Are the Bills about to catch lightning in a bottle for the the 4th time?

By Goose  |   Wednesday, October 06, 2010  |  Comments( 269 )

Buffalo Bills
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Boom—Bam—Crack—that’s the sound of a major storm about to hit OBD!!!

For a handful of us that have been fans since the 60’s we have been on the roller coaster ride of good teams and really bad teams. The Bills are about to embark on one of the really bad time frames as they start a total rebuild from top to bottom. I see such a lack of talent on the current team that it looks like we are in a time machine heading back to a very dark sequence of past Buffalo Bills seasons.

1967—1972 record 17-64-3
1976---1978 record 10-34
1984—1986 record 8-40

2009—current 6-14

Make no mistake about it, the Bills will be rebuilding for at least the next few years. There are so many holes on the team that it will be impossible to do a quick turn around, what could help is that there is free agency which wasn’t available during their past free falls.

They pulled out of the funk during the "67-72" era by hiring Lou Saban who immediately gave the Bills an identity by building an O-line and handing the ball to O.J. Even that took 2 years Lou was only 4-9-1 during his first year. After Lou left at the beginning of the “76” with a 2-3 record things fell apart rather quickly as the Bills finished 2-12.

The Bills again hit rock bottom during the “76” & “77” seasons by going 5-22. Chuck Knox was hired and he also gave the Bills an identity by putting together a hard nose defensive style of ball—who could ever forget the Bermuda Triangle with Haslett, Nelson and Smerlas. Ground Chuck’s first year record was 5-11 but the foundation was being laid. Knox left after the strike shortened “82” season and yes the Bills went into another tail spin.

After the horrid period of “84”-“86” going 8-40 lady luck was with the Bills. GM Terry Bledsoe got sick and when the team struggled when he got back he was fired. A young and up and coming Bill Polian who was director of Pro Personnel was promoted to GM. Bill knew talent, hired Levy, signed Bruuuuce and he knew the key to turning the franchise around was signing Jim Kelly which he did. The Bills now had an identity with the gunslinger Kelly in the fold and I think at that time he was known as “Machine Gun” Kelly. The fans were excited and team was on the up-swing which lasted all the way to the “99” season.

The 2000’s brought constant turmoil from the front office to the coaching staff and to the players. The results of this showed on the field with only one winning record (9-7 in “04”) and no playoff appearances. It was the FIRST time in the Bills 50 year history that they failed to make the playoffs during a decade. Jauron’s teams were competitive but peaked without ever having a winning record. Now Nix and Chan are left to sort thru the rubble. It won’t be easy turning the Bills around, 10 years of bad drafting and bad personnel decisions have the left the Bills with just a sprinkle of talent. An that just isn’t good enough to be competitive much less a playoff contender!!!
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