Chilly Posted November 12, 2006 Share Posted November 12, 2006 Seeing as how I apparently differ a lot on this game from a decent amount of posters on this board, I decided to make my own grades for today to be criticized. ====== Offense ====== QB - I thought Losman played a pretty poor game today. It seems to me that he lacks both quick decision making skills and accuracy in throwing the football. The decision making baffles me as well. I thought he did excellent on the first drive - he was making quick reads to open receivers. After that, he seemed very indecisive with the football. He also seems to be very inaccurate ever since he started playing with the Bills. His accuracy hasn't improved much. I'm very concerned that he's not our guy, and I don't think that our guy is on our roster. The coaching staff seems to not have faith in him, and I don't either. Grade - First Series: A- (minus), Game: D. RB - Anthony Thomas hit the holes very hard and seemingly dragged defenders on several plays. This is some power running that I haven't seen Willis give us all year. Its as though Willis is having a hard time seeing the holes on the field, or if he does, he's still a step slow and hasn't recovered from his injury in college. Grade - B as he didn't make anyone miss, but he ran in a way that we haven't seen for a while from the Bills. Best unit on offense today. WRs - They just can't make anyone miss after they catch the football. When Peerless was with the Bills the first time, he used to do that a bunch. Now? He's lucky if he gets one YAC. Evans is a good WR, and then we have a bunch of #3 guys. There is also no "go-to" receiver in this squad, and it showed today. Grade: D+ TEs - Awful performance today. I can't remember one play that they did right, but I remember several that they screwed up. Royal vs Freeney, Everett's penalties, Royal's missed catch in the red zone where he didn't run past the first down marker. The TEs were the worst unit on the field today. Grade: F OL - I thought the OL was much better then what some people on this board were saying. They had a pretty average day overall. They opened up some running holes on the ground, and they had numerous plays where JP had plenty of time to throw. I put two big sacks on them this game (combined with Royal - why was Royal picking that up?) and two sacks on JP holding onto the ball two long. The guard play is really where this unit lacks in my opinion. I thought Pennington, Peters, and Fowler all did a decent job. If we can get a couple of guards this off-season I think they would be a much better unit. Grade: C- ====== Defense ====== DL - I think the defensive line played as well as could be expected against the Colts up front, given the talent on the D-line. I think Kelsay is a huge liability and needs to be replaced at DE. Given the fact that they didn't have much help from the LBs, I liked what they did. The DL was called upon to basically stop the run by themselves, and won the battle sometimes while lost it some other times. There was some pressure on Manning, albeit not a lot. Who is this Jefferson fellow? I thought he played decently while he was in there. Grade: C+ as they still let up a decent amount of yards today. LB - All day in the running game this crew was 5 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. However, I think that was more the choice of the Bills then it was on the LBs. The Bills decided to make the Colts beat them by running the football, and dropped the LBs back into coverage. There were a few key plays where Fletcher and Crowell broke up passes. Crowell had a better game then he did for much of the season today. Spikes was the biggest disappointment - I just don't think he fit the scheme very well today. He didn't make any plays breaking up passes, and he didn't do a good job in run support either. Grade: C - Spikes brings this unit down today DB - I thought the Cornerbacks did a very good job today. They were seemingly all over the field. The safeties never really got beat deep, which is what they were asked to do today. Not much help in the running game, but that was by design. Grade: A- (minus), this unit did everything that the coaching staff wanted from them today, points off for getting beat a few times but other then that good job. ======== Special Teams ======== Kicking - Lindell did miss that one field goal. I think he got excited that he had a chance to get the Bills in a ball game for once. All kidding aside, while he did have that one miss, he also made 3 other field goals and looked good doing it. He's been a bright spot this year. I'm still not completely happy with his kickoffs. Grade: B- (minus) (A- if he makes that field goal). Punting - Moorman was absolutely brilliant today when called upon. He converted a 4th and one and consistently pinned Indy back in their own territory. Great game by him today, possibly the best player on the field. Grade: A+ Kick Returning - Wow, the kick return game really gave us the chance to win. Its just too bad that it was squandered by our offense. Both McGee and Parrish looked very good running kicks back. If there's one thing Tom Donahoe did know how to do, its select Kick Returners. Grade: A+ Kick Coverage - They covered punts/kicks most of the day pretty well, although Indy did get a few decent sized returns that you don't like to see. They also received what was a very bad penalty (although it should have been 5 yards instead of 15) on a punt. Grade: B- (minus) ====== Coaching ====== Dick Jauron - Overall, I thought he managed the game well. He called for a couple of trick plays at the right moments, and didn't make any huge mistakes. The gameplan that he put together today attacked Indy's weaknesses and defended against Indy's strengths. For that, he gets a pretty decent grade. Grade: B Steve Fairchild - I thought he did a decent job managing the game as well. I have to question a couple of his calls, including a pass on 3rd and 1. He doesn't seem to have much confidence in JP, but in this game it wasn't that much of an issue, as we attacked Indy's run D. I thought he did a good job of attempting to compensate for the offensive line issues. However, his playcalling in the red zone is extremely questionable, and probably cost us the game. This is my biggest issue with his offense right now. Grade: D+ Perry Fewell - The defensive scheme did a good job of keeping the Colts quiet and forcing turnovers. The Indy offense is going to get their yards, so a bend but not break defense is a good one to run against them, with an emphasis on the passing game. I thought he called a pretty decent game, but he failed to make adjustments toward the end of the game on defense. This led to the Colts being able to just run the clock out rather then the Bills getting another shot on offense. Grade: C Bobby April - He always has his special teams units ready to go, and today it showed. He does a great job with this special team's units and is the most valuable coach right now on the staff. Grade: A+ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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