Archives for November 30, 2015

'But the second half saw the Chiefs (6-5) handle Watkins, force a Taylor fumble and the Chiefs offense caught fire behind quarterback Alex Smith, wide receiver Jeremy Maclin and running back Spencer Ware. Smith threw for 255 yards, two touchdown passes and did not have an interception. Maclin caught nine passes for 160 yards and a touchdown. Ware picked up 114 rushing yards on 19 carries with a touchdown.'

'Rex Ryan is going to have to find some way to beef up the play on his defensive line. Injuries had starters Kyle Williams and Mario Williams out of Sunday's game in Kansas City. Then Alex Carrington left the field on a cart with a serious right leg injury. That left just five defensive linemen for four spots in Ryan's defensive scheme. Kyle Williams is apparently done for the season with a knee injury and matters did not look promising with Carrington. Against a battered and shuffled Chiefs offensive line, the defensive line was unable to grab a sack.'

'"A lot of times everybody will be up there, but I'm not saying anybody in particular is advising me because it never worked out," he said. "Every decision is my decision, and so it's my responsibility.'

'Two more Cairo Santos field goals and a stout Chiefs defense were enough to seal a 30-22 win and send the Bills to a 5-6 record.'

'So here we are again Bills fans. Are they mathematically out of the playoffs? No they are not but it feels like we are just fooling ourselves if we think they can pull this off. They'd probably have to win four of their last five and maybe even run the table and then get help elsewhere to end the post season drought. It doesn't seem very likely given the fact their longest win streak of the season is two and that's happened just one time.'

'Here we go again. The Bills had 9 penalties for 91 yards. That’s right at their average of 9.45 per game, which is second in the league (Tampa Bay is first at 9.91), and is over their average of 85.73, which leads the league.'

'For a coach that preached all week long about how enormous the upcoming game was, and how important it was for every player to be at their best for a game like this one against the Chiefs, he certainly didn’t heed his own advice. With his team in control of the game in the game in the second quarter, Ryan and the Bills’ lack of decisiveness on one play started a string of events that ultimately led to one conclusion: this loss, perhaps what will be the most important of the season, falls on the shoulders of Rex Ryan.'

'Just like last year when they fumbled away a home victory against Kansas City, it appears that a squandered opportunity vs. the Chiefs has cost them again.'

'In the end, the National Football League’s substandard product was met by a group of Bills coaches who upped the ante on awful. And the Bills are in deep, deep, pretty deserved trouble. If not for the injuries early in the year, you could wipe the “pretty” off that sentence. Plus, Buffalo’s schedule is fairly weak the rest of the way.'

'Every year it seems there is a game in November that they have to win to keep their playoff hopes realistic, despite having a medicore record. Every year they seem to come up woefully short in those games. That game this year was today and the Bills found another way to lose a big game. They got off to a hot start and then just collapsed. The offense stopped making plays and the defense was terrible. When they needed to make a play they couldn't. The Chiefs took over at their own 11 in the 4th quarter and easily marched the ball down the "vaunted" defense's throats. It now appears we are once again headed to the final turn of the NFL season without much too play for. The more things change the more they stay the same for all us tortured Bills fans.'

Tyrod Taylor was much more accurate with the deep ball this week, than last year. He threw for a career high 291 but got all but 55 of them in the first half. He put the ball up for Sammy Watkins early and often and he had huge results. He did nothing after halftime and did lose a fumble.<br />

Grade C: A in the first half, F in the second half.

'Kansas City scored 17 straight points and the Bills’ offense stalled in the second half managing just a touchdown. The win moves the Chiefs (6-5) a full game ahead of the Bills (5-6) in the AFC Wild Card race and gives them a valuable head-to-head tiebreaker.'

'“We were just getting perfect looks and we were practicing them all week,” said Watkins. “We got the looks we wanted to get, and [Tyrod" target="_blank"> was just throwing the ball freely.”'

'“Of course we made it tough on ourselves with the loss (Sunday),” Taylor said. “But everything is still manageable. We’ve just got to take it week by week, day by day and maintain a hungry attitude and keep coming to work with a positive mindset. That’s just got to be our outlook moving forward.'