Last week I wrote a long article on the need for us as fans to keep our perspective about where this team is headed. There were many, many of us getting swept up into a 4-game win streak and being one game out of first place, and losing focus on the 1-15 season we had last year. Suddenly, New England, the defending AFC Champion, came into Miami and beats us, and everyone started bashing the team. It was ridiculous, and I wanted to remind everyone that, while I want us to win the AFC East as much as everyone else, if we don’t, the 6 wins at that point (7 now!), were only 600% better than last year. I’ll take that any day.

Well, this week I would like to again write. This time, I would like to give you my perspective on some of the things I have heard or read recently. I want to stress that everything in here is my opinion. At no point am I trying to tell you that you are wrong. I just want to let you know how I feel.

By the way...this is LONG!  Sorry...

This team is good. We aren’t great. I don’t know how may times I have said or written that, but I still think it’s true. If we were great, we wouldn’t struggle against the Seahawks, the Raiders, or the Rams. But, a good team, struggling or not, still finds a way to win. That’s what we do. Last year, we found ways to lose. This year, it’s the exact opposite. Give us a couple more years. We won’t find ways to win. We will just win.

I think the first thing that the coaching staff needs to look at as the game plan these next four games is our running game. The Offensive line is still finding ways to get us holes. They may not be there every down, but they are there enough to break out a back. But, when you have the R&R Express sitting in your backfield, not to mention the do-everything Patrick Cobbs, you have to feed THEM the ball. Yes, them. You cannot expect the running game to dominate if you only feed one of our beasts. We need to be running the ball nearly 40 times a game…minimum. If you get Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown 20 carries a piece, you will dominate that game. Period. There’s no doubt in my mind.

Look at it this way. Ricky Williams has run the ball 120 times for 512 yards and 3 touchdowns. That works out to 4.3 yards per carry. Ronnie Brown is at 169 attempts for 690 yards and 10 TDs, for a 4.1 yards per carry average. Now, I know more carries will change the averages, but let’s just use them where they are. If you can get Ronnie 20 carries a game over the last four games, you give him an additional 328 yards, for a total of 1018 yards. Doing the same to Ricky would give him 856 yards total, or 344 yards in those 4 games. That would give us a 1,000 yard rusher, and one 150 yards away from 1,000. Plus, the running game would then allow us to control the clock, keep the other offense of the field, and keep the defense fresh. I like the sound of that.

Further developing it, CP10 would see a decrease in his attempts per game. There is a flaw in this analysis, in that I am ignoring any rushing attempts by players other than the R&R Express. I will assume that those players will continue to receive the same number of attempts and only compare CP10’s passing attempts to the R&R Express’ running. So, currently, Ronnie Brown is getting 14 attempts per game with Ricky rushing 10 times per game. If you up that to 20 each, that 16 pass attempts per game that CP10 will not make. Right now, we are averaging 30.3 passes per game by CP10, with 19.8 completions for 240.1 yards per game or 7.9 yards per attempt (2881 total yards and a 65.4% completion rate).

Now, take the 16 attempts away from CP10, and you get 14 attempts per game, with nine completions. Nine completions at 19.8 yard per completion is 178.2 yards per game. Over 4 games, that’s 712.8 yards, or a total of 3593 yards for the season. With our limited wide receivers (especially with Rillo out), I think limiting the passing attempts is a sensible idea. Plus, if we dominate the run, the play action pass becomes more viable, and therefore, the Ginnja would be able to get open on go routes down the sideline, resulting in a higher yards per game average on the same number of attempts.

Just something to think about. It make sense to me.

Okay, other random things.

Nicky, is there room on the Brandwagon? How fast are the seats filling? I’m not quite ready to jump onto it, but I am in line to buy a ticket.

Why are people anointing Matt Ryan as the NFL MVP? I keep hearing more and more commentators giving him the award. I know he turned a bad franchise around and has surprised everyone. I am pretty sure, there’s another QB doing the same thing south of Atlanta. If that’s the criteria for MVP, why not CP10? Even if we compare stats, CP10’s 238-364 (65.4%) for 2881 yards (240.1 per game) is better than Ryan’s 203-333 (61.0%) for 2625 yards (218.8 per game). Apparently, the MVP contests is decided on three factors, first, you have to turn around a bad team. I think CP10 should have an edge here, since we were 1-15 last year and all. Second, you must be a rookie. Sorry CP10, you’re out. And third, you must replace the dog fighting Michael Vick. That’s the main thing the talking heads of NFL coverage keep bringing up. How much they suffered because of Michael Vick. I didn’t know that Michael Vick’s career played such a large part in MVP consideration.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think CP10 is MVP of the league. I just think it’s ridiculous to give it to Ryan.

I find myself wondering a lot these days, and I am serious about this, what is an "ugly" win? I’ve seen ugly games. I’ve seen ugly losses. What’s an ugly win? Are there beautiful losses? I don’t think so. I really don’t think there are "ugly" wins. It’s a win…right?!?

Our defense needs help. We used to stop the run and lose because of the pass. Now, we are shutting down the pass much better, and letting teams run all over us. I don’t know what the solution is, but we need to fix it. If we are going to get burned, let’s get burned badly. Let’s blitz. Let’s cut Joey Porter loose. Porter should be finding things on the opposing QB’s body that the QB’s wife and girlfriend don’t know about. They should be picking out drapery together because Porter is living with that QB for the weekend. Again, I don’t know how we fix this, but something has to be done.

You know, I have heard the argument over whether you can be a fan of two teams. I think you can. But, I think you have to have one that is YOUR TEAM, and one that you kind of like and would like to see do well…AS LONG AS IT DOESN’T HURT YOUR TEAM. In that sense, I think your "second" team cannot be in the same conference as YOUR team. It can’t work. But, Titansfighter, this is not an attack on you. Just an observation. And, at least you are coming to the light side.

Do you realize 10 road teams won last week? How on Earth does that happen? I lost my picks pool BADLY this week.

Am I copying RZ with an article like this?

Why do we overpower every other team’s blog? So far, from what I have seen, if another site’s post has 10-12 comments, it’s a great post. All of our posts have 10-12 comments. We are so involved on our website, so when we move to another team’s site, it’s like the Colts sneaking out of Baltimore. The moving truck backs up, and opens its doors. But, rather than packing up the football offices, we all pour out and run the place for 5 days. It’s crazy.

I don’t think the Bills fans like being called Toronto. 

Why don’t you ever hear jokes about Dolphin-safe Tuna? Is it just me, but doesn’t Parcells’ presence scream Dolphin-safe Tuna?

I know we own the tie breakers and can win the AFC East if we win out.  That’s great.  You know what I am looking at right now?  We have seven wins.  That’s right…7!  With 7 wins we are one win away from a non-losing season.  1 win!  That’s it, all we need.  1 win and we aren’t a losing team.  What more can you want after 1-15?

Speaking of losing, do any of you feel bad for the Lions?  I mean, I know they are perennial losers and that they don’t seem to ever get better.  I know their going 0-16 would make people forget about 1-15, but still.  No team deserves to go through what we did.  I’m just saying, a little sympathy might not be bad.

A lot of people, especially from other teams but including some of our own, are pointing to the fact that we have been winning close games against 2 or 3 win teams to prove that we are still a bad team.  First and foremost, a win is a win.  I don’t care if we win by 1 over the Lions or if we win by 25 over the defending AFC Champions, it’s still a win.  And, how do you fault a team for winning the games the NFL puts on its schedule?  Plus, everyone focuses on our 3 wins against the Rams, Raiders, and Seahawks.  That’s three of the seven wins.  The other four are against such horrible teams as the Patriots (7&5), Broncos (7&5), Toronto (6&6) and the "better than their record" Chargers (4&8).  I know it’s "any given Sunday" and all, but why would you bash on a team for winning games "it’s supposed to win" and ignore the games against the better record teams?

I really like having a plasma cannon that turns comments to goo.  That’s an awesome thing.  Too bad Matty doesn’t think we can get the tech guys to make that happen.

I have a new term.  BNP.  Bad News Phans.  These are the fans who are always out to proclaim something is wrong with the team.  How we will blow our lead.  How horrible we are.  These are the fans that you really want to just walk up and punch in the throat.  Okay, maybe a little over the top violence there, but still.  At least ask yourself, if all you do is scream about how screwed up the team is, can you really be considered a "fanatic," as that’s the root of being a "fan?"

Following on that, I hate Bandwagon fans (not to be confused by BRANDwagon fans).  Not because they can’t be fans.  Not because they don’t have the right to root for whomever they chose.  I hate them because they come in trying to make it seem like they have always been there and then they are (typically) the first off the BNPs.  Just an observation.  I’m not trying to call anyone out, I’m just stating MY opinion.

Two more things.  First, OntheGo stated something in a post.  That this team has "work to do."  I think that is a very, very astute observation.  We all as fans need to be careful with our expectations.  We forget that this team is actually a work in progress.  We are doing great right now, but there’s still a lot this team needs to do to actually be great.  We’ll get there, we just have work to do.

And, my final observation for this week.  CP10 may be a genius as well.  His statement, "More games are lost than are won," is a very, very valid point.  The only addendum I have for that is, a team must be in position to win as the other team loses.  We were never in that position last year.  This year, we are.  That’s a major difference between a bad team and a good team.

I know this is long.  Maybe, if I am allowed to continue to post in here after this novel, I will figure out how to be concise.  Until then, if you have read this whole thing, thank you.  If not, I can’t really blame you.  Hope you all have a good week.  Now, let’s go destroy Toronto!