Heading into a bye week the Bills were far from a happy bunch as they were saddled with a one-point loss to think about for two weeks at the hands of the Titans.
"It was a tough loss for us," said Ryan Fitzpatrick. "You always try to look at the bright side and put things in perspective, but 4-3 would have been a lot better than 3-and-4, especially with a bye week. You always want to go into the bye week with a win. We didn't so that makes it a little tougher."
Buffalo certainly has some things to fix between now and their Week 9 road game at AFC leader Houston (6-1). One thing they hope doesn't change however, is their won-loss record coming out of the bye week.
The Bills have the fifth best record in the NFL in games following the bye week. Their 15-8 record is tied with Chicago, with only Dallas (16-8), Baltimore (11-5), Denver and Minnesota (17-6) and Philadelphia (19-4) more successful after the bye.
The players certainly aren't counting on the franchise's post-bye week success. They fully understand that every season is different, but a lot of the players remember their post-bye week outing last season when they shut out Washington 23-0 and the defense posted 10 sacks.
Head coach Chan Gailey would be all for a performance as sound as that one was last season.
"You have to be consistent every time," he said. "That's the term we're talking with our players about and making a big deal about is to be able to create consistency play after play that everybody is where they're supposed to be and be accountable to each other."
Even though the last several seasons have been a struggle when it comes to contending for the postseason, success after the bye has not. The Bills have won five of their last seven games the week following the bye. If it provides even the smallest dose of additional confidence it will be welcome.
"We have all the confidence in the world in our schemes," said Fred Jackson. "I think we've just got to show up and make more plays. The coaches are putting us in plays that they feel can get the job done. It's our job to go out and execute those schemes. And whatever it is you need to do to take your game to the next level, that's what we've got to do when we come back off this bye week."
