To Lee Evans: The Bills were not "close" last year!!

[HHURRICANE]

Lee Evans said on his Sirius interview that the Bills were "close" last year.

Uhhh, no they weren't. The team had some games where they just got plain blown out.

If this team thinks that they are that close than this is going to be another 7-9 season.

This team needs to be thinking that they need to be alot better to win.

[trapezeus]

Re: To Lee Evans: The Bills were not "close" last year!!

i think he's refering to the fact that they were 7-6 and played for the playoffs until the second last week. during his tenure with the bills, that's pretty close.

[Jaybird]

Re: To Lee Evans: The Bills were not "close" last year!!

stop hating on LEE

[Pinkerton Security]

Re: To Lee Evans: The Bills were not "close" last year!!

Lee Evans said on his Sirius interview that the Bills were "close" last year.

Uhhh, no they weren't. The team had some games where they just got plain blown out.

If this team thinks that they are that close than this is going to be another 7-9 season.

This team needs to be thinking that they need to be alot better to win.

which games were the blowed out?


NE - Yes, they were the best offense in history and our D was shredded. 2 games there.

Steelers - yes, they beat us soundly.

Jags - another very good team that beat us by a good margin.


And I would argue that only NE truly blew us out. And I agree, we do need to be better to win those games. But I do believe we were damn close. At one point we were 7-6 and were controlling our destiny as far as the playoffs went. So I'd say we were close.

[Romes]

Re: To Lee Evans: The Bills were not "close" last year!!

"Close" refers to making the playoffs not individual games.

[justasportsfan]

Re: To Lee Evans: The Bills were not "close" last year!!

another thread down the toilet where it belongs.

[Jan Reimers]

Re: To Lee Evans: The Bills were not "close" last year!!

We were 7-6 - with 17 or so players on IR - with a realistic playoff shot going into the last 3 games. Then the weather hit in Cleveland and we were effectively finished.

I would agree with Evans.

[Dujek]

Re: To Lee Evans: The Bills were not "close" last year!!

Lee Evans said on his Sirius interview that the Bills were "close" last year.

Uhhh, no they weren't. The team had some games where they just got plain blown out.

If this team thinks that they are that close than this is going to be another 7-9 season.

This team needs to be thinking that they need to be alot better to win.

Two defeats by a single point. A defeat against the Giants when they should have closed the game out, and a defeat to the Eagles when everyone had already given up on the season. Realistically last year's Bills, with a fully healthy roster, would have won at least two of those games and might even have won three and made it into the playoffs. I think that counts as being close to a playoff calibre team.

I really don't see how all of a sudden the Bills, who let's not forget HAVE improved in the offseason are suddenly going to suck it up next year and be nowhere near the playoff picture.

You and Op need to go off and be miserable together while the rest of us look at the facts and realise that for once we have a reason to be somewhat optimistic. I'm not saying the Bills are good enough to go deep into the playoffs, but I believe that the pieces are finally all in place for a winning season and a Wild Card spot.

[OpIv37]

Re: To Lee Evans: The Bills were not "close" last year!!

Two defeats by a single point. A defeat against the Giants when they should have closed the game out, and a defeat to the Eagles when everyone had already given up on the season. Realistically last year's Bills, with a fully healthy roster, would have won at least two of those games and might even have won three and made it into the playoffs. I think that counts as being close to a playoff calibre team.

I really don't see how all of a sudden the Bills, who let's not forget HAVE improved in the offseason are suddenly going to suck it up next year and be nowhere near the playoff picture.

You and Op need to go off and be miserable together while the rest of us look at the facts and realise that for once we have a reason to be somewhat optimistic. I'm not saying the Bills are good enough to go deep into the playoffs, but I believe that the pieces are finally all in place for a winning season and a Wild Card spot.

We got blown out by the Giants because we completely fell apart and the Eagles had given up on their season as well. Piss poor examples, not to mention we got destroyed by the Steelers and the Patriots. In fact, we only beat 1 playoff team- Washington, and only after they had an incredibly stressful week with the Taylor situation. And 5 of our 7 wins came against the Jets, Dolphins and Ravens- teams that COMBINED for a 10-38 record. This team has yet to prove they can be competitive against decent opponents. If that's what Lee and some of you consider "close", you have very low standards.

And realistically I don't know if the Bills would have won any more games with a healthy roster. ALL the injuries were on D. In the Dallas game, for example, the OFFENSE blew it, not the D. Having no one on IR for that game would not have changed the outcome one bit.

As far as the offseason, the D looks better on paper but the problematic offense has not added any talent. All the so-called improvement is based on an unproven OC and player improvement that is by no means guaranteed. Everyone who thinks this team can get a wild card assumes player improvement is a given, but it isn't. There are just as many examples of players hitting sophomore slumps or just plain going to pieces after one season.

[Pinkerton Security]

Re: To Lee Evans: The Bills were not "close" last year!!

we did NOT get destroyed by the Giants. Maybe in the 4th quarter, but we outplayed them for the entire game. And yes I know, thats not a complete game, but that was anything from a blowout, IMO.

[FlyingDutchman]

Re: To Lee Evans: The Bills were not "close" last year!!

HHuricane, do you have bi-polar disorder? I feel like some days you write threads that are optimistic and positive, and then some days you have threads like this....I dont get you....

[Dujek]

Re: To Lee Evans: The Bills were not "close" last year!!

We got blown out by the Giants because we completely fell apart and the Eagles had given up on their season as well. Piss poor examples, not to mention we got destroyed by the Steelers and the Giants. In fact, we only beat 1 playoff team- Washington, and only after they had an incredibly stressful week with the Taylor situation. And 5 of our 7 wins came against the Jets, Dolphins and Ravens- teams that COMBINED for a 10-38 record. This team has yet to prove they can be competitive against decent opponents. If that's what Lee and some of you consider "close", you have very low standards.

And realistically I don't know if the Bills would have won any more games with a healthy roster. ALL the injuries were on D. In the Dallas game, for example, the OFFENSE blew it, not the D. Having no one on IR for that game would not have changed the outcome one bit.

As far as the offseason, the D looks better on paper but the problematic offense has not added any talent. All the so-called improvement is based on an unproven OC and player improvement that is by no means guaranteed. Everyone who thinks this team can get a wild card assumes player improvement is a given, but it isn't. There are just as many examples of players hitting sophomore slumps or just plain going to pieces after one season.

We lost to the Giants because our patched-up make-shift defense finally ran out of gas in the 4th quarter and we let them run over the top of us and a rookie QB made a couple of mistakes, and I still reckon if there had really been anything on the line the Bills would have toasted the Eagles.

Yes the Bills' got destroyed by the Steelers, at the end of a week where they had to get over seeing one of their players almost die on the field and had to recover from the hard defeat the week before. The Patriots were a class apart in the regular season last year. The game that concerned me last year was the loss to the Jags. Teams like the Jaguars should be the teams we're aiming for first, and then making the move towards the elite teams of the NFL, however I honestly think that there has been enough improvement, especially in run defense which cost us more than one game in 2007, to warrant belief that the playoffs are definitely achievable this season.

[OpIv37]

Re: To Lee Evans: The Bills were not "close" last year!!

we did NOT get destroyed by the Giants. Maybe in the 4th quarter, but we outplayed them for the entire game. And yes I know, thats not a complete game, but that was anything from a blowout, IMO.

That's even worse because it means we FELL APART. It shows a complete inability to finish games. It takes an unbelievable degree of incompetence to "outplay" a team and still lose by 3 touchdowns on the scoreboard.

[OpIv37]

Re: To Lee Evans: The Bills were not "close" last year!!

We lost to the Giants because our patched-up make-shift defense finally ran out of gas in the 4th quarter and we let them run over the top of us and a rookie QB made a couple of mistakes, and I still reckon if there had really been anything on the line the Bills would have toasted the Eagles.

And that's the same reason why we will lose this year- even though the D won't be make-shift, they'll still be out of gas in the 4th when the offense hangs them out to dry for the entire game.

Yes the Bills' got destroyed by the Steelers, at the end of a week where they had to get over seeing one of their players almost die on the field and had to recover from the hard defeat the week before. The Patriots were a class apart in the regular season last year. The game that concerned me last year was the loss to the Jags. Teams like the Jaguars should be the teams we're aiming for first, and then making the move towards the elite teams of the NFL, however I honestly think that there has been enough improvement, especially in run defense which cost us more than one game in 2007, to warrant belief that the playoffs are definitely achievable this season.

If you're going to use the Everrett situation as an excuse for the Steelers, it's nullified by the Washington game where we only won because the Skins were upset about Taylor.

I don't think we'll beat the Jaguars this year either. That's going to be a boring, low-scoring game.

[trapezeus]

Re: To Lee Evans: The Bills were not "close" last year!!

Normally, i see where Op is coming from. 9 out of 10 times, his points are valid. but while we are in TC and have no idea how this team will perform aside from the paper upgrades, it's hard to get the "let's temper our expectations" threads.

It's the Preseason! this may be our only time to go crazy. The season may suck, but we have these 2 months to say, "Superbowl or bust" and "the patriots are going to fall apart" and "Chambers is going to make us forget about Peters." Let's have fun with it. I do think the bills will perform better this year.

I think the Bills did well under the circumstances last year. I think Jauron needs to make some better game day decisions, and i think having anyone other than fairchild makes this team better.

i also think we lost that steelers game before it even started. the everett injury killed that game. Jags game was actually really close. We had a chance to win it with a last second drive. Again our inept offense kept our D on the field too long. The giants game was a bizarre one. We had that and let it slip away. maybe that was weather driven or just a rookie QB error. Cleveland was a draw. someone had to win and they got it.

Sure they are excuses, but i think sometimes you just make excuses in the oppositions favor. Sometimes S*** happens.