Buffalo Bills: Times have changed since last 3-0 start

Times have certainly changed since the last time the Buffalo Bills were 3-0.

Someone Like You by Adele hit number one on the Top 40 charts while Lady Gaga was tailgating her closely at number two with Born This Way. The Artist was one of the top motion picture. I am only familiar with one of these three top entertainment products of the time. I do not claim to like the one that I am familiar with.

An SUV sized rover landed on Mars and explored the surface gathering images of anything and everything but people were more interested in what was going on with Walter White in Breaking Bad.

The Apple iPad 2 was the top gadget and the Amazon Kindle Fire was doing quite well due to its affordability.

The Dallas Mavericks upset the Miami Heat dream team in the NBA Finals, capturing the NBA championship.

The Buffalo Sabres made the playoffs following the 2010-2011 NHL season. Unfortunately they have not made it back in the post season since.

Lastly, Osama bin Laden was located and killed by the Navy Seals after a decade long manhunt.

You may ask yourself what the significance of these events are or what the common ground happens to be. These are some famous news stories from the year 2011. This was also the last time that the Buffalo Bills started a season with a 3-0 record.

The Buddy Nix managed team coached by Chan Gailey went ahead and defeated New England  in Week 3 that year, ending a 15 game losing streak to the divisional rival.

Buffalo went ahead and lost an awful lot a games after that great start, finishing the year 3-10 for a final record of 6-10. Ryan Fitzpatrick was the Bills starting quarterback at that time throwing the ball to Stevie Johnson who was having his second straight season with over 1000 receiving yards.

Back to back 1,000 yard seasons is an accomplishment never achieved by some of the best receivers in franchise history like Eric Moulds, Andre Reed or James Lofton. Do not forget about Lee Evans. He failed to reach that milestone as well.

Marcell Dareus, Aaron Williams and Kelvin Sheppard were the top three draft picks by Buddy Nix in 2011, which would have them rookies for this season. Ralph Wilson was still the owner of the team. His name was also on the stadium that they played seven home games at in Orchard Park. Seven? Do not forget that disaster marketing attempt known as the Toronto Series.

The Bills already were securely in the midst of the longest active playoff drought back at that time.

Some takeaways from the provided data? The last time the Buffalo Bills were 3-0 was a different world and unintentionally indicates what a poor organization the Bills were for so very long. It also should serve as a reminder that a 3-0 team clearly has proven nothing yet. Fans were extremely excited in 2011 with that start believing that they may have finally collected enough pieces to the puzzle needed for winning.

We were so very amiss. They only squeaked out three more wins over the rest of that season.

I shall be the one to say it hoping to differentiate the current state of the organization from that team that imploded.

Trust the process.