I'm back to square one and don't think the Bills can make play-off

[ghz in pittsburgh]

Overall, I think everyone agrees that the Bills have played above their talent level first half the season. In a long season though, it cannot be sustained.

The main contribution of the"over-achieving" label is the performance of the defense. But we are seeing the erosion of the D steadily thus far. The newness is gone and teams are finding their ways against us.

Trading away Marcell may benefit the Bills long term. But I'm afrid that teams will be planning more like the Jets did to run on the Bills. Really who at the D tackle position that they need a double team to move? Oakland never had much running attack to began with. Along with the pass rushing issue, if this D cannot stop runs, overall it will be worse than last year.

On offense I actually see noticeable improvement from Tyrod on passing game. It is my belief that this team is slowly moving away from the "run, run , and more run" offense that we have seen for a few years now and getting into more of the mainstream NFL passing offense. Not everything is in place but I truly believing we'll see more fruits in that department. Still, I believe our offense will be below average to average at best the rest of the year.

Will that be enough for playoffs? Unless we are continuing to see turnovers like we used to see this year. But if teams are starting to run on you, those turnovers can go dry very quickly.

[Forward_Lateral]

Re: I'm back to square one and don't think the Bills can make play-off

Good for you.

[swiper]

Re: I'm back to square one and don't think the Bills can make play-off

It was fun while it lasted. But the true Bills are the team that lost to the Bengals and the Jets.

[OpIv37]

Re: I'm back to square one and don't think the Bills can make play-off

If we lose on Sunday, it makes playoffs all but impossible. Someone said they think a 9-7 team will make it in the AFC this year, but if we get to 9-7, it means we will have 5-6 AFC losses so I don't see us winning a tiebreaker. So, I'm proceeding under the assumption that we need 10 wins to get in.

If we lose to the Saints, that means we will have to find at least five wins out of Pats 2x, Fish 2x LAC on the road, KC on the road and Indy. I just don't see that happening. If we beat the Saints, that means we will only need 4 wins out of that group. Assuming we can win the games where we will be favored (Fish 2x, Indy), that means we will just need one upset out of the Pats 2x, the Chiefs and Chargers. No easy task but much easier than if we lose on Sunday.

Losing against the Jets really screwed us.

[sukie]

Re: I'm back to square one and don't think the Bills can make play-off

It will be fun to watch Kelvin Benjamin in a Bills uni.

[Forward_Lateral]

Re: I'm back to square one and don't think the Bills can make play-off

If we lose on Sunday, it makes playoffs all but impossible. Someone said they think a 9-7 team will make it in the AFC this year, but if we get to 9-7, it means we will have 5-6 AFC losses so I don't see us winning a tiebreaker. So, I'm proceeding under the assumption that we need 10 wins to get in.

If we lose to the Saints, that means we will have to find at least five wins out of Pats 2x, Fish 2x LAC on the road, KC on the road and Indy. I just don't see that happening. If we beat the Saints, that means we will only need 4 wins out of that group. Assuming we can win the games where we will be favored (Fish 2x, Indy), that means we will just need one upset out of the Pats 2x, the Chiefs and Chargers. No easy task but much easier than if we lose on Sunday.

Losing against the Jets really screwed us.

Normally I'd agree, but this season is so muddled. I could see 8 wins having a shot honestly. Outside of the Steelers, Pats and Chiefs, the rest of the conference is basically a bunch of ok teams.

[Ed]

Re: I'm back to square one and don't think the Bills can make play-off

Normally I'd agree, but this season is so muddled. I could see 8 wins having a shot honestly. Outside of the Steelers, Pats and Chiefs, the rest of the conference is basically a bunch of ok teams.

Yeah. I think people are underestimating the weakness of the AFC right now. Assuming the Dolphins lose at Carolina next Monday night (they're 9 point underdogs), the Bills could lose to the Saints and would still hold a playoff spot. They'd still be only 1 of 6 teams in the AFC with a winning record.

[Skooby]

Re: I'm back to square one and don't think the Bills can make play-off

The Bills have this rare event where they control their destiny now, still one game to be played this week & played hard at home. We can go from there.

[Mahdi]

Re: I'm back to square one and don't think the Bills can make play-off

Losing to the Jets has obviously put a bad taste in everyone's mouth however it was just bad timing for the Bills to be playing on a Thursday and on the road.

We had a tired, banged up veteran team. The Jets DL is young and very strong and that was the main difference between the teams.

On the other side of the ball our best interior lineman is 35 years old playing on a short week and they were running hard up the middle for big yards.

This game was never going to favor the Bills.

[Chet]

Re: I'm back to square one and don't think the Bills can make play-off

Losing to the Jets has obviously put a bad taste in everyone's mouth however it was just bad timing for the Bills to be playing on a Thursday and on the road.

We had a tired, banged up veteran team. The Jets DL is young and very strong and that was the main difference between the teams.

On the other side of the ball our best interior lineman is 35 years old playing on a short week and they were running hard up the middle for big yards.

This game was never going to favor the Bills.

Huh? From a historical perspective their imploding right on schedule.

[Skooby]

Re: I'm back to square one and don't think the Bills can make play-off

Jets played harder than they have all season, everything they did went right and we turned the ball over multiple times. That’s why we lost, the short week didn’t translate well for us & helped the Jets. Check the records, the Jets shouldn’t of won by 14 points. No one picked them, so it’s an anomaly based on scheduling.

[Homegrown]

Re: I'm back to square one and don't think the Bills can make play-off

Jets played harder than they have all season, everything they did went right and we turned the ball over multiple times. That’s why we lost, the short week didn’t translate well for us & helped the Jets. Check the records, the Jets shouldn’t of won by 14 points. No one picked them, so it’s an anomaly based on scheduling.

Slice & dice it anyway you want ....the Bills got taken to the woodshed - no excuses.

The New Orleans game is going to be ugly .... 7 & 9 baby - Commitment to Mediocrity

[sukie]

Re: I'm back to square one and don't think the Bills can make play-off

Jets played harder than they have all season, everything they did went right and we turned the ball over multiple times. That’s why we lost, the short week didn’t translate well for us & helped the Jets. Check the records, the Jets shouldn’t of won by 14 points. No one picked them, so it’s an anomaly based on scheduling.

Anomalies work both ways. The Bills by record weren't as good as everyone thought either. The Atlanta win was big but made smaller after Atlanta was exposed as much softer than everyone thought. The Raiders are a world of meh which surprised alot of people as well. Denver is way up and down.

So saying the Jets were an anomaly... perhaps they were an anomaly coming in.

- - - Updated - - -

[sukie]

Re: I'm back to square one and don't think the Bills can make play-off

Slice & dice it anyway you want ....the Bills got taken to the woodshed - no excuses.

The New Orleans game is going to be ugly .... 7 & 9 baby - Commitment to Mediocrity

Still a successful season considering no one legitimately had this team at 7-9 week 1

[psubills62]

Re: I'm back to square one and don't think the Bills can make play-off

I'm certainly not back to square one, but this loss makes it tougher to see playoffs. A lot of teams have a rough loss. And I've always said that weird stuff happens on short weeks.

I get that Bills fans look for reasons to start doubting, but I think this coaching staff has proven themselves so far in the limited sample of data. This roster is a 2-win roster and they've already well outplayed that. Let's see what happens in the second half of the schedule.