Who Owns This Mess

Ralph Wilson says he is responsible. With each new loss, Chan Gailey says he is
responsible. Although theyʼre not talking much anymore, surely all the previous
coaches from the Bills coaching carousel have part ownership. The question is: whoreally owns this mess that is the Buffalo Bills?

At the end of the day, there is one man who got rid of Bill Polian. Heʼs the same guy that got rid of John Butler. Both of those men packed their bags and turned their new teams into contenders with Polian building a perennial powerhouse with the Colts. The man is, obviously, Ralph Wilson.

Where does that leave Bills fans? How do you demand change from the guy that owns the place? While there have been cries of not going to games, that simply is not the answer. Once we go down that road, it will hasten the departure of our beloved Bills from Western New York. The vast majority of us donʼt want that.

What we need to do is look for glimmers of hope while continuing to support our team. While itʼs hard to see said glimmers, I, for one, see them each week. Here goes:

An improved offense: last year, we couldnʼt even smell the end zone. This year, itʼs (in some games, anyway) our home away from home. This is in no small part due to Fitzʼ superior play (when compared to Trent Edwards), an improved offensive line (tackles TBD), the departure of the run-by-committee approach, and, lastly, actually utilizing our wide receivers. Stevie Johnson and Roscoe Parrish have been stellar and have kept us in the last three games.

Next is defense: ok, I canʼt really say anything here other than I hope we utilize our picks in the 2011 draft to give the D some help because they desperately need it! While that statement is mostly true, the defense is, in actual fact, starting to come around. Against the Bears (who, admittedly, arenʼt the best offense to create comparisons from), the defense made a critical stop in the fourth quarter which allowed us to throw an interception and seal the loss. The point is, they gave the offense the opportunity.

Special Teams: here we actually have improved. As with the other areas of the team, it had to be kick started and didnʼt really get up to speed until the third or fourth game. The only real SNAFU has been the PAT block in the Bears game (after 321 consecutive by Rian Lindell) which, as some have said, could have been the real nail in the coffin for the Bills on that fateful day in Toronto.

The future: The Bills have shown guts this year. One look to Dallas will show what a really terrible team looks like. Itʼs full of stars, full of talent and they arenʼt even involved in their games…they checked out long ago. The Bills, on the other hand, have driven decent opponents in each of the last three weeks, to the brink. There are no real stars, no jaw-dropping names in the coaching department, no big, shiny new stadium. There is, however, heart. Iʼll take that any day of the week.

-Benjamin Trout