SB Nation reacts Results: Has the Bills Mafia panicked?

Ebbs and flows. Every NFL season is full of them, and the same goes for our weekly Reacts polls, where we ask Buffalo Bills fans if they’re confident in the team’s direction. After a victory, even an ugly one, growth is to be expected. In the event of a loss, whether close and heartbreaking or total, fans tend to fall off the wagon.

That the Bills lost in Week 4 shouldn’t be a complete surprise to fans. Buffalo was on the road playing an extremely dangerous Baltimore Ravens team, looking to prove they were much better than the 1-2 record suggested. And so it was.

In turn, the loss doesn’t mean the Bills are better than their 3-0 record that people have been led to believe. Quite simply, the NFL is a league in which most players in the sport re-evaluate almost everything in every new game every week.

Admit it, you really didn’t believe the Buffalo Bills were 17-0 this season. Most seasoned die-hard fans probably wouldn’t say so, given the heavy lineup turnover and the clear injection of youth into One Bills Drive.

This week’s results may surprise a few people – and that’s because while there was a decline in confidence, it wasn’t a sharp decline. Are we Joshin, Mr. Brightside?

Currently, 88% of voters are confident in the direction the Bills are taking. Last week, after Buffalo won 3-0 entering the game against the Ravens, the confidence rating hit a season high of 96%.

This is a reminder to never over- or under-expect your bills.

In Week 5, the Bills have a great opportunity to recover from a tough beating. Strong performances and road wins in Houston reminded people that Buffalo still has one of the NFL’s elite teams.

The Bills are expected to reunite with Stefon Diggs on Sunday, but not so he can catch passes from quarterback Josh Allen again. This will be Diggs’ first game against his former team, and he remains one of the hottest topics in the league this week.

Without Diggs, the Bills have adopted an “everyone eats” offensive identity. We hear this almost every day. But what really lies in his heart? Is it about checking egos and prioritizing team over individual statistics? Perhaps it really has to do with spreading the ball more to help Allen and evolve the offense.

Regardless of how we understand the game by game, everyone could have a day, whereas before it was almost certain that Stefon Diggs would call it a day or not at all.

In this context, we wanted to know who voters thought would be best suited to fill the position vacated by Diggs. Simply put: Who is Allen throwing to on 4th-and-4 and they need a completion to convert (and that’s when he’s unable to climb)?

Do you believe you know who it is and that the answer is simple? Well, a majority of voters said it was winger Khalil Shakir, who won a higher percentage of the vote (63%) than the other seven options combined (37%). Looking at the results, it basically came down to three players: Shakir, point guard Dalton Kincaid, and point guard James Cook. Rookie winger Keon Coleman was among the 1% of votes cast for other players. This isn’t a referendum on Cole, rather it’s a byproduct of his four-game NFL career. Note: None of the highly regarded free agents were able to make an impact on any of Buffalo’s drafted players.

Now the question arises, who will be in charge in Shakira’s absence? Allen won’t be able to rely on Shakira in key situations due to the ankle injury he suffered last weekend in Baltimore.

Does the loss of Shakir (as well as defensive starters Ed Oliver and safety Taylor Rapp) affect how players feel about the Buffalo Bills’ chances of covering the spread with FanDuel?

That doesn’t seem to be the case, at least not at this point, as 65% of voters say the bills will pass the budget in week five.

Head coach Sean McDermott knows he has a lot of work ahead of him and a long season with few opportunities to forgive mistakes. There is pretty clear evidence that the Bills don’t perform well against teams with a lot of physical strength. This needs to change if they hope to stay in contention.