Bills Dead or Alive????

[venis2k1]

Espn.com asks that question:

Buffalo Bills
Overall record: 6-6
Division situation: Miami and New England lead the AFC East at 7-5
Division record: 2-3
Wild card situation: Four teams are tied at 7-5
Conference record: 3-6

Remaining games: at New England, San Diego, at Green Bay, Cincinnati

Drew Bledsoe has helped keep the Bills in the postseason hunt.

Why the Bills are alive: Like the Jets, with whom they're tied, the Bills have a decent shot at winning the AFC East. Short of that, they're still in the wild card hunt.


With Drew Bledsoe at the helm, it's hard to count the Bills out of anything. After three consecutive losses, following three consecutive wins, no one was sure how the Bills would come out against the Dolphins this past week. Bledsoe came up big, throwing for 306 yards in blizzard-like conditions, giving Buffalo a much-needed adrenaline boost heading into this week's rematch with Tom Brady and the Patriots. A win at New England and the Bills are right there -- and wouldn't that be sweet for Bledsoe?


Why the Bills are dead: With those weak conference and division records, the Bills are going to have to win out, and the schedule is hardly conducive to going 4-0. Even if they manage to beat the Pats, they still have to handle the Chargers the next week, and the prospect of playing at Green Bay in late December is downright scary.


Besides, the Bills' defense really isn't ready for prime time -- the Bills are giving up 142 yards per game on the ground and 28 points.

What do you think???

i still say alive.:bduff:

[Judge]

Barely alive due to the tiebreak problems.

But still alive. If they beat New England, they get a major shot of adrenaline to boost their life vital signs. If they lose, they'll be all but flatlining.

[WG]

I think anyone who credits Bledsoe for keeping the Bills alive instead of Henry isn't watching the games or looking at the play-by-plays.

If Henry hadn't turned the performance that he had, there's no way that a bunch of passing yardage like that would have happened.

I also think that if Antowain Smith gets even half the yardage that Ricky got, that we're finished vs. N.E. as well. We can win that game, but we're gonna have to make the O focus around Henry to do it.

Lastly, any team allowing 142.6 YPG rushing isn't going anywhere. Our D simply isn't good enough to allow us to do any better than 2-2 v. the schedule we have. Actually, I don't think that even the Cincy game will be a gimme. I expect a game outta them and if they're all healthy, then it will be. They're perfectly used to playing in the cold/snow too.

[Gunzlingr]

I think we can win, and will win, but the going gets awful tough from here on out. Smith isnt rushing well this year, so that bodes well for us, especially if we can get some pressure on Marcia Brady.

[WG]

He had 111 vs. us and helped N.E. control the game. That was in Buffalo. This game has at least as much meaning to the Pats and they're home.

Besides, you're talking about a team that is 31st against the run, only ahead of Seattle who's given up like 30 more YPG.

Our pass D was OK v. Miami, but our rush D was the worst it's been this entire season. Again, I think they're passing woes had just as much to do w/ a Lucas that was clearly off. Maybe the stigma of the first game.

Here's an interesting tidbit; Clements caught more balls from Lucas/Fiedler in the two games than any single WR on the Fins. Only McMichael (TE) and Williams (RB) had more.

[WCoastFin]

If they lose to the Patriots they will be practically dead...they would be 2 games behind first place with 3 left to play and no chance of getting a tiebraker for the division against the Patriots.....The Playoffs for the bills started last week and managed to survive...the question is, how long?

[venis2k1]

If the bills get knocked out, i will be rooting for the Fins just not to make it, because this was supposed to be "their year".

p.s. if the playoffs started today this is what it would look like:


1.Indianapolis
2.San Diego
3.Pittsburgh
4.Miami
--------------------------
5.Oakland
6.Tennessee
Denver
New England
Baltimore
Kansas City
Cleveland
N.Y. Jets
Buffalo

Indy is the #1 seed? Whooda Thunk It?
Denver Misses the Playoffs, Tough Break
Miami will lose in Pittsburg
I say Oakland or San Diego are AFC champs.

Granted ALOT can change in 4 games.

[RedEyE]

Crushing the Pats on their turf would prove positive for the Bills. It may propel both teams in a different direction. As of right now the Bills have one leg out of the playoff race, but a win (and a little help) gets them dancing the playoff jig once again. The AFC East division title won't be known until week 17.

[shelby]

Originally posted by Wys Guy
I think anyone who credits Bledsoe for keeping the Bills alive instead of Henry isn't watching the games or looking at the play-by-plays.



:rofl: Wys...you have been baptized into the church of Travis!!!
:biggrin:

We are hanging by the skin of our teeth. i want to be optomistic, but the way we have performed this season makes me hesitant. i believe we can get AT LEAST one more win over Cinci. Beating the Patsies and GB will be a huge challenge. San Diego could go either way, imo.

i hope Gilbride will commit to the run so that we can have a great end of the season run.

:gobills:

[WG]

Good point. Actually, I think we're a 9-7/10-6 team right now on the merits of purely offense. What's been holdin' us back is Gilbride. IMO he's almost entirely at fault for insisting on throwing the ball in 6 games virtually exclusively. I think we could have won 2 of those and been 8-4 right now.

As to the current playoff arrangement above, it's a tad bit misleading w/ Miami in and N.E. out. Sure, Miami owns the tiebreaker over N.E., but they also have the tougher schedule and yet need to play a rematch in N.E. N.E. is 2-1 division while Miami is 2-3. It's gonna take Miami to beat N.E. in Foxborough if they are to win the division this season. I really think it's gonna come down to that week 17 game there.

[SABURZFAN]

we're still alive until we get mathematically eliminated.that's why they play the games.

[Judge]

Originally posted by Wys Guy
Good point. Actually, I think we're a 9-7/10-6 team right now on the merits of purely offense. What's been holdin' us back is Gilbride. IMO he's almost entirely at fault for insisting on throwing the ball in 6 games virtually exclusively. I think we could have won 2 of those and been 8-4 right now.

As to the current playoff arrangement above, it's a tad bit misleading w/ Miami in and N.E. out. Sure, Miami owns the tiebreaker over N.E., but they also have the tougher schedule and yet need to play a rematch in N.E. N.E. is 2-1 division while Miami is 2-3. It's gonna take Miami to beat N.E. in Foxborough if they are to win the division this season. I really think it's gonna come down to that week 17 game there.

Ridiculous- what's truly holding us back is the defense. If the defense does anything at all to help the Bills win. When the defense has done nothing and forced the Bills offense to play a perfect game to win, we've won a couple and lost a bunch. Period.

The Miami wins? Big-time turnovers gave Bledsoe and co. a chance to do something- wins. Minnesota, for example? Bills offense had to tear up the place to squeak out a win. New England loss? The D laid an egg. Same with the Jets game a couple of weeks ago.

To blame Gilbride is really asinine.

[Bert102176]

Alive it's(were) Alive

[Ebenezer]

alive until sunday...then a loss and we are out...a win and we will still be alive.

[venis2k1]

Man, i was just thinkin it would suck to lost to the Bungles, and have that be the game that knocked us out of the playoffs.

[WG]

Didn't say that defense was good there Judge.

Keep your pants on! :D

Only an ignoramous would suggest that our defense doesn't have multiple issues. My point, which as usual you seem to have failed to grasp, is that on the merits of offense alone I see us having won at least two other games had we not relied almost exclusively on Bledsoe and the passing game. Blame that on whomever you wish. It is also just as silly to suggest that Gilbride had absolutely nothing to do with that and in the other 5 or 6 games where that was also the case.

[Novacane]

Originally posted by venis2k1
If the bills get knocked out, i will be rooting for the Fins just not to make it, because this was supposed to be "their year".



Is'nt it supposed to
Be Miami's year every year! Than they just let WCF and his buds down hard every Dec/Jan

:lolcry:

[casdhf]

So wait, Wys loves Henry now?

[Voltron]

Originally posted by shelby


:rofl: Wys...you have been baptized into the church of Travis!!!
:biggrin:

We are hanging by the skin of our teeth. i want to be optomistic, but the way we have performed this season makes me hesitant. i believe we can get AT LEAST one more win over Cinci. Beating the Patsies and GB will be a huge challenge. San Diego could go either way, imo.

i hope Gilbride will commit to the run so that we can have a great end of the season run.

:gobills:


Has someone taken over Wys and started writing nice things about Travis? :confused: :scratch:

I am with ya Shelby. I want to be optimistic but every time I do I feel like I am Jinxing the team and I don't want that on my conscience :ontome:

I highly doubt our D has what it takes to stop Green Bay in Lambau field. So I am all but counting that a loss. The SD game I am not sure but they way LD has been running this year It will be hard to beat them but they are beatable by this Buffalo team IF the offense from the Miami game shows up.

This Pats game is HUGE! (my best Billy Fucillo impression) If they lose this I will start threads about what draft picks and FAs we can pick up for next year.

[Earthquake Enyart]

Originally posted by casdhf
So wait, Wys loves Henry now?

I was wondering when someone was going to get around to that. :eek:

[Halbert]

Dead.

The only way we reasonable assure ourselves a spot is by winning out. Otherwise we have to win the division but to do that we have to finish ahead of NE and the Jets and tied with Miami.

That means:

1. We have to win 1 more than the Jets.
2. We have to win 1 more than the Fish.
3. We have to win 2 more than the Pats.

So even assuming we go 3-1 the rest of the division has to go:

2-2 Fish (Chi, Oak, @Min, @NE)
2-2 Jets (Den, @Chi, @NE, GB)
1-3 NE (Buf, @Ten, NYJ, Mia)

The likelihood of all that happening is very remote so realistically we have to win out.

It's fair, albeit dangerous, to count the Bengals as a win, but sweeping the other three appears very unlikely considering the pathetic run defense we have. Tomlinson and Green are monsters and Antowain usually tops 100 against us.

Anything can happen but the odds are extremely long. With such a poor defense our offense can't afford any mistakes at all and that's a very tough thing to do in December with everybody's playoffs on the line.

[Dr Phil]

Beat The Pats, Beat the chargers, and make another appointment with the receptionist outside and we'll talk.


Otherwise, it is just a delusion. Stupid Kick return vs the Jets and stupid blown opportunities vs the Chiefs. Two games we had in the bag

[BufBlue4ever60]

Depends on what happens this week. If we win at New England, then it will be a huge momentum boost heading into the Chargers game at the Ralph. I think that the Pats game could go either way, and the Chargers, even though they are my second favorite team, are very overrated, and have gotten very lucky. they should be 6-6. The Green Bay game will be a loss, though closer than you many think. The thing is, though, that we are in a relativly weak divison, and 9-7 could be enough.