Winning While Aggravating in Classic Buffalo Bills Style
The game begins in the first quarter. I’m kind of a football expert. Maybe I should coach. That only sounds like fan blather if your favorite team starts on time. Mine is rather nonchalant about responding to phone alarms. Leaders should emphasize important details like game start time. The Buffalo Bills won’t keep getting away with tardiness.
The victorious Bills are nonetheless shiftless, and not in a way that inspires Replacements-style vigorous performances. A defensive coach doesn’t help with the offense, but at least tackling’s lousy. Backers were embarrassed because the team they follow seems like they weren’t. A 24-point win by force of will over one of the league’s dregs will cover for how they don’t play efficiently unless they’re challenged. Brats get away with their behavior for as long as they’re enabled.
You can’t presently reverse history even on Back to the Future Day. An embarrassed roster will always have been losing to the Titans 3–0 after a quarter. If you think that’s bad, wait until you hear about how they were down by double digits soon after. Ticket prices are 100 percent nonrefundable even if the host only plays one half.
Social media may offer the truth about facts. “Fire McDermott” trended on Twitter for most of the game, including after taking the lead. Distinguishing between rash overreactions and genuine sentiment is part of being one’s editor. One cannot be one’s favorite team’s safety.
There’s not one successful franchise that lets fans make personnel decisions. But realizing they’re noticing unsettling trends is an honest service snarky fans utilizing their options for venting provide.
We’re supposed to feel impressed about overcoming their early nonchalance just like we’re expected to be thrilled that Terry Pegula hasn’t relocated his athletic businesses. I’m sorry to be such an ingrate. But playing better in their home isn’t an unreasonable request. A roster with reasonable playoff hopes should be able to manage their first third down conversion before the third quarter.
Momentum shifted thanks to facing blithering idiots. The game’s final narrative took shape after a Titans fourth down failure that the Bills could have called, or at least would have if they had competent coaches.
The only thing worse than enduring the Jets game is not learning from it. The Bills frequently appear as listless as they are undisciplined. Waiting to charge themselves until halftime is not going to work against teams that come in with a winning percentage higher than 20 percent.
Starting a quarterback controversy in Nashville reflects how direness is relative. Relying on Mason Rudolph to drop snaps was probably not Buffalo’s plan, but they exploited it, anyway. Unfamiliarity with the object in play defines their troubled quarterback situation. A Will Levis mayonnaise commercial during a game in which he didn’t play summarizes his career.
The game’s biggest side quest involved seeing whether trade expectations would be too high in the second half or for the rest of the season. One touchdown allowed Amari Cooper to switch from unfair expectations not met to an unfair precedent.
An inauspicious drop did not set the tone. Bills fans who seek patterns should not be disappointed. It took the guy who hasn’t been dragged down by recent tendencies to break them. Not holding onto a pass so he could ease himself into the offense sure was sneaky. To emphasize, receivers shouldn’t drop passes so they have room to improve any more than clubs should play uninspired first halves so the ensuing surge seems even more impressive.
The Bizarro Stefon seems immune to causing trouble. Cooper didn’t spur a confrontation before the game like the erstwhile Bill. A player who seems to embody quiet focus didn’t need to make a scene to announce he’s arrived.
Cooper is smiling deep down about his new quarterback. Josh Allen’s 100th start was also about the 100th time Bills fans have wondered if he’s the sole reason for his singular career. I dread learning how many more will feel like he’s going underutilized through no fault of his own. Allen will undoubtedly win many more solely by jury-rigging solutions to nautical disasters caused by the coach steering into perilous conditions.
A score that looked impressive despite how the game unfurled embodies the McDermott era. Relying on their ability to turn on their abilities is unsustainable. We’re supposed to feel pleased they eventually got around to not underachieving.
Games that ultimately offer pleasant results create dilemmas for innate kvetchers. Consecutive wins with glaring lapses are better than the pair of tough losses before that. The NFL is binary in measuring results. But Buffalo can’t play casually or sloppily if they want to continue to prevail despite maddening struggles.
The Titans imploded like the Jets even if they displayed a slightly different style. This league is all about individual signatures. The Bills need to ensure they’re not the roster that meets their potential when they get around to it.
