How far does Bills history go back to make it really matter?

[Kelly the Dog]

Bettors, for some unknown reason, use trends when placing their money down that are based on teams, players, coaches and front offices that have nothing to do with each other. Team X has not covered the home spread against Team Y in 11 years.

 

The Bills, as we all know, lost to the Patriots 15 times in a row. But how many of those games had any affect whatsoever on the players and coaches in this game? For the Bills, because since the beginning of last year, they have a new GM, new HC and DC, new offensive and defensive schemes, and mostly new players, probably not that much.

 

The reason the Patriots won 15 games in a row, and the reason the Bills haven't been in the playoffs in more than a decade has been a series of ill-fated teams, not one team.

 

Ralph is clearly a constant but he has no affect on the play of the team until he becomes a budinski and makes a player order, which isn't going to happen. Some front office people are a constant but again, once the players are here, their influence becomes non-existent.

 

This is clearly a different kind of team than previous ones. We are bigger, stronger, and smarter than previous incarnations. We are a team of leaders and over-achievers, not under-achievers. Nix and Gailey have brought in a certain kind of player, and got rid of most all of the players that don't really fit that model.

 

Not only that, but since Gailey is a different kind of coach than we've had, and for the first time in a decade is one that models his offensive to his talent and not vice versa. Even players that were Bills before he got here are seemingly different players since. Coaching is all about playing to strengths and masking weaknesses, and we are seeing that for the first time in ages.

 

So how much longer can we say, "Well, these are the Bills..." They do A] or B] or C]?

 

I don't think there is anything similar about this "Bills" team that cannot be attributed to coincidence.

 

The Patriots, for example, have evolved over the last decade into a different kind of team, but there have been a lot of constants, so a lot of what they do now is a logical progression. A lot of trends are trends for good reason because there are distinct connections. The same with the Saints, Chargers, Packers, Eagles, etc of the last 5-6 years.

 

But very little is the same about these Nix and Gailey Bills compared to earlier coaches and GMs and players. So something that happened even three years ago most likely has little to no connection to this team.

 

Maybe we shouldn't be expecting a letdown. And even if it does happen, which is surely possible, doesn't really mean it happened because "it's the Bills."

 

And perhaps the best thing about this is that if it's true, and this really is a new Bills team, it's very likely to continue. Because Nix and Gailey are building a team to last.

[LGB]

for many years there has been a cycle where if you do not produce in three years (hopefully improve to over .500), you were replaced by the next staff and so on...what has been different with CHIX is that we seem to actually have a well-rounded staff that can draft and think on game days. There has not been much of that type of combination in Buffalo for a long time.

 

Go Bills!

[Ozymandius]

I agree that nothing pre-Nix/Gailey really matters and we should rely only on trends established within their tenure. Hopefully, like last season, this team continues to improve as the season progresses (e.g. 0-8 to 4-4) because if that happens again, we'll almost certainly be playoff-bound.

[Coach Tuesday]

The cells in your body are dying and being replaced by new cells every second. You've fully replaced all of your cells thousands of times over. Maybe you aren't you...

[reddogblitz]

Because people are lazy. The Patsies have been good for years, so they must be good this year too. Bills are bad so they'll be bad this year too. It's like a stereoype. It's easy and true more times than not, so roll with it. It takes a while to change peoples perception. Winning will change that, but it takes more that 3 games to do it. If this keeps up, the peeps will come around.

 

Be patient and stay focused on this week. One game at a time.