Buffalo Bills Off to Later and Later Starts

Anthony Bialy
4 min readNov 5, 2024

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You’re ready for the game. Your team was not. Fans strive to emulate positive qualities displayed by beloved athletes. The Buffalo Bills could reciprocate by showing up at 1 p.m. That’s the conventional NFL start time, which should be written on a dry-erase board displayed in a prominent locker room location. Sleepy openings turn truly stressful when culprits nearly run out of time to get peppy. Getting thrown off by daylight saving time can only be used an an excuse once annually.

These two particular teams being tied after the first quarter was unpleasantly surprising. Don’t worry: it got worse. The Bills listlessly got around to trouncing the Titans and Seahawks. Their lackadaisical approach nearly caught up with them while hosting Miami. I have never been a professional sports coach, but I humbly suggest using each minute provided to maximize point potential.

Sean McDermott’s plan of having Josh Allen create a miracle paid off again. His more active decisions proved less beneficial. Only McDermott could throw a flag regarding a play where the opponent deserved better field position. He should be challenging defenders to tackle, not obvious first downs.

Not showing up ready is their signature. There have been dominant NFL clubs known for more appealing aspects than waiting until after the unearned break. Insouciance is uninspiring. The unwelcome habit serves as the most prominent coaching failure of a franchise that still feels like it’s underachieving despite its sweet record.

Half-efforts for half the game is ensconced as a trend. It’s important to not read too much into an aberration. But the Bills remained stubbornly sluggish against a desperate divisional enemy playing like they have nothing to use. It has become their wont.

Players are bound to occasionally flub. Please don’t let the essence of humanity stop you from criticizing every error, because I certainly won’t. There are not many games with zero incompletions, and even those don’t all go for touchdowns. But outfits reach a tipping point where the lack of success becomes unacceptable. Six points from three first-half red zone drives is not the result produced by a serious contender.

A field goal is still better infinity percent fewer points. I’d be eager to praise Keon Coleman growing into a top option for an offense with a singular quarterback if he didn’t do unproductive things like let a catchable football bounce off him near the goal line.

The Bills won despite often losing the line of scrimmage. Overcoming a battle loss makes war wins arduous. Dion Dawkins is too busy starring in commercials to block. As for a counterpart, Ed Oliver works on his sack dance like Bobby Hill without getting to use it. Von Miller made an impact. Of course this is not praise.

The line can blame the secondary for underwhelming results and vice versa. Kaiir Elam was a first-round pick, which is something new fans are alarmed to learn and older ones wish they could forget. The steady bust got an opportunity with Christian Benford hurt, which is not to his benefit. He’s inactive even when he’s active.

Seeing how long he can get away with screwing up: Tyler Bass is the emblematic 2024 Buffalo Bill. Making up for earlier flubs is a pattern with this squad. We call it the McDermott precedent. Coleman is already accustomed to it. Bass is a C student who doesn’t apply himself unless he feels challenged.

Exasperating wins are what this year’s Bills are about. You could fire their coach after improving to 7–2 and cut the kicker after making a winning field goal without either transaction being truly jarring. In fact, a high percentage of team followers would be appreciative despite the most recent results. Longterm thinking outweighs present euphoria.

Relying on the Dolphins fumbling worked. It’s too bad Taron Johnson can’t punch the ball into Coleman’s hands. Miami deserved to be scored on for thinking Coleman was the target.

Miami not tackling is as cunning a strategy. An implosion is only reliable against the rest of the AFC East. Ray Davis has emerged as a demolition expert.

Who’s responsible? Jerry Seinfeld can feel relieved that it’s finally a question where people want to be noticed. It depends on the play. Josh’s statistics credit him for both the Davis touchdown and Coleman-caused interception. Life balances out. Quintin Morris’s fantastic catch on a spectacular improvisation from his imperiled quarterback is the most deserving of shared billing.

Khalil Shakir continues to impress even without a score. His elusiveness means the catch is just the start, so don’t check your SimCity presuming the play’s over after the reception. The same goes for rushing counterpart James Cook, who is uninterested in when anyone else thinks a play should be over as he maintains his balance.

Trying to enjoy entire games has become infeasible. It’s not ingratitude to hope that domination goes beyond the last few moments. I didn’t even have the decency to thank the Bills for maintaining tension for an entire game. I must not appreciate drama.

The desired ultimate result doesn’t obfuscate excessive difficulties in reaching it. The rest of the league will see only the win. Even the shockingly close score’s psychological impact will fade. Outsiders will know the Bills got it done. Meanwhile, the doers should focus on how much they struggled to do so unless they’re eager to get exposed as playoff impostors.

Divisional games don’t have to be competitive. A matchup between eternal rivals is traditionally framed as hazardous even if second place in a division means being the franchise with the least amount of flaming toxic waste. The Bills could fight stereotypes by blowing out the AFC East consolation teams. Sweeping the Dolphins is what’s important. But the one thing better than redemption is not bungling in the first place.

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Anthony Bialy
Anthony Bialy

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