Bills 24 Packers 10

The Bills were able to keep any possible chance of a playoff berth alive yesterday with a HUGE win over the Packers. The Bills now stand at 3-5 and are 2 games back of the wild card. WIth the Colts on the horizon, the Bills have another chance to save their season against an elite team, a team that is the best in the NFL. This could be a huge let down game for the Colts who are coming off road wins verse the Broncos and Patriots. In fact, the Bills only chance may be if the Colts take this week completely off and do not even game plan at all. Unfortunately, Dungy can gameplan for the Bills offense starting at 12:45 on Sunday and be easily prepared and Manning just doesn't need to gameplan. Well lets just enjoy this win for now as Favre still has never won a ball game at the Ralph.

REACTIONS

1. First and foremost, the McGagee injury. Anyone who thinks Anthony Thomas is even close to as good of a back as Willis McGahee is needs to get their head checked as soon as possible. Yeah, Thomas is a good backup. He can step in and perform when given the opportunity, but he is NOT a franchise back. If he was, the Bears never would have gotten rid of him. As it turns out, McGahee suffered a rib injury and not a knee injury like I thought when they carted him off the field. In fact, seeing him get carted off was one of the worst feelings I ever have had as a Bills fan. He is our offense. Yeah, Thomas stepped in and was productive with 20 carries, 95 yards and 1 td, but he is no McGahee. Willis was on the sideline in street clothes at the end of the game smiling and laughing so hopefully he just bruised his ribs and get perform against Indy's atrocious run D.
2. The Bills offense was absolutely terrible. This performance proved a number of things. First of all, our offense depends on Willis McGahee...look at how they played for 3/4 of the game without him. 3 and out after 3 and out. Secondly, I AM SO SICK AND GOD DAMN TIRED OF PEOPLE BLAMING JP's SHORTCOMINGS ON THE PLAY OF THE OFFENSIVE LINE. Yeah, the Bills O-line isn't good but I don't care. A bad O line doesn't cause a servicible quarterback to completely not have a pulse for most of the game. Even his TD pass to Evans was severely underthrown and if Al Harris didn't completely blow the coverage that ball probably would have been picked off. JP does not make plays. He doesn't make plays with his arm, he doesn't make plays with his legs. If passing isn't successful, improvise and run a little bit. He needs to do something. That pass to Evans might have saved his job for another week and it wasn't even a good pass. Here are some numbers from the game yesterday: Losman was 8-15 with 102 yards and 1 td. He averaged 4.3 yards per pass. JP also lost 38 more yards because of sacks. The O line was bad but there were plays where he just held onto the football way too long. So that puts him at 64 yards passing. Excluding the pass to Evans, a pass that Chris Rix could have completed, Losman had a whopping 21 net yards passing. Its not like the Bills were playing the 85 Bears either. THE PACKERS HAD THE 32nd RANKED PASS D IN THE LEAGUE COMING INTO THE GAME. That is pathetic. I almost wish Al Harris wouldn't have blown the coverage so these numbers would be evident. The Bills have no threat of a passing game. JP is Todd Collins except shorter and he really needs to figure it out soon or it could be time for Nall. I hate to say this but sometimes you just need to face the facts. The positive: Losman had 0 turnovers.
3. The Bills bend but don't break defense did exactly that. I want to point out a couple of players/plays that really stood out to me. No surprise, London Fletcher is first. He had his best game as a Bill if you ask me. He was a ball hawk yesterday. Obvisouly the touchdown, but there were numerous other plays where he was around the football causing havoc and breaking up passes. He almost had another pick in the 4th quarter also. The Bills need more performances like this from London. Secondly, Nate Clements had his best game of his Bills career not against the Miami dolphins. Well maybe I shouldn't go that far, but he had a great game and it was his best since 2004. He didn't have any INTs but he made the play on the Simpson interception that iced it and he made a great defensive play on the deep ball to Driver I believe. The only beef I have is about Perry Fewell. Why is he having the Bills corners playing 10 yards off the ball on some plays. It is so easy for a good quarterback to pick that apart and well next week we play a good quarterback.

Well, the Bills got themselves back into the race momentarily at 3-5. The Bills need to pull a miracle next week against the Colts. I have some faith, not much, but some.

PS: To all you "diehard" Sabres fans who think the Sabres are the 2nd coming of the 96 Bulls, think about this. The Sabres have only won 7 of 14 games this season in the regular season. That is 50 percent for all you non math people. The Sabres record is skewed because of the shootout and there is no denying that. Miller is the best shootout goalie in the NHL and the Sabres have some of the most talented shootout shooters. Just remember, being a great shootout team doesn't win you playoff series. I would rather be 10-4 right now with 10 wins in regulation and only 20 points compared to the sabre 12-1-1 with 4 of their wins by shootout and another in 4 on 4 overtime (again, there is no 4 on 4 overtime come April). Anyways, go Bills/Sabres...we need Afineganov back asap.