our loss against KC, and our win against Texans

[BackInDaDay]

these are the games that cause coaches to utter "it's hard to win in the NFL' ..

there's very little difference between the teams we're fighting for a playoff berth with. i think the last two weeks illustrate this.

we could have won or lost both.

 

there's very little that separates each team in the league, but the teams that struggle share the same major fault - inconsistency

every one of our wins, and every one of our losses comes down to the following factors - and which team can get the edge in more of them on game day. consistently gaining the edge in more of them - from week to week - is how you string a winning season together.

 

my point is, this isn't just a failure of the Bills - it's what keeps teams from taking the step up to championship caliber play.. but for now - to keep winning - our team has to find a way to keep being the better team at what it can control.

1. creating game plans that are effective and adjustable
2. preparing players to make plays and play smart/under-control football
3. managing the game intelligently - from adjustments, to time management and challenges

for instance - using the evenly matched KC and Houston teams as examples -

• in KC, we lost the edge in 1 and 3 by half-time. both our offense and defense were on the ropes after initially taking control.
• with Houston, we kept the edge in all three. our initial offensive game plan and subsequent adjustment moved the ball all game, and our defense adjusted well enough to make the stops they had to.

As far as the season's gone so far - i think all three of these factors have reared their heads at some point during our season.

 

i'm hoping to see more consistency in 1 and 3. in defense of the staff and coordinators, this war of attrition that is the NFL, has placed significant stress on player availability. it's the same across the league, but we've had some injuries where the talent gap was a serious drop off between starter and back-up. that said, there have been some head-scratching game plans and adjustments from both sides of the ball that i don't think are all attributable to the personnel.

 

for me, the most impressive turn around has been the second factor. if we get a rep for being the team under control, maybe we don't get as many calls against us. considering that there's an infraction of some type on every play, the refs won't become "over officious jerks" unless they feel they should be. kinda like a 'self-fulfilling prophecy'... that is, if they think you're an undisciplined bunch of meatheads, they'll penalize you - because not penalizing an 'undisciplined bunch of meatheads' means they're not doing their job well. it's not supposed to work like that at this level of football, but i'm thinking it still does. so our efforts in cleaning up our act, and avoiding play killing whistles, has been a huge improvement.

 

can we get the edge in enough of these factors, in enough of our upcoming games, to make the playoffs?

i hope so.. but if not - i hope the consolation prize is seeing us becoming more consistent in getting the edge in more of them, in more games, than we've been.

Edited December 7, 2015 by BackInDaDay