The Bills won; where does the Bills rank in your book in terms of contending for superbowl now?

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

3 hours ago, Gregg said:

Rutgers has a better chance of beating Ohio State this upcoming Saturday than the Bills do of winning the Super Bowl. Defense is garbage but it was nice seeing Josh like look 2024 Josh minus the two picks.

I figured this was hyperbole but looked it up anyway just for kicks lol The team with the best Super Bowl odds is the eagles at +500 right now…bills are +800ish.  Rutgers is at +3000 to win the Ohio state game 😂

[Thurman#1]

3 hours ago, streetkings01 said:

We’re not Super Bowl contenders with that defense.

 

 

Yeah, we absolutely are.

 

More, it's hard to know whether that defense will be the one we go into the playoffs with. If Ed Oliver gets back and Shaq Thompson, and our younger guys continue developing, we could easily be a lot better.

 

And having a really good defense is a huge factor. But let's not pretend you can't win without one. KC in 2022 were the 16th ranked defense, and got a Lombardi. The Rams were 17th in 2021. It happens.

 

We came about 6 inches away from the Super Bowl last year, with a defense that was probably not as good.

[D. L. Hot-Flamethrower]

An article in The Athletic today said the following,

"Allen tops the 2025 Betrayal Index after carrying Buffalo to a 44-32 victory over the Buccaneers. He ranks first among 30 qualifying quarterbacks in EPA per start (9.4). But the support provided by his defense and special teams (-2.9 EPA per start) is only 25th-best in relation to how the corresponding units have produced for the other 29 QBs with at least six starts this season."

 

Until yesterday they had neutered him trying to play a low risk efficient brand of football. We all can see what the above shows, especially run defense. Depends on health, matchups and whether they fall back into the old harness around his neck.

[Thurman#1]

16 minutes ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

I figured this was hyperbole but looked it up anyway just for kicks lol The team with the best Super Bowl odds is the eagles at +500 right now…bills are +800ish.  Rutgers is at +3000 to win the Ohio state game 😂

 

 

Yup, the Bills are ranked #3 in Vegas in terms of odds of winning the SB right now. IMO that's a bit high with how they've played recently, but it's arguable and in fact reasonable.

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Thurman#1

[PoundingDog]

14 minutes ago, PayDaBill$ said:

I think McD and Brady are going to have let Josh do Josh things. This game manager stuff isn’t his bag and quite honestly painful to watch.

Josh does Josh things is fun, but not necessarily winning superbowls. We have seen it for many years now, and the coaching staff has seen it many years. I do not subscribe to the theory that McDermott is such a control freak that he wants to do it his way only, even at the sacrifice of not having a chance at a superbowl. If game manager stuff leads to win a superbowl - like Jalen Hurts is doing for the most part for the Eagles, I'd sign up for that in a heart beat, painful to watch or not. 

 

Bills with Josh's history and the superbowl history have showed us without a defense, we are not going far in the playoffs. The Bills management - front office and coaches - have failed to build a capable (not dominating) defense so far.

[26TrapDraw]

30 minutes ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

Yeah, we absolutely are.

 

More, it's hard to know whether that defense will be the one we go into the playoffs with. If Ed Oliver gets back and Shaq Thompson, and our younger guys continue developing, we could easily be a lot better.

 

And having a really good defense is a huge factor. But let's not pretend you can't win without one. KC in 2022 were the 16th ranked defense, and got a Lombardi. The Rams were 17th in 2021. It happens.

 

We came about 6 inches away from the Super Bowl last year, with a defense that was probably not as good.

Our defense has let us down 4 of the last 5 years. You can win without a good defense?

how did that work out for the Bills 

 

this is easily the worst defense in that time period. Unless they have 180 improvement stopping the run and getting off tge field on 3rd down they have no shot.

[BullBuchanan]

I think this is our weakest team since 2019. It's extremely unfortunate that it's happened in a year when the Chiefs appear likely to miss the playoffs.

I think losing Hoecht was the death knell.

If I were to write a script for how we get there, it would involve Benford returning to last year's form, Taron Johnson returning to form of 2-3 years ago, and Haiston taking a big step up to create a lockdown secondary. Our defensive line would have to start playing better than they have all season to shut down the run and get big time sacks. Milano would get benched for Dorian Williams who would play at an all-pro level and Bernard would return to his big play ability. Bishop would ocntinue to Ball hawk, and he'd also figure out how to read runs and shut them down before they could turn into big gainers.

Allen would have to start taking what's there and making automatic reads, instead of playing 2017-2018 hero ball and throwing into coverage all the time. Cook would win the rushing title and be int he MVP discussion, and our TE's would be the bane of every team's existence. Brady would start faking the screen to shakir that would turn into broken play bombs down the sideline to Shavers and Samuel.

Then I would wake up.

[CirclnWagons]

We can score with anyone when Brady isn’t capping passes at 5yds max. If we can just find some way not to allow every rb we face to have a career game, we could contend. Bishop is finally making his presence felt and our dbs have figured out that they’re not supposed to let the guys in the other jerseys catch the ball. It’s just that inside run………

[BuffaloBillyG]

It's been a confusing season. 

 

I think if before the season I was told we would be at 7-3, I would have taken that. And been quite happy. But the reality of the situation hits much different. When you combine:

 

- The Patriots record and them beating us head to head at our house

-Getting run out of Atlanta by a team that hasn't won a game since

-Getting trounced by Miami

-The fact that Burrow got hurt, Cincinnati has struggled 

-Lamar and almost the entire Raven defense was hurt, they struggled 

-Kansas City is not the same

 

It just feels like a HUGE missed opportunity this season. Losing 2 very winnable games to Atlanta and Miami really suck. Could and probably should be 9-1 right now. The path to the #1 seed was right there for us...and it's now way tougher to get there. So even at 7-3, it still feels like disappointment. 

[DrDawkinstein]

1 minute ago, BuffaloBillyG said:

It's been a confusing season. 

 

I think if before the season I was told we would be at 7-3, I would have taken that. And been quite happy. But the reality of the situation hits much different. When you combine:

 

- The Patriots record and them beating us head to head at our house

-Getting run out of Atlanta by a team that hasn't won a game since

-Getting trounced by Miami

-The fact that Burrow got hurt, Cincinnati has struggled 

-Lamar and almost the entire Raven defense was hurt, they struggled 

-Kansas City is not the same

 

It just feels like a HUGE missed opportunity this season. Losing 2 very winnable games to Atlanta and Miami really suck. Could and probably should be 9-1 right now. The path to the #1 seed was right there for us...and it's now way tougher to get there. So even at 7-3, it still feels like disappointment. 

 

Nailed it 100%, and exactly why I cant just sit back and "enjoy the ride".

 

We had clear skies and just needed to get to cruising altitude, but the ride is full of turbulence and we have one engine hanging on by a single bolt.

[FireChans]

Nothing has changed.

 

its all on Josh Allen’s shoulders.

 

When he is hitting the gas, the defense can suck and the team around him can suck and we can beat anybody and everybody. If he can string 4 of those games together, we will be Super Bowl Champions.

 

When we get less than that, or even more infrequently, a bad game, we can basically lose to anybody and exit early.

 

the same place we have been since 2020.

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

1 hour ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

Yeah, we absolutely are.

 

More, it's hard to know whether that defense will be the one we go into the playoffs with. If Ed Oliver gets back and Shaq Thompson, and our younger guys continue developing, we could easily be a lot better.

 

And having a really good defense is a huge factor. But let's not pretend you can't win without one. KC in 2022 were the 16th ranked defense, and got a Lombardi. The Rams were 17th in 2021. It happens.

 

We came about 6 inches away from the Super Bowl last year, with a defense that was probably not as good.

I’m having trouble seeing how this team is any worse than the team we fielded against the chiefs in the playoffs last year but I’m afraid to say it the way this thread has been going doom level-wise lol 

 

the safeties and corners we had available after benford went down were absolutely horrendous in that one but bishop seems like he’s developed into a pretty good player that might be flat out very good by then.  Wide receivers were probably even worse last season,  I know people talk up cooper having some impact drawing coverages but he looked pretty cooked to me post wrist injury and I don’t think he even saw the field much in the playoffs.

 

DEs were worse last year (bosa is pretty effective rushing the passer at least).  Assuming Shaq comes back to take snaps from Milano LBs were probably worse last year as well 

 

we’ll probably lose another important player but Ed will likely come back too 

[DrDawkinstein]

Just now, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

I’m having trouble seeing how this team is any worse than the team we fielded against the chiefs in the playoffs last year but I’m afraid to say it the way this thread has been going doom level-wise lol 

 

the safeties and corners we had available after benford went down were absolutely horrendous in that one but bishop seems like he’s developed into a pretty good player that might be flat out very good by then.  Wide receivers were probably even worse last season,  I know people talk up cooper having some impact drawing coverages but he looked pretty cooked to me post wrist injury and I don’t think he even saw the field much in the playoffs.

 

DEs were worse last year (bosa is pretty effective rushing the passer at least).  Assuming Shaq comes back to take snaps from Milano LBs were probably worse last year as well 

 

we’ll probably lose another important player but Ed will likely come back too 

 

Defensive coaching has gotten worse, and they are playing worse as a unit. To your point, even with the same or better players.

[PoundingDog]

35 minutes ago, FireChans said:

Nothing has changed.

 

its all on Josh Allen’s shoulders.

As we stand right now, your statement is correct. But you have to admit the management is trying. They went thru an offense transition to the point where James Cook can carry the offense in addition to the one dimensional Josh Allen passing and running of the past. Objectively speaking, yesterday's game is a good example where the offense shifted reliance to Josh whereas there is plenty of examples this year Cook took the burden.

 

But there are times the offense is not performing well as a whole, both the running and passing. That's when we need the defense to rise up to carry the load. That has not happened, more like never happened since Allen's arrival. They started to invest in bigger D-Line people this year, another sign of change. I'd say they need to invest in bigger LBs as well.