The Buffalo Bills narrowly escaped defeat, as they eked out an 18-10 victory against the winless New York Jets on Sunday. After losing their last two games and almost losing another, surprisingly today’s hot takers were pretty optimistic.
Hot Take #1
@tomhartnett21 (via Twitter) says, “The rest of the AFC East is trash right now, so even if the Bills haven’t been good the last three weeks, they’re still 5-2…I’m sorry I’m not sorry.”
Tom, I love the optimism. A win is a win, and it all counts the same in the standings. I will also have to agree with you that the AFC East is bad right now. The division is last in the conference with nine total wins, and it has the only winless team in the NFL in the Jets. The division is wide open, where the Bills leads the Miami Dolphins by 1.5 games, and remain up two games on the defending AFC East Champions, the New England Patriots.
The Bills are 5-2 and you can’t take that away from them. They’re in the driver seat to win their first division championship since 1995. I’m not sorry either.
Hot Take #2
@DoctorZdbrg (via Twitter) says, “Despite not getting in to the end zone, Buffalo actually played pretty well.”
Despite not getting in the end zone, the Bills had no problem moving the ball on this Jets defense. Apparently, Buffalo was the first team since 1940 to win a game without scoring a touchdown and not punting.
The Jets, like the previous two opponents of the Bills, forced Josh Allen and the offense to nickel and dime their way down the field. Buffalo, which has been pretty good this year converting drives to touchdowns, struggled to do so against the Jets who kept everything in front of them and tackled really well. Also, for the second time in two weeks, Bills wide receiver Gabriel Davis had a touchdown taken away from him because of a procedure penalty. Add that touchdown, the two missed field goals, and the turf monster attack on Tyler Kroft—that 18-point performance could have easily been a lot larger.
On defense, the Bills completely shut down the Jets in the second half, only giving up six yards all half. The Bills dominated the Jets, and the score doesn’t reflect it.
Hot Take #3
From yours truly, says “I’m not enjoying this.”
As some of you may know, I was a blogger here some years back, and I took a sabbatical from writing and contributing. Most of it was because I found myself not enjoying the games. It didn’t matter if the team won or lost, the next day, and the days after I felt miserable. For me, I wasn’t watching the game out of the enjoyment and excitement for the team, I was watching it to be critical. I was also consuming content (blogs, articles, podcast), whose objective, rightfully so, was to be critical. It was no longer fun for me.
When the Bills beat the Las Vegas Raiders to go to 4-0, one would think some enjoyment came out of that. Why wouldn’t it? Josh and the offense were putting up numbers, the team was undefeated, and things were looking good. But for me, the feeling felt the same after the team lost the next two games.
To get the joy back, I decided to unplug. I watched the Jets game uninterrupted. No social media during the game and no Slack channel. After the game, no sports radio, no podcast, and yes, no Buffalo Rumblings. I didn’t want anyone or anything influencing how I received the game, and alter my opinion or feelings about it.
So did I enjoy the game on Sunday? No, it was a lousy game for the first three quarters, but I did enjoy just watching it and enjoying football, and I was able to get some of that enjoyment back.
Alright Bills fans, that does it for Week 7’s hot takes. I want to give a huge thanks to @tomhartnett21 and @DoctorZdbrg, for providing their hot takes.
Like always, if you want your hot take heard and posted here, email me at askdoctork44@gmail.com or direct message me on Twitter @doctork44.