January 1, 2012; Foxboro, Massachusetts, USA; The feet of the Buffalo Bills in a huddle during the second quarter against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-US PRESSWIRE

This is number four in a ten part series dedicated to the worst moments or games in the history of the Buffalo Bills. As hard as some of these moments have been, we Bills fans wear our hearts on sleeves and consider some of these events badges of honor. Enjoy.

This is when it gets really painful. The rest of my top ten is especially painful. You might disagree, but on a personal level these are bad. Ironically, our top half of the list starts with the hated New England Patriots.

 
When the schedule came out in April, I knew we were probably going to lose this game. Brady was coming back on Monday Night Football under the lights in Foxboro. This was a building that the Bills had never won in (and still haven’t for those of you keeping count). It was simply a house of horrors. We had come close, most notably in 2005 and 2006. However, you just don’t count on the Bills to win those types of games.

 
This didn’t stop me from still getting hyped for the game in April. When the schedule came out, I immediately started planning a party at my house. It was a Monday, but if I planned it five months in advance people would come. Everyone thought I was weird for planning a party that far in advance but no one had an excuse not to come.

 
There was reason for optimism in Bills land that year (as there is every year). After a big first half in 2008, Trent Edwards was poised to take a big step forward in 2009 and become the quarterback that everyone wanted him to be. Fred Jackson was starting to emerge as a legitimate number two running back and was paired with Marshawn Lynch to create a two headed monster. And who could ignore the biggest free agent signing in years in receiver Terrell Owens?

 
The beginning of the season, especially the first two or three games, has Bills fans bright eyed and bushy tailed. Big offseason or not the fans believe the Bills can beat anyone, no matter what task lies ahead of them. As I was surrounded by a dozen friends, plentiful amounts of beer and food and multiple TV’s throughout the house the Bills started the journey on that fateful Monday night.

 
In Bills land, there is a decree that states that the team shall install copious amounts of confidence into their fans, yet at some point severely let them down. It could happen over the course of a season or it could happen over the course of a single game.

 
This was the kind of game that as a fan, you wanted so bad. Second only to terrible decisions made by the organization, the New England Patriots have been the shining example of fail for the Bills in the worst decade in team history. The Bills were riding an eleven game losing streak to the Patriots. We thought we would get them the year before when Brady went down, but the Bills were a casualty of the Patriot system and we were once again swept.

 
Still, fans felt like the Bills had a good shot to end the streak even if the whole world thought we were going to lose the game. Brady had to be shaky in his first game back and it was just Buffalo’s time. It was time to shock the nation and pull it off.

 
There’s a certain superiority complex that Bills fans have with teams like New England, like David and Goliath. The Bills are the hard luck small market team with the old stadium. Buffalo is kind of like NFL Siberia. Not a lot of high profile free agents want to go there, while everyone wants to go to New England where streets are paved with gold and you are automatically gained entrance into Utopia (which actually happens according to the people of Boston). It wasn’t about just ending the streak, it was about pride and showing everyone Buffalo has a football team and we can beat you.

 
The Bills began the game playing very well. In a way it was the start Bills fans kind of expected. Brady looked shaky and the Bills came out hungry to shock the football world. They scored the only points of the first quarter on a Trent Edwards touchdown to Shawn Nelson. Brady and the Patriots came right back in the second quarter with a Fred Taylor touchdown and the game was tied.

 
Something happened in the second quarter that made you think this could be the Bills’ night. Aaron Schobel, with his Bills career nearing an end, knocked a Brady pass in the air and returned it for a touchdown. It was exciting, it was amazing, and it gave the Bills momentum going into halftime with a 14-10 lead.

 
At this point, fans were feeling cautiously optimistic. We were thirty minutes away from ending the streak and starting the season off 1-0. There were only two scenarios that could occur that would leave me satisfied. Scenario one would be for the Bills to win the game. This was obviously the best scenario. The second would be for the Bills to get blown away in the second half. That way it wasn’t close and I could actually rest easy that night, because a last minute heart breaker would be too much to handle. To know we were so close only for Goliath to snatch victory from defeat from us would be devastating.

 
The third quarter wasn’t great, but we still added to our lead in the form of a Rian Lindell field goal which were the only points of the quarter. The offense wasn’t great, which was alarming, but the defense was getting after Brady and wreaking havoc in the backfield. The Bills entered the fourth quarter with a 17-10 lead, which was obviously a small one but a lead none the less.

 
In the mind of a Bills fan, we say nothing can be worse than this. Nothing could hurt more. But it seems like something always happens that trumps the previous heart breaker and it’s always unfathomable. The fourth quarter was what nightmares are made of.

Ironically enough, it started out great for the Bills. The Bills once again built on their lead with a Fred Jackson touchdown to make it 24-10 midway through the period. Even with a Patriot field goal to cut the lead to 24-13 with only a few minutes left, fans started to get the sense that we were actually going to pull it off. We were actually going to get the monkey off our back in a huge way. A Tom Brady strike to Ben Watson with a failed two point conversion put a little unrest into us, but the Bills still had a 24-19 lead with less than two minutes left to go. The Bills had the game in the bag, all we had to do was to protect the ball.

 
Unfortunately for the team and the fans, Leodis McKelvin plays for the Bills. As a collective fan nation, everyone could feel their hearts drop to their feet when McKelvinfumbled the ensuing kickoff and the Patriots recovered. Just a few plays later the Patriots scored a touchdown to take the lead. The Bills’ defense effort, which was so gutsy the entire way was wasted by a cap gun offense and a really dumb mistake. In other words it was over. Trent Edwards tried to bring the Bills within field goal range but the Pats defense was too much. Boom, ballgame, heartbreak.

 
They say every fan has their breaking point. This was mine. Tears flowed, bottles were shattered. I broke a window in my house. I had never been so angry at a football team. I was angry at the Bills for letting me down again. I was angry at New England because Goliath won again. It was a time when as a football fan you feel so small. Some of the things I did might be pathetic. But when you put your heart and soul into something, whatever it may be, your emotions are going to be high.

 
Some say I put too much emotion into being a Bills fan because I honestly still think about this game and it still hurts. But I look at it as another due paid for when our time will eventually come. Hang in there Bills nation, we’re the best fans in the league.

 
I am back after a hiatus with my list of all time worst Bills moments. If you have ever moved out of state, you know what a pain in the butt it is. But I am back and ready to make your day (or not, whichever way you look at these painful reminders).

 
If you are a hardcore fan that remembers each Super Bowl like it was yesterday, you might agree with me that that the middle two were almost like a blur. Everyone remembers Norwood, and Dallas beating us a second straight time on their way to becoming a 90’s dynasty. But what really passes a lot of people by, and easily, are the shellacking’s that the Bills took at the hands of Washington and Dallas in Super Bowl’s 26 and 27.

 
The 1991 regular season was arguably the best in team history. The team selected defensive cornerstones in Henry Jones and Phil Hansen in the April draft on their way to a 13-3 season. The Bills were rarely threatened week in and week out as they topped thirty points in games nine times.

 
The season was split into two halves as they had their bye week after week 8. Save a meaningless three point home loss to a very good Detroit Lions team the last week of the season, the Bills lost just one game in each half. They picked up right where they left off after the Super Bowl run, erasing any doubt about the teams staying power in the AFC.

 
In the divisional round of the playoffs in which the Bills were the AFC’s top seed, they avenged a week six spanking at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs by dismantling them 37-14. Things were a bit tougher the next week against John Elway and the Denver Broncos as both teams went into halftime scoreless. Jeff Wright and Carlton Bailey ended the boredom in the third quarter when Wright tipped an Elway pass at the line and Bailey ran it in for a touchdown from a short field out. The Bills added a field goal and held off a Denver charge to advance to their second straight Super Bowl.

 
The 1993 season saw a veteran savvy team led once again by Jim Kelly. As the team posted a stellar 11-5 record, they struggled down the stretch; losing three of their last five and the AFC East title to the Miami Dolphins. While they were unstoppable on offense the first four games of the season, they only scored over thirty points in a game once the rest of the way out.

 
Still, hopes were high even though fans knew that the team would have to go through enemy territory most of the playoffs, and that they did. After completing the greatest comeback in NFL history against Houston(come on, I don’t even have to talk about that one), they took apart the top seeded Pittsburgh Steelers 24-3 and then marched into Miami and won an especially sweet AFC title by beating the rival Dolphins.

 
This playoff run could be considered one of the greatest in NFL history. Greatest comeback in league history, followed by knocking off the conference number one and then defeating a division rival that gave the team fits in the regular season. This culminated in a third straight Super Bowl for the Bills. Unfortunately these were essentially side notes that preceded the horror shows that fans witnessed in the Super Bowls that would follow these achievements.

 
I group the middle Super Bowl’s together because as I’ve previously said they seemed like a big blur to me and probably do to a lot of fans. They lost by a combined score of 89-41. So much can be said about the games. They were never in it, they looked unprepared, and they had bad luck. Whatever your view point is, bottom line is it was bad. Really bad.

 
Super Bowl 26 against Washington featured the league’s best offense versus the league’s best and nastiest defense. A bad omen popped up from the very first play the Bills ran when Thurman Thomas lost his helmet and missed the first handful of offensive plays. From there on out the Bills were physically manhandled by the Redskins. They didn’t score a single point in the first half.

 
Late in the first half, Andre Reed felt that he was interfered with on a pass play that would have set the Bills deep in Washington territory with a chance to get back into the game. This was a common occurrence, as the Bills’ wide receivers seemed to be getting mobbed all game with no pass interference calls. In what was a microcosm of the game and Buffalo’s Super Bowl run as well, Reed angrily slammed his helmet down to the turf which resulted in a fifteen yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, effectively knocking them out of field goal range.

 
As the Bills were heading into halftime down 17-0, Marv Levy shouted at the referee’s “you’ve been bought!” Probably not, but he was echoing what we all thought at the time. The second half was tough to get through, as Kelly was knocked out with a concussion as the Redskins continued to physically destroy the Bills. Points were put up, as the Bills actually outscored Washington over the final two quarters. But they built themselves too big of a hole in the first half and they could not catch up, and the Bills lost their second straight Super Bowl.

 
Super Bowl 27 was going to be “IT.” After the playoff run the Bills had, they seemed like a team of destiny. The Dallas Cowboys had a better regular season record than the Bills, but no one seemed to care. Third time’s a charm. The Bills were going to break through and finally win the big one. Buffalo native Tim Russert, host of NBC’s “Meet The Press” and avid Bills fan, claimed Dallas didn’t need it because they already have the world. Let Buffalo have it for once.

 
Unfortunately, the Cowboys didn’t hear Russert’s plea. This was the most embarrassing of the four Super Bowl’s. Frank Reich played the end but there was no comeback this time. The only bright spot of the 52-17 loss was Don Beebe chasing Leon Lett down the sidelines to save a touchdown and add another goofy mistake to Lett’s career.

 
In hindsight, these two Super Bowls were simply just flashes. Bad nightmares. You couldn’t watch yet at the same time you couldn’t look away. It was also amazing how these games would affect the general public’s viewpoint on the Bills franchise forever. Losing the first one was tough and people felt bad for the Bills. Losing a second and a third and pity turns into snickers and laughs. Pretty soon the Bills became punch lines. We’ve all heard the jokes and the B.I.L.L.S.: Boy I love Losing Super Bowls, although I’m not sure where the “B” on the “Bowls” comes into play.

Chan Gailey has some tough choices to make at the end of the preseason. (Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-US PRESSWIRE)

One of these days we all hope they make it back to the big show, yet one can’t help but think could we handle another Super Bowl loss, especially if there is a similar result? I don’t know, but I would love to find out.