Buffalo Bills (3-5) at Tennessee Titans (2-6)
Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 1:00 PM ET
LP Field - Nashville, TN

Coming off the bye week, the Buffalo Bills get a good challenge in the Tennessee Titans, who after an 0-6 start have won two in a row and seem to be back on track. This is the fifth-ever regular season meeting between these two long-time rivals. Does that sound weird? Well yeah, because this is the fifth time the Bills have played the Titans and sixth overall, but the forty-second all-time meeting between these two franchises if you count the days of the Houston Oilers. Both teams have traded signature franchise wins versus the other. For the Bills, it was "The Comeback Game," while for the Titans, it was "The Music City Miracle." Recaps of last five regular season games between these two teams are after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

   
Buffalo Bills (3-4) vs Houston Texans (4-3)
Sunday, November 1, 2009 at 1:00 PM ET
Ralph Wilson Stadium - Orchard Park, NY

I get lucky again this week. Last week, the Bills were playing an opponent in the Panthers whom they had only faced four time previously. That is the case again this week, as this will be the fifth-ever meeting between the Bills and the Houston Texans. The Bills have a 3-1 in the series, including victories in each of the last two games.

This weekend's matchup will, however, be the first ever meeting between the Bills and Texans that doesn't include David Carr. Carr had at least played, if not started, in all four previous matchups. This will be a tough game for the Bills, as this is clearly the best Texans team the Bills have faced. The last five four match-ups after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

In the Roscoe Parrish post that is currently on the front page, csc06258 throws this out there:

Since the AFL-NFL merge, Dick Jauron is the "worst coach" in history (.420% win record), and thats a FACT. That stat includes any coach who has coached over 135 games.

So I have to ask; Does that mean that Dick Jauron is the worst coach in the history of football? what does this stat really mean?

 First we have to acknowledge a few things:

1) Dick Jauron is a good enough coach to have coached in at least 135 games, (139 regular season and 1 post season game to be exact).

2) Dick Jauron won NFL coach of the year in 2001 when he lead the Chicago Bears to a 13 - 3 record.

3) A 7 - 9 season, while below average, and not a winning season, isn't terrible. Yes I know that the Bills need to do better, and this team really needs to make the playoffs, but record wise, you could do much worse then 7 - 9, ask the Detroit Lions and their fans last year if they would switch with us.

What does this tell us?

 Do we really think that if John Rauch, or Kay Stephenson, to name a few from Bills lore, would have been given 140 NFL games to coach that they would have done better? I don't think so. Jauron has at least a little bit of an idea of what he is doing, and it has worked in the past, at least once. He isn't a moron. He is in fact capable of coaching a winning team, he has done it before. Am I saying that he should stay, that he shouldn't be fired if the Bills fail to win more then 9 games this year? No, I am not. What I am saying is that this notion that Jauron is the worst coach in the history of the NFL are a complete fabrication, made from stats that have been twisted by disgruntled fans. 

 Lets keep this real here, Dick Jauron isn't a bumbling fool who coaches a team like the Keystone Cops, with the Benny Hill theme playing in his office 24/7. He is trying to make the team better. Just because you don't understand his reasoning on why the team would do something doesn't mean it is the wrong move.

Fourwinds, a Rumbler who I have plenty of respect for makes this statement:

Clearly, if someone is bad at something (e.g. if Jauron is a bad coach), what he thinks is a good move is really a bad one.

This again is a very true statement. If I have no clue at what I am doing and am just throwing guesses out there, the odds that I screw up are high. But Jauron has had success before, for at least one NFL season. For Whatever reason it isn't working out here. I'm not saying that he is a good coach, or that he is even an average head coach, but he must be doing at least a little something right for him to have 140 NFL game under his belt.

  
Buffalo Bills (2-4) at Carolina Panthers (2-3)
Sunday, October 25, 2009,  4:15 PM ET
Bank of America Stadium - Charlotte, NC

Normally in this weekly feature, I go back and review the last five meetings between the Buffalo Bills and their current opponent for the week. The problem this week, however, is that this is the fifth ever meeting between the Bills and the Carolina Panthers, so there are only four games to review. The Bills hold a 3-1 series edge, losing the last meeting (way back in 2005) after winning the first three. The Bills have outscored Carolina 95-60 all time and will look to add to their previous success this week, in yet another four o'clock game for the Bills this year. The last five four meetings after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

   
Buffalo Bills (1-4) at New York Jets (3-2)
Sunday, October 18, 2009 at 4:15 PM ET
Giants Stadium - East Rutherford, New Jersey

This is all-time meeting No. 98 between two long time rivals, with the Buffalo Bills holding the series edge 53-44 over the New York Jets. These are two franchises heading in two completely opposite directions right now. Even though the Jets have lost their last two games after starting 3-0, they are still a very strong team with lots of promise, and are in first place in the AFC East. The Bills, after two strong performances that led to a 1-1 record have lost their last three contests - and looked rather pathetic in doing so.

My guess is that after this week, the Jets make up some ground on that series record.

The last five meetings between these two teams that have taken place in New Jersey are after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

 When I think back to the end of the 2000 season, all I remember is the collective sign of  relief from Bills fans after Wade Phillips was fired. I never understood it. I though Wade did an o.k. job. So the question is, would you rather have Wade still here? First lets look at some history:

 Quick! Name the winning-est coaches in Bills history. Well first is obviously Marv Levy. With 112 wins over 11.5 seasons, (not counting 11 post season wins) Marv is tops on the Bills coaching wins list. Lou Saban is second with 68 wins over 8.5 seasons, (again not counting his 2 post season victories). Third is Chuck Knox who in 5 years collected 37 wins, (1 post season win again not counted). Right now those three men are the no-contest top three coaches in Bills history. I suppose you could debate the order if you want (Lou had shorter seasons and did win two championships, a case could be made for Saban over Marv), but that isn't the point of this post. Next on the wins list? I'll give you a hint: It's not Kay Stephenson, Jim Ringo, Gregg Williams, or Joe Collier. Thats right Wade Phillips is next on the list with 29 career victories. He also made two post season appearances, yes his post season record for the Bills is 0-2, but he got there twice...in three years. In three years Wade has 29 wins and two playoff appearances...not bad.  Want to know how bad the Bills coaching records are? Dick Jauron is currently 5th on the list with 22.

 After Wade caught the axe from Ralph, the Bills then brought in Gregg Williams who's 3 year record for the Bills is 17 - 31, with no play-offs. After Double G, it was Mike Mularkey who ran up a record of 14 - 18 in two years. Mularkey did lead the Bills to their last winning season at 9-7 in 2004. After Mularkey it has been Dick Jauron...need I say more?

 So the question is was Wade Phillips all that bad? 29 - 19 and two play-off appearances in three years looks pretty good right about now. Sometimes you need to be careful what you ask for Bills fans, sometimes the coach you know is better then the coach you don't know. I'm not saying that Jauron shouldn't be fired if the Bills continue to stink it up, just that there are some worse coaches out there that might just have us pining to have D.J. back once he is gone.

 Ralph doesn't really have the greatest history when it comes to making hires. He seems to be more of  a "shoot from the hip" kind of guy, who follows his gut feeling more often then not. Sometimes it works, he hired Bill Polian without doing very much research, sometimes not, Hank Bullough, John Rauch...need I go on? If Ralph does in fact clean house, I'm not sure that we can all count on him to hire the right guy, he has a history of under paying his coaches and quite honestly, I'm not sure we will get the big name guy that we are all craving. It may get worse before it gets better....

 
Buffalo Bills (1-3) vs Cleveland Browns (0-4)
Sunday, October 11, 2009 at 1:00 PM ET
Ralph Wilson Stadium - Orchard Park, NY

Random, unexpected pre-post note: Cleveland on Wednesday morning traded WR Braylon Edwards to the Jets in exchange for WR Chansi Stuckey, LB Jason Trusnick, and two undisclosed draft picks.  Essentially, Buffalo will be playing against Edwards soon - it's just been delayed a week.  Report comes via ESPN's Adam Schefter.

Well, it took last week's "game" to finally bring out the pessimist in me. This Buffalo Bills team is really killing my enthusiasm for football. But the cupcake Cleveland Browns are coming in this week, so they should be pushovers, right? I'm fairly certain that is the sentiment that most of us had the last two seasons when the Bills played the Browns, and look how that turned out. If you forget how that turned out just, skip the rest of my rambling and hit the jump.

The Browns and Bills have met fifteen times during their histories, despite being less then 190 miles from each other, that includes one playoff game. The Browns hold an all-time edge in the series 10-5, including wins in their last two meetings. Hit the jump for the last five meeting in greater detail.

Continue reading this post »