Archives for October 2015

'Buffalo's offense finally began to show signs of life midway through the third quarter as Tyrod Taylor completed two third down passes and got some help from a pass interference penalty to put the team in scoring position. Miscues plagued them again however as a seven yard loss was followed up by missed 30 yard Dan Carpenter field goal to keep the score at 16-3. After the defense came up big, it was the offense again failing to punch it in the end zone on the next possession as a 4th and goal was thwarted at the one yard line.'

'So far, we've seen the Bills dominate an Indianapolis team that is no better than average, at least when it plays outside the AFC South. The Bills crushed what looks more and more like a pathetic Dolphins team. But Buffalo was smacked around by New England, the AFC's elite, and played a stinker against a Giants team that is better than the Colts but not at the Patriots level.'

'"Give me a team that's got some fight and will compete to the very end, right, wrong or indifferent, no matter how good the officiating is or whatever. It makes no difference to me. I'll take a team with some competitive fight and some spirit. Is 17 penalties ridiculous? Absolutely, 100 percent it's ridiculous, and so you say what you want, but I'll take a team that'll fight. I'm proud of this team, and we'll keep fighting. Eventually we'll find a way to win. Eventually we'll find a way to eliminate penalties."'

'This team is a reflection of its head coach, Rex Ryan. Like him, they’re emotional and passionate and aggressive. And that’s ok. In fact, it can be a really good thing when all of that is channeled the right way. But it can also be a detriment when it isn’t. And that’s been the case twice now in four games. Somehow, Ryan, his staff, and the players have to get a handle on this and really soon. Because it’s on all of them, not just the coaches and not just the players.'

'If once is an accident and twice is a trend, the Bills have a serious problem on their hands.'

'For the third time in four weeks, and not to mention the third time in three home games, the Bills accrued a double-digit amount of accepted penalties against them.'

'The Bills ended the game with 17 accepted penalties for 135 yards. Those penalties granted the Giants seven first downs compared to the Bills’ total of nine first downs throughout the game.'

'Added up, Buffalo failed to add at least 20 attainable points from the scoreboard. Which if added to the scoreboard, would have boosted the Bills above the Giants at a hypothetical 30 to 24.'

' “Give me a team that’s got some fight and will continue to the very end – right, wrong or indifferent, no matter how good the officiating is or whatever,’’ he continued. “It makes no difference to me.” '

'This game proves once again that a lot can change from week to week in the NFL. The Bills were riding high after their blowout win in Miami. Theycame home and laid an absolute egg against a team they needed to beat. We wrote in oure preview that if they are a playoff contender these are the games they have to win. They didn't win, they didn't even really show up. Since things change from week to week it would be too early to count the Bills out like it was too early to annoint them playoff contenders last week.'

'Rex Ryan didn't have a good day as the team was flat and not ready to play. Penalties were an absolute killer once again. Greg Roman had some terrible playcalling especially on the goal line stand early in the fourth quarter. He didn't move Taylor around enough. Dennis Thurman had his defense playing pretty well but they missed too many tackles and made too many penalties. Grade F: 17 penalties for 135 yards is ridiculous.'

'Buffalo had their share of self-inflicted wounds with a missed field goal, a penalty on fourth down that led to a Giants touchdown, a pair of turnovers and a Bills touchdown called back on penalty. It all contributed to a missed opportunity to stack wins after a resounding win over Miami a week earlier.'

'“A slow start. Turnovers—we put the ball on the ground,” he said. “Penalties. There were a lot of little things that factored into our loss, but they are all on us.”'

'“It’s definitely something we have to address,” said Tyrod Taylor. “As a team we know to be the best team that we want to be we definitely have to eliminate those penalties. It cost us some yards and it’s something we have to address moving forward.”'

'We were struggling. I mean obviously in the first half, especially. We couldn’t do anything. They three-and-outed us a bunch, we just couldn’t get anything going. But you got to give them credit, they did a great job. Especially stopping the run. I thought they did a tremendous job and it just was one of those things. But we kept fighting. I thought we’d have opportunities at the end and it was tough. And … we had two touchdowns called back. That wasn’t the reason we lost but it took a little wind out our sails. I’ll be truthful about that and obviously one was a holding call and one was a chop block, I think.'