As the regular season comes to an end, and the playoffs loom, I had to contemplate a number of things and be effusive, eliciting all my thoughts and, well...BLOG.  That's what this thing is for right?  Anyways, let us start with my thoughts on the Buffalo Bills....

The Bills win over the Jets has some pluses and minuses.  My first thought was, "leave it to the Bills to screw up getting a cherry draft pick in the draft with a win in week 17".  Instead of picking in the 5-8 range due to a 5-11 record, the Bills will end up drafting in their customary 10-13 range.  Upon further reflection though, I thought, "Heck, what does it matter"?  The worst part of it is that the Bills most likely lost any chance they had at Manti Te'o, but they probably wouldn't have had a shot at him anyways.

What's most important is fostering a culture of actually WINNING instead of losing.  I am sick of hoping for the Bills to lose the last game or two every stinkin' year in order to get better draft picks.  Instead of that, how bout actually winning games, which leads to winning more.  Plus the Bills pull into a tie with the Jets at 6-10, which isn't much consolation but it's better than having last place all to yourself.

The other negative, other than the lower draft pick, is that the win MIGHT save Chan Gailey's job for next year.  Gailey has to go, if only for the complete and utter misuse of CJ Spiller.  Ryan Fitzpatrick had the 2nd most pass attempts of any team in the division other than the Patriots.  He is in the middle of the pack in that catagory in the whole league.  That is far too much, especially when Spiller leads the league with a yards per carry average of 6.5, half a yard better than Adrian Peterson's 6.0. 

As a head coach, you have to know your personnel and how to best utilize them.  Here's hoping the Bills can Chan and hire a coach who can get the ball into CJ's hands 20 or more times a game instead of the 13 or 14 he has had under Gailey.

Other thoughts....

--Losing to the Colts could be the best thing that could have happened to Houston.  The Texans had struggled mightily the last few weeks, and if they had won this week in ugly fashion and got a bye, it would have been one and done in the playoffs against whomever they played.  By falling to the #3 seed, they will have an opportunity to beat a team that they should be able to beat next week at home (Cincinnati), build some confidence and get back on a roll heading into conference semi-finals.

--I found myself rooting for Calvin Johnson and against Adrian Peterson in their pursuit of records.  I really wanted to see Megatron become the first wide receiver to get 2,000 yards because it's never been done before and it would be cool to see someone do that.  I don't have anything against Peterson, but it was refreshing to hear Eric Dickerson admit that he DIDN'T want Peterson to break his record a few weeks ago.  Since then, I have been secretly hoping Peterson wouldn't, thus making Dickerson's day.  I love honesty in sports I guess.  If Dickerson had said the usual things, "Adrian is a great player and records are made to be broken and I'm gonna be rooting for him...yada yada yada", I probably would have felt different.

--How wild was it that Peterson would have been a shoo-in for breaking Dickerson's record if his teammate Blair Walsh had missed the game winning field goal and they Vikes and Pack went to overtime.  But what a class act when he found out he came up nine yards short from Pam Oliver in the post game interview, and then said winning the game was way more important.

--Coming into the final week, the only quarterbacks Andrew Luck had a better quarterback rating than were Jake Locker, Brandon Weeden, Mark Sanchez, Chad Henne and Matt Cassel.  Yes, Ryan Fitzpatrick has a better QB rating than Luck.  Obviously quarterback ratings are a complete and total joke amd mean jack squat.

--Who woulda ever thought the Chicago Bears and their fans would have to cheer for the Green Bay Packers in order to get into the playoffs?  That's kinda like Iraq cheering for Iran to take over Syria.

--It was a fun week watching the way teams played.  Many teams who had nothing to play for going for it on 4th and 10.  Fake punts.  Two point conversion attempts.  Onside kicks.  Kind of makes you wish teams would play like this every week of the regular season.

--Andy Reid reportedly will be fired tomorrow.  My first thought on this was, "Wouldn't this be a great guy for the Bills to go after"?After talking to my good friend Scott, who lived in Philly for most of Reid's tenure, I am not so sure.  According to him, Reid is a good X's and O's coach, but is among the worst coach's he has ever seen at time management, coaches challenges and other similar decision making capacities.   

The other thing about Reid is that he is the kind of established "big name" guys who the Bills will never go after, and even if they did, would never come to Buffalo.  As many as a dozen coaches could be fired tomorrow, but most of them deserve to be and might not be huge improvement for the Bills.  Much as I hate to admit it, if the Bills fire Gailey, their best hope might be to luck out with a top notch assistant coach bidding for his first ever head coaching job.  Maybe the Bills can luck out like the Oilers/Titans did with Jeff Fisher, or the Steelers did with Mike Tomlin, or the Packers did with Mike McCarthy.

--I applaud Atlanta for using their starters in the final week, even though they had nothing to play for.  The way they have played at home in the first game of the playoffs a couple of years ago against the Packers, they need as much confidence heading into the playoffs that they can get.  Problem is when you use your starters for that purpose, you better win the game, and by losing to Tampa Bay, the move probably backfired big time.  Now the Falcons have to feel far less confident than they would have if they didn't play their starters.

--Minnesota continues to shock me.  The Vikings seem like they should be easily beatable.  They have Adrian Peterson but little else, or so it seems, yet they beat the then AFC top seeded Texans last week, and proved it wasn't a fluke this week by beating the NFC's 2nd seeded Packers.  It's old-school, but a dominant running back and a pretty good defense can still compete with anyone in today's NFL.

--Seattle and St. Louis should be two of the NFC's dominant teams for the next 5 or more years.  They played each other this week and the Rams put up a fight.  Russell Wilson may be the most underrated quarterback in the league, and the Seahawks are young, strong and still improving.  The Rams have improved ten fold this year, are one of the youngest teams in the league and have a ton of primo draft picks in the next couple of years.

--Payton Manning could be better than he ever was and the Broncos will be tough to beat in the playoffs.  Getting the #1 seed is huge for Denver.  With Manning playing like he is, and the road to the Super Bowl going through the high altitude of the Mile High, it is Manning's best chance to win the Super Bowl since he last won one with the Colts.

--Poor Kansas City Chiefs.  They get the #1 pick in the draft, but it's one of the worst years to get the top pick in recent memory with no clear cut top choice.

--Drew Brees became the first quarterback ever to pass for over 5,000 yards in back to back seasons.  I still don't know if I should be terribly impressed with that, as it seems it is more a function of their system and the type of team they are, rather than how great a quarterback he is.

I could keep going and going, but I better stop here.  I can't wait for the playoffs!  The NFL is still the best thing going in sports, so bring it on!