Living in Western New York for the past four years is really starting to get on my nerves. I hate listening to Buffalo Bills fans say how their team is the best in the National Football League and will win every game they play.
The inevitable truth is that the Bills are not a playoff-caliber team this year. They might be 5-4, but they have not beaten one team with a current record above .500. The combined record for the opponents that they have defeated is 8-28, including two victories against the1-8 New York Jets.
Right now, the Bills are one game behind the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans for the last playoff spot. The Cleveland Browns have been on a roll and have the same record as the Bills heading into week 10.
I believe that all three of these teams are better than the Bills and have a better shot at making the playoffs. A sleeper team to look out for in the second half of the season is the Denver Broncos, who defeated Buffalo 15-14 in the first week. They could also make a run for that last playoff spot.
The biggest problem for the Bills is the offensive troubles that they have. Buffalo is one of the worst offensive teams in football. They have only scored 143 points in the season. This ranks them 27th out of 32 teams in points scored. Through nine games, they are averaging 16 points per game.
Just look at the game from this past weekend against the winless Miami Dolphins. The offense struggled to score the entire game. At one point, the score was 10-2 before Buffalo finally got a touchdown in the fourth quarter and rallied to win the game. This game was abysmal to watch because the Bills couldn't move the ball up the field.
Overall, the Bills are second to last in the league in total offensive yards per game. They only average 268 total yards a game. Buffalo averages 164 yards through the passing game and 105 yards through the ground game.
Another problem for Buffalo is at the quarterback position. There is a controversy between J.P. Losman and Trent Edwards over who should be the full-time starter. Right now, neither one is capable of being a starting quarterback in the league.
Losman, now in his fourth year in the NFL, has not shown any significant improvement in his time with the Bills. He is not living up to the standards the 22nd pick in the 2004 draft should be playing at.
This season, Losman has thrown for 820 yards. He averages 137 yards per game in the air and has only thrown two touchdown passes, while throwing three interceptions. Losman's completion percentage is a meager 63.3.
Losman has played in 35 games for the past three seasons. Overall, for his career, he has thrown 5,243 yards and completed 29 touchdowns and 26 interceptions.
Edwards is a rookie out of Stanford and is not ready to step up and be the leader of an offense. In the five games that Edwards has played this year, he has 790 passing yard, one touchdown and five interceptions.
The main reason why the Bills have the record that they own is rookie running back Marshawn Lynch. Lynch has rushed 196 times and has gained 751 yards. This total is good for fifth in the league out of all running backs. Lynch also has recorded six touchdowns.
I know that many people are going to argue that the Bills could be 7-2 right now because they lost two games at the last second on game-winning field goals, but football is a 60 minute game, not 59 minutes and 59 seconds.
The remainder of the schedule is pretty difficult for the Bills. The next three weeks will be a pivotal time in Buffalo's playoff run. They will have challenging games against the New England Patriots this week in primetime, then travel to Jacksonville and then will battle the Redskins in Washington D.C.
For this week's game, I already hear fans saying that the Patriots' undefeated run will come to an end. The Patriots have already beaten the Bills 38-7 earlier in the year. I can't even guess what the score will be after they come off a bye week and now have the Don Shula asterisk incident lingering through their locker room.
The Bills will have to show me that they can beat a reasonably good team in the league. They have barely beaten the bad teams this season, so it should be fun to watch them face against stiff competition the remainder of the 2007 campaign.
I can't wait for this Sunday to come to just sit back and watch the Bills and their fans think they are going to beat the Patriots. This game will mark the beginning of the collapse for the Bills and the end of their playoff chances this season.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
