A Few Thoughts About The Game

[JDG]

3) Peters did give up the sack, but overall, the blind side was pretty well protected. Even on the sack, Dockery was sleeping. Btw, Dockery never played a worse game as a member of the Buffalo Bills. He was absolutely brutal to watch.

 

Its funny, but it was about somewhere in the 3rd quarter that I thought to myself "it seems like we've done a good job of running to the left side and not having much pressure from that side - we seem to be getting more of it from the right. Then there was that horrible, horrible, safety. Letting someone get in basically unblocked for a safety as part of a three-man rush? That is basically bush league in my book, and really overshadows anything else that you do for a day.

 

4) A disaster like this is exactly what made the San Diego win so important. See.....there is some good news.

 

Its important to remember a couple things:

- It is always hard to win on the road in the NFL... a basic formula is to win at home and split on the road to get to 12-4 - which usually means a home playoff game

- Everyone in the division has one divisional loss. The Bills and Pats have both lost to Miami - and the Pats already lost to Miami at home, that puts us a nose ahead of the Pats in my book.

- Considering all of the boneheaded mistakes the Bills made in this game: not scoring a TD on 1st and goal from the 5, snapping the ball over the punter's head into the end zone, fumbling on a QB sneak after getting a first down, giving up a safety on a three-man rush, and finally fumbling after converting a third-and-twenty - its actually kind of amazing how much into this game we really were.

 

5) I understand why they started Mcgee, I really do. You hate to start a rookie on the road, in a divisional game. OK.....I get it. But, at some point you need to get him off of the field when he is getting absolutely f ing murdered on virtually every play. I mean....WTF!!?? Oh yeah, Jauron was out-coached today.

 

In defense of Jauron, I think the difference is that while Ginn killed McGee moving the chains, I have the sense that McKelvin would have just been burnt toast as Ginn scored several big-play Touchdowns on us. Jauron constantly preaches the importance of big plays on the outcome of a game, and I think that he wanted to guy he could trust to not get completely burnt on Ginn.

 

With that being said, several of us at my bar wondered why Jauron didn't stick Greer on Ginn, given that Miami has no other WR's worthy of the name and Greer was clearly our best CB. In Jauron's defense, it is typically a much more radical shift in your defensive scheme than it sounds to simply assign a CB as a "shadow" to a specific WR for the whole game For example, it also takes you out of a lot of the things (such as certain blitzes) that you would typically like to do out of a zone defense.

 

6) Robert Royal is playing his way off of this team. Not this year mind you, but I will be shocked to see him in Buffalo next year. Forgive me if I shed no tears.

 

Completely agree. The coaches have shown little patience for fumblers on this team (See: Wright, Dwayne). Royal is supposed to be the trusty veteran, not the Royal Mistake waiting to happen.

 

With that being said, Fine is clearly a long ways away from being a replacement for Royal, if ever. Damn Tony G. for not wanting to come to Buffalo!

 

7) McKelvin is killing me on kickoff returns. He either trots, or runs smack into a defender.

 

Ain't that the truth! Its almost like he has a magnet that attracts him to the opposing team's defenders.

 

JDG

[Jerry Jabber]

My random thoughts...

 

Can anyone give an answer as to why Fred Jackson was given the ball 3 consecutive times inside the 10 on the opening drive? Why didn't they give Lynch a shot? Why didn't they attempt 1 pass in the 3 downs?

 

I read the players didn't feel like they were prepared enough, that goes on the coaches. A huge blame on this loss should be on all the coaches fault. McKelvin should've been playing instead of McGee. Going 3 consecutive runs within the 10 was stupid. Having Edwards throw 3 times while he was in our endzone was very stupid, which led to a safety against us. The prevent defense didn't prevent much from happening today.

 

Penalties hurt big time. I think it was Dockery (or one of the O-Linemen) that got a holding penalty which wiped out a huge run by Edwards.

 

We need 1 or 2 legimate pass-rushers in the off-season.

 

I think this is Kellen Winslow's last year under contract with the Browns, the Bills should look into him & cut Royal in the offseason.

 

Best play of the game, Lynch making 6 defenders miss him on a 8 yard TD run.

 

I hope this is another wake-up call and the coaches & team and gets their collective heads out of their butts and play better football over the next 2 weeks.

[JDG]

Bill, was there any D pressure at all? Either run or pass? Was it a case of why run when you can pass to Ginn until tired. Williams, Stroud, Denney, Kelsay, Bryan all filled in the end of the defensive stats. What can this d-line do to get more production?

 

As a matter of fact there was a sack, and five tackles for a loss on running plays. There were at least a couple incompletions forced by QB pressure.

 

Obviously, we need better pass rush - I'm not saying that our pass rush was great. But it wasn't invisible.

 

One thing that did disappoint me, is that I had some hopes that once Chris Ellis made it onto the active roster, that he might be able to spark some serious pass rush as a pass rush specialist. That didn't materialize today, hopefully it will as the season goes on.

 

I find it interesting that most people will readily state that the Bills will be anywhere from 10-6 to 13-3 at the end of the year. Yet, somehow they think the Bills can achieve that record without losing any games.

 

Amen, Dan.

 

JDG

[JDG]

Anyone who thinks the offense was the problem today didn't watch the game.This is now three weeks in a row that they've been absolutely shredded -- shredded -- on pass defense. Warner, Rivers, and now Pennington all had huge numbers. The thing is, their ability to stop the pass was overestimated because they played an ancient Trent Green (immediately benched after the Bills game), a wretched Jamarcus Russell, Garrard (who still had a decent game), and a QB with no starting receivers (Hasselback). With McGee hurt, their secondary is terrible -- did you say any Bill CB cover like the no-names for the Dolphins today? It seemed everyone was wide open all game long, and the only time Pennington was stopped was on a blitz (Scott) or a basically lucky blocked pass.

 

Dave,

 

While I, too, am concerned about our defense - particularly our sieve-like pass defense, I think you overstate the case. Miscues on the offensive side of the ball cost us as much as anything in this game. And remember that the defense (and Brian Moorman) bailed us out from snapping the ball over the punter's head. But failing to score a TD on 1st and goal from the 5, fumbling on a QB sneak, and giving up a strip-sack for a safety on a three-man rush from our own end is just disastrous.

 

You mentioned elsewhere what I think is the unheralded story of this game - that this offense was lost without Josh Reed. Once Josh Reed went down, the Fish stuck two defenders firmly to Lee Evans - and we had no other weapons. Parrish and Hardy can't get open even against single coverage, or else Edwards was forced to just try and chuck it to Evans. Oh yeah, or he could dump it to Lynch for him to drop it, or to Royal for him to fumble it. I've not been a Josh Reed fan over the years, but boy did he prove his worth today.

 

As an interesting note, Justin Jenkins was inactive today to allow Chris Ellis and Derek Fine to be activated. I wonder if Jauron might have wished to have the extra WR available late in the game with Reed out and needing to pass on every down.

 

JDG

[Ramius]

Trent picked a piss poor time to take his first major dump as QB. Its gonna happen, and it will happen in the future. Unfortunately, it came on the road against a divisional opponent in the second half with a 9 point lead.

 

Of course, the defense didn't help a bit (anyone wanna cover ginn?), and the OL has been just plain bad. Also, is it too much to ask to take a shot or 2 down the field?

[Jerry Jabber]

Trent picked a piss poor time to take his first major dump as QB. Its gonna happen, and it will happen in the future. Unfortunately, it came on the road against a divisional opponent in the second half with a 9 point lead.

 

Of course, the defense didn't help a bit (anyone wanna cover ginn?), and the OL has been just plain bad. Also, is it too much to ask to take a shot or 2 down the field?

 

I agree. I was hoping we'd pick up a veteran #2 WR in the off-season to help take some pressure off Evans until Hardy develops. Losing Reed hurt us in the 2nd half.

[Dan]

Dan, Rivers went 22-29 for 208, 2 TDs, and 1 INT. His rating was 103.8. Sure, he blew it with the INT to Mitchell, but up until that point he had passed at will except for the one unforced error (the flub fumble).

Rivers is currently averaging 254.8 yards/game. He's thrown for abotu 2.5 TDs/game (19 total). Apparently, we held him to below average numbers. I'd call that doing ok against him - not allowing him to pass at will. Fundamentally, I agree... our pass defense leaves quite a bit to be desired. I just don't think using Rivers' game is the best representation of that.

[BB2004]

1) Say what you will about Elison, but he was all over the field. In fact, I would think he was our best defender today.

 

2) Get well #94. The pass rush was a literal disgrace.

 

3) Peters did give up the sack, but overall, the blind side was pretty well protected. Even on the sack, Dockery was sleeping. Btw, Dockery never played a worse game as a member of the Buffalo Bills. He was absolutely brutal to watch.

 

4) A disaster like this is exactly what made the San Diego win so important. See.....there is some good news.

 

5) I understand why they started Mcgee, I really do. You hate to start a rookie on the road, in a divisional game. OK.....I get it. But, at some point you need to get him off of the field when he is getting absolutely f ing murdered on virtually every play. I mean....WTF!!?? Oh yeah, Jauron was out-coached today.

 

6) Robert Royal is playing his way off of this team. Not this year mind you, but I will be shocked to see him in Buffalo next year. Forgive me if I shed no tears.

 

7) McKelvin is killing me on kickoff returns. He either trots, or runs smack into a defender.

 

8) Trent looked a bit late on a few of his passes today, but I think that he threw pretty well overall.

 

9) Hard to tell, but I thought that Marshawn had an open field, or at least a ton of room when he dropped the pass in stride, right in his hands.

 

10) Before Whitner was flattened by Chad Pennington, he did a good job of stringing out the play. I hope he is pissed off, embarrassed, and has a great game next week. We need him to take over a game.

 

11) Losing Josh Reed really hurts. Hardy needs more work, and Parrish is more of a gimmick player than a legit #2 wideout. Sorry, it's the truth.

 

12) Yeah, this sucked, but a win next week would go far to erase this nightmare.

 

GO BILLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

As usual good post. I still think that McKelvin will get better on kick returns, he's just getting used to it. You are absolutely right, a win next week and we'll be talking about good things again.

[Bmwolf21]

We need 1 or 2 legimate pass-rushers in the off-season.

 

I think this is Kellen Winslow's last year under contract with the Browns, the Bills should look into him & cut Royal in the offseason.

Agree completely about the pass rushers.

 

WRT Winslow: unless the Browns cut him, KW2 has two years left on his deal.

[SwampD]

We lost as soon as they decided to kick the fieldgoal on the first drive. "Sammy Safety says play to not lose."

 

Can anyone give an answer as to why Fred Jackson was given the ball 3 consecutive times inside the 10 on the opening drive? Why didn't they give Lynch a shot? Why didn't they attempt 1 pass in the 3 downs?

I have to believe that Jackson blocking for Lynch is the better option in that situation. The fullback, whose name I refuse to learn, blocking for Jackson, three times in a row was weird. Maybe he complained to DJ that he was doing all the work and then Lynch was getting the TD's.

[Jon in Pasadena]

I can't bash Dick

Too much emboozling will do that to you.

 

Fortunately, I hear Mke Ditka has a solution for you.

[John Adams]

Penalties hurt big time. I think it was Dockery (or one of the O-Linemen) that got a holding penalty which wiped out a huge run by Edwards.

 

That was a "good" hold actually. If he hadn't held, Trent was going to get whacked in his blind side because the DE had gotten free. (Of course, blocking him would have been a better option.)

 

They still needed 2 scores and it was late in the game then.

[ieatcrayonz]

If the glove wearing Mary had missed the team flight and Clean up the city boy stepped in and played the identical game, what would the comments look like?

[Bill from NYC]

If the glove wearing Mary had missed the team flight and Clean up the city boy stepped in and played the identical game, what would the comments look like?

 

Maybe people would be pleased, because he has thrown for 227 or more yards all of 4 times in his career.

[mead107]

If the D plays next week like it did this week Brett will have a 700 yd game .

[BUFFALOTONE]

1. I would of rather of had McKelvin in and blitzed Pennington, than Mcgee in a soft zone. I hate getting picked apart on crappy little passes.

2. The offense ran when they should passed and passed when they should of ran. Too many second and long which Miami then brought in a nickel or dime defense.

3. There are NO big play makers on defense. This team needs a Stud pass rusher or a big play linebacker.

4. The team switches running backs to much. Keep one in until he is gassed, then bring in the other.

 

What did Mitchell do last week? Was a crucial INT on the goal line and a QB pressure which resulted in a fumble and us winning not enough for you. What do you want him to do out there?

 

We turned the ball over and played like sh-t. Plain and simple. Miami lost 2 strait games 1 in a literal last second TD to Houston and an embarrassing loss to Baltimore who had also lost 2 strait if I recall.

 

They were playing their division rivals in a home game and needed a Win. We walked in there ad expected to win thats the difference. We have a long way to go as a team and we will make the playoffs this year. This teams make up is too good to lie down and take it the way we did Sunday.

 

Miami wanted it more than us. Anyone who has ever played a competitive sport could see that. I was at the game and had to hear the sh-t first hand. We scored 16 unanswered points they responded with 18.

 

One more note: Whitner is not the FS answer. Let him roam around the LOS and make big hits and pressure the QB. He looked terrible in center field yesterday. Maybe he underestimated Ginn and Pennington but after 1-2throws and guys getting behind you things have to change and they did not. They found our weakness and exploited it. Like someone before said. We were severely out coached and out played.

 

Bring on the JETS!

[SwampD]

What did Mitchell do last week? Was a crucial INT on the goal line and a QB pressure which resulted in a fumble and us winning not enough for you. What do you want him to do out there?

 

We turned the ball over and played like sh-t. Plain and simple. Miami lost 2 strait games 1 in a literal last second TD to Houston and an embarrassing loss to Baltimore who had also lost 2 strait if I recall.

 

They were playing their division rivals in a home game and needed a Win. We walked in there ad expected to win thats the difference. We have a long way to go as a team and we will make the playoffs this year. This teams make up is too good to lie down and take it the way we did Sunday.

 

Miami wanted it more than us. Anyone who has ever played a competitive sport could see that. I was at the game and had to hear the sh-t first hand. We scored 16 unanswered points they responded with 18.

 

One more note: Whitner is not the FS answer. Let him roam around the LOS and make big hits and pressure the QB. He looked terrible in center field yesterday. Maybe he underestimated Ginn and Pennington but after 1-2throws and guys getting behind you things have to change and they did not. They found our weakness and exploited it. Like someone before said. We were severely out coached and out played.

 

Bring on the JETS!

As good as he was last week, he was that bad this week. He bit on every fake move the phins made yesterday and was left high and dry several times. He had a terrible game.

[Lofton80]

Best post I have read about yesterday's debacle. Hard to believe we were still in this game at the end.

 

 

Its important to remember a couple things:

- It is always hard to win on the road in the NFL... a basic formula is to win at home and split on the road to get to 12-4 - which usually means a home playoff game

- Everyone in the division has one divisional loss. The Bills and Pats have both lost to Miami - and the Pats already lost to Miami at home, that puts us a nose ahead of the Pats in my book.

- Considering all of the boneheaded mistakes the Bills made in this game: not scoring a TD on 1st and goal from the 5, snapping the ball over the punter's head into the end zone, fumbling on a QB sneak after getting a first down, giving up a safety on a three-man rush, and finally fumbling after converting a third-and-twenty - its actually kind of amazing how much into this game we really were.

[aussiew]

Not sure I should feel insulted about that one. It is pretty long. But seriously, I apologize if some of you got so offended at my anger towards the Bills today. I didn't say what I said to get you all bunged up. I expected a much better effort than I watched, that's all. Go !@#$ yourselves now.

 

Agreed. I expected a better effort as well. They didn't seem "hungry" enough from my perspective. Too much reliance on the "4th quarter comeback" IMHO.

[tennesseeboy]

WE'RE DOOOOOOOOMED!!!!! DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED!!!!!!!