The Buffalo Bills have to be the most cursed franchise in sports. Not even just American football.
"Wide right" is simply Buffalo's 28-3. It hurts my heart. :covri:
Except, Grand, if you think about it from a singular, seperate perspective, "wide right", whether it was Scott Norwood missing a 47-yarder to potentially win Super Bowl XXV, or Tyler Bass missing a potential game-tying FG at 27-27, the fault for those missed kicks, as opposed to 28-3 is essentially on the PK themselves, whereas Falcons monumental collapse in SB 51 to New England involved a lot more people, OC and HC (Kyle Shanahan himself and Dan Quinn), and most of the team.
" Wide Right", falls squarely on the PK. They pay you hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe millions like Veniteri, Morten Andersen, Will Lutz even to make these pressure-cooker, high-tension kicks and well, what happened to Buffalo at SB XXV, and last Sunday night are two great examples of PK's not doing their jobs.
But, I won't be intellectually lazy and fall for the temptation to blame both of these losses on Norwood or Bass because historically, fairly examining those losses from a analytical standpoint, their teammates also failed to make key plays or defensive stops, especially in Super Bowl XXV with Belichick's masterful defensive game-plan, which is now in NFL's HOF, called "clock-ball". We also need to remind ourselves that in both of these games, they had short leads at halftime and failure to execute is another big factor why they lost. Buffalo's defense is the reason why they lost that great, classic OT game 2 years ago in 2021 Divisional Round by failing to stop Patrick Mahomes driving down the field with :13 seconds left to set up a game-tying FG.
Marv Levy might be a HOF HC but he didn't prepare, execute, or develop his teams' properly or get them ready, mentally, emotionally, and psychologically for any of those 4 Super Bowl losses and in each contest, but especially in the Bills first two SB appearances, they were way out-coached, outmanuevered, out-played. They also didnt do themselves any favors when their avowed, loudmouth former D-line coach mocked the famous Redskins, " Hogs" offensive line, comparing them to Neanderthals, making silly, ridiculous, honking pig-like sounds the Super Bowl week leading up to the game. Levy, I'm sure deserves to be in Canton but if you examine his in-game coaching decisions, strategic and logistical moves, gameplans, styles, he's no Bill Walsh or Tom Landry and aside from his time as Bills HC, his coaching career, overall was relatively mediocre, with the Chiefs. Bill Polian and Levy's HC predecessors, Chuck Knox and Kay Stephenson, drafted, arranged and built around 85% of those great 90's Buffalo teams. Levy just showed up at the right place, right time and inherited a championship-ready team.