Significance of the NE win

[psubills62]

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.

[Figster]

Great post/thread OP :historian:

[ddaryl]

My expectations for this season was to see improvement.. Last year we gave some good teams a run, but came up short.... I found it encouraging last year, even though our record sucked... BUT I also knew the new coach and GM were making HUGE changes and because of that I found those close games to be encouraging..


but the team had to take that next step, and start beating teams in those close games instead of coming up short... so as your post points out this team is obviously making that transition.. this team is heading in the right direction

[trapezeus]

great post. the historical stuff you pull up isn't shocking, but it's shocking. if you knkow what i mean.

I always assumed that they didn't relaly beat good teams, but 4? and truly only 3 that didn't mail it in?

But like you said, this is one win, so in the next 3 weeks, the bills have to play the eagles and giants in NJ. If they split that and are competitive in both, i htink we have a good team.

and like i've been saying throughout, we need to stay healthy.

[better days]

My expectations for this season was to see improvement.. Last year we gave some good teams a run, but came up short.... I found it encouraging last year, even though our record sucked... BUT I also knew the new coach and GM were making HUGE changes and because of that I found those close games to be encouraging..


but the team had to take that next step, and start beating teams in those close games instead of coming up short... so as your post points out this team is obviously making that transition.. this team is heading in the right direction

Add in the fact that N.E. is in the same division as the Bills. Everyone knows it is tougher to beat a GOOD team within your division than a GOOD team out of your division.

[justasportsfan]

The two thngs that stuck out for me are


1) Past coaches havent been able to play chess with BB. CHAN CAN

2) Past bills qb's havent been able to figure out BB when he tries to play with their head. Most of the time the PAts D dictates to our qb. This time, Fitz dictated what he wanted to do and confused the Pats D.

[Oaf]

What I'm most scared about is really being 1-2 injuries away from big trouble.

[zone]

The two thngs that stuck out for me are


1) Past coaches havent been able to play chess with BB. CHAN CAN

2) Past bills qb's havent been able to figure out BB when he tries to play with their head. Most of the time the PAts D dictates to our qb. This time, Fitz dictated what he wanted to do and confused the Pats D.
This is without a doubt the biggest difference, we have a coach who can out coach the other team.

[TigerJ]

Great thread! It's true that one win over an elite team doesn't necessarily prove a whole lot, but at the same time if you're going to change the culture of losing and begin to instill a tradition of winning, you have to start somewhere. The old saying goes, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. I like Justa's point too, that Chan Gailey is one of only a few cooaches who has proven he can out strategize Bill Belichick, as least on some occasions.

[acehole]

Dont forget run Defense.

Weapons.

and luck.


The two thngs that stuck out for me are


1) Past coaches havent been able to play chess with BB. CHAN CAN

2) Past bills qb's havent been able to figure out BB when he tries to play with their head. Most of the time the PAts D dictates to our qb. This time, Fitz dictated what he wanted to do and confused the Pats D.