Buffalo Bills Review

Cool your jets.

It was a cheesy phrase my dad used to say when I got a little too worked up about something as kid. All week I hoped and hoped the phrase would apply today; I was waiting to yell it at the end of the game like a bad pun in a James Bond movie.

The way I envisioned it going was as follows; the final seconds were to tick down, sealing the victory for Buffalo and I was to stand up and say, “Looks like we cooled your jets” (not that any of the Jets would hear me from my living room, but still). But the final minute came, and the sky in Orchard Park opened up and the rain came down on my trash talking parade and washed away Buffalo’s victory like the wicked in the days of Noah (Side note: not many people know this but Noah was a HUGE Bills fan… or maybe it was Job, which one had the high tolerance for pain and disappointment?).

To be fair, there were a lot of really great things today. First was JP “320 yards and 2 TD’s (one rushing)” Losman, as they’re calling him in the locker room. Another was Willis “150 yards and no TDs, but that’s ok you’ll get ‘em next week” McGahee. Also, I’ve got to mention that Peerless “Remember me?” Price is looking really good as he had some stellar catches scattered throughout the game.

A side story about Price, a friend of mine came over for the game today sporting a Price jersey. He was so excited when he found out we signed him during the off-season and I couldn’t figure out why. Well it turns out, he bought the jersey about a month before he was traded to Atlanta (making it a $75 obsolete investment) and now he can wear it again and be considered relevant, making him really glad he didn’t sell it on ebay (plus the sauce stain from the pizza sandwiches we used to make during football games in college would have decreased it’s value). Bottom line: regardless of your reason, it’s nice to have Price back.

Now on to the negatives (Steve Fairchild I’m looking at you): Last week we had really poor offensive stats and were still able to pull off a big win. What enabled us to win (besides Culpepper being planted in the ground like the mighty oak) was our ability to play smart and manage our offense. How can we pull down the monster stats we pulled down today and come away with a loss? Oh I know, trying to be tricky when you have no business doing so. I feel like everything I said last week about how to handle a young QB went right out the window. Be smart not clever.

I almost wonder if the coaches sat down this week and said, “Wow our team is having a lot of success keeping things simple, let’s do the exact opposite of that.” McGahee was almost unstoppable today and on 4th and 1 on the goal line we try some fancy trick play. Here’s an equation for you: fancy trick plays + crucial 4th and 1s + maturing, inexperienced QB + young team that has already proven to be susceptible to momentum shifts = disastrous.

As far as fake field goals go… I’ve got nothing. It was simply stunning. However, Bobby “Giving Buffalo something to be proud of” April made up for it with the genius that is “stacking the middle during an onside kick.” As many of you know the league changed the rules this year for onside kicks. Teams can no longer stack one side completely, so Bobby April stacked the middle, and it worked. Sadly, Buffalo is a miracle team for whomever they are playing (see “Music City Miracle” and “Super Bowl XXV” for more reading) and not for themselves. Instead of a miracle we got rain. It was almost as if God said, “Woah Buffalo’s coming back, better make it rain. Sorry Job, you got your win last week, it’s Joshua’s turn (I guess Joshua is a big Jets fan, who knew? I always thought he liked the Raiders).”

Bottom line: although we are showing signs of life (or basic competence) we still have a long ways to go. Oh and it’s still a problem the only Spikes jerseys worn in Orchard Park today were in the stands. So Takeo, “Hey guys I’m still on the team right?” Spikes, we could really use that comeback you promised us.

This is starting to run long, so I’m going to cool my jets and cut this short before the guys tell me I’m not allowed to write anymore. Do yourselves a favor though and check back here in the middle of the week because I’m going to write something on a subject not enough people are talking about: Throwbacks.

Until then!

-The John

Just a few links for you from the show…

• Check out the new predictions page and keep track of the BBR picks for each game this season!
• Don’t forget to take the poll on the main page here. This week: How many yards will Willis get?
• Stop by Greg’s BBR blog at BuffaloBills.com
• Welcome to The John. Thanks for joining the BBR team and adding your thoughts on the Bills to this page weekly!
• Join us for the BBRGameDay chat via AIM (or compatible programs). Click here for instructions.

This Tuna’s not Dolphin-Safe.

Here’s The John Review of Week 2. I got a random text message today from an old friend who lives in Wisconsin (big time Packers fan). And all it said was, “wow the Bills don’t suck.” Perhaps there is more to this team than shows up on paper.

I’ll admit, when I woke up this morning I had really low hopes. Troy Vincent and Matt Bowen were out. Takeo Spikes was out, and we had rookies starting all over the place against a well-respected, high power offense, about to perform their home opener.

It’s fair to say the only people who picked Buffalo this week were the guys from the Buffalo Bills Review. Here were some of the things that stood out to me.

ROOKIE SAFETIES! I have a strong feeling that by the end of this season, nobody will be asking the question, “Who is Donte Whitner?” Granted, he’s not amazing yet, but for a rookie he’s holding his own very nicely. Same with Simpson. The whole game I kept chanting “Rookie Safeties! Rookie Safeties!” Both of them made plays and not mistakes.

I think it’s obvious that the defense played stellar for 4 quarters. Granted a shutout would have been nice, but let’s not be greedy. Ryan Denny’s 1st half hat trick was nothing short of inspiring. Tripplet looked quick and Crowell continues to prove he’s a starter.

The offense… needs work. A lot of work. I’m impressed that Fairchild played as conservatively as he did. Running the ball in critical situations is the exact right thing to do with a maturing QB. Even Rothlesburger didn’t throw that much during his rookie year.

Special teams brought another proud tear to my eye. Brian Moorman was less than stellar last week but this week he showed why Buffalo is the only team in the league where you can buy their punter’s jersey at a retail store (which is exactly what I did. Go #8!). And Wire’s punt block was a perfect summation of how the day was going for Miami.

Finally, I need to mention the field. Why are the conditions at Ralph Wilson Stadium so much better than two large market teams in our division? Can Miami really not afford a dedicated football stadium? According to a friend of mine who lives in FL and was at the game it also “smelled like rotten fish” which I guess is appropriate considering how the dolphins played.

Well that’s it for me today. I’m going to crack open a can of non-dolphin safe tuna, and call my Miami supporting cousin to gloat. I look forward to next week when we can play on a real field and avenge last year’s season closer.

Take care,
-The John

P.S. What’s up with the Sabres new uniforms? Are they trying to be the Bruins for Halloween?

Since we haven’t officially started the season yet, I think this should still be Week Zero… 🙂 With the first game coming up, there were a few things that I wanted to post here … informationally speaking:

• BBRGameDay Chat:
  Starting this Sunday, BBR will be opening an AIM chat room (BBRGameDay) and there and available to chat throughout the game. It could be like watching the game with 200 of your closest friends. Or 2000!? So, click the BBRGameDay link and follow the directions there to join in the chat. (PS… if you are a Windows user, and can add anything to the directions on that page, please add them as a comment here. Thanks!)

  https://buf.thefootballfan.net/bbrgamedaychat.html

• BBR @ BuffaloBills.com
  Don’t forget to stop by Greg’s blog at the Bills website! You can get there via the link at the top navigation row here at BBR.com. Sign up for a Bills Backers account and login and add your thoughts on the articles posted there, too!
• BBR Weekly Poll
  We’ll be putting up a weekly poll again through the whole season, so be sure to stop by the front page of BuffaloBillsReview.com and tally your vote. This week, what do you think the Bills 2006 record will be? Vote now!
• Links Mentioned On Show 2.1.03
  Just so there’s an easy way for you to see a couple of the sites we mentioned, you can click their names here to see their sites. The BBR will be on All WNY Radio on Tuesday nights @ 8pm starting this week. Also, BBR is part of the Rants & Raves Network which was started by the NFL Rants & Raves Podcast, a show covering all of the NFL action, twice a week.

Mistakes, Mistakes, Mistakes!!! We are making too many mistakes on the O-Line. How does a guard line up in the backfield, and a naked tackle that ruins a TD? First, poorly coached teams make these mistakes. Illegal procedure and proper formations are basic football. Secondly, the QB should notice these mistakes. JP, if you have a timeout call one.

Outside of the first drive, which we seem to bend on the first team D looked good.

To me Willis looked average. He ran hard in the first quarter. Then, in the second it seemed every arm tackle took him down.

See Dick Coach – Yes JP looked young. Incredible throws one drive, bad throws and decision making the next drive. Dick your team makes mistakes that teams who are poorly coached make (illegal procedure penalties)…

The astute among us may have noticed that there is a new link in the main navigation at the top of the page. The new link reads: BBR @ BuffaloBills.com. That may be perplexing, so I have resolved to clarify that here…

Basically, this page will remain as mostly an archive… or perhaps we’ll post a thing or two here relative to just the Buffalo Bills Review (and not the Bills in general). But, henceforth, any articles or written thoughts posted about the Bills will show up at the BBR @ BuffaloBills.com link. (If you need a direct link, it’s http://boards.buffalobills.com/blogs/buffalo_bills_review/default.aspx.)

This is a great opportunity for lots more Bills fans to learn about BBR and to join in the conversation. BuffaloBills.com will feature a link on their homepage to the Bills Blog Squad (which so far consists of BBR and 3 other bloggers). Greg will be the main one to post to the BBR @ BuffaloBills.com page, but you may see the occasional article up there from the other BBR guys.

Stop by, bookmark the page, and feel free to comment. You need to sign up for a Bills Backers account (free, with some cool benefits) to post a comment or do some other things with it… but you can read the blog without signing up. (I recommend you sign up though…)

Thanks to the Bills for setting us up on their site. This is super fun for me – a long-time Bills fan, who is a writer. Hope you’ll join in the fun!

See ya there!

Despite the lop-sided score, I am feeling much more confident this week than last week. And truthfully, I wasn’t that worried last week. The Bills continue to improve over last week, and I keep telling myself that the Super Bowl teams for the Bills would go 0-4 or 1-5 for their pre-season… so maybe there’s good reason for hope for the ‘06-’07 season…

Well, let’s take a look at the good and the bad from Friday night at The Ralph.

Positives

• Defense
  The first unit defense has only allowed two touchdowns in two games. I do not remember if the first team was in at the very end of the first half or not, but even then, there were two amazing goal line stands where they only gave up two FGs when they could have given up much more. There were several three-and-outs by the Bengals, and overall, the unit was amazing. Only way to improve was to get some more take aways to even out the generosity of the Bills’ offense.

  The D-line got some fantastic pressure on the Bengals QBs, and the LBs and DBs were offering good support… swarming to the ball for the tackle. Overall, just fantastic job by the defense.

• Special Teams
  Special teams were fantastic, as usual. Lindell with a 51-yarder. Moorman and Co. pinning the Bengals down at their own 1 yard line on a punt. And we don’t even get to see McGee returning kicks these days!
• “Chunk Yardage”
  Jauron was talking after last week’s loss in Carolina about the necessity of what he called “chunk yardage”. If you’re going to win in this league, he said, you need to get chunk yardage. Knowing that, most expected the Bills to push the ball downfield in the game against Cincinnati, and they did not dissapoint. Lee Evans had a fantastic game, with 115 yards on 3 receptions. Willis had a 61-yard TD run. The Bills definitely were doing some great “chunking”.
• Willis
  As mentioned above, McGahee added to the chunk yardage, but it was more than just one play. Even on the play where he eventually fumbled the ball, Willis looked like he was running harder, stronger, faster. He was making good cuts, good reads. And I think the play calling helped. He wasn’t just banging it up the middle. He was running outside the tackles, and had more room to pick his holes. McGahee had a great game, and I’m hoping for lots more of that this year. One report says Willis looks the best he has since his knee injury in college. That’s very promising.

Negatives

• TURNOVERS
  You can not win a football game by turning the ball over four times. You just can’t. In both pre-season games so far the Bills have had 21 points scored directly off of turnovers. That doesn’t work. The Bengals scored 20 points total off of Bills turnovers in this week’s game. The Bills made some fantastic plays on offense Friday night, but you can’t recover from that many turnovers. That must change.
• Penalties
  Like turnovers, if you commit too many dumb penalties you are also not going to win. Dumb penalties will kill you. There were many, mostly by the defense, but one of the more costly ones happened in the third quarter. The Bengals were driving, and had a 1st and goal situation. Bills held to 3rd-and-goal, and then on 3rd down, they stopped the play, forcing a field goal – except for the flagrant defensive holding by LB James Bethea. First down and goal Bengals… easy touchdown followed that call. Dumb penalties and turnovers will negate any good stuff you can do on the field. Those must stop as well.
• Josh Reed
  What has this guy done to keep his roster spot? He drops two, three, or even five passes a game. Why does he continue to make the final Bills roster?
• Defensive backfield
  Despite all the praise I have for the Bills D, I am slightly concerned about the defensive backs. Carolina had their way with us on the very first drive, and that was without their top receiver, Steve Smith. Chad Johnson and the Bengals’ QBs had some pretty good success finding holes in our defense. It could just be the youth we have at that spot. Lots of rookies and other young players there. They are also making their share of good plays, but there’s been a lot of guys out of place as well. This is definitely an area that needs to be watched.

  It’s possible that good play by the defensive line will aid the DBs in their coverage as well. So, this might be a moot point if the DL can play as solidly as they have been (and better) as the year progresses.

Overall, the thing to keep in mind is that the Bills would have scored enough points to win had they just not given up the 14 points directly off of turnovers. If we can keep a handle on the ball, and perhaps get more turnovers of our own on defense, there is great reason for optimism in Buffalo this year.

I think it’s good that JP had a solid game (despite the turnovers). I hope they officially name him the starter this week. Putting that behind the team will certainly help not only the QBs to relax and just play football, but it should allow the offense to gel a bit more and come together as a unit.

The regime change has certainly benefitted this team as well. The players are loose. They are much more of a team. There are no individuals – even with a three-way QB battle. That’s incredible. If nothing else, Jauron has done a fantastic job just with the way the team is playing together. I am sure Marv has had a part in that as well.

I am really getting excited for September 10th. I do believe that we will have an exciting team this year. Whether that translates to wins, and/or the playoffs certainly remains to be seen. But there should definitely be some excitement with this bunch of players.

First: The first team looked awful (on both sides), I mean down right awful… No first downs, penalties (negated first down pass from Holcomb), and an interception returned for a TD. First team D got shredded by Delhomme.

Once Carolina went to their 2nd string we started looking better. I guess our scrubs are better than their scrubs… Our scrubs forced some turnovers.

Holcomb should have been given another series or two. He looked out of rhythm. I thought the coaches called lame plays when Holcomb was in. Lets run on first and second down and make Kelly convert 3rd and longs…

Losman played inconsistent. He evaded some pressures, threw some bad balls, and one or two really nice passes. If Losman stands a chance at winning this job he needs to be consistent. I mean you are a 1st round draft pick and on a WR screen you can’t even throw the ball to the guys numbers. Once the scrubs came in Losman should have racked up HUGE numbers, he only got sacked a few times. I mean you are a first round pick!! I hope Craig Noll (sp?) gets healthy.

Gates looked really good running the ball. NO FOOT Lindell booted two 45+ yard FG’s!

SEE DICK COACH: “Dick talks like hick (at halftime). See Dick be conservative :(. See Dick lose…

Overall I give the Bills a C- in this game.

QB – F
OL – D-
RB – B+
WR – B
DL – C
LB – B
DB – C
K – A
P – B (blocked punt?, not really his fault, plus he shanked one)

I finished watching the game around 1:00am last night, following a concert we did earlier that evening. Tape-delayed is not the best way to watch, but I was feeling very thankful for my old VCR last night.

That is, until the game began.

But even with a dismal start, and a loss… there are some positives from this game. Let me share a few.

• Lionel Gates
  Willis was getting stuffed. The O-Line didn’t seem to be able to open any rushing lanes. But even with that, one of Gates’ first carries was a 1 or 2-yard gain that was actually impressive to me. He hit the guy who was unblocked, ready for the tackle, and drove him forward. With authority. I was impressed, and there was more to come. Gates had several great runs (powerful, fast, good moves) including the games only TD, that incredible flip-over-the-pile run for the score!
• Kyle Williams
  Wow! There was one series of downs where Williams made EVERY play! The most impressive of that drive was when he stopped DeShaun Foster by himself after fending off TWO Panthers who had him solidly blocked. This guy looks strong, tenacious, and smart. I saw him getting his hands up in the passing lane several times, and I believe he did get one block eventually.
• Our Kickers
  Speaking of blocks, wasn’t it odd that Moorman had a punt blocked? That is super rare, but obviously this one was not his fault. You can’t not block a guy and expect to get off a clean punt. Other than that, the kickers showed again how they are one of the bright spots on our team. Moorman was booming huge punts and Rian Lindell was kicking 53 yard field goals. He accounted for more than 50% of our scoring (2 FGs, 1 XP). We don’t want that to happen… but we might be seeing a lot of “No Foot” this year.
• Donte Whitner
  Really, I saw several of our draft picks out there making plays. Granted, it’s pre-season, so they are out there more, able to make more plays. But really, Whitner looked good. Always on the ball. Sure tackling. Smart, tenacious player. Sounds familiar. Sounds like what the Bills were drafting. Looks like the got what they are looking for. Now hopefully we can translate this good work ethic into some wins…
• The QBs…
  I really felt bad for Kelly Holcomb. Was he just nervous or something? He looked terrible in just about every way. Blame it on the O-Line that hasn’t had time to “gel”, blame it on the Panthers’ #1 defensive unit (which is certainly impressive) … whatever the reason… he definitely looked terrible.

  But, bring on JP, and I was not really impressed there, either. He looked jittery, unsure of himself, and almost as bad as Holcomb. He definitely made some good plays later on, but you could argue it was against the second-string defense. Overall, not a very good showing for the QBs.

You know, it’s just preseason, but it’s Bills football, and I’m not willing to throw in the towel after one game. I was certainly not as impressed as I had hoped to be, but our defense looked fairly solid (only allowed one score, on the opening drive) and I am fairly confident that the O-line will indeed “gel”, and one of the QBs will stop trying to fight for the starting job and just relax and play football. My hunch is it will be JP, but we’ll see what the Bills are thinking after a few more weeks.

Well, those are my thoughts on the game… anyone else?