Ryan Fitzpatrick, Bounce-Back Bills Shake 2008 Comparisons

Critics of the Buffalo Bills and their scintillating 3-0 start begin and end their arguments with a nod to the 2008 Bills—a similarly surprising team that started their season 4-0.

The scary part? At a glance, the NFL's comeback kings share more than a few similarities with that '08 club.

For example, both squads began their season with a lopsided victory over a western division team. In 2008, it was a 34-14 home win over the Seattle Seahawks; in 2011, a shocking 41-7 road thumping of the Kansas City Chiefs.

Interesting bit of serendipity there, no? Well hold on, because it's about to get weird.

In both seasons, the Bills were news-makers in Weeks 2 and 3. In '08, the Bills came from behind for a 20-16 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, and followed that up by overcoming a 16-point fourth-quarter deficit against—you guessed it—the Oakland Raiders.

That Buffalo team went on to a 4-0 record by defeating a hapless St. Louis team in the midst of a quarterback kerfuffle. But that's where the similarities end...right?

Wrong.

Much like Ryan Fitzpatrick this year, in 2008 Trent Edwards was the toast of the coast around Lake Erie. After three weeks, Edwards sported a 96.6 quarterback rating, and had completed his passes at a 67 percent clip. Even creepier? A 3:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio to match Fitzpatrick's through three games this season.

Those Bills stormed out to a 5-1 record before their season went wayward, losing eight of their last 10 to finish with a disappointing (and highly improbable) third-straight 7-9 record. But before you unlatch your window and shoo the pigeons from the ledge, understand that these parallels are superficial.

Case in point: That 3:1 TD-INT ratio? Well, that wasn't just a ratio, it was also Edwards' total through three games: three touchdowns against one interception.

In fact, that season Edwards only threw more than one touchdown in any game once—a two-touchdown performance against the Chiefs—and during the team's demoralizing four-game losing streak in the middle of the year, the Bills' “savior” threw eight picks to just three touchdowns, capping it off with an embarrassing three-interception debacle against the Browns on Monday Night Football.

Those thrilling comebacks against the Jaguars and Raiders? An illusion. Oakland and Jacksonville finished that season with matching 5-11 records. and Buffalo's three opponents over that stretch combined for just 14 wins.

While the Chiefs are a mess, this Oakland unit is better than that one, and it's probably a safe bet that the Patriots will rack up 12 or 13 wins by themselves.

But it isn't about beating better competition, or the fact that Edwards was a mirage. It's about Fitzpatrick.

It's about his 103.2 quarterback rating. It's about his nine touchdown passes to four different receivers—four of those touchdowns to journeyman TE Scott Chandler, the most by a Bills tight end since Mark Campbell's five TDs in 2005.

It's about Stevie Johnson catching 10 touchdowns a year ago—a feat that had not been accomplished since Lee Evans did it in 2002—and being on pace to shatter that record this year.

It's about Fred Jackson stealing the starter job from two first-round draft picks and emerging as one of the league's most dynamic weapons out of the backfield, averaging a robust 6.7 yards per carry.

It's about a depleted secondary intercepting Tom Brady four times—a number that matches his total from all of 2010, proving that these no-name Bills have the one thing no one thought they did: depth.

It's about rookies like Da'Norris Searcy making the game-ending interception of Jason Campbell's Hail Mary, and Marcell Dareus taking up two offensive linemen while he collapses the pocket and (the now-injured) Aaron Williams becoming one of the team's leading tacklers.

It's about magic, overcoming two consecutive deficits of 18 points or more to win for the first time in NFL history.

When the Bills take the field Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals, they will have their detractors. A win isn't likely to convince critics that Buffalo is for real. But Bills fans can rest assured that the endless references to the doomed 7-9 2008 squad are misguided, and there's plenty of reason to BILLieve in 2011.