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

[hondo in seattle]

I'm heartened by the fact that it's not the case that the best team wins the SB every year.  If the best team always won, we wouldn't have a chance at a Lombardi because our D mostly sucks and our O is inconsistent. 

 

But football is a funny game and anything can happen in a best-of-one series.  Sometimes good teams have bad games.  Sometimes injuries, bad ref calls, weird bounces, and all the other fun possibilities of the game allow the weaker team to win. 

 

We're good enough to be in contention and maybe the Gridiron Gods will favor us with some breaks this year.  

[Aussie Joe]

7 hours 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.

 

 

i was under the  impression Oliver is not back until late January …big ask to expect much then after a long layoff…Shaq Thompson is probably an upgrade but he is average at best for the position 

 

[WideNine]

With them playing 2 rookies on the DL, and Bosa banged up only able to use one hand, that line is really suspect right now.

 

I was wondering why no one was sealing the edges only to learn that they were forced to use Sanders (a 3 tech) as a DE in the rotation. Explains why he looked lost attacking blocks and setting the edge...

 

Looks like we are going to have to outscore folks in a boat race for any real chance against the better teams out there.

 

That is assuming we can get past NE.

 

Like the ghost of bad Christmas past seeing that team arise out of the smoking ashes of what was left after the Belichick and Brady era ended.

 

 

 

 

[Thurman#1]

39 minutes ago, FireChans said:

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.

 

 

Yup,

 

And no other teams with great QBs are like that ... except all of them.

 

When the great QB has a bad game, yeah, the team's not real likely to win. That's kinda the NFL. 

 

I mean, you're right, that's how we look. But I mean, when Mahomes had a bad game, the Eagles win the Super Bowl last year and the AFC championship against the Bengals about three years ago.

 

 

9 hours ago, Aussie Joe said:

 

 

i was under the  impression Oliver is not back until late January …big ask to expect much then after a long layoff…Shaq Thompson is probably an upgrade but he is average at best for the position 

 

 

 

Yeah, fair enough, big ask. But it could happen, Ed playing near how he did before. Or not. 

 

And no, Shaq was playing significantly better than average, he was playing well.

[Thurman#1]

16 hours ago, 26TrapDraw said:

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 180degree improvement stopping the run and getting off the field on 3rd down they have no shot.

 

 

Yes, you're correct, you can indeed win without a good defense.

 

How did it work out for the Bills? Not as well as it worked out for the Chiefs a couple of years and the, Rams etc. The fact that it worked out for some teams but not for the Bills -- well, it only proves that it didn't work out for the Bills.

 

And the Bills had really good defenses several of those years, actually. Some of those years they had serious waves of injuries around the playoffs, and other times they were good but not good enough to stop the Chiefs in the playoffs with Mahomes playing at absolutely historic levels.

 

You can argue this D is the worst. But they're getting better, particularly at passing defense. When Bosa gets the cast off, when and if Oliver comes back and when Dorian gets better at the role he's already playing pretty well this past week at pass rush schemes, we could easily get a lot better. When TJ and DaQuan get not just able to play but back at previous levels. It's a shame Hoecht is out, it really is. But there's every chance we'll be a lot better.

 

We were awful against Miami. But not so awful against Tampa and pretty dang solid against KC. 

 

They absolutely have a shot. That simply isn't a question. Again, Vegas has them as the third most likely winner. That's likely a bit optimistic. But not much. They're 7-3, and beating the good teams.

[26TrapDraw]

1 hour ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

Yes, you're correct, you can indeed win without a good defense.

 

How did it work out for the Bills? Not as well as it worked out for the Chiefs a couple of years and the, Rams etc. The fact that it worked out for some teams but not for the Bills -- well, it only proves that it didn't work out for the Bills.

 

And the Bills had really good defenses several of those years, actually. Some of those years they had serious waves of injuries around the playoffs, and other times they were good but not good enough to stop the Chiefs in the playoffs with Mahomes playing at absolutely historic levels.

 

You can argue this D is the worst. But they're getting better, particularly at passing defense. When Bosa gets the cast off, when and if Oliver comes back and when Dorian gets better at the role he's already playing pretty well this past week at pass rush schemes, we could easily get a lot better. When TJ and DaQuan get not just able to play but back at previous levels. It's a shame Hoecht is out, it really is. But there's every chance we'll be a lot better.

 

We were awful against Miami. But not so awful against Tampa and pretty dang solid against KC. 

 

They absolutely have a shot. That simply isn't a question. Again, Vegas has them as the third most likely winner. That's likely a bit optimistic. But not much. They're 7-3, and beating the good teams.

How do you figure that the defense wasn’t awful against the Bucs? They gave up 32 points and 202 yards on the ground.its week 12….getting better!?

if we didn’t have Superman pull another red cape performance out of his ass we would of lost. 
The point I was trying to make with my post is that Josh having to carry the load with Herculean efforts to win is complete bull crap.

he is not getting the help he needs to be a championship team period.

the reason we don’t have a championship is because of this front office and inept head coach. None of it is good enough.

 

We know Josh is good enough on his own but he needs a little help. If KC doesn’t make the playoffs I hope Josh sees this as his shot and continues to play other worldly.

besides Bills fans  hes the only one who deserves a championship more.