I wrote an Article in November 2021 about Seed Syllables, a concept from the yogic traditions, and as is my wont playfully tried to apply it to one NFL football team, the Buffalo Bills. This is what I wrote:
Buffalo Bills. A seed syllable sketch.
Buffalo is the NY State city with most amount of snow in US. The buffalo is a powerful old breed animal with thick coat keeping it warm in winter. It has legs which are a tad short and stumpy for so powerful a body. They are fierce when cornered and almost unstoppable when charging as a herd.
Buffalo is the NY State city with most amount of snow in US. The buffalo is a powerful old breed animal with thick coat keeping it warm in winter. It has legs which are a tad short and stumpy for so powerful a body. They are firerce when cornered and almost unstoppable when charging as a herd.
How the Buffalo Bills team should be when aligned with it’s core character or ‘seed syllable:’ They should have the best Offensive and Defensive lines in the league able to mass together and charge their opponents and trample them down. That should be the core. They should be a running team on offense with powerful backs, some of whom are short. They should not be overly fancy with complicated schemes rather simply running down the other side.
How close do they have it? It seems they are over-emphasizing the passing game because of their dynamic, well-built quarterback Josh Allen. He suits an ideal Buffalo Bills team but is not running one because of the emphasis on the pass. Their defense is ranked #18 out of 32. So they don’t have strong offense and defense lines and thus are not playing true to seed syllable character. They are a very good team but will not go all the way this year until they get that right.
2024 Statistics, Regular Season:
Offense: Ranking #4 1 Dolphins (out), 2 49ers 3 Detroil Lions
Playing KC Chiefs Ranking #9
Defense: Ranking #9 vs KC Chiefs Ranking # 2 behind Browns (out).
Buffalo Bills 2024 Update:
Viz: “They should be a running team on offense with powerful backs, some of whom are short. They should not be overly fancy with complicated schemes rather simply running down the other side.”
This year the Bills have James Cook ranked #6 and Josh Allen the QB at #7 in Rushing (running yards on offense). Meanwhile KC ha Isiah Pacheco Ranked #4. This means that the Bills have about double the KC chiefs with rushing stars, but Idon’t have the stats for the whole team (I don’t know what I’m doing with sports statistics!). But with their high offense ranking and strong rushing performance this looks pretty good to me. I don’t know how their offensive line ranks either but given their high overall offensive ranking it should be good. The key with the Buffalo Bills, seed syllable-wise, is that they are HERD ANIMAL so their lines must be strong and they must be able to charge forward and trample their opponent. Josh does this on his own, but the whole team has to do this on both sides of the ball. If they can, they will beat the Chiefs and then have a good shot at beating the Ravens, who are a formidable opponent favoured to win the Prize this year.
Kansas City Chiefs Seed Syllable Analysis:
Kansas City is in the middle of America’s ‘Fly-over’ country, where a lot of early Westward expansion took place with painful interfaces with the native population. This history is represented in the flint arrow head. Then there are the two letters denoting the name of their city, which is a conceptual overlay on top of the indigenous past, moreover one letter (K) is above the second letter (C) indicating the dominance theme, also the conquest of Concept (Rational West) of the Wild Indigenous. The gestalt involves both conflict and materialism (concept over nature). The arrow points forward; it is a weapon, so this team should lead with offense, especially throwing long ball downfield to the tip of the arrow.
Along with a highly regarded Offensive Coach, Andy Reid, they also have arguably one of the most talented Quarterbacks in recent memory. He is intelligent, effective on his feet, with a slippery, rubbery way of moving making him surprisingly hard for defensive backs – he wriggles through somehow and often makes a first down when he cannot find any open receivers. So he is a Wily Coyote type quarterback able to find ways to win. He has been to three Superbowls already and won two of them. His loss was at the hands of the iconic Tom Brady but they had no effective offensive line that game due to prior injuries which the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took advantage of to win the game. Patrick made many extraordinary throws but to do so he had to run around for a record 500 yards before launching the ball, proving how athletic a runner he can be, but also how without an effective offensive line it can be impossible to win.
This year their Defense is ranked high but their offense, still above average at #9 (out of 32) not so much, but not shabby either. Plus they have a team with mainly new players and probably next year they will be much, much better.
Still, despite Patrick’s undeniable talent, because they have Defense outranking Offense, I would say they are not playing true to their ‘seed syllable’ character as shown in the logo and, even if they beat the Buffalo Bills today in what promises to be an exciting match in Buffalo, they will not get past the Baltimore Ravens, about whom may do an analysis later.
YIJING Cast on the upcoming Game:
Preamble:
- Am reading this Cast from the POV of the Bills since the game is taking place there.
- Since their seed syllable is that of a charging herd, am taking the lower trigram as their Offense and the upper trigram as their opponents defense – what they have to move through.
- Since the Derived Hexagram #11 is very positive, am interpreting this from the POV of what the Bills need to do to win.
#41: Decrease:
The Symbol of Lessening, Loss, Diminishing, Reduction, Diminution of Excesses, Decline, Bringing into Balance, Dynamic Balance, Sacrifice
- This may well be a low scoring game
- The Bills may lose, or lose players – which has been happening to them of late. If Josh Allen is injured, for example, it’s over for them. Or their main receiver.
Changing Lines:
3rd line is the interface between self and other, here is the Offensive Line which is initially soft but changes to hard (☱ > ☰). This is a key zone to watch in the upcoming game.
6th line has to do with the spiritual level, in this case Team Spirit. This is hard changing to soft. But also it changes the upper trigram Mountain – which is a blocking action you would expect from the Chiefs high-ranking defense, to Earth featuring three soft, yielding lines. The top firm line is what makes the upper trigram a Mountain ☶, which blocks. So breaking that top line, the spirit of their Defense, will allow their Offense to overcome a now more yielding Chiefs Defense ☷. So the Bills offense (lower trigram in #41) changes from soft Lake (Pleasure, Joy ☱) to Heaven (Leadership, War, strength ☰). These lines indicate that if the Bills can win at the Line, which is a place of very large strong men fighting it out like gladiators, they will be able to run over their opposition by breaking their spirit since the Chiefs this year know they depend more on their Defense than Offense – something they are neither used to nor designed for (nor goes with the seed syllable character shown in their Logo). That said, this is a tall order, since the Chiefs have a formidable defense this year.
Derived Hexagram: #11 Peace:
The Symbol of Successfulness, Prospering, Pervading, Greatness, Tranquility, Prosperity, Conjunction, Major Synthesis, Hieros Gamos, Holy Marriage.
This hexagram has a sense of a strong, united Offense (below) charging through a broken, weaker Defense (above).
Nuclear Hexagram #24: Return:
the Turning Point, Returning, Revival, Recovery, To Repeat, Renewal, Restore, Return to the Way, New Cycle
The recent history between these teams is that the Chiefs keep beating the Bills in the playoffs at Arrow Head stadium in Kansas. Maybe this time will be different.
Caveat: This interpretation emphasizes the Bills Offense and doesn’t look at the Defense. But perhaps it could be the same: if the Bills Defensive Line turns firm, it will prevail, breaking the spirit of the Chiefs Offense. The result is the same.
Conclusion: The Bills are going to have to prevail at the Offensive Line (L3) to ensure they can dominate the Chiefs Defense and break their team spirit (L6) at which point they will be able to charge forward successfully (#11). However, this might involve significant sacrifices (#41) causing them to limp into the next round.
Afterthoughts:
Well, the Bills lost in a close game. If their kicker hadn’t missed a field goal with 2 minutes to go, they would have gone into overtime. However, the Bills were unable to break the Chiefs Defensive line or their spirit whereas the Chiefs made many throws over 20 yards – more than any other playoff game this year – whereas the Bills made zero. Nobody on the Bills side, especially including Josh Allen the QB, made terrible mistakes, although one excellent throw was dropped a yard from the end zone, and two kicks were missed. But the fact is that the Chiefs, who have struggled all year but have been steadily improving, felt like a much more solid team.
So the Cast: 41 Decrease > 11 Peace < 24 Return. The Bills lost (41) and now the situation is settled with two teams in two different situations (11) as shown by the three solid lines in the lower trigram and the three broken lines in the upper trigram. 24 Return seems to mean that the same thing is happening again and again: each time the Bills meet the Chiefs in the playoffs they lose. Personally I think the Bills is not led well enough since this keeps happening and they should exchange the current excellent Defensive coach for an Offensive coach. They also need to listen to my seed syllable advice (!) and emphasize herd mentality. If they had a super-strong offensive line with Josh, almost a giant himself behind them, they could simply dominate all teams at the line of scrimmage and power through. Then you need a few good receivers to keep the defense guessing and away you go. On defense they need to dominate at the line to intimidate the opposing QB, ideally sacking and pressuring him frequently. Spirit-wise, such domination would cause their opponents to scatter and run, breaking their spirit in the face of such massed strength.
baronbrasdor.art 