Casey D

Fish 57, Bills 7. I think the Fish squeak into the playoffs at 9-7, and then watch them make some noise.

Exactly right. Defense and offense go hand in glove. If the defense keeps the score manageable, you can stick with the run, play action etc. You can't do that when the other team is scoring at will-- you are forced to try and keep up. If you are down 28-7 and the other team keeps scoring, 15 play drives that last 8 minutes will not win it for you. Maybe you lose 34-21 and the score is more respectable, but so what? All this talk about running and smashmouth and old time football is great, but not in a vacuum. To play that style, your defense has to give up no more that 21 or so points a game, and our D can't do that against a team with a decent offense. Miami is offensively challenged, so we may have a shot this week to stick with the run, and hopefully win... CD

Correct in theory, but not in practice when your opponent scores 28 points in their first 4 possessions.

Wow, we've fallen so fast we are now 2.5 point underdogs to the Dolphins.

I envy your ability to just quit cold turkey, walk away and not give a sh*t. Wish I could.

We got so far behind so fast that the run game was advesrsely impacted. When the other team scores one one or a handful of plays repeatedly, 13 play drives go by the way. It's the way it is for everyone. The Bills' defense basically took away our running game.

I can't listen to that stuff. And I agree with you, all the blame game is pointless. If we had some power to make decisions, then figuring out the problem might be useful--but we don't have that power. It's just amazing how many ways these teams can fail over so many years. Ever wish you were born in a town with teams that won something? 1965 is too long ago for me-- I can barely remember.

Being a Bills and Sabres fan. In the course of less than 24 hour we are vividly reminded of how foolish it is the be a fan of these teams. The Sabres turtle in the face of the Bruins, and the Bills continue to provide endless misery to their fan base. I try and keep this all in perpective-- I mean you have to if you have this curse of birth over things you have no control. But sometimes,like when you have to be up at 5 AM on Monday to catch a plane, you just wish that once in a while you could get more than repeated kicks in the gut from this endeavor of being a Buffalo fan. Just a touch of joy would be nice. Sorry to be whiny, it really is not my style. I don't know--it's just hard to take sometimes after 40 years of this. Just needed to get this off my chest... CD

fyi, it's intents and purposes...

Absolutely right! AND too many people(but not all) are just weenies who dribble down their pants when faced with difficulty, casting blame in machine gun like fashion and giving a heavy dose of "I told you so." That sums up the board. Who are you, Herman Cain's PR man? Guy did not blame the whiteout, he said that people got their expectations so high because of the big build up to the game--including the whiteout hype-- that people have lost perspective and are crashing too hard after a single game. I mean respond to his point-- don't set up straw men and then laugh and laugh and laugh at how absurd your own straw man is. Do you have good conversations with yourself?

Yes, I needed a good ass-kicking-- like My Cousin Vinny.

Yes. The Bills played their first poor game yesterday. Given the difficulty of their schedule thus far, playing 7 other solid games and winning 5 of them does not suck by any stretch. But, when you have not won in 11 years, no one knows where the bottom (or top)is with this team yet. When the 1991 Bills got clobbered in a game--well it was just a bad day because you knew they were good. Or like the Ravens the last two weeks before yesterday-- they were awful but no panic because they have a track record. With this team, people fear 2008. Until this team proves it is not 2008, you don't know it's not 2008. Until then, we are trying to find out what the baseline is for this team. In my judgment, they showed enough in the first 7 games against largely quality teams to indicate they are a decent team-- not a bottom feeder any longer. A good team should be angry and bounce back with a good effort this Sunday--hopefully a winning effort-- against a mediocre Dallas team. It should be fun to see, as getting knocked down happens to everyone, it's what you do about it that counts in football and life. The weaker fans are in the fetal position. I'm thinking the team itself is stronger than that and will dust itself off and fight on-- but we shall see... CD

The team sucked today. Hopefully this falls into "it happens" category-- like the Ravens the past two weeks. They have not laid an egg all year-- guess they were due. Let's see how they respond next week. Now need to win 2 of next 3 on the road and get to 7-4 for the final 5 games.

Doubtful. The Bills were underdogs in 4 of their first 6 games, and were favored only against Oakland and Cincinnati by 3. Bills are currently a 6 to 6.5 point favorite in Vegas, on what amounts to a neutral + field. So oddsmaker say this is our easiest game so far-- next closest would be Cincinnati.

Redskins are awful. 5-11 if lucky.

I don't think so. I see only one team coming out of the South-- so it will not have playoff implications. Given the Bills are likely to be competing for the wild card--if anything-- I think pulling against Oakland, NYJ and Pittsburgh is of greater interest, as those three teams will be offering some of the primary competition for a wild card berth IMO.

Well put.

The Bills lead the AFC in scoring.

There is roughly a 6 point swing playing at home v. road. I agree we likely will split with NYJ, but I don't agree that it's more likely we win on the road than at home. And I would not want us to have to win the third game of a road trip to split--which is what you are saying. Exactly. And dumping the only true home game in a 2 month period to the Jets would be, for me, equally bad.

I think beating the Jets twice is not a reasonable assumption. NYJ are better than Washington. If the Bills can't beat Washington at home after a bye--going to 4-3-- it would shock me if they got to 10-6. Strictly speaking you are, of course, correct. But I'd wager that if they don't win those two games, they will not make the playoffs. These are relatively easy games at home-- to make up for a loss you will have to beat as good or a better team on the road, and leave yourself very little margin for error.

I agree. We need to get to December at 7-4 at the worst to have a good shot. I like the 3 December home games. SD will be tough. NE depends on if NE is playing for anything. If they are, it will be a hornet's nest. But again, after November it needs to be 7-4.

I know the phrase must win is overused, but the next two games are the key to the rest of the season IMO. Both are home games(Toronto I know but nevertheless) against decidedly average opponents. If the Bills are to threaten for a playoff spot, these two home games have to be wins. If they can get to 6-2, they have a pretty good shot at the playoffs. With home games remaining against Tennessee, Miami and Denver in December all being very winnable as well, that means the final determination will be made by how many wins the team can get in away games at Dallas, Miami, NYJ SD and NE-- none of which will be easy(Miami being the possible exception). But games obviously don't go to form all the time, and the Bills have lost 2 of the last three. So I think the next two games will decide whether the Bills can right the ship and have a legitimate shot at the playoff after week 9. 5-3 won't cut it given the second half schedule.

JP Losman and Trent Edwards can make all the throws, as could Russell, Harrington, Carr Leaf, etc. They are also all unemployed because they can't play QB at the NFL level, which has about 10% to do with arm strength and 90% to do with brains, heart, and leadership. That's why Fitz is, and will continue to be, a very good NFL QB and lots of first round QBs are busts. That's kind of the point of the thread.

You are correct. The offense is averaging over 31 points a game. That's alot. Right now the D roughly requires the team to score 30 points for us to win. In fact, when we don't score 30 or more PPG, we lose. That's too much to ask out of the offense on a week in and week out basis, IMO.