Five undefeated teams left after three weeks…W4 preview

[Gregg]

Just now, eball said:

 

I think the % of fans on this forum who thought the Bills would be 3-0 is low...maybe 10-15%. You had folks posting in here how if we got out of the first five games at 3-2 it would be a win.

 

 

I was one of them. I thought 3-2 was the most likely outcome. 

[Buffalo03]

8 minutes ago, eball said:

 

I think the % of fans on this forum who thought the Bills would be 3-0 is low...maybe 10-15%. You had folks posting in here how if we got out of the first five games at 3-2 it would be a win.

 

I actually think anyone who thought they had no shot at 3-0 were seriously underestimating the team

[eball]

Just now, Buffalo03 said:

I actually think anyone who thought they had no shot at 3-0 were seriously underestimating the team

 

I don't think that happened, but most folks expected them to lose one of the first three as a result of all of the "newness" around here...

 

[jethro_tull]

4 hours ago, eball said:

Bills, Chiefs, Raiders, 49ers, Vikings at 3-0 — and I think to the majority of us, all or most of those are a surprise.

 

Equally as surprising are a number of the winless and 1-2 teams: Rams, Chargers, Packers, Pats***, Texans, Cowboys…

 

Next week marks end of the proverbial first quarter of the season, when teams start to solidify “who they are.”

 

Some really interesting games on the slate for W4. Obviously there’s Bills/Pats*** and a chance for Buffalo to put an early stranglehold on the division. KC/LV will eliminate one of the unbeatens. Houston and Dallas are both in desperation mode in the battle of Texas. Jags at Cinci is a matchup of 2-1 teams. Broncos at 49ers is another intriguing game — one could argue Denver “should” be 0-3 but they’ve done the 4th quarter rabbit-out-of-a-hat trick two weeks in a row.

 

From a Bills perspective I think we’re rooting for Vegas, Dallas, Jacksonville (because of Cinci’s easy schedule), and the 49ers.

 

Fun week ahead.

 

It will interesting to see how the 9'ers and Broncos match up- two potential conference winners- it will gauge how good the NFC is.  

One team that scares the lights out of me is the Bears.  Good lawd what a defense.

[Gregg]

47 minutes ago, Buffalo03 said:

I actually think anyone who thought they had no shot at 3-0 were seriously underestimating the team

 

I had them losing at Houston because that has been a tough place for the Bills until this year. Even the week 1 game came down to the final moments. I thought they would beat Lions and Chargers. They did. I have them beating the Pats but losing to the Rams. I think the Rams game is more winnable now that Garrett is out. At this point I would say 4-1 for sure with a decent shot at 5-0.

[SoTier]

3 hours ago, Buffalo03 said:

All or most? I don't think that all or most are surprised by the Bills, Chiefs or 49ers being 3-0. The Raiders I think most are and Minnesota as well. But the other 3 are no surprise 

 

I think that most Bills fans never expected the team to win their first three games.  They might have hoped that they could win all three but probably expected less.    Fans were worried about Brady being a first time HC.   The defense seemed likely to struggle at first.   Houston had given Allen and the Bills fits in recent years -- and they were considered Super Bowl contenders simply based on their defense.   The Chargers were a playoff team last season and expected to be a contender again.  A few talking heads even touted them as going to the SB.

 

In the first three games, the Bills offense has been better than expected and the defense not quite as bad as feared.  The defensive line play has been a pleasant surprise.   The defense has made clutch plays to make up from some of their shortcomings on the back-end.   Conversely, NOBODY expected the Texans to play as badly as they have.  Yes, they had injuries to their WRs but they had Nico Collins for all/most of the game against the Bills.   The Chargers have just been bad all around, but especially on offense.

 

As for the other teams, there was a lot concern about how well Mahomes would come back from injury.   The Rams were supposed to be a "dream team" that some wags suggested they might go undefeated ... until they laid an egg to the 49ers to open the season.

[Gregthekeg]

6 hours ago, NewEra said:

It’ll be interesting to see what happens to the raiders 3-0 over the next 8 weeks.  

chiefs

pats

bills

rams

jets

niners

seahawks

broncos

 

Going 3-0 to 3-8 would not be a surprise at all (Jets and Pats could be a toss up)

 

[Jon in Pasadena]

6 hours ago, HOUSE said:

Watch out for the Dolphins 

 

6 hours ago, eball said:

 

Yeah…suicide watch.

 

 

4 hours ago, BuffaloBill said:

 

Josh Allen fears them.

 

Josh basically commits filicide every time we play them.

 

Edited September 29 by Jon in Pasadena

[BillsfaninSB]

Definitely want Jax to beat Cincy.   Is Steelers at Browns a push or do we need to care about the outcome? 
 

I wish that was the Sunday night game. 
 

Edited September 29 by BillsfaninSB

[chris heff]

7 hours ago, HOUSE said:

Watch out for the Dolphins 

A pod of actual dolphins are more dangerous.

[BigAl2526]

8 hours ago, Gregg said:

 

For 0-17.

In 2035.

[Chaos]

1 hour ago, BillsfaninSB said:

Definitely want Jax to beat Cincy.   Is Steelers at Browns a push or do we need to care about the outcome? 
 

I wish that was the Sunday night game. 
 

Trevor Lawrence is playing at a higher level than Burrows    it’s not clear to me who I would rather play  in the playoffs 

[Lost]

1 minute ago, Chaos said:

Trevor Lawrence is playing at a higher level than Burrows    it’s not clear to me who I would rather play  in the playoffs 

 

It's weird how the light suddenly turned on for him in year 5.   

[billsfan89]

Just now, Lost said:

 

It's weird how the light suddenly turned on for him in year 5.   

 

His first two coaches were not that great, Urban Meyer his rookie year was a mess and then it was Doug Peterson who was mediocre at best the next three years. Year 5 he gets a young modern coach in Cohen whose able to build the right system around him. 

[Dan]

47 minutes ago, Chaos said:

Trevor Lawrence is playing at a higher level than Burrows    it’s not clear to me who I would rather play  in the playoffs 

Agreed, but given their strengths of schedule, I think it’s best for the Bengals to get some losses while they can. 

[colin]

All the undefeated teams have kinda beaten up on bums so far, but after three games at best the teams an undefeated team has played has lost 1/3 of their games, so it kinda has to be that way.

 

Combined records of 2-7 for our opponents and SF, 1-8 for the raiders and 3-6 for the Chiefs and vikings.

 

Of those 15 victories the chargers count for 2 and the dolphins count for 3! 

 

The good wins are rams (at 1-2!), broncos, Detroit and Chicago.

 

If we go into our bye at 6-0 (waiting to host the ravens) I feel super confident, 5-1 and I feel good, 4-2 we are exactly where we were last season, 3-3 and the wheels are falling off.

 

I'm putting the odds at 25% 6-0, 35% 5-1, 25% 4-2, 15% 3-3.

 

Actually, that's too objective.

 

35% 6-0, 35% 5-1, 25% 4-2, 5% 3-3.  The pats are hurt and the raiders are lucky

[SageAgainstTheMachine]

People tend to overreact to 3-0 starts, in a way that they don't when the three consecutive wins happen in like Weeks 8, 9 and 10.  We're just 17% of the way through the season and nobody will really remember this when the Raiders are sitting at 9-8.

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

How are the Vikings 3-0?

[Mikie2times]

I had us at 15-2 prior to the start of the year. Despite the 3-0 start I’m not sure if I feel better about that now or worse. I’m obviously excited about our prospects, but part of me also questions if these were really quality teams we have wins against? I think the Lions are a fringe playoff team. Chargers are awful. Texans with vs without Nico are a different team, but I still wonder if they will be a playoff team this year. That defense has regressed to an extent and the offense is putrid. Wins are wins, but as this thread alludes to, it can be really odd this early in the year. 
 

I also want to see how we handle teams that defend us like the Chargers in the future. Is it possible this offense could look like the Dorsey version at times? It had that look for large parts of the game Sunday. We can run it now, which prevents a regression to what we saw then, but I need to see more to really feel good about it. It will be fine no matter what, but at this point it needs to be much more than fine.

 

With this said, I’m still keeping my initial forecast with our record. Why the hell not at this point. I think we take our first L in the Rams/Raiders sequence. Not sure to who, but I think the Raiders are good enough, possibly Wild Card range, if we win vs the Rams that will be a tough matchup off short rest and big game environment. 

[Simon]

6 hours ago, Lost said:

It's weird how the light suddenly turned on for him in year 5.   

 

He just hasn't been hit yet this year.

As soon as somebody starts knocking him around, he'll fall apart like a Robert Hall suit.