The mid October slump

[YoloinOhio]

Neither of these teams is bad per se that they lost to this year. Both are probably going to be at least wild card teams. Technically still inferior though imo. So pattern remains. 

Edited 10 hours ago by YoloinOhio

[Sojourner]

2 hours ago, DaVinci said:

We dont have the horses.

Need to get Ed Oliver involved in the scouting then. “Head of Horse Power talent”. 

[billieve420]

Literally called September champs for a reason. Start hot and then drop games they have no business losing if you are a championship caliber team. Every season without fail lose inexplicable games. No reason not to get the #1 seed this season which I believe is critical for them reaching the Super Bowl.

Edited 8 hours ago by billieve420

[Bruffalo]

It points to a pattern of other team's adjusting to the Bills strategies, and the Bills coaching staff being slow to counter. 

 

It's hubris. 

[TBBills Fan]

We dress up as a pretender every Halloween then feast in November!

[Best Williams Available]

3 hours ago, dcinmuncie said:

This just feels different 

 

and not in a good way 

Because in years prior they played noticeably poorly in loses, played down to inferior teams. Last night they looked totally overmatched in speed, age, athleticism and philosophy to a mediocre team.
 

Maybe a small tweak recalibrates everything but maybe not? Silver lining is that the offense has worked this year and the D with a skeleton crew last night made stops when asked (for as long as they could). 

[Fan in Chicago]

1 hour ago, YoloinOhio said:

Neither of these teams is bad per se that they lost to this year. Both are probably going to be at least wild card teams. Technically still inferior though imo. So pattern remains. 

Honest question - in what ways are those two teams inferior to the Bills. I am looking for an answer that doesn't include "we have the MVP". 

We got outplayed by both of them. They were the better teams. Pats have the same record as us and above is in the AFCE.  Falcons have lost the same number of games. 

What makes them inferior to the Bills?

[T.E.]

4 hours ago, dcinmuncie said:

This just feels different 

 

and not in a good way 

They were underachieving in past seasons when they went into slumps.

 

What we saw last night and last week just kind of feels like what they are. 

[agilen]

I've been calling this "The McD Slump" the past few years, it is noticeable. I almost expected us to lose last night because once we have that one terrible game you know the other one is coming.... Ravens/Texans last year, Bengals/Brocos in 23, Jets/Vikings in 22, Colts/(saints in the middle but they were bad)/Pats/First half of Bucs in 21, Titans/Chiefs in 20.

 

Hopefully, this is the end of it and we can get back on track vs the Panthers.

[BillsVet]

26 minutes ago, T.E. said:

They were underachieving in past seasons when they went into slumps.

 

What we saw last night and last week just kind of feels like what they are. 

 

Yeah, this isn't the same as those multi-week drops in play from 2020-2023.  The fall off in 2024-2025 (so far) is completely different.

 

For example, you don't have an offense bottom-out abruptly, going from scoring 41, 30, 31, and 31 points against mediocre competition to 20 and 14 to NE and ATL.  Something more is happening to cause offensive free fall.

 

That's made worse watching a defense get run over week after week.  Or, that veteran coordinators make routine mistakes and can't get it right after years on the job.  

 

Maybe they're better after the break, but in-season it's hard to make significant changes with personnel and scheme.  It's like turning a battleship around quickly. 

[transplantbillsfan]

The Bills have been 4-2 at this point 4 of the last 5 seasons.

 

But because this season is now, the sky is falling.

[jlatas]

5 minutes ago, transplantbillsfan said:

The Bills have been 4-2 at this point 4 of the last 5 seasons.

 

But because this season is now, the sky is falling.

The sky is falling because the Bills have not looked like themselves in 5 of these 6 games. Defense getting trounced with poor coverage and tackling...giving up 189 rushing yards to NO, 210 rushing yards to ATL and 238 rushing yards to BALT. Even when the defense seemingly wakes up, the offense cant seem to get out of its own way between dumbass penalties, horrendous playcalling, receivers not getting open, Josh not looking quite right and not keeping Cook in at the most crucial times. Its not hard to fathom that at this rate the team could easily be 4-4 after the Chiefs game