This is probably the last winnable game for the Bills this season, unless the Colts decide to rest their starters and plug in Drew Willy as their quarterback. But we all remember the last time the Bills played a bunch of back-ups (Steelers 2004 finale).
Back to Sunday’s game. Both teams are terrible, but if you compare each of the team’s roster, the Bills actually have an advantage on most of the player positions, except for quarterback. As bad as Matt Cassel has been lately, he’s a better quarterback than Ryan Fitzpatrick.
But that’s not the big storyline for this game, it’s about battling for a draft choice. It’s a very slippery slope when it comes to wanting the Bills to have the best draft choice as possible, because it means you want the team to lose out. The Chiefs are 3-9, while the Bills are 4-8. A Bills win, would surly take the team out of the top 5 of the NFL Draft.
Now before you go all Anakin Skywalker, realize a couple of things:
1) After the Mike Williams fiasco, Ralph Wilson isn’t too keen on giving a truck load of money to a top 5 pick. We all know Wilson is like a bitter 40-year old girl, who can’t get over being stood up at Prom Night. Hell, he still can’t get over Tom Donahoe screwing his team over. I wouldn’t put it past the Bills to pull what the Minnesota Vikings did years ago, when they decided to let time run out on their first round pick, and let other teams pick in front of them, so they could give a lesser contract to the player they would select later. Wouldn’t that be great draft moment?
2) A top 5 pick doesn’t guarantee you anything. The Detroit Lions, Oakland Raiders, Cleveland Browns, have constantly picked at the top of NFL drafts over the last decade. History shows that a top five pick won’t change your team’s fortunes.
Now random thoughts for Sunday’s game
-The Chiefs have gone from having one of the youngest rosters in the NFL, to adding a ton of journeymen players. Mike Vrabel, Mike Brown, Chris Chambers, Mike Goff just to name a few. Shouldn’t shock the casual viewer, considering the Chiefs have former Patriots GM, Scott Pioli running the show. This is the same guy that kept giving Junior Seau a job year after year-
-Could this be your classic, “irresistible force versus the unmovable object” type game? Both the Bills and Chiefs rank in the bottom third in total offense and total defense. Somethings got to give, right?-
-So much for the Matt Cassel and Mike Vrabel trade. When the trade went down, some football pundits thought the deal was heavily in favor of the Chiefs. Well, Vrabel has looked old and Cassel hasn’t come close to eclipsing his 4,000 yard campaign from last year. Cassell’s games have been kind of similar to the Bills passing game, not throwing for over 300 yards yet this season. That’s pretty bad considering your constantly playing catch-up against better teams-
-No one has mentioned the old “motivation” factor for the Chiefs in this game. Remember last year, how the Bills poured 54 points on the Chiefs at Arrowhead. A lot of Chiefs players felt as if the Bills coaches and players were running up the score. NFL players have minds like elephants(elephant, doesn’t mean smart), so if the Bills get behind, don’t be surprised if the Chiefs don’t let up-
Prediction time:
Sorry draft gurus, but the Bills won’t be picking in the top 5 this year. I think the extended break will do the Bills well. The key to the game is if the Bills can attack the Chiefs passing defense. The Chiefs are dead last against the pass, and while the Bills offense really isn’t that much better, they have shown glimpses of a passing game over the last couple weeks (excluding the Jets game).
The Bills finally get a break from playing against a legit running team, having actually faced off against six of the seven best rushing teams in the NFL. So I’m sure Bryan Scott is looking forward to not getting run over by a big time back.
The quest for 7-9 will still be alive for another week.
Bills: 26
Chiefs:14
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