Rebuttal to previous post

Earlier I had posted a blog about how terrible of a game Losman played this afternoon in the absence of Edwards.  I know this is not the biggest issue that we had today, it was just one of many we can point out.  Obviously some people had a problem with even bringing his name up in the debate when there were bigger issues to discuss.  Well, here it goes then, my opinion of what went wrong today outside of Losman's performance.

Defense:  This has been a consistent problem through the entire season, not just today, but our defense cannot tackle well (outside of a few standouts like Youboty and Poz).  Our defense is usually in position to bring the offense down for a short gain or even losses and they are constantly breaking away for extra yardage.  Our front 4 consistently cannot get pressure on the QB w/o extra blitzers.  They do one hell of a job against the run with Stroud anchoring the line but are pathetic when they need to rush the passer in any situation.  The one time we got pressure on Warner was when Mitchell was blitzing and ended up bloodying his chin.  He's almost 40 yrs old...why in the world did we not blitz him more?  I know it leaves the DB's on an island but nothing else seemed to work today so why not try it?  I was very disappointed in Fewell's adjustments, or lack there of, after halftime and even on the fly.  Our defense was flat and played with no emotion.

Offense:  I believe, as most others do, that it all begins up front.  Our O-Line is the same as last year but they're playing like they just met each other.  Peters' is consistently getting beat, causing penalties, and overall they're not making any holes for our running game.  Thank goodness that Lynch and Jackson are hard runners because they have to fight for every yard they gain.  I would have to say that I was most impressed with our WR's today.  They made nice plays and really bailed us out of some touch situations.  Evans provided the only spark of the day showing us once again that he is a great deep threat.  You could tell the game was all but over once Edwards got knocked out.  There was no emotion from anyone but scared defeat.

Special Teams:  We didn't get many good returns but I'm going to give huge props to McKelvin for at least trying to make plays on kick returns.  Most people would think it's crazy for a returner to bring the ball out of the end zone from 7 or 8 yards deep but I'm going to praise Leodis for that because it seemed like he was the only one who tried to turn the momentum of the game.

It was an overall disappointment and I know it would have been a great shootout to watch if Edwards was able to stay in the game.  My faith in Schonert is still strong in regards to play calling (except for all of the draws he runs out of the shotgun formation...seriously...way too many), we just didn't have the right QB running them.  I'm glad the bye is coming when it is.  Edwards will get an extra week to recover, our O-Line will get another week to gel, and hopefully our defense will learn how to wrap up and tackle because LT is not going to be easy to bring down.  The Bills have a pretty decent record after their bye week so hopefully we'll get healthy and bring together an awesome gameplan to move to 5-1!