USA Today did a good piece about the Bills season yesterday. It said what all Bills fans already seem to know: the opportunity was there, the stars were aligned, and the Bills blew it. The Bills were blessed with the 2nd easiest schedule in the NFL this season, the star quarterback for the top team in their division was injured in the first half of his first game of the year and was unable to play the rest of the season, and the Bills got off to a 4-0 start. Everything was going right for them, and then everything fell apart.

Looking back, it’s easy to see the obvious turning point. The Bills went into Arizona confident. They came out a team that had been dominated on all ends of the field. The Cardinals had not had the look of Super Bowl contenders at that point, but there were some early hints that they were not the team that their slow start indicated. They had just come off a loss to the Jets that I think was the turning point for that franchise. The Jets had built a 30+ point lead in the first quarter, only to watch the Cardinals charge back and nearly win the game. I think that was a momentum changer for the Cardinals, and when they faced Buffalo after that the poor Bills never knew what hit them. They struggled to find themselves after that game and had devastating stretch from mid-October through early-December that would see them drop completely out of contention and be eliminated from the playoffs with several weeks left in the season. Not the typical fate for a team that started 4-0.

Taggy: arizona cardinals, Buffalo Bills, football, nfl, schedule, season