and knows the system

Johnson - FA I wouldn't bring back for vet minimum.

 

In McDermott's presser, he was asked about converting Christian Benford to safety and he said it was a consideration.

 

We'll see on Hamlin.  I think it's more about how his lungs recover, and what he personally wants to do, than his heart.

 

Marlowe would not be a bad re-signing for cheap.  You may see Jaquan Johnson brought back, but that would be for a ST role, not as a safety.

 

9 hours ago, Einstein said:

Ouch.

 

“Guys were exhausted during the week and our coaches did the best they could try to modify the week . . . but there was just uncharacteristic things that were kind of happening . . . I have to kind of put that into effect and not as an excuse just this team has been fighting for so long and fighting through all of this adversity you almost run out of gas at some point,” Saffold said

 

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2023/01/23/rodger-saffold-on-bills-loss-you-almost-run-out-of-gas-at-some-point/

 

If Saffold was exhausted and out of gas, maybe he needs to play on a team that ends its season after week 18.

 

9 hours ago, somnus00 said:

I'm hoping Doyle pushes Brown for the RT spot. But we need an influx of young cheap talent on the oline via the top 3 rounds of the draft.  draft.

 

That's hoping against hope, IMHO.

Edited January 24, 2023 by Beck Water

[Haslett_Stomp]

8 hours ago, Billz4ever said:

For how little Dorsey used the short throw, I don't know why they even bothered bringing him back.

 

As Florio points out here, the personnel they have doesn't match the offense Dorsey is trying to run.

 

https://twitter.com/MichaelFFlorio/status/1617562332665872384?s=20&t=MtvA-GMGthvzdXjk9saWWQ

 

Didn't they say the same thing about Rick Dennison?

[The Frankish Reich]

3 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

The more I think about how this season ended the more I hate it. Our 2020 season ended with the motto "on the cusp." 2021 ended with the motto "Superman will get it done." 2022 ended with the motto "ran out of gas." I mean what the hell man. That is embarrassing.

True.

For me ... I've been a hardcore bills fan for over 5 decades. At this point in my life of fandom, I find that it's just as important to enjoy a season -- the ups, the downs, the kind of narrative that unfolds from September to January -- as it is to have the season end triumphantly (after all, that's never happened in my life). This season just wasn't as enjoyable from a pure entertainment standpoint. Lots of close games, sure, but a little flat compared to 2020 and 2021 (and really flat compared to the bizarro "we broke the playoff drought in the most unexpected way" 2017). I think some of that may be the lack of Sunday afternoon games, but some is also that the team lost just a little bit of that youthful fire that made it so compelling the last few years.

[Simon]

3 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

In McDermott's presser, he was asked about converting Christian Benford to safety and he said it was a consideration.

 

That is very telling coming from a guy who gives up nothing.

Seeing him standing in Poyer's spot next August would give the Bills one less hole to deal with.

[Beck Water]

2 minutes ago, Simon said:

 

That is very telling coming from a guy who gives up nothing.

Seeing him standing in Poyer's spot next August would give the Bills one less hole to deal with.

 

I thought he actually gave up a number of significant bites.

 

He said that he thought Tremaine Edmunds had the best season of his career, and was the sort of player who will continue to work to get better.  I thought that was very telling.

 

He said that the game starts and ends at the line of scrimmage on both sides, and so we've got to look at that.

He said that the DL was inconsistent, especially after Von Miller went out (this is big to me, considering the number of high draft picks invested in it).  With Oliver coming up towards a contract, and with several FA, I thought that was telling.

 

Biggest thing to me was saying he wasn't going to discuss staff, when asked if the same coordinators would return.  He tried to follow up and soften it saying it was less than 24 hrs and they'd spent the day doing player interviews, but it was far from a vote of confidence.

[Beck Water]

9 hours ago, Einstein said:

Ouch.

 

“Guys were exhausted during the week and our coaches did the best they could try to modify the week . . . but there was just uncharacteristic things that were kind of happening . . . I have to kind of put that into effect and not as an excuse just this team has been fighting for so long and fighting through all of this adversity you almost run out of gas at some point,” Saffold said

 

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2023/01/23/rodger-saffold-on-bills-loss-you-almost-run-out-of-gas-at-some-point/

 

"It's not an excuse because I don't even know how you run out of gas. It's the playoffs. It's win or go home," WR Isaiah McKenzie said. "I felt like yesterday, it could have been the weather, it could have been all type of stuff … But I don't think we ran out of emotion, fuel, or whatever you call it. I just feel like we just lost, that's what it was. We played a very good team."

 

[zow2]

It just makes players or fans feel better to say stuff like they ran out of gas. It sounds better than we played hard but they are better and kicked our a$$.  

 

I’ll say the same thing i’ve said since Super Bowl 28 ended. I don’t want to see the Bills back in the SB until they are darn sure to win it. Or as close as you can be to a sure thing.  Clearly in this playoffs they were nowhere near as good as we thought early on. This club was not capable of winning the big game.

[PBF81]

10 hours ago, Einstein said:

Ouch.

 

“Guys were exhausted during the week and our coaches did the best they could try to modify the week . . . but there was just uncharacteristic things that were kind of happening . . . I have to kind of put that into effect and not as an excuse just this team has been fighting for so long and fighting through all of this adversity you almost run out of gas at some point,” Saffold said

 

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2023/01/23/rodger-saffold-on-bills-loss-you-almost-run-out-of-gas-at-some-point/

For the amount of money these guys get paid, from coaching to playing ... 

 

I've had to work 60-90 hours/week perpetually over most of the 10 years prior to the lockdowns, missing quite a bit in my life, simply to try to save my business.  At the end of it all I had nothing.   Sorry if this doesn't resonate with me.  

[boyst]

1 hour ago, TampaBillsJunkie said:

 

I'm betting it comes out sometime after the Super Bowl.  Once the league year ends and players know they won't be back, some will talk about things that went on. 

No one let out what happened in KC, Jacksonville, or San Diego. 

 

[Fan in Chicago]

46 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

 

 

If Saffold was exhausted and out of gas, maybe he needs to play on a team that ends its season after week 

But he wasn't talking only about himself,  he said "guys". Whether that is 2 or 10 or the entire team is not clear.  But right after the very underwhelming first drive of the second half,  I knew the goose was cooked.  The team had looked pretty unmotivated in the first half and if the break did not turn things around, that game was out of reach already.  In told my wife, the team doesn't have the fire today to win the game.  It was maddening,  one of the very few performances of the McD era where the team did not come to play.  

[PBF81]

10 hours ago, Einstein said:

Ouch.

 

“Guys were exhausted during the week and our coaches did the best they could try to modify the week . . . but there was just uncharacteristic things that were kind of happening . . . I have to kind of put that into effect and not as an excuse just this team has been fighting for so long and fighting through all of this adversity you almost run out of gas at some point,” Saffold said

 

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2023/01/23/rodger-saffold-on-bills-loss-you-almost-run-out-of-gas-at-some-point/

For the amount of money these guys get paid, from coaching to playing ... 

 

I've had to work 60-90 hours/week perpetually over most of the 10 years prior to the lockdowns, missing quite a bit in my life, simply to try to save my business.  At the end of it all I had nothing.   Sorry if this doesn't resonate with me.  

 

Some of our players have been "out of gas" all season.  

[HappyDays]

2 hours ago, The Frankish Reich said:

True.

For me ... I've been a hardcore bills fan for over 5 decades. At this point in my life of fandom, I find that it's just as important to enjoy a season -- the ups, the downs, the kind of narrative that unfolds from September to January -- as it is to have the season end triumphantly (after all, that's never happened in my life). This season just wasn't as enjoyable from a pure entertainment standpoint. Lots of close games, sure, but a little flat compared to 2020 and 2021 (and really flat compared to the bizarro "we broke the playoff drought in the most unexpected way" 2017). I think some of that may be the lack of Sunday afternoon games, but some is also that the team lost just a little bit of that youthful fire that made it so compelling the last few years.

 

I think it was less fun because the regular season was just a waiting game. I heard that from many Bills fans I know in real life. Everyone just waiting for the playoffs to see if we finally made it to the top of the mountain. Personally I still make it a point to enjoy each and every game no matter what, but the agony of 13 seconds was looming in the background all year and there was never any worry that we wouldn't be back in the divisional round at least with a chance to right that wrong. All of that waiting and it ends with a whimper as every unit on the team turned in their worst performance of the season.

 

I respect the fans that want to give the team a break after all the adversity they went through. But honestly the biggest problem in this playoff loss is the same it's been for 4 straight years now - our opponent had more game changing talents on the field than we did. Allen and Diggs are the only guys that step up and make plays outside of the scheme on either side of the ball. It has been a problem all year long. To be fair Von Miller was that guy. But the other contenders have guys like that all over the field on offense and defense. I think if the team ran out of gas it's because there aren't enough top tier players carrying the load for their teammates, the way that a Nick Bosa and a George Kittle and a Christian McCaffrey and a Deebo Samuel do. I think Allen after 5 years of singlehandedly dragging this franchise into relevancy finally started to feel all the bumps and bruises at the end of the season. Diggs exploded in a way we haven't seen since he demanded his way out of Minnesota. That's not a matter of too much adversity, it's a matter of too much being put on just a couple of guys in a sport that requires 4 or 5 elite guys to carry a team to the top of the mountain.

 

Edited January 24, 2023 by HappyDays

[Beck Water]

2 hours ago, PBF81 said:

For the amount of money these guys get paid, from coaching to playing ... 

 

I've had to work 60-90 hours/week perpetually over most of the 10 years prior to the lockdowns, missing quite a bit in my life, simply to try to save my business.  At the end of it all I had nothing.   Sorry if this doesn't resonate with me.  

 

I Hear That

 

I had similar thoughts when I heard Hyde talking about how it was hard to get up and go to work when it's cold and snowing out.  Like "dude, cash a reality check, you are talking to an audience of people who do that day in and day out for years, just to pay rent and put food on the table, get paid a fraction of what you get paid for it."

Some of the jobs I had, I didn't have a choice to be "out of gas", people's health or even lives were at stake.

 

I'm sure playing football all season is draining in a way I can't even imagine, but if they can't find some inner fuel when it's "win or go home" maybe they need to seek a different profession.  Or just take their pile of money and go sit on the beach.

[Bookie Man]

13 hours ago, frostbitmic said:

We do need a Safety (ducking for cover) we might not have any ...

 

Poyer - A FA 30+ who will likely price himself out of the Bills range

Hyde - I'll believe he'll play again after he tackles someone in preseason and gets up.

Hamlin - I think his career is over as a football player

Marlowe - FA that maybe we'll re-sign because he'll be cheap and knows the system

Johnson - FA I wouldn't bring back for vet minimum.

This team has glaring holes all over the roster now it seems. OL, WR, CB, possibly LB. But S might be the biggest all of a sudden. 

[Buffalo Barbarian]

Just excuses, you are millionaire athletes with all kinds of resources to recover, use them and be prepared. These chances dont come around very often, rest in the offseason.

 

 

[TampaBillsJunkie]

5 hours ago, boyst said:

No one let out what happened in KC, Jacksonville, or San Diego. 

 

No one died on the field and had to be brought back to life either. There's more to the story here.

[davefan66]

12 hours ago, BRH said:

And since I've seen a few people bring it up... I didn't think bringing Damar into the locker room before the game AND at halftime were the best moves.  Every player has a bit of PTSD from that night and every player's trigger is different.  Just because you think it's going to be a motivator for the players doesn't mean it'll work for everyone.  

 

The team should have had plenty of motivation to win yesterday regardless.  This seemed manufactured, especially since the team had already seen Damar around the facility.  I'd like to know who thought it was a good idea and ok'd it.  

I’m conflicted with this. Damar has been attending meetings, hanging around the facility for the last week. Not sure why he would deflate the team.

 

What Saffold said about “uncharacteristic things” is more concerning.  Is he pointing to a divide in the locker room? Was it a poor week of preparation?  Is he trying to bolster his view the team was tired? Not a great choice of words without providing context.