I'm Not Complaining -- I Never Expected the Bills to be 2-1

[SpikedLemonade]

Whine if you want to but everyone would have been happy if the Bills were 2-1 after that dreadful pre-season.

We won an OT game to begin the season that could have gone either way.

We dominated the Dolphins in our Home Opener.

We were just not good enough today to beat a very good Chargers team.

Next game is on the road against a Texans team that also came down to Earth today when their all important RB could not play.

We may win that game next week.

We may not.

As long as we are better than 4-4 by the Bye Week. we have surpassed expectations.

Look ahead to the last 4 games of the season. Not to break your heart but there has always been 4 losses there waiting for us.

We are doing very well so far this year.

[Mace]

Whine if you want to but everyone would have been happy if the Bills were 2-1 after that dreadful pre-season.

We won an OT game to begin the season that could have gone either way.

We dominated the Dolphins in our Home Opener.

We were just not good enough today to beat a very good Chargers team.

Next game is on the road against a Texans team that also came down to Earth today when their all important RB could not play.

We may win that game next week.

We may not.

As long as we are better than 4-4 by the Bye Week. we have surpassed expectations.

Look ahead to the last 4 games of the season. Not to break your heart but there has always been 4 losses there waiting for us.

We are doing very well so far this year.

I find it funnier than anything that I think you're kidding, but aren't, but might be, if maybe not.

Don't have a clue, doesn't bother me in the least, good post either way and both.

[SpikedLemonade]

I find it funnier than anything that I think you're kidding, but aren't, but might be, if maybe not.

Don't have a clue, doesn't bother me in the least, good post either way and both.

No I am serious.

Did you expect the Bills to be 2-1?

[Novacane]

I'd of signed up for 2-1 a month ago so I can't *****. Don't see the last 4 as automatic losses. Denver and NE sure. They can beat Oakland even on the road. They can beat the Pack at home.

[Mace]

No I am serious.

Did you expect the Bills to be 2-1?

Honestly. I expected 0-3 here.

[SpikedLemonade]

I'd of signed up for 2-1 a month ago so I can't *****. Don't see the last 4 as automatic losses. Denver and NE sure. They can beat Oakland even on the road. They can beat the Pack at home.

The Pack look vulnerable. I see them improving more than we do before then.

The Raiders are a coin toss. Their D is not as bad as we thought they were. If they can establish a run game, they will beat us.

[Mr. Pink]

It's a good start to the season as a whole.

[pmoon6]

Whine if you want to but everyone would have been happy if the Bills were 2-1 after that dreadful pre-season.

We won an OT game to begin the season that could have gone either way.

We dominated the Dolphins in our Home Opener.

We were just not good enough today to beat a very good Chargers team.

Next game is on the road against a Texans team that also came down to Earth today when their all important RB could not play.

We may win that game next week.

We may not.

As long as we are better than 4-4 by the Bye Week. we have surpassed expectations.

Look ahead to the last 4 games of the season. Not to break your heart but there has always been 4 losses there waiting for us.

We are doing very well so far this year.OK, who are you and what have you done with the real SpikedLemonade.

[Generalissimus Gibby]

Whine if you want to but everyone would have been happy if the Bills were 2-1 after that dreadful pre-season.

We won an OT game to begin the season that could have gone either way.

We dominated the Dolphins in our Home Opener.

We were just not good enough today to beat a very good Chargers team.

Next game is on the road against a Texans team that also came down to Earth today when their all important RB could not play.

We may win that game next week.

We may not.

As long as we are better than 4-4 by the Bye Week. we have surpassed expectations.

Look ahead to the last 4 games of the season. Not to break your heart but there has always been 4 losses there waiting for us.

We are doing very well so far this year.

Honestly, I had this team going 5-11 this season and they already have two more wins than I thought they would have all season. The bad news is I expected them to lose to Houston, Detroit, New England, and Kansas City as well. I hope I'm wrong.

[Mace]

Honestly, I had this team going 5-11 this season and they already have two more wins than I thought they would have all season. The bad news is I expected them to lose to Houston, Detroit, New England, and Kansas City as well. I hope I'm wrong.

You lost me in there, you expected them to have 5 wins but they had 2 more than they'd have all season when they only have 2 ? Oh you're so hammered.

[ServoBillieves]

After the preseason, I didn't have any hope for this team. They hit 2-0 and my expectations shot through the roof. Today brought me back to reality, and there is great talent on this team. The problem here is we have a great team with a quarterback that's holding them back. The run game, defense and special teams will put notches in the W column, but our QB and secondary will inevitably keep numbers going in to the L's.

[Mace]

After the preseason, I didn't have any hope for this team. They hit 2-0 and my expectations shot through the roof. Today brought me back to reality, and there is great talent on this team. The problem here is we have a great team with a quarterback that's holding them back. The run game, defense and special teams will put notches in the W column, but our QB and secondary will inevitably keep numbers going in to the L's.

More though, I think we have a team with some good players and talent, coaches unsure of how to use them, and a couple critical flaws that will make contending for a Lombardi like trying to grasp the wind though we might get to 8-8 or 9-7 finally if not assertively.

[SpikedLemonade]

The good news is that the only dominating team thus far in the AFC is the Bengals.

Patriots have improved their D but their offensive line is a mess.

The Ravens are under performing.

Indy is not impressive.

The Broncos look beatable.

Crap! The Chargers look better than most of the above.

We can't lose to the Texans next week though.

The Lions, Browns and Raiders will be tougher than predicted.

[Mace]

The good news is that the only dominating team thus far in the AFC is the Bengals.

Patriots have improved their D but their offensive line is a mess.

The Ravens are under performing.

Indy is not impressive.

The Broncos look beatable.

Crap! The Chargers look better than most of the above.

We can't lose to the Texans next week though.

The Lions, Browns and Raiders will be tougher than predicted.

Hate to say it but I will. It always seems to be our chance to step up. That Pats game....

[The Jokeman]

Whine if you want to but everyone would have been happy if the Bills were 2-1 after that dreadful pre-season.

We won an OT game to begin the season that could have gone either way.

We dominated the Dolphins in our Home Opener.

We were just not good enough today to beat a very good Chargers team.

Next game is on the road against a Texans team that also came down to Earth today when their all important RB could not play.

We may win that game next week.

We may not.

As long as we are better than 4-4 by the Bye Week. we have surpassed expectations.

Look ahead to the last 4 games of the season. Not to break your heart but there has always been 4 losses there waiting for us.

We are doing very well so far this year.
We are doing well but we can not accept a loss next week in Houston. It's too costly as losses to the Texans are akin to losses to the Browns last year. If you want to be a playoff contender you have to win games you're supposed. I know everyone was riding high going into this weekend but as you said San Diego is a very good team.

[SpikedLemonade]

We are doing well but we can not accept a loss next week in Houston. It's too costly as losses to the Texans are akin to losses to the Browns last year. If you want to be a playoff contender you have to win games you're supposed. I know everyone was riding high going into this weekend but as you said San Diego is a very good team.

The Texans will be favoured against us next week.

[Historian]

True, 2-1 isa good position to be in.

The problem as I see it, is how they lost today.

They were never in this game.

They will be better next week, but this week reminded me of Pittsburgh and Tampa last year.

I hate laying an egg at home.

[The Jokeman]

True, 2-1 isa good position to be in.

The problem as I see it, is how they lost today.

They were never in this game.

They will be better next week, but this week reminded me of Pittsburgh and Tampa last year.

I hate laying an egg at home.

San Diego was a superior team, I wouldn't say we laid a complete egg. I mean if Spiller gets that 1st down late mid way through the 4th instead of losing 2 yards the game could easily swung more in our favor. Let's also not forget that following the Pitt Tampa games we had some good games against the Jets and Jags.

[The Jokeman]

The Texans will be favoured against us next week.

I don't look at the point spread when judging games. To me we're a better team than the Texans and we should beat them plain and simple.

[psubills62]

Yeah, not happy about today, but we were never going 16-0. Just need to pick it up and win upcoming games.

[RedEyE]

I think the Bills were beat by the better team today. My biggest issue is that GOOD football teams find ways to win at home. This game just didn't even start right. I'm left hoping it was just a bad day all around, but there are only 16 games in this league and you shouldn't have bad days at home. It was never even close.

[imbondz]

I'm not complaining yet, we're not a great team. We're a decent team, with a ton of potential. That's the frustrating thing, whether we ever reach our full potential, and I absolutely don't think we can with EJ.

[mercyrule]

I don't see EJ getting much better at passing.

The D was a disappointment yesterday.

[Fletch]

Whine if you want to but everyone would have been happy if the Bills were 2-1 after that dreadful pre-season.

We won an OT game to begin the season that could have gone either way.

We dominated the Dolphins in our Home Opener.

I'm not so sure that it has anything to do with whining.

Here's the difference, I think that everyone's happy that we started 2-0, but to me it still doesn't alter my expectation that this is still no better than a 6-10 team and I'm not even (still) expecting those 6 wins. I'm still thinking 4 or 5. So the order in which those wins comes doesn't mean much to me. When we win our 8th game then I'll start being optimistic.

We're obviously not playing well and relying on things to win games that just don't occur on a regular basis.

The big difference between myself along with a handful of others that seem to think similarly (and really we're all the same poster) and everyone else here, is that we're not shocked at these games that we lose that are winnable. Many of you seem surprised.

I still expect us to go 3-10 in our remaining games with a game leeway either way. Miami was likely the most winnable game on the schedule. We're not going to do well on the road and haven't over the last bunch of seasons. We also aren't going to win more than one more game, two if we're really lucky, like we did against Chicago.

On paper Cleveland may be the weakest team, but has anyone looked at how they're playing? Hawkins and Austin alone have more receiving yards and TDs than our entire roster of WR's. Their RB's have combined for 345 rushing yards and 5 TDs against some very formidable rushing defenses and seem to be Fred Jackson types, lesser known unproven at higher level RBs. Spiller and Jackson have combined for 266 yards and no TDs. Hoyer is playing much better than Manuel.

So I'm not sure where our wins are coming from at this point. I've still got us sweeping the Fins, but after that I'm stumped. We'll squeeze another couple out, but other than maybe Minnesota and Oakland the rest of our opponents are better than we are. I view Oakland about the same. We cannot assume that we're going to beat every team that's equal to or worse than we are, we didn't last season and never do.

The two biggest acquisitions we made this season were Watkins and Spikes. Whaley promised us that Watkins would make an "immedate impact," which he hasn't. Spikes isn't even coming close to making the kind of impact that a lot of people here insisted he would. The team doesn't even let him play on passing downs, at least they've figured out that he's worthless there. He's on the field for less than half the defensive snaps.

[Fletch]

The Pack look vulnerable. I see them improving more than we do before then.

The Raiders are a coin toss. Their D is not as bad as we thought they were. If they can establish a run game, they will beat us.

Game's in Oakland, never a good sign. On top of that we won only two road games last season against Jax and Miami.

[Fletch]

After the preseason, I didn't have any hope for this team. They hit 2-0 and my expectations shot through the roof. Today brought me back to reality, and there is great talent on this team. The problem here is we have a great team with a quarterback that's holding them back. The run game, defense and special teams will put notches in the W column, but our QB and secondary will inevitably keep numbers going in to the L's.

Where's the talent?

McKelvin sucks as a CB and has for years. Gilmore's not playing up to the expectations of him as a high draft pick. Graham's playing OK but we'll see inconsistency from him over the season.

Our linebackers aren't exactly an overly talented bunch. Good d-line, but still with limitations.

Offensively where's the talent? Spiller's nothing but a role player that can't be used on 3rd downs because he sucks on them. Jackson is the man but he's clearly not what he once was.

Watkins? Everyone blames Manuel, but where's this big shake and bake stuff that we've heard so much about? I'm not seeing it except last week against Miami. He's supposed to be able to catch a 4 yard pass and turn it into 10, 15, or 20 with ease.

What talent at TE do we have?

And Manuel, do we even need to go there.

Everyone talks about this being a talented team, and if you get on the field and compare them to yourself then sure, but against the rest of the league not so much.

[Fletch]

The good news is that the only dominating team thus far in the AFC is the Bengals.

Patriots have improved their D but their offensive line is a mess.

The Ravens are under performing.

Indy is not impressive.

The Broncos look beatable.

Crap! The Chargers look better than most of the above.

We can't lose to the Texans next week though.

The Lions, Browns and Raiders will be tougher than predicted.

The Broncos look beatable? To the Bills? lol What's in your coffee this morning? Manning is going to make quick work of our secondary, especially in Denver.

Belicheat has our number and won't be outcoached by Marrone. Brady shouldn't have too much difficulty with our secondary either. We've beaten the Pats once in the last 21 tries and it took nearly a 400 yard passing performance to do it. Anyone here confident that Manuel is capable of doing that against NE? If so I don't know why.

You're right about the Browns being a tougher game, the Raiders probably only because it's in Oakland where we historically don't play well. The Lions are just a better team and Stafford, Megatron, and Tate shouldn't have too much trouble against our secondary either.

So unless a team shows up with their QB playing like Cutler did in week one there's not a lot of hope to win those games. It may happen again, but we can't count on it as a rule.

[Fletch]

I don't look at the point spread when judging games. To me we're a better team than the Texans and we should beat them plain and simple.

Why do you think we're a better team?

Foster and Blue are playing much better than our RBs are. Foster has almost as many yards as Spiller and FJ combined and he didn't even play yesterday.

Andre Johnson and Hopkins are better than our entire corp of WRs are.

Manuel is not playing as well as Fitzpatrick did here or there.

Debatable on their D, but as long as Watt is on the field that's not good news for Manuel with the game being in Houston. I love Henderson but Watt up against Henderson so soon concerns me.

[Historian]

Looking at the rest of the schedule, I think we:

Split with the Jets
Beat the Vikes and Chiefs
Beat Texans and Browns.

The fish will be out for blood.
The Pack and Broncos could beat us with their second string.
We haven't won in Oakland since 1965.
Pats: Pencil in two losses.
Lose to Jets at home.
Lose to Lions on the road.


That puts us at 7-9...right where I figured we would be.

[Fletch]

Looking at the rest of the schedule, I think we:

Split with the Jets
Beat the Vikes and Chiefs
Beat Texans and Browns.

The fish will be out for blood.
The Pack and Broncos could beat us with their second string.
We haven't won in Oakland since 1965.
Pats: Pencil in two losses.
Lose to Jets at home.
Lose to Lions on the road.


That puts us at 7-9...right where I figured we would be.

You like us beating the Chiefs because it's in Buffalo?

I don't think we're a better team and Charles may be better by then. I also think that the Texans and Browns are going to have no trouble scoring against us. Cleveland is playing better ball right now despite being 1-2. I don't see us being able to contain Andre Johnson or Hopkins for Houston. Everyone's counting on Fitzpatrick to throw us a bunch of INTs but I think that the chances are greater that Manuel does. He's outlasting his luck right now.

I don't think we'll have any trouble with the Fins in Miami in November, they have so many injuries and Moreno's may not even be back. Even if he is their passing game isn't good.

I'm more concerned about the Jets but they haven't swept us in years. Smith is playing no worse than Manuel and the Jets RBs shredded us last season.

[SpikedLemonade]

The Broncos look beatable? To the Bills?

Not to the Bills.

[Fletch]

Not to the Bills.

Thanks

Thought you went to the doc for new painkillers or something.

[trapezeus]

Looking at the rest of the schedule, I think we:

Split with the Jets
Beat the Vikes and Chiefs
Beat Texans and Browns.

The fish will be out for blood.
The Pack and Broncos could beat us with their second string.
We haven't won in Oakland since 1965.
Pats: Pencil in two losses.
Lose to Jets at home.
Lose to Lions on the road.


That puts us at 7-9...right where I figured we would be.

i agree that losing at home is a huge problem because most of our road games seem like 4-4 in best case scenario. so if the purpose to this season is to make the playoffs, you have to be 6-2 or better at home. SD wasn't a pencilled in winner for buffalo, but with the start they had and SD travelling, you were hoping that they could have put up a W.

[IlluminatusUIUC]

You like us beating the Chiefs because it's in Buffalo?

I don't think we're a better team and Charles may be better by then.

There is no earthly reason for it, but the we have had the Chiefs number for years. When they win, it's a tight flukey mess, like last year where it took a defensive TD and a few years back when it took them 5 full quarters to score 13 points at home. OTOH when we beat them, it's a nightmare - even TRENT EDWARDS hung a 50burger on them.

[sukie]

i agree that losing at home is a huge problem because most of our road games seem like 4-4 in best case scenario. so if the purpose to this season is to make the playoffs, you have to be 6-2 or better at home. SD wasn't a pencilled in winner for buffalo, but with the start they had and SD travelling, you were hoping that they could have put up a W.
I would hope the purpose is to win in the playoffs.

[gebobs]

I'm hoping for 4-4 at the bye. It will make the road trip up (with a swing by Erie to see McDavid and the Sabs on Saturday) to see the Chiefs game more enjoyable.

[ublinkwescore]

this team was flat yesterday. we were capable of playing san diego soo much better. and yes, I was actually glad Gilmore was out for a bit...I want Gilmore gone. he's a damn liability. how did he ever get any hype his rookie season?

[feldspar]

The Texans will be favoured against us next week.

The Texans are currently favored by 3 points.

That's just because they have home-field advantage, which generally gives a team 3 points as they say. "They" are leading us to believe that these teams are exactly evenly matched, or something like that.

Personally, I like the Bills chances against the Texans.

[Fletch]

There is no earthly reason for it, but the we have had the Chiefs number for years. When they win, it's a tight flukey mess, like last year where it took a defensive TD and a few years back when it took them 5 full quarters to score 13 points at home. OTOH when we beat them, it's a nightmare - even TRENT EDWARDS hung a 50burger on them.

Well we lost last year and we had a buttload of rushing yards and 470 net to their 210, Spiller had 145 yards from scrimmage, Jackson another 99 and we still lost.

[Fletch]

The Texans are currently favored by 3 points.

That's just because they have home-field advantage, which generally gives a team 3 points as they say. "They" are leading us to believe that these teams are exactly evenly matched, or something like that.

Personally, I like the Bills chances against the Texans.

We'll see. Until proven differently this looks to be another quick start with two wins coming once against a terrible team and once under a handful of favorable circumstances that's about to turn into the usual 3-11 finish. We're not exactly beating teams the old fashioned way.

[trapezeus]

I would hope the purpose is to win in the playoffs.

it should be, but that's not what front office said, they said they simply wanted to make the playoffs. and based on the history of the team and their attempts to build up talent, making hte playoffs seems like the ceiling and anything else is gravy

[bleve]

winning is reflective of playing the best players at every position.


Raise your hand if you think EJ is the best QB AT THIS TIME to win.


I get he needs time to "develop". But don't sacrifice a season to watch this train wreck when we have a better option at the ready.