Don't Get Too Excited...BUT
by Berg79 on Oct 19, 2009 10:31 AM EDT
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This is my first fan post in a long time. I am going to shed some optimism as I am generally a pessimistic Bills fan. If they keep Edwards on the bench I have a little faith the season is salvagable. Yes...I said salvagable meaning playoffs. I even surprised myself as I wrote that. Fitz got substantially better in Cinci as he grew into his starting role at the end of last season. I believe he finished 3-0-1. The D should get better, with Poz and Whitner getting more and more into game shape. The D is fairly good already. Maybin will learn he can't lineup in the other teams backfield and the coaching staff will eventually figure out they need to play Harris. The special teams won't be as bad...why...because they just can't fumble that many more times (or have unlucky crap like the ball hitting Reed's leg happen). If I am not mistaken I believe special teams has lost 4 fumbles on the season, all at critical times...McKelvin Week 1, Parrish v. the Saints, Parrish v. the Browns and whatever that was yesterday. The D-line is playing solid, and so is the secondary. Yes, yesterday we shut down only Mark Sanchez and the week before it was only Derrick Anderson but this D put the clamps on Brees too, and shut down Brady until the final quarter. And really, give Fitz a week to prepare and a smart guy like him can do just enough to make the offense functional. He doesn't need to be great, just functionable.
The real reason to get excited (assuming Fitz plays) is the schedule and the other teams in the AFC. In our next 7 games we do not play a team with a winning record. Take these games 1 by 1.
@ Carolina(2-3): They have won 2 in a row and can certainly run the ball. But Jake Delhomme is still Jake Delhomme and they struggle stopping the run. They beat TB and Wash which aren't exactly word better.
Houston (3-3): By far the toughest game of the 7 game stretch but Houston doesn't run the ball well and their Defense is extremely suspect ranking in the bottom 5.
@ TN (0-6): It won't be easy but they are in complete dissaray. 59-0. I never thought a team would quit on Jeff Fisher.
@ Jax (3-3): They struggled to beat St. L at home. Two of their wins were against teams who haven't won yet this season. Garrard is still turnover prone and the Jags pass D is one of the worst in the NFL.
Jets (3-3): Won't be easy, but the hunnymoon is over in NY.
Mia (2-3): We know this won't be easy, but this is not the Patriots, Steelers or Colts coming to the Ralph
@KC (1-5): Playing much better ball, Aerohead is a tough place to play, but the Bills won in KC last year.
Obviously, the Bills won't run the table, and even more obviously they will need to win one of the next two to ensure at least a 3-5 record going into the bye (hopefully 4-4). But, it is not that unrealistic to think they could go 5-2 in this set of 7 games and set up a 7-6 record with a home game against the Pats. In week 17 the Colts will have nothing to play for just like the Steelers in 2004 (or was it '03?). The Colts will be the number 1 seed in the AFC with the division clinched.
But even more importantly is if you look at the rest of the AFC almost every team will have an extremely tough time getting to 10 wins. Denver has an absolutely brutal scheduel. If Denver doesn't win today they could fall to 5-3 before they know it. I still think only 1 team comes out of the West (which I believe will ultimately be SD). I don't believe in Jax, so really the only playoff team in the South is Houston so that game will be big. In the Central you almost feel like they won't get 2 wc's. Someone...most likely Cinci or Baltimore will falter. Both Pitt and Cinci have tough games this week against MN and Chi respectively. Pitt next 3 games are against teams with a combined record of 15-2 (and then after that they still have Baltimore twice). It is reasonable to think there is a tie with a bunch of teams at 9 wins to get the last spot.
I am delusional I know. I mean Dick Jauron is still our coach but I can't help but wonder if the Cleveland loss will be the one we are kicking ourselves about at the end of the season.
Just another great fan opinion shared on the pages of BuffaloRumblings.com.
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This will be the year of the fumble
I am delusional I know. I mean Dick Jauron is still our coach but I can’t help but wonder if the Cleveland loss will be the one we are kicking ourselves about at the end of the season.
This will be the year of the fumble. It won’t just be the Cleveland loss that haunts us. Monday night against the Patriots will haunt just as much.
Trample the weak, hurdle the dead!
If we had beaten the Pats
We’d be tied for first, have a winning division record, and have the early Tiebreaker edge on both the teams we were tied with … scary thought indeed …
At worst
We’d have a tie for the division. If Parrish doesn’t botch the punt and we find a way to beat Cleveland, we’d have the outright division lead at 4-2.
Trample the weak, hurdle the dead!
…especially considering how anemic the team has looked.
Twitter: helping to make anti-social people anti-socially social.
by TheAfghanTwilight on Oct 19, 2009 1:08 PM EDT up reply actions
Jamon Meredith
I was wondering if anyone had any opinions on his play?? Better/worse than Scott?? I thought this guy was a steal for the packers in the 6th round..
by flutieflakes007 on Oct 19, 2009 11:02 AM EDT reply actions
Cleveland
Thats exactly what I was thingking as I went through your post…but you know…we can only hope that the Colts won’t need to win on January 3rd….lets just not have a repeat of 2004
Good Luck With Your Firings Mr. Wilson….Go Bills!
The Steelers didn’t need to win that day, either. They played Tommy Maddox at QB and Willie Parker was their third-string RB at the time.
Buffalo Rumblings. On Twitter.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. --Wayne Grezky" --Michael Scott
by Brian Galliford on Oct 19, 2009 12:17 PM EDT up reply actions
thats what I mean
lets not have us lose to scrubs when we are eyeing a playoff game…that was demoralizing and bled right into the following year
Good Luck With Your Firings Mr. Wilson….Go Bills!
sorry
sometimes I miss things…at least we’re on the same page
Good Luck With Your Firings Mr. Wilson….Go Bills!
Don’t discount Denver, they’re the best team in the AFC I think. Just because everyone picked them to go 2-14 and won’t admit they were wrong doesn’t mean they’re not a beastly team.
Bills fan? In Colorado? It's more likely than you think.
The Colts are the best team in the AFC
~K
"As the governor of Louisiana once said, the only way Chris Kelsay can lose his job is if he got caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy."
Denver
Broncos are this year’s version of the 2008 Bills. After they lose tonight, they will be 5-1 and on their way to a 7-9 record.
The Dick Jauron version of the K-Gun...the Squirt Gun.
I suppose you think the Saints aren’t good either? They’ve had an even easier schedule than the Broncos.
Bills fan? In Colorado? It's more likely than you think.
by UZ on Oct 19, 2009 5:34 PM EDT up reply actions
Boom
wrong!
~K
"As the governor of Louisiana once said, the only way Chris Kelsay can lose his job is if he got caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy."
Haha.
I wish the Bills were the 2008 version of this years Broncos.
by twoeightnine on Oct 20, 2009 1:39 AM EDT up reply actions
I agree, we have a good schedule ahead, and we are only out 2 games.
They are hard to play but not hard to beat.
- Mike Lombardi on the Buffalo Bills
Yeah! No more road games in the AFC East. See how Sanchez likes Buffalo weather! (except we’re playing in a dome in Toronto) And what does Chad Henne know about cold weather football (except he played college football at Michigan.) Well hopefully snow can slow down the Brady and the Patriots!
Ice seemed to help Brady and co yesterday.
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by TheAfghanTwilight on Oct 19, 2009 1:10 PM EDT up reply actions
LOL
Twitter: helping to make anti-social people anti-socially social.
by TheAfghanTwilight on Oct 19, 2009 1:31 PM EDT up reply actions
Did we all forget?
The offense isn’t productive….the Patriots fumble was definitely disappointing, but the CLE fumble was just a joke…that fumble shouldn’t have mattered, if BUF was a contender, they should have been up by at least 10 at that point being that the Browns offense was even more pathetic than the Bills.
Yesterday was nothing to be satisfied with, yes a win is a win, but it was pathetic. BUF forces 6 turnovers and only scores 1 TD on offense, seriously? It reminded me of the Bills/Cowboys MNF game where Romo throws 6 INTs and the Cowboys still won..not much has changed…
I love the Bills and I would be extremely happy if they made the playoffs, but realistically, if this offense doesn’t start to put up points, they won’t get past 6-10 at best.
Evans, Owens, Reed, Nelson, Jackson, Lynch…and you can’t score? It has been this way in BUF for a few years now, the scheme is terrible…the Offense needs to score points if this team is going to having a chance of getting to .500 or better
Sometimes QB changes ingnite an offense. Giving Fitz a week to prepare will help. Other teams much worse than the Bills have rallied behind a QB change. However, ultimately you are correct if the QB change doesn’t spark the offense then it doesn’t matter if our schedule is Oakland, KC, St. L, TN, Detroit because we will find a way to lose.
However, if the Defense gains some confidence in the offense and the offense builds around FitzPatrick then the schedule opens up the possibility for a run over the next 7 weeks.
When Edwards is healthy, he should start. This is another Quinn/Anderson issue, and if mishandled…could become like Holcomb/Losman
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by TheAfghanTwilight on Oct 19, 2009 1:13 PM EDT up reply actions
There are many of us (myself among other) who don’t believe Trent will ever be a legit starter so I just don’t worry about if it’s one of those QB issues.
Look at JP now in Vegas…he is awful there too and that has nothing to do with him being benched for Holcomb back in the day.
Fitz is also (like Trent) a very smart QB, so don’t underestimate the improvement we might see with a week to prepare as the starter.
I think it was fairly obvious when they signed Fitzpatrick that they wanted a guy who wouldn’t mix the water or cause the fans to riot if he didn’t start.
Twitter: helping to make anti-social people anti-socially social.
by TheAfghanTwilight on Oct 19, 2009 1:29 PM EDT up reply actions
Hows that worked out for ya
Bills fan? In Colorado? It's more likely than you think.
by UZ on Oct 19, 2009 5:36 PM EDT up reply actions
Lets slow down a little bit.
The season is far from over. The last few weeks have been painful. The jets defense is a formidable one. Your logic is dead on. The only problem is people are putting up billboards, and head hunting every week around here.
The biggest change was backing off of the no huddle. The 0-Line is to young to the point where we couldn’t even get off the ball correctly. This will continue to some extent but if yesterday was any indication it should get better. This should of been done a couple weeks back, but it wasn’t. Still need to corral those false starts.
Trent Edwards is our starting QB. When he is healthy he should play. Ryan was brought in for the reason of backing up Trent and helping us get through periods such as this with the abiltiy to win some games. To win some games mean not to lose them as well. Ryan should be Okay for us until Trent comes back.
We need to work on our running game and allow Freddy and Marshawn to become more of a fource in our offense. Lets not depend on Trent or Ryan to win games for us. That is not our best position to be in.
Meridith played as well as our other rookies and 1st year starters have. This is a good sign. Needs to be repeated and we need these guys to stay healthy. Butler and Schomans lose was huge to this offense.
Run defense needs to improve, linebackers are over persuing allowing blockers to position themselves for the cutback run. This will show up on tape and hopefully adjustments can be made. Williams and Stewart will be a good test for that.
Finally, Fitzy isn’t afraid to throw a pick. So now for the first time this year the pressure will be on the WR’s to make plays. He will put the ball where you can make a play. Want to win, catch the ball.
Excuses are a sign of weakness!!!!!!
I will refuse to debate who is the better QB Trent of Fitz. What I will say is football is mental and Fitz might bring a mental belief to the team that they can win. This affects all 3 units and is bigger than the actual passes.
I’m pretty sure that nobody really thinks Fitz has more talent than Trent.
It’s the fact that Trent refuses to utilize his talent that screws the team every week.
Bills fan? In Colorado? It's more likely than you think.
by UZ on Oct 19, 2009 5:38 PM EDT up reply actions
Let us not get overzealous about one win...
I’m not one to pooh-pooh a little optimism, but it would take the turnaround of the millenium to only lose 1-2 more games the rest of the way out when we’re giving up 200+ yds rushing per game. It’d be one thing if we scored some points once in a while, but with Fitzpatrick last year, Cincy averaged barely over 10 PPG. I want that to happen for sure, but it just isn’t bloody likely. That would ultimately result in Jauron keeping his job next year, which is the worst thing that could happen.
Plus, we need a franchise QB in next year’s draft so what’s the use in going 7-9 yet again. It just means we’ll have fewer options to choose from.
Fickle fans.
Did you see the coaching decisions made during the game. We will loss at least 8 games on that alone.
Rrrawrrrr, rrrawrrr like a dungeon dragon-Busta Ryhmes
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