Taking a peek at Buffalo's remaining schedule

by Brian Galliford on Nov 7, 2009 1:00 PM EST in News Comment 20 comments

It's the bye week for the Buffalo Bills, and no matter how comforting the fact that the Bills cannot lose this weekend is, a weekend without Bills football is still kind of a drag. We'll equip you for the weekend ahead with prediction and open game threads for Week 9 football, but as it's still only Saturday (the first week of a two-week layoff is always the longest), we'll table that for the day and instead focus on taking a peek at the rest of the Bills' schedule this season. The short version: as usual, the Bills have some very tough matchups.

November 15: at Tennessee Titans (1-6)
- Chris Johnson has firmly established himself as one of the most dynamic playmakers in the NFL. The second-year running back out of East Carolina is averaging a whopping 6.9 yards per rush this season, and currently leads the NFL with 824 rushing yards. He is one of only a handful of offensive weapons in the league capable of scoring whenever he touches the football. The Titans are just 1-6 on the season thanks to horrendous play from their defense and a very difficult schedule (their opponents are a combined 29-15), but as long as Johnson is on the field and their defense limits big plays, this team is still talented enough to compete with anyone out there.

November 22: at Jacksonville Jaguars (3-4)
- Jacksonville's got a case of the same affliction the Bills haven't been able to shake off for years: they're only capable of beating bad teams. True, their win over Houston in Week 3 was impressive, but Houston has only just started to realize their immense potential in recent weeks. Jacksonville's wins over Tennessee (who wiped the floor with them last week) and mighty St. Louis are hardly illustrious, and they've been crushed by Arizona and Seattle, as well. Still - Buffalo isn't exactly tremendous competition, and given the way Maurice Jones-Drew is running this season (5.5 yards per attempt, 10 TD), this game should be a struggle for the Bills, even while the Jags are very much a beatable opponent.

November 29: vs Miami Dolphins (3-4)
- This will be the first time the Bills play Miami at Ralph Wilson Stadium since a 38-17 drubbing of the Fish in 2007. The Dolphins have since beaten Buffalo in three straight, and even though they'll be on the road, they are perhaps the biggest challenge facing these Bills left on the schedule. Their offensive line is the most dominant unit in the league, and their defense has given Trent Edwards fits for two straight seasons. Given the way Miami physically dominated Buffalo in Week 4, and the style of football they play, a Bills upset win over a much better team would be delightfully surprising.

December 6: vs New York Jets, in Toronto (4-4)
- Look, I'm going to be honest: I despise the Jets and Rex Ryan, but I also respect their style of play. They dominated Buffalo in Week 6, but Mark Sanchez was feeling quite generous on that afternoon, and allowed the Bills to escape with an overtime win. Buffalo flat-out sucked in Toronto last year, losing to Miami 16-3, and the Jets, if you recall, ran for 318 yards against the Bills even in defeat. If the running game keeps it up and Sanchez doesn't, I don't see how Buffalo ekes out a win in a game that you can bet Ryan will hype up all week as a revenge game.

December 13: at Kansas City Chiefs (1-6)
- Set aside the fact that this game will be played in Arrowhead for a moment. We've finally reached a team on our schedule that compares favorably to us - offensively, at least. Matt Cassel is struggling in Todd Haley's offense, the offensive line is a work in progress, and the team lacks skill position playmakers. Defensively, the Chiefs are slightly worse than Buffalo as well (overall), though they're obviously better at stopping the run, as <i>every</i> NFL team is better at stopping the run than the Bills. I realize that playing against a statistically comparable team in Week 5 didn't help (the Bills lost 6-3 to Cleveland <i>at home</i>), but this is the most winnable game left on the schedule, even if it's in a notoriously tricky stadium.

December 20: vs New England Patriots (5-2)
- The winning streak is up to 12. That's six seasons' worth of the Patriots beating down the Bills, no matter the venue. Buffalo nearly got them in Week 1 this season, but something tells me Bill Belichick will have a better game plan (more film to go on, after all), and Tom Brady has almost completely knocked off the rust from his year-long layoff. Let's just say it would be mind-blowing if the Bills ended their losing streak.

December 27: at Atlanta Falcons (4-3)
- How lucky are the Falcons? They take Michael Vick No. 1 overall, and even with all of the turmoil that ultimately created for the franchise, they still got to see some astonishing plays and some playoff wins under his "leadership." Vick does his thing, they're down and out for a year, and then bam - they go out and get Matt Ryan. He still struggles with consistency some, but the guy just oozes leadership and potential. He looks like the next great NFL quarterback. The Falcons team around him, by the way, is young, physical and getting better. This will be a tremendously difficult challenge for the Bills.

January 3, 2010: vs Indianapolis Colts (7-0)
- Right now, the three best teams in football (arguably) are New Orleans, Indianapolis and Minnesota. It figures that Buffalo would get two of those teams on their schedule. The big ray of hope in this game right now is the getting-tired "Indy could be resting its starters" argument. Even if that's the case, the Colts are a deep, talented football team. Obviously, if Peyton Manning is on the sidelines, that's a tremendous boost to Buffalo's chances, but this will still be a difficult game for the Bills to win. They haven't displayed the ability to overpower a team with their running game, and that's where Indy is most vulnerable at this point.

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6-10 or 7-9, here we come!!

Trample the weak, hurdle the dead!

by fansince83 on Nov 7, 2009 1:16 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

definitely

no better than 7-9…sad.

by fansince60 on Nov 7, 2009 3:02 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Prediction

Uh-oh……. reading this Brain gave me a sinking feeling in my gut.
1. If we would’ve won two of the games that we gave away.
2. If we didn’t suck so bad on offense.
3. If we didn’t have so many injuries………..
This remaining schedule is chock full of wins.
We could’ve easily been 10-6.
BUT……
1. We did give away two games.
2. Our offense is the worst I think I’ve ever seen in the history of the Bills.
3. We will allow crappy teams to beat us like we lost against Cleveland.
BEST CASE: 9-7
WORST CASE: 4-12
MOST PROBABLE: 5-11
Gotta run to the bathroom and go puke.

"A failure becomes just one time at bat if you refuse to let it defeat you." Marv Levy.

by SERGEANT MAJOR THOR on Nov 7, 2009 3:22 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Anything is possible . . .

. . . but 9-7 is a real stretch, even for a best case scenario. I don’t see where that many W’s would be coming from.

I think 7-9 would be a reasonable best case scenario. Edwards will have to be Superman for us to do better than that. Agree that 5-11 is most probable.

by Applsoss on Nov 7, 2009 5:44 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

The only thing I am optimistic about

is that everything will go wrong. We don’t beat good teams (Pats, Falcons and Colts). We are not good at home (Miami) and we are not very good on the road (Titans, Jags, Chiefs). We are 0 and 1 in Toronto and our next TD there will be our first. 5 and 11 seems within our reach.

by jpheff on Nov 7, 2009 3:38 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Not a gimme in the group.

Hope we can beat the Chiefs.

All your tshirt needs.

by twoeightnine on Nov 7, 2009 5:36 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Scary

We really could lose out. The most winnable game left is in the hardest stadium to play in. The Bills worst flaw is stopping the run on defense. The only team left on the schedule with a subpar running game is KC (I already said how hard it is to play there). I think Sanchez will play better as the year goes on, so will Henne. I am really struggling to find one more win. I do not know if I can watch 9 losses in a row. I may have to start drinking even more than I do now.

by The Irishman on Nov 7, 2009 5:44 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Best case?

Tennessee and Jacksonville have both been inconsistent, and have had some very bad games. We could catch them on a down day. KC is pretty terrible. Maybe, just maybe, we could steal one from either Miami or New York. That would put us at 7-9.

by Applsoss on Nov 7, 2009 5:57 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Don't misunderstand me............

I love the Bils and always will. Who can’t. My only wish for Christmas this year is for Ralph to hire the 2nd incarnation of Bill Polian. Please Santa,………. bring him here.
Going to see the Bills and Titans next week in Nashville. I will wear colors and suffer the abuse by the fans. But really, for the most part, Titans fans are not like being in Philly……………..

"A failure becomes just one time at bat if you refuse to let it defeat you." Marv Levy.

by SERGEANT MAJOR THOR on Nov 7, 2009 11:04 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Santa's Dead

Not content with just booing Santa, the fans in Philly took to throwing snowballs laced with batteries at him. It was all fun and games until one guy took it too far by encasing a car battery in a bowling ball sized snow ball. The rest, as they say, is just really, really sad.

Of course we could make things more challenging, Lisa, but then the stupider students would be in here complaining, furrowing their brows in a vain attempt to understand the situation--Seymour Skinner

by Ron From NM on Nov 7, 2009 11:25 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I expect around a 2-6 finish. 0-8 wouldn’t surprise me. Anything more than 3 wins would surprise me.

~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."

by Kurupt on Nov 8, 2009 1:27 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

I said 4-12 at the beginning of the season

And it’s about right on target. Too bad so many teams are just as bad record-wise.

by Der Jaeger on Nov 8, 2009 2:05 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

The only for sure win left, I think is @KC.

Don’t be surprised if they beat the Jets again.

No more then 2 wins left.

by Michael_Necci on Nov 8, 2009 7:29 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

That KC game on December 13th. It’ll be under 65 degrees so we know the team will struggle.

Twitter: helping to make anti-social people anti-socially social.

by TheAfghanTwilight on Nov 9, 2009 9:33 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I read this arcticle and thought it would be uplifting and have some positive comments. We play some pretty crappy teams and have already gotten our road divisional games out of the way.

How exactly are people looking at this schedule and coming to the conclusion that the Bills likely won’t win more than a game or two? I see a crappy Kansas City team that Buffalo blew out last year. A meaningless week 17 game against Indy. Mediocre Jacksonville, Tennessee and Jets teams. Why is it so unlikely that we beat the Dolphins at home? Buffalo went 3-5 to start the season and i’d guess they go 3-5 to close it out, with 4 or even 5 wins being more likely than losing out.

I signed up for Second Life about a year ago. Back then my life was so great that I literally wanted a second one. In my Second Life I was also a paper salesman and I was also named Dwight. Absolutely everything was the same. Except I could fly. - Dwight Schrute

by kaisertown on Nov 8, 2009 5:29 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Buffalo isn’t as good as they were last year so I’m not sure how last year’s KC game matters. How is the Indy game meaningless already? If they’re still undefeated they’ll be playing for that, if not there’s still a high probability that they’ll be playing for home field advantage. Jacksonville and Tennessee could very well run for 400 yards against us and are far from gimmes. The Jets should have beat us already, the Dolphins have.

All your tshirt needs.

by twoeightnine on Nov 8, 2009 8:00 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I was just trying to point out how awful of a team KC is. They are 1-7.

I don’t think the Indy game being a blowoff for them is a crazy assumption. They have a history of resting players in week 17. During the last five seasons, Peyton Manning has thrown for 100 yards in week 17 once. I’d guess it’s more likely that Buffalo plays a resting Colts team than one that is focused on history or homefield.

And it’s not that I think any of those games are gimmies or that the Bills are going to come roaring back into the playoff race or even towards respectability. I do think it’s pretty crazy that so many fans think this team could lose out and that this team is bad enough that they could lose 9 straight games.

by kaisertown on Nov 9, 2009 2:16 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

If Buffalo is smart and the Indy game is one they play enough to win at the end, they should kneel down before scoring the winning points. They need to think about draft picks at that point, imo.

Twitter: helping to make anti-social people anti-socially social.

by TheAfghanTwilight on Nov 9, 2009 9:35 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

There would be rioting in the streets if that happened for a lot of different reasons.

Playing Realistic Optimist at Buffalo Rumblings since 2008.
"Matt’s pretty valuable to y’all. Cherish him." - BG

by MattRichWarren on Nov 9, 2009 10:54 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

That’s true, but it’s the players and the coaches who make those kinds of decisions and losing more games doesn’t help them one bit. I’d guess that Ralph Wilson would prefer picking in the 6-13 range than pay for a top 5 pick too.

by kaisertown on Nov 9, 2009 2:18 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs