SageAgainstTheMachine

This game isn't a must-win, but if we lose it makes the next three games must-wins. I'm sure glad it's a home game.

Gah. Thanks for stressing me out!

No way. If they lose this week, they already have 4 losses and 5 very difficult matchups to go. I agree that they're a good team, but they've by no means separated themselves from the WC pack.

I think they'll whip the Dolphins again. They're looking like an above average team recently, but Ryan Tannehill has nightmares about our D-Line. The Chiefs game I am less optimistic about, because... 1) Their defense is as stifling as ours. 2) Alex Smith probably won't help us out with big mistakes like our last two opponents. 3) They have the best offensive player on the field. That said, we're at home off of a bye and the Ralph will be rocking. All combined, it feels like a coin flip game.

I was hardly mocking Benjamin by comparing him to Vincent Jackson. Vincent Jackson has had a great career...just short of elite. Like Jackson, Benjamin doesn't tend to get very open or separate from CBs, but he has the rare ability to dominate even when covered. That said, I'd rather have a guy with the freakish ability to get open in any situation. Too bad Chris Hogan had the nickname 7/11 taken.

Benjamin's upside is Vincent Jackson. Sammy's is Larry Fitzgerald or higher. I think all 32 teams would take Sammy over Benjamin.

"Playing not to lose" is such a fricking bad cliche, because it doesn't even mean anything. It means the exact same thing as "Playing to win". It's infuriating! If you mean playing more conservatively with a lead, then just say so. But you don't want to say that because that would highlight how logical it is to do so.

Sammy is already worth every bit of the 1st rounder we gave up for him. Not only does he have an elite future, but he's directly won us two games. No way do we beat Detroit or Minnesota with a lesser receiver. The best part? He's actually devaluing that draft pick week by week. There's not a chance in hell that Cleveland makes the same trade in retrospect. In fact, Sammy would probably go first overall in the case of a re-draft. As far as Whaley's moves go, this is second only to Hughes for Sheppard. Well done, Doug.

This is especially good satire because back in 2012 there was an anti-Mario thread every week that he didn't record a sack.

I'm doing a pretty good job.

Hell no. I want the division. Besides, how many times has that "nothing to play for" business ever helped us?

This is definitely a factor that worries me. I know that "experts" try to use bogus statistics to correlate a points surplus with winning, but the Bills have a long tradition of being out-scored. We gotta stick with what we do.

A loss this week means a decent 4-4 record and a hideous 1-4 record in the conference and 1-2 in the division. In other words, dead in the water as far as tiebreakers are concerned. It would basically eliminate the possibility of making the playoffs at 9-7, forcing us to finish the season 6-2 with games against the Pats, Packers and Broncos ahead. So...yeah. Things look pretty bleak if we lose this one. As soon as the Pats beat us, I knew that beating the Vikes and Jets had to be a package deal. We passed the first test by the skin of our teeth. I wanna watch them annihilate the Jets.

Similar to the phrase "flied out" in baseball.

Yeah, I'm inclined to think Geno's ceiling is higher than EJ's. The bigger reason, though, is that the Bills planned their backup QB situation a lot better than the Jets. Pundits laughed when the Bills brought in Orton for $5 million, but the Jets have the decaying corpse of Michael Vick for the same amount. In his one appearance this year, Vick netted 47 yards on 19 attempts and 2 interceptions.

You're doing mental gymnastics on number 5. Kyle Orton, while troublesome in certain aspects, is a demonstrably better quarterback than Geno Smith. Dude's got 19 TDs and 28 INTs in 23 starts. That's like...well, it's hard to even compare to other QBs because most guys wouldn't make it to start #24 with those numbers.

A couple years ago, plenty of posters on this board were actively dismissing the Guard position. Crickets now.

Orton is Fitz with significantly less mobility, but significantly more arm strength. And I don't say that to diminish Orton, because I think our defense is good enough that they would've coasted into the playoffs with Fitz at the helm this year, and maybe even last. I just see a lot of the same tendencies: Charismatic leader, accuracy issues, tendency to unwisely try fitting the ball into very small areas.

That actually makes more sense to me. Given that injuries are so generally common, it's unwise to make any risk when the return is only marginal. If Sammy had Devin Hester's return skills, it would be a different story. I think McKelvin and Bryce Brown are good options. We all have nightmares of that Pats game from 2010, but McKelvin is a good returner.

Never understood this logic, as common as it is. Sammy is our best weapon with the ball, so we better not give him more chances with the ball because he could get hurt? Players get hurt on all kinds of plays.

The limiting factor to any RB for the Bills this year is the disastrous play of the interior line. I'm going to predict that Boobie Dixon's stats will probably look better than Brown's because Dixon won't take as many negative or 1-yard plays.

I suspect that Sammy might deserve recognition in a few more weeks, but his season thus far doesn't objectively belong in any top-8 WRs discussion. Antonio Brown Dez Bryant Jordy Nelson Randall Cobb T.Y. Hilton Demaryius Thomas Golden Tate Steve Smith Sammy's somewhere around 15th for me.

Each year, there are a small handful of obvious contenders and obvious losers. The other ~20 teams are vaguely sorted through the pitfalls of a highly variant, tiny sample size 16 game season. In the past, the Bills have shown a penchant for making the wrong play at the wrong time - this year's been a little different. Who would've believed that a circus catch by Chris Hogan would be the most important play for an above .500 Bills squad?

Well, now I know we have no chance.

I still feel as though I've seen much uglier wins, especially during the Jauron era. Games where you were tempted to turn off the TV despite the score being close because the quality of play was just that bad. Games during which not a single player stood out. In this game, there were no fewer than a dozen truly impressive plays by the Bills, many of which were during the winning drive. Watkins, Dareus and Hughes played like All Pros. McKelvin, Hogan and Chandler had highlight reel moments. However, mistakes occurred often. It was nearly a frustrating loss, but not a bad win.