Halbert
Practice Squad
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2003
- Messages
- 48
- Reaction score
- 0
- Age
- 62
All week long Buffalo area fans have been making public predictions of the score of Sunday night’s game. I'd say about half of them are predicting a Bills blowout - by at least two touchdowns. On bulletin boards and on the radio I’ve probably heard or seen 1,000 predictions and exactly two of them have predicted a Miami win.
I’m responsible for 50% of them.
The Bills look very good, almost impossibly strong, in shellacking their first two opponents.. Sure, we made major upgrades and it’s likely the team is for real. But this is the NFL after all where the difference in talent is less of a factor than the intensity of the players.
I remember a game in 1984 when the Cowboys came in town at 7-4 to face a 0-11 Bills team. It was my birfday and I had 5 of my drunken friends in the stands with me helping celebrate a game against my second most hated opponent. All week long all you heard from the Cowboys was complete disrespect for the Bills, how they were going to go up North to relax and take care of business before starting on a brutal 4-game stretch that included a streaking Miami team and two division opponents. The Bills took the dissing to heart and you could almost see the steam pouring out of their ear holes as they came onto the field. Those crappy Bills were launching their bodies around the field like SCUD missiles in an Arab turf war, winning their first game of the season 14-3. Frankly, the game wasn’t even that close.
Now take a Miami team that is on par talent wise and consider the reasons they might have to get especially worked up for this one:
- Embarrassed terribly in Week 1 - AT HOME, no less
- Beaten soundly by the Bills the last two games
- Understands the Week 1 debacle basically handed the Bills a full game in the standings
- Sees Mr. Franchise jump off the bandwagon on a national pre-game show
- Realizes a loss puts the Bills 2.5 games up with only 3 played
- A loss already makes the late December rematch at the Ralph a must-win
- Nationally televised home game against arch rival (ie. chance at redemption)
The Bills have shown they can generate intensity and should play tough but there’s simply no way they can match the desperation level of the Dolphins - who despite their season opener disaster are still a strong division contender. The Fish need the game a helluva lot more than the Bills, which usually is the difference in spots like this. You can be sure there were plenty of sleepy aqua eyes reviewing film at 11 PM this entire week. There won’t be an ounce of orange effort left by the time 11:30 rolls around Sunday night. Even the Creamsicle jerseys wouldn’t slow them down.
Can the Bills win this game? Of course. But in situations like this were you have two closely matched teams, I’ll always take the one who needs it more. That clearly is the Fish, which is why I see a Miami pulling out a hard fought victory, 24-20.
My GOD I hope I’m wrong, but just in case keep my seat warm because if I’m right I might suddenly find a steady dit of “unable to load page†at my favorite bulletin boards …
I’m responsible for 50% of them.
The Bills look very good, almost impossibly strong, in shellacking their first two opponents.. Sure, we made major upgrades and it’s likely the team is for real. But this is the NFL after all where the difference in talent is less of a factor than the intensity of the players.
I remember a game in 1984 when the Cowboys came in town at 7-4 to face a 0-11 Bills team. It was my birfday and I had 5 of my drunken friends in the stands with me helping celebrate a game against my second most hated opponent. All week long all you heard from the Cowboys was complete disrespect for the Bills, how they were going to go up North to relax and take care of business before starting on a brutal 4-game stretch that included a streaking Miami team and two division opponents. The Bills took the dissing to heart and you could almost see the steam pouring out of their ear holes as they came onto the field. Those crappy Bills were launching their bodies around the field like SCUD missiles in an Arab turf war, winning their first game of the season 14-3. Frankly, the game wasn’t even that close.
Now take a Miami team that is on par talent wise and consider the reasons they might have to get especially worked up for this one:
- Embarrassed terribly in Week 1 - AT HOME, no less
- Beaten soundly by the Bills the last two games
- Understands the Week 1 debacle basically handed the Bills a full game in the standings
- Sees Mr. Franchise jump off the bandwagon on a national pre-game show
- Realizes a loss puts the Bills 2.5 games up with only 3 played
- A loss already makes the late December rematch at the Ralph a must-win
- Nationally televised home game against arch rival (ie. chance at redemption)
The Bills have shown they can generate intensity and should play tough but there’s simply no way they can match the desperation level of the Dolphins - who despite their season opener disaster are still a strong division contender. The Fish need the game a helluva lot more than the Bills, which usually is the difference in spots like this. You can be sure there were plenty of sleepy aqua eyes reviewing film at 11 PM this entire week. There won’t be an ounce of orange effort left by the time 11:30 rolls around Sunday night. Even the Creamsicle jerseys wouldn’t slow them down.
Can the Bills win this game? Of course. But in situations like this were you have two closely matched teams, I’ll always take the one who needs it more. That clearly is the Fish, which is why I see a Miami pulling out a hard fought victory, 24-20.
My GOD I hope I’m wrong, but just in case keep my seat warm because if I’m right I might suddenly find a steady dit of “unable to load page†at my favorite bulletin boards …
