Buffalo Sports Chatter Rigley
Most people pray for storms to end. For the snow to halt, because after a few days you lose the joy that comes with building snowmen. The hard work sets in. Shoveling the driveway, collecting firewood, and trying to get satellite connection. Most aren’t built for the harsh, unforgiving cold storms, but Bills Mafia embraces it.
Around the landscape of the National Football League we find fanbases that lack character, commitment, and when their team dips just under the bar of being relevant, they trash their season and turn their attention to basketball or baseball, shit even beach volleyball (sorry Chargers fans, if you're there). Bills Mafia, however, has prevailed through hard times. We have prevailed through 6-10 seasons where the offense never scores more than 25 points. We have prevailed through quarterbacks such as EJ Manuel, Kyle Orton & Thad Lewis. God, they were some bad times, but now the sun is rising.
The Bills so far this year have exploded, and I mean EXPLODED. Stefon Diggs and Josh “The Greatest Athlete In The History Of Sports'' Allen have been on quite the offensive tear in the past couple of weeks, and the super-brain of Brian Daboll (thank the gods and Pancho Billa that he is staying) has maximized their potential ten-fold. The Bills are legit, it’s not a “squeak-in” season, Buffalo flat-out dominated, being 11-1 in their last 12 with their only loss coming at the hands of De’Andre Hopkins. However, the doubters are still there, like Nick Wright, and all of Twitter whenever I log on. What more does Buffalo need to do to earn the respect of the league? At this point if Buffalo were to go 16-0 while allowing 0 points on the season; thirsty, hack journalists will still predict them to lose handsomely in their first playoff game. Disregard the hypotheticals though, let’s take a look into the AFC Championship, as Buffalo will travel to Kansas City.
As everyone knows, Pat Mahomes is in concussion protocol from the divisional matchup. He took a hell of a hit and when he tried to stand, his legs went full wacky-waving-inflatable-arm flailing tube man on him. We all know how that game ended. Chad HenneGod came in and somehow propelled Kansas City past Cleveland thanks to the un-Chadness of Baker Mayfield and some damn-good play-calling from Andy Reid. Regardless of their current team position, the 14-2 Chiefs are still menacing, but Buffalo, with no biased opinion, of course, seems like the favorite.
We all know what the offense can do, and we should expect a 30-40 bomb from Josh Allen and Brian Daboll’s offense. It’s the defense though that should set the Bills apart from the defending champions. Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer, the deadly safety combo, have been ecstatic in the playoffs so far, allowing no deep pass plays, while also maintaining their elite run support. They play all over the field, and at a great rate. Kansas City beats teams by hitting Kelce for 11, 14; and then running a couple times, all to hit Tyreek over top for a 60 yard bomb. Boom, it’s worked all year for them, but why now, should it stop? Let’s take a look into last week’s throttling of the Baltimore Ravens. Baltimore kept trying to establish the run, and when they thought Buffalo wasn’t expecting it, they’d send Hollywood Brown (baby Tyreek Hill) over-top for a 50 yard post. It never worked for the Ravens, due to elite safety help from the aforementioned safety duo and the surprisingly elite pass rush from Mario Addison and Jerry Hughes. Leslie Frazier’s defense looks almost unbeatable at this point. The linebackers are healthy, the secondary is playing ridiculous, and the d-line has made drastic improvements.
So, regardless if Patty Mahomes plays, I fully expect a NFL-altering performance by the Mafia come Sunday. And boy, is it deserving. All the terrible write-off years for Buffalo, all the coaching changes, all the head-scratching drafts, have led to this moment. Bills Mafia deserves it, probably more than any franchise in sports today. We stuck together like Gorilla Glue and even when the team had 3 wins in December, our ruthless fanbase was still livid and jumping through tables. It’s our heart, it’s the blue-collar mentality of Buffalo, that will power this team to a Super Bowl matchup with either the Packers or Tom Brady’s Buccaneers. Rise up, Bills Mafia, it’s time to start celebrating.
Buffalo Sports Chatter
You forgot mention JP Los(e)man. 🤭