Who Will Have a Better Season - Bills or Sabres?

[GASabresIUFAN]

So who is better this season.  Who makes the playoffs?  Is playoffs a realistic goal for either team?

Edited August 12, 2018 by GASabresIUFAN

[Mustache of God]

Where's the option for the Bills winning the Superbowl and the Sabres lifting the cup?

[Wyldnwoody44]

Bills back to 7-9 sabres with 87 points..... About the equivalent eh? 

[dudacek]

Allen gets tapped for his first start in game 6 with the Bills at 2-3. He throws for 5 TDS. They finish the season 11-5 and beat the Patriots 42-10 in the playoffs in the AFC championship game

Casey puts up a 64-point rookie season, but loses out in the Calder race to Dahlin, who puts up 65, and scores the OT winner in game 7 to push the Sabres past the Leafs and into the Stanley Cup final.

August is the best of times for a Buffalo sport fan.

[Hoss]

The Bills are a 3-7 win team as currently constructed. The Sabres are a borderline playoff team.

[inkman]

Since the NHL can't figure out how to properly award teams for wins and losses, what's the measuring stick? Playoffs? It's infinitely easier to to make the playoffs in th NHL. You can't use win percentage unless we adhere to the Deluca .500 rule. Which I'm fine with .

[In The Buff]

I voted for the both teams hover around the .500 mark. Reason being is that I expect the Bills having some difficulty with the 1st half of the season, perhaps going 3-5 or dare i say 4-4. The 2nd half looks more promising where if our d plays as expected & we remain in games, a record of 9-7 would seem within reach. I know some won't agree & perhaps would say we're worse off than that, but we really won't know how good those teams are on our schedule until we see them in action. There are surprises every year, but i like what i see out of this team so far early in the process.

For the Sabres with the additions they've made, with better goaltending, a stronger defense & better even strength scoring & special teams, getting to that 85-90 point mark would be a heck of an achievement after what we've been thru, but in my eyes entirely possible.

Yes I am forever the optimist, if you can call hovering around the .500 mark optimistic lol

[erickompositör72]

Sabres will fight for a playoff spot, Bills 7-9

[Hoss]

Most scenarios that lead the Bills to 7-9 would be a big disappointment. They’re in a position where they’re better off adding high end talent in the draft next season and gearing up for Allen’s future in 2019.

[SwampD]

7 hours ago, Hoss said:

Most scenarios that lead the Bills to 7-9 would be a big disappointment. They’re in a position where they’re better off adding high end talent in the draft next season and gearing up for Allen’s future in 2019.

Just stop. The only way to win is to win. Period. When will this "ya gotta lose now in order to win in the future" thing just go away?

[stinky finger]

Sabres chase but fall short.

 

Bills go 5-11

[JJFIVEOH]

Until I see some major improvement, I don't think either team will do well. I've tried to be an optimist for too long only to be disappointed. Now, I won't be happy until either team proves me wrong. 

[Hoss]

11 hours ago, SwampD said:

Just stop. The only way to win is to win. Period. When will this "ya gotta lose now in order to win in the future" thing just go away?

Naw, I’ll keep rooting for the team’s I pay my own money to enjoy the way I want to. Thanks.

[nfreeman]

I think the Bills will win between 7 and 10 games, with the final result driven mostly by QB play and TOs.  

While I have high hopes for the Sabres, it’s hard to see them jumping from a well deserved DFL finish to DeLuca .500 or better.  

So IMHO it’s most likely that the Bills have a better season.  

[SwampD]

8 minutes ago, Hoss said:

Naw, I’ll keep rooting for the team’s I pay my own money to enjoy the way I want to. Thanks.

Your welcome. Not to pick one more time, but, I just think it's dumb. It's not the NHL, there is no lottery. Unless you are picking in the top 4 or 5 for that known star, where you pick in the NFL draft is irrelevant, imo. There are so many talented players, and if a team isn't able to find one wherever they select then they probably aren't going to win anyway.

I just can't believe how many seasons fans are willing to just throw away.

 

I think both teams make the playoffs and we will have a thread next summer debating Who Had the Better Season - Bills or Sabres.

[Hoss]

30 minutes ago, SwampD said:

Your welcome. Not to pick one more time, but, I just think it's dumb. It's not the NHL, there is no lottery. Unless you are picking in the top 4 or 5 for that known star, where you pick in the NFL draft is irrelevant, imo. There are so many talented players, and if a team isn't able to find one wherever they select then they probably aren't going to win anyway.

I just can't believe how many seasons fans are willing to just throw away.

 

I think both teams make the playoffs and we will have a thread next summer debating Who Had the Better Season - Bills or Sabres.

I think there’s a decent chance they are indeed drafting in the top five. Maybe someone remembers where that statistical breakdown that concluded last year’s team was actually the second worst of the entire drought? They got worse. So the ton of luck they had heaped on them last year would have to save them double this time around.

[nfreeman]

Hoss — are you a defender of the Sabres’ tank for Eichel?  Just curious as to your position and reasoning.  

[Hoss]

54 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

Hoss — are you a defender of the Sabres’ tank for Eichel?  Just curious as to your position and reasoning.  

I always have been, yes. Glad it has worked out to this point. The rest of the process needs to start working, though.

I’m not advocating for the Bills to tank (I was in the preseason last year due to the QBs in the draft), but I think they’re bad and I don’t think plodding to 7-9 (ironically referred to as “winning” above) does anything for anyone. There’s a very real chance Josh Allen has a full redshirt year ahead and I some of key core members of this team (McCoy, Kyle, maybe even Benjamin) will be gone after this year. The only top talent on this team: Poyer, Hyde, White, Dawkins (and have all only done it for one year) and then potential top talent: Allen, Edmunds. They need some serious high-end talent. They’ve got one of the worst groups of young players.

[Randall Flagg]

Yeah...these results are pretty stunning. 

I'd like to see the Sabres show they can come close to getting the nearly 20 points they need to get back to the mediocrity they were before this season, let alone the nearly 20 they need on top of that to be flirting with a playoff spot, before the team I just watched in the playoffs (in a league where it's MUCH harder to make the playoffs) a few months ago falls below them in next-season-projections for which we have an equal lack of proof/validation for each team....

[Hoss]

6 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

Yeah...these results are pretty stunning. 

I'd like to see the Sabres show they can come close to getting the nearly 20 points they need to get back to the mediocrity they were before this season, let alone the nearly 20 they need on top of that to be flirting with a playoff spot, before the team I just watched in the playoffs (in a league where it's MUCH harder to make the playoffs) a few months ago falls below them in next-season-projections for which we have an equal lack of proof/validation for each team....

The Bills were bad last year, REALLY bad. And BARELY snuck into the playoffs (guess it was easy to get in last year). Like they got in in an incredibly unlikely scenario at the last moment possible. And they almost assuredly got much worse.

[WildCard]

5 hours ago, Hoss said:

I always have been, yes. Glad it has worked out to this point. The rest of the process needs to start working, though.

I’m not advocating for the Bills to tank (I was in the preseason last year due to the QBs in the draft), but I think they’re bad and I don’t think plodding to 7-9 (ironically referred to as “winning” above) does anything for anyone. There’s a very real chance Josh Allen has a full redshirt year ahead and I some of key core members of this team (McCoy, Kyle, maybe even Benjamin) will be gone after this year. The only top talent on this team: Poyer, Hyde, White, Dawkins (and have all only done it for one year) and then potential top talent: Allen, Edmunds. They need some serious high-end talent. They’ve got one of the worst groups of young players.

There are 9 QBs taken in the 1st round that didn't start their rookie year in the last 20 years

 

[SwampD]

2 hours ago, Hoss said:

The Bills were bad last year, REALLY bad. And BARELY snuck into the playoffs (guess it was easy to get in last year). Like they got in in an incredibly unlikely scenario at the last moment possible. And they almost assuredly got much worse.

You keep saying this. What specifically makes you so sure of this? Honest question. Is it the O line? 'Cuz the D seems pretty much the same, and we are absolutely better at receiver. Just wondering. Maybe should answer in the Bills thread.

[Hoss]

3 hours ago, SwampD said:

You keep saying this. What specifically makes you so sure of this? Honest question. Is it the O line? 'Cuz the D seems pretty much the same, and we are absolutely better at receiver. Just wondering. Maybe should answer in the Bills thread.

The offensive line took a big step back. Wood and Incognito out and guys like Ducasse/Bodine replacing them (they're both abysmal). I really like what I saw from Dawkins last year, but offensive lineman are more prone to sophomore slumps than most so relying on him at the most important spot on the line will be interesting. And it'll impact McCoy who was electric last year but clearly not the player he used to be. I imagine this offensive line will accelerate the downturn of his career... if he doesn't end up arrested/suspended (not counting on it).

The team was also near the top in turnover margin which is a big reason they were winning unlikely matchups last year (like Atlanta where they were given two takeaways by the refs) but that's a very unstable stat year to year AND they got rid of Tyrod. While I was never a believer in Tyrod his ability to avoid turnovers was big for the team last year, and it doesn't look like any of the three guys they have right now will be anywhere near that. They might be able to push the ball down the field with their arms more but I'm not confident any of them will be an upgrade to him immediately.

I'll also be interested to see how the defensive backfield does this year. Poyer and Hyde played to a level they've never even really been close to before. Can they repeat that? They've also both had some injury troubles -- will that be an issue? Can Tre White build off his rookie season? He was great but so was Ronald Darby in his rookie season and he quickly went downhill after that.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

That blue background is horrible.  I can't read a single word.

[nfreeman]

18 hours ago, Hoss said:

I always have been, yes. Glad it has worked out to this point. The rest of the process needs to start working, though.

I’m not advocating for the Bills to tank (I was in the preseason last year due to the QBs in the draft), but I think they’re bad and I don’t think plodding to 7-9 (ironically referred to as “winning” above) does anything for anyone. There’s a very real chance Josh Allen has a full redshirt year ahead and I some of key core members of this team (McCoy, Kyle, maybe even Benjamin) will be gone after this year. The only top talent on this team: Poyer, Hyde, White, Dawkins (and have all only done it for one year) and then potential top talent: Allen, Edmunds. They need some serious high-end talent. They’ve got one of the worst groups of young players.

I don’t really want to relitigate the tank, but I will emphatically disagree with the assertion that it has worked so far.  

As for the Bills, I think the D will be much improved and there is reason to believe that both offensive play calling and QB play will be improved too.