dave mcbride Posted September 13, 2004 Posted September 13, 2004 just as an aside, in 1996, after the bills beat the pats to put the pats at 0-2, a patsies friend of mine called me to tell me that after watching the first two games (both pats losses), he was thrilled with their play and figured they were a playoff team. and he's more of a pessimist than an optimist. as well, in 1998, the bills started out 0-3, but played very well in their third loss until the very end against the rams, who pulled out a weird victory. oh yeah - the cowboys started out 0-2 in 93 and finished 12-4, and the ravens started out 1-4 in 00, and the oilers with buddy ryan as dc started out 1-4 in 93 and won their last 11 regular season games. my point is, it's the first freakin' game. there are 15 more. and as for yesterday's game, they lost because of an inexcusable holding penalty on villareal, which was strange in and of itself because it was the first holding call all game on either line. go figure. if that doesn't get called, the game is over. (as for blaming the d, come on - you give a team 4 downs to work with instead of 3, chances are that they'll make a play or two, which the jags did.) the bills absolutely dominated the game and looked good in doing so. at any rate, there are so many things they did better yesterday than last year. they were ballhawking, and while you can attack clements for going for the int on the 4th down play, it's about freakin' time we made some ints. he's not going to win all of those battles, but i feel a whole lot better knowing that we have a secondary aiming to get picks. and a safety intercepted a ball for the first time since the fifth game of the 01 season! that's reason enough to celebrate. bottom line: the secondary is really good. the defensive line and the lbs are very good, with the only weakness being a lack of ability to get DT penetration on passing plays. they completely shut down a team that's probably a 9-10 win team. by the way, the bills gave up the second fewest yards of any team yesterday, and would have given up the fewest if villareal hadn't been called for holding. as for the offense, yes, they need to make more big plays. but people are forgetting something. many people across the country have been saying that the jags defense had become one of the best in the league late last season, and people are expecting great things from them. the point is, it's not easy to move against them. as well, when the bills played the jags last year, they ran poorly the entire game ( henry - 21 carries, 26 yards). they started out poorly yesterday, but by the second quarter made the right adjustments and averaged 4+ yds/carry for the rest of the game. that's uptick was really something, and something that didn't occur last year. they didn't give up on the run at all, and made it work for them. as for bledsoe, he played very, very well. he made no mistakes, was accurate, and made very good decisions (i.e., eating the ball instead of the sure pick in the end zone if he had tried to hit shelton). honestly, my only complaint about yesterday is that the sort of offense the bills are running needs to incorporate big plays. given today's nfl, when o-lines are put together at the last minute, you can't expect a team to sustain 13-15 play drives without mistakes. they always seem to happen, and good-looking drives stall at 9-10 plays. the philosophy guarantees ball control but not many points, and that means that opponents will always be in the game (like yesterday). the raiders aren't that good, and the bills should have a decent chance at beating them. and even if they lose, they'll have a bye before facing a pats team in week 4 that's not as good as many think. i sincerely believe that after three games, they'
dave mcbride Posted September 13, 2004 Author Posted September 13, 2004 sorry - i meant to say they'll end up at worst 1-2. that's hardly insurmountable.
GG Posted September 13, 2004 Posted September 13, 2004 Oh stop it already. This post doesn't belong here. BTW, people are also missing a key point that Mularkey said in his post game PC. The Bills were able to move the chains in their last drive by running vs a good D, when that D knew that we were going to run.
marck Posted September 13, 2004 Posted September 13, 2004 Dave, I really do appreciate your positive take on yesterdays loss and I can only make this comment on what you have written. Why in gods name was Clements trying for the pick on a 4th down play. If he gets the pick, the Bills have the ball 40 yards further down the field then they would have if he just knocks the pass down. Then assuming the worst case scenario, a fumbled snap, its at the Jags 30 yeard line and not on our 30. Its just common sense, on 4th down, knock the damm ball down and gain the yardage back from where the original line of scrimmage is. This is basic Pop Warner football tactics, if nothing else, Clements should get his ass chewed bigtime for this selfish showboat attempt. Now to try and put a positive spin on this, maybe he'll simply lean from this mistake and the next time the situation comes up, just knock down the damm ball.
dave mcbride Posted September 13, 2004 Author Posted September 13, 2004 Dave, I really do appreciate your positive take on yesterdays loss and I can only make this comment on what you have written. Why in gods name was Clements trying for the pick on a 4th down play. If he gets the pick, the Bills have the ball 40 yards further down the field then they would have if he just knocks the pass down. Then assuming the worst case scenario, a fumbled snap, its at the Jags 30 yeard line and not on our 30. Its just common sense, on 4th down, knock the damm ball down and gain the yardage back from where the original line of scrimmage is. This is basic Pop Warner football tactics, if nothing else, Clements should get his ass chewed bigtime for this selfish showboat attempt. Now to try and put a positive spin on this, maybe he'll simply lean from this mistake and the next time the situation comes up, just knock down the damm ball. 28887[/snapback] my positive spin on it is that he had flawless single coverage on one of the best receivers in the nfl over the last decade. smith made a great, great play. give smith some credit - he's a possible hall of famer for a reason.
EndZoneCrew Posted September 13, 2004 Posted September 13, 2004 nice post....I hope you are right....I did like our defensive performance...I just wished we would have blitzed on that last drive.....why we didn't baffles me...
Realist Posted September 13, 2004 Posted September 13, 2004 nice post....I hope you are right....I did like our defensive performance...I just wished we would have blitzed on that last drive.....why we didn't baffles me... 28911[/snapback] Prevent Defense - prevents teams from winning.
BuffalOhio Posted September 13, 2004 Posted September 13, 2004 Sorry Dave, you just DO NOT try to intercept passes on FOURTH DOWN. Why would you unless it's an out-pattern and you've got clear sailing to the End Zone. If he bats that ball down, the Bills get the ball at the line of scrimmage.
gantrules Posted September 13, 2004 Posted September 13, 2004 great post. As I've been saying. This crap happens. One play was really the difference and that was the long pass. Do it again 10 times and Jimmy would be luck to come down with that ball once.
dave mcbride Posted September 13, 2004 Author Posted September 13, 2004 Prevent Defense - prevents teams from winning. 28915[/snapback] you're kind of missing my point - the jags, a good team, won on a fluke in a game which suggested to me that the bills may well have a pretty good year. clements was responsible for the bills only td, by the way.
dave mcbride Posted September 13, 2004 Author Posted September 13, 2004 you're kind of missing my point - the jags, a good team, won on a fluke in a game which suggested to me that the bills may well have a pretty good year. clements was responsible for the bills only td, by the way. 28925[/snapback] whoops - this post was addressed to dc sabres statement about clements.
Realist Posted September 13, 2004 Posted September 13, 2004 great post. As I've been saying. This crap happens. One play was really the difference and that was the long pass. Do it again 10 times and Jimmy would be luck to come down with that ball once. 28919[/snapback] This is what I was thinking. 9 times out of ten the Bills win this game. For some reason, everything fell the Jags way on that last drive. stevestojan happens, go out and get the win next week.
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