Hey, Bills fans, take this!

By Anthony Carroll  |   Friday, September 19, 2008  |  Comments( 259 )

Oakland Raiders
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Amid all of the Lane Kiffin-Al Davis hype, here’s a quick reminder for some readers out there: The Oakland Raiders do have a game this week.

The Raiders will be traveling to Orchard Park, N.Y., for a Week 3 contest with the Buffalo Bills, who will be sporting their electric blue throwback jerseys to further rile up a home crowd that, well, hardly needs any riling.

Buffalo is coming off two straight wins to kick off the 2008 campaign, and is looking to push its record to 3-0 and remain atop the now-up-for-grabs AFC East. Oakland, on the other hand, is attempting to win two straight, after suffering a 27-point loss against the Denver Broncos in Week 1 and rebounding to top the Kansas City Chiefs last Sunday, 23-8. The Raiders currently sit (uncomfortably) second in the AFC West.

While all the buzz in Oakland, around Oakland or anywhere within a 50-foot radius of a Raider fan is how 79-year-old team owner Al Davis plans to deal with second-year head coach Lane Kiffin, the focus in Buffalo is rightfully on Week 3.

The Bills are currently 9½-point favorites to top Oakland, which, if prognosticators are correct, would be the first time in a decade. Buffalo last beat Oakland back in 1998, 44-21, in a Week 15 shootout; since, they’ve lost contests to the Raiders in 1999, 2002, 2004 and 2005. Keep in mind, in ‘04 and ‘05, the Raiders were a combined 9-23, meaning roughly 22 percent of their wins over a span of two years were thanks to Buffalo.

Still, that’s no reason for the vast majority of Bills fans to think Sunday should be a rerun of the past. The Bills are 2-0, for the first time in six seasons. Fans are at an all-time high.

With that, I went over to BuffaloBills.com and took a glance at their message boards and came back with some interesting threads that need addressing. And a bad stomachache.

Not to ruin the fun, but Oakland can beat Buffalo on Sunday, despite what some overly optimistic fans have to say.

• Thread 1: “Trent Edwards = Tom Brady” (Posted Sept. 17 at 11:04 a.m. EST)

Ummm. OK, so this post title says the 24-year-old Edwards (seven career victories) is equal to (not kind of like, or similar to -- but equal to) Tom Brady (three-time Super Bowl champion, four-time Pro Bowler, two-time All-Pro and 2007 NFL MVP). So I opened it up. The case: The pair of quarterbacks have similar “on-the-field demeanor,” “great pocket presence” and “underwhelming college careers.” While, granted, some objected to the premature comparison, this certainly can’t bode well for Oakland if it’s even one-third true, right?

Of course. But if Derrick Burgess and the Raider D-line played like they did last week, I can put a stamp of guarantee on the fact that Edwards will look nothing like Brady. The Raider ‘D’ brought down Kansas City’s passers (there were three of them) five times last week, with Burgess, Kalimba Edwards, Gerard Warren, Kirk Morrison and Thomas Howard all notching a sack apiece. Burgess alone could have had three sacks by himself if he had so much as tied his cleats a little tighter.

If D-coordinator Rob Ryan brings the heat like he did in Week 2, expect that thread to fall deep into the message board archive.

• Thread 2: “I smell a blow out” (Posted Sept. 17 at 3:41 p.m. EST time)

Here are three lines from the post that say it all:

1. “Buffalo just keeps scoring points and Oakland has no answer AT ALL … NOTHING!”
(Author’s side note: CAPS MEAN BUSINESS.)
2. “It gets crazy by half time, and J.P. Losman is playing clean up!”
3. “Buffalo 47, Oakland 9. I am not sure how Oakland got nine points, but I didn’t want to sound disrespectful.”

Apparently, the players comprising Oakland’s roster are inferior athletes who drool on themselves and roll over when the tough gets going. This poster makes the Buffalo Bills (… haven’t made the playoffs in nine years) look like back-to-back-to-back-to-back Super Bowl Champs who can hit the “on” switch and devour any NFL franchise alive.

The fact of the matter is, Buffalo beat two winless teams that have been decimated by injury, one of which let San Francisco put up 33 points (!!!) on them last week. I’ll be the first to admit, with an injured Justin Fargas, ailing Darren McFadden and slowly developing JaMarcus Russell headlining Oakland’s offense, the Raiders won’t be a scoring machine Sunday. Not even close. But the Bills won’t put up 47 points, either. The Raider ‘D’ will be stingy. That is, if the defenders can suck up their drool and remember they have a game Sunday and helmets are required.

And “I smell crap” would be a better title for this thread.

• Thread 3: “Raiders man up” (Posted Sept. 18 at 2:43 p.m. EST time)

The post: “The Raiders’ D is about as vanilla as it gets, if we can beat their man schemes it could be a huge day for the offense … A guy like Roscoe (Parrish) could have a break out day in the slot … Should be fun. I think we can hang 31 on them.”

Only 31 points? Much more conservative. As for the slot matchup, I’ll take Stanford Routt.

• Thread 4: “Thanks to Bills, Kiffin will be fired! Sorry!” (Posted Sept. 18 at 8:44 p.m. EST time)

The post: “Yeah, I know that is disrespectful, but the Bills will blow out the Raiders. Sorry, come on! Say ‘sorry’ with me.”

The reality: Control your ego, buddy. Thanks to Al Davis, Kiffin will be fired. Come on, say it with me, Bills fans! “Senile!” “Senile!”

• Thread 5: “Prediction Time” (Posted Sept. 18, 10:18 a.m. EST time)

Thread maker: “Bills: 27, Raiders: 13.”

Next seven predictors: Bills 30, Raiders 7 … Bills 24, Raiders 13 … Bills 41, Raiders 10 …Bills 38, Raiders 10 …Bills 47, Raiders 9 … Bills 31, Raiders 9 …Bills 37, Raiders 10.

Total: Bills 275, Raiders 81

Mine: Raiders 23, Bills 21.

Wait, let me try that one again. I mean business.

MINE: Raiders 23, BILLS 21.

Anthony Carroll can be contacted at
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About Anthony Carroll

Anthony Carroll began writing for RealFootball365.com on Sept. 26, 2005, making him one of the longest tenured contributors to the “365” team. As a senior writer, Anthony has taken on the task of delivering original content to the silver and black faithful year round, despite having to deal ...
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