Category: Uncategorized

1. By Sunday morning before the Broncos game, I had come to realize something important about being a Bills fan. It doesn’t matter to me if the Bills fire their head coach. It doesn’t matter to me if Jason Peters plays or doesn’t play. It doesn’t matter to me if Trent Edwards succeeds or fails.

The Buffalo Bills matter to me. I’m a Bills fan, and I watch the games. I root for my team every week. I love it when they win; it hurts when they lose. I get pleasure out of it every week, even when they lose. All the rest is just noise, and the noise makes me unhappy.

So I was completely at ease Sunday afternoon, because I was ready simply to enjoy what I love – another Bills game. Well, not completely ready. There was a big storm in New England, so I drove to a local sports bar instead of one of the better bars. The local joint only has about 12 TVs. We walked in; 9 TVs had the Pats blowing out the Cards, and 3 had the beginning of the Jets game. THe Pats game kept going and going. Finally, after about 10 minutes of dealing with waitresses and changing tables, 10 minutes of my blood pressure rising, the Bills were on – and down 7-0! First thing I saw was the Bills first offensive series. I would have been better off watching The Deer Hunter or some other upbeat movie.

2. The past couple of months have been so discouraging, I’m finding it hard to get excited about a win. I have to stop and think about it first.

This was a great win! Come from behind, on the road, bad weather, against a playoff-contending team with a winning record. Great win! The team was dealing with the Peters thing, Lynch being injuired, Trent coming back, all of the noise about the coaches.

I love the players on this team, and they deserve some success. Against the Broncos, they got some.

3. There are a lot of things wrong with this team, and slow starts is one of them. It’s absolutely maddening. I didn’t see the opening drive, and I haven’t gone back to review the play by play. Why should I? I’ve seen it before. The defense can’t stop the opening drive, and the Bills can’t move the ball to open the game.

I’m convinced it’s because everyone knows what the Bills are going to do. The Bills have announced to the world that they will play passive, bend-don’t-break defense and adjust as the game goes along. That’s an invitation to offensive coordinators to script the first drive and take advantage of the Bills’ passive approach.

On offense, it’s clear the Bills will try to run the ball and won’t throw deep. So the defensive coordinators script their opening defenses to attack the standard offense and give the QB some new looks.

The Bills were down 10-0 before they began to compete. It’s happened virtually every week.

I think the coaches put the players at a serious disadvantage by playing such predictable schemes. When the Bills play predictable schemes, they have to be better, physically, to win. Other teams also win by outsmarting the opponent, disguising defenses, presenting different looks.

4. A bad-weather win for Trent! The first of what I hope will be many.
Here’s what I like and don’t like about Trent Edwards:

Likes

a. He stands in and takes a hit.
b. He makes decisions in the pocket promptly, and he works to find the open man.
c. His throws are accurate. (Anyone wonder like I did that the ball he threw behind Roscoe was intentional? BIlls were going left to right on the screen, Roscoe came off the left side of the line, and about 12 yards downfield cut across the middle. Looked to me like the linebacker was coming into the zone, Trent saw it and threw behind Roscoe. Was Roscoe supposed to see it too and settle in the spot instead of continuing the crossing pattern?)

Dislikes

a. He’s a drama queen after he gets hit. Get back up and show your team you’re ready to go.
b. His throwing motion is ugly and impedes his ability to throw the deep ball. He needs to work on that.
c. I’m still not convinced he recognizes when a receiver will get open. Having said that, he didn’t have trouble finding Josh Reed. Josh made the Broncos pay for doubling Lee all day.

I still think Trent is the QB of the future. He’s in his second year in the league, 15th in passer rating, 5th in percentage completion and 12th in yards per attempt. In QB rating, he’s ahead of McNabb (can we please stop with the “sign McNabb” pleas?), Favre, Roethlisberger, Delhomme and this year’s savior, Kerry Collins.

5. The bad play I liked the most: Marcus Stroud’s hold. Cost the Bills a takeaway (and cost the Ball Burglar nearly $400) in the process. Why did I like it? Because it was a guy trying to make a play. He was trying clear a path for his teammate to make a run at the QB. He didn’t just quit on the play because he was blocked – he understood what was happening on the play and tried to make something more happen. He helped create the pressure that may have forced a quick throw and the interception. Of course, the INT may have happened anyway. Still, Stroud was doing whatever he could.

6. Speaking of the interception, I thought the DBs played pretty well. That’s a big-time passing offense with a really effective QB, and the Bills forced 20 incomplete passes. That’s a lot. McGee was outstanding. Just running down the wideout on the end-around saved four points – if they’d gotten the touchdown on that play, instead of field goal later in the drive, at the end of the game a field goal would have tied the game. He had some nice pass breakups. He’s a good player.

I continue to like Leodis. The INT was nicely done – he has closing quickness better than anyone on the team. There was a third down pass in the second half that they completed against him for a first down, but he was right there.

What bothers me about the back seven is that they can be in the zone, give up a completion and have three guys there to make the tackle. Why can’t one of them be there for the breakup? Poz, particularly, seems always to be a half-step late. Maybe he isn’t good enough. Maybe he’s still learning.

Corner made some plays and got beaten badly sometime too. The game ending play, he was beaten. His recovery was spectacular.

I guess the Bills had Scott at strong and Whitner at free. I saw Whitner cause the fumble Corner recovered, I saw him overrun Royal on the end around when McGee saved his bacon. I didn’t see much more of him. He was playing free safety against a team that put up 532 and he made 3 tackles? What’s with that? 3 tackles? Were the Bills in the zone all the time? I don’t know, but I think the Bills are not turning him loose. He has his assignments and he does them. When you draft a safety in the first round, he’s supposed to be someone the offense game plans for. The Bills haven’t made him into that kind of player.

7. The Bills running backs are GOOD. Obvious, I know, but it has to be said. Marshawn had several sweet runs, and Fred did too. They’re getting some running room and they’re making plays. Second half, particularly, it looked like the Bills had worn the Broncos down. Unfortunately, by then the Bills were down to Jackson and Omon, and the Bills (wisely) weren’t going to pound Fred over and over again.

8. I really like how the offensive line is performing. No sacks, nice run blocking. It does appear that the line is coming together, but there’s a lot more that needs to be done. I’d like the running game to be dominant, and they have a ways to go to get there, or even near there.

I have no idea about Peters. No idea. Poor guy has all this talent and behaves like a jerk. We’ll never know, of course, but the Bills probably share some of the blame here. If it’s true that they haven’t even talked about redoing the contract, they’ve bungled this situation. We don’t know what was said when Peter’s came back, but the sense people got was that the Bills had committed at least to get started. The contract should be redone in the off-season; in order to accomplish that, the Bills should have been having conversations during the season – not to finalize the deal but at least to advance the ball. Jason should have known what the schedule was.

If, as I fear, everything has gone sideways, the Bills may now have a guy who doesn’t want to be here, who wants even more money, and who will be that much more difficult to motivate in the future.

In short, the Bills should have been building a relationship with Jason over the past three months, and it seems like they weren’t.

As I said at the top, it doesn’t really matter to me. I’ll be rooting for the left tackle wearing the Bills uniform next season. I hope it’s Jason Peters. If it isn’t, I’ll still be at the games.

9. Everyone complains about the pass rush. You know what? With a very few exceptions, if you rush four in the NFL, you don’t get to the QB. Most teams do not have a guy who beats his man one-on-one very often. The offensive linemen are too good.

Mercifully, as the game wore on the Bills came with some blitzes. I would have come with more. Pressure created the McKelvin interception, and pressure created the Mitchell interception. You need regular pressure, so that the QB hurries throws and so that the QB is always worrying that you’re coming.

And the opposite of the blitz is that awful prevent defense with a three-man rush. Get rid of that baby – that’s an automatic first down every time the Bills run it. Terrible. Against good QBs, and Cutler is a good QB, no pass rush leads to pass completions.

The defense on this team is okay. They keep the score down, and that’s a good thing. But they give up a lot of yards. Look at the scores this time of year, and look at the teams that are winning. They have defenses that are shutting the opponents down. Tight. The Bills are much too soft.

10. Fred’s catch and run was the play of the day. Fabulous. If Trent had thrown it deeper and to the sideline, does Fred go straight to the end zone? Did Trent lead him into the middle of the field intentionally? It was an easier ball to catch that way. Did anyone else worry that Fred would get stripped from behind? I did.

The catch was followed by Xavier not-ready-for-prime-time Omon twice, a great job by Johnson running his route and a great throw by Trent delivering the ball. I will NOT anoint Johnson as the second coming of anyone, but he’s definitely showing some stuff.

A woman from Kenmore who now lives in South Carolina and comes to New England for the holidays showed up for the game at the table next to mine at the sports bar in Glastonbury, Connecticut. She was there with her husband, a Packers fan. Bills fans are loyal.

I gave her a Ball Burglar business card and asked her to join. The Ball Burglar has cruised past the $10,000 mark, but we’re not done yet. We need you and your friends to join. The Ball Burglar is THE Buffalo Bills fan movement – hundreds have joined and we need hundreds more. Proceeds go to Hunter’s Hope and Carly’s Club, two great western New York charities fighting serious childhood diseases. Please join today – all we ask is a buck for every takeaway the Bills get. www.Ballburglar.com. Thanks!

Happy holidays to all! See you next week.

GO BILLS!!!

1. It’s a terrible time of the season, and we’ve been there before. The Bills are out of the playoff hunt. You don’t want them to lose because they’re your team; you don’t want them to win because then you’ll be asking all night “why couldn’t they do that when it counted?” Then you get a game like this, and it’s the worst of both worlds: They play well enough to win on the road against a good team with a Hall of Fame quarterback, then lose anyway. Is there any pain like the pain of being a Bills fan?

2. I have to start with Whitner. If there was any doubt, I think he eliminated it against the Jets: Whitner plays pass defense just well enough to stay with his man and make the tackle after the catch, but not well enough to break up the pass. I can’t remember when I’ve seen him cause an incompletion covering a receiver. I’ve seen him come out of his zone to make hits on receivers, but simple man-to-man coverage, it’s a completion every time. This game was the worst. He led the team in tackles because his receivers caught so many balls.

I wonder what he will guarantee next season.

3. The defensive performance against the Jets also combined the worst of the Bills defense: A touchdown on the first possession (and for good measure, a touchdown on the second possession, too) AND a long run for a score. The Bills defensive strategy seems to be play the standard, passive defense for the first half, see how they’re attacking it, make adjustments and stop it. The problem is that it’s SO standard and SO passive that the Bills are always in a hole by the time they make their adjustments.

This defense gave up 3 points in the second half and got the ball back over and over for the offense. In the second half, the Jets had an eight play drive that ended with an interception, then five plays and a punt, three plays and a field goal (after the Losman interception), and then three straight three and outs. Once again, the defense played well enough to win (just barely well enough), if the offense had produced (or if the offense hadn’t given up a touchdown with two minutes left).

I watch the Bills on Sunday afternoon and then I watch the Sunday night game, and every week I have the same reaction: Why don’t the Bills hit like that? Did you see the Giants and Cowboys? They were absolutely pounding each other. Every player took every opportunity to deliver maximum punishment on every play. Steelers do it, Ravens do it, all the good teams do it.

Some fans say the Bills don’t hit enough in training camp. Some say they don’t practice outside. I think it’s all of that and then some. To succeed in this game there has to be a level of hunger, a level of frenzy, a level near madness that we never see from these Bills defenders. Poz makes picture-book tackles but never blows anyone up. When have we seen Whitner hit anyone this season like he hit Chad Johnson last season?

This isn’t flag football – it’s nearly a war. It isn’t Madden – it’s NFL football, for Pete’s sake.

Memo to Dick Jauron: I saw Yale (remember Yale?) beat Columbia this year. Yale hits harder than the Bills.

4. It seems like every year there are hints that the Bills will start taking some chances, doing the unpredictable. We see a little bit early, then they go back into their shell, and it only when the playoffs are out of reach that they open up again. Fake field goal in the first game, fake punt in this game. I think there was one other fake punt. Wendling leapt over the line to try to block a field goal in the first game, tried it again in this game.

We didn’t see the no huddle much at all.

It happens in games, too. First play from scrimmage, the Bills had several defenders on the line of scrimmage. After the first play, the linebackers fell back into their standard 4-3 spots. Not much blitizing, not much of anything that would take Favre out of his comfort zone.

5. We got the worst of both worlds with Just Pray Losman, too. When he’s your quarterback, there’s nothing you can do except give him the ball and Just Pray Losman doesn’t screw it up.

Just Pray said he was putting together a highlight reel, and he was right. This game had everything in the JP arsenal, except the long pass. We saw the rifle arm, the nimble feet, the short-ball inaccuracy, the indecision in the pocket and the turnovers. Touchdown pass was great, interception to Reed was pretty bad, interception to Royal was horrible, and the fumble was, of course, a total disaster.

I don’t believe JP finds the open receivers. He clearly doesn’t know how to pull the trigger.

And now I’ll say what Losman fans have said for a couple of years: At least some of the blame has to fall on the coaches. JP may make lousy decisions when he can’t find open receivers, fine. Then it’s the coaches’ job to run the plays where he CAN find them or to redesign pattens so these receivers CAN get open, because JP hasn’t had trouble unloading the ball when he finds the guy. When Trent struggled for several weeks this season, it was the same thing – the QB can’t find an open receiver. These quarterbacks have been having the same problems for two years now, and the coaches have failed to find solutions.

6. The grousing about the Bills’ playcalling will go on forever.

I didn’t have a problem with calling the pass play that lost the game. I can make the argument both ways; in the end I come out in favor of another run because (a) it was time to challenge the O-line to keep delivering and (b) Just Pray has a knack for making the big bad play. But it was second and five, the Bills needed at least one more first down, and the two-minute warning would have stopped the clock, anyway, so an incompletion wouldn’t have hurt that badly.

What bothered me more was not running out the clock at the end of the first half. It neither hurt nor helped the Bills. I’ve had this argument with people forever – I like running out the clock deep in your end on the road, because a bad outcome is more likely than good, and the Bills were down only four. I understand a lot of people see it the other way. That’s okay.

What I didn’t like about that decision was this: Jauron very clearly believes what I believe – kill the clock and win the game in the second half. If he believes that’s correct, it’s correct in every game, whether you’re 4-1 or 6-7 fighting for the playoffs. If you believe you maximize your chances of winning by killing the clock, why would you open up the offense at that point in the game against the Jets? Or if you believe you maximize your chances of winning by opening up the offense in the last minute of the first half, why have the Bills shut it down in that situation for the last 2+ seasons? There’s no point in playing hunches – just decide what’s right and do it.

7. Too bad about Hardy. I hope he recovers fully; next year was the year I was hoping he’d begin to prove valuable.

Nice touchdown catch by Johnson. Nice pattern, good grab (and nice celebration by Evans). Ugly run on the end around. The guy clearly is not a ball carrier, but most receivers aren’t. Want to know who’s a ball carrier? Ellison. That was a great cut on the fake punt.

8. Marshawn was magnificent. Still not a lot of running room, but Marshawn made the most of it. The offensive line, finally, seems motivated to run the ball. I have no doubt the O-line and Marshawn were disappointed when the Bills decided to pass before the two-minute warning. After Marshawn’s run, followed by the spectacular touchdown for Jackson, followed by the success running the ball right up to that play, I’d guess the O-line was thinking “pound it five more times and this game is OVER!” It wasn’t to be.

9. With all due respect to Mr. Wilson, I don’t think it’s the players. It’s the men who are responsible for getting these players ready to win. Granted, playing with JP is playing with one hand tied behind your back, but well-prepared players don’t:

Let the safety get a free run at JP when he fumbled.
Hold on the kickoff return.
Hold on the final punt return.
Give up opening-drive touchdowns every week.
Give up 40+ yard runs almost every week.
Congratualate themselves when they complete an 11-yard pass. The coaches need to explain to the players that the rules permit pass plays to go for more than 20 yards.

10. I have to say it again: I really like Leodis McKelvin. There weren’t many balls thrown at him, so that says something about him. Favre wasn’t picking on him (why should he? he had Whitner to pick on.) I loved Leodis’s pursuit on the Leon Washington TD run. Simpson couldn’t close the gap, but Leodis coming across the field could.

Nice kick returns. Too bad about the hold; maybe without the hold he could have made the run any way. (Can’t really blame Corto – that was one of those plays where he had to make the block, got locked up with the defender, and held. It happens.)

Leodis can play.

The Bills played pretty well against a quality opponent. Just well enough to allow us to see, again, that this team COULD be good, and just bad enough let us down, hard, one more time this season.

It is very, very hard to be an excited Buffalo Bill fan right now. The only guy who feels worse than all of us is the guy who has to sell new season tickets in 2009. How would like THAT job?

I had to work and didn’t watch the game. So this is 10 things a Bills fan thinks about his team, having seen 12 games and having “watched” a thirteenth on Gamecast.

1. I don’t think there can be any explanation for the total failure of this team to perform than failure of leadership. I think there is decent talent on this team, but the Bills are getting nothing out of them More below.

2. I think Trent Edwards is a good young quarterback who will play well in the NFL for several years, unless his injuries keep him from being effective. I think he would have had greater success this season with a more creative offensive scheme.

3. I think JP Losman is a physically talented young quarterback who, under the right coaches with the right scheme for him, could have some success in the league. Trent is and likely always will be better, but JP’s arm and his legs are good enough to win him a spot somewhere. It isn’t a secret, but he won’t be with the Bills next year. I wish him success. I like him.

4. To date, I have to consider Turk Schonert a failure as an offensive coordinator. How can you conclude otherwise, having seen the offense disappear over the pat few weeks?

Did you see Steve Smith’s touchdown catch against the Bucs? Carolina put him in a motion toward the center of the field, and on the snap the tight end came out into the flat. The pattern caused an instant of confusion and Smith was deep. There seemed to be small, creative details in the play design that I think is completely lacking in the Bills’ offense.

I think good teams create opportunities; I think the Bills are prepared to take advantage of opportunities when they arise. Good opponents, even mediocre opponents, aren’t giving them opportunities.

5. The defense didn’t give up a touchdown on the opening drive against the Dolphins. It waited until the second drive. Once again, after giving up the initial touchdown, the defense played reasonably well.

No takeaways again, which is a sign of a passive defense. It’s a defense that doesn’t scare anyone, it just is fairly stingy when it comes to points.

The Bills defense isn’t spectacular, but it’s playing well enough to win a lot of games. Once again this year, the offense is letting them down.

However, I think the Bills defense is like the offense – it doesn’t create opportunities. That’s why there are so few takeaways. The defense isn’t aggressive and attacking. It plays conservatively and waits for the offense to make a mistake. Pennington kills this defense every year, because Pennington doesn’t make mistakes.

6. Imagine my excitement when I saw on Gamecast that Hardy had caught a first-quarter pass. Imagine my semi-disappointment when I realized he’d fumbled (at least the Bills recovered). Imagine my total disappointment when I read that the call had been reversed. Man, the kid needs work. I won’t give up on him this year. But next season he has to show something. No excuses then – he will have had a year to build himself up, to learn how football is played in the NFL. He doesn’t have to star in 2009, but he has to show us SOMETHING.

7. I can’t bear the thought that the Bills may need a new offensive line. I’m hoping it’s coaching; if the Bills need a new offensive line, it’ll take another three years to get an offense together.

8. It’s embarrassing enough to play badly before your hometown fans. We’re family, and unfortunately at some level we understand. It’s really embarrassing to take the team on the road, where the objective is to generate excitement for the team and make new fans, and then to play like that. Ralph Wilson called the 49ers game the worst game in Bills’ history, and he said it wouldn’t happen again. I haven’t seen yet what he called the Dolphins game. One thing is certain: it was the worst game in Bills history in Toronto.

9. I just can’t see how any management, even this one, can possibly conclude that a major coaching change isn’t needed. Wholly ineffective offense. No spark, no crispness, no hope. Uninspired play. Not only is the team bad, the games are boring.

There were a lot of questions about Dick when was hired. Those questions have been answered.

Maybe in some other environment, Dick could succeed. I don’t think so. I cannot think of a good professional football coach whose team has failed to show up week after week in important games. Dolphins, Jets, Pats, Browns, 49ers, Dolphins. The Browns game is the only game the Bills were even marginally competitive.

This is his team – his players, his coaches, his offensive and defensive scheme. A good coach with his players and his schemes wins. A bad coach doesn’t.

A friend told me that the Bills don’t have any big-time players. I simply can’t believe that year after year the Bills have failed – every time – to take impact players. The law of averages tells us that at least a few of these guys have to be good.

Think about how good we think these players are, and how unspectacular their play is: Whitner, Lynch, Hardy, Dockery, Peters, Edwards, McCargo, Losman, Poz, McKelvin, Stroud, Williams. SOMEBODY has to be good. It seems much more likely to me that these players are being taught a style of play that minimizes their talent, that loses.

I don’t see how I can conclude anything different.

10. I feel bad for the Bills good young players. Really bad. They’re experiencing football failure that they don’t deserve. They need the chance to play on a good team.

The Bills may be losing, but the Ball Burglar is still winning, helping kids who really need your help. Join today – pay a buck for every Bills takeaway. You’ll be glad you did. www.Ballburglar.com.

Funny how there is so much more to say when the team is not doing well! One good thing for the Bills is that they actually have quite a few talented players and even if this season is a bust, with new coaching could have a great year next year. The common theory that a coaching change mandates 2-3 years of rebuilding is really not accurate (it has been with the Bills but…). Jon Gruden took the Bucs to the SuperBowl in his first season. Mangini made the playoffs in his first season, So did Tony Dungy, Parcels, etc. There are many more than you might think. Even Tony Sparano has had immediate success with the Dolphins and has a real chance to get the team into the playoffs 1 year after 1-15. Parcels may be the GM but he is not coaching the team, Sparano is and he’s doing a great job. Singletary came in mid season and is already making a difference for the 49ers. I guess my point is that, if the Bills actually hire a good coach who calls plays and game plans to the strength of the players on the team rather than forcing the players to try to play in a pre-invented “system”, the team can see success quickly. The Bills have a lot of young talent on the team that could make the team very competitive quickly if properly used. What kind of Coach gives Lynch so few carries? Uses his inexperienced (somewhat unproven) QB to throw on critical plays rather than going to their proven ground game? Forcing guys like Leodis McKelvin, who is a strong man to man guy, to play lots of zone in the Tampa Two? You don’t need to completely rebuild a team if you know how to take advantage of the players you already have. Dick Jauron and friends scour the draft class for guys that might fit in their system while the best teams take great players and find a way to adjust the system to include them. Put Bobby April at the helm and the Bills would likely win their last 4 games and have a shot. With Jauron in there they really don’t have a chance.

It has become abundantly clear to me that this staff does not know how to get the most out of the talent they have on the team. There are two types of coaches, the ones who develop game plans based on the players they have and develop plays and strategies that maximize the potential of the players they have, and there are the type who develop a “Scheme” and try to force their players to fit in the “Scheme”. There are always going to be times when a player doesn’t work with the style of football you play (ditching a good linebacker because he is a 3-4 guy and you run a 4-3) but those situations should be the exception. It is easy to come up with a list of coaches who develop game plans based on the players they already have, they are the ones that consistently win football games.

As a Bills fan, how many times have you said something to this effect: “That play would have worked great if we had a better Tight End” or maybe “If we had a tall receiver we could have coem down with that catch”? The problem is that, if you don’t have a tight end who can make that play, you shouldn’t be calling the play. These are classic symptoms of inflexible “scheme” coaching. The Bills haven’t had a guy that knew how to utilize his players since Wade Phillips. Wade almost took it too far by trying to change players from week to week in order to come up with a better attack. A good idea with receivers etc, not with QBs.

So the Bills top priority is to find a good coach who knows how to make the most of his players (seems especially key in Buffalo where sometimes the team is a little cheap with player acquisitions). But the second priority is to find a new Quarterback. Sorry Trent Supporters, but this kid is just not tough enough for this league. At this point I have trouble making excuses for his totally inept play whenever the weather isn’t perfect. He’s sloppy, seems to have trouble with the cold (he’s really quick to get in his cape and seems to really be uncomfortable in the cold weather, just looks miserable on the sideline, like a Miami player in town for a visit, not a Bills player). Trent’s a nice guy, a good media man, seems to inspire his players and apparently the fans (its the only explaination for the undying support for a guy with really unimpressive career numbers) Trent has a 78.4 Career rating while Losman has a 77.9. If this is your idea of dramatic improvement over Losman, I guess everything is fine. Personally I think the Bills need a new starting QB. Losman is really not part of the discussion as he will most certainly leave as soon as the season is over and his commitment to Buffalo is finished. So even if the Bills want to stick with Edwards (a bad move I think) they will still need to acquire either a veteran free agent or draft another Quarterback to fill in the roster. Ideally they will do both.

Its hard to say which current QBs will hit the free agent market, but the Bills will probably take some mid-level guy, rather than spending big money for an older veteran. I’m ok with this, because the team needs to address the quarterback properly in the draft. Edwards may or may not have been a steal, but the team shouldn’t be banking on him being a success. Tom Brady was not drafted to be the starter. Bledsoe was their starter and was not even phased when they drafted Brady to be his backup. Belichick has said publicly, that they chose Brady because he was an inch taller than the other quarterback who was still available that late in the draft. It was dumb luck. The majority of the top quarterbacks in the league are taken early in the first round and come from one of the top football schools. The key difference being that only a dozen or so teams in College football use NFL style offenses.

The vast majority of college teams use simpler offensive systems where receivers are not expected to modify their routes according to reads. In the NFL, most teams encourage their players to adjust their routes according to the defense they encounter. The result should be more open receivers, but things become a lot trickier for the quarterback because the receivers are not where he expects them to be all the time. NFL quarterbacks need to be able to quickly read the field and instantly adjust to changed routes and find their open receivers. Coming out of college, players like Losman and Edwards who went to schools like Tulane and Stanford don’t get the benefit of coming into the NFL with experience operating a Pro Offense. (who knows what to call the mess that was Stanford football while Trent was there). So unless the QB is coming from a school like Texas, Tennessee, Florida, Boston College etc. there is a greater learning curve to be expected and a much greater chance the guy just won’t be able to handle an NFL style offense. The Bills need to stop being cute and go after a proven quarterback in the draft like Colt McCoy (although not necessarily him) who has essentially already had expeience in a Pro system. Then they need to start him right away rather than leaving him on the bench to lose all the momentum and excitement he had coming out of college and the draft.

The Bills also need to pick up at least three defensive ends and another linebacker or two. At defensive end they should look to free agency and pick up a proven talent as well as a project guy then also take the best guy they can get in the draft. They need to spend their top pick on quarterback, so probably a 2nd rounder.

The biggest question is wether the Bills brain trust has the guts to make the big moves. I think at least, they will fire Jauron. Ralph Wilson skipped out on the press conference after Sunday’s embarassing loss and seems to be thoroughly displeased with Jauron. NFL teams are not responsible for voided coaching contracts so there is really no reason to keep Dick Jauron around, regardless of wether there was an extension signed or proposed or whatever. Coaching contracts are little more than a show of intent. Lets just hope the Bills bring in the right guy to replace him. If they make the right choice, there won’t be any rebuilding to worry about.

1. Why don’t we start by honoring a great football team in Orchard Park, NY? That would be the Orchard Park High School Quakers, who scored 21 unanswered points in the second half to win the New York State Championship in Syracuse on Sunday. 21-17 final. (Meanwhile, the other team in Orchard Park managed 3 unanswered points in a stirring 10-3 loss to one of the worst teams in the NFL.)

Congratulations to Section VI, which won FOUR state football championships over the weekend. No Section had won more than two in any previous year.

2. This week’s 10 Things requires more creativity than in past weeks, so be kind to me. Creativity is required because (a) there’s no point in savagely bashing the team and coaches for a couple of pages, and (b) NOTHING HAPPENED IN THE GAME. That was about the most boring football game I’ve ever seen. The level of futility reached a new high (or is it low?) for the NFL.

The LA Times captured it best: “San Francisco 10, Buffalo 3 – Can you imagine saving your money to go see one game all year, and this is the game you chose?”

Leaving the stadium, I overheard one fan say “nothing exciting happened in the whole game.” And he was nearly correct. Marshawn’s long run and a couple of other runs were exciting. Leodis’s kick return made the grade, as did one Roscoe punt return. That was about it.

3. McKelvin is really growing on me. He was schooled a couple of times by Isaac Bruce (including on the touchdown), but that would leave Leodis in pretty good company. Isaac Bruce has taught a lot of lessons in his career.

I was at the game and didn’t see good replays, but the interference call against Leodis seemed pretty weak. He also missed a couple of tackles in run support, but he was there to make the play – he’ll learn to finish. He looks decent now, and his potential is obvious.

And Leodis certainly has figured out how to return kicks. He’s downright scary back there.

In the second half, I actually found myself thinking the Bills had a better chance of scoring when they were on defense, because Leodis might get a pick. (Of course, I believed Marshawn could score, but the Bills weren’t going to give him the ball inside the 10. More about that later.)

I wasn’t thrilled with the draft pick at the time, but it clearly was a good move.

4. I entered the Stadium early on Sunday, and I walked right up to the security officer – no waiting. That was completely different from the Monday night game, when 45 minutes before there game there was a big (and dangerous) crowd, pushing people from behind and creating a frightening environment. People were getting injured and feared for their lives. I understand that as game time approached for the 49ers game, the backup grew again.

No need to worry about the crowds at the security lines for the New England game. All three BIlls fans ought to be able to get into the game without incident, unless 75,000 Patriots fans show up.

5. The Ball Burglar had an okay day – one takeaway. The Bills “forced” several fumbles, but they really deserve little credit for some. The one they recovered was, for the second week in a row, an unforced fumble – the ball carrier went to the ground without having been touched and fumbled on his own. Another “forced” fumble was a mishandled snap. Denney did force one nicely on his sack.

The Bills definitely need to do better taking the ball away, but it’s hard to do when the defense plays so passively. Against the 49ers, they didn’t seem to be in attack mode. There wasn’t much pass rush, there wasn’t a lot of blitzing, and there looked to be a lot of cover two again, with the linebackers dropping. The defense worked fine to keep the score down, but it didn’t produce any opportunities for the offense. In other words, the defense really played well, but it put me to sleep. The offense, of course, did nothing to rouse me from my slumber.

6. The defense gets high praise and a question mark at the same time. The question mark is the opening drive. The Bills are making it a habit, giving up a touchdown on the opening drive. I like deferring to the second half – the second half is the time to win games, and you want the ball to open the second half. However, it’s maddening to be down seven without even having had the ball.

Sunday was really bad – that was a 14-play, eight minute drive in which the defense let the 49ers convert four consecutive third downs. That’s absolutely horrible. It was passive defense at its worst.

(All season long the Bills have seemed to be unprepared to play at the beginning of the game. It’s one of many problems that lead me to believe that these coaches may be good teachers but not good game coaches.)

After that, the defense did what a good defense is supposed to do against a lousy offense: shut it down. For the remaining 52 minutes of the game, the 49ers gained 123 yards (77 passing and 46 rushing), were 3 for 11 on third down conversions and got only 7 first downs. At least one first down came on a Bills penalty. The 49ers couldn’t run and they couldn’t pass. Was it the Bills defense or were the 49ers just bad? I’ll give the nod to the defense, just to be positive.

7. Congratulations also to UB, in line for the second bowl bid in the history of the school – and first bowl appearance. They play exciting, watchable football. OBD, are you listening?

If you’re looking for an interesting article about how times have changed, read this article about UB’s first bowl bid, 50 years ago.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=buffalo58

I lived a few blocks from the UB field and used to go to some of those games.

8. Everyone fell down against the 49ers, even the special teams. Two missed field goals, an ugly punt, and Roscoe getting himself tackled deep on a punt. One time the players on the kick receiving team had to run to the sideline to remind Ryan Denney that he was supposed to be on the field. And didn’t the Bills call a timeout to get organized on special teams one time? (I’ve forgotten.)

Still, Bobby April is the only coach on this team who week after week shows that he knows how to make things happen. Year after year he takes whoever is available and turns them into top kick return and kick coverage teams. Currently 4th in kick returns, second in punt returns, second in kick coverage and 26th (!) in punt coverage. It isn’t an accident.

The guy knows how to organize his teams, and he knows how to game plan for his opponents. I honestly don’t know that any of the other coaches know how to do it.

9. Hard to know what we have in Trent now. All of the negative comments from months ago certainly look like they’re being borne out: can’t play in bad weather, injury prone, mediocre arm, etc. It’s really hard to know if yesterday was weather, the injury, his confidence, what. It’s pretty discouraging. I’m still confident that he’s a quality QB in the making. Sunday was not his finest hour.

The Bills got the same old same old from JP. Great arm – man, he really can deliver the ball. Not-so-good decision making. On one sack, they showed an isolated view of Hardy on the Jumbo Tron – Hardy was running a streak with man coverage, and he had at least seven inches on the guy Instead of taking the sack, why not throw it out there and let the big guy make the play? (Is that JP’s fault, or the coaches? I don’t know; but it was a better choice than a sack.)

I don’t think quarterbacking lost this game. I think coaching did.

10. Something is seriously wrong within the team (coaches and players). There were several questions after the game about why the Bills are late getting to the line of scrimmage. JP isn’t diplomatic enough to know how to avoid the issue in public – he said he’s a team guy and he’s going to keep team issues in-house. He said they can ask all they want; he will not talk about in-house issues. By saying that he made it clear that there are in-house issues. Trent was better covering it up, but it was clear even with him that this team’s play calling is disorganized.

What are the problems? Are Dick and Turk disagreeing about play calls? Who knows? What is obvious is that the Bills are sluggish and indecisive on the field and ill-prepared for games (that’s why they always start slowly). They have none of the crispness on offense that we saw at the beginning of the year. They are slow and predictable. Between the slow play calls, the runs and the short passes, it seems like Bills drives take five minutes to go 20 yards. It’s excrutiatingly painful to watch. In fact, the quality and the pace of the play takes the home fans out of the game. It’s impossible to be enthusiastic watching football played at a pace more suited to golf.

The entire team is out of sync. Trent scrambled and ran into his blocker. Fred caught a screen pass and ran into his blocker. JP passed up a a great up-the-gut scramble and cut to the outside for no gain. The special teams had their issues.

TV watchers probably couldn’t see it, but during one time out, with the Bills on offense, Takeo, Jason and Josh stood around the ball chatting. I hate to see that. After the game, fine, but during the game that guy is the ENEMY. I have to believe Tom Coughlin would chew their butts from here to San Francisco for doing that.

This team doesn’t threaten anyone, on offense or on defense. It doesn’t say “here we come to kick your butt.” Instead, it says “here we are, how about a friendly game?”

The Bills finally started running the ball with some success in the past few weeks, but against the 49ers they abandoned the run – Losman and Edwards attempted 38 passes, and Lynch and Jackson carried only 21 times. Take away Marshawn’s 50-yard run, and he still had 84 yards in 15 carries, almost 6 yards per. The Bills played the first half with an injured QB and the second half with their backup, against a mediocre rushing defense, averaged 6.2 yards per carry and passed almost twice as much as they ran!

The Bills ran seven plays (or more? someone said nine) inside the 49ers’ 10 yard-line, and Marshawn Lynch touched the ball once. Which was the one play he got the ball? Immediately after his 50-yard carry – no chance to get a blow, nothing. That was it – let him run fifty yards, call his number again; before and after that, never. Marshawn has to know that when he breaks a long one, he MUST get into the end zone, because the chances are slim that he’ll get another chance or that anyone else will get the job done.

This team at 5-1 was in ideal position to go to playoffs. As they entered crunch time in the season, they folded, badly. They didn’t show up for must-win game after must-win game. The Bills haven’t been ready for a game in six weeks. Even against Kansas City, without the Leodis INTs, they could have been in trouble. They gave up nearly 500 yards to a team with one win.

I look at all these things and I conclude the coaches don’t know how to make a team a winner.

I’m a Bills fan. I’ll watch forever. Next week, we’ll win. I know it. I don’t know how, but we will.

That’s what I think every week.

See you here in a week.

Welcome to the Buffalo Bills Roller Coaster. Either the greatest show on earth, or just cheap thrills.

1. It’s nice to have a win, really nice.

When you lose, no matter how you lose, it’s always bad. When you win, no matter whom you beat, it’s a good thing. Yes, it was the Chiefs. Yes, the Bills won primarily on Chiefs’ mistakes. Yes, all sorts of things didn’t go all that well for Buffalo.

The Bills won. They desperately needed a win, and they got it.

It’s a good thing.

2. The Bills need playmakers, and Leodis McKelvin is a playmaker. Both interceptions were outstanding individual plays, reacting to the ball, beating the receiver and making the catch. (Did someone say he had bad hands?) Big-time athletic play, putting the ball over the pylon. Another really nice kick return. Two games in a row, he’s given the Bills an edge.

Bobby April said Leodis needed time to understand what the Bills were doing on kick returns. Perry Fewell said Leodis needed time to understand his assignments on defense. Looks like time was on his side. We’re starting to see the talent that made him a top draft pick. Leodis could be one of those special players championship teams need.

3. I hate to be Debbie Downer here, but I saw a lot of things I didn’t like:

a. The Bills couldn’t stop the Chiefs. Chiefs were 26th in the league in yards per game, 29th in points. The Bills gave up 462 yards and a lot of points. The Chiefs punted only three times. It wasn’t a great defensive performance. I’m not sure I can even call it good. What the Bills did do is make some big plays – two by McKelvin. They forced a fumble. Big plays overcome a lot.

b. The defense gave up two long plays. What is it with the big plays? Of course, if you take away the big plays, the Bills only gave up about 300 yards and two fewer touchdowns. Unfortunately, the Bills don’t seem to be able to take away the big plays.

c. The Bills gave up a touchdown drive to start the game. Not good.

d. The Bills TWICE left the greatest tight end in the history of the game absolutely completely totally wide open. “Okay, fellas: This guy, number 88, he’s good. We want to have someone on him all the time.” Did you see that touchdown catch? How in the world do you forget about Tony Gonzalez at the goal line?

He’s going to catch some balls, sure. I’ll give him that. But we should try covering him.

e. The offense put up a lot of points, and they gained a bunch of yards, but can you say they dominated? They didn’t pass for 300. They did have nice success running the ball, but somehow it didn’t feel dominant. I guess it was because a lot of the rushing yards were Trent’s. Those yards are nice, but that doesn’t mean the running game is working.

f. The Bills seem to be in love with throwing the ball to Marshawn in the flat. What is that all about? Trent wasn’t dumping the ball to him – he was throwing it to him by design.

4. 121. Passer rating of 121 for Trent Edwards. Talk about feast or famine. Trent still looked inconsistent. The long ball to Evans could not have been better. A couple of the slants were thrown behind the receiver. The overthrow of Robert Royal was, well, it was unbelievable.

Trent definitely was happy to have Reed back. He knows where he can find Reed, and he gets him the ball. Overthrew him once on the deep out route. Found him nicely – Reed did a great job going deep, then pulling up – on that scramble to his right.

Overall, Trent did a nice job passing.

Trent running? To be honest, I wasn’t completely excited about it. First, as noted above, those aren’t the rushing yards we want. Second, the run at the end of the half was a big gamble, because if he didn’t get in, the half was over. He won the gamble, and winners win more than their share of those, so I’ll add that one to the plus column. Then he did it again to open the second half. Then he ran, didn’t slide, got hit and fumbled. Dumb play. The Bills need him in the game. He didn’t, couldn’t slide on the touchdown runs. In the middle of the field, he has to get down.

I think Trent came into the game determined to show he isn’t the guy we watched for the past four weeks, the guy who was losing games instead of winning games. That’s a good thing, of course. I want him to be determined. The Bills need more than that; however; they need him to be smart. Taking hits like a running back isn’t smart.

With all that, of course, his runs were great plays. We’ve known he can run pretty well; he just doesn’t do it much. The Bills thought Trent would have opportunities on the move in this game, and he took advantage of them.

5. Defensive questions:

a. Anyone seen Poz lately? What happened to the tackling machine? Is someone else wearing number 51?

b. Mitchell? Looked to me like he was around a lot of mistakes.

c. And Wilson? I think the guy just has poor cover skills. We saw it all last year. And we saw it on the long touchdown against the Chiefs. Yes, he fell (he fell last year, too). Defensive backs are not supposed to fall. They’re supposed to keep running and get themselves into the play. The ball was underthrown, and it looked like he could have gotten there.

Wilson does a lot of good things. He’s always around the ball when he’s coming forward. He blitzes well. I like the guy. I just think he hurts the Bills in pass defense, and that’s not a good thing for a defensive back.

d. Maybe it just wasn’t all that good a day for the defense.

6. Most amazing takeaway stat of the day was that the Chiefs were #2 in the league in takeaways and had won only one game.

The Ball Burglar, of course, was celebrating. Get those takeaways, win ball games. The Ball Burglar celebrated last April when the Bills took Leodis, and the new gang member made his mark on the field in Kansas City.

The Ball Burglar loves those $2000 days. Bills fans are paying close to $400 per takeaway – and they pay extra for takeaways returned for a TD. So that was the equivalent of a six takeaway game.

The Ball Burglar needs you. He doesn’t want to pay $400 per takeaway to help kids with serious illness. He wants to pay $4000. He’s going to do it with $1 from you, $1 from me, $1 from a lot of Bills fans. It’s easy. Go to www.Ballburglar.com, click PLEDGE and make a couple of choices. As the Ball Burglar’s bounty grows, the takeaway totals will grow. The Ball Burglar guarantees it.

7. You just have to get Lee Evans into the game. The guy has the softest hands in the NFL. That catch on the deep ball was beautiful. Full speed, contested, fully extended, and there wasn’t even a hint of a bobble. He wants the ball, he’ll catch the ball, he’ll take hits. One of these days he’s going to take one of those slants to the house. Get him the ball.

8. Is Fred Jackson better than Marshawn Lynch? I don’t think so, but he certainly hits holes more quickly. Marshawn doesn’t pop through the line like Fred does. But Fred can’t carry tacklers like Marshawn can.

Marshawn just wants it. What a player. As much as I’m tired of watching the Bills throw to him in the flat, he does make plays out there, doesn’t he?

I don’t really care who’s better. It’s a very nice one-two combination, so long as the offensive line gives them some room to run. One and two, in whatever order, had themselves a nice day.

9. Did someone say offensive line? I was in a sports bar and couldn’t hear the announcers. But I did notice several close-ups of Jason Peters as penalties were being assessed against the Bills. And Dockery once, too.

I decided not to be too troubled by that. Everyone gets flagged here and there. What the Bills need is run blocking and pass protection, and they’ve been getting it. O-line had a decent day. Needs to be better, but it was a start.

10. As bad as the losing streak looked, I’m now thinking it wasn’t quite all that bad. It’s clear to me now that the Jets are a much better team than I thought. The Bills played them better in Buffalo than the Titans did in Tennessee. The Dolphins are also much better than I thought. And the Pats are pretty good, especially when the refs let Randy Moss hold and push off. The Bills didn’t play well in those games, but they competed. They played those teams better than bad teams play them.

Of course, there’s no excuse for the Browns game. That was just bad.

Good performances by Trent in a couple of these games would have turned losses into wins. Trent’s learning, I hope.

We’ll see which Trent shows up against the 49ers. If Trent and the Bills can put up a good performance, then the Bills will be 7-5 heading into the stretch where they will show how far they’ve actually come. 11-5 or 10-6 is within reach. So is 7-9 or (I can hardly bear to say it) 6-10. I started the season thinking 9-7 would be a successful year. The Bills still should get there.

Welcome to the roller coaster. Enjoy the ride.

This is a team certifiably in trouble. Trouble is everywhere.

1. As I watched Lindell’s kick, I had none of my usual excitement, enthusiasm, anticipation. For me, the game already was over. The outcome didn’t matter – the Bills were lost. The game wasn’t, but the Bills were.

To be the team I thought the Bills could be, they needed to own this game. A last-second win wasn’t what they needed. What they needed was a game where Trent was taking kneel downs before the two-minute warning. That didn’t happen. That wasn’t even a possibility.

At least for now, the naysayers were right. The Bills need a quarterback. The Bills need a leader. The Bills need a coach.

We aren’t watching a slump. We’re watching a bad football team. Good football teams, even average football teams, don’t lose four in a row. Not in this league. This hasn’t been four weeks of bad breaks, bad calls, untimely injuries. This has been four weeks of bad football.

Of course, now there is virtually no hope of making the playoffs. Mathematics aside, it’s simply laughable to think that a team playing like that could even think about the playoffs.

2. Maybe I need to write a separate 10 Things I Think about the coaching. I don’t even know where to start. Try these:

a. I understand the thinking, but it was a mistake to run the ball three times before Lindell’s miss. I thought so at the time, and it’s completely obvious now. The Bills needed one more first down to run out the clock, to get Lindell within gimme range (kicking at that end of the field is always tough – I’m not sure why the Bills weren’t going the other way in the fourth quarter), and to send a message to Trent that they trusted him. Sitting on the ball said “We’re afraid. We’re afraid we won’t get the first down. We’re afraid we’ll turn it over.” Teams that play scared lose.

b. I don’t know the medical report, but I thought all week it was a mistake to play Whitner. Foolish. That’s not a decision that should be based on emotion; it should be based on what’s right for the season. The Bills needed more than one game to make the playoffs; if they couldn’t win this one with Whitner, they weren’t good enough to go anywhere anyway.

c. The Bills abandoned the cover two so they could blitz more. McGee was on an island all night long; so were Greer and McKelvin. The whole game. The coaches completely changed up the defense. Fine – things aren’t going right, change up. So how do you give up a 70-yard touchdown run with your safeties freed up from double coverage assignments?

d. One play the Bills were in the crawl, or whatever they call that defense when you can’t tell who the down linemen are or who’s coming. Ball’s snapped, several guys rush, the back 7 were COMPLETELY unable to get back into their zones – 17 yards to Braylon Edwards. If they can’t play the defense, don’t use it.

e. We can’t the ball to Evans one time? One time? Some time in that game, with the Bills on defense, the coaches have to talk to Lee and Trent and say, okay, next time we have the ball, this is the play we run. Trent, your keys are a,b,c. Look for a, take the snap, look for b, and then, if Lee hasn’t fallen down, THROW HIM THE BALL. No decent coach lets his stars get taken out of the game all together.

I’ll stop. BUT – I seriously question whether these people know how to make a football team win.

3. I thought McGee was outstanding. He had no help all night against a really good receiver, and against a quarterback who didn’t know how to look for anyone else. McGee gave him nothing deep, and he broke up several of the short balls. Yes, he gave up some catches underneath, but he stopped several too. He took on the task and he delivered exactly what the Bills wanted from him.

4. McKelvin looked pretty good, too. I watched him some of the time, and he looked comfortable. I think it was in part because the Bills were playing so much man, it played to his strength. He didn’t have to worry about his zone assignments. He also got the benefit of playing against an inexperienced QB who seems to think he has only one receiver on the team.

The scouting reports were that Leodis has bad hands. Unfortunately, it may be true – he couldn’t handle the diving interception. Still, he played well.

Kick returns, of course, were spectacular.

5. Lindell had what may have been his worst game as a Bill. He has to make that kick. Almost as bad was the 27-yard kickoff out of bounds. Couple that with Mitchell’s unnecessary roughness penalty, and right there the Bills gave up the field goal that probably cost them the game.

The problem with being a kicker is that you don’t get a lot of chances to make plays. When you do, you MUST deliver. Ryan didn’t.

6. There was a new addition to the “fan experience” at the Stadium that actually helped nullify the home-field advantage. Bills’ management understands that excitement means the stadium is noisy. Against Cleveland, they seemed to think that noise meant excitement; they thought that if they piped in noise, there would be more excitement. During TV timeouts, rock ‘n roll was blaring from the loudspeakers. Really loud. Pretty good music, actually.

The problem was that the Bills often were on defense during those timeouts. The music was so loud that the fans couldn’t make noise. Then ESPN would come back from the commercial, and the Browns were out of the huddle and ready to start the play before the music stopped. So the fans had no opportunity to build the pre-snap noise level while the Browns were in the huddle. The fans had no opportunity to shake up a young quarterback.

Put that together with the fact that general poor play dampened everyone’s enthusiasm, and I’d say that from start to finish the fans were loud for less of this game than any other this season.

7. Trent, of course, was awful. Hasn’t anyone told him that he cannot throw a pass eight feet off the ground directly over the head of a 6’5” defensive lineman? Every defensive lineman is taught to get a hand up, and they deflect or knock down those balls. Is he not looking for those guys? He has to. Otherwise, he gets what he got against the Browns – interceptions and incompletions.

What is really disturbing is that he lost his confidence. Again, I put part of the blame on the coaches – if they have a guy on the field who doesn’t have the courage to make the plays, you have to get him off the field. Simple as that. Maybe it’s only for a game, maybe a season, maybe a career. If the guy is afraid to make the throws, what’s the point of playing him?

You could see it. After the first quarter, he more or less didn’t look downfield.

One time in the fourth quarter, Lee had coverage underneath and on top. He ran 8-10 yards upfield and cut over the middle. The underneath guy was beat. The on-top guy wasn’t going to be able break up a 15 yard completion. He looked like he was open; maybe there was someone else in a shallow zone that I didn’t see. The crowd – get this – the CROWD, including me, yelled “LEE!” You could actually hear what must have been 15,000 people yell “LEE!” Trent didn’t throw it.

Easily his worst performance as a pro. He has regressed badly.

People have begun speculating that the concussion continues to be a factor. Maybe. Whatever; his isn’t playing nearly well enough to win.

8. Among the bad tendencies this defense has:

a. Give up one really long touchdown drive, more or less every game.

b. Give up just enough yards for the opponent to get into field goal range, over and over.

c. Give up a big play.

9. Special teams (except for Lindell) were special. When we really needed, when they finally kicked one to Roscoe – bang! – a big return. As great a McKelvin’s returns were, a lot of the credit goes to the rest of the receiving team. McKelvin was simply a talented return man taking advantage of the opportunities the team continued to present to him. I’m not putting him down, not at all. He did a great job. But mostly what he did was use his speed and ability to change direction to use the space the blockers created for him.

The really cool play was the Browns’ final kickoff. They weren’t going to kick deep to McKelvin – he’d hurt them too badly and they just couldn’t chance it again. April knew it. So what did he do? He had McKelvin deep, Jackson at the 20 and Roscoe at the 40. The Browns did the squib kick. It looked like Roscoe would get it, but it bounced over his head, right into Fred’s arms. Fred took it back for great field position to start the final drive. April knew they wouldn’t take a chance kicking toward the sideline – they had to go up the middle – to Roscoe, Fred or Leodis. Great move.

Special teams delivered great field position all night long.

10. I went to the game with an old friend, a great football fan who hasn’t seen the Bills play much the last two seasons. Early in the game, he asked me if Marshawn was any good. I told him yes. By the end of the game, he was sold.

What a performance! Simply magnificent. The run to set up the last touchdown was one of the best runs I’ve even seen on a football field. Not flashy, not necessarily highlight reel material, but he just kept making something out of nothing, for 30 yards.

And the touchdown run off the short pass! How he knew to cut back into the flow the defense, I do not know. He ran right into harm’s way, but he knew he could get in.

The Bills have been wasting that man’s skills for the better part of one and a half seasons. It was great to see them block well enough to get him going. It was absolutely terrible to watch the Bills waste that performance.

Is the only way the Bills can run the ball is to have the crummiest passing game in the league? Seems like they can only do one thing well per game.

This team needs help. Where they need it is on the sidelines. These are good players, and they should be winning.

See you here next week.

Don’t forget – The Ball Burglar is on the move, even it the Bills aren’t getting takeaways. We’re closing in on $400 per takeaway. Add your buck or two for every takeaway at www.Ballburglar.com. Thanks.

Before I start the QB debate up again, I thought I’d touch on a few points about this team.

1. This team is not a playoff team. The defense could be in the playoffs as could the special teams, but this offense has no place in the playoffs. However if they win the rest of their games, they still have a decent shot at a wild card.

2. No. Coach contracts are not binding. Jauron could be fired tomorrow with no penalty. I doubt that the Bills will do it, but Jauron has no job security regardless of whether there was a contract extension.

3.Last night the Bills showed what it would be like if they had an effective offensive line. Clearly they have the runningback talent and need not worry there. But don’t get excited about the line being good again, the Browns have a horrible defense. The Bills line will look good against Kansas City too, but will suck again when they face better teams. This is still a concern area.

4. Bobby April has what it takes to be a head coach. The Bills team needs a fire lit under it and if they were to make a mid-season move to fire Jauron (which they won’t), April would be the ideal guy to promote as interim and hopefully as the permanent coach (Marv was a Special teams guy first too, Special Teams is tough to coach because you are constantly getting your personnel jerked around). One way to smooth this transition would be to move Jauron into a director of Pro Personnel position. I think Jauron has done a great job finding talented players and is a benefit to the organization, but not at head coach.

5. The much maligned 2008 draft class is starting to show signs of life. Fans should give these young players a bit more than half a season before they call them busts.

6. Marshawn Lynch is clearly talented but needs to stick to the play more. He contributed to the missed field goal on the last play prior to the kick by trying to roll it out to the left side. He didn’t get any additional yards, but did cause the ball to be positioned on the far left hash (most likely spot to kick wide right from). Had he stuck to the play it would have been an easier kick for Lindell. The play call was up the middle for a reason.

7. I don’t think you can blame the coaches for bad play calling when there are wide open receivers that the QB didn’t try to throw to. Lee Evans was wide open most of the day but never even had a ball thrown to him. The coaches on this team call effective plays pretty often but the team fails to execute. So it really comes back to the coaches failing to get the team prepared for the game.

And so it comes down to the Quarterback. Once again. Trent Edwards has stunk pretty bad for most of the season, putting up small yards and few TDs even when he was playing his best. People seem to be determined to make every excuse for the kid, but the bottom line is that Edwards is Trent Dilfer good, or maybe Chad Pennington good. Not Tom Brady, Joe Montana or any of the other rediculous comparisons that have been drawn. Hand picking the stats of 3 or 4 great Quarterbacks and assuming Edwards will be good because his first 16 games were similar is actually pretty rediculous. One need only look at Cleveland’s Derek Anderson to know that 1 season does not make a career no matter how good your stats are. There are a great many more failed quarterbacks who had similar first year stats than successful ones. All that aside, Edwards stats aren’t even that good.

Could all of you folks out there who think Trent Edwards is the second coming of Montana please explain why? Even when he was playing his best, his numbers were average. His only impressive stat is completion percentage, which really doesn’t matter that much if most of the passes are so short that they are followed by a punt. Here are Trent’s career numbers with some notable extras:
Trent Edwards Career: 331 for 540 (61.3%), 3623 yards, 10.945 yards per completion, 6.7 yards per attempt, TDs 15 INTs 18 Sack 32, Rating 76.5
In 20 Starts (and a some assorted other playing time) Edwards has 2 games with more than one TD (miami 2007 he had 4, and Giants 2007 he had 2, which means in his other 18 games he had 9 TD passes, or half a TD per game).
Trent Edwards has never thrown for 300 yards in a contest.
Edwards has thrown for less than 200 yards 12 times. Or 60% of the time.
Edwards has thrown more INTs than TDs in 9 games (nearly half)
Edwards has had a QB rating below 60 in 6 games.
Edwards had ALL DAY to throw against the Browns and still sucked it up.
Edwards worst performances have been against division opponents (particularly the pats) and in cold weather. He has not had a good performance yet in cold weather.

To add fuel to the fire, Here are JP Losman’s career numbers:
510 for 858 (59.4%) 5847 yards, 11.46 yards per completion, 6.82 yards per attempt, TDs 32 INT 30, Sack 93, Rating 77.9
In other words, Losman is better in every category except completion percentage (where he is actually very close) and sacks which are as much a reflection of the miserable offensive line the first couple years of Losman’s career than anything.
Losman had a 101.3 QB rating in his only appearance this season (most of the arizona game) despite how he “looked in the pocket”. San Diego and Jacksonville were the only two games where Edwards broke 100 QB rating.
Losman has had 7 Multi TD games and broke 300 yards in 2 games. He has also thrown for under 200 yards 22 times out of 32.

I don’t know that Losman is the answer, but if the problem with Losman was that he struggled with his short passes, that’s a lot easier to fix than Edwards inability to throw beyond 10 yards. Yes he has pulled it off on a few rare occasions, but you will never see that beautiful rainbow shaped arc to Evans from Edwards. He can’t even find him. At least you knew Losman would hit the number 1 receiver. The biggest difference between these two QBs is that when the pass rush gets in their face, Edwards tries to hold his ground while Losman starts running (sometimes with disastrous consequences). What is missing in Losman’s game is teachable and can come with time, there is no reason to think Edwards will magically get arm strength and accuracy beyond 10 yards.

The other “big” difference is that fans seem to think Edwards has (had?) great pocket presence, or the intangible aspect of football. It looked that way at first but it would be hard to say that about him after the last 4 weeks. He has looked confused even when he has tons of time. He misses open receivers, doesn’t go through his progressions. Maybe its because of the concussion, but more likely it is merely because he is inexperienced and, at this point, not very good. Edwards may look more in control in the pocket, but the bottom line is this, give Losman 50 plays and Edwards 50 plays and Losman will gain more yards and throw more TDs.

More likely, the answer lies in the draft, or in free agency, this crop of QB’s has a long way to go. A few wins against weak teams is nothing to be excited about.

Email your comments to bplewak@buffalobillsreview.com

Well, that was bad, but not as bad as I feared.

1. First to last in the division in three weeks. Lose three division games while all three teams in the division are going 3-0. That’s as bad a stretch as you can have. The only possible good news is that the division may actually be stronger than I thought. Maybe the Jets are one of the really good teams in the league. I think the Pats are very good. The Bills played them both close.

How’s that for looking for a silver lining? But it may be true.

Even though the Bills played them close, they never seemed to be in the games. This team needs help; it has players but it needs help.

2. The defense. The defense isn’t bad. It just isn’t all that good. It’s 14th in the league in pass defense, and they gave the Pats just over the average yards the Bills are giving up. It’s 12th in the league in rushing defense, and they gave up a little more rushing yards than the Pats, one of the league’s good running teams, ordinarily gets. They’re 13th in the league in scoring defense, and they gave up less than their average to the Pats. And the numbers are much better than last season; 31st in yards per game last year, 14th this year. 18th in points per game last year.

The fact is, on Sunday this defense performed on its averages, more or less, on the road against a good team.

The problem is that this defense doesn’t make plays. One takeaway isn’t enough, for the Bills or for the Ball Burglar. The two most important drives of the game – after the opening kickoff, and after the punt in the fourth quarter, the defense could not get off the field. Winning teams need someone to step up at important times in the game. It happened early in the season, but now that the games really count, it isn’t happening.

I don’t think it’s the injuries. Whitner doesn’t get the Bills off the field. Schobel doesn’t.

This defense is loaded with players who are good at playing their positions, but none of them ever does more than that. Every team needs more some of the time, and the Bills need more. Nobody is giving it to them.

3. Looks like what the coaches were saying about McKelvin is right. He’s a serious return man. It was particularly nice to see him break one when it counted. You can say it was garbage time if you want, but the Pats play 60 minutes. The only way the Pats were going to lose that game at that point was to give up a big kick return, so McKelvin’s return wasn’t because the Pats weren’t paying attention. It was a quality return, as was the earlier return.

Before people start screaming that a first round pick has to do more, well, yes, but it’s still early. He’s learning. McGee returned kicks well before he played corner well, too.

4. Trying to stay positive: the offensive line is starting to look more like last year’s offensive line. That is, they protect the quarterback pretty well. They gave up two sacks, and Trent got hit a few times, but by and large Trent had time. Against a clever Pats defense, they did a nice job.

But they can’t run block. Can’t. Pitiful. Those are good running backs the Bills put back there. Every bit as good as running backs on the best teams. Every bit as good as BenJarvus Green-Ellis. Both of our backs gain yards, when they have SOMEPLACE to go.

Individual plays that troubled me: Dockery and Peters got absolutely scorched on a stunt the Pats ran. The Bills get beaten on stunts all the time. They can’t slide and find the man coming around. They haven’t done it all year. In the Giants-Eagles game, I saw what I think was the RIGHT guard pull and run behind the line of scrimmage outside the LEFT tackle to pick up a defensive tackle who was looping all the way around the defensive line. Dockery and Peters couldn’t simply hand off two payers side by side.

Chambers got mowed down on one play shown on the replays – completely off balance and leveraged.

Peters had his obligatory penalty.

The Bills have to do something about the line. They haven’t solved this problem.

5. Trent is a second-year quarterback. The first INT was really poorly thrown. Did he misjudge the wind? The second INT, as they showed on the replay, was a play where he read the defense wrong. I’d guess Belichick drew that one up. Trent has to learn to see the field better. He will. Plus, every QB makes mistakes. McNabb made his fair share last night. Favre did against the Bills. You’re going to make mistakes. But Trent still has to play better.

What troubled me more was that his accuracy abandoned him Threw behind Hardy. Threw behind Roscoe. Led Marshawn too much in the flat.

And he threw too late to Royal on a big third down.

Trent isn’t getting it done. That’s okay if he’s learning. Jauron says he is. I’m from Missouri.

6. The entire offense did not get it done. For the third consecutive week, the offense was anemic. Not enough sustained drives, not enough points. 10 points a game does not win.

7. Hardy is like a lot of tall receivers running after the catch – he doesn’t. Moss, Burress, even Owens, go down easily. That third down pass Hardy caught might have been a first down if he would just turn upfield, running hard and driving into the tackler. He didn’t do that, and probably never will. He isn’t Josh Reed. But that’s not why the Bills drafted him. (By the way, I’m sure the Bills miss Reed. Reed is one of those guys who makes plays in crunch time.)

Hardy’s TD was sweet. Nice plays by Trent and Hardy. Too little, too late, but a nice play and something to build on.

8. Violence. Give me some violence. I have to believe that these players can hit people with authority, instead of simply executing picture-book tackles. This is a violent game, and violent players make winners. I’m not seeing much violence. Watch the Giants-Eagles. Watch the Colts-Steelers. Our guys are trying to make tackles. Their guys are trying to make hits.

The best hit by the Bills all day was Simpson’s hit on Moss. By the way, compare the unnecessary roughness penalty on that hit to the non-call when Wilfork mowed down Edwards after Edwards released a pass. It was, in my mind, the same play – defender going full speed about to apply the hit (in Simpson’s case, not knowing whether Moss would get his hands on the ball). Defender follows through with the hit. One team got flagged.

9. I have to ask if these coaches know how to win. As each goes by, it becomes more clear that the coaches are the weak link.

I have to believe that there is a way to get Marshawn and Fred the ball in space.

I have to believe that there is a way find Hardy more than once a game.

I have to believe these offensive linemen actually can move the defense.

I have to believe that the offense can be tricked up some way from week, rather than looking so absolutely predictable.

I have to believe that the defense can attack the offense, some way, some how. I have to believe they can be more aggressive, they can blitz (when’s the last time the Bills brought a DB on the pass rush?).

I have to believe that the Bills can play with the kind of heart that it takes to actually WIN important games, not just stay within a touchdown or so of the winner.

Here’s what I saw in the paper this morning:

Jauron said “They’re a very, very talented team, a well-coached team, and they beat us.”

Every week Jauron says we have to eliminate mistakes and get better. Well, maybe he needs to watch that game again. The Bills didn’t lose on mistakes – the Bills lost because series after series, the Pats were better. They made runs, they found open receivers, they stopped runs. They were better. The Bills need to be better.

In his Monday press conference Jauron said it’s a tough division, because all three teams play the 3-4; they give you a lot of different looks and it’s difficult to adjust. Well, if that’s true, why is it that the Bills are playing this passive 4-3 that Tom Brady – er, no, that wasn’t Tom Brady – and Brett Favre and Chad Pennington can pick apart? I mean, I don’t know which is a better defense, but if you want me to believe that it’s tough to win against a 3-4, I’d like to know why we aren’t in it.

Dick is talking about how good the other guys are. I’m concerned that Dick doesn’t get it. Hey, at least Mora would scream “PLAYOFFS?? PLAYOFFS???” and Singletary would drop his pants. Dick says “We played hard. They’re a good football team.” Well, I say screw that. Who cares if you played hard and you LOST? Everyone plays hard. The point is to make the OTHER guy say “the Bills are a good football team.”

One of my favorite quotes is attributed to George Patton. It’s something like this: “No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.” Fortunately, people aren’t dying on football fields. Unfortunately, for the Bills, it feels like they are. They need a general out front leading them. I don’t see Jauron in that role.

Kawika Mitchell said: “We thought we were on the verge of changing the culture around the clubhouse. It comes down to believing you can beat your guy out there in every situation, and the last three weeks I’m not sure we’ve had that.” He will not throw his coach under the bus. Maybe the players on their own can get themselves to the emotional place where they need to be, but I think they need a coach who says more than “we need to get better.”

10. Contrast Jauron with Belichick, who I believe is the best coach in the history of football. Look at this quote from Ellis Hobbs: “We know how to prepare. We know how to make adjustments on the fly. We know how to handle the pressure.”
James Sanders (safety) said: “We were a very physical team today. We kept everything in front of us, beat up their receivers and our front seven stopped the run.”

What are we, punching bags. Do the Bills go out on the field so other teams can beat them up?

Belichick gets the entire game. His guys play with heart, desire, violence and intelligence. The Bills play with heart and probably desire. The Patriots look prepared every week; the Bills have looked prepared once in the last five games.

Now, everyone has trouble beating Belichick, so I’m not totally depressed. Right now I’m wondering if Jauron can beat anyone.

Okay, for the fourth week in a row, the Bills face a big game. A lot is on the line. I hope the fans will be into it, but I’ll certainly understand if they’re a little hesitant. The Bills haven’t been giving them much to cheer about.

Ball Burglar Totals: 12 takeaways so far this year, with two returned for touchdowns. The Burglar’s Bounty is up over $360 per takeaway – that’s over $6,800 raised for charity this year. All raised by Bills fans like you and me, pledging a buck or two for every takeaway the Bills get. Add your buck to the total today – just go to http://www.ballburglar.com/, click “Pledge” and follow the directions. It’ll only take a minute, and you’ll be glad you did. Thanks.

The 12 steps to fix our slump:

1. Admit that we are powerless over losing and our play is unmanageable (Yes, Jason Peters you must admit we are not a good running team).
2. Came to believe that a new head coach could restore our winning ways.
3. Make a decision to turn our playbooks over to proven successful coaches.
4. Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of our over-paid underperforming starters.
5. Admit to the commish, the fans the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to let a new head coach remove the defects of our football team.
7. Humbly ask Mr. President to remove this team’s shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all the fans we had harmed and make amends to them. (This would be done by a playoff berth.)
9. Made direct amends to such fans wherever possible (like winning a Super Bowl).
10. Continue to take team inventory and when we hire bad coaches and draft bad players admit we were wrong and promptly get rid of them.
11. Sought through hard hitting and big plays to improve our division record.
12. Having had a organizational transformation we tried to carry this message to fans who desperately want to win a Super Bowl.