Very Positive Thread Starter!

[Judge]

Look at the bright side:

The Bills played a very poor first half on essentially both sides of the ball- the D was dominated by the Texans' offense, and the offense could get nothing going until their now-routine 2-minute drill for a TD.

They played their worst game of the year.

And they WON!

There's no such thing as a bad win on the road. Even against an expansion team- the stadium looked like it was rocking, and a lesser team (such as last year's Bills) could not have mounted any type of comeback in those hostile conditions. And don't sell this Houston team short- they battled the Eagles for a while too, and Philly's thought of as an NFC contender by most.

They played poorly, yet collected themselves and bounced back to outscore the Texans 28-7 over the last 2 1/2 quarters of the game, and counterpunched after the disastrous Henry fumble with solid drives including contributions from all key players- including Henry.

They established their running game, kept the passing game humming along with a good effort by our fearless general, Drew, took over defensively in the second half, and beat a lesser opponent.

Good teams win games like this. The great Bills teams from 1988-1996 won many, many road games in which the lesser team gave them a battle before the Bills took over.

This is a strong positive for this team- a strong building block in this quickly brightening season of opportunity.

[BillsNYC]

JUDGE = WYS ALTER EGO

[Dozerdog]

Hell, I'll even rate the thread... give ya zonebucks!

[WG]

Look at the flip side, we played our best game of the year probably v. Denver and lost.

We played very well v. Minnesota and barely won. Same w/ Chicago.

How will this translate to wins v. the best teams in the league over the next 10 games?

Also, how are we gonna stop Ricky Williams from having 200 yards rushing on Sunday? Assuming he has 150+, how are we gonna win when you add in the strenght of the Phin D?

Do you really believe, I mean really, that we can come close to shutting Williams down? Do you really think that their passing game will be stopped by us? And if not, then what makes you think that we're gonna put up more than the likely 30+, possibly well more, points that Miami's likely to score when we could only amass 31 v. the Texans, 31 v. the Jets, 27 in regulation v. Chicago?

I don't share this sense that b/c we played the Texans tight and came back in a game in which we should never have trailed, that we can now go and beat teams like Miami, N.E., G.B., K.C., and S.D. It defies reason and common sense.

[WG]

How many points will we score against Miami do you think?

I'd say we'll be lucky to hit 30. I'll say 23 +/- 4.

I don't see Miami having any trouble putting up 30 v. us. They'll be coming after Henry too and if he gives another one away, that will ink our defeat in that game.

Of course this is all moot if the D steps up...



If the D steps up!

[Drewpac]

"I don't share this sense that b/c we played the Texans tight and came back in a game in which we should never have trailed, that we can now go and beat teams like Miami, N.E., G.B., K.C., and S.D. It defies reason and common sense."


I don't think Judge is saying this at all. He's just saying that any road win is a good win. He said nothing of beating the teams that you listed. Also, I don't think that Miami's offense is any better than Denver's and we held them to 21 points. It's all based on how well we execute next Sunday. Though, I do believe we need to play a near perfect game to beat Miami, whereas they only probably need to play average to above-average to beat us.

[WG]

This win over the Texans didn't energize me. It was essentially the game that was gonna define our season to me.

We enter a streak of games now against teams (other than the Jets and Lions, that are currently 29-13. On an average day, we wouldn't win more than 1 of 10 games v. any one of those teams. Sure, we may luck out in one or two. Simple odds say we'll get an INT at some point.

Meanwhile, the Jets will be much better than the first time we played them and they beat us then at home. The teams we've played were collectively 13-18 and ALL the games have been tight except for last week's Raiders game. The Raiders BTW had the same easy schedule that we did up front w/ only one divisional game to date v. the weakest divisional opponent. They're gonna go 6-5 or 5-6 from here on out. Heck, the Rams showed that they really aren't as good as their record.

Anyway, the party's over. We are gonna have to kick it up two notches or lose most of our games from here on out. Things that need to happen:

Henry needs to show up in games other than v. the Bungals, Lions, and Jets.

Our D has to start playing D and not whatever it is they're doing out there.

Our STs and D absolutely need to start forcing some TOs.

And our rush defense needs to improve something fiercely or we'll give up 1,500 yards rushing to Smith twice, Williams twice, Martin, Green, Tomlinson, Holmes. It won't be pretty nor will it help us win games.

Now what are the chances, given that I think we all agree that a good chunk of this is the coaching, that 3 of those 4 things happen?

Pessimistic?

Or realistic?

I already know what your answer is, but why don't we wait a couple of games. As you know, if we go 2-1 over that stretch and have improved as we need to, you'll read it first written by me.

[Drewpac]

"It was essentially the game that was gonna define our season to me."

The Texans game (in only week 6 and which we won) is the game that defined our season for you? I think you stated the same thing after about every game so far. I know for a fact that you said that before the Raiders and Bronco games. I'm sure the Miami game will define the season for you once again next week.

I agree with you Wys, I believe we will struggle against alot of those teams. But did you really think that we were a playoff contender this year? We've already matched last year's win total in less than half of the games. I don't understand what your maniacal posts are aiming for. It's almost as if your begging for everyone to "come clean" and admit that we suck or something? Well, I don't think we suck but we are definitely not an elite team and I think almost everyone on this board would agree with me. I think the reason people have problems with your posts is that you seem to be trying to make it unenjoyable to be a Bills fan. I think the fans have a reason to be optimistic based on our record, yet you feel obligated to squash all optimism on this board. Why is this, Wys?

[Judge]

Originally posted by Drewpac
"It was essentially the game that was gonna define our season to me."

I think the reason people have problems with your posts is that you seem to be trying to make it unenjoyable to be a Bills fan. I think the fans have a reason to be optimistic based on our record, yet you feel obligated to squash all optimism on this board. Why is this, Wys?

Great post Drewpac- and a great Q for Wys to answer!

[Captain gameboy]

I can't believe that someone hasn't come up with the Texans second half offensive stats as a claim that maybe we're not as bad as we think. One score from a posession inside the 10, and a late game shot at the endzone. We smothered them in the second half. Simply put, after halftime, we could score at will and they couldn't move the ball. I'm not claiming this portends the playoffs, but it's the best second half adjustment we've made in the GW era, and this expansion team is nowhere near the bottom two of the league. This is a team with significant talent on both sides, with extreme emotion, coming off a bye and playing at home. It's the win that counts, not the lack of a blowout.

[justasportsfan]

In the first half we ran first and threw second. We didn't light up the scoredboard until we put the ball in Drews hands. If we run first ,we end up playing catch up since our D couldn't stop anyone.

I say we throw first and run second. When Drew finally started finding Moulds ,Price ,etc. it opened up the field and Henry was able to have longer runs.

[TigerJ]

I'm still operating under the assumption the Bills don't make the playoffs. The most important thing I see about the Bills this year is that we have 3 wins in 6 games. Last year we had 3 wins in 16 games. We are improving. I think we have a chance to beat Miami, particularly with Fiedler out, but if we don't my world has not ended.

[Andrea1234]

remember something guys we hate maimi and they hate us so we either go down there and play a good game or we lose the chance to be in the playoffs