NFL Buffalo Bills

2014 Buffalo Bills Are Not Who Fans Thought They Were

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Bills vs Raiders

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Everyone has seen a relationship that they knew deep down inside wasn’t sustainable. That’s the story of the 2014 Buffalo Bills and their fans’ admiration for them. The red flags were everywhere: bad running game, terrible offensive line, even worse quarterbacking and prehistoric play-calling, just to name a few.

Fans knew these things would come to bite this team eventually, but the joy and hope of beating teams like the Green Bay Packers makes you ignore the obvious because the moment of seeing your lovable loser potentially succeed is one of the best sports has to offer.

For all the noise that is made about Buffalo losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in a game that should serve as lesson one in Losing 101: How to Give Away a 4th Quarter Lead, Buffalo was on the receiving end of some major unsustainable good fortune in three out of the four wins against the NFC North.

Against the Detroit Lions, the Bills benefited from no Megatron and three timely missed field goals from Alex Henery — who was cut from the team that following Monday.

On the final game winning drive against the Minnesota Vikings, Buffalo converted a one percent chance fourth-and-20 to get into scoring position in time for a Sammy Watkins‘ game-winning touchdown.

In a game where Buffalo did not score one offensive touchdown, the Packers’ Jordy Nelson dropped a wide open bomb that would have potentially given the Packers a 17-16 lead going into the fourth quarter. Buffalo’s offense had not to shown that they could put together a competent drive, so it’s hard to believe this would-be play wouldn’t have been momentum swinging enough to put the Packers in the driver’s seat.

Throw in two more wins against that train wreck in the Big Apple they call the New York Jets and you have a team that won most of its games by merely playing defense and catching some huge breaks. Now that’s not to take away from these victories, but it is to show why losing to the Oakland Raiders wasn’t a surprise.

The Bills never showed that their offense could complement their defense. As good as the Seattle Seahawks‘ defense was that won the Super Bowl last season, they wouldn’t have gotten that far without the contributions of Russell Wilson, the O-line and Marshawn Lynch. Winning is everything, but how you win might be more important because if your route to victory doesn’t feature sustainability, then your worst flaws will rear their ugly heads at the worst of times — like in a must-win against the 2-12 Raiders.

A bad running game, terrible offensive line, even worst quarterbacking and prehistoric play-calling were all evident in Sunday’s loss. These things don’t just go away because you win a few games. Sometimes your success can actually mask your deficiencies, so much so that you can have possibly the best and worst losses of the last decade in back-to-back weeks.

Sunday’s loss snapped fans back into reality of what being a Bills fan is really like. The hope that this year would be different has now gone by the wayside and all too familiar phrases like “there is always next year” will be uttered throughout Western New York all week. But this offseason presents a time like no other with new owner Terry Pegula taking over the reigns. Maybe this move will present a real difference that changes this narrative and not supply more of the same. These fans and this region deserve a winner, not more disappointment and pain.

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