FanPost

The Silver Lining

Let's be honest folks, this is a pretty miserable season. But it hasn't been all bad. I mean it's been pretty bad, but not all bad.

There is a silver lining to be found on this team.

Ryan Fitzpatrick: He may not be getting us wins, but Fitzy has been very good for us. Sure he throws almost as many INT's as TD, but hey, he's actually throwing TDs!!!!!!!!!!! Not only that but he's actually turned our offensive unit into a competent bunch. Our O look absolutely lost and abysmal with Edwards under centre, but with Fitzy has been putting up points against some of the better defenses in the league. On top of that he's actually making our line look less pathetic.

Stevie Johnson: I was high on Stevie going into this season, thinking that he would at least come out as a competent number two option on this team. Well you can forget about competent, he's actually looked good, very good. How good? Well he's leading the team with 25 receptions for 372 yards and 5 TDs, which are all good for team leads. That puts him well on pace to go over 1100yards receiving and 10+ TD catches, when's the last time we had a 10TD receiver?. Here's where it gets even better, his 372 yards is also good for 20th best in the league. Can any remember the last time we had a top 20 receiver in the league? Even better, his 5 TDs have him tied for 6th best in the league. He's not just turning into a solid number 2 option, but one of the better possession receivers in the league right now. Not bad for a 7th round draft pick!

Cordaro Howard: Remember how a lot of people saw Calloway as the next Brad Buttler on this team. Well ladies and gentlemen I present to you Cordaro Howard. Now I'm not going to call him a savior on our line just yet, that would be ridiculous. But he has shown me enough in today's game to convince me that he should be our starter at RT of the rest of the year. And for now, that will do. Down the line though, I'd love to see him move to RG when Wood finally does the move to Centre, and that is looking like a strong possibility farther down the line.

Corey McIntyre: A lot of people (including me) criticized the decision to resign this guy long term before the start of the season. Well here's a case where Nix and Gailey have definitely proven most fans wrong, Mack Truck has been light out this year! Sure he's still only and average FB that still occasionally whiffs on blocks, but he's been playing at a Pro Bowl level on special teams. He's delivered bone crunching hits on a consistent level on ST's and has become a unit leader along with George Wilson.

The Offense as a whole: Since Gailey rightfully dropped Edwards as the starting QB, the offense has actually looked good. In fact if it wasn't for our D being so putridly horrible, we should actually have 1 or 2 wins right now. So if our O can do this with Fitzy as our starter, imagine what it might be able to do with Andrew Luck, Ryan Mallett or Jake Locker at the helm. Really all this unit is missing to be consistently good, maybe even great, is a long term starter at QB and a good LT. And if Bell keeps on improving, that spot might even be taken care of, although I still believe that he'd be better on the right side.

Conclusion: While this team might have the worst defense of the last 10 years in the NFL, the offense is actually quite good. Is there room for improvement? Of course! But if your seeing things like I am, your starting to realize that offensively this team is much closer to competing than the Win-Loss column would indicate. In fact, I think that our D was even average, we might be at .500 right now. Optimistic? sure. Delusional? Possibly, but if we're capable of putting up over 30 points against the Pats and the Ravens then there is definitely a silver lining to be had!

Just another great fan opinion shared on the pages of BuffaloRumblings.com.