Spiller pulled a McKelvin

[BuffaloATL]

NOT a dumb play by Spiller. If it was the end of the game and the score was the same, then yes, dumb (ala the McKelvin). But at that juncture in the game you don't play to protect a lead. You're going to lose that way. They wanted to attack. I'm 100% fine with this.

[silvermike]

Spiller should have protected the ball better. That's true of most fumbles. But this thread is ridiculous. 40 seconds on a kick return to midfield? CJ Spiller runs 40 yards in 4.3 seconds. Obviously, it's not quite that quick in live action, but he's not going to be running back and forth a dozen times. He was looking to make one cut and head upfield. That's max, 12 seconds off the clock.

 

1st and 10 and the 20 with time short in the half, the Bills probably just hand of to Fred Jackson. If Fitzpatrick was intercepted, you'd be complaining about that play call too.

[tennesseeboy]

We lost the game because Ray Lewis made a great defensive play in overtime. I'm not about to criticize Spiller for running it out with 58 seconds left. He is a great return guy and 58 seconds is a lot of time to get points on the board. For the same reason, Nelson was trying to get significant yards after the catch. This was a pretty remarkable performance by the Bills, although a loss is a loss. I was watching the game in a sports bar and for the first time this year I was not embarassed by the Bills. I might even start wearing my Bills jersey when I go to these games again.

[Billmatic]

OK I see whats going on here,

Lets pretend its not CJ Spiller, lets say its Joe McGilacutty.

 

Joe McGilacutty catches the ball Two and half yards deep with 10 point lead and 58 seconds left in the half, do you want Joe running the ball back or do you want a hot QB to get the ball back in his hands and have him try to make something happen?

 

Besides the fact that there hasn't been a logical response to running the kick out in that situation besides:

 

"Its a Spiller he should, ah, run kicks and stuff and make things happen and stuff because he was, ah drafted and stuff."

 

I seriously question your football knowledge. Regardless of whether or nots its spiller, or joe mcgilacutty, or terrence sore knee mcgee, or leodis mckelvin, your KR is put back there because they have a chance to give you the best field position possible. It is the fastest way to get yards. you could have a guy run a 4.5 but if he can get the ball to the 50 then let him.

 

By the way with the ball in your offenses hands at the 20 with 58 seconds left, your WRs still have to run routes and they have to be targeted to the outside due to the lack of timeouts we had. which is even more time to wait for a route to develop or to get to the LOS after we don't get out of bounds. A kick return is the most efficient way to gain a lot of yardage in a small amount of time.

[KD in CA]

OK I see whats going on here,

Lets pretend its not CJ Spiller, lets say its Joe McGilacutty.

 

Joe McGilacutty catches the ball Two and half yards deep with 10 point lead and 58 seconds left in the half, do you want Joe running the ball back or do you want a hot QB to get the ball back in his hands and have him try to make something happen?

 

Besides the fact that there hasn't been a logical response to running the kick out in that situation besides:

 

"Its a Spiller he should, ah, run kicks and stuff and make things happen and stuff because he was, ah drafted and stuff."

 

You seem to be badly confusing the end of the first half with the end of the game. Where you planning on sitting on that huge ten point lead the entire second half with the (currently) 3d worst defense in NFL history?

 

What I want with one minute left and a hugely talented kick returner is for him to take it out to the 35 or 40 yard line so my offense can get into FG range for an extra 3 points because God knows I need more points if I'm going to win this game. The odds of that happening if I start at the 20 are significantly reduced.

[Dorkington]

He didn't fumble because he tried to run the ball out, he fumbled because he fumbled.

 

I'm not opposed to the play, it was a freak accident, it happens, I hope he doesn't lose playing time because of it.

[yall]

Keep an eye on your lawn CJ.

 

[macaroni]

While I agree running the ball out in this situation may have been a bad idea (especially since we now know the outcome), you don't differenciate between the end of the game, and the end of the half ... big differece IMHO ... but even acknowledging it was a bad move, I'm OK with it. To kneel down for a touchback would signal to me we were "playing not to lose" instead of playing to win. Running that ball out of the end zone showed me that the team was trying to put a dagger into the Ravens heart and were fighting to increase their lead going into halftime.

 

A not-so-wise man once said, "it's hard to win in the NFL", and had his team always playing it safe. It seems to me Chan is telling us by his actions "we are going to fight and scratch until we win in the NFL".

 

What I'm trying to say is .... end of the game with 58 seconds to go, leading by 10, by all means kneel and take the touchback to ice the win .... at the end of the 1st half with 58 seconds to go is enough time to fight for at least another field goal ... go for it!!!!

[BillsFan4Life420]

I didn't see this specific topic called out and I think it deserves its own thread.

Sorry if its already out there but Spiller gets the blame for losing this game.

 

There were 4 obvious big plays that changed the game.

1. Pos dropping a possible Pic6

2. The Forward Progression Debacle and Helmet throw.

3. Throwing to a double covered Roscoe, when Shawn Nelson was wide open with no one near him. (They called an audible and a DE had to go out and cover Shawn Nelson, doesn't matter who else did what you throw it to a TE that has DE covering him) The Ball bounces off of Ray Lewis and Ed Reed gets the picl

4. SPILLER Pulling a McKelvin

 

Of all the mistakes the Spiller mistake is the most inexcusable it has been driving me crazy.

 

There are :58 seconds left in the half, you have an unexpected 10 point lead and you catch the Ball Two and Half Yards deep.

 

Why would you run it out!!!???? Best case scenario you run it back for a touchdown, even still that means that Ravens get the ball back. Not a great play.

 

Bruce DeHaven needed to do what Bobby April didn't do in Week 1 of 2009, tell his kick returner to sit on the ball if its in the end zone.

 

( Here is the official play call for people that say he wasn't in the end zone. B.Cundiff kicks 72 yards from BLT 30 to BUF -2. C.Spiller to BUF 27 for 29 yards (J.Parmele). FUMBLES (J.Parmele), RECOVERED by BLT-J.Wilson at BUF 27. J.Wilson to BUF 27 for no gain (C.McIntyre).)

 

If I were playing Madden I wouldn't even run the ball out of the end zone in that situation.

 

You take a knee, and give your offense a chance to try and to make a play or just take a knee and go to halftime with a ten point league.

 

I have a freaking headache from thinking about how stupid that was. If McKelvin just took a knee in 2009 the Bills win the game, if Spiller took a knee the Bills most likely win the game.

 

Out of all of the big game changing plays in the game against the Ravens Spiller running it out is so easily addressable, it should never have happend. Pos isn't a WR, so ok I get he can't catch, Fitzy, played lights out, so he made a mistake, but it was pretty obvious that Nelson was the presnap read and they seemed to be forcing to Roscoe all game, and the forward progression call is all on the refs.

 

Spiller pulling a McKelvin is all on Spiller and DeHaven's coaching.

 

SPILLER COULDN'T HERE ME SCREAMING "SIT DOWN! SIT DOWN!!!" FROM SECTION 535 when he caught the ball.

 

Too bad it wasn't Madden.

i'm pretty sure that was whitner who drooped the pick that could have been easily returned for 6 i missed some of the game so maybe pos did to but whitner was the one that had the ball hit him in the hands along the sideline and dropped it

 

Why? Why do you agree with running the ball out.

 

Let's say he runs it back to the 50, its a kick return, it would take atleast 25-40 seconds off of the clock.

Which would you rather have 1st and 10 with :58 at the 20,

or 1st and 10 and the 50 with :28

7/10 offensive coordinators would take the time. You can have 1 strike for 30 yards that takes 8 second of the clock and the receiver gets out of bounds.

 

This is what I mean. From a pure football strategy situation, why would you want your KR to pull it out?

 

 

How can you misquote a quote that is 2 lines above your response?

 

I'm talking about football strategy. Why would you tell your KR to take it out of the end zone in that situation?

no way it take that much time off it only takes 20 seconds or so to return it to the house but you are right when you say it was a bad play to take it outta the endzone with a 10 point lead over a team that was suppose to crush us you take the knee and either run the ball kill the time to half or see if you can hit a wr deep whitch they did a couple times

 

Keep an eye on your lawn CJ.

 

lol i got the spray paint and the tiolet paper lets help him to remember ball safety

 

He didn't fumble because he tried to run the ball out, he fumbled because he fumbled.

 

I'm not opposed to the play, it was a freak accident, it happens, I hope he doesn't lose playing time because of it.

he fumbled bc he wasnt protecting the ball he should have known the ravens were gonna try and knock it out but regaurdless he wont lose playing time over one bad play

[zow2]

Spiller's fumble was a killer but his mistake was not securing the ball. HE will learn from that big time. What i hated more was how C.J. took so many kneel downs in the 2nd half. I mean c'mon, this dude can hit a homerun every time he returns a kick or at least get it out to the 40. I hated that Ravens fans around me were laughing that they were "in his head" in the 2nd half. Starting at the 20 everytime against Baltimore does not usually breed success.

 

BTW- i still marvel at that Ray Lewis strip at the end. The guy made Nelson look like a child....using one arm as leverage on Nelson's body and the other arm to steal the ball without it ever hitting the ground. The Ravens were ripping and tugging at the ball all day. I like that tenacity. Wish we had more of that.

[2003Contenders]

There were 4 obvious big plays that changed the game.

1. Pos dropping a possible Pic6

2. The Forward Progression Debacle and Helmet throw.

3. Throwing to a double covered Roscoe, when Shawn Nelson was wide open with no one near him. (They called an audible and a DE had to go out and cover Shawn Nelson, doesn't matter who else did what you throw it to a TE that has DE covering him) The Ball bounces off of Ray Lewis and Ed Reed gets the picl

4. SPILLER Pulling a McKelvin

 

 

How about the STUPID PI on Florence? That pass from Flacco was a lame duck; all Florence had to do was turn around and it was an easy INT. In fact, that single play was even MORE damaging that the Spiller fumble, as it set up the sequence of unfortunate events (which included the Spiller fumble) that rounded out the first half.

 

As others have already mentioned, the dropped Pick 6 was on Whitner, not Poz. As much as the fumble by Spiller hurts, I think the bigger culprit for the loss on Sunday was indeed Whitner and his inability to cover Todd Heap.

 

BTW- i still marvel at that Ray Lewis strip at the end. The guy made Nelson look like a child....using one arm as leverage on Nelson's body and the other arm to steal the ball without it ever hitting the ground. The Ravens were ripping and tugging at the ball all day. I like that tenacity. Wish we had more of that.

 

 

Agreed. I think adding one front-seven player like Ray Lewis, who is a great player obsessed with winning and an even more important presence in the locker room, would do more to improve this team than any other possible acquisition. The problem is that these guys don't come around very often.

[stony]

You seem to be badly confusing the end of the first half with the end of the game. Where you planning on sitting on that huge ten point lead the entire second half with the (currently) 3d worst defense in NFL history?

 

What I want with one minute left and a hugely talented kick returner is for him to take it out to the 35 or 40 yard line so my offense can get into FG range for an extra 3 points because God knows I need more points if I'm going to win this game. The odds of that happening if I start at the 20 are significantly reduced.

 

Exactly, let's not condemn a guy that's trying to make a play. To compare returning kicks at the end of the 4th quarter when a 1st down virtually locks up a victory and Spiller's fumble is apples and oranges.

 

Stupid stuff like not turning your head around when the ball is thrown should get people more pissed that than the Spiller fumble. I think the love affair with Drayton should end ASAP if it hasn't already.

[John from Riverside]

Spiller's fumble was a killer but his mistake was not securing the ball. HE will learn from that big time. What i hated more was how C.J. took so many kneel downs in the 2nd half. I mean c'mon, this dude can hit a homerun every time he returns a kick or at least get it out to the 40. I hated that Ravens fans around me were laughing that they were "in his head" in the 2nd half. Starting at the 20 everytime against Baltimore does not usually breed success.

 

BTW- i still marvel at that Ray Lewis strip at the end. The guy made Nelson look like a child....using one arm as leverage on Nelson's body and the other arm to steal the ball without it ever hitting the ground. The Ravens were ripping and tugging at the ball all day. I like that tenacity. Wish we had more of that.

 

He gets a signal from a player in front of him scouting where the return defense is at the time before taking it out...your not supposed to ignore that signal and go on your own.

 

I am suprised they were lauphing because the game plan on offense was working....how many points did we put up?