Dawkins talks Bills, Diggs on Cowherd

[GunnerBill]

36 minutes ago, newcam2012 said:

It's all good Gunner. We don't see things in the same light. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I'll always put much credence into what you say. 

 

My eyes see a very good Bills team that has squandered winninable playoff games under the McD regime. Texans, Jags, and KC come to mind off the top of my head. Thus, you have a 4-5 playoff record and not even a close sniff at a SB appearence. Imho, they squandered precious opportunities.  Has the team progressed in their playoff appearances? With KC and Cinci likely going nowhere anytime soon the road to the SB looks difficult, maybe unlikely. 

 

No worries because many fans are more than satisfied with great regular season records and a playoff appearences. Bills have certainly done that well. Just think how much better that is than the past. Football as a Bills fan as been thoroughly more enjoyable. A SB appearence or win would only be gravy on top.

 

Silly me for critizing a team, coaching staff, and organization who by all measures has enough talent to represent the AFC. Silly me for not accepting excuses as to why the Bills haven't made it to a SB? 

 

The beauty of it all is there's always next year. Next year brings new hope, enthusiasm, and optimism. Don't let me rain on anyone's parade. I hear the lyrics "Don't worry be happy" playing in the background. Great song!

 

Signed by a older Bills fan that's been waiting 50 plus years for a Bills player to hoist a Lombardi Trophy. 

 

Nobody has ever said don't criticise the team. But when you respond to other posters respond to what they have actually said. 

[newcam2012]

45 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Nobody has ever said don't criticise the team. But when you respond to other posters respond to what they have actually said. 

I agree but I also think one can make reasonable inferences based on what someone says. 

 

For example, if someone says I was really sweating while I slowly walked outside today. I think one could infer that the weather was hot outside. 

 

Similarly, when one talks about a players/team being flat and then uses an example of a players wanting it so bad they just couldn't perform well. I think one can reasonable infer that the two are interrelated or intertwined. 

Edited July 16, 2023 by newcam2012

[GunnerBill]

5 minutes ago, newcam2012 said:

I agree but I also think one can make reasonable inferences based on what someone says. 

 

For example, if someone says I was really sweating while I slowly walked outside today. I think one could infer that the weather was hot outside. 

 

Similarly, when one talks about a players/team being flat and then uses an example of a players wanting it so bad they just couldn't perform well. I think one can reasonable infer that the two are interrelated or intertwined. 

 

I think you had to be willfully seeking to miss the context of the example which was about coming out flat and playing your worst game.

[Billl]

22 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

I think you are dead wrong. Not because I have an agenda to protect the team. Nobody who knows me has ever accused me of that. But because I think you are wrong. I think you have never played competitive sport at a serious level and have never experienced that feeling that you want it so bad and yet your body won't meet your own expectations. I have. And that is what I saw on that field. The Bills were flat as hell from the first snap. 

 

The Bengals did move the ball on us at will in the first drive and a half of the Hamlin game, but the Bills moved the ball easily on them too. That is not what happened in the playoffs.

 

So I'll be honest. I completely honestly and objectively think you are totally wrong.

Teams aren’t flat for 60 minutes.  That just doesn’t happen.  The Chiefs came out flat against the Texans in 2019 when they were down 24-0 and couldn’t hang onto a ball to save their lives.  Same thing in 2020 against the Bills when Hill dropped the bomb on the first drive and then Hardman fumbled the punt on the second drive to go down 9-0.  

 

That wasn’t what happened when Buffalo played Cincy.  They started out the previous matchup getting manhandled by the Bengals before the game got canceled, and the playoff game picked up right where that one left off.  Without Von, the Bills didn’t have the horses up front to pressure Burrow, and there was no way in hell that Buffalo’s depleted secondary could hang with Chase, Higgins, Boyd, and Hurst. 

 

The Bengals had more talent on the field that day, and they were about as bad of a matchup stylistically as it gets for the Bills.  The result was a good old fashioned butt whipping.  It happens.

[newcam2012]

4 hours ago, Billl said:

Teams aren’t flat for 60 minutes.  That just doesn’t happen.  The Chiefs came out flat against the Texans in 2019 when they were down 24-0 and couldn’t hang onto a ball to save their lives.  Same thing in 2020 against the Bills when Hill dropped the bomb on the first drive and then Hardman fumbled the punt on the second drive to go down 9-0.  

 

That wasn’t what happened when Buffalo played Cincy.  They started out the previous matchup getting manhandled by the Bengals before the game got canceled, and the playoff game picked up right where that one left off.  Without Von, the Bills didn’t have the horses up front to pressure Burrow, and there was no way in hell that Buffalo’s depleted secondary could hang with Chase, Higgins, Boyd, and Hurst. 

 

The Bengals had more talent on the field that day, and they were about as bad of a matchup stylistically as it gets for the Bills.  The result was a good old fashioned butt whipping.  It happens.

Agree 100% Bill. Yet, so many fans refuse to see the obvious. 

 

Instead lots of fans want to cling to the Bills were flat and or exhausted from previous season's unfortunate events. That's just a tiny portion of the truth. 

 

Nice post Bill! 

Edited July 17, 2023 by newcam2012

[GunnerBill]

9 hours ago, Billl said:

Teams aren’t flat for 60 minutes.  That just doesn’t happen.  The Chiefs came out flat against the Texans in 2019 when they were down 24-0 and couldn’t hang onto a ball to save their lives.  Same thing in 2020 against the Bills when Hill dropped the bomb on the first drive and then Hardman fumbled the punt on the second drive to go down 9-0.  

 

That wasn’t what happened when Buffalo played Cincy.  They started out the previous matchup getting manhandled by the Bengals before the game got canceled, and the playoff game picked up right where that one left off.  Without Von, the Bills didn’t have the horses up front to pressure Burrow, and there was no way in hell that Buffalo’s depleted secondary could hang with Chase, Higgins, Boyd, and Hurst. 

 

The Bengals had more talent on the field that day, and they were about as bad of a matchup stylistically as it gets for the Bills.  The result was a good old fashioned butt whipping.  It happens.

 

I am afraid you are absolutely and 100% wrong. It does. 

[Billl]

4 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

I am afraid you are absolutely and 100% wrong. It does. 

So it wasn’t that they didn’t have the pass rush talent to pressure Burrow without Von.  It wasn’t that Chase, Higgins, Boyd, and Hurst completely outclassed the Bills depleted secondary.  It certainly wasn’t that the Bills couldn’t protect Allen, nor was it that the Bills don’t have any backs capable of creating for themselves when the Defensive Line is winning up front.  It’s just a coincidence that the exact same thing was happening when the teams played three weeks earlier.

 

Nope.  55 players came out flat that day, and they all happened to be wearing blue.  That makes a lot more sense than thinking that the defending AFC champions were actually a much better team than the Bills were by the end of the season.  It wasn’t that the Bengals looked like they were going to boat race the Bills 3 weeks prior and then validated it in the playoffs.  It was that the Bills were “flat” (whatever that actually means).

[Aimee75]

On 7/15/2023 at 9:34 PM, newcam2012 said:

Come on Gunner. You watched that Monday night game. There's no way you could objectively think the Bills were going to win that game. Sure it's a remote chance they do and we will never know. However, the Bengals were manhandling the vaunted Bills defense. The Bills offense had a nice scoring drive and then stalled out. The Bengals were physically dominating the Bills and doing what they wanted at will on offense. They were soon to be going up two scores before Damar got hurt. Almost everyone I've talked to Bills fans and otherwise have concurred the Bills were well on their way to a convincing loss. It's hard not to think otherwise if you are being objective. 

 

 

I know this isn't addressed to me, but I felt like the Bills offense moved along quite nicely in the first Bengals game. The Bills have played in games where they looked like they were about to get blown out, or just plain getting blown out, only to come back and make it a game(Tampa Bay in 2021, Ravens game last year). Our defense looked pretty bad in the Monday Night game, but it looked to me like it was setting up to be a shootout. I think it was going to be a good game, quite possibly similar to the divisional one we had against The Chiefs.

 

We will never know for sure, but I felt way better about The Bills chances in the Monday night game vs the divisional.

[GunnerBill]

23 minutes ago, Billl said:

So it wasn’t that they didn’t have the pass rush talent to pressure Burrow without Von.  It wasn’t that Chase, Higgins, Boyd, and Hurst completely outclassed the Bills depleted secondary.  It certainly wasn’t that the Bills couldn’t protect Allen, nor was it that the Bills don’t have any backs capable of creating for themselves when the Defensive Line is winning up front.  It’s just a coincidence that the exact same thing was happening when the teams played three weeks earlier.

 

Nope.  55 players came out flat that day, and they all happened to be wearing blue.  That makes a lot more sense than thinking that the defending AFC champions were actually a much better team than the Bills were by the end of the season.  It wasn’t that the Bengals looked like they were going to boat race the Bills 3 weeks prior and then validated it in the playoffs.  It was that the Bills were “flat” (whatever that actually means).

 

If you think that was anything close to the Bills players that were on the field that day at their best you are wrong. And the same thing didn't happen 3 weeks before. Yes, the Benglas moved the ball, but the Bills moved the ball as well, right down the field and just didn't punch it in. And even thought the Bengals moved the ball the Bills were challenging them. They were tackling. In the playoff game the Bills were completely flat. That was nothing like the performance that the bills players on the field that day were capable of. They might well have lost anyway. The Bengals might well just be better. But that game wasn't a test of that. It was a test of who turned up. And the Bills laid an egg. It was their worst performance in a season and a half. It just came at a terrible time. 

14 minutes ago, Aimee75 said:

I know this isn't addressed to me, but I felt like the Bills offense moved along quite nicely in the first Bengals game. The Bills have played in games where they looked like they were about to get blown out, or just plain getting blown out, only to come back and make it a game(Tampa Bay in 2021, Ravens game last year). Our defense looked pretty bad in the Monday Night game, but it looked to me like it was setting up to be a shootout. I think it was going to be a good game, quite possibly similar to the divisional one we had against The Chiefs.

 

We will never know for sure, but I felt way better about The Bills chances in the Monday night game vs the divisional.

 

Agree with this and just the energy and the body language of the players was different. I am perfectly willing to accept that the Bengals might have beaten us both times even if we had played close to our best game. Maybe they are just better. I am not closed to that possibility at all. But the Bills players looked defeated from the very first snap in the playoff game.