The Buffalo Bills and Tampa Bay Buccaneers open the eighth week of National Football League regular season action tonight with a game from Highmark Stadium. The weather in Buffalo, which can begin to become a factor this time of the year, is downright pleasant. Temperatures are in the mid-sixties and there is only a slight chance of precipitation.
While the weather is pleasant in Buffalo, the team and the Bills fans are getting a bit cranky.
This season, Josh Allen and company have outscored their opponents over the first seven weeks by 80 points. No team in the American Football Conference and only the San Francisco 49ers in the entire league have a better points for and points against number. Problem is, for the Bills, their 80 point bulge over opponents has only equated to four wins in seven games and second place, behind the Dolphins, in the AFC East Division.
So, what’s wrong with the Bills?
Well, a number of things that appeared pitched in favor of Buffalo have instead knocked them out of the box. It began in the opening Monday Night Football game of the season, a contest in which the Bills led the New York Jets by ten points headed to the halftime locker room and New York had lost their quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, on the game’s opening series of downs.
This would be a night when a quote from David Letterman about the Bills after they blew a halftime lead over the Dallas Cowboys in one of their four Super Bowl losses was appropriate, “Hey, save some of that champagne for after the game.”