Bills can be champions in new decade

The NFL football season is going into its third week, and I’m not sure if it’s too early for… The NFL football season is going into its third week, and I’m not sure if it’s too early for me to be bold and pick two teams who are destined for Super Bowl XXXVIII.

But I need to fill space, so what I will do is offer my analysis of which teams in the AFC are for real and what teams need to do to put themselves over the top.

Let’s look at the AFC East. Before the season, I would have said the New England Patriots were a shoo-in for the division title, but then the Patriots shot themselves in the foot by cutting strong safety Lawyer Milloy.

Milloy was not only a leader on the field, but in the locker room, also. I felt that, with the addition of outside linebacker Roosevelt Colvin and the switch to the 3-4, New England had an edge on Miami and Buffalo.

Just two weeks into the season, I am ready to make the bold prediction that Buffalo will win the AFC East. The additions of outside linebackers Jeff Posey and Takeo Spikes and defensive lineman Sam Adams help a team that has all the tools on offense, but is lacking defensively.

In early August, I had the opportunity to watch the Buffalo Bills in their first preseason game, against the Baltimore Ravens, and I was not impressed. The Ravens’ defense dominated the Bills’ offense while the starters were playing in the game.

But that was preseason, and Buffalo has been convincing in its 31-0 spanking of the Patriots and 38-17 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Buffalo also made a great move in signing Milloy from their division rival.

Miami has a stout defense with the additions of Junior Seau and Sammy Knight, but quarterback Jay Fiedler will not be able to lead the offense to where it needs to be in order to win the division.

Running back Ricky Williams would have to carry the team and let the defense win games in order for Miami to win the division.

Now to my favorite division, the AFC North. The Steelers will ultimately win the division because the only other contender is the Ravens. Ravens’ head coach Brian Billick has opted to go with rookie quarterback Kyle Boller as the starter. Enough said.

You don’t win with a rookie quarterback, especially one who is obviously not ready, and Jamal Lewis cannot be expected to rush for 300 yards every week. Unless this changes, Pittsburgh will effortlessly win its third straight division title.

Yes, even after being embarrassed, 41-20, at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs, who are not all that great, the Steelers still should win the division.

Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts are off to a 2-0 start, which includes a 33-7 victory over the Tennessee Titans, who I thought would win the division.

I will still stand by that prediction, because Titans’ quarterback Steve McNair injured his hand in the game, which probably had a huge bearing on the outcome of the game.

The Colts will need to get a good year out of running back Edgerrin James and sweep the season series with Tennessee in order to win the AFC South.

The AFC West will go to the Chiefs by default, because nobody in the division has an answer for running back Priest Holmes.

Denver won’t win the division again until they get a real quarterback. Jake Plummer is not the answer.

I don’t buy that he did not have talent around him in Arizona when he had wide receivers David Boston and Frank Sanders. If anything, they made Plummer look better than he actually is.

The Oakland Raiders are aging. They need to go through a youth movement after barely escaping with a win against the Cincinnati Bengals last week.

After some serious thought, I will go with the Bills over the Chiefs in the AFC Title game. My opinion will probably change several times over the course of the season, but these two teams appear to be the most dominant at this time.

Kevin Nash is the assistant sports editor for the Pitt News and has not sold out and become a Steelers fan after three years at Pitt. He is preparing for what looks to be a long season for Ravens fans.