On November 29, 1992 Dennis Byrd of the New York Jets suffered a devastating injury to his spinal cord that left him possibly paralyzed for the rest of his life. The Jets lost that game 23-7 vs the Chiefs to drop to 3-9. How can a team come back from an injury like that to one of their teammates and prepare for the upcoming week. This is especially true when a team is 3-9. What are they playing for?
After this same week in 1992, the Bills were 9-3. They were in a first place battle with the Miami Dolphins. On December 6, they welcomed the New York Jets, a bad team that in no way could have prepared themselves to play the best team in the AFC on the road at Rich Stadium, one of the toughest places to play in the league at this time.
Final Score: Jets 24 Bills 17.
This bears a striking resemblance to the present day. The Bills, a bad team in the eyes of many non Buffalonians lost one of their teammates to a similar injury last week in a loss to an AFC West opponent. They are going on the road to the hostile environment of Heinz Field for their home opener to play a team whose lone goal is to make it back to the Super Bowl. On paper, the Steelers have the better team as did the Bills in 1992. As shown by the Jets however, what is on paper doesn't matter in a game like this.
The emotion should be on the Bills side as they will rally around Kevin Everett and play harder than we have ever seen them play. What would make Everett happier than Buffalo spoiling Pittsburgh's homecoming.
Prediction: Steelers 31 Bills 10
No comments:
Post a Comment