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

[UKBillFan]

Someone said it before, but it feels like they had almost lost the enjoyment of playing football - and this was before Hamlin’s collapse. In the last two years it was fun watching the Bills and they seemed to be having fun on the field. This year felt attritional, one game at a time, oh it’s a win, hooray, oh it’s a loss, boo, move on. Next game. Particularly, and I don’t know why this is the case, after the bye. It’s as though they had momentum and lost it during that break, never to return. Everything felt difficult, nothing came simple, and every single player, for the most part, didn’t play to the best of their ability.

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

16 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.

It's called ***** coaching. They all know this team is run by halfwit smoothbrains 

[Yantha]

"Sorry Boss, I'm too exhausted to work"

 

Boss:  "There's the door"

[26TrapDraw]

14 hours ago, nedboy7 said:

 

It's not like the dude stayed home hiding under his ***** bed and refused to play.  He showed up.  Didn't do well.  Did you do your best work this year?  If not you better check yourself for being weak. 

 

Says the self proclaimed beef curtain. 

Thanks for illustrating my point. These guys are fine tuned athletes . They do this for a living. To say we were gassed is just an excuse. If I told my Boss I was just tired at my job I’d get fired for not producing. So would you. You want to know why? Because life is about production. This team wants to go out and lay down after all of the adversity they fought through just to crap the bed? I bet every one of those players wants that game back. I don’t know if you’ve ever played sports but this will eat at them big time if they are competitive. There’s nothing worse than going out and losing because you didn’t try your best. It’s the worst feeling in the world. If they lost 100 to nothing and gave everything they had no one would say a word. That’s not what happened. When the smoke clears in a week they will regret this game.

OR maybe they don’t and are ok with what happened.  In which case they entire coaching staff needs to be fired because sports teams need to have a championship mentality. The Bills clearly Didn’t .

Edited January 24, 2023 by BeefCurtns

[Don Otreply]

Out of gas, WTF? 
 

it’s a one hour game that takes four plus hours to complete. On average for every one ish minutes of play there is something around ten minutes plus of rest, what a bunch of BS. Are all these guys well past their prime? Saffold certainly is,

[SoCal Deek]

18 minutes ago, BeefCurtns said:

Thanks for illustrating my point. These guys are fine tuned athletes . They do this for a living. To say we were gassed is just an excuse. If I told my Boss I was just tired at my job I’d get fired for not producing. So would you. You want to know why? Because life is about production. This team wants to go out and lay down after all of the adversity they fought through just to crap the bed? I bet every one of those players wants that game back. I don’t know if you’ve ever played sports but this will eat at them big time if they are competitive. There’s nothing worse than going out and losing because you didn’t try your best. It’s the worst feeling in the world. If they lost 100 to nothing and gave everything they had no one would say a word. That’s not what happened. When the smoke clears in a week they will regret this game.

OR maybe they don’t and are ok with what happened.  In which case they entire coaching staff needs to be fired because sports teams need to have a championship mentality. The Bills clearly Didn’t .

Very well said. I’m guessing Coach McD is okay with the latter take away. 

[Don Otreply]

3 hours ago, UKBillFan said:

Someone said it before, but it feels like they had almost lost the enjoyment of playing football - and this was before Hamlin’s collapse. In the last two years it was fun watching the Bills and they seemed to be having fun on the field. This year felt attritional, one game at a time, oh it’s a win, hooray, oh it’s a loss, boo, move on. Next game. Particularly, and I don’t know why this is the case, after the bye. It’s as though they had momentum and lost it during that break, never to return. Everything felt difficult, nothing came simple, and every single player, for the most part, didn’t play to the best of their ability.

It’s coaching, it’s the players knowing full well that they are not being put in a position to succeed. Just look at what Frazier does..,, just look at what Dorsey does…, and the powers that be, Beane & McDermott don’t see it. So how will it change? 

[Dopey]

1 hour ago, Yantha said:

"Sorry Boss, I'm too exhausted to work"

 

Boss:  "There's the door"

But he did show up to work. 

[Billzgobowlin]

I started a thread yesterday stating the same thing and I do think it is important to have perspective on this.  Josh is an emotional leader and him being down makes a huge difference.  Having said that a good portion of the team played the way they have all year.  We found out how bad a non-pressure defense could be when we don't have anyone on the backend with Poyer, Hamlin and Hyde out for good parts of it.  I want to say also some guys it was obvious they were completely done, Poyer, Allen and to an extent Dawkins looked done.  With Miller and Hyde already out I think they didn't stand a chance. 

[Billz4ever]

11 hours ago, Haslett_Stomp said:

 

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

Think so

[nedboy7]

4 hours ago, BeefCurtns said:

Thanks for illustrating my point. These guys are fine tuned athletes . They do this for a living. To say we were gassed is just an excuse. If I told my Boss I was just tired at my job I’d get fired for not producing. So would you. You want to know why? Because life is about production. This team wants to go out and lay down after all of the adversity they fought through just to crap the bed? I bet every one of those players wants that game back. I don’t know if you’ve ever played sports but this will eat at them big time if they are competitive. There’s nothing worse than going out and losing because you didn’t try your best. It’s the worst feeling in the world. If they lost 100 to nothing and gave everything they had no one would say a word. That’s not what happened. When the smoke clears in a week they will regret this game.

OR maybe they don’t and are ok with what happened.  In which case they entire coaching staff needs to be fired because sports teams need to have a championship mentality. The Bills clearly Didn’t .

 

Such a over simplified Hallmark response.  Yeah they dont have the same winning mentality that you bring to your job.  Thanks for the lecture curtns. 

[TheFunPolice]

As mad as we are, this is their careers.

 

So much work, from May until January, all down the drain because they couldn't muster up the energy to compete in the Divisional Round with a realistic shot at the Super Bowl?

 

OK. Hey, it is what it is. Like I said, it's their careers. 

 

Spare me the "Super Bowl favorites!" talk all next season. I don't GAF if they are 10-0 at one point. The whole POINT is to get to January football. 

Edited January 24, 2023 by TheFunPolice

[Buffalo_Stampede]

Tired? Saffold got beat clean on the 1st drive. Josh has to alter his throw. Diggs might have scored a TD.

[zow2]

The beat down on Sunday gave me pause to think more about the cancelled MNF game.  It was widely reported in the week that followed that it was A) difficult to find a slot to complete the MNF game and B) the Bills preference was to put that game behind them, and move forward....Adam Shefter said that team/league officials felt there was "bad mojo" associated with that game.  So the league was going to lean in whatever direction the Bills wanted to go.  Obviously The Bills wanted to leave the MNF game behind.  

Was that the start of the team moving from deep emotional concern for a teammate to maybe football isn't all that important?  I don't know.  Part of me thinks that if they completed that MNF game in "week 19"  it could have resulted in the Bills getting blown out.  In which case they would have played the Divisional (if they made it in Cincy)..and maybe would have learned better what it took to beat the Bengals.  

[Lost]

Couldn't muster up 3 hours of effort to get over that hump so now instead they get to slog through another 7-8 months next year just to maybe get to the same spot that they were at 3pm on Sunday.

[TheBrownBear]

9 hours ago, UKBillFan said:

Someone said it before, but it feels like they had almost lost the enjoyment of playing football - and this was before Hamlin’s collapse. In the last two years it was fun watching the Bills and they seemed to be having fun on the field. This year felt attritional, one game at a time, oh it’s a win, hooray, oh it’s a loss, boo, move on. Next game. Particularly, and I don’t know why this is the case, after the bye. It’s as though they had momentum and lost it during that break, never to return. Everything felt difficult, nothing came simple, and every single player, for the most part, didn’t play to the best of their ability.

Yep.  It was almost as if the Chiefs game was the Bills' Super Bowl.  All of the good vibes, confidence, energy were building towards that moment, and then with Josh leading that late comeback and Von and our secondary sealing the win and confirming we had made all the right moves to get us over the top of the Chiefs' mountain, we were absolutely on cloud 9 as a team and fanbase, getting tons of love and respect from the national media.  We'd get our one week break and then it would be a simple 14 game cakewalk towards our coronation as SB champs.  But then our focus began to wane, sloppiness creeped in, injuries piled up and what was supposed to be a joyous 14 game gallop towards a Lombardi became a joyless slog of just getting to the finish line of the regular season, by which point we had numerous glaring issues in our coaching, execution and personnel availability.  

[hondo in seattle]

On 1/23/2023 at 9:25 AM, 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.

 

 

I'm torn on this.  On the one hand, I appreciate these guys are humans with human frailties and emotions.  There was a lot going on this season.  

 

On the other hand, as an old soldier, I can't stand the out-of-gas mentality.  If a soldier told me that, he'd be out of my unit in a hurry.  When there's a battle to be fought, you fight with everything you have.  You do it for a lot of reasons but mostly for the love you have for your brothers (and sisters).  I wouldn't want to go to war with anyone who's going to let out-of-gas considerations enter their mind.   Deal with your feelings after the battle.  Before the fight - during the fight - it's full throttle.  That's how warriors think and behave.  

 

Despite my efforts to be a compassionate, understanding person, I have to admit I'm disappointed to hear the out-of-gas sentiments coming from the Bills locker room.  

[nucci]

It's a longer season now and every player is tired and beat up. No excuse for not showing up Sunday.

[blacklabel]

This was a strange season. It was pretty clear they were out of gas Sunday. 

 

The injury bug decimated them this year. And those are just the injuries we know about. Who knows how many guys were out there playing thru stuff. I believe every opening day defensive starter missed at least one game this year. 

 

A blizzard rolled thru town and cost them a home game. Then three games in 12 days. Von Miller done for the year. Damar Hamlin drops dead on the field. Game gets cancelled. Team is rattled after nearly losing a brother.

 

It is what it is...just doesn't work out the way we want sometimes. I feel bad for us fans. I mean, I feel bad for the players as well but not too bad. I mean, most of them are leaving the stadium in really nice cars taking them to really nice houses with families and fat bank accounts. (yes I know a practice squad guy might not be making mad bank but he's doing a lot better than most of us). 

[nucci]

10 minutes ago, blacklabel said:

This was a strange season. It was pretty clear they were out of gas Sunday. 

 

The injury bug decimated them this year. And those are just the injuries we know about. Who knows how many guys were out there playing thru stuff. I believe every opening day defensive starter missed at least one game this year. 

 

A blizzard rolled thru town and cost them a home game. Then three games in 12 days. Von Miller done for the year. Damar Hamlin drops dead on the field. Game gets cancelled. Team is rattled after nearly losing a brother.

 

It is what it is...just doesn't work out the way we want sometimes. I feel bad for us fans. I mean, I feel bad for the players as well but not too bad. I mean, most of them are leaving the stadium in really nice cars taking them to really nice houses with families and fat bank accounts. (yes I know a practice squad guy might not be making mad bank but he's doing a lot better than most of us). 

I really wish people would stop saying this

[26TrapDraw]

4 hours ago, nedboy7 said:

 

Such a over simplified Hallmark response.  Yeah they dont have the same winning mentality that you bring to your job.  Thanks for the lecture curtns. 

No problem. Anything else you want to know just reach out.

[Scott7975]

33 minutes ago, blacklabel said:

This was a strange season. It was pretty clear they were out of gas Sunday. 

 

The injury bug decimated them this year. And those are just the injuries we know about. Who knows how many guys were out there playing thru stuff. I believe every opening day defensive starter missed at least one game this year. 

 

A blizzard rolled thru town and cost them a home game. Then three games in 12 days. Von Miller done for the year. Damar Hamlin drops dead on the field. Game gets cancelled. Team is rattled after nearly losing a brother.

 

It is what it is...just doesn't work out the way we want sometimes. I feel bad for us fans. I mean, I feel bad for the players as well but not too bad. I mean, most of them are leaving the stadium in really nice cars taking them to really nice houses with families and fat bank accounts. (yes I know a practice squad guy might not be making mad bank but he's doing a lot better than most of us). 

 

Every team deals with injuries.  So what if they had to deal with getting to the airport because of snow for one game.  Hamlin is different but the fact he pulled through like he did should have invigored them.  Im not buying any of this as a reason to lay down playing for a championship.

[SectionC3]

13 hours ago, UKBillFan said:

Someone said it before, but it feels like they had almost lost the enjoyment of playing football - and this was before Hamlin’s collapse. In the last two years it was fun watching the Bills and they seemed to be having fun on the field. This year felt attritional, one game at a time, oh it’s a win, hooray, oh it’s a loss, boo, move on. Next game. Particularly, and I don’t know why this is the case, after the bye. It’s as though they had momentum and lost it during that break, never to return. Everything felt difficult, nothing came simple, and every single player, for the most part, didn’t play to the best of their ability.

Agreed.  The Allen/Diggs hug in Detroit sums it up.  Relief, but not joy. 

Edited January 24, 2023 by SectionC3

[BobbyC81]

On 1/23/2023 at 9:54 AM, RoyBatty is alive said:

I have to agree.

 

What about all the chatter about Frazier deserves a HC job blah blah blah?  Where is that now?  

 

 

As someone else mentioned I think we get a 3rd rnd pick if some team grabs him which would be a win- win for the Bills.

Since Frazier’s contract now ends, they don’t have to do anything but hope he just goes away.

 

After he checks with Beane on the status of a new contract for a few weeks, he might get the message.  Then they just announce that they mutually agreed to part ways.

[Nitro]

On 1/23/2023 at 12:23 PM, 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/

As someone who lost friends while on the Army, these things take a toll.  You might seem fine but you are mentally and emotionally worn out.  I could tell that they were running on fumes last week.  They needed a break but unfortunately that is not how things work in the NFL 

[machine gun kelly]

It’s an explanation, and they did have more to deal with than any other team, but still should’ve worked through it.

 

They have no one to blame, but themselves.  This was by far the worst I’ve seen perform this year.  The MN loss was Flutie, the best as we know in Miami, and the Jets legitimately beat us.

 
This game was just miserable to watch.

[BBills_88]

He been out of gas all year

[fathersnowman]

all i would say is, did our team get better no, the coaching as been bad most of the season. we could end up being the third best team in our division. All i want is the bills that fight for every play, sick and tired of hearing too tired. dc must go and dorsey you have had your bedding in , show us what you have got...as mgk said. the game was over in first quarter...

[ohiotim]

On 1/23/2023 at 12:34 PM, colin said:

diggs wasn't, he was fired up when guys had their heads down.

 

so, buffalo was a hot item this offseason, we saw on tape miller talk to his dad about joining in order to chase a ring on a 3rd team.  i think miller figured, ok this is my best shot at more glory.  once the going got tough, the team started to lose focus and energy, all the emotional crap w hamlin, the neutral site stuff, our team lost focus.

 

thats on the coaches as much as anyone else.  our team has a toughness problem.

"The emotional crap w hamlin." I hope you're just being flippant and not dismissing the fact their teammate and friend died on the field in front of them. Cuz if not, that's just sick.

[colin]

15 minutes ago, ohiotim said:

"The emotional crap w hamlin." I hope you're just being flippant and not dismissing the fact their teammate and friend died on the field in front of them. Cuz if not, that's just sick.

 

nope.  leaning into it so hard, bringing him into the locker room DURING THE GAME in some like made for TV moment, constant media presence.  it got out of control and the team lost focus.  it took on a life of its own, and instead of it being a buffalo locker room thing, it became a national attention thing.  the team should have had visits and interactions w hamlin and kept it in house.  the team should have skipped practice and mollycoddled players weeks after the incident.  the guy has had a pretty fortunate recovery and it should not have been impacting the team last week.

[Coach Tuesday]

1 minute ago, colin said:

 

nope.  leaning into it so hard, bringing him into the locker room DURING THE GAME in some like made for TV moment, constant media presence.  it got out of control and the team lost focus.  it took on a life of its own, and instead of it being a buffalo locker room thing, it became a national attention thing.  the team should have had visits and interactions w hamlin and kept it in house.  the team should have skipped practice and mollycoddled players weeks after the incident.  the guy has had a pretty fortunate recovery and it should not have been impacting the team last week.

 

It made zero difference.  The game was over within the first 3 minutes.

[colin]

Just now, Coach Tuesday said:

 

It made zero difference.  The game was over within the first 3 minutes.

 

look, we may have never won that game even playing our best given injuries and the talent difference/match up, but IMO our annual quit game came at the worst possible time and this was it.  we lost after the 2nd or 3rd drive largely because the team quit and that is a result of coaching and preparation perhaps even more so than the players and their emotions 

[RyanC883]

On 1/23/2023 at 6:00 PM, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

It really is not ridiculous at all. Nor pathetic. And certainly not insulting in any sense of the word, that's absolute nonsense.

 

You and I may not like it. But they're human. Humans aren't computers. They have bad days. Their emotions affect performance. They can't always perform as well as they'd like to. 

 

All of us, not just them. There isn't one of us hasn't had a bad day at an important time in our life.

 

Still plenty of reason for us to be frustrated. And them too.

 

 

 

It is insulting.  Taking other peoples tragedies and blaming them for your weak performance.  None of those tragedies made the DL suck, made the CBs play off the WR, etc. Sorry, not buying it.  Excuses every year for McD.   

[ohiotim]

On 1/25/2023 at 11:29 AM, colin said:

 

nope.  leaning into it so hard, bringing him into the locker room DURING THE GAME in some like made for TV moment, constant media presence.  it got out of control and the team lost focus.  it took on a life of its own, and instead of it being a buffalo locker room thing, it became a national attention thing.  the team should have had visits and interactions w hamlin and kept it in house.  the team should have skipped practice and mollycoddled players weeks after the incident.  the guy has had a pretty fortunate recovery and it should not have been impacting the team last week.

And this is why I read but rarely post. Think because you bought a hat players are inhuman robots that should die for you. Enjoy that karma.

[Buffaloflash]

On 1/23/2023 at 12:32 PM, Einstein said:

Saffold was a bad signing from the start. Beane needs to stop building a line from the scrap heap.

That line was good enough to win 16 games, and those three losses wasn't on the line.

[colin]

7 minutes ago, ohiotim said:

And this is why I read but rarely post. Think because you bought a hat players are inhuman robots that should die for you. Enjoy that karma.

 

lol, is asking millionaire pro athletes to prepare and put in effort in the biggest game of their careers weeks after their teammate has recovered from a traumatic injury the same thing as working a robot to death?

 

hoping management applies a little discretion to the event rather than flip it into a media frenzy, im worse than the spartan's with the helots!!

[PauleeeWalnuts]

On 1/24/2023 at 1:41 PM, Lost said:

Couldn't muster up 3 hours of effort to get over that hump so now instead they get to slog through another 7-8 months next year just to maybe get to the same spot that they were at 3pm on Sunday.

And that’s a big maybe…they will have to shed a lot in the off-season to get under the cap

[ExiledInIllinois]

18 hours ago, colin said:

 

lol, is asking millionaire pro athletes to prepare and put in effort in the biggest game of their careers weeks after their teammate has recovered from a traumatic injury the same thing as working a robot to death?

 

hoping management applies a little discretion to the event rather than flip it into a media frenzy, im worse than the spartan's with the helots!!

Yes. Because the occupational hazards are real. Most will be out of the game in a few years, but the effects of the game will linger on for many as a detriment to themselves and others in society.  That's the big thing. They are damaged and then sent back into society broken.   Sound familar?

[prissythecat]

4 hours ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

Yes. Because the occupational hazards are real. Most will be out of the game in a few years, but the effects of the game will linger on for many as a detriment to themselves and others in society.  That's the big thing. They are damaged and then sent back into society broken.   Sound familar?

 

you are comparing playing a game to being in the military and fighting in a war ?

[ExiledInIllinois]

18 minutes ago, prissythecat said:

 

you are comparing playing a game to being in the military and fighting in a war ?

Both send them back into society broken. Both are exposed to death. So yeah I guess after what happened the risks are real. 

 

This is no time for a pissing contest. Both bring their occupational hazards of injury and death.

Edited January 28, 2023 by ExiledInIllinois