What are the Buffalo Bills? Divisional round performance echoes historic disappointments as Super Bowl window starts to close
As the Buffalo Bills walked off the field in the playoffs as losers once again, the question dawned on me: What are the Buffalo Bills?
Coming into the 2022-23 season, the conversation was more about the Bills being screwed in those 13 seconds against the Kansas City Chiefs than it was about a potential warning sign.
The debate was about the overtime rules instead of deeply questioning how in the world an NFL team gave up a game-tying touchdown drive with 13 seconds left.
Buffalo came into the season as the unquestioned favorite to win the Super Bowl and their quarterback Josh Allen was the overwhelming MVP favorite.
In the first two games of the season, they showed why. The Bills beat last year's Super Bowl champions, the Los Angeles Rams, and the AFC's top seed, the Tennessee Titans, by a combined score of 72-17.
Those games shaped the conversation about this team for the rest of the season. Warning signs of turnovers, defensive lapses and lethargic play were ignored in favor of pre-existing notions.
Once again, Buffalo walked off the field losers before the Conference Championship game for the second year in a row.
“The goal is to win a championship and we won’t stop until we get there. I’m extremely proud of how far this organization has come, but not satisfied.”
Top 5 takeaways from Coach McDermott's season-ending press conference: bufbills.co/3XA6abM https://t.co/iGjHPOZ9pA
Which brings me back to the original question: Who are they? What is the identity of this franchise that promises so much and falters when it matters most?
Buffalo Bills could miss their Super Bowl window
The crux of the matter is that they don't appear to be winners and are not anything special. The Chiefs are in their fifth straight AFC Championship. The Bengals are in their second in two years. Buffalo have only been to one.
Here's the reality. The Bills are just a good regular season team. They aren't built to win in the playoffs.
They can't run the ball. In the past three seasons (without Allen's rushing yards), Buffalo are 32nd, 31st and 31st in total rushing yards. The team is way too reliant on Allen to make plays for their offense.
It's been boom or bust for the team. When it booms, they look unbeatable. If it busts, they can lose to anyone.
To Buffalo's credit, they haven't lost many games since Allen became their full-time starter. They've gone 47-18 in four years. This is not a bad team by any stretch of the imagination.
It was a season of many ups, and many downs.
You were with us through it all, and always will be.
Thank you, Bills Mafia. ❤️💙 https://t.co/1j4rG5Nbsx
Regular-season awards are hollow. WInning the AFC East is great, but without playoff success, it doesn't mean much. Nobody cares if a team goes undefeated if they don't win the Super Bowl. And nobody cares that the 9-7 New York Giants had an average regular season since they won the Super Bowl.
The goal is to win the ultimate prize. For Buffalo to get there, they will need to make major changes across the entire organization. They need to change how they build this roster, how they run their offense and how they manage game-time decisions.
The NFL works in cycles and maintaining a brilliant team becomes challenging with the constraints of salary cap and draft position. The Bills face some tough decisions with contracts and keeping this team (and the staff) together for the long haul is nigh on impossible. Much as the Pittsburgh Steelers couldn't win Ben Roethlisberger a third Super Bowl, the Bills seem unable to capture one.
Buffalo have been demed contenders for a few seasons now and have not delivered. The window for Super Bowl glory is not exactly closing yet, but the sun is setting rather than rising.
Historically, Buffalo lost four Super Bowls in a row and remains a franchise without a Lombardi Trophy. They have to find a way to win in the postseason, or else continue to be haunted by their past and be seen as an organization who just can't win the big one.