Archives for December 2017

‘With significant hype about what might happen in the first meeting with the New England Patriots since Rob Gronkowski’s cheap shot against the Buffalo Bills’ rookie cornerback, the answer was simple: Not much.’

‘”When Kelvin Benjamin gains control, his left foot is off the ground,” the NFL Football Operations department posted on Twitter. “The receiver only has one foot down in bounds with control. Therefore, it is an incomplete pass.”‘

‘Say it with me: Field goals don’t beat the Patriots. Why Sean McDermott settled for one in the fourth quarter instead of going for it on fourth and 1 is a real head scratcher. I liked going for it on fourth and 2 from the Patriots’ 6-yard line, but if you’re going to do that, why not run on the plays before that? The ongoing love affair for Tolbert is baffling. Taking a 12-men-on-the-field penalty was sloppy.’

‘Fourth-down fail. On the next play, Sean McDermott opted to go for it on fourth and 2. The Bills called the same play, with Clay running to the left flat. This time there was no trigger from Taylor, who scrambled and had to throw it away. The Bills either needed a different play or a quicker trigger.’

‘The tradeoff is the backs have room. Dion Lewis rushed 24 times for 129 yards. Lewis bounced around three teams his first four seasons in the league but has been a steady role player for the Pats the past three years. He plays 30 percent of the snaps and is having his best season, with 977 yards from scrimmage.’

‘That makes it all the more curious why coach Sean McDermott didn’t get more aggressive late. The Bills had fourth and 1 from the Patriots’ 32-yard line with 13:13 to play while trailing 23-16. Sean McDermott instead elected to try a 50-yard field goal, which Stephen Hauschka missed wide right.’

‘Too many men: Sean McDermott’s defense was flagged for too many men on the field for the second time in the game just before Gillislee’s touchdown.’

‘The Bills had to settle for a field goal, which tied the game at 13. As frustrating and confusing as league’s decision was, it wouldn’t have been necessary if Charles Clay hadn’t dropped a touchdown on the play before.’

‘The Bills couldn’t convert in the red zone on their opening drive, but all things considered, it was a decent first quarter in Foxborough.’

‘Red zone. You get in the red zone, you’ve got to be able to score touchdowns against a good team. Jerry, you mentioned this, a good team and good quarterback. You have got to be able to score touchdowns in the red zone and we weren’t able to do that today. We had some good drives in the first three quarters of the game. In particular, going in before half and coming after half. We knew that would be important for us and almost a flip of the first game against New England where they had the ball going into the half and after the half, and then had the ball again. We knew those drives would be critical and then came away with, as opposed to two touchdowns, came away with two field goals.’

If the Ravens don’t lose to the Bengals (6-9), the Bills would need…A Titans loss to the Jaguars, and a Chargers loss to the Raiders.’

‘The league said that it wanted to have games with similar playoff implications at the same time.’

‘How are the Bills in hot weather? The News reported earlier this month that playing in cold weather has surprisingly not seemed to help the Bills play better at home – they have virtually the same record all-time when the temperature is below 40 degrees than when it is above 40 in Western New York. How do the Bills do in hot weather? The Weather Channel’s long-range forecast is calling for a high temperature of 79 degrees next Sunday in Miami. The Bills are 27-34-1 all-time (.444) in games at 75 degrees or above, per Pro Football Reference data. Only eight of those games have come at home, with the Bills going 4-4. They’re 14-20-1 (.414) in those temperatures at Miami.’