Buffalo Bills: Can They Break the Music City Forward Pass Curse?

Is this year the best opportunity for the Buffalo Bills to finally break their playoff curse? Hopefully? Possibly? Maybe?

January 8, 2000.

Some people may remember that day as the “Music City Miracle.” I remember it as the day the Tennessee Titans’ Frank Wycheck threw a FORWARD pass to Kevin Dyson, who then proceeded to glide down the sideline for a 75-yard touchdown as time expired, giving the Titans an improbable 22-16 victory over the Buffalo Bills.

(I’m still scratching my head at the decision to start Rob Johnson ahead of Doug Flutie on that fateful day, which ended up being the last time the Bills played a post-season game. But I digress.)

The world truly was a better place back on January 8, 2000. It was a pre-9/11 world, where we weren’t constantly being pumped with fear on our nightly news cast.

The number one song on the Billboard charts was “Smooth” by Santana, featuring Rob Thomas. The thought of a guy playing guitar topping today’s pop charts is simply unfathomable. But damn that was a great tune.

Jean Chretien was still Prime Minister of Canada and Bill Clinton was still the President of the United States. Do you still want to debate if the world was a better place back then?

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The good news for Buffalo Bills fans is that there is finally a glimmer of hope that maybe this year…….could be the year. They enter the 2016 campaign with an excellent opportunity to get out of the gates ahead of their divisional rivals and position themselves for a playoff spot for the first time since Jan 8, 2000.

The Bills offence is led by an excellent running attack featuring four-time Pro Bowler LeSean McCoy, who fans hope still has enough left in the tank to bounce back from his mediocre 2015 campaign, to be the feature back. The offensive line is as good as it’s been in over a decade, led by the controversial, but effective, Richie Incognito, as well as Cordy Glenn, who was rewarded for his effort with a five-year, $65 million dollar contract extension this off-season.

The quarterback situation is steady, as long as Tyrod Taylor can stay healthy. If he can make even the slightest improvement on his 2015 totals, that saw him pass for 3,035 yards with 20 TDs and only six interceptions in 14 starts, the Bills will be in the thick of things come December.

The only question surrounding the offence heading into the season is if the young, but talented wide receiver group led by Sammy Watkins, can finally turn potential into domination?

Defensively, the Bills are as gifted a group as there is in the National Football League, with the anchor being Marcell Dareus. The sixth year lineman has developed into an elite talent, whose mere presence on the field makes every other players on his side of the ball better.

The Bills secondary is solid, if not exceptional, on certain days and is led by Stephon Gilmore, as well as new comer Ronald Darby. The rookie emerged as an excellent playmaker and made Bills general manager Doug Whaley look like a genius for taking him late in the second-round of last year’s draft.

The linebacking corps was solid all season and their depth was solidified even further with the addition of SEC Defensive Player of the Year, Reggie Ragland. Whaley moved up in this year’s draft to get him and he will be expected to make an immediate impact on Buffalo’s defense.

Based on the present state of the Bills divisional opponents, this has to be the year to break the playoff drought and it’s imperative they get off to a fast start to do so. The Patriots’ Tom Brady will sit out the first four games of the season, which includes a week four match up against Buffalo.

In that matchup, the Bills will be faced with the less daunting task of going into Foxborough to face an untested Jimmy Garoppolo. Consider that the last time he started a real football game was on Dec 13, 2013, against Towson.

The New York Jets have finally re-signed Ryan Fitzpatrick. He has missed the teams entire off-season work outs during contract negotiations and with that, the circus that is the Jets appears to be just getting started.

The Miami Dolphins won’t instill fear in any opposing team as long as Ryan Tannehill is at the helm. The fifth-year Dolphins quarterback was 29^th in the NFL in QB rating and has yet to do a single thing to justify the outlandish pay check he makes every week.

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Heading into the start of training camp for the 2016 season, the stars finally seem aligned for the Buffalo Bills. The question is, will they finally break the curse of the “Music City Forward Pass” and make the playoffs?