Buffalo Bills Hire Rex Ryan as New Head Coach

The Buffalo Bills have hired ex-Jets coach Rex Ryan to fill their head coaching vacancy.

The Bills are coming off a 9-7 season in which they showed signs of getting back to their great years. They have not made the playoffs in 15 years.

The hiring of Ryan is, in some corners, perplexing. Ryan has always been known as a defensive minded coach and not so in touch with the offensive side of the ball. His Jets finished 4-12 this season with many questioning Ryan's ability to improve Geno Smith's performance at QB and his propensity to rely on a run game that was keyed on after poor quarterback play. The Jet defense was above average.

The 2014 Bills seemed to be in the same straights as the Jets. Their defense was very good but the offense was forced to rely on Kyle Orton at QB who was unable to compete with the likes of the Patriots.

If nothing else, the Bills have stirred up interest in the Buffalo area.

Read the entire ESPN article here and decide for yourself if the Bills will be better off in 2015 under Coach Ryan.

Current NFL Playoff Teams With Tie Breakers

Here is the way the NFL Playoffs break down before the Monday Night Football game with all of the tie breakers included.

Check out the breakdown for your team here.

Patriots Down Chargers 24-13 on Sunday Night

The New England Patriots defeated the San Diego Chargers 24-13 on Sunday to improve to 10-3 on the year. This is the 12th consecutive season of 10 or more wins for the Patriots. Only the '83-'98 San Francisco 49ers have more, winning 10 or more for those 16 seasons. I think they also had a couple of pretty good QBs during that time, Joe Montana and Steve Young. Tom Brady must be in the conversation when talking about the "greatest" quarterback of all time.

Brady threw a 69 yard catch and run touchdown pass to Julian Edelman with 8:41 left in the game to give the Patriots the 24-13 lead and the defense did the rest. The defense sacked Philip Rivers 4 times and intercepted him once. They stopped the long pass and were tremendous against the run, holding the Chargers to 53 yards on 17 carries.

Read the ESPN article here for more detail.

NFL Picks for November 30th

I was 12-2 last week and would have been perfect if the Texans had an offense and the Jets were...well...not the Jets. Here are my picks for this week

Washington  @ Indianapolis     Colts 28-17     Colts "D" too much for the Redskins
Tennessee @ Houston     Texans 21-17     I'll take the Texans in this toss up game
Cleveland @ Buffalo    Bills 27-21     It was just the Jets but the Bills look good
San Diego @ Baltimore     Ravens 31-28     Flacco over Rivers should be a game to watch
NY Giants @ Jacksonville     Giants 32-17     Manning gained confidence against the Cowboys
Cincinnati @ Tampa Bay     Bengals 23-16     Tampa's defense has improved but not enough
Oakland @ St. Louis     Raiders 23-13     Another toss up...I'll take the Raiders
New Orleans @ Pittsburgh     Steelers 35-31     Pittsburgh is too strong for the Saints
Carolina @ Minnesota     Panthers 24-14     Toss up #3 Panthers by 10
Arizona @ Atlanta     Cardinals 27-21     Not impressed with NFC South
New England @ Green Bay     Packers 28-27     Turnovers make or break this game
Denver @ Kansas City     Broncos 31-24     KC has had 10 days off but the Broncos have Manning
Miami @ NY Jets     Dolphins 28-10     Rex Ryan could be fired after this game

Dez Bryant Calls Eagles "Cheap" Players

Dez Bryant, whose Cowboys had just been beaten 33-10 was crying about the "cheap" play of the Eagles.

"I'm really not mad at all," Bryant said after the Cowboys' 33-10 loss on Thursday. "They beat us and I'm going to accept that, but [expletive] can't wait, but not looking past Chicago [on Dec. 4], but I cannot wait to go up there and play [Philadelphia] again. Cannot wait."

Seems when a team holds you to 73 yards in the air and no touchdowns somebody must be cheating.

The Cowboys' defense struggled with the high-tempo Eagles offense, which converted 53 percent of its third-down plays and gained 464 yards, the most Dallas has allowed this season. The Eagles defense also held Demarco Murray to 73 yards on the ground, only the second time in 12 games that Murray has not rushed for at least 100 yards.

Tony Romo had his consecutive game streak of 38 games with a touchdown snapped. he game was played in Arlington and the rematch, on December 14th will be in Phildelphia.

Winless Oakland Raiders Top KC Chiefs 24-20

The Kansas City Chiefs did what no other NFL team has done since November 17th, 2013...They lost to the Oakland Raiders 24-20 on Thursday night. The Chiefs had been tied for first place in the AFC West but will have to wait until the 30th of November, when they face the Broncos, for their shot to take sole possession of first again.

Oakland took a 17-10 lead into the 4th quarter and used a 17 play 80 yard drive to score on a 9 yard touchdown pass from Derek Carr to James Jones with 1:42 left on the clock to seal the win.

Latavius Murry, Raiders running back, rushed for 112 yards on just 4 carries with 2 touchdowns including a 90 yard run that put the Raiders up 14-0 early in the second quarter. The Raiders rushed for 179 yards while the Chiefs were held to 96 yards on the ground on 24 carries. Jamaal Charles, who had 159 yards and 2 TDs against Seattle in the Chiefs 24-20 win, was held to just 80 yards on 19 carries with no touchdowns.

James Jones had a touchdown reception from Derek Carr. Jamaal Charles and Anthony Fasano, had touchdown catches from the Chief's Alex Smith.

Kansas City will have 10 days off before facing the Broncos on the 30th of November.

Steelers Top Titans 27-24 on MNF

The Pittsburgh Steelers, down 24-13 starting the 4th quarter, fought back to defeat the Tennessee Titans 27-24 behind Le'Veon Bell's 204 rushing yards and 1 touchdown. Bell's rushing total was the highest singe game effort this season.

Ben Roethlisberger was 21 of 32 passing for 207 yards and a TD with 1 INT.  Antonio Brown caught Big Ben's touchdown toss with 9 minutes left in the 4th quarter to seal the win for the Steelers. Brown had 91 yards receiving on 9 catches for the night.

William Gay, of the Steelers, picked off a pass from Zach Mettenberger and returned it 28 yards for a touchdown in the 1st quarter.

Mettenberger completed 15 of his 24 pass attempts for 263 yards and 2 touchdowns with the 1 interception. Bishop Sankey was the leading ground gainer for the Titans with 38 yards on 11 carries.

Nate Washington caught one pass all game for the Titans, good for 80 yards and a touchdown for the Titans.

NFL Picks This Week

UPDATE:  6-7 this week...16-9 for the last 2 weeks!

After going 10-2 last week I thought I would try my luck again this week. The teams playing are a little more evenly matched so the picks are much harder...my caveat if the picks go poorly!

Minnesota @ Chicago     Bears 24-17     Cutler admits he's bad...will bounce back
Houston @ Cleveland     Texans 28-10     Defense wins this one. Maybe 2 Def TDs
Seattle @ Kansas City     Seahawks 24-13     Toss up in KC but Wilson comes through
Atlanta @ Carolina     Falcons 17-14     Newton hurt? Falcons D just good enough
Cincinnati @ New Orleans     Saints 30-21     Saints start their charge today
Tampa Bay @ Washington     Redskins 21-13     Battle of not good teams
Denver @ St. Louis     Broncos 35-10     Offense + Defense win for the Broncos
San Francisco @ NY Giants     49ers 28-24     SF needs to stay ahead of Seahawks
Oakland @ San Diego     Chargers 21-17    Oakland 0-10 looking for QB in 2015 draft
Philadelphia @ Green Bay     Eagles 24-21     Why? I'm not sure. Gut feeling.
Detroit @ Arizona     Lions 28-14     No QB for Cardinals. Stafford and Robotron
New England @ Colts     Patriots 27-17     Brady teaches Luck a lesson in legacy
Pittsburgh @ Tennessee     Steelers 31-21     Roethlisberger recovers and so does D