What Ails the Bills?

Disclaimer: I am a full time OBGYN and am in no way, shape, or form, a sport analyst or journalist. These are simply my reactions and thoughts.

As a doctor, you’re constantly being told you need to have hobbies and a life outside of work. Well, as a recent residency graduate, and current fellow, my hobbies basically are sleeping and eating. Unless it’s football season, then I spend my free time watching the games. I guess I decided now would be the perfect time to start a new hobby. Is it because I want to procrastinate studying for oral boards? I’ll let you decide. 

Just a quick background, I was born in Ohio, spent most of my life in South Carolina, then moved to Florida for residency, and now I am currently in Texas. So logically my football team would be either the Browns or Panthers, right? Well, that’s wrong. I am a diehard Buffalo Bills fan. I bleed blue and red. How did I become a Bills fan? Am I just a bandwagon fan? Absolutely not. I was raised a Bills fan by my Father, who was born and raised in Gowanda, NY. I was born in the middle of Buffalo’s 4 Super Bowl appearances and loses. I remember the frustration of the bad seasons when I was a child and the excitement of Buffalo making the playoffs again when I was in medical school. My Dad still talks about wide right and 13 seconds still haunts me (I was in Hawaii when it happened, I may never go back!). Yet throughout it all, my Dad and myself, remained loyal fans.

Is now an exciting time to be a Buffalo fan? Absolutely! I was at the Ravens game and stayed the whole time because I believe in this team! Do I think we’ll go to the Super Bowl? I’m praying I get to have that experience with my Dad, but sometimes I do have my doubts. Now before you say I should be a more “loyal” fan and have more faith, can you say you’ve never had doubts or frustrations about your own team? That’s what I thought. After two heartbreaking loses to teams who on paper we should have blown out, these are some of my thoughts. 

1. I’m just tired of McDermott's soft defense until the red zone. It obviously doesn’t work. I love McDermott as a person and Hard Knocks made me respect him even more. But I can’t help but think, has he reached his ceiling? I hope the answer is no, and that injuries are just killing us. But it’s hard to not let the doubts creep in. Especially after allowing Bijon Robinson to score his longest rushing TD. On a positive note, our defense did show up in the second half and only allowed 3 points and 109 yards compared to 21 and 335 yards in the first half. Walker seemed to step up and looked good as a rookie with 4 tackles and 1 assist, which is almost double his previous games. Huge shout out to Rousseau and the blocked field goal! If only our offense could have capitalized on it. 
2. I am extremely confused by what Brady has been doing these last 2 games. The offense just looks lifeless most of the time. I don’t know if this is a coaching issue or if we have gotten too complacent. Honestly, part of me is glad we lost to Atlanta. I hope it lights a fire and gets these players (and coaches) to do some hard reflection and determine what the issues are. I don’t understand why we didn’t run Cook more or even target him? He has had 0 receptions our last two loses with only 1 target against New England. I understand Kincaid was out this game and Palmer ended up getting injured, but someone else has to step up. I think Shakir did the best he could considering the defensive coverage. I get the "everybody eats" mentality, and I agree with it, but Allen needs another go to receiver, someone he can trust. Did we even draft a WR? I literally had to look this up and we did, pick 240, Prather. I’m tired of getting these washed up players from trades, we need to get a rookie we can develop. Speaking of developing, bench Coleman until he can catch the ball. Overall, very frustrating coaching and it’s never good when Allen gets frustrated. Interceptions and turnovers will always cost you the game. Yes, strong words and controversial, but emotions are emotions. I am hoping they can change my opinion and my next post will be praising Coleman, Shavers, etc. 
3. On a positive note, at least they have a bye week to get it together and we’ll be getting players back. We will have our 2 suspended players back (Ogunjobi and Hoecht) and Hairston should hopefully be back soon as well. I’m excited to see what Hairston brings to the team, he was a fun player to watch in college. I’m hoping Kincaid will be back for Carolina, Palmer won't be out for more than a couple weeks (though is he the answer to our WR issues?), and always hoping Milano can play and stay healthy. 

I hope these are just some bad bumps in the road and things will change as chemistry builds between Allen and some other players and coaching calls will get better. I understand high expectations can be impossible to live up to, trust me, I’m my own worst critic. I throw one air knot and suddenly I’m a horrible surgeon. So, I know there would still be critical statements about this team even if we were 6-0. I also know this time last year we were 4-2 and extremely frustrated. Ultimately, making the playoffs with as healthy of a team as possible is the goal. So sometimes you have to think about the bigger picture. However, I am dying for that number 1 seed and a bye week! What an interesting season so far, a lot of upsets already and wild games (I mean Giants beating the Eagles?? Crazy!)

Now as someone who’s first passion will always be women’s health (I love my Bills, but my patients always come first), time for a shameless plug to remind women to take care of themselves. We all know October is breast cancer awareness month. So please, please, please get your mammograms if you’re older than 50 per US Preventative Services Task Force and consider starting in your 40s per American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. A scary fact is that most women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer do not have identifiable risk factors. Also, women know their breasts best, so if there are any concerns, please go see one of your friendly OBGYNs or family practice doctors. And don’t forget about the importance of your yearly visit, it’s about so much more than just Pap smears, more on that another time. 

As always, and in the words of our MVP (who I very much still believe in), be good, do good, God bless, and go Bills! 

Rachel H MD

Image from YourAttentionPlease.com (you may recognize Hailee Steinfeld from their ads!)