I bought a shirt a few weeks ago that I thought was pretty fantastic. It was a drawing of a buffalo on a black shirt and underneath it was labeled Buffalo Sports. There was a big voice balloon coming from the buffalo’s mouth and in huge block letters it said WELP.

I had to explain the shirt to some folks, like my wife, who have never lived in Buffalo. I explained that one single word, not even a real word, perfectly summed up what it’s like to be a Buffalo sports fan.

You see, welp isn’t just a substitute for “oh well” – it goes deeper than that. It sums up one’s resignation of destiny in the face of something terrible but unchangeable. You’re likely to hear it in the context of someone telling you how bad their situation is, how it’s not likely to get better and how they’ve accepted it – it’s what you hear when someone makes it to the acceptance phase in the grieving process (“The transmission in my car is gone and I don’t have the money to fix it, so now I have to walk 3 miles and take the bus to get to work so I can hopefully earn enough to buy another car someday. Welp.”)

In our 15th non-playoff year welp is about most fans can say. Disbelief, anger, bargaining – those are all steps behind us – we’ve grown to accept that the Bills aren’t going to the playoffs. We are still fans and that won’t change, but we all know the drill – it’s old and comfortable by now.

Sunday’s loss at Denver was a complete welp game. Make no mistake – it was a big game with a lot riding on it. The Bills were a 10 point underdog which put them in a position to win for the first time since 2005 when they were a double-digit underdog (0-16 going into Denver). Emotion was high, Jim Kelly was even on the field before the game. Many Bills fans dared to believe that a win was possible – the playoffs started for the Bills on Sunday.

Keys to the game were obviously to limit Peyton Manning and get him out of his rhythm, keep the Denver offense off the field and keep the scoring down, and put forth a solid offensive effort that could put enough points on the board to win. The Bills would need to capitalize on their opportunities and score touchdowns so they could keep pace with the potent Denver offense.

The Bills first possession ended on a Sammy Watkins fumble. The defense held and the Bills turned the ball over on their second possession on downs. Denver took the ball down the field and looked as if they would have to settle for a field goal, but an illegal contact penalty on Nickell Robey kept the drive alive and allowed Denver to punch it in for a touchdown. The Bills answered with a field goal and it was a 4 point game.

Manning threw a pick on the next Denver play and Corey Graham took the ball back 60 yards to the Denver 20-yard line…until the Bills were called for holding and the ball was placed at the Buffalo 40-yard line – a penalty of 40 yards. The Bills took this gift from a superstar quarterback who was looking remarkably beatable and squandered it, going 3-and-out and not crossing midfield. The Broncos took the next possession and drove down as far as the Buffalo 34 as Buffalo stopped them on third down and left them with a potentially long field goal…until they committed 2 penalties that kept the drive alive. Just as they did the first time, Denver took their renewed opportunity to score another touchdown. At the half it was Denver 14, Bills 3.

Statistically the Bills looked decent in terms of offensive yards gained, time of possession and defensive yards allowed. Kyle Orton actually had a better quarterback rating than Manning at halftime. But the major game points were not being accomplished. The Bills had limited Denver’s score, but they did not put any pressure on Manning and scored a measly 3 points. Stats are great, but they’re just stats – if you don’t accomplish what you planned to do you’re probably not going to win, and the Bills were falling short of their goals.

Still, the game wasn’t completely out of hand…until the third quarter when Orton threw two interceptions. The Bills intercepted Manning once and did nothing with it and Denver tacked on another 10 points. The Bills finally scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, but it was too little, too late. The final score of 24-17 seems as if the Bills had a shot to win the game, but in reality they were never in it. The only winners were the bettors who took Buffalo +10.

Another frustrating loss for the Bills – welp. Missed opportunities. Penalties at bad times. Very questionable penalties called by the officials – welp. Poor offensive line play (seriously – how many screen blocks did the guards miss?), turnovers – welp. Zero points off turnovers when big returns were negated by penalties – welp. Below average quarterback play including some bad interceptions and the most mind-numbing slide for a 3 yard loss you’ll ever see – welp.

Honestly, there’s not much more to say. We all pretty much knew Denver was likely to win, but we still had hope as fans. In the end we were right – Denver did win. They didn’t destroy the Bills and they even looked very beatable at times, but just about everything that could have prevented a Bills victory happened. Do you feel disbelief at Sunday’s result? Are you angry the Bills don’t have a starting caliber quarterback on the roster? Will you try and bargain with a higher power for better officiating? Admit it – things are bad but what are you gonna do? You’ve accepted all of this from the Bills after so many losing seasons – welcome to the world of welp.