Am Very Thankful

First of all, am thankful for the fantastic game all around yesterday - hats off and thank you Buffalo Bills!

More importantly, am thankful for the joy that this team, and this community, provides - very, very special and much appreciated.

I'm also perhaps perversely thankful for the mid-season struggles. Admittedly, maybe this is ex-post rationalization, but consider

This sets up and end of regular season finishing third whereby the Bills will need to stack some impressive wins, and be properly prepared for the playoffs ... or will get beat often enough to miss the playoffs and get a more favorable draft position. There will be no "destroy mediocre teams, get beat by good ones including getting bounced in first round of playoffs, and draft in high 20s" scenario.
And, if team misses the playoffs, this may provoke further serious changes to roster and / or coaching staff (which many have been hammering for). Which is a segue to,
Joey B. has all of 1 game in the big chair so far, and I was not nearly the Dorsey basher that some have been, but my goodness the early returns on this change are fantastic, which is breathing some hope back into the lungs for what could still happen this year.
Life has its struggles, and Lord knows we've had more than our fair share of them as Bills fans...it would be too weird, especially for us, to have this team sail smoothly to a championship, and we'd have a lot less to complain about (back to politics!)...much more apropos, and real, to have some serious hardships along the way. Mind you, I'm not predicting championship this year - it's still more likely we'll miss vs. make the playoffs, let alone run the table...but there is a chance and if it happens it will be damn sweet.

This is admittedly trying to find silver linings in being 6-5, vs. what at least one analytical site says has been the easiest schedule in the NFL thus far, staring into the teeth of what same website says is the hardest remaining schedule. None of us would have wanted this before the season started, but there are some real positives about the situation.

A few words about Philadelphia. Obviously they will are favored (by 3.5), and should be...the odds of us going in there are winning are ... not great. But consider the following

	Team A	Team B
Point differential	57	104
Record in 1 score games	5-1	2-5
Record in blowouts	3-0	4-0
Most impressive win	31-17 vs. MIA	48-20 vs. MIA
Analytical ranking (DVOA)	10	5
Analytical ranking (ESPN FPI)	7	4

Team B is clearly superior, but is a LOT less lucky (or clutch or better coached or whatever). Team B of course is our Buffalo Bils, and Team A is the Eagles. We'll obviously know more after tonight, but it sure looks like the gap between the Bills and Eagles is far smaller than the records suggest. In the priceless scene / quote from Dumb & Dumber,

So you're telling me there's a chance

So Youre Saying Theres A Chance GIF - So youre saying theres ...

(hopefully I did the link correct - I don't know to insert the gif)

Happy Thanksgiving all! And thank you for all the joy you create!