It’s the team that nobody saw coming. For the past few years, the Bills have been the laughing stock of the AFC East. They were the one team bringing down a division with the power house Patriots and the better than average Jets and Dolphins.

Not anymore. The Bills have quietly been putting together a good team and this year, we are finally seeing just how good this team and Harvard graduate QB Ryan Fitzpatrick can be. The Bills realize this and recently gave him a big contract extension of 6 years $59 million, locking up their franchise man for years to come. That extension is bad news for the rest of the AFC East.

He’s been worth every penny of that, having a career year, and has the Bills sitting in a 1^st place tie atop the AFC East with the New England Patriots at 5-2. He’s ranked 6^th in the league in quarter back, rating at 97.8 for the season. The Bills are third in the league, scoring 30.1 points per game this year.

While only being ranked 13^th overall in passing at 239.6 yards a game, the running game has received a boost from their QB play ranking 5^th overall at 140.6 a game. Running back Fred Jackson, who is having an MVP type season, is fourth in the league in yards with 721 and is ranked fourth among running backs in receiving with just over 350 yards.

He’s tied for first with Matt Forte of runs over 20 yards ranks second in yards per game with 103.0 and is fourth in yards per carry at 5.5, but is second in running backs to LeSean McCoy. DeMarco Murray and Michael Vick are one and two, but have half the carries of McCoy and Jackson. Jackson also has zero fumbles this season so far.

While the Bills defense isn’t one of the better in the league, they still put fear into a team as they lead the league in interceptions with 18 and three touchdowns off interceptions. This defense has potential the potential to be real solid in the coming years if they can keep everyone healthy. They showed this last week shutting out the Washington Redskins 23-0 and racking up 9 sacks in the process.

To the Bills credit, they’ve also been doing this against quality opponents. They’ve beaten Kansas City and Oakland, both who are tied for first with San Diego for the AFC West all sitting at 4-3. They’ve beaten the Patriots once already and beat a good Philadelphia Eagles team who has recently been turning things around after a horrible start.

They took care of business against an obviously weaker Washington team, shutting them out last week. The Bills only losses come at the hands of the Bengals and the Giants. Both these teams are atop of their divisions and have a 5-2 record. The Bills should have more respect than they do.

Consider that the Patriots have a worse defense in football, giving up 424.1 yards a game compared to the Bills who are 385.9, the Patriots are considered playoff contenders and potential Super Bowl threats. The same could be said for the Packers who rank below the Bills in yards per game giving up 391.0 and currently hold the 31^st spot in opponents passing yards per game, yet they’re widely regarded as being the best team in football.

These teams are led by their quarterbacks and Fitzpatrick has proven he can do that. Add to that a more potent running attack than either Brady or Rodgers has and this is a team that can go deep into the playoffs.

If that’s not enough for you, think about the New Orleans Saints team that won the Super Bowl a few years ago. They are very much like this Bills team in that they have a strong quarterback, a high scoring offense, and a defense that isn’t that great, but forces turnovers and scores points.

This Bills team is as good as they’re record and play this season has been. In a quarterback driven league they’ve found their man in Ryan Fitzpatrick. They are proving they can score points with anyone in the league and if teams with good quarterbacks and bad defenses can be in the hunt for the Super Bowl the same should be said for the Bills.

The fan base has been waiting patiently for this time to come and it has come quicker than expected, but not as a shock at all. So the next time you go to dismiss the Bills as a top team in this league, think about what they’re doing and show them some respect.

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It’s the home game away from home. For the past few years the Buffalo Bills travel north of the border to play a ‘home’ game in Toronto, but until Sunday this hasn’t been a good thing for the Bills. Sunday was the first win in four tries since the cross-border series started back in 2008.

This was also the first shutout in Washington Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan’s long and illustrious 24 season career as a coordinator or head coach. For the Bills it marked the paying off of the recent contract extension given to Ryan Fitzpatrick, 6 years $59 million, as well as, giving the fans in Canada, who haven’t been the most supportive of their Buffalo brethren, reason to cheer.

Fitzpatrick was able to find TE Scott Chandler for two touchdowns and the Bills defense which has been one of the worst in the NFL this season had a monster game racking up 9 sacks, 2 interceptions, and a blocked field goal. They held the Redskins to 178 yards of total offense and only 10 first downs. The injury riddled Redskins had no answers for the Bills on either side of the ball all game.

Safety George Wilson called the Toronto fans passion as well as loyalty into question in the week leading up to the game, but came to find that the Bills were the drawing most of the cheers from the crowd. ”That was one of the things coming in, give them something to cheer about. And I thought we did that today,” said Fitzpatrick, “I think there was more excitement out there than there has been in years past.”

It was a great overall performance,” said defensive end Spencer Johnson, who had a sack and blocked Graham Gano’s 49-yard field-goal attempt in the second quarter. “To shut anybody out in the NFL, that’s a big feat, a big accomplishment and a big step in the right direction.”

Fred Jackson, who’s putting up MVP numbers, had another great game posting 120 yards on the ground and 74 yards receiving. This put Jackson at over 1000 yards from scrimmage 7 games into the season which makes him only the fourth Bill in history to do so and the first since Thurman Thomas did so in 1991.

Another bright spot for the Bills was the emergence of first round draft pick Marcell Dareus who started in place of injured NT Kyle Williams. Dareus had 2 ½ sacks, leading the defense for the day.

The Bills overall looked solid against the injured Redskins, but they will face a much tougher test next week as they square off against division rivals the New York Jets back in Ralph Wilson Stadium. With the Patriots loss, the Bills are currently tied for first in the AFC East.

This will be a real measuring game for the Bills as the Jets have a better offense and a much better defense than the Redskins. The Jets are also riding a two game win streak and have had an extra week to prepare for the Bills.

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The Buffalo Bills won their fifth game of the season by shutting down the Washington Redskins’ offense to secure a 0-23 victory. The Bills were able to make sure the Redskins were unable to get the ball moving in their running play, with the Redskins only able to rush for a total of 26 yards the whole game.

Although the Bills were not able to score a rushing touchdown, running back Fred Jackson was able to help move the ball down the field for a total of 120 yards on 26 attempts. The Redskins were also unable to capitalize on passing drives as well.

Quarterback John Beck threw a total of 208 yards in the game off of 20 completed passes, along with giving up two interceptions to Bills’ Jairus Byrd and George Wilson. Washington receiver Fred Davis provided the most help and scoring chances, getting 94 yards on eight catches.

The Bills were able to move the ball downfield successfully through the air throughout the game. Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick through for a total of 262 yards off 21 completed catches, along with throwing two touchdown passes and an interception. Receiver Scott Chandler caught both touchdown passes on the only two passes thrown to him in the game.

The main target was Jackson, who caught three passes for 74 yards. Kicker Rian Lindell provided 11 points for the Bills, going three for four in field goal kicks along with two extra point kicks after each touchdown. The Washington Redskins (3-4) fly back home to face the visiting San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, while the Buffalo Bills (5-2) welcome the visiting New York Jets on Sunday.

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