At the Halfway Point in the Season

[Casey D]

Stepping back from the week to week ups and downs of a football season, particularly if you are a Bills fan, where do we stand at the halfway mark given what we thought we had in July?

 

Well obviously we are 3-5, which is about all you could hope for with a team with so many off-season changes in the front office, coaching and turnover in personnel. When you consider there were 3 games against Chicago and NE in there--two top 5 teams for sure-- the 3-2 record against the others is OK, if not great.

 

Next, the Bills spent most of their off-season resources trying to shore up the defense. Overall, given all the rookies playing, this unit has improved, and is young enough to keep getting better. Still could use a killer DT, but overall the foundation has been laid for this unit to get better next year, with a little tweaking.

 

Next issue going into the season--can Losman be the guy? I'd say the jury is still out on that one. September looked like he was turning the corner. October he regressed. Yesterday, in my view, was somewhere in between. It was clear to me at the game that the Bills were playing not to lose when they went up 10-0. Three game losing streaks make the coller tight. They only let JP throw 15 times, they asked him not to lose the game. And he didn't. The second half should continue to provide feedback on this.

 

I would note that on at least on a couple of sacks, when JP had some time, no one was open and a throw might well have been a pick. I can't blame the line for some of his weaknesses though--one major one is that he has trouble scanning the field and so he locks on one guy compunding his problems. Hopefully this improves with more playing time.

 

The O-line has been neglected for years, and once again we are putting band-aids on massive wounds. If Peters can play left tackle--and the Bills ran well all day to the left, we have one guy who can play. I think Fowler could be a B+ center if he had at least one stud guard to help him. Right tackle, who knows? What we do know, is that Marv needs to put lots of resources into the O-line, if this team is to move forward next year. Hopefully they will do this.

 

The O skill positions are adequate, and we might have a star or two if the line play and QB play stabalize.

 

So what should we look/hope for in the second half. Continued improvement from the D, development from JP, and finding out how many O lineman can be counted on for next year.

 

As to Ws and Ls, I would submit we should shoot for--realistically-- 4-4, giving us a 7-9 record overall. If we are improving over the course of the season, wins at home against Miami and Tennessee are musts, as is a win on the road against Houston. That leaves 4 tough games, Indy, Jax, SD and Baltimore, and one middling game at the Jets. An improving team should be able to steal one of these 5. That would be progress, get us to 7-9, and give us a base to go forward in 2007 in the second year of Levy/Jauron. Anything more would be gravy, anything less would be disappointing...CD