Archives for October 15, 2014

‘Of the 10 penalties against the Bills, a legitimate beef could be raised on five of them. In the first quarter, defensive end Jerry Hughes was called for unsportsmanlike conduct after congratulating teammate Ty Powell with a couple slaps to the helmet.’

‘In last Sunday’s Buffalo vs. New England game, 22 penalties were called, counting ones that were offsetting or declined. That’s a lot of watching people loiter and scratch as the rule book is interpreted to the standard for the day. Toss in an average of 20 commercial breaks, and is it any wonder it’s possible to hit the concession stand or do some yard work and hardly miss a thing?’

‘or each player that appeared in the game on offense or defense, you’ll see their name in bold, with a set of numbers after it. Example: Aaron Merz (54, -2, 2.7). The first number (54) represents the snap count of that game, the second (-2) represents the individual player’s plus-minus of positive plays to negative plays in that game. The third number (2.7) represents the weighted Grade Point Average assigned to that player by the author.’

‘Having Gronk, is like having a cheat code. It’s like the video game glitch. If they wanted to, they could go to him on almost every play, but they mix it up for fun. Gronkowski has been one of the most terrifying matchup problems in the NFL since he showed up, and the Bills treated him…like a guy that could be covered, in single coverage, by either Duke Williams or Leodis McKelvin. It’s not a shock that things went poorly.’

‘Throwing three passes to Sammy Watkins against New England: NOT AT ALL OK.’

‘The Bills rotation of defensive linemen has been effective. It’s important to keep the linemen fresh and the Bills have some emerging talent among their D-line backups who have made important plays already this year (Stefan Charles against the Lions, for example). There are plenty of reasons to criticize Buffalo’s defensive lapse in the second half Sunday, but the rotation of defensive linemen is not one of them.’