I have been defending the Bills poor play this year. I screamed out, “injuries and no depth!” I extolled the virtues of patience and that we knew that they never were really built to do much this year anyways. I did like the moxy this team had, even when they were losing. But every year, there is a game where you just hate the team. All the excuses go flying out the window, and you are mad at the coaches, the players, other fans, the NFL as a whole, fans of other teams, etc. And while you nitpick why you hate all the facets of the team, you realize like Bruce Willis realizing he’s been dead the whole time. “That damn Ralph Wilson. BAH!”
I didn’t even watch this entire game. I was at brunch with friends. They said, “Want to do brunch at 12:30?” And in my head I said, “Would I like to eat a meal that I’ll like or should I watch my favorite team bore me with new and inventive ways of sucking?” I chose brunch.
I knew the Bills would lose this game. Afterall, when we have scant playoff hopes and the Titans are in town, guess which team will win? Remember the last time they were in town? A rookie Vince Young ran 50 yards untouched, and Robert Royal forgot to put two feet in bounds. It effectively squashed whatever tiny chance we had of getting to the playoffs.
I definitely thought about epic collapse during the heady days of 5-2. But I thought it would either take an incredible amount of organizational ineptness or a spiteful/hateful god. I’ll cover the organization, but you have to wonder about the gods. Seriously, 2 epic collapses in 4 years…to a team without a playoff appearance in 10 years? Hey Football gods, I’ve worn the same clothes, stood in the same spots, not gone to the bathroom…all in the name to appease you. Guess what? Go eff, yourself! Show me something I can believe in, or simply tell us why you hate us so much. I think we’ve all earned it. If it’s some grudge you have with Ralph, here is how you handle that. Let him win the Super Bowl, and then bankrupt the team the following year. We, the fans who have nothing to do with your $25,000 deal in the 50’s, get a Super Bowl, and you get to ruin the man you seemingly hate so much.
I did make it home for the end of the 3rd quarter and found an online stream. At the end of the game, I just felt like saying, “You win Ralph. You win. Take the team. Move it. Your legacy that you seemingly love so much is crap. Keeping this crappy version of football in town is worse than having just moved in it in 2002. We are all collectively screaming uncle.”
It’s hilarious to me that the guy who seems so intent on making/saving money even employs this scouting department. He can spend X millions of dollars to come up with a crappy team, or he could charge the fans a fee to make draft picks, tally the votes and select players for free agency and the draft. Literally all Ralph would need is an app maker and an iPhone 4S. “Siri, tally the fan votes.” “One minute ralph…the fans select a strong armed quarterback for the winters in their hometown.” How much would you pay to have your vote counted? $500? If he sold out a stadium’s worth at $500 a fan, he’d have another $32MM….and a team no worse than what we already have.
We’d have drafted Orakpo instead of Maybin, Ngata instead of Whitner. You can’t tell me that they team would be worse under this approach, can you?
I don’t question Ralph’s desire to win. I’m sure he wants to win. I also want to own property on all seven continents and a Ferrari for all 18 garage spaces. I have no idea how to go about getting that. Ralph has no idea how to win. If he did, he wouldn’t fire one of the brightest GM’s in football for over 30 years. And then after making that mistake he wouldn’t be stupid enough to fire the rest of the brain trust that helped Bill Polian.
Ralph Wilson is the Wizard of OZ. The man needs a brain, a heart, and some courage. Fire the scouts. That takes courage. Start getting into Free Agency to help fortify your team. There is no reason we should have gigantic DE playing outside LB. This takes a brain to know which players to get. And if the man had a heart, he wouldn’t be doing this to the fans. Sadly, he’s also the Wizard. He’s the only one who knows what the heck is going on behind the curtains. The rest of us are just munchkins and monkeys on sticks.
DVD Extras
- 5 win Chan– Does chan only have 5 decent games in him a year? This year he won all five, but last year, some of his best games were still losses. I don’t see a win coming in the next 4 weeks, do you?
- Over/Under on play wrist band – How many years away are we from Qb’s having an ipad like touch screen on their arm bands? I’m think 3.
- Dear 1990 Bills – I think the Detroit Lions are in need of your guidance, They strike me as an uber talented team with too much bravado. The Lions seem like the 1988-89 Bills. So much talent, totally unregulated. Jim Schwarz needs help getting those guys in line.
- And you thought 0-8 was hard – 0-9 is going to happen and it somehow is making 2008 a bareable experience.
- Bills hate play action – Even when Fred Jackson was running amok, the Bills seemed so anti-playaction. You can’t tell me at the start of the 3rd quarter, that a biting play action wouldn’t have helped loosen the stacked box against the bills.
- The real victory – is that no one went on IR this week. Must mean the wins are coming soon.
- Fitz’s contract – I still thinking having Fitz in the organization for a long term is the right thing to do. I would have waited to sign a contract, but that’s me. The Bills do have to start looking at his turnover percentage in these losses. One or two bad games is ok, but 12-13 TO in 5 games from one player? That’s hard to ignore. Fitz is Rick James. When he’s good, he’s great. And when he’s off, he’s terrible. 16 games over 4 months to have a guy who’s like Russian roulette, its too much. The Bills need to talk to him and let him start next year, but they need to get him ready to start grooming his heir. And they should offer him some sort of transition job into QB coach when he wants to officially hang them up. Having a QB that can win you 5 games is fantastic for a backup. It’s not enough for a starter. I really like Fitz, and it hurts to come to this conclusion.
- Stevie Johnson – If they choose to let him go and not sign him, I’m handing in my fan card. Surely, the guy has room to grow, but he is part of the puzzle. He is a lethal #2 and an aspiring #1. He has big drops, he can be immature, but the man has done what no other team has done. He has faced the best CB in football and had fantastic stats…Twice! I don’t recall Randy Moss ever having that kind of game against Revis. The Bills seem obsessed to either get a superstar or start over from scratch. The Bills will never be good enough and are committed to this pathetic policy of hoping everyone is a star or they can be replaced if they let Stevie walk.
Kevin Shenoy can be reached at onefansview@gmail.com