thebandit27 Posted August 17, 2009 Posted August 17, 2009 I watched the game on DVR last night (finally) and I thought I might post my thoughts for discussion. First the offense: - While I'm glad that Edwards threw the ball accurately and hit a deep ball to Evans, that game made me fearful of what the offense would look like sans T.O. Way, way, way too much dinking and dunking. It just confuses me because there were a few plays (the long ball to Evans and the hitch pass to Evans specifically) that really looked good, and others where I'd swear there simply has to be someone else open instead of dumping it off for a half-yard. That said, Edwards did throw the ball well and the starting offense once again moved the ball between the 20's. - Eric Wood looks a bit lost out there. Don't get me wrong, I think he's very talented and the skill set is clearly there, he just seems like--a lot of the time--he's not sure who he's supposed to be blocking on a given play. When he does engage, however, he simply kicks butt out there. Levitre looked great to me in pretty much all areas. - Langston Walker is not very good. There were 3 plays on the first drive where he looked particularly bad. I like Walker, but he simply has to be able to get upfield faster on outside running plays. There were 2 times where Lynch looked like he could break a long run if Walker could just get out there and get in someone's way. Also, Alex Brown beat him pretty badly with an outside-in move (Walker actually held but got away with it) on a play where Edwards ended up having to dump the ball off. I'm not ready to say that I'm worried about Walker, but I do think he needs to do a better job. - Derek Schouman is a liability. He just cannot block at all. Pretty much every running play he either gets completely washed out or whiffs on his guy. I can't believe that he'll make the final 53, let alone end up the starting TE. Now, I haven't seen Fine, Stupar, or Nelson do any serious blocking against the opposition's #1s, but they can't possibly be worse. This guy shouldn't make the team. - I love the Shawn Nelson sighting. That TD is the kind of thing he can do without learning anything about the pro game, just use his size and athleticism to beat guys to the ball. If he doesn't get 5-10 opportunities to make that same play in the regular season, someone's not doing their job. Now over to the defense: - Regarding the starters, I thought that the pass rush was much better. No sacks on Cutler, but Schobel got in his face twice (including on McKelvin's pick) and I thought--in general--they never let Cutler get comfortable back there. - The run D was good once again. Kyle Williams is really starting to take advantage of playing next to Marcus Stroud, and the LBs look a lot less hesitant to stick a hat in the action and be aggressive in their run fits. - It was nice to see the CBs playing within 5 yards of the WRs. I don't know if some teams just don't scare them as much as others, or why there's such variance, but it seems like half the time the CBs inexplicably give a 15-yard cushion. I vastly prefer Saturday's approach: make 'em beat you; don't give up anything underneath. - Once Nic Harris gets a handle on playing more zone coverage, he's going to be a pretty good LB. He has a nose for the ball and really, really good closing speed and instincts for a guy his size. - I can't really comment on Ellis Lankster, b/c I think a lot of his fortune came from being in the right-place-at-the-right-time, but at the same time, you have to make the play when it's there, and he did. There's no question in my mind he makes the 53-man roster. Ashton Youboty, on the other hand, looks like he's in real trouble with Lankster and Florence playing as well as they are. That's all I've got...comments?
thewildrabbit Posted August 17, 2009 Posted August 17, 2009 Some things to take into consideration, 1st, Da Bears run a similar Tampa / cover 2 defense as Buffalo, so the Bills offense have seen it every day in camp, Its a 4-3 defense as well. Plus the Bears defense didn't get into Trent's face like the titans did. They ran simple defense and didn't switch anything to stop the Bills passing game,normally a defense will make adjustments to stop whatever your attacking them with. The Bills starting defense didn't get much pressure on the Bears QB either,which is not good. On the other hand, the play calling was much much better,Turk called a really good game. If Schonert continues to call plays like that every game I'll be forced to stop complaining about him. Heck, the Bills might even win some games this year. The offense didn't run the ball as well as hoped, and tight end continues to be a huge concern.
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