We’ve all been there, countless times. We all know the feeling. The sinking pit in your stomach when a whole days worth of work is put in and in the end the only reward you receive is a pat on the back and a “Well, at least they tried hard”. That is the answer my mom used to give me after a hard Bills or Sabres loss. She didn’t totally get it. This isn’t tee ball where everybody wins and gets a trophy.
Playing hard doesn’t get you anything but some false congratulations from the opposing teams coach about how tough the game was. Meanwhile, after the cameras go off, he’s laughing to his assistants about how they just stole victory from the jaws of the Buffalo.
Then Sunday happened. The Bills, who rarely get blown out at home (Seattle in 2012), usually show up for games versus stronger and better opponents. They can be counted on to keep the game close through the first half, and even lead the game into the 3rd quarter. But then the Bumbling Bills show up, take costly penalties and get conservative with the playbook. Then, the bullies in the school yard show up to take their lunch money and leave us with another “good effort” slogan. Sunday was different in some ways; we took a big lead and were able to fight off the Super Bowl Champions. It should be repeated, our Bills knocked off the Super Bowl Champs.
It wasn’t pretty, but it didn’t need to be, good teams find ways to win and that’s what we did. I think what happened Sunday was something we don’t know a lot about; confidence. Doug Marrone and his staff had a game plan and stuck with it. Through injuries and some costly penalties they didn’t waiver. Referee Jerome Boger and his crew seemed to look under that magical replay hood and find reasons to keep the Ravens in the game. Four times he went under the hood with a decision that had been ruled on the field in favor of the Bills and 4 times he came out deciding otherwise. The 5th time, the Kiko Alonso interception late in the 4th quarter, he miraculously couldn’t find conclusive evidence.
The Bills held strong when they need to…They shut down the Ravens running game and dared Joe Flacco to beat us with his 20 million dollar arm. He couldn’t do enough versus a depleted secondary. Bend but don’t break has been the mantra for far too long. It’s about time we got tougher, no more bending, you want to beat us, you’ll have to go through us.
At 23-14 it was easy to see how the Ravens could, and in some people’s minds, would win the game, 24-23. It was New England all over again. These baby Bills are growing up in front of our eyes. They’re surprising a few people and maybe, just maybe, the bandwagon will still be full come December. The NFL landscape changes quickly. From year to year or even week to week, teams come out of nowhere and demand respect. It’s about time that pit in our stomach turns into an expectation to win.
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