Week 11-Bills Bungals

-Coast

The Bills and Bungals play an NFL game tomorrow. It is blacked out in Cincinnati, their first black out since 2003. The teams have a combined 3 wins. You can probably count in your hands the number of non Bills or Bungals fans that will be watching. For me, watching the Bills play in Paul Brown stadium brings some from awesome memories. Who could forget that fateful December 19 day in 2004? The Bills playoff push that ended in heartbreak reached its Pinnacle in South Ohio. The 4 contributors of this blog took their inaugural Bills road trip and the Bills steamrolled the home team 33-17 (The Bills have gone 0-5 since and in one stretch went 11 straight quarters without scoring a touchdown in road games we have attended). Takeo Spikes scored vs. his old team. Jason Peters blocked a punt and recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown. He was wearing a number in the 80’s and still hadn’t turned in to a selfish prick. Lee Evans played in this game. He had 5 catches for 101 yards and a touchdown. Chad Johnson played in this game. He had 2 catches for 10 yards. I called WGR after the game and talked about how great of a shut down corner Nate Clements was. The only other Bills player other than Evans that is still on the team worth mentioning is Terrance McGee.

It is crazy how recent this game seems, but it was 6 years ago. Mike Mularkey was coach. Somehow Marvin Lewis was and still is the Bungal coach. How has he not been fired yet? The Bills are on their third coach since 2004. Carson Palmer was the starting quarterback for the Bungals in 2004 and still is in 2010. Drew Bledsoe quarterbacked the Bills in 2004. The Bills have gone through Drew Bledsoe, JP Losman, Kelly Holcombe, Trent Edwards and Ryan Fitzpatrick since 2004. The Bills are a dysfunctional franchise. 3 coaches in the past 6 years. 5 quarterbacks that had been named the “starter” in the past 6 years. I wasn’t just naming QBs that started because of injuries. All guys that I named were considered by their coach the starter at some point.

Enough negative talk. The Bills haven’t lost to the Bungals in 22 years. The last time the Bungals beat the Bills was January 8, 1989 in the AFC Championship game. Since then, the Bills have played the Bungals 9 times. They are 9-0 in those games and have outscored Cincinnati 275-150. This is an average of 31-17 per game. With how bad the Bills have been this decade, they are 5-0 against the Bungals and have outscored them 152-90. This is a 30-18 average score. That is unbelievable to me. The same decade that the Bills have been completely owned by teams like the Cleveland Browns, they have somehow gone undefeated against Cincinnati. Not only undefeated, but have embarrassed the Bungals.

There is no reason to think that this trend won’t continue tomorrow. The Bungals are in a complete tailspin. They have lost 6 in a row while the Bills are currently on a winning streak. I like the Bills winning the game 23-10. Will this happen? Probably not, but there is one thing I can almost guarantee…the Bills will cover. How can a team that is 2-7 and has lost 6 in a row possibly by a 6 point favorite versus anyone? I thought if two teams were considered even, the home team would be 3 point favorites.

I am rooting for the Bills to win. Yeah, I would love a shot at Andrew Luck…but like I said in this week’s podcast…who knows if he will even enter…and Carolina is going to have the number 1 pick. Jim Harbaugh, Stanford’s coach, did have these comments this week, “He's physically mature, he's mentally mature. He's got a rare talent.” Also…for those of you following his college career, Luck shredded Cal today in a 48-14 win on the road. Didn’t Cal almost beat Oregon last week? Luck went 16-20 for 235 and 2 touchdowns. He also ran for 72 yards, which led his team.

Other quarterback prospects:

Ryan Mallett: 9-17 for 126 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception, 3:54 remaining in the third quarter at Mississippi State. Arkansas is down 21-17.

Jake Locker: 10-21 for 68 yards and 1 interception in a 24-7 win against UCLA. Can we please officially write this guy off as a potential QB prospect? He has had more horrible games than Trent Edwards had senior year. Let’s please not draft this guy.

Cam Newton: Does not have a game this week. Next week Auburn plays at Alabama so we will learn a lot about Newton. Regardless, he is a cheater and a scum bag.