Bills LB Nick Barnett not ready 'to close the casket' on season

Despite being 3-6, the Bills are buoyed by having just two winning teams in their last seven games of the regular season.

By Mark Ludwiczak

Nov 13, 2012 at 5:58 pm ET • 3 min read

Linebacker Nick Barnett is not about to give up on the Bills’ season despite a 3-6 record. (US Presswire)

At 3-6, the Buffalo Bills may have one foot in the grave when it comes to their playoff hopes. But the Bills aren’t giving up hope on their season with the Miami Dolphins coming up Thursday.

“Obviously, every game from this point on is a dagger if you don’t get it, so we’ll just take it as that,” LB Nick Barnett said. “I’m not trying to close the casket or put dirt on it, so we’re going to try to keep it alive.”

The Bills would likely need to run the table, or close to it, for a chance of living up to their preseason expectations. As crazy as it may sound for a team on a three-game losing streak, the Bills do have several winnable games over their final seven-game stretch. Only two of Buffalo’s upcoming opponents have winning records -- Indianapolis (6-3) and Seattle (6-4). Buffalo also has home games against two of the weakest teams in the league, St. Louis (3-5-1) and Jacksonville (1-8).

“We need to get wins,” WR Steve Johnson said. “Forget the whole, ‘We played well, we scored, we got first downs’ ... if you don’t win the game, then it really doesn't matter. That’s pretty much the attitude I have and hopefully everybody else has that around this locker room.

“If we want to make this push, this is the game that has got to start it," Johnson said. "We had hoped that it started last week or the week before that, but it is what it is. Thursday we’ve got the Miami Dolphins coming in, a division opponent, and if we want to get to the playoffs we’ve got to win this game and win on out.”

The Bills have shown some improvement the last two weeks, even in losses to Houston and New England.

“I look back at the last two games,” coach Chan Gailey said. “To me, we’ve played probably the two best teams in the AFC the last two weeks and we played with them. ... If we continue to get better, that should help us with the future and the rest of our schedule.

Gailey no fan of Thursday games: The Bills don’t have much time to recover from their loss to New England with a home game Thursday. Gailey is not a proponent of midweek games. “I’m not a big fan, I don’t like it,” Gailey said. “I think it’s tough on the players. We have quite a few players that sometimes don’t even get back on the practice field until Thursday so I think this is a tough turnaround for a football team and for the players in general. I’m not a big fan, but it’s here and that’s what it is so you deal with it.”

Eight limited: Buffalo’s injury reports are still lengthy following the team’s $20,000 fine for not listing DE Mario Williams on the report earlier this season. Sixteen players were listed, and eight of those were limited: DT Kyle Williams (ankle), DT Spencer Johnson (ankle), DT Marcell Dareus (shoulder, hamstring), LG Andy Levitre (knee), C Eric Wood (knee), CB Justin Rogers (knee), CB Leodis McKelvin (groin) and WR Brad Smith (hamstring). DE Mark Anderson (knee), CB Aaron Williams (knee), DE Chris Kelsay (neck) and RB Fred Jackson (concussion) did not practice.