How Did The Buffalo Bills Blow It...again?

[bap1331]

They were 5-0! What happened? They are not a very good team down the stretch...

[21isSuperman]

Fitzpatrick, who I thought would be a solid NFL starter (and so did the Bills, judging by the contract they gave him), has made lots of mistakes. The loss of Fred Jackson for a few games really hurt them too

[Girlzarefanstoo]

I don't know but I certainly hope they can pull things together to beat Denver for us, LOL!

[P-Money]

I don't know but I certainly hope they can pull things together to beat Denver for us, LOL!

No offense. But it doesn't matter who wins your division. They aren't going very far in the playoffs.

[GoColts8818]

Jackson got hurt and teams figured out Fitzpatrick and the Bills remembered they are well the Bills.

[Andy]

What everyone seems to forget that Fred Jackson got injured in the middle of their skid/losing streak. His injury didn't cause it, but it definitely didn't help them winning. Their D has been the problem. Fitzpatrick is making mistakes, but that offense is still putting up points. The D has been horrible vs the run and has been bad in the passing game. They can't stop anyone.

[GoPats]

Anytime there's turnover at the coaching position, that team is going to be a little bit of an unknown until they play a few games. My guess is simply that it took a few weeks' worth of film for opposing teams to come up with better schemes and game-plans to stop their offense. It reflects pretty clearly in Fitzpatrick's numbers. I'm also guessing the Bills were a little premature in offering him that huge contract.

[Girlzarefanstoo]

No offense. But it doesn't matter who wins your division. They aren't going very far in the playoffs.

No offense taken... but then... we'll go farther than the Colts will ;-) AND IF we can pull it off we're almost totally healthy. We were the 4th worst injured team during our 6 game skid. We were injured worse than the Colts. We could be dangerous IFwe can get there.

[ReMeDy]

No offense taken... but then... we'll go farther than the Colts will ;-) AND IF we can pull it off we're almost totally healthy. We were the 4th worst injured team during our 6 game skid. We were injured worse than the Colts. We could be dangerous IFwe can get there.

Yea, but a team that doesn't make the playoffs is no better than us. In fact, the joke's on you, because at least we're walking away from the season with a 1st overall pick.

[Go Blue Horseshoe]

I thought Buffalo was going to have an awesome season this year. Boy, did they drop off badly. Got off to a great start, but quickly fell apart. Kind of sad, actually. This team has struggled for so long, it was kind of nice to see them winning. That's the way it goes I gues...

[GoPats]

I guess I'm old enough to remember when Buffalo kicked everyone's behinds for five or six years... except, you know, the Giants, the Cowboys, and the Redskins.

They had four straight chances to take home the prize. It's not their turn again yet.

[WSO]

No offense taken... but then... we'll go farther than the Colts will ;-) AND IF we can pull it off we're almost totally healthy. We were the 4th worst injured team during our 6 game skid. We were injured worse than the Colts. We could be dangerous IFwe can get there.

Dangerous?

[buffalo34]

I would say injuries are one of the top reasons. Freddy going to IR, Wood, our C, going to IR (heck, in the first Miami game we had no clear C and it showed with a legion of bad snaps), Kyle Williams, one of our DTs, went on IR, making our defense from bad to worse. And my favorite Bill, yes, the kicker, Rian Lindell, is on IR too! For crying out loud our new kicker is horribly inaccurate on kickoffs, missed a 26 yard FG right before the half (which helped take any momentum away), and booted a squib kick badly against the Jets after Stevie's shot-in-the-foot celebration TD.

In 2008, something similar happened. But this was more of having to face real teams after coming out of the game knocking off the ferocious Seahawks, Rams, Jaguars, and Raiders. I really don't think that was the case this year. Our wins at the beginning of the season came against much better competition. The Raiders, who are still fighting for an AFC West spot. The vaunted Patriots, who we ended the streak after a long painful period. The Eagles, who have boatloats more talent than the Bills do but are just an incredibly undisciplined team with it seems like no chemistry.

Also, our defense was piling up the turnovers in the beginning of the season. Not so anymore. That caught up with us big time. And we're being indecently exposed for that. Our defense is just flat out awful.

IMO, the season ended with Stevie dropped that great pass in Fitz in stride against the Jets at the end of the game. If he catches that pass and goes in for a TD, our season is resurrected, the Jets are most likely not heard of again for the rest of the season, and the Bills' season is kickstarted again. Football for the Bills for the first time in quite a while becomes meaningful in December. But, that didn't happen, and that was probably the worst thing about losing that second Jets game - having to cope with that the games from there on out would be absolutely meaningless.

So there you have someone's two cents from the belly of the beast...