Was this more than just our first loss???
by Kurupt on Oct 5, 2008 10:50 PM EDT
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Should the question be: Were we exposed as to what we really are???
To me, this was more than just a regular loss. We were simply manhandled by a middle of the road Arizona club. They played extremely well today, but should we be losing to them by 24 points if we're so good? I did not like anything I saw from our team today, including the laughing on the sidelines late in the 4th Q down by 24.
Watching our OL get trampled, again, by a Defensive front that isn't one of the best in the league is disheartening. We, for better or worse, cannot run the ball, at all. Marshawn gets all his yards on his own. How bad is it? Consider this: as a rookie Marshawn did not rush for less than 60 yards in any of the games he played in. This season, he's already had 3 sub 60 yard rushing days. The OL just cannot block for him and I have no idea what it is. We were a mediocre run block unit last year, but this year it would be kind to call the blocking poor. Maybe more concerning has been pass blocking, where our QB's rarely have much time to throw. That was an excellent aspect of our team last year, and this year it's been a complete 180. We have edge blitzers easily beating our OT's, we have DT's just plowing through the middle and at times there are guys that aren't even touched flying into the backfield. Now we had the wonderful pleasure of seeing our young stud QB get decked and concussed today because of another line breakdown. It was a matter of time before Trent was going to not get up from one of these hits, maybe today was the best time for it as we were outclassed and outcoached all day. I hope the bye week is the best time for the OL and they get their act together. Trent should be ready to go for SD if his concussion isn't a severe one. With a tough stretch of games coming up, we need to protect him and keep him upright.
Today was the return of the past two season's D. It was a carbon copy of what we had painfully lived through these past couple of years. A D that had trouble manning up in the run game, had trouble getting ANY pressure on the QB, had no problem giving up the quick passes and underneath game and showed no ability to be a playmaking unit. I'm concerned that this D isn't going to give us much in the way of big plays...sacks, turnovers and whatnot. I don't want to keep running my mouth about it, but today is a great indication of what I've been talking about for 2 years now. I wish it weren't the case, but we have no pass rush, no pass rush whatsoever. Sure, we can get some pressure via the blitz occasionally, but the front 4 is just not coming close to getting anywhere near QB's. Why did Fewell not make any changes today?? We've seen cracks in the D against two awful teams in Oakland and St. Louis, today the water finally busted through. You can't win consistently and stop teams without a pass rush...
I just hope that this loss doesn't turn into a 3-4 game funk. The way they played out there, the best thing is to forget it completely, wipe the slate clean and move on immediately. We have to take away from this loss the areas that need major work and spend the bye week looking to improve those. The OL really has to find a way to get it together. I wonder if they miss Jim McNally more than any of us could have imagined???? Perry Fewell has to find a way to get pressure on the QB and our back 7 have to start making some plays. I heard all offseason about how great Donte Whitner was going to be this year, but other than a few nice stops against the run, he's been silent. Does anyone think McGee's absence was as crucial as it looked today???
And please don't place as much blame on Losman for this loss. First, he couldn't haven't gotten that many snaps in practice all week. But most of all our OL couldn't open running lanes and gave Losman very little time to set himself and throw. And the D was completely dominated all day. AZ scored on 7 of their first 8 possessions. That is utter domination at it's finest. They aren't that great of an O folks, especially minus Boldin. Our D has to regroup and dig deep to get back to the level many thought they'd be at. Luckily we have two weeks to heal some injuries and prepare for the Chargers. Despite their loss to Miami today, I still think they are one of the top 4 teams in the AFC. They could be a desperate team by the time they come to the Ralph. And if the other AFC East teams keep winning, we actually may feel a sense of desperation as well. It will be a monster game that is going to take a ton of improvement from today.
I just hope today was not our day, and nothing more. The signs are there though that it may indeed be more than 1 loss. There is a lot of work to be done, hope Jauron and co can get this team ready over the next 2 weeks for the rest of the season! We have an opportunity to make the playoffs this year, I don't want to blow that after a 4-0 start!!!!
Just another great fan opinion shared on the pages of BuffaloRumblings.com.
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And one more thing
Our #1 WR, who we just gave $37M to, has just 16 catches on the season, which is roughly 3 per game. That’s got to change and change fast. I know Evans has done a great job of turning those limited opportunities into big gainers, but he needs more touches, plain and simple. Turk has done a pretty darn good job with Edwards and the O, but he hasn’t done a great job getting the ball to Evans more. I like the reverse today, but we’re still not getting him the ball that much at all.
Is he being double teamed often? It’s tough to tell on TV, but those of you who have attended the two home games, can you tell?
~K
by Kurupt on Oct 5, 2008 10:55 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
hey
it was one loss K, a great read for sure, but still, we had to lose sometime and I think having Losman behind center instead of Edwards was more important than you may think. Good read though.
McKelvin and Hardy - rookies of the year
by poz on Oct 5, 2008 11:03 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
I know the one loss thing and whatnot
it’s just the way we lost and the way our weaknesses we’re exploited so easily that irks me. That was a smackdown and other teams will definitely be trying to copy that!
Giving up 41 points was what lost the game. Losman in for Edwards helped it get out of hand, but the D was so overmatched today.
~K
by Kurupt on Oct 5, 2008 11:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
yea
I still think we’ll be fine. Our weaknesses are there for sure, but every team has weaknesses the key is to utilize ones strengths which we cant do if we dont start run blocking, what happened from last year?
McKelvin and Hardy - rookies of the year
by poz on Oct 5, 2008 11:22 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
It's more concerning than other teams' weaknesses
as it’s on both sides of the lines. Poor OL play and no pass rush isn’t something that’s easy to overcome consistently. That’s why it’s so concerning to me
~K
by Kurupt on Oct 5, 2008 11:38 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
K
I feel you on most of your points. I would say the hardest thing to swallow today was the defensive philosophy. Why no pressure? Why no disguising? Why just lining up in the tampa 2 and just playing not to give up the deep ball? that was terrible coaching IMO.
I think with Trent we have a chance, without him we are an average team. And I’m not saying that cuz JP came in today and I really have no issues of how he played with the opportunities he had. But Trent I would argue is one of the most mentally tough players on the Bills and he plays the most important position. And he is our leader.
The defense scared me today. No pressure from front 4, we were just so damn Vanilla on defense. But I’m not scared at all. 2 weeks to prepare for a Chargers team in our house is a good thing. But I think it is huge to win that game and then rev up for the AFC East meat-grinder.
MARVelous
by MARVelous on Oct 5, 2008 11:52 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
How much of this has to do with teams studying the tape
I can’t believe that the Bills playing worse each week, even vs door mats like the Raiders and Rams, is coincidence. There is enough tape from this year on the Bills for teams to exploit the glaring weaknesses. Seriously, if we can figure it out…..then I am sure actual NFL coaches can too!!!
by Joe P. on Oct 5, 2008 11:14 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
oh very true
Guess we’ll have to fire up the Jauron bashing soon :)
But yeah, we’ve played progressively worse each game, in all phases. That is definitely not a coincident and quite alarming. I’m about as concerned as can be about a team with a 4-1 recorde, haha
~K
by Kurupt on Oct 5, 2008 11:16 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Should the question be: Were we exposed as to what we really are???
I don’t think this loss “exposed” us any more than close wins over Oakland and St. Louis.
It’s WAY too early to be reading too far into a loss. We aren’t going to face many offenses as good as Arizona’s (although our next opponent’s is pretty good). Before we get too paranoid, please don’t dismiss Arizona – I’ve said it before and I’ll probably be saying it for two weeks, but that’s a really good football team.
by Brian Galliford on Oct 6, 2008 6:28 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
The D seemed ill prepared for what Arizona was throwing at us. the game before Arizona was running 5 – 7 step drops and yesterday it was 3 to 5 step drops. Arizona did to the defense what our offense had been doing to opposing d’s. quick routes/reads while chewing up the clock. usually the d makes sound adjustments after the half but yesterday that did not happen. While I’m sure anyone would rather have a win, this loss will do just as good, if not better, in preparing this team for the long haul.
by gatornation on Oct 6, 2008 7:41 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
K, you are on to something
I agree with you. 4-1 is good, and we should be pleased about it. But both the OL and DL are concerns, and there are various serious concerns I saw in the game as well. I was only able to see highlights from NFL.com, so maybe I missed something:
1)OL
a)The missed hand off to Lynch has nothing to do with Losman. There was a missed assignment at the OL that allowed the DT to walk straight into the backfield. Lynch saw it and changed his route further to his left to try to avoid the tackle before he had the ball.
b)The hit on Edwards is also a missed assignment, or I should say the RT (I think it’s Walker) had poor recognition that a safety blitz was coming.
**No need to further analyze poor run blocking by the OL — that’s been beaten to death on his blog. But poor play recognition by the OL is not acceptable.
2)Defense
a)Everybody commented that there’s no pass rush by the front 4. But I think Fewell is a big part to blame as well. Our D had been sitting on zone defense most of the game, and a guy like Warner (or any good QBs for that matter) can just it pick apart. Fewell has to be more creative in his schemes, otherwise other teams can just watch tapes to slice our defense into pieces.
b)McKelvin vs. McGee — Now we know how important McGee is to this team. McKelvin was constantly picked on by Warner. I didn’t see the jersey number clearly, but I believe the first TD by Fitzgerald was a pick play which McKelvin completely missed his assignment to make the switch. Maybe it’s because of fear of McKelvin’s rookie mistakes that Fewell decided to play more zone rather than blitzing more. I didn’t like McKelvin before the draft, and he has not done anything to prove me wrong otherwise. From the limited footage I saw, he was playing very timid. If our D has both poor pass rush and a liability at CB, then it will massively limit our defensive schemes. We can still play good D with 1 shortcoming, but when there are 2 big holes we are in trouble.
3)Losman
I have to admit, I’m not a fan of Losman. But if Losman has to play anymore QB for the Bills, it is going to be a big concern. I, for one, thinks that the 84yards TD to Evans is extremely negative to Losman’s ensuing plays, because he got back in his all excited mode of “sit in the pocket and wait for the bomb”. Our offense is not designed in this way, so if Losman cannot turn his head around and we have to rely on him any further, then we are deadmeat!
4)Concussion
I’m not trying to throw fear on this blog, but some post concussion syndrome can last for years. If this is the first concussion of Edwards’ life, then he’ll have a better chance of coming back quickly. But the more concussions you have throughout your life, the longer it takes to recover each time. Of course, it depends on how serious the concussion is, but that’s the general rule of thumb. Bringing back Edwards early, if he still has post concussion syndrome, will threaten his career. If the Bills feel that Edwards is the QB of the team for the next 5-10 years, it is best not to rush him back. And I can see Edwards missing a month in action even if this is first time he’s had a concussion.
5)Upcoming games
Let’s not kid ourselves, the upcoming games are not easy ones. SD has a great offense with Philip Rivers being able to do even better than Warner. If we perform like what we did at Arizona, then we will definitely lose the game. Then we have 3 consecutive divisional games that will seriously affect our post season aspirations. With 2 wins in a row, Miami is no walkover, and especially in Miami. Then we get the Favre guy and a Patriots team that is still potent even without Brady. If Edwards doesn’t come back soon and JP cannot get his head fixed, we can easily lose the next 4 games. Even with Edwards in, I don’t think we can win at Foxboro on Wk10. Having said that, it doesn’t mean we can’t make the playoffs even if we lose the next 4. It’s just gonna be more difficult.
Concerned? Yes, we should be. Panic, not yet. Edwards’ health should be Bills’ fans #1 concern.
Bills fan half way around the world
by moncheri on Oct 7, 2008 2:05 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
If we lose the next 4, there is no chance we make the playoffs. There would still be games at the Jets, at Denver and tough divisional games against NE and Miami, as well as a trip to Arrowhead. Losing the next 4 ends our season for the most part.
We have to win at the very least 2 of these next 4….Gotta take care of business at home
~K
by Kurupt on Oct 7, 2008 3:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
finally a reasonable and interesting take
on JPs play, and you could be right to some degree. However he did have some nice pass completions to Hardy and Reed that were not bombs. If Jp has to start any games coming up, and I for hope he doesn’t, he will at least have the benefit of a game plan suited to his strengths and if the defense gets it’s stuff back together I think they still have a reasonable chance to win any games he’s in.
Concerned yes,panic no.
by jimkutica on Oct 7, 2008 3:28 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
It was a wake up call
And it should prevent the Bills from being too complacent going into their bye week. Improvements are still needed on this team, from individual play to team play.
Get the Bills back to the big game!
by Blitz on Oct 10, 2008 10:42 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
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