The Bills, and Week 1

Well boys the excitment is over, Week 1 is over and The Bills lost, looked good in alot of ways and look absolutley terrible in some ways.

Now I know Der Jeager made a post about the three things he liked and the three things he didnt like, i'm going to go a little bit deeper and examine some things I as a fan just shook my head at and some things I jumped off the coach with excitement over.

Shook my head:

1.) Cornell Green in pass protection, WOW, I read Brians take on Cornell quite frequently over the offseason and how we viewed Cornell as a marginal starter with very little upside basically a stopgap at the RT position, well that stop gap has become a lead weight in dragging this offense down and needs to be addressed ASAP. Get Jamon Meredith in the game lets go young and lets build from there. I know it's the 1st game of the season but address this now.

2.) Chans obsession with getting the ball to CJ, you have 3 legitmate RB's on this football team, I know Freddy is hurt and played well considering, but the lack of Marshawn really annoyed me, Marshawn is an everydown back, he can catch he can run inside the tackles and he punishes defenses for trying to tackle him, I understand CJ's talents and he showed he can run on a few runs but at the same time we have 3 Very Good RB's and we need to play the 3 equally until one proves he stands above the rest.

3.) Our opening drive, now I probably wouldn't be putting this down if Freddy caught the screen on the very 1st play, but the fact is Trent threw a terrible ball and Freddy really had no chance of making that catch, we come out in shotgun, not a spread but standard shotgun for 3 staright plays and get two incompletes and a play that if Dansby keeps running he puts Trent out for the year. Thats not a good way to get your season started.

4.) George Wilsons' tackling, AWFUL! George they teach you this in high school, get low, hit him hard with your shoulder and wrap up to make the tackle, dont try to rip him down by the shoulder pads, Common man you played so well last year keep it up. ( This really really frustrated me)

Now there were 2 things; before I go into the good I saw, that I thought if they had of been done differently maybe this game turns out to be a little different.

2nd Quarter about 5:30 left Miami 3rd and 10 on the Miami 40, we sit back and let Henne have about 7 to 10 seconds to throw the ball and let routes develop and he hits Davone Bess right at the first down marker for a first down, its almost an unwritten rule of thumb for defense to bring a heavy blitz on third and long because you don't let the routes develop downfield and you allow the team to get a short gain and walk away with the punt, I felt this was a turning point in the game, now Carpenter went on to miss the FG attempt but if he makes it we aren't in the game come the 4th Quarter. If we get the Punt we at least give our offeense a chance to run a no huddle to salvage some points at the end of the half and maybe build some momentum going into the second half.

4th Quarter 5:00 min to 4:00 min mark, we are in the spread moving the ball quite effectivley, and we hit I believe David Nelson for a 9 yd gain, we have 2nd and 1 (in and around the Miami 35) we leave CJ Spiller in to run a draw out of the shotgun for a loss of 1 or 2, now this is significant because if Chan goes with freddie or Marshawn its a first down we come out in I formation and run hard off the centre to either side and we walk away with a fresh set of downs and keep moving the ball, instead he hands off to CJ we lose yards then we get sacked and then its 4th and 11 and we end up getting a TD but still we lose all momentum going forward.

Now I know your thinking who cares no damage came from it let it go, but if we get that stop at the end of the 2nd we have a chance to score at the end of the first half, and if we keep the chains moving in the 4th we keep Miami on their heels and have some confidence going into those final 2 drives, I'll say it early in the season but its the little things that seperates the good from the average football teams and you have to take every oppurtunity that is presented and run with it and I just feel those are 2 oppurtunities we didnt take advantage of, bad play calling by both our head coach and our defensive coordinator.

Some Good Things to build on:

David Nelson, does this kid look like a pro football palyer or what, he just has a nack for getting open and making good solid (not spectacular) plays, he had 5 catches all for positive yards and looks very promising going forward.

I'll say it once and I'll say it again Paully P is going to have a pro bowl season if he can stay healthy, he was all over the field in the game making tackles everywhere, in the backfield, at the second level, sideline to sideline if he doesn't get hurt hes' definatly the player of the game in my books.

Solid offseason signings (*aside from Cornell) Dwan Edwards was staedy freddy and made it alot easier for these LBS to make plays. Andre Davis was directing at the line scrimmage recognizing Miami's offense and made some great tackles, the drafted players look good, they may not have blown anybody away but look very comfortable and played well.

Keith Ellison showed why we kept him, good runner on special teams and did a good job filling in for Paully P, Leodis McKelvin played very well and stepped up against one of the best recievers in the league (aside for the fake that both he and Donte fell for on Brandons drop when the ball was terribley under thrown) Leodis almost stole the show. I didn't care for his self pat on the back I thought that was a little unnceccesary but when your lawn gets vandalized for fumbling a kickoff your not going to be happy with the fans, so I understand.

And last but not least, The Pass rush, all through the game the announcers; on CBS at least, talked about how Miami was all over Trent, well we were all over Chad. When we didn't blitz he had tons of time, but when we blitzed we were in his face. We had 4 sacks and a couple knockdowns and it was funny watching Aaron Maybin get manhandled by Jake Long on a couple plays but he also got around him a couple times too. We blitzed up the gut effectivley and we had solid out side pressure aswell. The thing I really feel we need to work on though is teaching Chris Kelsay and Chris Ellis not to get trapped inside on runs that are still developing, 3 if not 4 times Chris and Chris over commited to the inside and then boom Ricky or Ronnie sprung the run outside and Chris and Chris were forced to make tackles from behind.

Let me know if I missed anything.