The Best to Never Get There

[Jerry Jabber]

Doesn’t help that the defense has given up on average 33 points in those playoff losses. 

[Gregg]

34 minutes ago, st pete gogolak said:

It’s difficult to come up with good to great QB’s in the Super Bowl era who never made it to a Super Bowl and are now retired (let’s keep active QB’s like Josh and Lamar out of the discussion). There’s Fouts and Moon of course.  Bert Jones, John Brodie, heck Joe Ferguson?  Does anyone have anyone else who could even be considered in the conversation?

 

What about Danny White. He had a pretty good career with the Cowboys after Staubach retired but never got them to a Super Bowl.

[SoTier]

12 hours ago, ganesh said:

And it needed a great coach to get him there 

 

In his 20 years as a NFL HC, Mike Shanahan only took 8 of his teams to the playoffs (7 with Denver) and only 3 of his playoff teams won playoff games.   He made his reputation in his two SB runs, 1997 and 1998.  After Elway retired, Shanahan coached Denver for 10 seasons.  His teams made the playoffs only 4 times with a single win.   Shanahan has been passed over for the HOF several times.  Obviously, I'm not the only one who thinks he wasn't such a great HC.

 

12 hours ago, ganesh said:

Coaching and situation awareness is a big thing.  Our best player on that day was Cook   He should have got the ball in those situations instead of the not working rush-pushes.  Even on that 4th down play, Cook could have been the game changer.  Speed kills as Worthy demonstrated that day. 

 

Yes, coaching and situational awareness IS a big thing, but so is knowing players' strengths and weaknesses.   Cook's blocking was a liability in the passing game, which is why he didn't often play on third downs, both in the regular season and in the playoffs.

 

[GaryPinC]

12 hours ago, Buffalo716 said:

Lost it to a coin flip 

 

If we win the coin flip Josh goes down and scores on their tired defense 

 

They literally changed the NFL rules after that cuz they felt bad

 

 

Holy white-washing batman!

[GaryPinC]

9 hours ago, Dan said:

One thing I’ve noticed about the Chiefs is that they’ve practically mastered the science of timing the drive possessions during a game  and then turning it up a notch to score a last minute win.    
 

Even in the game against them in Buffalo, we were up by 2 and driving in the 4th. But they did just what they had to to force a 4th down.  A normal team would have kicked a FG to go up by 5.    Leaving the chiefs MORE than enough time to get the ball and score the winning TD.  It was like the game script was playing out perfectly for them looking at each of the drives and scores prior to that point. Until…. The Bills went for it on 4th down and Josh Allen did Josh Allen things and won the game.   
 

To beat them, when it matters the most, McD is going to have to figure out how to flip that script.  

True, and let's give credit.  McD has figured out to not let Mahomes have the ball last.  Also not to try and play ultra conservative prevent D late in the game.  

 

What McD needs to figure out how to do is throw situational wrinkles into the defense that empowers our playmakers and with Beane make sure we actually have enough playmaker talent on D.   Spagnulo called that 4th down blitz late in the game last year that Josh Allen admitted they weren't expecting and had never seen before.  It made just enough of a difference.  One very situational call.  Nobody ever says that about Buffalo's defensive calls.

 

WRT injuries, they happen to every team.  Out of all our playoff runs, I think only 2023 was the year where any real Bills fan knew the injuries were so profound it would catch up to us before the Super Bowl.

[ChronicAndKnuckles]

23 hours ago, HomeskillitMoorman said:

It's tough. The annoying part is most of these people don't go in-depth into why this has happened when it's all incredibly clear.  

 

But yeah, best player we've ever had and his entire 20's are blown if we don't get there this year. 

People see Brady & Mahomes then think that’s the norm, but it isn’t. Even the great Peyton Manning only had 2 rings, 1 solely because of his defense. 31 other teams come up short every year. My point is it’s incredibly hard to win a SB and even if you do everything perfectly, it still requires a bit of luck too. If you look at the legendary QBs of the past, how many didn’t even get 1 ? 
 

 

[st pete gogolak]

54 minutes ago, Gregg said:

 

What about Danny White. He had a pretty good career with the Cowboys after Staubach retired but never got them to a Super Bowl.

Good get.  It’s tough though.  Superstar QB’s get to Super Bowls.

[The Firebaugh Kid]

Allen will win 2 Lombardis. 

[HomeskillitMoorman]

42 minutes ago, ChronicAndKnuckles said:

People see Brady & Mahomes then think that’s the norm, but it isn’t. Even the great Peyton Manning only had 2 rings, 1 solely because of his defense. 31 other teams come up short every year. My point is it’s incredibly hard to win a SB and even if you do everything perfectly, it still requires a bit of luck too. If you look at the legendary QBs of the past, how many didn’t even get 1 ? 
 

 

 

Except it's not the norm to consistently lose playoff games in which your elite QB plays very well or great in. It's just not. You can look through the history of top QB's and their performances in the playoffs. In fact, there are big postseason games where Brady and Mahomes did not play that well in and were picked up by their defense and supporting cast. Mahomes in the last SB they won vs the 49ers had an absolute disaster of a 1st half and his D kept him in the game. Could you imagine if Josh had a half like that in the SB or vs the Chiefs? We'd get our doors blown off. 

 

And Peyton wasn't playing lights out and putting up 27-30+ points on a top D and still losing those games to Brady's Pats, he was throwing 4 INT's or putting up 3 points and just flat out underperforming. 

 

It's not the same thing at all. We have a consistent pattern for 6 postseasons on why we are losing these games, something that a change can be made on. McDermott and his defense have let us down in these games over and over again, that's the overwhelmingly consistent pattern. We aren't losing these games because Josh hasn't been good enough in them. 

[Dukestreetking]

2 hours ago, Augie said:

If Barry Switzer has a ring, there are a lot of factors involved, including dumb luck. 

Well, he did get caught with a hot .38 in his carry-on luggage, so maybe that helped a bit. /s

[Billl]

1 hour ago, Jerry Jabber said:

Doesn’t help that the defense has given up on average 33 points in those playoff losses. 

They’ve averaged allowing 35 PPG in the 4 games against Kansas City and 19 PPG in the 8 games against the other 7 teams.

[Chicken Boo]

23 hours ago, Negan said:

Coaching failures have a real effect on this.

 

13 seconds.

 

Defense not making any plays.

 

Players dropping passes.

 

 

Phillip Rivers had a torn acl and Tomlinson a knee injury.

 

Thems the breaks.  

[TheFunPolice]

We'll get there and win.

 

This QB and this team is way too good not to.

 

If The Bengals OL could have held up for another second in their SB Burrow Zach Taylor and freaking Mike Brown would have SB rings because the WR was wide open for a game winning TD 

[Chicken Boo]

2 hours ago, Jerry Jabber said:

Doesn’t help that the defense has given up on average 33 points in those playoff losses. 

 

Aaron Rodgers knows a little something about that.

 

That excuse didn't save him and it won't save Allen.  Luckily for Josh, he still has time.  

[TheFunPolice]

The first one is the hardest especially for a Bills team with all the history of their own plus the 4 SB losses, etc 

 

Once they get one I think they'll get 1-2 more. Maybe Allen goes 2-1 in Super Bowls by the end 

 

In that scenario it's a bummer not to go 3-0 but having 1 or maybe 2 in the bank changes it dramatically. 

Edited August 15 by TheFunPolice

[st pete gogolak]

5 minutes ago, TheFunPolice said:

We'll get there and win.

 

This QB and this team is way too good not to.

 

If The Bengals OL could have held up for another second in their SB Burrow Zach Taylor and freaking Mike Brown would have SB rings because the WR was wide open for a game winning TD 

Don’t want to be a downer but I said the same thing after the SB loss to the Giants. This team is too good and too talented not to win a Super Bowl. Alas, it never happened.

[Augie]

3 minutes ago, Chicken Boo said:

 

Aaron Rodgers knows a little something about that.

 

That excuse didn't save him and it won't save Allen.  Luckily for Josh, he still has time.  

 

It also helps that Josh is a genuinely likable guy, as opposed to a smug, arrogant prick. Josh will always be loved for being Josh, maybe just a little more if he has some rings to show for his efforts. 

[st pete gogolak]

1 hour ago, st pete gogolak said:

Good get.  It’s tough though.  Superstar QB’s get to Super Bowls.

Forgot about Rivers as well.  Any other Charger QB’s who need to be included?

[Augie]

2 minutes ago, st pete gogolak said:

Forgot about Rivers as well.  Any other Charger QB’s who need to be included?

 

I’m sure Dan Fouts has been mentioned. They were ahead of their time, and it was fun to watch. 

[Jerry Jabber]

2 hours ago, Chicken Boo said:

 

Aaron Rodgers knows a little something about that.

 

That excuse didn't save him and it won't save Allen.  Luckily for Josh, he still has time.  

Either McDermott figures out how to slow down Andy Reid’s offenses in the playoffs or the Bills fire McDermott and hire a coach that can get the Bills over the hump in the playoffs. Otherwise, if things don’t change, then the Bills w/Josh Allen won’t ever win a Superbowl, let alone make an appearance. IMO, that would be completely unacceptable!