Kind of Excited about the Bills' Upcoming Schedule

[CosmicBills]

I was pleasently surprised today. Like most of you here, I normally take the loses of the Bills far too seriously. Usually, after a loss I am miserable until Thursday. And even though today was painful in the way it ended, I don't feel as bad as normal.

 

Why?

 

Well, to be honest I expected the Bills to go 1-1 to open the season, and wasn't banking on a win in Gillette. I was very afraid of a poor performance to open the season. However, this team did not play poorly. Mistakes were made, yes. But a number of good things happened:

 

- The defense looked FAST. Especially the new saftey tandum of Whitner and Simpson. They made their mistakes, but these two looked much better than I hoped for the first game of the season.

 

- Willis did look good in spots as well. He seemed more nimble and a bit quicker. He made some nice runs against one of the best front 4 in football. Just not enough big runs though in the second half.

 

- Most importantly, JP came out and answered the bell. No TDs, but no INT and he was very accurate today and seemed poised. He made a couple of great plays today as well. I am very encouraged with his progress and feel like the Bills finally have their franchise QB in place. Not that he's a super star, but they have a guy there who has all the tools and CAN play in this league for years to come.

 

All these factors have made me re think my scenario for the first half of the season...what I once thought was a dream could very well be reality:

 

First the Bills have to go into a hostile environment and try to steal one from the Felons. They didn't impress me against Pittsburgh and I am even more confident now in the Bill's ability to steal a W in Miami.

 

If they can head home 1-1, the Ralph will be ROCKING for the Jets who also looked better than expected today. Still, I think the home crowd will give the Bills the edge: 2-1.

 

A two game streak makes the Minny game a bit closer. But home cooking and some breaks, the Bills are suddenly 3-1 heading into Chi-town. As good as they are playing, I don't see them taking one from the Bears: 3-2.

 

Then on the road to Detroit -- perhaps the most winable game on the schedule this season. Bills take it 4-2.

 

This would set up a great game on the 22nd of October. 4-2 and a rematch at the Ralph against the Pats with the bye week coming up. If the Bills do pull this off, I would feel really good about their chances of splitting with NE and heading 5-2 into the bye week.

 

This scenario may have sounded crazy yesterday...but after today's performance, I think it's very realistic; at least moreso than it was on Saturday night.

[MadBuffaloDisease]

I'm not sure if you meant this, but the Pats will be coming off their bye week going into the game in Buffalo. Fuggin' schedulemakers, who also scheduled 2 road divisional games to start the season.