With the Bills bye week now in the rearview mirror, I hope they got some of their issues straightened out. You have to go over the mental mistakes that have been made and other things that should not happen like they did in their last outing against the Jaguars. There were plays in that Jacksonville game where if they did a few more things right they would've had a chance to win that game, but when you shoot yourself in the foot all the time, mental mistakes will kill you.
When you get beat, you get beat and you're just not as good as the person in front of you. But when you have mental mistakes that's how the problems multiply and they can often be the difference between winning and losing as we've seen through the first five games this season.
Unfortunately no matter how sound the team does play I just don't think they're good enough to compete with the top level teams in the NFL right now, not that I think Jacksonville is one of those teams.
When you're 0-5 you've got to stay positive and though that's so cliché it's also tough to do. Mentally is where it could hurt you the most. You start to lose football games and they can pile up one after another and the locker room gets separated. You can't let that happen.
You have to make sure guys are still putting the time in trying to improve and get better and study film. And when you stay dedicated you never know what can come out of it.
However, when I look on paper I see a rebuilding project in place. So even though there are some players here, there are just too many holes right now on this roster and that makes it all the more difficult to get a win.
And getting that first victory will be anything but easy Sunday on the road against the Ravens. In the time I've had the opportunity to watch Baltimore play this year, it's clear to me that Ravens offensive coordinator Cam Cameron is putting more on Joe Flacco's plate this season. Truthfully he should because Flacco is a good enough quarterback to handle it.
Their offense is approaching the level of their defense. I don't think the Ravens offense is there yet because that Baltimore defense is so solid. That offense is playing with confidence though and that's such an underestimated asset.
It can mean so much when you're playing with a chip on your shoulder and you have just that little bit of cockiness. When you have that going for you then you expect each other to play well. You expect the guy next to you to make a big play. You're not waiting for them to do it, you're expecting them to and you want to be the guy to make a play too.
You always want to be the guy that could make a difference. When you have a bunch of difference makers on your defense or offense it makes it so much easier to have success. And it looks to me like that's what the Ravens have going for them right now despite the overtime loss last week at New England.
The Ravens are a very good football team. They're one of the teams I picked to contend for the AFC title. They're one of my top three teams in the NFL. The Bills will have their work cut out for them, that's for sure.
