Opening Week & a Half of the Season

Pat Freeman, The Mighty O’Ba

The Buffalo Bills have one of the most challenging weeks of the tenure of McDermott/Beane as they open the season against the Arizona Cardinals. The first 3-5 games of the regular season are the most difficult for any coaching staff. You do not have a file of what a team likes to do for that year with those personnel. Most coaches will not admit to that being the case, but it is true for a league that is dominated by coaching strategy. The advantage with the game on Sunday goes to Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills who still return a veteran group of players with a good core group of coaches. This will be a hard-fought game because it being the first of the year, but it also marks the healthy return of Kyler Murray who has struggled with injury for the past two seasons. He will bring with him one of the best receivers from the draft in Marvin Harrison Jr who will no doubt be an emerging force in this league but let us not hope it starts on Sunday. The Bills should win a very hard-fought game 24- 17.

The hometown team must then immediately turn their attention to AFC east rival Miami who they play on Thursday evening in South Florida. The NFL, which always reminds you that they are a business is no doubt showing that aspect with their scheduling. This is not a good matchup for the Bills who must travel to their rival in a short week. South Florida this time of year is hot and steamy which could affect the field performance of the Bills in a short week. When I asked Coach McDermott about it, he said he would not talk about it. Most coaches are not thrilled with aspects of the scheduling of the NFL but must adjust to it. This could be a bad game for the hometown team only because of scheduling.