Buffalo Bills Schedule Reset: Packers, Patriots, Broncos beckon

The Buffalo Bills are on a bit of a slide, as they followed up a loss to the Kansas City Chiefs with a rough Thursday Night Football outing against the rival Miami Dolphins, getting downed 22-9 in front of a national audience. Kyle Orton didn’t even break five yards per attempt, but he will still be the starter and was very efficient before poor games against the Chiefs and Dolphins, which are two playoff-caliber opponents. The Bills will face another division rival next week in the New York Jets, but those guys aren’t playoff-caliber despite beating a team of around that level in the Pittsburgh Steelers before their Week 11 bye. It’s time to take a look at the Bills schedule ahead, including next week’s battle with the Jets.

Week 12 New York Jets: The Jets are a much better team with Michael Vick at the helm, because they don’t turn the ball over every other play and actually have someone who can get the ball to playmakers Percy Harvin and Eric Decker. As we saw last week when he hit up former Bills cast-off T.J. Graham for a long TD, Vick can still make defenses pay downfield. This is going to be a close game that is difficult to predict, but I have the Bills winning this one. Honestly, Doug Marrone can’t afford to drop this, because a loss to the Jets is a one-way ticket to an even hotter seat.

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Week 13 Cleveland Browns: It looked like the Browns had asserted themselves as a clear playoff team when they absolutely dominated the rival Cincinnati Bengals in the Week 10 TNF game, and that was a bigger blowout than the Bills-Dolphins game. But the Browns followed that up by getting blown out by Ryan Mallett and the Houston Texans yesterday. This Browns team is incredibly unpredictable, so this is a game that could also go either way. I think the Bills will win one of their two games against the Browns and Jets, and this will be the tougher one. That said, the have the run defense to thwart the Browns three-headed backfield, which Brian Hoyer relies on.

Week 14 Denver Broncos: Nobody should count on the Denver Broncos getting upset for a second time, but they did get shellacked by the St. Louis Rams yesterday in what was the most embarrassing performance of the season from a top team. Yes, this was worse than the New England Patriots getting blown out by a top-self Kansas City Chiefs team. The Broncos aren’t impossible to beat, but I have a hard time seeing the Bills winning any unit matchup (or winning any of them decisively).

Week 15 Green Bay Packers: The hottest team in the NFL right now, it will be interesting to see if the Packers can maintain their scorching pace by the team Week 15 rolls around. If they do, then there’s no way the Bills win. I’m sorry, but Aaron Rodgers is so dominant than when he and the Packers are at their best, the only teams I would put them up against are the New England Patriots, Denver Broncos, and Arizona Cardinals. Even then, I think only the Patriots would be favored.

Week 16 Oakland Raiders: This is a freebie for the Bills, but they deserve it after playing the Broncos and Packers in back-to-back games, but their matchup with the winless Raiders will come before their most anticipated game. You can’t completely out the Raiders, though, since they did play the Seattle Seahawks tough earlier this year.

Week 17 New England Patriots: The New England Patriots are the best team in the NFL right now, and I don’t think you can heavily question that after blowout victories over the Indianapolis Colts and Broncos. Division rivalries can always yield upsets, and we’ve seen plenty of those this season. The Bills do have a chance in this one, even if they did have issues with stopping the Patriots offense in their meet-up earlier this year. I wouldn’t count on the Bills pulling off an upset against New England, but they should be able to keep it close.

The Buffalo Bills schedule ahead of them is extremely difficult, because they must face three Super Bowl contenders, two division rivals, and a playoff contender. Their only truly easy game is the battle with the Raiders. This is a team that could still split 3-3 in these three games by beating the Browns, Jets, and Raiders. I think a 7-9 projection is a safer bet, but they could end up going 8-8.

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