Buffalo Bills: Week 14 Round-up

Dec 8, 2013; Tampa, FL, USA; Buffalo Bills head coach Doug Marrone reacts against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the second half at Raymond James Stadium. Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Buffalo Bills 27-6. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The Buffalo Bills came into week 14 with a hope and prayer of making the playoffs and came out of week 14 with a different look on life.  The playoffs are basically out of the question for the Bills, they are still mathematically in it, sadly to say, but the likelihood is in the single digits for a percent.

For the past 5 weeks, Buffalo has needed to win at least two of the games and they just have not been able to do it.  They have gone 1-4 and really in reality, they should have been 3-2.  If they were able to pull out a win in Toronto and yesterday there would be a completely different outlook at this point.  They would not be sitting at 4-9 but at 6-7 with a viable shot at the playoffs and even probably in the 6th playoff spot and have it theirs to lose.

The teams that the Buffalo Bills have needed to lose to help them along their way, that we have looked at for the past three weeks, have lost and done their part, except for maybe 1 or 2 teams, but that really has not made that big of a difference in the big scheme of things.

At this point for the Bills, we would like to hope that they will still be competitive and give it their all, but I have been able to see it, the past two games, they have given up.

Doug Marrone and company need to make changes to this team and I said it yesterday that it needs to be more than just dropping a player and picking one up.  This team needs a drastic change at this point.  Is it Manuel? Was their too much pressure put on him.  I understand that this is a rookie quarterback on a younger team that is trying to find its identity but when you have two veteran players make big mistakes at the end of a game to cost the Bills a win, twice in the same game, it is more than just the quarterback at this point.

The Buffalo Sabres are in the same boat and made some drastic moves, trading Thomas Vanek and their GM and Coach were fired.  The Bills need to look to something in the realm of this severity at this point.  Going 14 season without a playoff birth needs more than a couple of waiver-wire moves every week.

Some options at this point as Marrone and company just came in, trading a player such as Johnson or Spiller or both.  Spiller is an energetic player but his consistency questions whether he should be a starter or not.  I would rather have a guy that is going to run between the tackles and grind out 2-3 yards every play than one that will dance in the backfield and try and find a whole to make something happen and lose a yard or two with the possibility of once every 50 plays break a big one.

I don’t think that getting rid of Manuel is the answer yet, he is a rookie and there is a learning curve.  I think that when he performed early in the season we all expected the world from him and to be honest, there needs to be the availability of the learning curve and the expectations that he will make mistakes and have a bad game.

This Bills team is one or two players and moves away from making the playoffs. It will be another long off-season with the anticipation of what could have been along with what the Bills will do.