The Answer
09-03-2007, 11:00 PM
It's not rocket science here - The ability to win games on the road is this league is what truly separates the contenders from the pretenders. And reflecting on last years road games here is The Answer's reason for optimism in 2007:
Breaking down last season's 8 road contests in which we went 3 - 5:
@ NE - Loss: for the 2nd straight year the Bills outplayed the pats in foxboro and almost walked away with a win.
@ MIA - Win: Defense had one of their best games of the season against pathetic Mularkey led dolphins offense and hobbled Culpepper.
@ CHI - Loss: By far the worst loss of the season last year as superbowl bound Bears dominated Bills from start to finish in a thorough rout.
@ DET - Loss: True mark of rebuilding team - came out completely flat against a winless team that had one of the worse defenses in the league in a game we were 'expected' to win.
@ INDY - Loss: Played the eventual world champions down to the wire and if Lindell hits that field goal late you never know what might have happened.
@ HOU - Win: Battled back in the 4th quarter and Losman played one of his best games of the season (and career) hitting PP with the clutch game winning TD in the final seconds.
@ NYJ - Win: Yet another mark of a rebuilding team - won a game we weren't supposed to win and beat the Jets pretty soundly in NY where historically we have not had much luck.
@ BAL - Loss: Were eliminated from the playoffs a week earlier and didn't fare too well against the Ravens defense in this one.
So with that said - out of the 5 losses, you can argue we should have won at least 2 of those games if we were just marginally better. Detroit, Indy and NE were all winable games.
Now breaking down this upcoming season's 8 road contests and making predictions assuming we are a 'contender':
@ PIT - Win: Steelers will likely be coming home 1 - 0 after opening at Cleveland barring a big upset. Always tough to win in the steel city, and if we drop the opener against the broncos the pressure will be on, if we win the opener we may have momentum as well.
@ NE - Loss: I'll say loss because its the pats, however if there was one game JP Losman and the rest of the Bills 'veterans' have circled on their calender it's this one to make an early statement in the afc east.
@ NYJ - Win: We beat them soundly last year and were a few plays away from the sweep. All depends on how the first meeting goes in Buffalo and if Lynch can run as good against the jets as mcgahee could.
@ MIA - Win: By the time this game is played either two things will have happened in Miami, 1) John Beck era is well underway, 2) Trent Green is hanging on if they are hovering around .500 - either way we have owned this team in recent years.
@ JAX - Loss: Jags are a hard team to gauge right now, but they do seem to play much better at home. But historically we have also fared well in their building winning the last 2 games there. I'll say loss to keep it honest.
@ WAS - Win: Another tough team to gauge, have the potential to surprise but skins also may be deep in rebuilding. Greg Williams defense was horrible in 2006 though and Fletcher knows our offense pretty well obviously, he still can't tackle though.
@ CLE - Win: Brady Quinn era should be up and running by the time we play this one, but this could be a dangerous game as Browns will be looking to play spoiler role.
@ PHI - Loss: Going to be tough to win this one especially if Eagles are in a tight playoff race for the NFC east title or wildcard. Our chances are a lot better though now that we don't have to worry about facing The Holcombator.
So this is The Answer's optimism: 5 - 3 on the road or no worse than 4 - 4 if we are a contender - but if we turn out to be a pretender than look for no more than 3 wins again away from Orchard Park. It's no secret that 'on paper' we have a difficult schedule, but there's not one road game that The Answer feels we can't win this year if we come to play.
~The Answer
Breaking down last season's 8 road contests in which we went 3 - 5:
@ NE - Loss: for the 2nd straight year the Bills outplayed the pats in foxboro and almost walked away with a win.
@ MIA - Win: Defense had one of their best games of the season against pathetic Mularkey led dolphins offense and hobbled Culpepper.
@ CHI - Loss: By far the worst loss of the season last year as superbowl bound Bears dominated Bills from start to finish in a thorough rout.
@ DET - Loss: True mark of rebuilding team - came out completely flat against a winless team that had one of the worse defenses in the league in a game we were 'expected' to win.
@ INDY - Loss: Played the eventual world champions down to the wire and if Lindell hits that field goal late you never know what might have happened.
@ HOU - Win: Battled back in the 4th quarter and Losman played one of his best games of the season (and career) hitting PP with the clutch game winning TD in the final seconds.
@ NYJ - Win: Yet another mark of a rebuilding team - won a game we weren't supposed to win and beat the Jets pretty soundly in NY where historically we have not had much luck.
@ BAL - Loss: Were eliminated from the playoffs a week earlier and didn't fare too well against the Ravens defense in this one.
So with that said - out of the 5 losses, you can argue we should have won at least 2 of those games if we were just marginally better. Detroit, Indy and NE were all winable games.
Now breaking down this upcoming season's 8 road contests and making predictions assuming we are a 'contender':
@ PIT - Win: Steelers will likely be coming home 1 - 0 after opening at Cleveland barring a big upset. Always tough to win in the steel city, and if we drop the opener against the broncos the pressure will be on, if we win the opener we may have momentum as well.
@ NE - Loss: I'll say loss because its the pats, however if there was one game JP Losman and the rest of the Bills 'veterans' have circled on their calender it's this one to make an early statement in the afc east.
@ NYJ - Win: We beat them soundly last year and were a few plays away from the sweep. All depends on how the first meeting goes in Buffalo and if Lynch can run as good against the jets as mcgahee could.
@ MIA - Win: By the time this game is played either two things will have happened in Miami, 1) John Beck era is well underway, 2) Trent Green is hanging on if they are hovering around .500 - either way we have owned this team in recent years.
@ JAX - Loss: Jags are a hard team to gauge right now, but they do seem to play much better at home. But historically we have also fared well in their building winning the last 2 games there. I'll say loss to keep it honest.
@ WAS - Win: Another tough team to gauge, have the potential to surprise but skins also may be deep in rebuilding. Greg Williams defense was horrible in 2006 though and Fletcher knows our offense pretty well obviously, he still can't tackle though.
@ CLE - Win: Brady Quinn era should be up and running by the time we play this one, but this could be a dangerous game as Browns will be looking to play spoiler role.
@ PHI - Loss: Going to be tough to win this one especially if Eagles are in a tight playoff race for the NFC east title or wildcard. Our chances are a lot better though now that we don't have to worry about facing The Holcombator.
So this is The Answer's optimism: 5 - 3 on the road or no worse than 4 - 4 if we are a contender - but if we turn out to be a pretender than look for no more than 3 wins again away from Orchard Park. It's no secret that 'on paper' we have a difficult schedule, but there's not one road game that The Answer feels we can't win this year if we come to play.
~The Answer