As of the now, the only thing winning out of Buffalo is Carl Paladino, who crushed his competition in the Republican primary and keeps inching closer to Democrat Andrew Cuomo in the race for Governor of New York.
For those of you not from NY or who are politically ignorant, that comment was a reference to a situation where the perceived "underdog" came out on top-which is what Buffalo fans can only hope for going into Sunday's game at New England. But let's not kid ourselves. Please keep a firm grasp on reality, which is the odds of that actually happening are about 81 to 19, not in our favor. (Yeah, those numbers don't make sense. I'm a writer, not a numbers chick. 81 is just my favorite number)
This is what Week 3 on the road against the Patriots looks like (and I mean, it's not great):
The No.1 thing here is that the Patriots rarely lose two games in a row and that's exactly what happened against the Jets last week. Factor in the fact that it was the JETS that toppled the "unstoppable" Patriots (which is a theory I really don't get since they weren't even that good last season) and you've got a highly pissed off team. Not great for us.
The Patriots have beaten the Bills 13 straight games. Yep, 13 excruciating games in a row. It would be nice to break that streak, but if we couldn't figure out how to do that back when we had a semblance of an offense, this time around the odds are stacked against us, higher than any of us can see.
The Pats lead the Bills by a fairly large margin in almost everything offensively, except the run game, where the rush yards per game are nearly identical. This week, however, is the first game New England will be without their trusty Kevin Faulk. So, the Bills should try to establish a strong run game, especially since New England hasn't shown consistency against opposing RBs thus far this season. With three viable RBs (yes, I'm warming up to the idea) the Bills have a chance to do just that. One of the trickiest parts here will be the presence of Randy Moss (beautiful one-handed TD catch last week. *gags*) and Wes Welker. The Bills' Terrence McGee, Drayton Florence and Reggie Corner will have to be on top of their game to prevent the big plays, because with those receivers, there's really no room for error. To prevent that from even being an issue, our pass rush needs to step up and pressure Brady so he can't get those throws off. Not optimistic because it hasn't happened yet, but it's always a possibility.
Perhaps the one glimmer of light here is that both defenses are fairly close. Buffalo's D is notorious for carrying a game--I mean, pulling their weight--so I think they could put us over the edge if the offense contributes to the game and gives our secondary a chance to rest.
Ryan Fitzpatrick is most def in the hotseat as he takes over for Trent Edwards at QB and he should want his 2010-11 debut to be strong. With a good history of connecting with Lee Evans, that could possibly happen if the O-line learns how to block, protect Fitz from those big guys in Pats uniforms barreling toward him, and if they don't gather false start penalties like it's the world's earliest Easter egg hunt.
I'm not gonna lie-I'm fairly terrified for Sunday, mostly because I'm trying to detox my body and a particularly painful game will put all that off track. Still, I'm not completely without hope-I wouldn't go right to optimistic, but I haven't lost all my positive vibes yet.
GO BILLS!!!