Sabres vs Ottawa

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Are you kidding me?

Despite the Bills convincing win against the Seahawks they are still being ignored. According to ESPN analysts they have Buffalo ranked 13 in the NFL. Next to the rankings they have the teams record and then a small explanation of why they are ranked there. Next to the Bills 1-0 record it reads "The 34-10 victory over Seattle was perhaps the most complete Week 1 performance. Pro Bowl LT Jason Peters ended his holdout and could play Sunday against Jacksonville." I am not sure how you translate complete performance and getting back an exceptional athlete to 13.
As if the ranking was not bad enough lets examine a few of the teams ranked 1-12. Three of these teams lost on Sunday (Chargers, Colts, Jacksonville). If you are not going to base it on win loss whats the point of waiting to post them? They might as well have just posted the rankings before anyone played.
After I failed to see the logic in that part of the decision I decided to move on to how teams won. The Bills won by 24 points against a team that went 10-6 last year. The Patriots, ranked 9, beat the Chiefs by 7. The Chiefs were 4-12 last year. Please do not excuse this with Tom Brady's injury. As a Buffalo fan who watched 17 players go on injured reserve last season I have no sympathy for any team who struggles with injuries. Football is a team sport, if someone gets hurt you send out your back up and get the job done.
I think the worst part about all of this is everyone (espn.com and every broadcaster who discusses either team) is comparing the Bills win to the Jets win. If Chad Pennington could throw a good ball at the end of the game they lose to Miami. Miami was 1-15 last season. So to recap this comparison the Bills won by 24 on a team that won their division last season with a 10-6 record and the Jets won by 6 on a team that was a joke last season with only 1 win. In what world are these wins even close to being similar?
If anyone steps back and looks at these rankings they should be able to tell how incredibly ridiculous they are. Analysts should be objective and these choices are anything but. They need to expand their tunnel vision and include some logic in their decisions.

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