Quick Takes Edition 10 – Volume 2
Buffalo Bills (6-5)
I wouldn’t exactly say the Bills are back. Nor that they’re going to win out. At the Eagles, bye, at the Chiefs and home to the Cowboys are looming in the next few weeks. However, there are some positive takeaways.
The most important aspect is the fact that some sense of order and balance was restored to the offense against the Jets. I will not diminish the accomplishment. Over the last couple seasons, including the season opener, the Jets’ defense has owned Buffalo. While the Jets’ defense deserves the accolades, they are far from contenders. There’s a reason the Jets are 4-5 – they’re half a team. As good as their defense can be at times their offense is even worse; yet they’ve owned the Bills.
That wasn’t the case in tonight’s game. Perhaps it’s because Joe Brady had a baptism under fire week assembling a game plan, but the job was done well. The focus was on balance. There was usage of a run game. There were adjustments in the passing game absent not seen this season under Ken Dorsey. It isn’t a knock on Dorsey overall, but the team seriously needed a change. If there was a major flaw with Dorsey it was that he got caught in a rut. A rut he couldn’t get out of, and it had manifested itself into a continuous loop of the same approach expecting they would eventually kick themselves out of it. Instead they were treading on black ice while applying increasing pressure on the accelerator. It doesn’t work on black ice, and it didn’t work for the Bills.
Truthfully, I didn’t know what Bills team was going to show up tonight. Was it going to be an extension of the Dorsey’s philosophy, or was it going to be an integrated change that shifts away from the accelerator and, perhaps, applying some road salt under the wheels. For Bills’ Mafia, fortunately, it was the latter. It is for this reason that a change at offensive coordinator had to be made. The results tonight had proved it.
There is no reason to conclude that everything’s fine now and Buffalo is on their way. They are not. The schedule is going to be callous, but they finally have a bye week in there to regroup. The Eagles are 8-1 going into Kansas City tomorrow night, and defeating them at home is a towering task. The Chiefs have shown signs of vulnerability in spite of their 7-2 record. The Bills could actually be catching a break in that both of these teams are facing each other on Monday night. It’ll be a battle, and it could add some exhaustion to the Eagles. No matter who wins it’ll be a short week for them – and that will be to the Bills’ advantage.The Bills are a long way from any kind of playoff spot, but the change at OC, and how the team responded, did return some early dividends. It’s once game in the right direction. The next month is going to be even tighter, but from this point moving forward their fate is in their own hands. Which is what any team wants.
Updated 11/20/2023
Chicago Bears (3-8)
This may seem overly simplistic, but sports is a closed binary system. Each league, each sport, is unique, and while coaches might speak about building on the last positive play and dismiss the negative ones, everything builds towards the eventual goal a successful outcome from their perspective. Each practice builds towards the game itself. Each game builds presumably toward a playoff run. Each playoff game builds to the championship game and the eventual championship itself. At the end of the day, no matter the positives, the cliche still holds – it’s about the wins. Binary. Did you win, or did you lose? The Bears are not winners – and that goes for on or off the field.
I actually thought there were a lot of positive takeaways from the Bears showing against the revamped Lions. The Lions as an organization of floundering just like the Bears for many seasons, have finally turned that ship around. The Bears, however, continue to sail onward. The much maligned Justin Fields rushed for 108 yards. DJ Moore almost hit 100. Fields was 16/23 for 169. All in all respectable given what he also accomplished with his legs. The Bears, for the most part, had these new Lions on the ropes, and a 26-14 lead with less than four minutes left – and gave it away. Those are the types of things you do when you don’t know how to win or close out a game. The ending of the game – particularly the safety – are the types of things you do when the organization doesn’t know how to win. They actually look for ways to lose, and yesterday in Detroit they found another way.
This doesn’t look particularly good for Matt Eberflus. It’s a binary system, and a .214 win percentage over the last two seasons – and we’re not even done with 2023 – just doesn’t cut it. It also isn’t a good look for the organization as a whole as another regime change seems to be in order. Another restart. Fields is not without blame sometimes – no quarterback is ever without blame, but he isn’t being done any favors by Halas Hall either. Bears fans are left frustrated wondering what Fields could have done if he was developed by an organization that knew what it was doing? It is like Fields gets a minor pass on some of the dysfunction. Had he been under the tutelage of Andy Reid, Bill Belichick, or Matt LaFleur? If. If. If. He would have at least been given the opportunity to sink or swim under his own merits, but when the organization is this dysfunctional no one knows. It is Thanksgiving Week and the Bears are in the position they’re always in. Out of the playoffs, and the fans wondering when the head coach will be fired. It is a constant cycle by what is a poorly run team at the highest levels. I don’t have any suggestions to offer because no one could have thought things would be this bad for this long. It’s true teams have peaks and valleys – even the Brady-less Patriots now. I think we all knew that was going to happen once he left. It’s inevitable. It is reaching the point that the only thing that hasn’t been done by the Bears, the only thing that hasn’t been tried, is a change in ownership. Maybe that’ll eventually happen?
Notre Dame (8-3) #19
It was a strong showing against Wake Forest on Senior Day. It was nice to see the Irish flex a little bit before they finish the season at Stanford next week. It’s always a bittersweet season with Notre Dame. A strong showing against Ohio State even though it was a loss. An inexcusable performance against Duke even though that was a win, and followed up by an equally bad game against Louisville. I know Louisville is 10-1 and ranked 10th on the dartboard that is the College Football Playoff Committee, but if you’re a top four playoff team you take down Louisville. You also take down a weaken Clemson team. Two of those three losses are particularly stinging. Hopefully Freeman’s year three will clean those types of losses up.
Buffalo Sabres (8-9-1)
At the time of this writing the crossing swords are a game below .500 following a one goal victory in the 3rd Period last night in Chicago. That jumped them up to 13th in the conference as we head into Thanksgiving. Like the Bears they are right on track with the calendar. As we get nearer to New Year’s they should remain somewhere in the 12-14th place depending on how things go. In defiance of the pre-season hype they are proving once again that nothing is really different. The next four games has them facing the Capitals, Penguins, Devils and Rangers. Out of the possible eight points I expect them to come away with three.