GroveDiesel
Footballguy
I’m fairly certain that I’m overreacting, but at the same time, the 90s Bills were great teams that fell short and offered up to Bills fans some gut punch losses. So in that sense, having a great team and still falling short in the most gut wrenching way is exactly the same as Bills fans have felt for decades.While I feel for Bills fans, I'm not sure that I agree with the current thread title "same as it ever was." I say this because while last night had to sting pretty hard (the prevent defense at the end of regulation was cringe-worthy), there are still a ton of positives coming out of that game that should enable you to both hold your head high (that was one of the best games ever played) and be confident for the future (Josh Allen). In the past, aside from maybe the Norwood miss, you guys never really seemed to be in it then spent the last 20 years in the Patriots' shadow. This objectively seems and feels differently to me than those years and losses and I see no reason to have any pessimism for next year if I were a Bills fan. So, no, this feels different than it ever was.
In contrast, I'm a Vikings fan. Same as it ever was is having talent and a decent team just knowing there's going to be a gut-punch blunder when it looks like we're the favorites and then knowing that the team will be weaker the following year as there hasn't been a franchise QB since Tarkenton. And the losses ('98 Anderson miss, Favre INT, Walsh miss, and the absolute no-show against the Eagles a few years ago) were just seemingly more like blunders/choke jobs/etc. as opposed to what happened last night: two clearly top teams giving each other all they had with somebody having to lose.
So, yeah, as a Vikings fan please believe me when I genuinely say that I'm jealous of Bills fans right now and Josh Allen and the culture there does seem to be much different in a good way than it "ever was."
And while I would love to have hope and optimism, and while I fully acknowledge that Allen provides an excellent chance for Buffalo to be competitive no matter what, there are no guarantees that things will ever line up like they lined up this year. The team will have quite a bit of turnover this off-season including their assistant GM leaving and likely at least 1 coordinator (the better and more important one).
I mean, Dan Marino never won a ring. Kelly never won a ring. There are plenty of great QBs who didn’t win the big one. So you’ll have to pardon my negativity when I don’t buy that Buffalo will win one eventually because of Allen. They should have won one this year and they ultimately came up short. That’s all we can bank on right now.