Buffalo 3-0 against NFC West

With one game remaining against this division.

I think a new AFC baller has emerged.

Discuss.

It's OK, we'll salvage some pride for the division in a few weeks.

They've been playing pretty good football after dropping the first couples games. They lost to the Ravens away (13-7) and the Jets at home (37-31). Kinda weird they let the Jets put up so many points at home in that game, but their defense has otherwise been playing very well. The most points they've let up since is 19 against the Rams two weeks ago. The one dig I'll take at them here is that the QBs they've been playing against have been: Flacco, Fitzpatrick, Palmer, Brissett, Keenum and Kaepernick. Not exactly the most impressive lineup of passers. But their O has been running the ball effectively and Tyrod Taylor has been playing rather efficiently in their system as well (8-2 TD/INT ratio and 92.4 rating).

I can't say that I can drink the Rex Ryan Kool-Aid yet, the guy has to prove he can keep a ship going in the right direction for more than half a season. He hasn't produced a season better than .500 since 2011. Something about him screams 8-8 in a very Jeff Fischer kind of way, at least to me.

I knew they were better than their 0-2 start. Tyrod is a very underrated QB, I'd rather have him over a lot of the other young QB's (Cousins, Tannehill, Bortles, etc). It's also impressive because they are doing this without Watkins, Marcell Dareus, and their first round pick Shaq Lawson.

Things really seemed to turn around when they fired Greg Roman.

JGfromtheNW":2dr89ptj said:

They've been playing pretty good football after dropping the first couples games. They lost to the Ravens away (13-7) and the Jets at home (37-31). Kinda weird they let the Jets put up so many points at home in that game, but their defense has otherwise been playing very well. The most points they've let up since is 19 against the Rams two weeks ago. The one dig I'll take at them here is that the QBs they've been playing against have been: Flacco, Fitzpatrick, Palmer, Brissett, Keenum and Kaepernick. Not exactly the most impressive lineup of passers. But their O has been running the ball effectively and Tyrod Taylor has been playing rather efficiently in their system as well (8-2 TD/INT ratio and 92.4 rating).

I can't say that I can drink the Rex Ryan Kool-Aid yet, the guy has to prove he can keep a ship going in the right direction for more than half a season. He hasn't produced a season better than .500 since 2011. Something about him screams 8-8 in a very Jeff Fischer kind of way, at least to me.

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No love for Flacco and Palmer?

This is the same Bills team that took down Aaron Rodgers in 2014.

Don't think many QBs will look good. The fact that they handed the Patriots a shut out instead of a mere defeat says a lot. Even to a 3rd string (Charlie Batch with Steelers beat the Ravens a few years ago IN Baltimore, so 3rd strings can do ok in division games).

Hawk-Lock":1xech34f said:

Things really seemed to turn around when they fired Greg Roman.

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A Dave Dameshek "N if L", if the Niners fired Roman ....I guess is being played out in Buffalo right now.

Outside the Seahawks, the NFC West has pretty well sucked this year.

HawkGA":34tz2315 said:

Outside the Seahawks, the NFC West has pretty well sucked this year.

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Sucked is a strong word.

Underachieved I think is more suitable.

There could be three 4 win teams this weekend.

NINEster":3dbful2m said:

No love for Flacco and Palmer?

This is the same Bills team that took down Aaron Rodgers in 2014.

Don't think many QBs will look good. The fact that they handed the Patriots a shut out instead of a mere defeat says a lot. Even to a 3rd string (Charlie Batch with Steelers beat the Ravens a few years ago IN Baltimore, so 3rd strings can do ok in division games).

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I personally think Flacco is vastly overrated and I'm pretty sure the sentiment around the league is that he didn't live up to the contract he signed post-Super Bowl. I don't think he's bad, but he's not the top-tier QB he was made out to be. Palmer is certainly the best QB Buffalo has faced this year and he absolutely laid an egg that game. Very impressive performance by the Bills.

Don't get me wrong, I think the Bills are a very dangerous team. If they can continue to run the ball well and play stellar defense, they can be the real deal. I just can't say they are through 6 weeks of football.

Bills can't catch a break. McCoy ruled out for this week after injuring his hamstring in practice yesterday. Could be out multiple weeks.

NINEster":2dipothk said:

HawkGA":2dipothk said:

Outside the Seahawks, the NFC West has pretty well sucked this year.

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Sucked is a strong word.

Underachieved I think is more suitable.

There could be three 4 win teams this weekend.

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The fact is, for all the shit talked about the Rams, they're a talented squad with an inept and overrated coach. They're better than the Lions and the 49ers, but lost both those games, illogically so in San Francisco. They have been competitive in every game except SF. They could easily be 6-0 or 5-1 if Jeff 'Throw 'Em Under the Bus' Fisher weren't their coach.

I wouldn't read too much into this. Most of our division simply has flawed teams right now. Two of them have terrible QB's and the third has Carson Palmer, who threw 4 int's when the game was still in reach. It says nothing other than the Bills can beat teams with bad QB's.

#Patriots

It's clear the Bills could very well be a contender if they keep this up. Next to the Patriots and the Cardinals, the Bills worries me the most of our remaining opponents. It should be a good match-up but I still favor us to win the game.

They'll come back to Earth by seasons end. 8-8 still my prediction for the Bills

Only AFC contenders IMO are New England and Pittsburgh with a healthy Ben. The rest are very average, including Denver.

Hasselbeck":1neowsla said:

They'll come back to Earth by seasons end. 8-8 still my prediction for the Bills

Only AFC contenders IMO are New England and Pittsburgh with a healthy Ben. The rest are very average, including Denver.

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This is probably true.

In typical Buffalo fashion they're kinda like an AFC Rams, where they look very tough one week and not so much the other.

Easy to get lost in the hype, but I expect them to show up in big games and be tough against the tougher teams than normal.

Bills will soon be 3-1 against the NFC West. My reasons are:

1) Seahawks are the best team in NFC West and arguably all of NFC
2) It's a home game for the Seahawks
3) Monday Night - Seahawks have the best MNF record
4) Rex Ryan sucks

NINEster":1o60myk9 said:

HawkGA":1o60myk9 said:

Outside the Seahawks, the NFC West has pretty well sucked this year.

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Sucked is a strong word.

Underachieved I think is more suitable.

There could be three 4 win teams this weekend.

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You are correct. I had last looked at the standings Monday during the day so before AZ's win over the Jets. At the time they were sitting at just 2 wins.

Hasselbeck":f4e7u79l said:

They'll come back to Earth by seasons end. 8-8 still my prediction for the Bills

Only AFC contenders IMO are New England and Pittsburgh with a healthy Ben. The rest are very average, including Denver.

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Is Pitt really a contender though? Their defense is still very below average. While the Bills may not light it up on offense, they are very well balanced. They have a good defense, a good running game, and if they can get Watkins back, the passing game should pick up.

I still think Denver is the second team in the AFC behind NE. And before someone talks about how bad their offense is, don't forget they won a SB last year with really bad QB play.

'IF" the officiating is remotely unbiased, I don't think there is anyway on the planet earth that Rex and his herd of Buffalo can get by the Seattle Seahawks.

Don't misread me, I'm not just pounding my chest and trying to sell everyone on the idea that Seahawks are unbeatable, however I am trying to tell anyone who will listen to me that the Seahawks are playing at a whole lot higher level than I've seen them before, including the last two times we made it to the Super Bowl, right now.

I know this most recent tie with the Cards puts some of what I'm saying into question. I have, and will continue to go back and study the films from the last game. I try to be as objective as I possibly can, and agreed it's hard for me to be 100% objective because of my love of the Seahawk team, but with that said, the film footage doesn't lie.

In this last game in Arizona, our defense put up a hell of a fight that I don't think any other team in the NFL today could have sustained, and against all odds did everything but win that game for us.

Not wanting to sound like a cry baby, our Oline got mugged this last Sunday Night by officiating. I won't argue what is so blatantly obvious, go back and look for yourselves, at the number of and types of penalties that were called against Seattle in the course of "Every" possession we had. Pay close attention to the type of penalties being called against us, almost everyone of them were those marginal at best infractions that are seldom ever called against either Oline, unless there is a hosing underway.

Coupled with the fact that the same and more flagrant type of infractions were being committed against our Dline, with almost no flags being thrown by the same officials that were tossing them like confetti at the Seahawks Oline. The stats are what the stats are so far as penalty yards charged against each Oline in the course of the game.

My point being is that you can't use the statistics put up by the Seahawks Oline on Sunday night as evidence of their true overall performance. It's clearly skewed by biased officiating.

The Seahawks Oline, as cheap as we were in assembling them, and granting that they are still a developing diamond in the rough, anyone with an eye for football, will agree that they are shining up pretty fast this year.

Try for just a moment, disregarding the overwhelming number of yards, by way of penalties that were placed in their way this past Sunday night. Presented to any other NFL Oline, it would have been thought that the officials had created an unsurmountable obstacle to overcome for any team. Russell Wilson and his boys are no ordinary Oline this year, nor is our Dline, and in spite of the best efforts and actions of the officials, combined with the Cardinals best defensive efforts as well, they were unable to break the spirit and unmatchable determination of the Seahawks, to win against all odds, and fought their way back into a position to win this game on more than one occasion.

For the benefit of example, the missed field goal, the other one that slayed me personally, was the one that Russell passed to Jimmy in the corner of the end zone, and where the Cardinal's CB held Jimmy, hands locked on his chest and jersey, almost 15 yards down the field, clearly preventing him from getting anywhere near the end zone to catch that pass, that I might add Jimmy has caught a hundred times before if left unabated.

There was no penalty called on the Cardinals CB and the commentators, while pointing out the gross holding and pass interference that was going on unchecked by the officials, were in the same breath stating that, it was uncatchable anyway, well yeah duh, being held nearly all the way down the field it was.

The Seahawks should be able to beat the Buffalo Bills like an drum in this next game, if we are allowed to play a game of football, unabated by biased officiating that has become central topic of discussion on every NFL team forum on the net this year. Sure we all whine that our team got some bum calls, but lets get honest with ourselves and recognize that some teams really are drawing a high number of these marginal, subjective offensive penalties, and I think they have a right to not only be frustrated by it, but want to do something to stop it as well. .

I've volunteered before and will again. I lease a server and am more than capable of building and hosting a website, wherein fans from all over the NFL, not just of the Seahawks, can immediately following any game, enter and score the officiating of that game, supported by real facts, both good and bad. The Officiating Crews and their individual officials performances in each game, and those collective ratings would be compiled, evaluated, scored by the fans and then submitted to the NFL for review and assessment.

Unfortunately I fear that our findings might fall on deaf ears, in so far as generating any real efforts by the NFL Governing Body, to try and establish fair and unbiased officiating within their ranks. One thing we will accomplish is, letting The NFL, know, under no uncertain terms, that we are aware of what is happening and that we want to see changes made.