Finally the Bills show some emotion and open training camp with a chip on their shoulder. Granted, having an underachieving defensive lineman take a cheap shot at your overachieving starting running back may not be the best way to bring emotion back to your game, but any emotion after the Dick Jauron years has to be appreciated.
Not since the opening of the 2003 season, when Buffalo, then led by Drew Bledsoe, pasted the New England Patriots 31-0, has Buffalo been a team to get excited about. Since that game you have managed only a 46-65 record. Not terrible. Not great. Merely a lukewarm, average, why-should-we-care record. In a division where you are clearly the doormats, you better scrap together every bit of motivation and emotion you have, because you will need every ounce of it to achieve anything more than a 6-10 record this season.
New England is on the prowl, Miami is suddenly relevant, even if they faltered last year, and the New York Jets proved they won’t shy away from anybody. In a stacked division with three legitimate playoff contenders, you have to play with emotion. You need to kick, scratch and claw for every yard you can get this season. And when it’s fourth down around your opponent’s 40 yard line, don’t punt! Don’t quiver and give the ball away. Stand up, fight for that first down and go for it!
Bold failures are easily forgiven. No team ever became great playing afraid to lose. Not only have you played afraid to lose, but you have also played to contain the margin of defeat. A loss is a loss, whether it’s by one point or fifty.
You may fall short and fail once again this year, but you can certainly fail better than you have in the past. With the quarterback position unsettled, the running game and defense will have to step up in order for you to regain the dominance you once had in the 90’s.
Since you open the season with three division games and one game at Lambeau, you have an immediate chance to send a clear message to the rest of the league. But what message will you send?
Will you emerge from those opening games brilliant and bold or 0-for-4 and buffaloed?
Team of the past decade. The Evil Empire. Everything that is both right and wrong with Boston sports. A coach referred to as a genius. A quarterback ranked among the beautiful. A franchise, once downtrodden, now a failing dynasty.
Most teams around the league would love to have the pedigree of the New England Patriots. No single team challenged your status as the elite franchise of the past ten years. Indianapolis came closest, but ruined their opportunity last season to surpass you when they lost to New Orleans and gave away a chance to accomplish what you could not – finish the season as undefeated Super Bowl champions.
Though you have stumbled of late and injuries have taken their toll on some of your best players, you are still classified among the elites in the AFC, if not the NFL. No franchise has ever been the Team of the Decade twice during the modern era. Green Bay did little in the 70’s, Pittsburgh faltered in the 80’s, San Francisco fell off the map in the 90’s and Dallas stumbled through the last decade.
To start your journey towards unparalleled greatness, you will have to run a gauntlet of fire and emerge unscathed. Twelve of your games are played against playoff teams from last season or division opponents. Only the games against Cleveland and Detroit could be chalked up as outright wins this early in the preseason schedule.
If you weather the storms early and are able to stay healthy late, once again come playoff time fans around the league will be cursing your name and cringing at your cold-blooded efficiency.
Tomorrow, letters to the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins...
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