Month: October 2007

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Bills History Current Bills Players

Are The Bills Better Off Without Losman?

With the NFL trade deadline fast approaching, some have suggested (even starting right here with Your Truly of the Buffalo Bills Review) that the Bills should trade JP Losman while they still can. Losman is under contract with the Bills through the end of the 2008 season. That means this season is very likely his “contract” year. His play in 2007 will determine the value of his next contract with Buffalo—or if he is even offered one.

Is it just crazy talk to be suggesting the Bills dump a guy whom they have developed for four years now? This was to be his “breakout” season. He was injured on the first play of the third game this year, so we only saw him play in two games, but it would certainly not qualify as a “breakout season”.

In an article following Trent Edwards first start, I echoed the sentiments of Jerry Sullivan of the Buffalo News when I declared that game the beginning of the Trent Edwards Era. Of course that is premature, but I saw in one game what I have been wanting to see for three years from Losman. I have never been a JP basher. If you had to label me, I would likely fall in the “JP Supporter” camp. I do see the upside of Losman.

But in all of two starts I have seen way more upside from Trent Edwards. Poise, confidence, composure, quick release, quick decision making, accuracy, arm strength… I’d say on all but the last one Edwards possesses at least a slight edge over Losman. The main difference between the two is Losman’s 30-plus NFL games to Edwards three. But so far that difference only appears to matter on paper.

Benefits of a Trade
I know trades don’t happen that often in the NFL. They are especially rare during the season. However, let’s look at some positives of moving JP Losman right now.

  • Contract:
    The Bills will be making a decision this year whether or not to extend Losman’s contract. Has he shown enough in his four years here to warrant an extension? Maybe the Bills are asking themselves right now, “Has Edwards shown us enough in just three games?” It makes sense to make a move now, if they are going to do it inevitably anyway.

    I think the Bills know what they are going to do with him. They know whether they will offer him an extension, or not. If they shop him around, and find a buyer now, they can get something in return. Not sure that happens in the off-season.

  • Controversy:
    Buffalo has had way too many QB controversies since Jim Kelly retired. Flutie/Johnson, Bledsoe/Flutie, Bledsoe/Losman, Losman/Holcomb, and now the playoff-starved fans are sensing another following the excellent play from rookie Trent Edwards. Losman has never won the hearts of Buffalo fans. Not that they hate the kid, mind you. He’s just never completely won the city over. Enter Edwards. Enter controversy.

    A swift and immediate trade would end said controversy. Trent Edwards has looked more than competent at the helm of the Bills ship. Without the option of going to Losman, there would be no QB controversy. There would be no distraction for the rest of the team.

  • There is a Need:
    I was joking a week or two ago about Atlanta needing a QB (because of how awful Joey Harrington is) but now there are even more desperate teams to talk to. Desperate enough to bring in 43-year-old QB Vinny Testaverde in Carolina! Miami, Carolina, St. Louis, and others are all hurting for a good QB. JP has the physical talent to be that, which earned him his status as a first-round selection in the 2004 draft. Desperate teams may be willing to offer something for Losman based on his potential, despite his track record as a Bills starter.
  • Do it for JP:
    As I stated above, Losman has never won the hearts of this city. He is a likable guy, and I think he is well liked in the locker room. But from what I have heard—and just my opinion from observing Edwards’ play—there is more reason for confidence in Edwards as the QB than anything we’ve seen from Losman in his entire career here in Buffalo. Sometimes it’s just good to move on. With a year left on his contract, JP needs to make a good showing, and perhaps with the QB shortage, trading him allows him to do just that, while offering the Bills some compensation for him. (Maybe more than they might get otherwise, since there is an immediate need on several teams.)

So the dilemma for the Bills becomes, do you take a chance on the kid (Edwards), or do you show some loyalty to a guy you have poured four years of development into, who also wears the big C on his jersey. Doesn’t that mean something, too? He is one of the six captains of the 2007 Buffalo Bills. That has to count for something.

And I believe that is what Dick Jauron thinks as well.

My opinion is that the right move for the Bills—and for JP Losman—is to move him right now. There should be some willing takers, even in exchange for only a draft pick. (The way the Bills have been drafting the past two seasons, that could be a very valuable pick!) If Edwards is the guy, there’s no reason not to.

That said, more than likely we will see JP back under center for the game against Baltimore, and then the NY Jets, and then I am not sure what will happen. If Losman plays up to his full potential, he keeps his job, and the Bills do have a QB “controversy” on their hands. If he’s mediocre or worse, he rides the pine the rest of the year as the Bills develop Edwards.

The Bills have until October 16th to decide. My vote is to let the Edwards era begin.

We’ll have to wait and see how Levy and Jauron vote.

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Uncategorized

TONY ROMO IS MEDIOCRE

“Anonymous has left a new comment on your post ‘THE JOHN REVIEW WEEK 5’:

You are absolute idiot. Anyone can have a bad day and your comments prove that you know nothing about the game. Stop embarrassing the Bills with idiotic comments like this. Romo had a bad day and still beat us, and that is the proof of a damn good quarterback.”

-End Comment

Main Entry: me·di·o·cre
Pronunciation: “mE-dE-‘O-k&r
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle French, from Latin mediocris, from medius middle + Old Latin ocris stony mountain; akin to Latin acer sharp: of moderate quality, value, ability, or performance

I usually don’t respond to comments made by children, but after looking at my post Monday night I made a mistake. I was traveling for work, it was late and I just figured it was obvious. I guess it wasn’t, so because it was my mistake, I’d be happy to hold your hand and explain it to you and anyone else incapable of seeing big pictures.

First we need to define what makes a good QB, for argument’s sake we’ll say it’s a mix of stats, consistency, leadership, and the intangibles (meaning mostly stuff that can’t be objectively measured like the ability to perform under pressure, etc.). Now let’s look at some QBs whom pretty much everybody agrees are good.

TOM BRADY: Tom Brady suffered in the stats last year mostly due to his lack of receivers. But even then he took his team to the AFC championship game. Tom Brady is possibly one of the best QBs in the history of the game and is a for sure hall of famer. Since he hasn’t had any bad days yet this season let’s look at what could be considered the worst day of last season.

December 10, 2006. The Dolphins shut out the Pats 21-0. Brady had only completed 12/25 for 78 yds and had no TDs. The other thing he had was 0 INTs. While he did very little to help his team win, he was not mostly responsible for losing it either (it was a team effort).

Romo’s bad day saw him throw FIVE INTs, TWO were returned for touchdowns, one by a guy who was a RECIEVER on the PRACTICE SQUAD at the beginning of the season, and he lost a fumble.

Maybe it was just a bad day, but when Payton Manning has a bad day he throws one INT, a really bad day he might throw two, never five, and if it is, it’s never against the 32 ranked injury depleted defense. Maybe Romo was looking ahead to next week, thinking this week was going to be easy? Again, only something done by a mediocre QB, not an elite. That’s poor ledership.

The only way you can say Romo coming back and beating us after being down makes him a “damn good” QB and not be a moron is if you only saw the fourth quarter. I know nothing about the game? Anybody who watched the game could plainly see Romo was single-handedly the reason the Bills were even in it.

Romo was the reason for the Bills defeat? Come on, I’ve seen chimps that speak sign language make more intelligent statements than that. How about the Bill’s offense only putting up three points? Any more and that would have been the game, and if you count the field goal unit as special teams the Bill’s offense put up 0 points.

There are certain expectations of a “damn good” QB going against the 32 ranked defense missing many of its starters and playing people on their offensive practice squad. The fact that Dallas had 385 total yards versus the Bills 229 total net yards, 0 points and one turnover is even worse for Romo because with those numbers the score should not have even been close.

So where is this myth that Tony Romo is anything other than mediocre coming from? Answer, people who look at the stats on NFL.com for five seconds and move on.

Romo is currently number two in passing yards with a rating of 93.9, some look at that and think that makes him a good QB. However, if you have any semblance of intelligence (i.e. you could win a chess match against a farm animal), you could see why his numbers are so inflated.

First let’s look at whom the Cowboys have played this year: the Giants (currently ranked 14), Dolphins (29), Bears (17), Rams (dead last), and Bills (28). The Cowboy’s are 21 in strength of schedule (fun fact: the Bills are tied for first with the Raiders for the toughest schedule). The two teams they have played ranking higher than the Bills are the Giants and Bears. Both teams are struggling defensively and are members of the NFC, a significantly weaker conference. Why are those two rated even as high as they are? The Giants are 22 in strength of schedule (one easier than the Cowboys) and the Bears have the second easiest schedule in the NFL.

Romo has put up monster numbers against some of the weakest defenses in the NFL, the fact that he has a decent team around him has also helped mask his mediocrity, but what happens when the pressure is on?

Granted he’s young and has not been put in a ton of high-pressure situation yet, but when he has had the opportunity to shine, he blows it more than an elite QB should.

The Bills have exposed him and the Patriots will destroy him, as they do with most mediocre QBs. Expect the Cowboys to run a lot this week.

To be fair, I’m not saying Tony Romo sucks, he doesn’t, but to put him in the same conversation as Tom Brady and Payton Manning is just plain ignorant. Yeah I actually did watch the game and am blown away that anyone who watched it could think anything else.

-The John

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Show Schedule

Major Technical Difficulties!

There is supposed to be a show up today (Show 3.09) but the audio was so bad I couldn’t do it. We’re working on re-doing the show, it should be up within the next day or two. Sorry for the inconvenience! Not sure what happened. We had problems up front, and then thought we got them straightened out, but when I listened to the recording, Dave & John had HUGE echo on them!

Until then, don’t forget to stop by the articles page for our thoughts on the Bills and the Cowboys game!

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Current Bills Games

Another Heartbreaking Loss

Terrence McGee Can't Believe ItLosing by one point on a long field goal in (literally) the last second of a football game after leading for the entire game (or most of it) is just plain wrong. It’s too much for a football team and their fans to take. But how about two times in five weeks?

There are no words to describe it. It’s just unbelieveable.

Some will say that they knew they Bills would lose this game. (If you listen to our show, you know that I am one of those “some”s.) But what you will not hear is that this Bills team, who is now 1-4 are without a doubt a much better team than their record indicates. I know, I know, everyone makes excuses, but you can not tell me that the Bills looked bad out there on the field under the Monday Night lights.

Despite putting together some nice long drives, and Trent Edwards again looking very efficient, the Bills offense receives most of the blame for losing this game. There was only one 3-and-out series the entire game. Unfortuantely it came when we needed first downs the most. The Bills had just intercepted another Tony Romo pass, and thwarted a sure scoring drive for the Cowboys, and just needed to churn out some first downs. They did not.

Third downs were also a major problem. Both for the offense, and the defense. On the offensive side, the Bills converted only 3 of 13. That’s just unacceptable. Defensively, the Bills allowed 9 of 15 conversions. Not bad, but not good. Also, although Edwards was efficient (23/31 passing) and made very good decisions as he has so far this season, he did take three sacks (one was definitely his fault) and of course threw the interception that may have cost the Bills the game. (That can certainly be blamed on the coaches there as well, but Edwards did make the throw.)

With only 66 yards for Marshawn Lynch, and a total of 81 yards rushing (which includes Brian Moorman’s 10 yards scamper on the fake punt) the Bills just had absolutely nothing on the ground all night. Lynch had a couple nice runs, and one great play through the air, but was not nearly enough to sustain more drives. And the most telling stat in the passing game is the 2.0 yard average per pass play. Ouch.

The performance by the offense—and the not spectacular one by Trent Edwards—does make for an interesting dilemma for the Bills coaching staff over the bye week. Assuming JP Losman is healthy, and ready to go, do they put him back in the starting lineup? Losman has not led as many productive drives for the Bills offense this year. (Edwards has had lots of long, sustained drives in his three games.) But points are what matter, and there are not many points being scored by the offense this season. Only three in the game last night. As I said, it’s an interesting decision.

This game will be remembered by some Bills fans as a colossal collapse. Never trailing until the last second of the game. Allowing the TD drive, allowing them to recover the on-side kick. Colossal collapse. However, the team who was favored to win by so many points was shell-shocked by the performance of this anonymous defense. George Wilson incercepts the first pass for a TD??? John DiGiorgio saves the game with the FIFTH interception of the game??? And who in the world are Jeremetrius Butler and Bryan Scott???

Defense and special teams came to play. Special teams always does for Buffalo, so that was no surprise. It was nice to see Terrence McGee get his first TD return of the season. He’s been close on a few. Maybe Brian Moorman should be in on more plays for this team. Even on the on-side kick by Dallas, it was just a great play by the other team, not really a mistake by the Bills. But I am still so impressed by the defense who was supposed to be shredded by the Cowboys, and instead played with such passion and incredible heart… only to lose because of no support from the offense. How sad.

But the Bills press on. They enter the bye week beaten and battered at a lowly 1-4 overall record. Certainly some positive things to be taken from the first five games, but also most certainly a very large hole to dig out of. Even with a three game winning streak, they only get themselves back to .500. That’s not where you want to be. They do however continue the home streak with a game at the Ralph against Baltimore coming up on October 21st, and then another two weeks later against the Cincinnati Bengals. Four out of five games at The Ralph. So far, they are 1-1.

The bye week will allow the Bills to heal up, and return with a much deeper roster. Week eight will see the likely return of JP Losman, Ryan Denney, maybe even Coy Wire and Ashton Youboty. Assuming the Bills can muster the same level of emotional energy they had for Monday Night’s game (Willis McGahee is making his return to Buffalo…) the Bills stand a very good chance of finally dominating a game—and winning it.

Bills fans are depressed today. But this team showed that they have heart, and character, and talent, and determination. Much more than anyone gave them credit for.

Now if we could only do something about the coaching…

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Uncategorized

Frustration

Every Bills fan on the planet went to bed last night rehearsing the “what if’s…” of last nights pathetic loss to the Dallas Cowboys. As we tossed and turned, we thought what if we actually played a tight man to man with 7 seconds left in the game taking away the quick sideline pass instead of playing a soft prevent defense… What if Terrence McGee could actually catch a football… What if our offense could actually score points… There are so many “what if’s…”

Honestly, I am sick of watching a Bills game and walking away thinking what if… what if… The Cowboys had their share of “what if’s…” lots of turnovers, dropped passes by TO but somehow they made it count when it mattered.

I ask myself why is this Bill’s team unable to finish a game? All last year we watched them give games away and now this year against Denver and Dallas we lose to teams who just execute better down the stretch. What is going on?

We can offer excuses all day long. There are lots of injuries on this team. It seems the starting Free Safety position is cursed. Even with all our injuries our defense is making plays. We are forcing turnovers. We owned Romo for 58 minutes. Excuses will never produce a winning atmosphere, so lets not even go any further. We have great players who play hard.

What we do not have in Buffalo is a coaching staff that knows how to win. This is the NFL everyone has talent (yes some more than others, but everyone has talent). The difference in the Dallas game last night I think is coaching. While Dick Jauron is a nice guy he is not a winner. I am sure he wants to win. He just is not very good at it.

The last thing I want is another coaching change, but unfortunately that is exactly what is needed. I would love to see the Bills bring in a winner like Marty Schottenheimer. He may not have a great playoff record, but at least his teams get there. We need someone to bring an attitude of winning. I do not see that attitude from our coaching staff.

While a change may be needed I don’t think it will happen. Let me tell you why the Bills will not change coaches this year. First, Dick gets a pass because of all the injuries. I think management is to nice and Dick is so cheap they will give him another year. Second, bringing in a big name coach will cost lots of money. The President does not want to spend money on a big name coach. Finally, I think Marv does not want to upset the fruit basket. He wants to bring some consistency to this team, and Dick is his man.

The rest of the year will probably be filled with lots more Denver and Dallas moments. What if… What if…

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THE JOHN REVIEW WEEK 5

This week proves Dave Drake knows more about the Dallas Cowboys than most Dallas fans. The following is no longer open to debate:

Tony Romo is mediocre at best.

Q.E.D

-The John

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Uncategorized

Why The Cowboys May Not Win on Monday Night

At first glance it seems unlikely if not impossible for the 1-3 Bills to upset the 4-0 Cowboys on Monday night. The Buffalo Bills have had a string of bad luck on the injury front and are decimated on defense. They are also starting a rookie quarterback. The Cowboys on the other hand have teh number one offense in the league and are racking up nearly 38 points per game. Their defense seems stout as well. Dallas ranks 7th against the run, and Buffalo’s success depends on Marshawn Lynch running the ball.

But if we look a little deeper into the numbers we start to see that things may not be as bright as they seem in Dallas. Tony Romo is definitely playing well and there’s no arguing that point. However, you may have noticed that many of the highlight reels involve Romo eluding several would be tacklers, often on horribly broken plays. Romo is standing out because his line is doing a poor job blocking and Romo is being forced to rescue plays. He’s been successful but things are bound to not go his way at some point if this continues. This would be less of a concern for the cowboys if not for the fact that Romo has been harassed by some very mediocre if not awful football teams. The Cowboys’ opponents to date have a combined record of 3-13 and have been outscored 417 to 265. While during the off-season teams like Chicago, NY Giants, Miami and St. Louis may have seemed like strong contenders, it is pretty clear now that all of them are not. Neither Miami or St Louis has won a game yet. Chicago has only won 1. The Giants are split 2-2 but have looked pretty bad, especially early in the season when they faced the Cowboys.

On the other hand, the Bills have had to face some of the best teams in the league. Their opponents have a combined record of 10-6. Three of those losses belong to the Jets. (I think Mangini proved he is not the football coach he has been made out to be when his team could only put up 60 yards on the ground against a team that had been allowing nearly 150 per game.) The Bills first three opponents were against top defenses in games where the Bills lost many starters to injuries. Despite all that the Bills were seconds away from beating the Broncos. They got handled by the Patriots but so has everyone else. Despite playing a rotating cast of backups on defense, the Bills have only allowed 93 points and were surprisingly solid against the Jets.

The Cowboys’ passing attack is solid and the Bills secondary is extremely thin. The Bills’ secondary will struggle against the pass unless they can get consistent pass rush. The return of Anthony Hargrove will help quite a bit in this area. Not only will this give Kelsay and Schobel more opportunities to catch their breath, but Hargrove had a strong preseason and has a lot to prove to his teammates coming off the suspension. If the Bills can force Romo to scramble and get some sacks, it will take some of the burden off the depleted secondary. Jabari Greer played a great game last week and was recognized for it. Some people are giving him a hard time for the catches Randy Moss made in the Patriots game, but his coverage was solid on those plays. Moss is just good enough to make the catch anyway.

Speaking of Randy Moss, the reason he is a Pro Bowl receiver is his ability to bring the ball down even when it looks like the defense has him covered and/or beat. Lee Evans has shown the ability to do this in the past but has not shown much at all this season. The Bills’ quarterbacks (especially Losman) have been criticized for not throwing the ball to Lee Evans enough. The criticism is misdirected though because Evans has not made the plays when the ball was thrown his way in the first three weeks. Even against the Jets in week 4, Evans was good at times but failed to help his quarterback at others. The end zone interception should have never happened. Evans, had he been playing the way he is supposed to and can, should have broken the play up at a minimum and made the reception if possible. He wasn’t even paying attention. He made no effort to even try to catch the ball and just watched it get intercepted. If Lee plays with heart (which he has started to) and gives a 100% effort, the Bills offense can be difficult to stop.

Marshawn Lynch has been running well and will get 100 yards if the passing game can gain yards more consistently. The offensive line has looked a little better each week and is starting to give the quarterback time and provide holes for Lynch to run through. Based on performance so far, I’d like to see less Anthony Thomas and more Dwayne Wright spelling for Lynch. Lynch needs to be involved in the passing game as well, so they need to leave him in on third downs. Dallas has a high ranked rushing defense at 8 but the ranking is deceptive because the team has played with large leads so much that opponents have mostly been forced to pass to play catch up. Dallas also hasn’t really faced any significant running back threats. Ronnie Brown in Miami was probably the most skilled but he is on a miserable team.

The Bills took another blow this week when Peerless Price was put on IR. This may actually help the Bills because he has not been as productive as Josh Reed and Roscoe Parrish. Peerless Price’s departure will force the coaching staff to keep Reed and Parrish on the field. I think this will actually result in more success for the team. Dallas has a mediocre pass defense as it is and has injuries on top of that. The Bills need to pick on the injured secondary by spreading the ball around to all three top receivers and the Tightends and backs as well.

Trent Edwards has come in for Losman and looked like a natural in the NFL game. He just looks comfortable in there in a way that Losman rarely does. Even when he was getting mugged by the Patriots, he seemed to keep his head and try to make a realistic play. He’s made a few rookie read mistakes and underthrew a few receivers, but he still has been more consistent than Losman. I am not against Losman coming back after the BYE because he brings a level of athleticism that Edwards lacks, but if Edwards plays really well and beats the Cowboys, I think the coaches will have to make the switch. This is Monday Night Football at Ralph Wilson Stadium for the first time in 13 years against an undefeated team. There is no greater regular season pressure. If Edwards handles it in stride, the starting job will be his. We have seen what Losman can do in 26 games, if Edwards can play in primetime and win, it will be hard to go back to Losman’s long growth period.

Its hard to criticize the coaching staff to severely on the Bills considering the number of injuries. If anything, Perry Fewell is doing a pretty amazing job of holding his squad together. The offensive coaching has to be questioned until they can find success on a regular basis. If the Offense comes alive under Edwards and the team improves, they can blame it on Losman. For the Cowboys, Wade Phillips is no stranger to Buffalo. He is getting a lot of props for his hot start with the well loaded teams he inherited from Bill Parcels. Wade makes really bad decisions at clutch times and thats why he has lost his job more than once.

I think the Cowboys are over-rated and have been fortunate to play a soft schedule. The Bills are a big wild card and have to be seen as an easy match-up based on their current standings. The Cowboys will certainly have to stay focused considering New England is next week. There are a bunch of weird voo-doo statistics in the Bills favor like: Last time the Bills hosted MNF they faced Wade Phillips as the coach of the Broncos and beat him. Dallas has not started a season 5-0 since 1984 (not once with Troy Aikman). The Bills also have a really impressive record against undefeated teams with 4 wins or more 9-2. Hard to believe. Its hard to string together 5 wins no matter how good a team you are. The Patriots almost slipped today against the Browns but fought through it. Dallas is not nearly as good on defense as the Patriots.

Dallas gets caught looking to next week, Bills 28 Dallas 17

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BBR Listeners Contests Links

We Have A Winner!

Greg's Chicken Wings!Along with the Buffalo Bills first win comes a greatly anticipated secondary win — Greg gets his chicken wings!!!

That’s right! Buffalo avoids going 0-5 (though Dave was dangerously close in his prediction!!) and Greg will be getting a bucket of medium wings from Duffs!

Also, the PUNT Foundation will be receiving $150 from this little wager. Dave and D. Mahlitz ponied up $50 each, saying the Bills would go 0-5. John said on the show that even though he took the side of at least one win, he would still make the donation. Great idea!

We created a page where BBR listeners can donate to Brian’s foundation. You can even start your own fund raising page! If you’d like to make a donation, click this link:

http://www.active.com/donate/puntfoundation/buffalobillsreview

Thanks for playing along! Go Bills!

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Current Bills Games Players

The Trent Edwards Era

Trent Edwards first career startI think we may have witnessed history on Sunday, folks. It could be that from the ashes of this “lost” season full of broken players, we may have discovered what we have all been longing for since the retirement of our beloved Jim Kelly. It’s possible that not only did Trent Edwards win the first game of the 2007 season for the Buffalo Bills, he may have won himself a job, as well as the hearts of the entire city of Buffalo, and Bills fans around the world.

You think I’m kidding?

When was the last time you felt confident when a Bills QB took the field? When was the last time you knew we could convert a third down play? How about a 4th and goal from inside the one… on a play-action, rollout pass to the TE??

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

There are three things that I really noticed yesterday. (1) Better play calling, including – and especially – (2) the call to go for the TD on 4th and goal, and (3) the play of Trent Edwards. I do believe they are all interconnected, but let’s look at each area individually.

Steve Fairchild Opens Up The Offense
Just last week I finally came around to my fellow BBR co-host, Dave’s way of thinking. He has been on Jauron, and more specifically Fairchild’s case since they got here. Bad play calling has been a frequent subject of the popular “See Dick Coach” segment. And last week, my biggest beef was just that – offensive play calling. I attributed that to Steve Fairchild, and stated that the Bills could not get rid of him soon enough! Horrible use of our talent, I thought.

What a difference a week makes.

I can’t say I’m sold on the offensive genius of Steve Fairchild, but did you notice that they finally opened up the playbook this week? There were rollouts and play-action passes, there were misdirections, end-arounds, and yes… we threw passes to our tight ends! They had seven receptions between them! There were even a few Lee Evans sightings!! Six, to be precise!

The offense did a great job of mixing up the pass and the run, and sticking with the run even when the Jets were bottling up Lynch pretty effectively. The run game only averaged 3.1 yards per carry. (But did score a TD when Lynch ran one into the end zone in the third quarter.)

What brought about that sudden change of philosophy? Why did the playbook open up so much that our offense looked like a completely different group of players?

4th Down and Goal
We’ll finish that thought in a moment. First, in continuing with the play calling theme, there was one play in particular that once the call was made, showed me that we were serious about winning.

With a precarious 10-7 lead, the Bills got the turnover they needed. Jabari Greer stepped in front of a Pennington pass and gave the Bills the ball at the NY Jets 25. Fantastic field position that they really needed to take advantage of. The Bills were on the good side of a penalty, which put them in a first and goal at the NY 9. From there, Lynch got back to back four yard carries, which set the Bills up with a third and goal at the one. Unfortunately, the Jets stopped Lynch for no gain on the third down play, and – much to my quite vociferous chagrin – the Bills sent out the kicking team.

Thankfully, the coaches had instructed Moorman to call a time out as the play clock ran down, which he did. This not only smartly used the clock… it gave them a chance to reconsider the decision.

The offense came back out, and my jaw hit the floor. It was the right call – it’s what they should have done in the first place – but I still couldn’t believe they were really doing it! Lynch had been able to get at least a yard on almost every carry that day, so with a 3-point lead, it made sense to go for it from inside the one. Barring a turnover, you either go up by two scores, or you give them the ball inside their own one, which still puts you in a very good spot. It was the right call, too, for a team that really needs confidence.

What I was not prepared for was the actual play that was called.

They sent Edwards onto the field with this call: a play-action, rollout pass to the TE Gaines. Every player I have heard, and the head coach as well, have all said that took guts. Calling a play action pass with a rookie QB starting his first game? Guts.

And that leads me to the final of three intertwined highlights from yesterday’s game.

Trent Edwards
When Edwards came into the game against the Patriots, I told my family (with whom I was watching the game) that the game was lost. Not Trent’s fault… you just can’t expect a rookie who has not practiced as the starter all week, to come in and beat the best team in the league. And, aside from a quite welcome shock on the first drive, I was right. He was not able to do anything out there after that drive. They did a good job confusing him.

Not so this week. With a whole week to prepare, Edwards looked confident, made quick decisions, and threw accurate passes. He was sacked a time or two, and did throw an interception, but overall, there was definitely something different about our passing game.

To be fair, for much of the game I kept saying, “If they would open up the offense for JP, he might look like this too!” And, I understand that it was the Jets. They are not much better than the Bills. (Maybe they aren’t better?) So, was I just seeing a mirage? Was this all inflated results due to a poor opponent, home field advantage, and (for some strange reason) better play calling?

By the end of the game, and especially when they called the play-action pass on 4th and goal, I knew that it was not.

See, I think I finally realized that maybe the reason the play calling looked so bad – so conservative, so vanilla – was more on the quarterback than on the coach? It could just be really, really bad timing for JP. All of it. They seemed to have thrown in some more wrinkles in the game he started in New England, but he didn’t get to carry them out. And Trent’s first start was at home against the Jets. But I gotta think it’s more than that.

We’ve seen JP for four season. We’ve seen Trent for two games. Nearly every Bills fan I have read or heard or talked with sees that Edwards is the future, and should probably even be the present. That’s so crazy, because Losman seemed to be “coming around” at the end of last season. But there’s just something different about Edwards. And I think the play calls from his coaches proved that they know that too.

So, I’m off Fairchild’s back, and big time on the Trent Edwards band wagon. I can’t wait to see what the offense can do at home, on a Monday night, against the undefeated Dallas Cowboys! I don’t imagine the Bills end the game on top on the scoreboard, but I do think we will give them a good challenge, if Edwards wasn’t just smoke and mirrors.

Something tells me that he is not, and that is the best news Bills fans have had in a very long time!

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