Serious question - did you really think THIS was the team that would win a championship?

[ngbills]

Any year there a a handful of teams in the could win it conversation. We were one of those teams. Helping matters was Burrow going down and KC struggling on O. So yes we should have been a contender and we were. 

[Draconator]

I totally thought this would be the team that would get to the Super Bowl. I'm bummed that we lost, but I'm hoping we retool to get us to where we need to be. Not sure if McDermott is the answer.

[nedboy7]

No I did not.  Even with the 5 game win streak.  I did think it was very admirable how they took the division but I thought Baltimore was as far we go.  You could tell something was off with the offense, especially concerning Diggs.  And the defense never had a chance even if some of the players were able to suit up.  I oddly have a good feeling about next year.  Maybe I'm crazy. 

[Meatloaf63]

40 minutes ago, Steptide said:

I'm just as mad/dissapointed that we lost last night as any other bills fan today. Last week I heard alot on local sports talk radio about how this was our year and how if we just beat kc, it's gotta be our year finally. OK, based on what?! 

 

The last 8 games have been fun. Nobody thought this team would win the division, let alone be the 2 seed and host 2 home playoff games. Having said that, our offense needs serious help. Allen is an absolute animal, but he can't do absolutely everything. I've seen Diggs take alot of flack today on social media and it's well deserved. He's been non existentent the last 8 or so games. Harty and sherfield were complete non factors the entire season. Gabe played nowhere near what we (and the team) expected. Knox was hurt and even when he wasn't, he wasn't exactly a game changer. Kinkaid and Shakir were the lone bright spots, and Shakir really didn't show up until after Dorsey was gone. Cook was great, but we need more. The defense came through, even as beat up as they've been, but in today's nfl you cannot rely solely on the defense. WGR brought up a great point this morning, saying how kc has won superbowls when their defense was ranked in the mid 20's. We need more offense. 

 

I could go on and on, but Imo this wasn't the team that was gonna win it all. I was worried about last night's game, and even had they pulled it out, I'd never believe they could get through Baltimore. Houston has a similar offense to Buffalo and they couldn't muster more than 3 points on offense against Baltimore. Ya I know they have a rookie qb, but stroud is a beast. It'll be super interesting to see what kc does against Baltimore next week. I think Baltimore beats kc by 10 🤷 thanks for letting me vent 

Not in it’s current condition, before the Pittsburgh game I’d give them a chance.

[Logic]

5 minutes ago, BobBelcher said:

No, but most people would have said the same thing about KC…

 

Hopefully Ravens are dominant in the AFCCG.

 

i know this game is all about matchups, but if the Ravens D shuts down Mahomes and does what we were unable to do (decent chance) then I’ll feel at least a little better.

Fair point, but I WILL say that the fact that the Chiefs have the best defense of the Mahomes era and essentially the same roster as last year's Lombardi winning squad (minus Smith-Schuster and plus Rashee Rice) makes them a bit different than the Bills.

Their offense under-achieved this year and their receiving corps regressed, yes. But at the same time, their defense took a quantum leap forward. 

Unlike the Bills, they were NOT missing their best defensive player (and one of their top three players overall) all year. Losing Milano for the year would be the equivalent of the Chiefs losing Chris Jones for the year.

The Chiefs were likely one Kadarius Toney Offside call from being the two seed again.

All of that said, I do get your point. It was a down year for them by their standards, and here they are in the AFCCG yet again. I'm just saying I think they faced considerably less adversity (struggling passing game) than the Bills (defensive injuries, OC firing, Dunne article and its fallout).

Edited January 22 by Logic

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

One of Bernard/milano healthy and my expectations probably would’ve been higher…thought we’d sneak by K.C. and get rocked by Baltimore in the afc championship 

Edited January 22 by Generic_Bills_Fan

[Bob Jones]

At the start of the year, yes. At the start of December, no.

[gonzo1105]

I think they had as good a shot of anyone but I don’t think they were the favorites by any stretch. Beating Baltimore in Baltimore would have been a chore too

[SCBills]

I thought if they beat KC, and got some guys back… yea. 
 

And I thought they would beat KC. 
 

Im officially GW Bush levels of can’t be fooled again with McDermott now, so from here on out, put me down for a no. 

[julian]

The injuries pretty much ended a real championship run, but they had enough to beat KC at home, but once again McDermott’s playoff D showed up and KC had guys like MVS make plays on the ball downfield while Diggs ***** the bed for Allen.

[nbbillsfan]

Yes, I did. 
 

No Burrow, a very beatable chiefs team and a ravens team who I think McDermott knows how to beat (unlike the chiefs).

 

my belief that we could win a superbowl was perhaps more an indication of what I thought of other teams than what i thought of the bills. 

[ChronicAndKnuckles]

41 minutes ago, Steptide said:

I'm just as mad/dissapointed that we lost last night as any other bills fan today. Last week I heard alot on local sports talk radio about how this was our year and how if we just beat kc, it's gotta be our year finally. OK, based on what?! 

 

The last 8 games have been fun. Nobody thought this team would win the division, let alone be the 2 seed and host 2 home playoff games. Having said that, our offense needs serious help. Allen is an absolute animal, but he can't do absolutely everything. I've seen Diggs take alot of flack today on social media and it's well deserved. He's been non existentent the last 8 or so games. Harty and sherfield were complete non factors the entire season. Gabe played nowhere near what we (and the team) expected. Knox was hurt and even when he wasn't, he wasn't exactly a game changer. Kinkaid and Shakir were the lone bright spots, and Shakir really didn't show up until after Dorsey was gone. Cook was great, but we need more. The defense came through, even as beat up as they've been, but in today's nfl you cannot rely solely on the defense. WGR brought up a great point this morning, saying how kc has won superbowls when their defense was ranked in the mid 20's. We need more offense. 

 

I could go on and on, but Imo this wasn't the team that was gonna win it all. I was worried about last night's game, and even had they pulled it out, I'd never believe they could get through Baltimore. Houston has a similar offense to Buffalo and they couldn't muster more than 3 points on offense against Baltimore. Ya I know they have a rookie qb, but stroud is a beast. It'll be super interesting to see what kc does against Baltimore next week. I think Baltimore beats kc by 10 🤷 thanks for letting me vent 

Yes. Yes I do. With the strong showing in the last 1/3 of the season I truly believed this was the year. Nobody knows what would’ve happened if Bass made that kick. People acting like KC was going to score on their last regulation drive didn’t see the ending to the regular season game against them and the Bills were well overdo for an OT win. Football is about matchups and I feel we matchup much better against the Ravens. I guess we’ll never know now, but people acting like it’s written in stone that the Bills weren’t going to advance past the Ravens are delusional to me. We were set to get back Bernard who I think would’ve made a huge difference considering how much Klein got abused. Lamar Jackson isn’t near the same level as Mahomes no matter what the media tries to say. 

[JohnNord]

48 minutes ago, Chaos said:

This was the week that mattered.  Prior to the season more or less 100% of Bills fans expected the team to make the divisional round of the playoffs.  And they did.  And they lost again.  This team was built to win last year.  But with an aged defense and salary cap issues, it is not clear next years team is poised to be better. 
 

So I will flip the question back to you, if not this year, when? 

I’ll agree with you.  Just beating KC would have helped.  We could avoid all of the bull#### narratives about Bills not being able to beat KC when it mattered.

 

To the original point, I thought that once Milano went down it was going to be really hard to win a Super Bowl.  You don’t just lose an All Pro player - especially one at a position of little depth and recover that easily.  
 

If the Bills somehow won this week, I don’t think they’d fare well against Baltimore but you never know 

[Livinginthepast]

43 minutes ago, Steptide said:

I'm just as mad/dissapointed that we lost last night as any other bills fan today. Last week I heard alot on local sports talk radio about how this was our year and how if we just beat kc, it's gotta be our year finally. OK, based on what?! 

 

The last 8 games have been fun. Nobody thought this team would win the division, let alone be the 2 seed and host 2 home playoff games. Having said that, our offense needs serious help. Allen is an absolute animal, but he can't do absolutely everything. I've seen Diggs take alot of flack today on social media and it's well deserved. He's been non existentent the last 8 or so games. Harty and sherfield were complete non factors the entire season. Gabe played nowhere near what we (and the team) expected. Knox was hurt and even when he wasn't, he wasn't exactly a game changer. Kinkaid and Shakir were the lone bright spots, and Shakir really didn't show up until after Dorsey was gone. Cook was great, but we need more. The defense came through, even as beat up as they've been, but in today's nfl you cannot rely solely on the defense. WGR brought up a great point this morning, saying how kc has won superbowls when their defense was ranked in the mid 20's. We need more offense. 

 

I could go on and on, but Imo this wasn't the team that was gonna win it all. I was worried about last night's game, and even had they pulled it out, I'd never believe they could get through Baltimore. Houston has a similar offense to Buffalo and they couldn't muster more than 3 points on offense against Baltimore. Ya I know they have a rookie qb, but stroud is a beast. It'll be super interesting to see what kc does against Baltimore next week. I think Baltimore beats kc by 10 🤷 thanks for letting me vent 

I thought this team might be able to do it (even with the awful injuries ) if it peaked at the right moment. Ive watched football since the 79 season, Its not unusual for a team to come out of relative nowhere and win a championship. They just got hot and caught some breaks. The Raiders in 1980, The Giants against us in 1990, The Pats first SB, Baltimore's first SB with Trent Dilfer as QB. All these teams rounded into form and caught some lucky breaks on their way to winning. I really thought that might happen to us and we finally had KCs number. Now looking back 24 hours later, that was somewhat delusional, possibly nuts. The key injury for me was Milano, even as well as Bernard played this season as the leader of the defense, Milano was the glue that held it together and the playmaker when you needed him. The one guy that could by himself turn around a game by leading by example. We have not had that defensive leader since he went down. Even last night there was nobody to stem the tide when KC got rolling. Just one INT or sack might have done it but they had nothing. We did get some luck with the touchback fumble but it wasnt enough! 

 

As for KC vs the Ravens. I still think that Lamar implodes. Mahomes is just too savvy under the pressure to be beaten.

[MPL]

I thought maybe this team had a little 2007 or 2011 Giants in them. I wasn't confident that they would get there or win it but I did start to allow myself to believe that maybe it could happen. The story started to feel good. 6 wins in a row, finally a home game against KC, Allen's 3rd playoff matchup against Mahomes. Were we going to beat Baltimore? I don't know. If they beat KC, I could see that momentum vaulting them into an upset victory in Baltimore and then the Super Bowl. 

But... good stories are just that — stories. In the real world the rich get richer, they dynasties win, and the little guy loses in the end. 

[ShakAttack]

12 minutes ago, SCBills said:

I thought if they beat KC, and got some guys back… yea. 
 

And I thought they would beat KC. 
 

Im officially GW Bush levels of can’t be fooled again with McDermott now, so from here on out, put me down for a no. 

I agree with this, and I imagine we would have got some guys back if we beat KC. 
 

This is a tough one for me. Yes, we were badly injured, etc, but we found a way to play well again, and down the stretch we were able to beat 3 teams that ended up in the playoffs. So, while I did believe Ravens would most likely beat whoever they ended up playing in the AFCCG, I also believe that Allen would have found a way to produce against that defense and it may have been close. 

[CoudyBills]

Nope. 

[BillsPride12]

No I wasn't realistically expecting a Super Bowl this year but as a fan you watch and root for the best outcome.  Having Josh Allen we will always have a puncher's chance at beating anybody.  I did think and was really rooting for us to beat Kansas City to exorcise some demons from the past but even then I was really nervous about this game at the same time.  I made a post in another thread before the Chiefs game saying the people that thought we were going to run through KC and then Baltimore and just waltz into the Super Bowl like this was our year were going to be in for a rude awakening.  

[LarryMadman]

Yup, sure did, just like the past few years. The roster is there, the coaching isnt.

[Buffalo03]

1 hour ago, Steptide said:

I'm just as mad/dissapointed that we lost last night as any other bills fan today. Last week I heard alot on local sports talk radio about how this was our year and how if we just beat kc, it's gotta be our year finally. OK, based on what?! 

 

The last 8 games have been fun. Nobody thought this team would win the division, let alone be the 2 seed and host 2 home playoff games. Having said that, our offense needs serious help. Allen is an absolute animal, but he can't do absolutely everything. I've seen Diggs take alot of flack today on social media and it's well deserved. He's been non existentent the last 8 or so games. Harty and sherfield were complete non factors the entire season. Gabe played nowhere near what we (and the team) expected. Knox was hurt and even when he wasn't, he wasn't exactly a game changer. Kinkaid and Shakir were the lone bright spots, and Shakir really didn't show up until after Dorsey was gone. Cook was great, but we need more. The defense came through, even as beat up as they've been, but in today's nfl you cannot rely solely on the defense. WGR brought up a great point this morning, saying how kc has won superbowls when their defense was ranked in the mid 20's. We need more offense. 

 

I could go on and on, but Imo this wasn't the team that was gonna win it all. I was worried about last night's game, and even had they pulled it out, I'd never believe they could get through Baltimore. Houston has a similar offense to Buffalo and they couldn't muster more than 3 points on offense against Baltimore. Ya I know they have a rookie qb, but stroud is a beast. It'll be super interesting to see what kc does against Baltimore next week. I think Baltimore beats kc by 10 🤷 thanks for letting me vent 

Why couldn't they win it all? You do realize all it takes is to get to the playoffs and have some luck, right? I understand this wasn't our best team. But they absolutely should have won that game last night and absolutely could have beaten the Ravens and either one of the 49ers or Lions. We were good enough to do it. I think you're looking too deep into this. There have been many teams that have won Super Bowls that probably weren't as good as other teams that should have