could sombody please explain to me

[moogyman]

......why the fins and pats get so much more hype then the bills, no matter what the team does. everywhere I look the general consensus is the bills are going to finish last in the afce. Am I missing somthing . Do the other teams have somthing that the bills do not, honestly I don' t see it. Ya I know you shouldn't hold much stock in what the " experts" say but, it is also nice to see our team get some props once in a while. Maybe i'm just pissed and need to vent.:mad:

[The_Philster]

I think a part of it has to do with the fact that Buffalo is such a small market. We get overlooked frequently until we really start making a big showing.

[moogyman]

I understand the whole " small market " thing, I just think it goes beyond that . Maybe not.

[Dozerdog]

Because those other markets have multiple TV/Radio/Newspapers , and they just get more exposure

[The_Philster]

I'm sure it goes beyond that but that's a part of it. Take the case of Andre Reed, for example. He got little national recognition as far as being one of the top tier WRs in the league but his consistent play had him up there in the same company as Jerry Rice and Cris Carter. The first place I remember him getting some major recognition was in the movie Jerry Maguire

[moogyman]

But do you think those teams are really any better then the bills? Honestly do you?

[The_Philster]

I'd say we're about on par with the Pats and ahead of the Fish but we're biased just as much as some of the experts are if not more. What I mean is, even though we can say these are our unbiased opinions, there's always a bit of personal bias thrown in there.

[Dozerdog]

Absolutly not.


But when you turn on the "Sports Reporters" on ESPN, what cities are those guys from? New York, Boston, Miami,Philly ect,,,

That's why they get the hype.

[justasportsfan]

It doesn't matter what the media says about the bills. The only way we can prove them wrong is what we do on the field. Their picking us dead last in the AFCE will and should fire up our players, coaches and janitors.

[Dozerdog]

BTW-


As soon as we get good and threaten for the title, these same elitist a-holes will start bringing up 4 lost super bowls, were sick of the Bills, bla-bla-bla even though the only common thread from then till now is the owner.

[moogyman]

I guess it just gets sickining after hearing the same sh** over and over. I just don't see why everybody thinks the fins are going to take the afce. I do not see it happening

[EM Bills Fan 80]

personally I dont know how anyone can pick the Jets to have a better record than us

[The Natrix]

Actually, I have been hearing a lot of BS out of the Fins Camp. Pats fans and NE Media are rather modest. As much as I hate the fact that the bills got swept, I respect NE, whereas I have no respect for Miami or their fans.

I am more interested in the Pats - Bills rivalry than the Miami - Buffalo Rivalry because I think B-Lo and NE are superior to the Dolphins and Jets, but I could be wrong.

anyway, I would rather see the Bills and Pats have a classy rivalry and the Jets and Phins have their basement rivalry. Am I spelling rivalry right?

[mypoorfriendme]

im sure glad we have by far the best division in the nfl!

[G. Host]

where do you think they prefer to go to - Buffalo or Miami/New York?

A good number of the same writers who give good press to those teams accept complientary press passes and other goodies from the teams.

It is no different than politics with the various boondangle trips.

[Jan Reimers]

I hate to say it, but maybe the media don't ever want to see us in another Super Bowl. I hope they're wrong--this year!

[LABillsFan]

I think when ever you finish last in your division you aren't going to get as much attention as the other teams unless you make moves like Wash. did this off season. Buffalo had a good off season and many people know about it, but they didn't steal the show like the Skins did. You also have to look at the division itself. Sure the Bills were just 1 game behind everyone else but as the Bills improved so did NE, the Jets are revamping amd Miami could have won the division outright if Fiedler didn't go down. So while The Bills have improved, they were a notch or 2 behind the rest and would have had to of spent like money was going out of style to raise eyebrows.

[THATHURMANATOR]

They say that because we finished worse than those teams last year and they all added some players(minus the Jets) and I think that is why

[EDS]

I think another factor in the "lack of respect" is the fact that the team stunk two years ago, whereas NW won the SB and Miami was a legit contender. If the Bills improve for the second year in a row, then they will get a lot more hype next year.

[WG]

The last three posts sum it up pretty well.

We all crow about our offseason additions, but other teams make them too. If you really think about it, the only real impact player(s) that we added is Spikes w/ the jury out on Adams. We added no impact player on O, in fact, we lost Price, which according to many is a loss even though we don't view it that way. But on paper, when people whip out the yardage stats, it appears that we lost the world. Thus the two camps; one that says Price is gonna light it up in Atlanta and the other which says that he'll be nothing short of average and perhaps even struggle some as the sole #1 w/o anyone opposite him.

We added nothing to the secondary, Spikes, Adams, and only Posey after that who will make an impact. Posey isn't exactly a marquee player, eh.

Where you have to look, which is where the national level, and in some cases even the local media, drop the ball, is at the marginal gains.

I.e., N.E. made some big gains for players on D. Well, they already had a solid D. So how much better will their D be this year. It'll likely be better, but IMO only marginally so. Had they gone for a big name RB and a receiver tall enough to ride the rides at Six Flags, then perhaps they'd be more of a threat in my book. They're gonna stuggle on O IMO. JMO however. While D is important to win championships, you need some scoring too unless you want to rely on your D to put up points.

The Jets, IMO they should be about the same dependent upon injuries. They're gonna lose some chemistry on O w/ Coles gone although Conway replaces him. Robertson will add some good D on their line. Is Pennington gonna have a 3.7-to-1 TD/INT ratio again? I somehow doubt it. What will happen when the Jets/Pennington comes back down to earth now that the cat's outta the bag and Pennington is a known quantity in the Jets' system?

Miami, they were already good, but they picked up a bunch of good players at many positions. Would we have beaten Miami in Miami had Fiedler, Gadsen, and Chambers all been healthy last year?

IMO we were better than both N.E. and the Jets last season and could have easily won the division outright had it not been for significant errors on the part of Gilbride and the offensive coaching, key INTs in 7 losses, and our crap STs play. Our D improved immensely and didn't play as badly as advertised in a couple of games as pointed out by me on that Jets/Bledsoe thread.

The media markets are obviously key and the N.E. market is the 2nd largest in the country. Miami is just one of those teams that's the AFC equivalent of Dallas marketing wise. So they'll always get some extra hype. Jets, well, they're in NYC. 'nuff said!

But again, IMO the greatest marginal gains were made by us. We had Robinson and now have Spikes! Can it possibly get any more drastic than that in terms of changing?? That's like trading in your GEO for a Lambhorghini! Posey for Newman? Ehh, I'm patient on that. I fear that Posey is the '03 version of Robinson. Either way, we didn't use Newman, so nothing ventured nothing gained.

Adams over platoon city. Adams isn't going to log a ton of sacks, but we can be assured that we won't be giving up 130+ rushing yards each game anymore. Again, if we can improve our rush D by 20 YPG, that'll be huge in marginal terms.

Meanwhile, our young DTs and DEs have another year under their belts and there's hope that a decent F/T starting DE will emerge from amongst the pack. Either way, it should be an improvement over last season in spades.

Keep in mind, that we only finished 1 game out of the rest of the East and again, IMO, we could have been 10-6 easily given some heads up offensive playcalling! Possibly even 11-5.

So 10-6 is virtually expected this season. I'm not sure that N.E. and the Jets are 10-6 teams. W/ proper offensive play calling and scheming, and not simply trying to turn this season into the Drew Bledsoe Hour, we can win up to 12 games providing that our special teams is at least average and our D has really improved as a result of the personnel changes.

[WG]

Originally posted by The_Philster
I'm sure it goes beyond that but that's a part of it. Take the case of Andre Reed, for example. He got little national recognition as far as being one of the top tier WRs in the league but his consistent play had him up there in the same company as Jerry Rice and Cris Carter. The first place I remember him getting some major recognition was in the movie Jerry Maguire

You jest Phil!

There's no way on earth that Andre was in the same league as Rice and I'll argue even Carter.

Rice: 14 of 18 seasons over 1,000 yards ranging to a high of 1,848; 9 of 18 seasons of double-digit TD production ranging to a high of 22; 12 of 18 seasons over 80 recepts.

Carter: 8 consecutive seasons out of 15 of over 1,000 yards; 6 of 15 seasons of double-digit TD production ranging to a high of 17; 7 seasons of 15 of 80+ recepts.

Reed: 4 of 16 seasons over 1,000 yards; only 1 season of double-digit TD production; Only 3 seasons of over 80 recepts; 11 of 16 seasons with fewer than 70 recepts.

Reed was good. But let's face it, what made him what he is is simple longevity. Moulds blows Reed away, and when it's all said and done, even after Moulds' second contract ends and if he leaves, he will, not Reed, be the most prolific receiver in Bills' history.

But Reed isn't fit to carry Rice's jock into this season's Oakland games. Rice and Reed started the same year, 1985. Rice has more yards in his last two seasons at his ripe old age, than Reed had in his last 4!

Rice had 117 more yards, and 16 more TDs in his first 4 seasons in the league than Reed did in his best 4, and only 4 seasons over 1,000 in his entire career.

Rice: First 4 games of career: 4,881 yards, 49 TDS
Reed: Best 4 games of career: 4,764 yards, 33 TDs

After that, Reed's best season is a 945/8 season.

No comparison! Rice is twice the WR that Reed was.

[Earthquake Enyart]

Bottom line is that if you are on TV, you want to stay on TV. You stay on TV by being popular. You are popular if you appeal to the most people. There are more people in NY, LA, Philly, and Boston than Buffalo. So you play to the big markest at the expense of the small markets.

[The_Philster]

San Fran didn't spread the ball around quite as much though, did they? Jerry Rice was in an offense built around the short pass and the ball went to him quite a bit. Meanwhile, Andre was in a more balanced attack and the passes were distributed to him, Beebe, Thurman, Lofton/Brooks, McKellar, and Metzelaars.