Week 1: Seattle at Buffalo

Last year, we made the Buffalo Bills into a personal cause in this space. In part, this was because we had all these jokes — mostly about quarterback and beef-supreme-super-size goof J.P. Losman (now a backup) and late Bills super-fan and discourse-tarnishing gotcha interviewer extraordinaire Tim Russert (who was surely the biggest Buffalo partisan living in his part of Nantucket) — and needed to put them somewhere.

But we were also into Buffalo because the Bills were actually a pretty amazing semi-success story: buffeted beyond reason with injuries all year long, from the near-paralysis of TE Kevin Everett in the preseason to the eventual loss of basically every defensive starter by Week 12, the team still finished at 7-9 despite allowing over 100 points more than they scored on the season. They enter 2008 largely healthy and much improved on defense, and with mistake-averse Trent Edwards entrenched as the new starter at quarterback.

The best that can be said about Edwards is that he doesn’t look as much like a loser boyfriend on an episode of MTV’s Parental Control as Losman, although the Stanford product did manage to get the job done as a rookie last year and is playing behind a solid offensive line. (Although that line would look better if Pro Bowl LT Jason Peters ended his holdout) And the defense, which was down to starting Butterbean, Dom DeLuise and local bouncers last year, should actually be pretty good thanks to holdovers S Donte Whitner and DEs Chris Kelsay and Aaron Schobel, the return of emerging star LB Paul Posluszny from injury and free agent pickups DT Marcus Stroud and LB Kawika Mitchell. Whether the Bills have a shot at beating the Seahawks will depend more on Edwards and the offense than it will on their defense, though.

That might seem strange, considering that the Seahawks were a top-10 offense in 2007, and that QB Matt Hasselbeck should be able to pick apart the Bills’ undersized cornerback corps if his line gets him enough time and his receivers do their jobs. It’s the last part we find unconvincing. Their fine defense aside, we’re not terribly bullish on Seattle in general: it got fat on bad teams last year in a terrible conference, and its uninspiring running game still doesn’t seem like a solid contrast to the pass-intensive offense.

That’s not the underrated Hasselbeck’s fault, but having a pass-first team with this risible a receiving corps just doesn’t seem sustainable. It will be weeks before top receivers Deion Branch and Bobby Engram return — and, to be fair, those are “top receivers” Deion Branch and Bobby Engram. That leaves Hasselbeck to target Nate Burleson and a bunch of guys whose names — Courtney Taylor, Jordan Kent, Logan Payne – sound like those of Gossip Girl characters. Seattle can make the playoffs in the NFC West with those guys atop the depth chart, and they may even be able to beat Buffalo with that bunch. But, yeah: not bullish.

Does that mean we’re going Billish (ugh, sorry), prediction-wise? It’s kind of hard to see the Bills offense making a huge dent against a very good Seattle defense, at least without a big week from RB Marshawn Lynch. That’s possible, though, and…you know what? It’s Week 1, Losman’s in a baseball cap and headset, and Buffalo is not yet draped in the rust-colored, beer-sodden veil of sadness that descends sometime in October and lasts throughout the city’s nine-month winter. So, sure, why not?

BILLS BY 3