This week is about our coaching staff taking a step back and questioning themselves. It is quite obvious on both sides of the ball that the play-calling has been a major contributor to the 2 consecutive losses.

Jauron is a smart man and I am certain that he has seen what we have seen, that the runs up the middle just ain’t working, that we need to stretch things out. Clearly the coaching staff must be on a mission to find a way to get the running game going and short of overhauling the middle of the line there ain’t that many options.

I was very impressed by Derek Fine’s breakout performance last week and expect to see him a lot more this week. I also am hoping that they start mixing in Steve Johnson a bit more because this kid can catch and size-wise he is a lot easier to see in the slot than Roscoe. Hardy has been too slow to develop and Johnson has shown good signs every chance that he has gotten so far.

Where I think we will be severely challenged is getting pressure on Brady. I hope that Stroud comes out with a chip on his shoulder and really creates havic over the middle so that the guy on the outside can be free to operate. I would love to see a combination of Spencer/Ellis taking the majority of the snaps. Another interesting position to watch will be Corner covering Welker.

The Bills have the talent to do it, they just need to come out firing on all cylinders and more importantly the coaching staff need to stick to basics. On defense we need to find ways to bring more pressure and maybe play man on the corners would be a great way to do it. On offense we need to feed the beast!

The optimist says we are 5-3 and we are tied for 1st in the AFC east and we are capable of beating the Pats cuz they just ain’t that good. I for one, always choose to BILLieve, because that’s the way I was raised. But I’d be lying if I haven’t really toned down my expectations, choosing to try to get this game off of my mind until Sunday morning, and then just go in with no expectations and see what happens.

Here is all I ask of you Bills: Play better. Don’t kill yourselves. Make some plays. Fly around. And when the final whistle blows, no matter win or lose, give me the confidence that you played well, got your act together and improved. If you do that, I think there is a great chance we win this game. But it all starts and ends with Trent unfortunately. He has to manage the game. Nothing more. Come on Bills….one time win a BIG game

A lynchpin is the metal pin used to keep the wheels from flying off the axle: this is the “Lynchpin” game of the Bill’s 2008 season.

The players have to do a better job protecting the football. We simply cannot afford to give the ball away to New England. A couple of takeaways wouldn’t hurt our chances, either.

Time to circle the wagons, Buffalo.

I believe that if we don’t win the battles on both sides of the ball in the trenches, we’ll never pull this one out. They HAVE to stop the run, AND pressure Cassel & force him into miscues.

When we have the ball, the O line has got to open up some lanes for our RB’s or Trent will face the pressure ALL day long from the 3-4. They also need to keep Trent’s jersey white all game long too!

A side note: I’d also like to see the VW (that would be #75) get some well over-due pay back during this game as well.

Here I thought VERY early on that maybe the season finale was going to have big implications. If we drop this one, it may not matter at all.

Easy Bob, there’s still a lot of football to be played so don’t jump just yet !!

But, lets be honest, a show of hands how many of us expected the Bills to be 5-3 and tied for first in the AFC East at this time of the season? Not many. The Bills MUST go 5-3 the rest of the way if they want to gurantee themselves a spot in the post season whether it be through as a Division Champ, or a Wild Card. 4-4 starts putting us into math that will most likely work against us, so lets just avoid that right boys?

If we are to go 5-3 for the next 8 weeks, we need to win this game and get the Patriots Bugaboo off of our backs. Here are 7 things I think the Bills need to do to win.

1- We are going to need the Oline to step up and stop playing like Pee-Wee footballers. Whomever is on VW this week needs to just punk his ass, I don’t care if we get a fine for a High-Low, take his ass out of the game and then everything becomes easier for us.
 
2- We need Turk and Eric to start running the ball outside to cause our opponents to spread the D out and let ML and Freddy get some cut back lanes.

3- We need Trent to be more pocket aware and TO conscious. That internal timer needs to be running a little quicker this week, and he needs to be ready to just chuck it out of bounds rather than try to force a pass.

4- We need someone from the WR/TE corp to step up and take Reed’s place as Trent’s go to man on 3rd down. I don’t care who it is, but someone needs to grow a pair and make some plays other than Lee.

5- We need the Dline to man up this Sunday and play like the money they are being paid instead of like PS players. I’m looking at you Denney and Kelsay, its pathetic that a PS guy like Bryan has shown you both up several times this year, play like the money were paying ya.

6- We need TOs from the D, and that means Fewell is going to have to let McGee and Greer gamble a bit more Sunday. If that means going nickel a bit more often to then allow our DBs to play a combo coverage of man-zone, so be it, I’ll take the risk of Morris, Ben-Jarvis Green and Faulk running on us.

7- Finally we need the STs to do their dang jobs and cover and return like the groups of old. We need 7 points out of them this week, and we CANNOT allow our opponents to be anywhere near the 50 yard line whether it be a KR or PR.