reporters etc. on the upcoming BILLS game

The Bills are terrible! The Bills are great! How quickly the tone can change

The Bills are terrible! The Bills are great! How quickly the tone can change

Three weeks ago, the Bills were coming off a 37-31 loss to the Jets in a game that was more lopsided than the score indicated. Ryan Fitzpatrick carved them for 375 yards passing. Matt Forte rushed for 100 yards and three touchdowns. The villagers gathered at city square and awaited Rex Ryan’s execution.

OK, so that’s not entirely true.

Fitzpatrick threw for 374 yards.

Ryan’s response to his sorry defense getting humiliated on national television was firing his offensive coordinator. That was the story Rex told without explaining why Roman was allowed to oversee offensive meetings the day after the game and hours before he was shown the door with $4 million in severance.

Oh well.

Life is good again in Buffalo after the Bills won two consecutive games. Ryan turned over offensive play-calling to Anthony Lynn and defensive play-calling to Dennis Thurman, and the Bills turned the corner faster than LeSean McCoy. Outscored, 50-38, in the first two games, they outscored their next two opponents, 49-18.

Buffalo pummeled Arizona, supposedly a Super Bowl contender, 33-18. The Bills took another step last week when they charged into Foxborough, Mass., and mugged the Patriots, 16-0, dethroning the AFC East kings in their own castle. The same team left for dead three weeks ago is breathing on its own at 2-2.

Suddenly, the tone changed.

Buffalo made a great quarterback in Carson Palmer look ordinary and backed up that performance by becoming the first team to shut out the Pats in Gillette Stadium. The Bills were third in sacks through four games and allowed only 17 points per game, sixth in the NFL and good enough to win more times than not.

Zach Brown is a revelation at inside linebacker. Lorenzo Alexander, playing for his fourth team in five years, already has a career-high four sacks. They’re bullies. The Bills led the NFL in penalties last year but showed more discipline through four games. Marcell Dareus will be rested and more focused after his suspension.

Tyrod Taylor proved he can win a game when throwing more than 30 times, which he did against New England. He’s spreading the ball around with Sammy Watkins on the sidelines. McCoy was averaging 4.4 yards per carry. The Bills were finally putting Mike Gillislee to good use. It’s only a matter of time for Walt Powell.

It’s all good.

The Bills could win their next four games. The Rams were NFL weaklings going into the season. San Francisco at home? Please. Miami stinks. New England already lost to Buffalo at home, so it’s plausible to believe the Patriots would have an even tougher time in Orchard Park.

If the Bills get on a roll, look out, Seattle. Buffalo could be 7-2 at the bye. Shaq Lawson will give them another asset and prove why he was a first-round pick. Sammy will be coming back at full health. The schedule is soft down the stretch with Cleveland and Miami at home and the Jets on the road.

Three weeks ago, some people had them pegged for 1-8 going into the bye. What morons. We already know that’s not going to happen. Speculation was rampant that Ryan wouldn’t survive the bye week, and Doug Whaley could follow him out the door. Three weeks later, the organization is humming.

Rex is a genius!

Sorry. I’ll stop there.

Look, fans who braced for another long, dreary football season should celebrate the Bills in victory. When they win, everybody wins. Ask the restaurant and tavern owners, or the stores selling Bills’ merchandise, or the people who run newspapers and broadcast companies for that matter.

It would be wise to take a closer look at the first four games, tap the brakes and proceed with caution. I seem to remember offering the same advice in 2008, when Bills Nation was planning the parade after a 4-0 start only to see them close out the final 12 games with a 3-9 record.

In 2011, they opened with three straight victories and had a 4-1 record before finishing 7-9. This marks the sixth straight season in which Buffalo was 2-2 or better, and you know what happened in the other five. To me, the 2016 Bills look no better than the others and, in certain areas, they look worse.

Buffalo’s win over Arizona was desperately needed, and it came from a desperate team that was on the verge of implosion. It also came over an overconfident team traveling across the country. The Cardinals had a penchant for starting slow and did. They also outscored Buffalo, 18-16, over the final 40 minutes.

It appears Arizona was overrated going into the season, too. The Cards lost their two other games at home, the opener to the Patriots and last week to the Rams. Buffalo travels to Los Angeles this week. The Cardinals are 1-3 while the Rams are 3-1. Las Vegas oddsmakers aren’t impressed by the Bills, who are underdogs Sunday. New England’s choices for quarterback were third-string rookie Jacoby Brissett, who had a bum thumb on his passing hand, and receiver Julian Edelman. With three victories in their pockets without Tom Brady, among others, and Rob Gronkowski limited, they handed the kid a conservative game plan and lost.

While Bills fans rejoiced in victory, New England flicked defeat from its sleeve. Bill Belichick didn’t use his timeouts late in the game the way he normally would when trailing by two scores. He treated Sunday’s game like a nuisance in the preseason. He cared more about injuries and long-term success than the result of one game.

So let’s be real. The last two games, more than anything, stimulated our communal mood swings during football season. If the Bills won their first two games and lost the last two, fans and media would suggest they were exposed. Ryan would be back on the hot seat, from which he rarely strays, with Whaley on his lap.

Rex appears safe for now, and so does Whaley, but check back later this season. If we learned anything in the past few weeks, it’s how quickly the tone can change.

Breaking down Rams vs. Bills

Rich Hammond

http://www.dailynews.com/sports/20161008/breaking-down-rams-vs-bills

RAMS OFFENSE vs. BILLS DEFENSE

One never knows, but going in, this doesn’t appear to be The Todd Gurley Breakout Game. In their last two games, the Bills held Arizona to 88 total rushing yards and New England to 90 rushing yards. The Rams must get creative with Gurley, whether that means throwing the ball to him on screens and wheel routes, or simply altering his plays so that he’s sweeping outside rather than running into the middle of an offensive line that can’t seem to create holes for him. This also will be an interesting game for Rams quarterback Case Keenum. He did fine last week at Arizona, and completed 60 percent of his passes, threw two touchdowns and had no interceptions. Keenum was sacked twice, though, and pressured quite a bit, and now he faces an aggressive Buffalo defense that has recorded a total of eight sacks in the last two weeks. The Bills might regain two-time All-Pro defensive tackle Marcell Dareus, who has completed a four-game substance-abuse suspension, but Dareus is questionable with a hand injury. EDGE: BILLS

BILLS OFFENSE vs. RAMS DEFENSE

The Bills made a bold move after they started the season with two losses, and fired offensive coordinator Greg Roman. Running backs coach Anthony Lynn took over. He simplified the playbook a bit and got the Bills playing somewhat faster. The Bills have thrived in the last two games without star receiver Sammy Watkins, who has a foot injury, as Buffalo still has some power on offense. Quarterback Tyrod Taylor is one of the NFL’s best pass-run threats, and could give the Rams some problems the way San Francisco’s Blaine Gabbert did in the season opener. Running back LeSean McCoy is another double threat. Two weeks ago, he rushed for 110 yards and two touchdowns. Last week, he rushed for only 70 yards but caught six passes, one for a touchdown. The Rams’ defensive line has significant injuries, but the Rams have been rotating linemen all season, so they have some experienced players who can step in when necessary. McCoy apparently suffered a hand injury Friday and his status is questionable. EDGE: RAMS

SPECIAL TEAMS

Only six kickers in the NFL have made every field-goal attempt and every extra-point attempt this season, and the Rams’ Greg Zuerlein is among them. He’s 5 for 5 on field goals and 6 for 6 on extra points, and that’s not bad for a guy who nearly lost his job after last season. Buffalo kicker Dan Carpenter had a rough start to the season, with he missed a 49-yard field goal in the Bills’ 13-7 loss to Baltimore, but Carpenter is 6 for 7 in his last three games and is consistent inside 45 yards. The Rams got their first big special-teams play of the season last week when Tavon Austin’s 47-yard punt return put the Rams’ offense in position to score the go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter against Arizona. Brandon Tate is a solid return threat for the Bills. He had a 45-yard kickoff return against the New York Jets three weeks ago and a 31-yard punt return against Arizona two weeks ago. EDGE: RAMS

COACHING

There won’t be many secrets here. Rams coach Jeff Fisher was a student of his former Chicago Bears defensive coordinator, Buddy Ryan, who fathered Bills coach Rex Ryan and defensive coordinator Rob Ryan. There’s plenty of respect here, so much that Fisher attempted to hire Rob Ryan as his coordinator in 2013 before Ryan turned him down and Fisher hired Gregg Williams. Rex Ryan is known to be aggressive on the field and bombastic off it, but there’s not a ton of patience in Buffalo. Ryan coached the New York Jets to AFC Championship Game appearances in 2009 and 2010 but hasn’t been over .500 since. The Bills went 8-8 last year in Ryan’s first season, and he has quieted critics a bit with victories in the last two weeks. The same goes for the Jeff Fisher, who has the Rams off to a 3-1 start for the first time since 2006. Should Fisher lose at home this week, though, the howls will return. EDGE: RAMS

INTANGIBLES

If the Rams had a 1-3 record instead of 3-1, penalties would be a major talking point. The Rams have the fourth-most penalties (36) and penalty yards (333) in the league this season, and in spite of Fisher’s weekly attempts to draw attention to the problem, it continues. The Rams had nine penalties for 84 yards last week at Arizona, including two on offense that negated plays that picked up first-downs. Look out for the turnover margin here, because both teams have thrived of late. The Rams forced five Arizona turnovers last week, while two weeks ago, Buffalo forced five Arizona turnovers. Both teams have a plus-four turnover margin, which is tied for fourth in the NFL this season. EDGE: BILLS

MATCHUP TO WATCH

Rams RT Rob Havenstein vs. Bills LB Jerry Hughes: Hughes, an outside linebacker, recorded five sacks in 16 games last season, but in training camp, the Bills flipped him from the right side to the left side. Hughes has four sacks in four games this season, including two in the season opener against Baltimore. The Bills run a base 3-4 defense, so the right side of the Rams’ offensive line will be in charge of keeping an eye on Hughes, the seventh-year pro. Havenstein and right guard Cory Wichmann — who replaced former starter Jamon Brown at the start of the season — have held up relatively well in pass protection this season, but they will get a big test from Hughes and the Bills’ defensive front.

PREDICTION: RAMS 21, BILLS 20

One of these teams is going to feel really good on Monday morning. Either the Rams will be riding a four-game winning streak or the Bills will have won their third in a row. Both teams have momentum, but it feels as though the Rams have a higher ceiling. They’ve won three in a row in spite of almost no running game, plus terrible penalty problems. Now they’re back home, before what should be a loud, large crowd. This one won’t be easy, but if the Rams’ defense can control the middle of the field and prevent Taylor and McCoy from getting loose, and if the Rams can open things up on offense with a couple big plays — Tavon Austin, anyone? — they should have enough to remain on top of the NFC West standings.