Pretty straight forward question here....Is Sunday a must win game? We currently have a 2 game lead in the AFCN and a win over Buffalo not only catapults us to a 6-0 start (tied for best in team history) and with some help from Arizona could put us ahead 3 games in the division. A 3 game lead doesn't sound bad at all 6 weeks in and IMO the steelers aren't going away with Ben possibly playing next week.

I personally would love to have the 3 game lead (maybe 3 1/2) depending on our bye week. We then, in week 8 could go into Pittsburgh and take that game to go up 4 1/2...however if we would stumble in that game we would still have a 1 1/2 game lead or 2 1/2 game lead depending on on bye week. Every game seems crucial anymore so again I question.....Is it a Must Win???

A "must win" game is one that you're playing to keep playoff contention alive or a similar situation IMO.

The 6th game of the year sitting at 5-0 is practically the opposite of a "must win" game, but that is definitely a subjective term.

(10-15-2015, 04:58 PM)WHO DEY C85 Wrote: Pretty straight forward question here....Is Sunday a must win game? We currently have a 2 game lead in the AFCN and a win over Buffalo not only catapults us to a 6-0 start (tied for best in team history) and with some help from Arizona could put us ahead 3 games in the division. A 3 game lead doesn't sound bad at all 6 weeks in and IMO the steelers aren't going away with Ben possibly playing next week.

I personally would love to have the 3 game lead (maybe 3 1/2) depending on our bye week. We then, in week 8 could go into Pittsburgh and take that game to go up 4 1/2...however if we would stumble in that game we would still have a 1 1/2 game lead or 2 1/2 game lead depending on on bye week. Every game seems crucial anymore so again I question.....Is it a Must Win???

The mindset of this team is that every game is a must win, will win.

At this point, everything is a must win game.

If you mean a must win to get into the postseason, who knows? It's game six, there's a couple more to go. Every other AFC team could scrub out with losses and ties. Or, our three division rivals could all win their next 10 games.

(10-15-2015, 05:02 PM)djs7685 Wrote: A "must win" game is one that you're playing to keep playoff contention alive or a similar situation IMO.

The 6th game of the year sitting at 5-0 is practically the opposite of a "must win" game, but that is definitely a subjective term.

Yeah I see what you're saying....I mostly was meaning is this a game we can afford to slip up and take a loss or do we need this W against yet another AFC opponent and slip up somewhere else down the line. Of course we'd just rather go 16-0 followed by the 3 in the playoffs and steamroll everyone but we know were gonna lose some. Is this an instance where a loss here isn't as crucial?

(10-15-2015, 05:04 PM)McC Wrote: The mindset of this team is that every game is a must win, will win.

Sure is a great mindset....I know I'm loving it!!

(10-15-2015, 05:06 PM)WHO DEY C85 Wrote: Yeah I see what you're saying....I mostly was meaning is this a game we can afford to slip up and take a loss or do we need this W against yet another AFC opponent and slip up somewhere else down the line. Of course we'd just rather go 16-0 followed by the 3 in the playoffs and steamroll everyone but we know were gonna lose some. Is this an instance where a loss here isn't as crucial?

I would say Facing an AFC team with a winning record is definately a game we want to win..  Plus taking the momentum of 6 straight victories into the bye week Would be nothing but a good thing.

Outside of the Division Games the Conference games are next in line in terms of importance.

(10-15-2015, 05:06 PM)WHO DEY C85 Wrote: Yeah I see what you're saying....I mostly was meaning is this a game we can afford to slip up and take a loss or do we need this W against yet another AFC opponent and slip up somewhere else down the line. Of course we'd just rather go 16-0 followed by the 3 in the playoffs and steamroll everyone but we know were gonna lose some. Is this an instance where a loss here isn't as crucial?

I believe conference record is a higher tie breaker than common opponents, so in that case I'd think we want our losses coming against the NFCW teams.

If I'm wrong about that, then we need to sweep the NFCW and Buffalo could be an okay loss.

As you said, we obviously want to win them all, but if we're realistic here, a winning record in the division would be amazing and then hopefully we win whichever games mean more to our tiebreakers whether that is the nondivision AFC or the NFCW games.

Not a must win statistically, but it's definitely a really important game. We are only up on Pittsburgh by 2 games. Despite our 5-0 start, our 2 game lead can vanish in a heart beat. Plus this is a conference game. We need to stay perfect in conference play. PLUS Buffalo is the first team we have faced with a winning record. So I'd like to get that monkey off our back as well.

A huge road win and a perfect record going into the bye will do a lot for our team.

Not a must win.

But it would be a nice luxury going into bye week undefeated. Very nice luxury indeed !

Plus it keeps the pressure on the rest of the division trying to claw back into race.

(10-15-2015, 05:11 PM)djs7685 Wrote: I believe conference record is a higher tie breaker than common opponents, so in that case I'd think we want our losses coming against the NFCW teams.

If I'm wrong about that, then we need to sweep the NFCW and Buffalo could be an okay loss.

As you said, we obviously want to win them all, but if we're realistic here, a winning record in the division would be amazing and then hopefully we win whichever games mean more to our tiebreakers whether that is the nondivision AFC or the NFCW games.

would say the intra-conference games vs the NFC count the least (except on the W-L-T) columns but when you get into tie breakers the only place it would help is overall Strenght of Schedule or Tie breaking against other teams in your division as our Div will be the only one facing the NFCW this year out of the AFC

(10-15-2015, 05:12 PM)The Dangler Wrote: Not a must win statistically, but it's definitely a really important game. We are only up on Pittsburgh by 2 games. Despite our 5-0 start, our 2 game lead can vanish in a heart beat. Plus this is a conference game. We need to stay perfect in conference play. PLUS Buffalo is the first team we have faced with a winning record. So I'd like to get that monkey off our back as well.

A huge road win and a perfect record going into the bye will do a lot for our team.

I wholeheartedly agree. Plus, we have been lucky so far re: injuries ... and we know what happened last year when the majority of our receiver corps was injured. Key injuries to the wrong people and our season could go down the drain in a heartbeat. So I'll take every win I can get against whomever.

No. No, it's not.

(10-15-2015, 05:40 PM)tigershrimp Wrote:

No. No, it's not.

lol

(10-15-2015, 05:12 PM)The Dangler Wrote: Not a must win statistically, but it's definitely a really important game. We are only up on Pittsburgh by 2 games. Despite our 5-0 start, our 2 game lead can vanish in a heart beat. Plus this is a conference game. We need to stay perfect in conference play. PLUS Buffalo is the first team we have faced with a winning record. So I'd like to get that monkey off our back as well.

A huge road win and a perfect record going into the bye will do a lot for our team.

I could care less about beating teams with winning records at this point.  It's not like we've played a bunch of chumps.  Ironically, I feel like we've already played a better team than Buffalo last week.  

At this point, games are "must stay healthy" games. I'd rather lose 5 or 6 games and have this roster going into the playoffs, than win every game but suffer some major injuries getting them.

The team is going out every game and winning in a "blue-collar, workman-like" fashion. They pack their lunches and go out and get it done. No panic. No drama. They walk into the game with an attitude of "We can win this, we should this and we will win this." I see no reason to think anything is "must win" at this point. Their attitude is more like "We intend to win". I've not seen that in this team since '88. The confidence is the greatest thing about this team this year.

(10-15-2015, 05:46 PM)WhoDeyWho Wrote: I could care less about beating teams with winning records at this point.  It's not like we've played a bunch of chumps.  Ironically, I feel like we've already played a better team than Buffalo last week.  

Let's hope we don't play "down" to our opponent.

The N.E. and Cincinnati common opponents are Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Denver, and Houston.  Of course they play Buffalo twice and we play Pittsburgh twice.  

I don't consider it "must win", but it could be the difference maker for home field in the playoffs.

(10-15-2015, 05:12 PM)The Dangler Wrote: Not a must win statistically, but it's definitely a really important game. We are only up on Pittsburgh by 2 games. Despite our 5-0 start, our 2 game lead can vanish in a heart beat. Plus this is a conference game. We need to stay perfect in conference play. PLUS Buffalo is the first team we have faced with a winning record. So I'd like to get that monkey off our back as well.

A huge road win and a perfect record going into the bye will do a lot for our team.

what monkey is on our back ?  we are 5-0... it really does not matter to teams who they beat, just that they win... i could care less what record a team is we are facing... the point is winning regardless if someone is 3-2 or 2-3. Also we could beat Buffalo now and they might end of 6-10 , so we beat a losing team then.. or Seattle could end of 10-6 and we beat a winning team then.

 Also home field start to even out the playing field even for average to below average teams with their record.