Archives for October 25, 2010

‘However the Bills were undone by four turnovers, and two miscues bridging halftime were largely responsible for their demise.’

‘Billy Cundiff kicked a 38-yard field goal with 10:57 left in overtime after Ray Lewis stripped the ball from tight end Shawn Nelson, and the Baltimore Ravens squeezed past the winless Buffalo Bills 37-34 Sunday.’

‘Maybin, the 11th overall pick out of Penn State in 2009, has not started this season and had only six tackles in Buffalo’s first five games.’

‘After Carolina’s narrow win over San Francisco earlier Sunday, Buffalo is the lone winless squad in the NFL.’

‘Despite the bad second half start, the Bills played resilient. Fitzpatrick connected with Lee Evans for a 17-yard touchdown at the 5:46 mark in the fourth. Late in the game, Fitzpatrick led the team downfield to set-up a 50-yard Rian Lindell field goal to tie the game 34-34 with :04 left in the fourth quarter.’

‘While it bit them in the butt a couple of times, I thoroughly enjoyed the aggressiveness displayed in play calling by Chan Gailey. I liked that he went for it on 4th-and-1 in the first half. I like that he opened up the second half spread out with five wide receivers. Now, Fitzpatrick ended up throwing the interception, but I liked the message. After Baltimore went in to halftime with all the momentum, Gailey wanted to come out and make a big play to swing the meter back in their favor. Unfortunately, Fitzpatrick’s throw was just a tad off.’

‘Whitner plays like an all pro from his phone while tweeting. He always writes his excuses for the week and how it’s the defenses fault or the coach’s fault he doesn’t make big plays. Well, today was his chance. He dropped an interception that would’ve gone back for six and put the Bills up 31-14 in the FIRST HALF! Whitner is not capable of making a game changing play. Anyway, I regress, I don’t want this to be negative.’

‘Admittedly, if the Bills have a shot at Luck at #1, then I wouldn’t fault them for taking him. On the other hand, it’s only prudent the organization should consider the options that might come from moving down and addressing the “d”. Defensive linemen and linebackers are a glaring need for this team, which can’t stop the run, and while qb and o-line are not championship calibre, I’m starting to think we’ll see a quicker route to respectability by addressing the defense in a big way in the coming draft, as well as free agency.’

‘Here’s my point. Do I think Ryan Fitzpatrick is the future quarterback of the Buffalo Bills? No. But I love the way he plays. Love his fearlessness, intelligence, and the fact that he still wears his wedding ring on his left hands during games. And even if he’s back on the bench next year, you won’t hear me complaining if he sticks around a little while longer.’

‘The aforementioned fumble. Even watching the play in double-speed it seemed forward progress was stopped. You could’ve mentally-processed the plot of “Inception” during the interval between Nelson being held up by the defense and the ball coming out. Nice ref work.’

‘For the first time this year my heart was pumping faster during a Bills game. It has been a long time since this team was exciting like this and even longer since they had a chance to beat a good team, even longer since they beat an elite team on the road. I wouldn’t allow myself to believe they had a chance to win until they got the ball back in overtime and started moving down the field. The second I started to BILLeve it felt apart thanks to the fourth turnover in the game. They had 506 total yards in offense but four turnovers on the road is way too much to overcome. It was nice to see this team not quit when they fell behind by 10 going into the fourth quarter and that gives them something to build on. Thanks to the Panthers win they are the last winless team but some people may now think they aren’t as bad as some people think they are.’

‘Chan Gailey did some innovative things offensively that was successful against a tough Ravens defense early. They just didn’t run the ball enough. That has been a problem all year. They run for a good average just not enough. Also had to waste two timeouts and were called for 12 men on the field in the defensive red zone. A six men on the line penalty wiped out a 20 yard gain in the fourth quarter.’

‘Baltimore won the toss, but was forced to punt on their first possession. Buffalo’s offense was again moving the ball in their own territory. On a 2nd-and-10 from the Bills 41 Shawn Nelson caught a short pass over the middle. It appeared his forward progress was stopped, but Ray Lewis ripped the ball from the Buffalo tight end to force a turnover.’