We've Played This Game Before!!

[BuckeyeBill]

I was thinking today regarding this game. Our defense going up against another defense, two inconsistent offenses playing each other... the game possibly coming down to special teams or a big play on defense... and then it hit me.

 

We've played this game before. In fact, we played this game LAST YEAR!!

 

What am I talking about? I'm talking about the Baltimore Rave game... am I crazy, but I see Sundays contest as the exact same game.

 

In the Baltimore game, we were going into their house... playing against their tough defense... and we lost. How did we lose? The same way we CAN lose on Sunday.

 

If my memory serves... the Bills defense dominated the Baltimore offense, but Bledsoe cost us the game. Deion's infamous return of a Bledsoe interception, and I remember Bledsoe also fumbling (or throwing a pick) down deep in the Baltimore red zone. We lost because of those two plays, and those plays alone.

 

If JP makes similar mistakes, like Bledsoe did in the Raven game last year, I am going to guarantee a victory for the Buccanneers... JP can NOT have costly turnovers on his head Sunday.

 

If JP does not make the mistakes that Bledsoe did, I guarantee a victory for us.

 

Here's to holding my breath and hoping JP plays smart football Sunday.

[MDH]

I'm more worried about Lindell hitting FG's in this game than I am with Losman making game altering mistakes. This will be a close, low scoring game. Lindell better not shank any "gimme" FG's...

[Dan Gross]

...worse yet I think the Bucs picked up "Creepy Burger King Guy" in free agency....does not bode well.

 

Seriously, I share your concerns to a degree, but we do have a different QB. We'll see if Losman learned from his mistakes from last weekend.

[FanfromAlbany]

  Deion's infamous return of a Bledsoe interception,

441734[/snapback]

 

 

Is that the Burger King's first name, Deion?

[merlin]

..... but we do have a different QB.  We'll see if Losman learned from his mistakes from last weekend.

441742[/snapback]

 

 

This may have already been pointed out, but one comment in JP's Q/A session on buffalobills.com bothered me a little. When asked about the "near-interception" that the Texan's Antwoin Peak had in his hands, a sure TD, but dropped it, JP responded this way:

 

Steve Gasiorek (Sloan, NY): On the almost interception, was it Josh Reed or yourself that made the wrong read? Great game though. Go Bills!

 

J.P. Losman: First off that wasn't almost an interception. It was a play where there was some miscommunication. It wasn't either one of our faults. I thought he said one thing and he thought I said another so it was very easy to understand why he did something and why I did the other thing. It was just something like I said earlier. We have to focus and concentrate more this week.

 

 

HUH??? What does that meant "wasn't almost an interception"???

 

Hope that's not what he meant ... and that he did LEARN something from that experience!

 

GO BILLS!!

[MDH]

This may have already been pointed out, but one comment in JP's Q/A session on buffalobills.com bothered me a little.  When asked about the "near-interception" that the Texan's Antwoin Peak had in his hands, a sure TD, but dropped it, JP responded this way:

 

Steve Gasiorek (Sloan, NY): On the almost interception, was it Josh Reed or yourself that made the wrong read? Great game though. Go Bills!

 

J.P. Losman: First off that wasn't almost an interception. It was a play where there was some miscommunication. It wasn't either one of our faults. I thought he said one thing and he thought I said another so it was very easy to understand why he did something and why I did the other thing. It was just something like I said earlier. We have to focus and concentrate more this week.

HUH???  What does that meant "wasn't almost an interception"???

 

Hope that's not what he meant ... and that he did LEARN something from that experience!

 

GO BILLS!!

441755[/snapback]

 

Sounds like he wasn't talking about the dropped ball to start the second half but the play where he and Josh and a miscommunication and there were words exchanged afterwards.

[ricojes]

If JP makes similar mistakes, like Bledsoe did in the Raven game last year, I am going to guarantee a victory for the Buccanneers...  JP can NOT have costly turnovers on his head Sunday. 

 

If JP does not make the mistakes that Bledsoe did, I guarantee a victory for us.

 

Here's to holding my breath and hoping JP plays smart football Sunday.

441734[/snapback]

If If's and Buts were candy and nuts, we would all have a Merry Christmas. I thought game one was similar to last years opener. Houston had a good defense and unproven offense, much like Jax. But Buffalo came out and could have scored 40 had their red zone efficiency been better. You do have a point about making mistakes and that's how DB killed us last year. JP doesn't have to win this game, just don't lose it by making bad decisions. I think we win this game 16 - 10.

[ganesh]

...worse yet I think the Bucs picked up "Creepy Burger King Guy" in free agency....does not bode well.

 

Seriously, I share your concerns to a degree, but we do have a different QB.  We'll see if Losman learned from his mistakes from last weekend.

441742[/snapback]

 

Also, we still had Travis "Can't handle a Blitz" Henry as our starting RB

before they pulled him in the 2nd half in favor of McGahee...By then this game

was out of control...

[ganesh]

The sad thing about that game was we started of so great...a sack and

a fumble caused by Schoebel...and then we killed ourselves in the Red Zone...

 

Then we pick off Boller....and still came up empty....

[BB27]

There is a difference between the Ravens game last year, and this game this year. Bedsore does not play for us anymore, and JP has not thrown picks or fumbled this season.

 

I like our chances in this one.

 

Bills 13

Bucs 10

 

There isn't going to be a lot of scoring, but our D is gonna shine.

[booya2]

Or... we could come out and walk all over Tampa to the tune of 35-3 en route to becoming one of the greatest teams in NFL history. In all seriousness, I really have no feeling for this game at all. I have the same feeling I had in 2003, after thumping New England and Jax and going down to Miami. I had all the confidence in the world and then the season went to hell in a handbasket. I think this is that type of game. The next 3 or 4 weeks will give us a guage of where we're at. It's just so hard to get excited over a 2-0 fast start again after getting burned in '03.

[BB27]

Or... we could come out and walk all over Tampa to the tune of 35-3 en route to becoming one of the greatest teams in NFL history. In all seriousness, I really have no feeling for this game at all. I have the same feeling I had in 2003, after thumping New England and Jax and going down to Miami. I had all the confidence in the world and then the season went to hell in a handbasket. I think this is that type of game. The next 3 or 4 weeks will give us a guage of where we're at. It's just so hard to get excited over a 2-0 fast start again after getting burned in '03.

441945[/snapback]

 

Agreed.

 

When we're 5 - 0 then I'll start getting a feeling. I won't let the feeling out for real until we're about 10 weeks in the season and we are still cruising along.

[scribo]

This may have already been pointed out, but one comment in JP's Q/A session on buffalobills.com bothered me a little.  When asked about the "near-interception" that the Texan's Antwoin Peak had in his hands, a sure TD, but dropped it, JP responded this way:

 

Steve Gasiorek (Sloan, NY): On the almost interception, was it Josh Reed or yourself that made the wrong read? Great game though. Go Bills!

 

J.P. Losman: First off that wasn't almost an interception. It was a play where there was some miscommunication. It wasn't either one of our faults. I thought he said one thing and he thought I said another so it was very easy to understand why he did something and why I did the other thing. It was just something like I said earlier. We have to focus and concentrate more this week.

HUH???  What does that meant "wasn't almost an interception"???

 

Hope that's not what he meant ... and that he did LEARN something from that experience!

 

GO BILLS!!

441755[/snapback]

The problem there is that Steve Gasiorek of Sloah, NY, seemingly rolled two plays into one. The miscommunicaiton play did not result in a near interception, just a third-down incompletion. The near interception play was totally seperate.

 

J.P.'s response tot htat question was right on mark, IMHO.

[Sound_n_Fury]

If JP makes similar mistakes, like Bledsoe did in the Raven game last year, I am going to guarantee a victory for the Buccanneers...  JP can NOT have costly turnovers on his head Sunday. 

 

441734[/snapback]

 

I may be mistaken, but couldn't the same thing be said about Griese?

[MadBuffaloDisease]

Why is everyone so giddy about the Bucs? Sorry to say this, but the Vikes now have a crap-ass offense without Moss. I mean, outside of Culpepper, who was inconsistent even WITH Moss, and maybe Wiggins at TE, who do they have on offense? Burleson is a #2 at best. Their rookie WR is raw. They have no #1 RB. And their O-line has only gotten weaker over the years. I scoffed at those who said that the Vikes would be better without Moss, and the proof was last weekend. And on defense, just because you load up on aging name players doesn't mean you have a good defense. And as for ST's, forget about it. Speaking about the Bucs, Griese is good for at least 2 turnovers a game, Williams didn't look impressive until that 71-yard TD, and the Bucs don't stack the box much. I'm more worried about the heat and crowd noise.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

I was thinking today regarding this game.  Our defense going up against another defense, two inconsistent offenses playing each other... the game possibly coming down to special teams or a big play on defense... and then it hit me.

 

We've played this game before.  In fact, we played this game LAST YEAR!!

 

What am I talking about?  I'm talking about the Baltimore Rave  game... am I crazy, but I see Sundays contest as the exact same game.

 

In the Baltimore game, we were going into their house... playing against their tough defense... and we lost.  How did we lose?  The same way we CAN lose on Sunday.

 

If my memory serves... the Bills defense dominated the Baltimore offense, but Bledsoe cost us the game.  Deion's infamous return of a Bledsoe interception, and I remember Bledsoe also fumbling (or throwing a pick) down deep in the Baltimore red zone.  We lost because of those two plays, and those plays alone.

 

If JP makes similar mistakes, like Bledsoe did in the Raven game last year, I am going to guarantee a victory for the Buccanneers...  JP can NOT have costly turnovers on his head Sunday. 

 

If JP does not make the mistakes that Bledsoe did, I guarantee a victory for us.

 

Here's to holding my breath and hoping JP plays smart football Sunday.

441734[/snapback]

Buckeye I think you overstate the case to prove your point and this leads to a false conclusion in terms of what the Bills need to do to win.

 

There can be no rational argument that Bledsoe simply sucked in this game and he led the way to this loss with his miserable play. However, as is virtually almost always the case in this team game it is not the performance on one player alone that establishes the outcome.

 

I'm not arguing Bledsoe was good (he wasn't and sucked) or that we needn't improve our QB play (if JP avoids the mistakes made by Bledsoe leading to two opponent scores we do much better and JPs main goal in this and as a rule should not be to win the game by making great plays but not to lose the game by making errors.

 

The main thing here is that the Bills will need to make or maintain improvements in several facets of play which cost us in the road game against a team similar to us in terms of good D and developing at best O.

 

Specifically:

 

1. The D did dominate the Ravens but mostly in terms of the second half where they held them near yardage but the loss of Vincent at CB was noticeable as McGee gave up a 47 yarder an average play would have stopped. The good news is that McGee benefited from being thrown to the lions replacing an injured Vincent so our pass coverage against Wright/Boller should be better Howevwe it would be a mistake to ignore our D was no where near the Ravens level we aspire to in the first half and they deserve their fare share of sharing blame with Bledsoe for the loss though Bledsoe gets the lionshare. With the young Losman probably having the typical first year starting QB learning burps our D is going to need to be better than they were against the Ravens for us to win. They were great against the Texans and I hope this continues.

 

2. The inconsistent play of the OL was part of the reason Bledsoe sucked. In particular the infamous Deion pass was tipped by Raven rushers our OL could not stop from entering the backfield as he took 4 sacks that game, Again the OL has to perform better than they did in a Ravens game where not only was th pass pro inconsistent, but neither Henry (probably his own fault to some extent as he was in a funk in his few apparances that made him less of a warrior than he was two previous seasons) nor WM had much running room (he is a vet now so he is a better player) and their were mistakes like a dumb offsides on MW which cost us a better shot at a TD in the redzone leading to a mere FG when we needed a TD.

 

3. The coaching was abysmal as well as after Bledsoe "led" us to a 14 point deficit, the coaching staff played it wromg settling for an FG when we were 14 down in the 3rd quarter. I felt we gave up and the game was over at that point. The streak last year saw far more aggressive coaching after this learning experience. However, though I feel MM is the real deal, the coaching was conservative and not good in the Pitts game so there is still something to be learned.

 

4. The ST also sucked in this game with Moorman probably having his worst game of a season which should have seen him in the Pro Bowl and McGee averaged under 20 yards in kick returns. it seems far more logical and likely that we will get ST improvement which makes for a win rather than rooting for more than a mistake free perfomance at QB this time and not depend on JP or any gamewinning theatrics.

 

There were a lot of areas that must improve over the Ravens performance for us to win and the good news is that I think with an older better McGee and McGahee we should get that performance and if JP is dsimply mistake free rather than forcing errors like Bledsoe we will win this road game.

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

I was thinking today regarding this game.  Our defense going up against another defense, two inconsistent offenses playing each other... the game possibly coming down to special teams or a big play on defense... and then it hit me.

 

We've played this game before.  In fact, we played this game LAST YEAR!!

 

What am I talking about?  I'm talking about the Baltimore Rave  game... am I crazy, but I see Sundays contest as the exact same game.

 

In the Baltimore game, we were going into their house... playing against their tough defense... and we lost.  How did we lose?  The same way we CAN lose on Sunday.

 

If my memory serves... the Bills defense dominated the Baltimore offense, but Bledsoe cost us the game.  Deion's infamous return of a Bledsoe interception, and I remember Bledsoe also fumbling (or throwing a pick) down deep in the Baltimore red zone.  We lost because of those two plays, and those plays alone.

 

If JP makes similar mistakes, like Bledsoe did in the Raven game last year, I am going to guarantee a victory for the Buccanneers...  JP can NOT have costly turnovers on his head Sunday. 

 

If JP does not make the mistakes that Bledsoe did, I guarantee a victory for us.

 

Here's to holding my breath and hoping JP plays smart football Sunday.

441734[/snapback]

 

Excellent comparison! I agree--but I'll note a couple of potential differences:

 

1) We don't have Drew; so, although JP might make some bad decisions throwing the ball, he likely won't (due to his elusiveness) take the sacks and fumble the ball like Drew did. That to me is huge. JP can, in theory, avoid a lot of mistakes that Drew couldn't based on his athletic ability.

 

2) Tampa's defense now, though very good, isn't in the same league as the Ravens.

 

3) On the other hand, I think Tampa will be a harder venue to play at than Baltimore.

 

I like our chances this week; JP seems to acknowledge that he can't make mistakes, especially this week.

[Beerstm]

...worse yet I think the Bucs picked up "Creepy Burger King Guy" in free agency....does not bode well.

 

441742[/snapback]

 

 

That guy is plain freaky! I love Burger King.. but every time I go there I get freaked out the Burger King Guy is going to serve me my whopper!