All right, all four AFCE teams were in action again this week, and oh what a week it was. We saw three quarters of the division win, so let’s get right to it.
We have a new, familiar face in the basement this week, the Buffalo Bills. The 2015 NFL season dawn with hope and optimism unrivaled in recent years on the shores of Lake Erie; the Bills had a new, brash head coach who was sure to lead the defense to new and unimagined heights, the offense was loaded with shiny toys at every position (except the most important one) and the fan base was set to be the loudest collection of overweight drunkards ever assembled. Oh those were the days, but just a few short weeks later, the “star” wide receiver asked his agent to talk to the coaching staff because he says that they are making everyone look bad, the high priced defensive end is complaining about how he is being used in the defense and his little buddy, the newly minted $100MM defensive tackle is doubling down on those comments saying that everyone in being used wrong…Bills fans are questioning why the team seems to be taking an every other week approach to the season and the answer has actually been staring them in the face since this summer- Rex Ryan. I’ll admit that I didn’t know this fun fact until yesterday and had I known, I would not have overrated Rexy as much as I had (I’ll admit, I once called him a decent NFL head coach). While with the Jets, Rex only experience two game winning streaks twice. Go back and read that again, only twice in five years did the Jets win consecutive games. I called those winning streaks, but even Lou Brown will tell you that three games is really the minimum for a “streak”. Oh yeah, the Bills lost to the Bengals in spectacular fashion.
Next up, we have the team that has occupied the basement nearly the entire season, the Miami Dolphins. I realize that I’m running the risk of becoming the focal point of Dan Campbell’s rage, but beating the Tennessee Titans does not impress me all that much. The Fins broke out in their first game under the Walking ‘Roid Rage that is interim head coach Dan. The defense was flying around, diving at knees and playing with the type of reckless abandon you’d expect from a team doing HS drills all week. (On a related note, Danny boy might want to slow down or the Fins will have used their allotment of padded practices by Halloween). Cameron Wake seems to have mixed a little NO into his O2 tank, for he single-handedly quadrupled the team’s sack total (this could also be attributed to the general suckiness of the Titans). The best part of the game however was that it appears Big Dan threatened to put Bill Lazor’s nuts in a vice if he continued to ignore the offense’s best weapon, LM3K. Miller finally saw the proper number of carries and he was nothing short of dynamic, slicing and dicing the “vaunted” Titans defense to the tune of 113 yds and a TD. Watch out world, the Dolphins are coming and Dan Campbell will eat your face if you dare attempt to stand in their way…
And in second place, we find the ever surprising Jets. The Jets are rolling and they have new head coach Todd “I might have a little lisp, so what,” Bowles to thank. Bowles has the Jets living life one day at a time and has yet to book their flights to Santa Clara for the Super Bowl. This is off-putting to many of the Jets’ knuckle-dragging fan base from Long Island, but it seems to be resonating well with the team. The defense is as formidable a unit as exists in the league right now (although I contend that when the best offense you’ve faced is the Sam Bradford led Eagles, you haven’t faced anyone) and is giving opposing teams fits with their unique ability to cover receiver while sending blitz after blitz at the opposing QBs. The offense is another great surprise, while Chirs Ivory was expected to be a bell cow that leads the team, he has raised more than one eyebrow with his newly found receiving abilities and Ryan Fitzpatrick has made it to week 6 of the season without turning into a pumpkin. All is well in New Jersey these days; the Jets are the toast of the town and play the Pats for divisional supremacy this week. Look out; it could be an interesting year.
And ho hum, the first place team is the Pats. The Pats didn’t quite ravage the Colts like many media personalities predicted, but they did beat the Colts fairly soundly. Had Julian Edelaman not handed the Colts an interception that Mike Adams cold crwl into the endzone in the first half, the game very well could have been the 45-14 game that everyone predicted, but he did, so the game played out very differently. The Colts pulled out all the stops to try and beat the Pats, it really looked like there were people coaching for their jobs, and they still came up short. Maybe it was the worst play call in the history of organized sport that did them in, or maybe it was just the fact that team is a second rate organization in a third rate convention town in the middle of a bunch of cornfields, or maybe it’s that they are owned by a drug addled loser who’s only accomplishment in life is escaping the womb, but something stinks in Indy. The Pats proved once again that calling the Colts a rival is a bit of an over exaggeration, something like Bills fans saying that they are a Pats’ rival. You have to win sometimes to be considered a rival; it’s been six years since the Colts beat the Pats. Big game this week, let’s see if one of the Pats’ actual rivals can stop them this year.
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