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People already know what ending that horrible streak meant to Bills fans. I'd like to come at it from another perspective, though - one I was trying to approach in a thread early last week.
Obviously Buffalo has struggled to get wins in the last 10 years overall. I think one area in particular Buffalo has struggled the most is getting wins over good teams. Granted, if we're not a good team we probably won't be beating good teams. However, most other teams, as bad as they are, tend to pull off a few upsets once in a while. Just as an example, Cleveland had 5 wins last year with one against New Orleans (11-5) and New England (14-2).
That is why this defeat of New England is significant to me. I said before the season that I wasn't expecting many wins. However, I was expecting competitive games with at least a couple upsets over better teams - which would generally be the sign of an inconsistent, young, but talented team.
Just to paint a picture of how bad Buffalo has been against good teams, I went back through the last five seasons and their schedules. We've managed to collect 31 wins over those 5 seasons (2006-2010). A meager 4 of those 31 wins were against teams who finished the season with a winning record. Even sadder is that one of those wins came against the 14-2 Colts in 2009...but it was in Week 17, when Indy played Peyton Manning for about a half, then inserted Curtis Painter. So realistically, just 3 wins where the other team was truly trying.
The other three wins were against the Jets (9-7) in 2009, the Redskins (9-7) in 2007 and the Jets (10-6) in 2006. Now I don't think anyone would blame me for assuming the Patriots will end up with > 0.500 record, and most likely a record better than 9-7. I don't want to assume anything about Oakland, but as impressive as they've been, I would be surprised if they didn't end up with at least 9 wins.
And yes, I know our team has some issues. I don't really care, though. They got a win over a good/great team. This is a far cry from 2008, when we beat Seattle (4-12), Jacksonville (5-11), Oakland (5-11), and St. Louis (2-14).
The Bills have struggled mightily to beat good teams. That isn't proven with one win, but keeping the overall picture in perspective, it combines for a great start and significant steps towards having a good team.
Obviously Buffalo has struggled to get wins in the last 10 years overall. I think one area in particular Buffalo has struggled the most is getting wins over good teams. Granted, if we're not a good team we probably won't be beating good teams. However, most other teams, as bad as they are, tend to pull off a few upsets once in a while. Just as an example, Cleveland had 5 wins last year with one against New Orleans (11-5) and New England (14-2).
That is why this defeat of New England is significant to me. I said before the season that I wasn't expecting many wins. However, I was expecting competitive games with at least a couple upsets over better teams - which would generally be the sign of an inconsistent, young, but talented team.
Just to paint a picture of how bad Buffalo has been against good teams, I went back through the last five seasons and their schedules. We've managed to collect 31 wins over those 5 seasons (2006-2010). A meager 4 of those 31 wins were against teams who finished the season with a winning record. Even sadder is that one of those wins came against the 14-2 Colts in 2009...but it was in Week 17, when Indy played Peyton Manning for about a half, then inserted Curtis Painter. So realistically, just 3 wins where the other team was truly trying.
The other three wins were against the Jets (9-7) in 2009, the Redskins (9-7) in 2007 and the Jets (10-6) in 2006. Now I don't think anyone would blame me for assuming the Patriots will end up with > 0.500 record, and most likely a record better than 9-7. I don't want to assume anything about Oakland, but as impressive as they've been, I would be surprised if they didn't end up with at least 9 wins.
And yes, I know our team has some issues. I don't really care, though. They got a win over a good/great team. This is a far cry from 2008, when we beat Seattle (4-12), Jacksonville (5-11), Oakland (5-11), and St. Louis (2-14).
The Bills have struggled mightily to beat good teams. That isn't proven with one win, but keeping the overall picture in perspective, it combines for a great start and significant steps towards having a good team.
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