Few phrases in professional football are as dangerous as ‘moral victory.’
It’s the football linguist’s take on ‘you live and you learn,’ a way for a team to maintain confidence and continue to grow after facing adversity, typically in the form of losses.
Though losing can certainly breed character, taking solace in a loss can create a mindset of content. When a team is able to justify one loss, it becomes easier to justify the next.
And the next. And the next.
In a results-based business such as the NFL, placing moral victories in a proverbial trophy case can lead to disaster. Finding some sort of comfort in a loss is almost never a good idea.
Almost.
Though the Buffalo Bills lost their Wild Card round matchup with the Houston Texans in heartbreaking fashion, it’s difficult to not find some ‘moral victory’ in the team’s 2019 season.
Looking past Buffalo’s putrid postseason loss in which it squandered a 16-point second-half lead, it’s clear to see that the 2019 campaign was paramount in the development of the organization as a whole.
It was one of growth. It was one of progress.
It was one of success.
The Bills – a team that has long been looked at as a perennial laughingstock, an inept organization that once failed to make the playoffs for 17 consecutive seasons – shed that nagging national perception with a 10-win season.
Quarterback Josh Allen showed discernible development in his sophomore campaign, showing sharper decision-making while also improving on his accuracy in the short-to-intermediate passing game. He also flashed on the ground, complementing his 3,089 yards and 20 touchdowns through the air with nine rushing scores.
Rookie Devin Singletary also cemented himself as a building block for Buffalo in the 2019 campaign, picking up 969 total yards on 180 touches. He became the team’s featured back in the second half of the season, providing a spark to a Bills’ offense that looked lifeless at times. Buffalo was 5-2 in games in which Singletary had 14 or more carries.
Defensively, Tremaine Edmunds and Tre’Davious White continued their respective rises to national prominence. Edmunds showed elite-level athleticism and play recognition from the middle linebacker position, quarterbacking a defense that finished third in the league in total yardage.
White led the league in interceptions and did not allow a touchdown in coverage, earning All-Pro honors for the first time in his career.
And one could even argue that there are other storylines that perhaps better encapsulate Buffalo’s breakout season.
The team’s 2019 draft class, as a whole, performed admirably, with Ed Oliver, Cody Ford, and Dawson Knox all serving as significant contributors in their rookie seasons.
Defensive tackle Jordan Phillips experienced a career renaissance in Buffalo, tallying a career-high 9.5 sacks from the interior of the defensive line.
Wide receiver John Brown also constructed a career year in Western New York, reeling in 72 passes for 1,060 yards and six touchdowns after inking a three-year deal with the Bills in the offseason.
All these factors played a role in what was objectively Buffalo’s best season of the 21st century. The team finished the 2019 season with a 10-6 record, its first double-digit win total since 1999.
You’d be forgiven if recency bias is clouding your judgment of the entire season – as losing a two-score lead in the second half of a postseason game is nothing short of unacceptable.
Yet, despite that, it’s difficult to not be encouraged by the direction that Buffalo is heading in.
The team is far from perfect. The offense struggled throughout the majority of the season, its shortcomings stemming from a combination of poor execution and questionable play-calling.
Allen is still far from a polished quarterback, as poor footwork caused his passes, specifically those more than 15 yards down the field, to consistently go awry throughout the season.
The offense lacks a bonafide No. 1 weapon while the defense, while incredibly stout, also has a few question marks, with how the team will handle the retirement of starting outside linebacker Lorenzo Alexander perhaps being the most pressing matter.
But fans and analysts alike can be confident that the team will address these issues in the offseason. General manager Brandon Beane has been near-flawless since taking the reins of the team in the 2017 offseason, turning his inherited mess into an exciting young roster with franchise-caliber players at a number of core positions.
He can also make significant additions to his roster in the 2020 offseason. According to OverTheCap, the Bills are set to enter the new league year with north of $88 million in cap space, the largest amount of any reigning playoff team and the fourth-most of any team in the league.
Beane has the capital to construct a talented roster for head coach Sean McDermott, who’s coming off a Coach of the Year-caliber campaign.
Buffalo is not a perfect team, with its shortcomings made painfully apparent in its postseason collapse in Houston. Though a heartbreaking defeat was not the ideal way to end the Bills’ breakout season, a breakout season it still was.
The 2019 campaign saw Buffalo garner national attention for its strong play from its young playmakers and consistently strong coaching. Given the track record of those at the helm, there’s no reason to think that the team won’t build on its success moving forward.
Though it’s natural to dwell on the team’s postseason loss in the interim, don’t let the result fool you. The 2019 season was a genuine success for the Bills, the first of what will likely be many for the team’s current regime.
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