ESPN Power Rankings

[LtBillsFan66]

I would put KC ahead of us - for obvious reasons. I agree 100%. We are a middle of the pack team. Not ranked 23 like wys ranked us.

http://football.espn.go.com/nfl/powerranking

[WG]

LOL

One win and everyone's goin' bananas again as if we didn't just lose 4 or our last 5.

Don't get me wrong there BFO, but unless Gilbride gives up on his Pass-first approach, especially against N.E., you can look for us to lose 3 of our next 4 too placing us right at about 20-25.

Let's face it, if the weather hadn't acted up and Lucas shat the bed, it would have been a game. Also, Drew got lucky several times by having the Fin D drop easy INTs too. 3 times by my count. Twice right in the hands/chest of the defenders. Horrible throws.

On the flip side, if we run Henry first each week our chances for winning go up dramatically. Poo poo G.B. as overrated, but they're still yards ahead of where we are and we play them on the road. S.D. at home will be tough enough for us. I wouldn't expect too many teams to plays us completely minus a passing game as the Fins did on Sunday.

As to the Pats game on Sunday, I would suggest that GW simply proving that that he can coach in this league would be nice given our first game rout. Nevertheless, if Bledsoe has to throw the ball more than 60% of the time, then we're finished before it began. Henry needs to repeat his performance of Sunday in order for us to have a shot at beating the Pats. They're better than we are.

I still say the Chiefs are better than we are and I don't see how they are lower since they beat us and since they just beat up on a team in a performance that we can only dream about. I'd also put the Rams and several other teams near or ahead of us.

You said that as if we have any semblance of a defense. Oh wait, those 270 yards of rushing are ringing in my ears...! :rolleyes:

I sure hope that improves or we will be worse than 23rd by year's end. If we run Henry as we should, then we're 20th or so and right where we should be. Besides, those power polls are so fickle it's ridiculous.

Besides, I'll wager you some zonebucks that we're closer to 23rd at the end of the season than we are to 16??

[WG]

Oh wait, I forgot, we can still make the playoffs if...

:blah:

[TacklingDummy]

WYS you put to much blame on the offense. Offense is not the Bills problem. Its stopping the other teams offense that is the problem.

Look what the Bills offense can do when the Defense gets a turnover or 2.

[WG]

I fully agree although our offense had been the problem over the last 4 weeks or so as well. I still don't know what that has to do w/ power rankings. When putting together rankings you need to consider aspects of a team's play. Our strength has been rushing and we simply haven't capitalized on it as much as we could have this season. I honestly believe that if we had run Henry from the beginning instead of trying to put Drew in the record books, that we'd be 8-4 right now and legitimately in the hunt for the playoffs. Price and Moulds may not have had all the yards that they now have, but I'd bet ya they'd have more TDs.

Nonetheless, I see us around the 20-25 area w/ only one dimension on offense and an underused rushing game. If that changes, we can have the O that everyone hoped we'd have and therefore maybe be around 15th or so based on a "whole team" analysis. But our D does blow. We're allowing an average of over 140 rushing yards/game now. That's horrendous and quite frankly, any team that is that bad doesn't deserve to be in the top half no matter what anyway.
But I agree w/ ya. Case in point, as miserable and ultimately one-dimensional as the Fins were on Sunday, they still put up 21 points and got 270 yards rushing. That to me is abysmal!

[Novacane]

Middle of the pack is about right. I think we could beat any of those teams ranked under us.


Wys is right though when he saysBesides, those power polls are so fickle it's ridiculous. You could put the 5 teams that are 6-6 in any order and not get any arguement.

[Novacane]

Originally posted by Wys Guy



Besides, I'll wager you some zonebucks that we're closer to 23rd at the end of the season than we are to 16??


Just for fun I'll take you up on that bet. How many ZB's you want to wager?

[WG]

BTW, we'll see if that changes or if it was simply an adjustment due to the weather when we go to N.E. this Sunday. If Gilbride can't see past making this "Bledsoe-Brady" part deux, then Brady will win again and the Bills will lose. We can try to make Drew shine, or we can try to win the game.

I say the latter which means running Henry. If we lose, then passing more surely wouldn't have helped. They've already proven that. Let's try rushing now. Somehow w/ Gilbride at the helm, I ain't holdin' my breath.

[WG]

Originally posted by BledsoeTOreedfor6



Just for fun I'll take you up on that bet. How many ZB's you want to wager?

Doesn't matter to me. We both have a chunk. What do you think?

I will say this however, if Gilbride was for real and Henry averages 30 carries a game from here on out, I'd almost have to concede given that. Nonetheless, I don't expect that "Mr. Pass" is going to change his underwear for the remainder of this season. I fully expect him to ride this pair out come hell or high water. That's really what this wager is about. And if I'm right, then I fear for next season too.

Let me know.

[Novacane]

How about 500? The only reason I like that bet is because I think we can get to 8-8 (cinci and SanDeigo) and don't see the teams ESPN has ranked under us doing any better.

[TedMock]

There were three potential int's but one was off the fingertips and wasn't going to get caught by the defender regardless. That pass was actually dead on but the db made a nice play that just didn't pan out, but give Moulds credit. I actually don't mind a bad int if it means they take some chances downfield. I agree with Wys that Henry needs 25 carries for this offense to go but I also think that the receivers are good enough and Bledsoe's arm is strong enough to go downfield. That means taking chances and making the "hard" throw. Some will get picked off. I prefer to live and die by the sword but intelligently. I still think we go nowhere far without another big fatty in the middle of the D line. There are other holes but a huge DT would clean up so many messes on defense. It would keep lineman off of Fletcher and cause some middle pocket collapse which we lack big time. There are some decent ones in FA this year so we'll see what happens. I still say to draft several and the 2nd round is a good place for them but a quality veteran should be priority number one.

[WG]

I have no problem going long as long as it's not our meat & potatoes as Gilbride likes to make it.

On the "Moulds pass", he had to slow down and turn back to make the catch to have a shot at it. If it had been in stride he would have had a TD w/ 2 yards on either of those guys.

[WG]

Originally posted by BledsoeTOreedfor6
How about 500? The only reason I like that bet is because I think we can get to 8-8 (cinci and SanDeigo) and don't see the teams ESPN has ranked under us doing any better.

Sounds good then.

20+ and I win then. 19 or better and you win. We'll use the same ESPN power rankings after week 17.

Again, realize that this is more a vote of "no confidence" in Gilbride than as to where we can be. I think that we can be a very average team, meaning around 15 or so w/ better coaching. If our O was clicking, at least we'd be winning some more games based on offense. Scoring under 20 this season against all but the best defenses was unacceptable.

[lordofgun]

Give Bledsoe a break. It's not like there were perfect conditions and he made the perfect pass more often than not.

[WG]

No, obviously not. He did what he was called upon to do, but he's getting an awful lot of credit for playing beside himself when in fact it was only an average/solid outting and nothing spectacular. I'm simply countering all who say "he's the belle of the ball." He threw a good game mostly when the snow wasn't falling. He got some help from the Madison tip on that one play.

On the Price TD, I give Price more credit than I do Drew for that awesome juke move and for completely outrunning at least 3 Miami defenders for 62 yards after the catch. Drew had a good short game in support of the rushing game and I'd like to see more of that in the future. I'm tellin' ya, contrary to popular belief and what seems logical, Drew's TD production would go up w/ such an approach. He'd have nowhere near the yardage he's had thru the years, but who cares. Is it about winning games or racking up yards for Drew, Moulds, and Price.

I don't know who the MVP was, but it should be Henry in that game. Even the D only showed up again for just over a half.

BTW, the Pats are struggling about as bad as we were. I just ran the "last three games" matchup data for the preview. It'll be interesting to see if they can snap out of it this Sunday. The big difference between them and us is that their D has been bailing them out. We're not capable of that yet.

[LtBillsFan66]

Originally posted by TacklingDummy
Look what the Bills offense can do when the Defense gets a turnover or 2.

You hit the nail on the head right there!

[LtBillsFan66]

Originally posted by Wys Guy
LOL

One win and everyone's goin' bananas again as if we didn't just lose 4 or our last 5.


Bananas??? I'm a realist! Look at who's ranked below the
Bills on that list. You don't think we can beat all of them? I do!

[venis2k1]

I dont know BFO, the Bungles look pretty tough this year.

[Halbert]

Hey, I just remembered ...

I seem to recall a bottle-o-sauce wager way back in late August about Reed taking Peerless' starting job by midseason.