What is going on with the Bills?
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MATT KRUEGER Sports Reporter
Aday after the Buffalo Bills took a 38-7 drubbing from the New England Patriots to open the season 0-3, the talk in the media room at the Buffalo Bills Fieldhouse was how long it might take to see a win in Buffalo.

Some writers said the Bills' ineptitude could endure all the way to Week 10. And even that matchup against AFC East rival Miami wasn't a gimme in the general consensus.

Fans were outraged that a team that showed such promise at the end of the 2006 season could play so badly at the start of the year. It got so bad, people actually cheered when starting quarterback J.P. Losman suffered a knee injury on the first play of that defeat to the Patriots.

But here we stand in Week 14, seeing the 6-6 Bills remain alive and well in the thick of the AFC playoff race, a concept that seemed laughable back in September. It seemed even more ludicrous when players began dropping like the black plague had hit the locker room. You can't send 12 players to the injured reserve list and still dish out defeats to your opponents, can you?

But here we are watching a team win with the 31st ranked offense in the league, the 30th ranked defense and a points differential of minus-90 dispatching teams and making a serious run toward a playoff spot.

How the heck did we get here? This whole season seems surreal. At first, it appeared as though evil forces conspired against the Bills. How else could you explain losing that Week Five game to Dallas, 25-24, with a last-second field goal after the Bills had forced six turnovers on defense and scored twice on interception returns? Then there was that humiliating 56-10 beatdown from the Patriots in Week 11, which broke a 30-year old record for worst loss in franchise history. Surely, bad hoodoo was at work.

But despite the bad games - don't forget that stomach-punch loss in the opener to Denver - and the poor play on both sides of the ball, the Bills still hold fate in their own hands and could lock up one of the wildcard positions with a few more wins.

Maybe the Bills are using black magic to somehow come out on top, or maybe they have an angel sitting their shoulders. Because a team with this many problems shouldn't be winning.

Buffalo sits eighth in the AFC, just one game behind the Tennessee Titans (7-5) and Cleveland Browns (7-5). The Bills need to leapfrog both of those teams to secure the final playoff berth, which won't be easy. But Buffalo has a golden opportunity with a Week 15 matchup against the Browns in Cleveland. Yes, the stars are lining up to give Bills fans a chance to see the playoffs for the first time since 1999.

But for that to happen, Buffalo must get better on both sides of the ball. The offense is churning out an anemic 274.8 yards per game, while the defense is giving up 370.4. Buffalo has scored 184 points, while allowing 274. That differential is 28th in the league.

Or perhaps the best thing the Bills can do is just keep on keeping on. Scoring field goals instead of touchdowns has worked all season, whether it's Losman or Trent Edwards leading the offense. Why change what's working, no matter how bizarre it is? Who cares if it doesn't make any sense, as long as it's working?

e-mail: mkrueger@beenews.com