The bye week is over, which means we can bid farewell to Sundays without a loss. Not great. The likelihood of the Bills breaking the curse and transforming the "win column" from a 0 to a 1? Not likely. We're facing the Ravens in Baltimore. Again, not great. Here's to hoping it doesn't end up looking like Edgar Allan Poe's horror story.
No, I haven't completely given up hope. Up until the very last game of the season, I'm pretty sure I'll enter every match up with that idealistic optimism that maybe we'll finally pull out a win. It is not naivety, delusion or stupidity; it's simply faith in the fact that the Buffalo Bills are not as terrible as the last five weeks have made us seem and that somewhere along the line (preferably sometime before 2013), we'll get our sh&% together.
Until then, I'm tasked with finding something to analyze in this pregame rundown. It's getting harder and harder. Baltimore is good--and every good team seems to be even better against us.
Our defense used to be my go-to "saving grace" but lately, I'm not so sure. With Terrence McGhee out, Leodis McKelvin will start in his place against Baltimore's top receiver. McKelvin is solid so we can only hope he holds his own against Anquan Boldin, who is much more physical... and against Flacco's sufficiently good arm.
I'd like to think our offense will continue its transformation into an offense, with Fitz finding Stevie Johnson and my Lee and Freddy J owning the ground. But, B-more's defense is known for executing shut downs, ranked third in the league for points allowed per game. What... a potentially crippling situation.
We'll be relying on C.J. Spiller to get us good field position as our not-so-secret weapon on kick returns (touchdown would be borderline amazing) and Rian Lindell will probably be called on to hit some long FGs in our fight for points.
All I'm looking for here is to bow out of this game with dignity and for the Bills to put up a good fight.
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GO BILLS!!!