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Bills lead charge in new-look AFC
Bills on the frontpage of SI right now:
article:
For strangeness, nothing compares to the sight of seeing the Bills at 3-0 for the first time in 16 years, the first team other than New England to be atop the division since Week 4 of 2005. Buffalo hasn't made the playoffs since 1999, the AFC's longest active drought, and hasn't won the division since 1995, the year the Bills got a league-leading 17½ sacks out of NFL Defensive Player of the Year Bryce Paup (yeah, that's how long ago it was).
There wasn't a thing pretty about the Bills' latest win -- that 24-23 last-second nail-biter over visiting Oakland -- but the resilience Buffalo displayed in mounting its second consecutive fourth-quarter comeback victory should serve Dick Jauron's team well later this season when the stakes are even higher. The Bills scored 17 points in the game's final eight minutes, overcoming a host of miscues, missed opportunities and bad field position in a game that previous Buffalo teams would have routinely found a way to lose. The week before at steamy Jacksonville, it was a 10-point fourth-quarter rally that got the job done.
You can see this thing building week by week in Buffalo, and Tuesday morning I asked Bills offensive coordinator Turk Schonert if the victory over the Raiders might be the kind of game that convinces Buffalo it's both good enough to win even when it doesn't play it's best game, and not so far along that it can take any opponent for granted? Every young team on the rise needs to learn both of those lessons along the way.
article:
For strangeness, nothing compares to the sight of seeing the Bills at 3-0 for the first time in 16 years, the first team other than New England to be atop the division since Week 4 of 2005. Buffalo hasn't made the playoffs since 1999, the AFC's longest active drought, and hasn't won the division since 1995, the year the Bills got a league-leading 17½ sacks out of NFL Defensive Player of the Year Bryce Paup (yeah, that's how long ago it was).
There wasn't a thing pretty about the Bills' latest win -- that 24-23 last-second nail-biter over visiting Oakland -- but the resilience Buffalo displayed in mounting its second consecutive fourth-quarter comeback victory should serve Dick Jauron's team well later this season when the stakes are even higher. The Bills scored 17 points in the game's final eight minutes, overcoming a host of miscues, missed opportunities and bad field position in a game that previous Buffalo teams would have routinely found a way to lose. The week before at steamy Jacksonville, it was a 10-point fourth-quarter rally that got the job done.
You can see this thing building week by week in Buffalo, and Tuesday morning I asked Bills offensive coordinator Turk Schonert if the victory over the Raiders might be the kind of game that convinces Buffalo it's both good enough to win even when it doesn't play it's best game, and not so far along that it can take any opponent for granted? Every young team on the rise needs to learn both of those lessons along the way.
someday i'll posrep you, and i'm sure i'll still be a dick.
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