Delayed Reactions

Alright I apologize for the hiatus, but the last 5 days have been a whirl, a great one at that.  Although yesterday’s game was far from what I was hoping for as a cap of the weekend.  The Bills are not good, they may not even be that close to being a good team and in my opinion it starts with their coach and here are my thoughts on the game:

 

Ever since the word of extension for Dick Jauron came out this team has been beyond sloppy.  Terrible clock management, bad penalties, turning the ball over and changing how they call plays.  Not to mention Dick Jauron’s “even temperament” is fucking annoying to me and no one on this team ever has any emotion on the sideline and barely does in the game.  I hope the 49ers don’t want Singletary, because I’ll take him right now.

 

3 trips to the red zone and another drive that started on SF 25 and we got 3 points?  Ridiculous.  Rian Lindell is Monday’s bum, but we should’ve been better than that against the 3^rd worst scoring defense.

 

Above mentioned drive that started on the SF 25 was a 3 and out and we didn’t give the ball to our best player.

 

How in the world does Marshawn Lynch only end up with 16 carries?  Seriously, someone try to put a legitimate answer together on that one.  He was an absolute beast and we give him the ball 16 times. I don’t get it.

 

If I read one thing about JP Losman, I’m going to throw up. Yeah he played alright, but we all know he’s out at the end of the year.  Trent Edwards is making silly stupid mistakes a lot like Eli Manning did in his first couple years, problem is the Bills are way worse than those Giants teams.

 

Rian Lindell should not be a Bill next year, I’m sorry.  He has not made one clutch kick in his career in Buffalo outside that Washington kick and a handful of big misses.  Spend that money elsewhere.

 

Even more out the door is Roscoe Parrish.  For the second time this year he inexcusably fields a punt on the 1.  The 1!!!!!!!!!  What the fuck are they teaching at Miami?  Not to mentioned he blew that touchdown. I don’t care what Tony Boselli says, Roscoe should catch that.  Yes, he’s a good punt returner, but this team needs a receiver first and a returner like 20^th.  Not to mention Leodis and Freddy can do a more than sufficient job back there.

 

Ryan Denny is better than Chris Kelsay.

 

We need a pass rushing DE beyond believe.  The defense played an extremely good game and did what they could to help keep this team in the game.  But we need turnovers and turnovers come off pass rushing.  QB fumbles like they did yesterday and it forces them to throw too soon. 

 

Throw in a center in that one.  Duke Preston has played admirably, but isn’t going to cut it and neither is Melvin Fowler.

 

We scored 3 points against San Francisco at home?

 

Game ball easily goes to Marshawn Lynch

 

Goats of the week are Rian Lindell, Roscoe Parrish and Dick Jauron, all of whom I hope are not part of our team next year.

 

Next week, I don’t even care.  Let’s go 6-10 so we can just get draft picks.  This team is infuriating and the coach is infuriating and the whole organization is infuriating.  I’m not giving up as a Bills fan, but they’ve done a number on me this season.  I hope Trent Edwards is healthy to put together a couple games and see where we are.

Immediate Reactions: Cleveland 29 Buffalo 27

Alright, so if that wasn’t another shining example of what life is like as a Bills fan than I don’t know what is.  It’s almost like I started writing about it because of games like that.  I couldn’t do it after the game and just needed to shift through it all and see where to go.  I’m going to try to break it down as much as I can and recap some of my thoughts:

 

Trent Edwards was awful for the first quarter obviously and then they just shut him down.  Still been about 4 weeks (coincidently 4 losses) since we’ve thrown the ball down field.  How much do we miss Josh Reed?

 

I thought Fred Jackson’s fumble hurt more than Edward’s 3 interceptions only because we were finally putting a drive together.

 

Nice game by Steve Johnson, although he had that drop. I like that he’s a little bigger and think he could develop into a solid receiver combination.

 

Buffalo has a running game! Although they were killing him for not hitting the holes hard all the time (which I think comes from playing 9 weeks without having any holes), Marshawn Lynch had a phenomenal game last night.  I don’t understand why we weren’t running off tackle more and they finally did it this game.  You can’t run up the gut against a 3-4 with great NT and they finally did that.

 

Trent Edwards played pretty bad, huh?

 

Marcus Stroud is a man-child and played outstanding as did the defense did as whole. To only give up 6 points on those 3 interceptions was huge, but the big run (anyone else see Braylon Edwards holding Terrence McGee) and long drive is what killed this team.

 

Mitchell and Stroud were outstanding pickups and more importantly we need to start blitzing more as last night showed us.

 

It looks like Terrence McGee is coming back to form? Just as Jabari Greer gets hurt.

 

I thought Leodis McKelvin played a sensational game. Obviously the kick returns were the highlight but I thought he played great in coverage too.

 

Is Lee Evans still a Bill because he was so wide open at times I thought maybe he wasn’t actually a player.

 

Finally a kudos to the Offensive line, I liked that Edwards gave the ball to Duke Preston of the QB sneak and they’re pass protection was great and minus a couple Shaun Rogers plays they were actually run blocking out there.

 

What was with the end of the game play calling?  47-yarders aren’t gimmes and they decided to call 3 dive plays?  I’m ok with running the ball there but most of their success came with running the ball off tackle and they should’ve used that shotgun, off tackle play there.

If I hear Wide Right one more time on ESPN I’m going to blowup the network, seriously.

 

What a way to recap the weekend after the Sabres were embarrassed on Friday and Saturday!  Of course like Jerry Sullivan usually writes, they’ll win this week against KC to get all of our hopes up just enough to keep going. 

You think?

Rough Week

You know I said that I was dictated each week in the fall by the Bills and it definitely carried me to yesterday, but between everything going on with getting married I didn’t write until today.  At least the Sabres carried me through on Wednesday.  When I think about the Bills last three games it’s painful.  They’re a sloppy, undisciplined (young) football team.  The offensive line is atrocious and our pass rush isn’t far behind (good thing we have roughly $17 million a year plus tied up in our defensive ends). 

 

Jason Peters’ holdout is becoming a larger and larger burden because they haven’t been able to gel and get into a rhythm together and it looks highly unlikely at this point if they’re going to change that.  But the play calling has to get better for the most part with more runs to the outside and including more ‘wildcat’ formations to take the pressure of the offensive line and more importantly Trent Edwards.  Trent is still making good decisions 80%+ of the time, the problem is his mistakes are becoming increasingly hard to overcome.  Let’s enjoy the Sabres playing tonight and look forward to playing on MNF when all we get to hear about is how Jaws is from Lackawanna and Buffalo Wings and about 20,000 views of the Falls (don’t get me wrong, I love the Falls, but please get another aerial shot for the love of god.

Immediate Reactions: New England 20 Buffalo 10

That just solidified what everyone was expecting.  The Bills are an average football team.  Three weeks in a row they have not been able to get a team off the field when they needed to.  19 plays and 9 plus minutes?  Really?  With the Jets blowout and Dolphins game it is an awful looking situation for the Bills. 

 

Two interceptions by Trent Edwards were awful throws and really cost us the game.

 

Offensive line has easily become another downfall of this team.  Pass protection was non existent and Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson did everything they can to make it worthwhile.  I have to wonder if Melvin Fowler is that good because the nose tackle has absolutely destroyed us.  This isn’t a quick fix and at this point in the season there is no improvement so get ready for more of the same.

 

What about the goal to go situation where we run the ball on 2^nd down and then Edwards checks to a run on 3^rd down.  This team isn’t allowing themselves to succeed.  No play action, no fade route, no chance.  Obviously, the offensive line has no push and throwing the ball there out of the shotgun would open up options.  Edwards has ok mobility, why not utilize it out of the shotgun there the way the Matt Cassel did against us?

 

Obviously, we can’t defend the short passing game. Period.

 

How much does this team miss Angelo Crowell, he was the playmaker on this team creating turnovers and being a leader.  We cannot create turnovers and miss his ability in pass coverage as well.

 

This team is definitely a year away.  I liked that Hardy got the late touchdown and that Reggie Corner made a couple solid plays and Leodis had the nice return.  That’s where we are, taking solace in the development of these young players evolving into next year. 

 

Next week:  Monday Night Football, Bills vs. Brown.  I think the Bills bounce back, regroup against a weak Browns defense and save some face on National television 27-17 Bills.

We’ve been lucky…

The comeback game, we all know about and it’s one of the proud moments for us Bills fans.  Marv Levy’s book has a quote saying that almost anyone you talk to from Buffalo was at that game.  Which we all know is not true because the game wasn’t even a sell out! I was 9 years old for that game and had to listen to it on the radio.  Just me and Van Miller.  I remember it was so bad that at half time my Dad and Mom walked into town to get some things down and they kept hearing cheers come from the bar down the street.  Finally the poked their head in and thanks to the old days of satellite TV a local bar had the feed of the game.  I listened to it on the radio and ran around my house like a crazy person.  It was unbelievable.  And obviously to this point for us Bills fans we are able to enjoy in the fact that Buffalo Bills own the greatest comeback in NFL history. 

 

I’m not sure why I was thinking about this game, but I live in Syracuse now and the blackout restrictions come here now. It wasn’t always that way.  The NFL blocks out a game in Buffalo all the way over in Syracuse, is that fair?  It’s amazing how many of my friends forget that game was blacked out because it’s been on NFL classic so many times for us.  It’s amazing that I remember so much of a game that I didn’t even watch. 

 

On that same time, how blessed were we during that time when we had Van Miller and Rick Jeanneret.  I remember we used to mute the Sabres games and put on the radio if Jeanneret wasn’t on play-by-play (youTube has the top 10 of his calls and I suggest you check them out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEfbyrKnKc0 ).  I guess my point is that I grew up having two play by play announcers who could paint a complete picture with their words where I didn’t even have to be watching.  That’s not something I could do with Gus Johnson or any of those guys from Versus. We need to enjoy Jeanneret while he lasts because it’s only a matter of time until he retires, how sad a day will that be….