At least Marshawn averaged 4.2 ypc! I didn’t think we’d see another game over 4 ypc again this year!

This game was dismal. I hope this doesn’t turn into one of those losses that cause a downward spiral from here on out. Hopefully, Edwards will be 100% in 2 weeks and we’ll be ready to take on SD. They’ll be a desperate team coming into Buffalo, and we need to play with the same sense of urgency because another loss followed by a very tough game in Miami could really spiral this nice start out of control.

It’s safe to say our D needs to find ways to start making plays. We obviously can’t get to the QB, so at some point our secondary has to make some plays themselves. I’ve been terribly disppointed with our D’s playmaking this year. Only 6 turnovers in 5 games is pretty pathetic….

We really need Edwards.

Honestly, we were going to have a bad game soon with the way we’ve been living on the edge, I just wish we hadn’t lost Edwards doing so.

I hope Trent is A-Ok and able to play in 14 days, thank heavens for the Bye this week, were going to need it with Trent and McGee beat up.

I think not having McGee on the field hurt the D more than we thought it would, but the D also just played lousy football, the fundamentals were just not there today (missed tackles, people not making smart plays, etc.) Fewell also did not help the D on a number of plays by having the incorrect package on the field, I saw several times where the Cards would have 3-4 WRs on the field and we would still be in the base 4-3 asking our LBs and Safeties to cover guys who really needed CBs on them.

I think DJ will give the team most of the week off and I hope our guys take it to rest up and get ready for the Chargers who got outplayed by the Phins, who are no jokes with Bill Parcells running the show.

We’re 4-1 and on top of the East still gang, lets just regroup and get ready for a dog fight in 14 days.

Our O is right now predicated on quick, precision passing with the occassional long play. In many ways like a knife fighter (Edwards) who uses quick thrusts and slashes to bleed his opponent out and then finishes them off with a quick thrust to the chest (Raiders, Jags, and St. Louis games).

JP Strikes me more like a medieval warrior using a broadsword who is going for the big blow to either cripple or behead his opponent, and is not capable of fighting for a very long period of time. JP is wonderful at the long ball and getting it down field, no arguements here (see Evans 87 yard bomb today for evidence). But right now our Offense is built around Trent’s strengths which is a quick tempo passing game, JP is not able to take advantage of that style of Offense, it just doesn’t seem his style and I don’t think they mesh well.

Yes we can make the big strike but we have a broadsword enthusiast trying to wield a bowie knife going forward if Trent misses significant time. The real question becomes this, can Turk change the O around in that case to take advantage of JPs strengths and minimize his issues with the quick passing game? I have a feeling the answer may be no since JP is much more reliant on the run game than Trent is.

(Btw, this post is mostly so I could use sharp object imagery, so sue me) ;-P

http://www.profootballtalk.com/2008/10/05/fine-seems-almost-certain-for-wilson/

A week after a key player for the Arizona Cardinals was knocked out (literally) by a helmet-to-helmet hit, a member of the Cardinals used his hat as a weapon, and almost certainly will be fined for it.

Safety Adrian Wilson sent Bills quarterback Tent Edwards to the showers early by putting the crown of Wilson’s helmet into Edwards’ facemask. The play took on an even higher level of violence as Wilson seemed to intentionally drive his hat into Edwards’ jaw when the two of them hit the ground.

If the goal is to stop these kinds of hits, then Wilson needs to lose a significant chunk of his pay for the week.

Meanwhile, NBC’s Keith Olbermann will likely generate a flurry of calls and e-mails for his comment while narrating highlights of a disoriented Edwards being carted off the field.

"I can see Russia from here" was the line Olbermann attributed to Edwards. It was an objectively funny line, but the pro-Palin viewers in the audience, who surely are already looking for reasons to complain about the polarizing Olbermann’s involvement in a sports show, probably won’t see the humor in it.

I’m a little disappointed that nobody has tipped a hat for the Anchorman reference. Are there no other Anchorman fans out there? Best movie ever.

“Losman doesn’t deserve blame for the loss by any stretch of the imagination”

Oh really? I love your analysis on this site Brian but I have to respectfully disagree big time here. Sure our defense was crummy but Losman turned the ball over three times, and if I remember correctly two if not all three were in our own territory! In addition, time of possession was huge in this one and a big reason was that Losman kept giving up the ball and could not sustain drives. I firmly believe that with Edwards in the game we control the clock and methodically move the ball as opposed to the erratic Losman offense we have seen many times before (big play, turnover, big play, bad decision). Losman was his usual jittery self. Our defense didn’t play well but honestly, I didn’t expect them to, the Cardinals offense is a matchup disaster for out defense, especially without McGee.

Either way, I am happy our first loss came before the bye week, this team is young and has to learn that we will not win every game. Also, we lost with Losman not Edwards, which is good for this teams confidence. Plus, Edwards has more time to get healthy.

Man I hope he’s ready for the Chargers.

We need to fix our run blocking now! Its getting unacceptable.

One final point, its one loss guys, no big deal. We are 4-1 and we are playing well, whats important is we have a head start on the rest of the division and we haven’t played them yet. Lets be happy with where we are, this team looks good, and lets get ready to win our divisional matchups.

The Oline really has sucked all season long. What is going on, I keep telling myself that they will gell and get better but it seems far from it, they will have given up more sacks by the time they have played 8 games this season then they had all of last season. And waht was up with the defense i cant continue im out

After we get over the emotional aspect of this loss, I think we will be able to look at these things objectively,

Defensively, I know they gave up 41 but they didn’t play that bad. They knew they had to take away the run which they did a decent job of. The Cards averaged only 3.6 yds per carry and most of the yardage came on only a handful of plays. If you take away 4 carries that total 57 yds. they gave up less than 2yds a carry on 30 CARRIES!! I know you can’t do that but….Pretty good defense for even the best group.

As for the pass, without McGee, their lockdown corner, and then losing Ko in the first half they wanted to keep evrything in front of them and not have there young untested corner backs one on one against this team, which they did. Warner completed 34 passes for only a 6 yd avg. This is a team that avg. over 10 yds. an ATTEMPT before this game, AB was obviously not there only weapon.

Keeping everything in front of you means that you don’t blitz much. Even on the plays that looked like a blitz you would see a DE down field attempting to cover a reciever or his zone area. This allowed CW and Ariz. to always have a 4 – 5 or even 4 —6 man advantage in pass blocking. Not an excuse because we could have done a better job getting in his face but the turnovers and inability to get off the field seemed to affect them. On another positive note the tackling was great in this game even with being on the field all that time they didn’t miss too many tackles, it was there best one yet.

As for offense, I think this performance by JP will erase any doubt, that there might have been, that TE is the man in Buffalo. JP once again showed his happy feet and decision making or lack thereof. There is no doubt he has a strong arm and…… This was, hopefully, his only audition for a job next year. Would you sign him??? There is no question that the offensive line played bad today, but JP didn’t do anybody any favors and with being in the hole they were they had to abondon the run so Ariz. was able to egt pressure.

If there was ever such a thing as a good loss this was it. There isn’t anyone on this site that wouldn’t have been tickled pink with a 4-1 record going into the bye week; with the one loss being a road loss and an out of conference game. With a week off they will get healthy and get ready for the rest of the season.

It is generally accepted principle that in life, you learn more from your failures than your successes. Apparently, the past two losing seasons didn’t provide enough “education” to avoid losing in ’08. And who thought they would go 18-0 anyway? As much as the team echoed Jaurons controlled confidence, I got the sense that they were taking the positive vibes a bit too seriously. Sometimes a real a**kicking can do wonders to keep you hungry and focused on bringing your A game.

These Bills may have turned a corner, but they are still remarkably similar to last years losing team. The Arizona game looked like it could have been played in ‘07: quarterback knocked out of the game; inability to get off the field on third-downs; inconsistent pressure on the opposing QB; turnovers; the list goes on and on…and I’m not even including the lack of sustained drives by the Bills O.

On the bright side, if you’re going to lose, better to have it happen to a team outside of your conference. The Bills still have a leg up on the Pats. Besides we (and hopefully the coaches/FO) learned much about the team in the loss:

• They’re not as good as people gave them credit for, but they’re definitely not as bad as they performed at Arizona.
• Trent Edwards is a big reason why this team has four wins. Isn’t it nice to be able to say that about your QB?
• The case for JP is officially closed; while he didn’t stink up the joint (at least not much more than the Bills defensive backfield), he showed that he is utterly incapable of carrying the team when needed.
• The Bills big offensive line, plays like midgets at times; the Hogs or Electric Company they are not (notwithstanding the weak link at center).
• Officially add the Schoebel-lite to the Kelsay/Denny party for “ineffective, but they try real hard” DE’s.

This team is still capable of churning out 10+ wins (with Edwards that is); the San Diego game in two weeks will likely be the barometer.