Arizona Cardinals linebacker Isaiah Simmons trips up Bills wide receiver Cole Beasley on Sunday in Glendale, Ariz.
We football fans have to listen to the voices of people who know, play, coach and report on the game, as well as some of the more astute, informed fans who seriously watch and truly understand it.
Unfortunately, listening to any number of those voices will drive you insane.
The diehards say the Buffalo Bills’ unthinkable 32-30 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on a heroic Hail Mary pass by Kyler Murray and Homeric catch by DeAndre Hopkins was just one of those things. It was a great, once-in-a-lifetime play that had a 99.9% chance of not happening.
Except it did. The realists say the Bills are just not that good, never should have been put in that position in the first place and deserved to lose, even on a bizarre stroke of luck.
The pundits say Murray is some kind of wizard whose sorcery led to the unearthly play, avoiding a sack by Mario Addison. The stats say the Bills' defense is second in AFC East in sacks and Tackles For Loss (TFL). But the game on television says the Bills never get enough pressure and they cannot tackle anyone.
That said, the facts say the Bills are 7-3 at the bye, still atop the AFC East.
The homers claim we had just beat the best team in the NFC West the week before at home, the NFL’s best division overall, and we all but beat the second-best team in it, excluding one freakish play, after beating the third-best team in the AFC West a few weeks before.
The pessimists say the defense cannot stop anyone, especially on the ground, and Josh Allen, however improved, is not a franchise quarterback as evidenced by his two buzzkill, bonehead interceptions and the fact we lost.
The analysts say the Bills' defense made a couple turnovers and enormous stops. They also caved when they needed one or the other. Analytics say they couldn't stop the Cardinals on long drives in the first half.
And yet the scoreboard says they held them to three field goals and nine points in that half.
Common sense says we cannot tackle or stop the run, including or ignoring scrambling and running quarterbacks like Murray — and the Bills badly miss Matt Milano and his playmaking ability.
The salary cap and numbers guys offer that the Bills might have overspent on their defensive line, which is paid tops in the league, and that too often comes up short.
Logic says several stupid penalties killed a crucial drive midway through the fourth quarter and the Bills always, always, always commit too many of these blessed things.
The coaches say we will have to look at the film. The players say we won that game and we are better than them.
The naysayers, remarkably, say nay! You lost, get over it. And then the detractors chime in with the fact that Miami is too close — the opinion that they will be 9-3 in three weeks — and the utter nonsense that they will overtake these same ol’, same ol’ Bills.
The hypocrites opine the Bills can never win big games or beat the best teams except the times, like last week, when they do.
The scouting reports claim that the Bills have two talented running backs, but the numbers say the Bills have the fourth-worst rushing attack in the league and likely the worst without Allen.
The record books say Tyler Bass made three 50-plus yard field goals in one quarter, the first and only time that has been done. The rookie kicker went from first-game jitters, into now setting his career-long with each kick, including a 58-yarder.
Consensus opinion says it’s wrong that Dawson Knox got that ticky-tack block in the back penalty that negated an important long screen pass completion to Devin Singletary on offsetting penalties — and the replays on NFL.com and All-22 say, "OK, so maybe that was not such bad a call."
The head says, “Wow, what a freakin’ game! Josh was amazing on that last drive when we needed him the most, and we would be talking about that comeback for years if not for a fluke!”
The heart says Cole Beasley was the heart of the team, and beastly again, perhaps his best grab and game of his career with 11 (mostly clutch) catches for 109 yards and a touchdown.
Then the anger in us says we are still cursed, and "Billsy," and of course we lost that game on that play because we are, after all is said and done, the Bills and God hates us.
The referees said a couple of Bills made critical penalties late in the game, but the replay officials said we're not going to let you see it.
The clichés say on any given Sunday, football is a game of inches and the Bills left it all on the field, but the Cardinals just wanted it more after the real gunslinger Murray threw up a Hail Mary that ended with Hopkins’ circus catch when he has a motor that won’t quit and gave it 110%, so we have to take it one game at a time although the Bills would like to have that one back because you have to take care of the football.
The fools say we scored too early and gave the Cardinals too much time to come back and score. All of 34 seconds. The delusional say with a bounce here and there, the Bills would be 10-0 or at worst, 9-1 because of the Titans debacle. The haters say Allen still is not accurate, despite being near the top of the league in most important qualities. You winsome, you loathsome.
The fantasy freaks say Allen threw two touchdowns and caught a third for about 29 more points depending on your scoring system, and second in the NFL in points overall.
The blame game says I blame fired Texans GM/HC Bill O'Brien for giving away arguably the best receiver in the game, Hopkins, for nowhere close to what he's worth, which won the game for the Birds.
Pretty much all of them, excluding the delusional, say the Bills have trouble in the third quarter. And yet the sturdy football maxims like, "You are what your record says you are" say that including Sunday's last second loss, the Bills are 24-2 in the Sean McDermott era after leading at the half, so how bad could they be?
The defense made an enormous stop on three consecutive downs with just more than four minutes left to set up what woulda, shoulda, coulda been another fourth-quarter comeback victory for Allen.
And in a matchup of points and points of view, in this game of inches we call NFL football, this was a game of inch.
But the Hail Mary changed everything, of course, which says it all.
Pete Rosen is a screenwriter in Los Angeles, lifetime Buffalo fan, and may be found blathering daily at twobillsdrive.com.
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November 19, 2020 at 06:00PM
https://buffalonews.com/sports/bills/voice-of-the-fan-forget-qbr-ypc-dvoa-etc-nfl-is-about-pov/article_3b448130-29ea-11eb-8849-dfe914e03b93.html
Voice of the Fan: Forget QBR, YPC, DVOA, etc., NFL is about POV - Buffalo News
https://news.google.com/search?q=forget&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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