You Have To Believe You Can Beat Big Brother
Growing up as the youngest of 10 kids with 9 boys taught me an important lesson. It doesn't matter how many times your big brothers beat the crap out of you, it's important to believe you can win those fights no matter how much of a disadvantage you may have. If you believe you have no chance to win the fight you will never win one. I lost 99.99% of all the fights I have ever had with my older brothers but my belief that I could win these fights led to two shocking upsets where I was able to beat up one of my older brothers and I will never forget those moments for the rest of my life.
One of those fights involved a lucky punch to my brothers kidney which took him out of commission and the other involved me putting one of my brothers into a headlock and throwing him onto the dining room table and holding him down there until he tired himself out. I took countless beatings over the years (was hung by my underwear on the garage door, was thrown down an entire flight of steps and was hit over the head with a shovel during a snowball fight) but I always look back on those two times where I was able to defeat a bigger, stronger and better opponent as being worth all those beatings. I was able to win those times because of two reasons 1) a little bit of luck and 2) because I believed I could win. I am hoping the Bills believe in themselves this week and with a little bit of luck who knows what can happen.
I am not here to argue the Bills are just as good as the Patriots. I think the Patriots have proven their dominance over the years but even with the Patriots being the "big brother" of the division the Bills still need to believe in themselves that they can win this game. I did not like the comments fromRex Ryan the other day basically saying the Patriots have already won the division. While I admit this is 100% true it's just not something a head coach should say especially after only playing 9 games. If Rex doesn't believe the Bills can win the division how are the players supposed to believe in themselves? So below are a few of the reasons the Bills should believe in themselves this week no matter how much the odds are stacked against them.
The Patriots have lost two key players Julian Edelman and Dion Lewiswho accounted for over 47% of the Patriots total yards against the Bills in week 2 (247 yds out of 522) and 3 of their 4 touchdowns. With those two keys players out the Bills defense should match up better against the Patriots offense this time around. The Patriots have also had a few injuries on the offensive line since week 2.
Buffalo's offense has had more time to mature and develop chemistry since week 2. Many of the Bills impact players are new to the team and have never played together before (Tyrod Taylor, LeSean McCoy,Karlos Williams, Charles Clay). They will continue to get better and become a more cohesive unit the more they are able to stay healthy and play together which should improve their performance.
The Bills had three more days to prepare for this game than the Patriots did because Buffalo played on Thursday night last week. Hopefully this time was used wisely to scheme and prepare for this important game while also getting healthy.
The Bills played a lot better against the Patriots towards the end of the previous meeting. While some point to the fact that this was garbage time since the Pats had a big lead, I am not sure I concur with that assessment. The Patriots were still trying to embarrass the Bills by throwing on them and while that did slow down the clock giving the Bills more time to come back, it does not mean the Patriots weren't trying their hardest to win by even more points.
The last time the two teams played Rex Ryan and the fans at the Ralph had the Bills so jacked up that it actually worked against them. The Bills committed 14 penalties for 140 yards and three of those penalties gave the Patriots first downs. The Bills should easily be able to reduce that number just based on the law of averages. Also helpful is the fact that Gene Steratore's crew will handle the game and they have called fewer penalties than most other crews around the league per game.
I certainly do not expect the Bills to win on Monday night but I do believe they can win and I am hoping they believe in themselves as well because with a little bit of luck anything can happen. Like they say "Any Given Sunday" or I guess in this case Monday. Let's Go Bills!
http://www.thebillsblues.com
Bills vs Patriots coverage