AFCE Week in Review

Week 11 is in the history books. This week we learned a few things:

1. The Miami Dolphins want the playoffs more than the Bills do
2. The Buffalo Bills may not know how to handle success
3. The New England Patriots are for real
4. the New York Jets win streak remained intact

The Bills visited Miami (It was last week, but its still part of week 11) with so much expectations, none happened. There were some strange calls for sure by the refs, however in my opinion none were the reason for the outcome. Simply put, the Dolphins came to play. They executed their game plan and stayed with it. the Bills were never in the game, unless you count the first few minutes.

Tannehill was not eye opening impressive, but he was effective. Wallace was still kind of busy counting his money, however Landry and Hardline showed up and played well. The Bills defense allowed Miami to rush the ball, that coupled with the 5-6 yard passes controlled the game and the clock.

At this point, the Bills are on a two game losing streak at 5-5. One has to wonder if being 5-3 and controlling your own destiny was uncharted territory for them. I have to wonder if the Bills have to learn how to win? Its been a long time since they have had a winning and playoff team. The team appears to be headed in the right direction, but at what cost? I still believe not playing EJ will come back to haunt them.

The Patriots started the year like a mediocre team  that was going to battle for the #6 and not the division. Well, that was then, this is now. They have dismantled the Broncos and the Manning aura; this week they followed that with a classic ass whipping of the Indianapolis Colts in Indianapolis. The Patriots are clicking on all levels, and the fast emergence of Jonas Gray spells trouble for every AFC team. In our rankings and in many others, they remained second to Arizona, however, the Pats maybe the best team in football. It is very easy to make a case that they should be ranked first, but its hard to make a case that Arizona should have been dropped a spot, especially after beating Detroit with their back up QB.

Regardless, at the moment the Patriots appear to be the team to beat, period.

The Jets had the week off, therefore no more losses were added to their record. I hope, as a Jets fan, that they do come back and get on a run to possibly spoil things for some other teams. I will never be able to root for them to lose in order to get a better draft spot. After all, the draft is not an exact science regardless of position.

Other news

Big news out of buffalo, where the snow kept coming and coming, the Bills were not able to travel and practice. As a result, rightly so, the game was postponed until Monday night in Detroit. Earlier in the year the Bills spoiled Detroit home advantage, and maybe, just maybe, with Schwartz as the DC, and the shadow of Mr. Wilson this year, Detroit is almost like playing at home. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Happy Saturday