Dec. 29--They didn't make the playoffs, but the Buffalo Bills are in the "Super Bowl."
"The Super Bowl is next week for us," said Bills running back Anthony "Boobie" Dixon, referring to Sunday's finale against the New York Jets, a do-or-die game for the guys in green who can grab a wild-card playoff berth with a win.
"We've got something to play for now," Dixon told reporters after his team's Week 16 victory over Dallas. "We been having something to play for -- that's our respect and our pride. We always want that. But to send them home packing, that would be great."
If the Bills were to win Sunday, they would have the dubious distinction of sweeping both the Jets and the Miami Dolphins yet still missing the playoffs -- and that's with the AFC East playing the NFL's two weakest divisions this season, the AFC South and NFC East.
On Monday, Rex Ryan lamented making those hollow preseason guarantees about getting to the playoffs when he was hired last January. The Bills are 7-8 and haven't reached the postseason since 1999, the league's longest active playoff drought.
"We just didn't produce the wins I thought we would . . ." Ryan told WGR 550 radio in Buffalo. "I let my mouth get ahead of everything. And I think if I would have come in there and said, 'Hey, we're gonna compete,' and do all that stuff, maybe we wouldn't have such a bad feeling about this team."
There's no denying Ryan is fun to cover for reporters. His colorful quotes are frequently entertaining. But so much of his motivation is about grudges, grievances and gimmicks. He made LeSean McCoy the lone team captain when the Bills played Philadelphia, for instance, rubbing salt in that fresh wound. Or he made IK Enemkpali a Bills captain against the Jets, when it was that former Jets linebacker who sucker punched then-teammate Geno Smith, breaking the quarterback's jaw.
So the Bills took a step backward, going from 9-7 last year to 8-8 or 7-9, and the Ryan-less Jets are back in the playoffs.
Sunday's matchup might be a feel-good finale for the Bills in that they have a chance to deny Ryan's old team a ticket to the playoffs, but in the end there's not much staying power to that sense of satisfaction.
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Considering the way quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick has played -- he has already set the Jets' record for touchdown passes in a season -- Enemkpali might just be that team's most valuable player.
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Good news for the Seahawks . . . possibly. Running back Marshawn Lynch is back in the Seattle area after spending the last several weeks in the Bay Area, recovering from an abdominal injury that has sidelined him since mid-November. Coach Pete Carroll said on his radio show Monday that the team is hoping to get Lynch back but has no specific timetable for his return.
The Seahawks, who play Sunday at Arizona, could barely budge on the ground in their home loss to St. Louis. Fred Jackson ran for 11 yards, Bryce Brown had nine and Christine Michael six.
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