Bills 41 Chiefs 7

-Coast

Well, I was only half wrong when I said that the Bills could win but wouldn't win. The Bills began the 2011 season with one of their most convincing victories of the past 11 years. The Chiefs are the defending AFC West champions. They were on their home turf the hostile Arrowhead Stadium. In the Bills glory years, they couldn't win at Arrowhead. I remember when the unstoppable Bills would go into Arrowhead and get run over by Christian Okoye. This year's team wouldn't let that happen.

The Bills defense looked much improved. Matt Cassel threw for 119 yards (3.3 yards per attempt). The Chiefs only ran it for 108 yards but mostly because they were forced to abandon the run. They did average 6 yards per carry on the day though which isn't a great stat for the Bills but we will not dwell on that for now. In total, the Bills allowed only 213 total yards of offense, which is a far cry from the 361.6 they allowed per game last year. The 108 yards allowed on the ground is 62 yards below their average rush yards allowed in 2010 and Kansas City led the NFL in rushing yards per game last year.

The Bills offense was as good if not better than the defense. A lot of people may have been surprised by Fitzy's 4 touchdown performance. I am not. Pro bowl caliber players have 4 touchdown games on the road against division champions and that is exactly what I am predicting for Fitzy. Stevie Johnson looked like a number 1 receiver. David Nelson, Donald Jones, everyone pitched in on the 41 point outburst.

Fred Jackson had a 100 yard game and looked like a beast on some runs. Maybe this guy can convince me to like him eventually. Brad Smith provided a nice wrinkle with the wildcat. My only beef would have to rest with Cliff Spiller. He had a nice touchdown run when the game was over, but only had 21 yards of offense. He touched the ball 6 times. We drafted a running back 9th overall and in the first game of his 2nd season he touches the ball 6 times. I am not saying that he should be getting the ball more because clearly Jackson is a better running back right now (despite what I may have said about him in the past), but it is possible that CJ Spiller is a bust. If he is, he will go down as one of the worst draft picks in team history. Reggie Bush was one of the greatest RBs in college football history. He has been an average pro. CJ Spiller is the same type of running back and wasn't even as close to as good as Bush was in college. I wonder why we expected him to be much better.

You may wonder why I forgot to give a shout out to Scotty Chandler? He deserves his own paragraph. 5 catches, 63 yards and 2 touchdowns. Do the Bills have a tight end? Probably not but we can hope. If you are anything like me and were wondering who Scott Chandler is and where he came from, here is the answer. He is in his fourth year, played for Iowa in college. He was with the Cowboys until November 25th last season. He had 0 catches in 9 games. He was acquired by the Bills and had 1 catch for 8 yards on the season. Did we find a diamond in the rough here? Probably not,Mark Campbell had 3 touchdowns in a game and then disappeared from existence. We'll give Scott a chance though.

The home opener is next Sunday vs. the Raiders. If the Bills can pull off a win next week, we will have a chance to see if they are bad, average or decent on the 25th vs. New England. It's been over 8 full years since we have beaten the Patriots, but first let's first take care of business vs. the Raiders. Something just feels different about this team. Thinking back on it, it never felt like that 2008 team was good. They were just a fraud from the beginning. I may be overreacting to a win over a team that probably sucks but it seems different. It seems like the coach has a clue. I love the quarterback and truly think he is a good player and a great leader as oppose to the QB in 2008 same goes for that coach.

I am officially changing my prediction for the season back to the original 13-3 prediction I made weeks ago. Go Bills!