by Diekan » Mon Jan 24, 2005 10:33 pm
I hate to down my team - but there are some facts you all aren't considering....
Look at this past season - when the Bills faced teams with winning records - they got crushed - they won when they faced teams with losing records. There is no way they could have beaten any of the play off teams in this year's rounds.
The Bills went on a six game winning streak and everyone went crazy, ok fine. Now take a look at who they beat. The Bills beat teams with a combined record of 35 - 61. When they played teams who held a combined record of 37 - 27 they lost... four in a row to be exact.
1. The Bills' offensive line is trash, period.
2. Bledsoe is washed up - he may be a great guy off the field, but in uniform he just isn't getting it done. His recievers have no faith in him. He would get calls from the box telling him to, "Get rid of it!, get rid of it!"
3. At least THREE of Buffalo's star players are wanting to jump ship. One of which (Henry) has at least the balls to say it publicly.
Now, yes the D is strong... very strong, or is it? But, let's take a hard look at the stats. The Bills were 1st in the AFC in sacs, 2nd in forced fumbles, 1st in interceptions, and 2nd in INTs being returned for TD's. That's great - but you know it's not like they did this playing teams like NE back to back. Seriously, just think about it. Is it really so hard to put up numbers like that when you're playing teams like the 49'ers for most of your season?
Week 1
Bills 10 - J-ville 13 : J-ville ended the season with a 9-7.
Week 2
Oakland 13 - Bills 10: Oakland ended the season 5-11.
Week 4
New England 31 - Bills 17: If you need to know what NE's record is - just shoot yourself now.
Week 5
Jets 16 - Bills 14: Jets ended the season 10 - 6.
Week 6
Bills 20 - Miami 13: Miami ended the season 4 - 12.
Ok - you get the idea - I am not going to post all the scores of the season.
My point is not only do the Bills lose to teams with winning records, BUT their D allowed a total of 284 points.
That's doesn't sound to bad. But, here's the kicker. When facing teams like the 49'ers, the Cardnials, the Bungles, so on - they do ok. Now, when they face teams like Pittsburgh, NE, NY - they get blown out allowing for over 20 points per game.
The Jets, Pats and Steelers scored a combined 122 points (that's roughly about 24.4 points per game for 5 games - you call that good D?). That means that they allowed a combined 164 points from their meetings with the lesser teams in the league (an average of about 14.9 points in 11 games). That is not awsome D, in my book. Yes, the stats (sac, interceptions and such) look great - but in this case I think you have to research it a bit to see the bigger picture.
To some extent, yes the Bills D is strong - depending on who they're playing.
The very idea that management is even considering letting Bledsoe stay if he takes a pay cut just screams they don't give a fuck about having a play off run.
Buffalo IS in trouble, and I seriously can't see them in the play offs for a couple of more years.
If Buffalo is at all serious about making the play offs they MUST make some changes. Fix the damn O-line, work on the D (they can't seem to stop teams with winning records and if you're going into the play offs guess what? you'll be facing teams WITH winning records), get RID of Bledsoe, use the draft picks to get quality replacements for those who are planning on jumping ship.
I wouldn't mind seeing Warner come to Buffalo. Start Warner and work Losman in to start getting him up to speed.
Last edited by
Diekan on Mon Jan 24, 2005 11:44 pm, edited 5 times in total.