You could call a season where you don’t go winless successful. You can raise or lower the bar all you want really.Originally Posted by jamze132
Funny how Brady and Mahomes are always do “lucky”. Unless you mean lucky to have two of the best HCs ever. Too bad we don’t. We have a guy who gets defensive because it’s not all “good job skippy!!”
yes. It was. It is EVERY year. Even if Ralph refused to spend to win. Even if the team was trash and coached by a moron.
The inherent goal of EVERY season is to win the Super Bowl. Even when the owner has the goal of max profits and your chances are horrible. That’s why they play the games.
if not, you shouldn’t be in the league.
Thurmal (03-27-2024)
I’m so tired of the “only one team can win every year” line. The Chiefs have 3 in 4 years. THREE. I’m not saying we have to do that, but at some point it HAS to be our year or this whole thing has been a failure.
“It’s better than the drought “
“31 other teams didn’t win the title either.”
That absolutely is lowering the bar.
How many dynasties who won 3 or more SBs in such a short time frame?
I’m only 46 but I’ve watched every game possible since 86’.+1000
Most of the youngsters here, many (if not most) did not even start watching the Bills until when they were close to and getting into Super Bowls (the Jim Kelly Era). 1988 was their first 12 win season since 1964 (when the AFL played two fewer games).
Which means if you are younger than about 50 years old today, you were weaned on superlative Bills teams.
Old timers like me (and a handful of others) had to enure many, MANY more years MUCH, MUCH worse than the "drought years".
I watched every road game (home games were blacked out then...even Monday night games if not sold out 72 hours before kickoff) and listened to every other game on the radio.
Even the "Comeback game" in 1992 vs Houston was blacked out. I was living near Albany, NY at that time so I was able to watch it live.
Anyway, those under-50 fans have been SPOILED. You did not have to enure ONE win seasons (twice between 1964 when I first became a fan and 1986 when Jim Kelly era started) or TWO win seasons (three times) or even THREE win seasons (twice).
The WORST you ever had to tolerate was ONE FOUR win season, Kelly's first year as Bills QB....when everyone knew those days were coming to a rapid end. There was FOUR FOUR win seasons between 1964 and 1986.
In the "drought years" there were only ONE three win season and ONE four win season. Oh woe is me!!!
That's ELEVEN 1,2, 3 or 4 win seasons out of TWENTY TWO between 1964 and 1986. Compared to only THREE of those (one THREE win and TWO FOUR win) in the THIRTY SEVEN years since the Jim Kelly Era....the youngsters here football life.
Cry me a river because you have to enure five 10+ win, FIVE consecutive playoffs and four consecutive AFCE title seasons but not SB appearances YET in the Josh Allen Era that is still in it's infancy.
notacon (03-26-2024)
Dude. It was not the goal. You watched those teams. They didn’t spend money, they let almost every free agent walk. Not once did I say before the season “if they don’t win a Super Bowl the season will be a failure”
Yes it was (is). Just as much as it is now. Everybody understands it's a process, and when they sucked the process was at the very beginning.
We're seven years in now and the process has been stalled for about three.
Just as when they sucked the process needed something to improve, where they are now something needs to improve.
If I own a junk car that's a piece of **** I expect it to break down. If I invest millions of dollars on a brand new, shiny toy I should expect it to get me where I want to go without failing.
YardRat Wall of Fame
#56 DARRYL TALLEY #29 DERRICK BURROUGHS#22 FRED JACKSON #95 KYLE WILLIAMS
You just proved my point.
Again.... Was Ralph's top priority winning it? Not particularly. His top interest was profits. But... he would have said "you should go out and win with these players" even on the cheap.
Were they handcuffed by his cheapness? Yes. Did they still try to win the SB despite it? Yes. Did they have any real hope? No. But the Coaches, Players and fans were all still trying.
It is the INHERENT goal of the NFL to win the SB.
No he didn't.
His POS car is still trying to get to the same destination. Will he be surprised when it breaks down? No. But he was still trying to get to the destination.
No.
If you were actually SERIOUS about getting to your destination, you'd buy a better car that gives you a high probability of making it to the destination without breaking down along the way.
You don't take a cheap piece of junk on a cross country road trip and actually expect to make it, unless you are a complete imbecile.
They were trying to win GAMES. Not a superbowl. They were week to week teams, and they were coached that way. The roster was not built to win a superbowl at any point in time during that era.
I don't even know how I'm arguing this with anybody who lived through the drought.
Again, I’m not saying they need 3. But these excuses need to just stop. They need to get one. They are wasting the prime of Josh’s career.
After Kelly, it took us 20 years to find Josh. If Josh doesn’t get one and it takes another 20 years to find a QB, most of us aren’t going to be around to see what happens.
I beginning to lean in this direction, Rat.
It's certainly been fun watching the Bills succeed, for the most part, but you're right, we have been stuck in neutral for about three seasons.
I guess I wouldn't mind so much, if every playoff season, we were ousted in a wild shootout that could have gone either way.
Instead, we have this mid-season lull, where we lose to clearly inferior teams, then they get their heads on straight, and win the division.
Cool.
Wild card win.
Divisional round, team barely shows up, they're emotionally drained from the long stretch run, and older players are all nursing injuries.
Then they lose a divisional game at home, looking like they would rather be elsewhere.
Is that good enough?
I dunno.
I have no money tied up in them anymore, so I'm ambivalent. I have much more important things going on in my life to waste summer and fall afternoons sitting in a stadium that is Too hot/cold/windy/wet/pick your natural disaster.
And now, they just assured me that they really don't even want my business, because they've priced themselves right out of the market.
(FYI, we knew the PSL thing was on the horizon, so we saved money for it, but instead opted to put the money down on a summer home, and dumped our seasons...unbeknownst to us that it would have been that ridiculously priced!)
Trust me, we're much happier.
I'll still root for them, and in fact, purchased a new Mitchell-Ness sweatshirt on clearance yesterday.
But as far as caring as much as I used to?
Meh.
Keep Opie....fire him...whatever.
If they go in the tank, it will be much more difficult to sell those PSLs, IMO.
Here's the new sweatshirt:
That's a nice sweater!
Historian (03-26-2024)
This. McD very likely isn't good enough to be a SB coach as we've seen, but if anyone can work their way to it, it's him.
Who had a "successful" season last year? It's basically the SB winners (KC) plus a few plucky teams that outperformed (HOU, GB, maybe DET).
Yep. SPOILED....the facts are undeniable.
Not "arrogant" just cognizant of history and the facts. I lived it.
1968 was a banner year....1-12-1 record.
The starting QB's that year were:
Dan Darragh (7) - one of the ****test QB's of all time...started 11 games in his three year debacle of a career with a 1-10 record.
Ed Rutkowski (3) - emergency "QB" - usually a HB/WR/DB/PR - and was mostly uninspiring at those. He had a more eventful political career as Erie County Executive.
Kay Stephenson (3) - had an awful two year career as NFL QB. After one year as a kinda sorta QB for San Diego went 0-3 for the Bills in his only 3 starts of his career. He was pretty bad Bills HC too. Replaced Chuck Knox in 1983, went 8-8 first year, then 2-14 in 1984 and was fired after four loses in 1985. Replaced by the equally crappy Hank Bullough...going 2-12 after replacing the inept Stephenson, went 2-7 to start 1986, fired and replaced by Marv Levy.
Tom Flores (1) -he was washed up by then after a few decent years in the AFL....for another team (Oak).
All of these slugs would make JP Losman look like a superstar. Most of the coaches from 1964 to 1986 (except for Lou Saban and Chuck Knox) were varying degrees of awful.....Harvey Johnson (twice), John Rauch, Jim Ringo, Kay Stephenson, Hank Bulloough.....crappy to the nth degree. MUCH worse than any HC after Levy.
Anyone who started watching the NFL Bills (AFL Bills different story) after 1986 don't know how good you have it compared to before that time.
Historian (03-26-2024)
We should have moved Kemp and kept Lamonica.
I could never understand why Saban could never beat Shula either. He was a pretty good coach, albeit a flake.
And even when Ralph made a good decision, ala hiring Knox, it was still the wrong one, as he passed on Bill Walsh to do it.
And old Jim Ringo, poor soul trying to coach with 17,000 people in the stands, lol
notacon (03-27-2024)
Many, many fans of this team are so traumatized by the drought that they're now perfectly content to just make the playoffs every year. They don't want to try any new strategy in regard to coaching or roster development because they're afraid of slipping back into mediocrity, even though the odds of that happening when you have the most physically gifted QB ever in his prime are very slim. It's a pretty pathetic ideology.
"Miami played pretty damn good today and still got their ass kicked."
Mace (03-28-2024)
You don’t think they’re not trying? lol
And who’s to say we don’t go the route of Green Bay and get fortunate with our next couple of QBs? You’re too negative bro.
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