Bengals 23, Bills 20: Three Good And Three Bad

At halftime, I was thinking to myself that a lot of the Bills’ success seemed to be due to Cincy’s (specifically Dalton’s) ineptitude. Of course there’s a lot I didnt see or wouldn’t know about what could have been causing that – but I wasn’t particularly impressed at that point and wonder how well they were actually playing.

Although he is improving against the run, the kid has to take some chances and jump on routes, on passing downs he’s just playing center field.

He has not been great. But…. I don’t think he is nearly as bad as people saying. The team has no pass rush. They are terrible and the QB has all day to loft a pass to AJ Green one of the best in air ball catches in the NFL right now and you blame that on Leodis? I don’t see it. Get some pressure on the pass first, then complain about the CB’s

Not impressed. Perhaps we have seen the best of Kyle Williams and now we are over paying for him. I think Brian G discussed this earlier this summer and people were getting on him. I think he just said he didn’t see him getting better than he was last year.

DJ, your 3+3 pieces keep getting better and better. This one says everything that needed to be said perfectly. I especially agree re the impressive performance of the Safeties. They are getting called on to do a lot of different things in this defense, and by and large they are a real bright spot for this team.

One added thought: I am simply not sold on Donald Jones as an effective #2 WR who can run deep routes. Some of Fitz’s throws were a little off, but other WR’s could likely have made adjustments on them. That’s what you simply have to do if you are running deep. Brian was pointing out in an earlier post how opponents have recognized that our real #2 WR (in terms of talent) is David Nelson, and they have moved to shut him down by clogging the middle. I continue to believe that it’s time to send him on sideline routes. He has the speed and knows how to make the necessary adjustments to help out his QB. Jones isn’t working; it’s time to try something else.

I agree with some of the things that you said. Here are the things where I disagree with you on.

The Buffalo Bills fell into the trap. Coming into Sunday, Chan Gailey’s team shared the title of NFL darling with Detroit. Boasting one of the best offenses in the league and an opportunistic defense, Buffalo ended a near decade of torture the previous weekend versus New England. Media attention, combined with Philadelphia coming to town on October 9, created trap game conditions on Sunday versus the Cincinnati Bengals. It was a good story for which the young Bills obliged.

I totally disagree. I think it is much more likely that

a.) The Bengals are better than some people gave them credit—especially their defense.

b.) The Bengals just outplayed Buffalo.

c.) Buffalo just have a bad day with executing.

I think all three of those options are a whole lot more likely than them overlooking the Bengals or that they got caught up in the media hype. I think people simplify things too much sometimes. This + this most = this. I think there are way too many things involved for fans to be able to accurately say that the Bills fell into a trap game. Like I have said before. This was a trap game for Bills fans. Bills fans aren’t as likely to watch the game tape to see how good the Bengals are. Instead they are much more likely to look at statistics and etc to gauge how good a team is. I think some Bills fans forgot that the Bills were discounted because of their record last year and some of their statistics. I highly doubt that the same team would forget that and do the exact same thing regarding the Bengals.

Maybe the defense was emotionally gassed from the week prior. Buffalo’s defense was gashed by plays in the second half which were contained in the first half. George Edwards rotated defensive linemen, but nothing worked.

If they were gassed from the week prior than I think it would have shown up in the first half and not in the second half. They had all week, scratch that, 24 hours and in some instances to celebrate and then forget about the previous week’s win. I highly doubt that they didn’t recover during the week or that they were thinking about the win against New England in the second half of the Cincinnati game. I think either a.) fewer rushers were sent. b.) the Bills couldn’t rush the quarterback as often or with as much intensity as they wanted to because Cincinnati got their running game going. c.) The Bengals just did a better job blocking the Bills. d.) The Bills just did a poor job of beating their man. I agree with what you said. I think it has more to do with them not getting pressure on Dalton.

Buffalo was 4-of-14 on third down. Some were harder than others to convert, but one thing is obvious: throwing deep on third down is not working for Buffalo. This is somewhat of a recurring theme between Ryan Fitzpatrick and Donald Jones. I counted three times in the first half where Buffalo faced a third-and-manageable down and distance situation. All three times, Fitzpatrick recognized Jones was in a situation where he could beat the corner, and all three times, Fitzpatrick took the shot. While I like the guts, it’s foolish. Buffalo did the same thing in 2010 versus New England at Ralph Wilson Stadium. It’s not working. Buffalo needs to sustain drives and score. Throw deep on a different down. When it’s third-and-three, get the first down.

I disagree with this also. You would think that they were doing it because of the coverage that they thought they were getting. I think it is same to assume that you would have been jumping up and down and screaming for joy (hey maybe even the fitzscream. ;) if they had completed the balls. I think that they are trying to keep the defense honest. They can’t just run short patterns all the time. And if I remember correctly, the Patriots were blitzing and cheating on the short route on the big play to Donald Jones last week. That is why he was open. I honestly had more of a problem with the playcalling on second down in the second half. To me it seemed like Fitz would complete a 6-9 yard pass on first down but then they would run the ball on second down. Each and every single time. I kept waiting to hear John Murphy say that they ran a play action pass but he didn’t. That bugged me. Especially because the Bengals seemed to catch on to that tendency and the Bills didn’t counter it.

Aside from the edge pass rush, Buffalo’s issues can be fixed fairly easily.

I heard an interview that Buddy Nix had done before Sunday where he stated that Shawne was starting to get back to where he was but that it was going to take some time. He made the comment that it isn’t like jumping onto a bicycle. I hope that he does indeed get back to where he was. I think our defense would improve greatly because of it. And I hope you are right about them being able to fix the run defense.

i think we are not able to convert on 3rd down because the lack of depth and talent at WR is beginning to show and will only get worse as the season goes…

great point about the complete absence of perimeter athletes…

and next year we have to do something about our CBs… we will only have florence who surprisingly hasnt been his pass intereference self so far… we should cut mckelvin due to talent and mcgee due to constant injuries… hope williams becomes the consistent 2nd CB… then we should draft another CB as our nickelback…

Take note of Perry Fewell’s defense in New York, with a plethora of perimeter athletes.

Would have been nice to have Fewell reach this nirvana in Buffalo.

The biggest thing is how the Bills respond after the first loss. It should give us some insight into this Bill’s team identity.

I don’t think Rogers gave up on that punt. First, he was blocked in the back, a clear penalty that was not called on the Bengals. The illegal block accelerated Rogers forward momentum carrying him four-six yards into the end zone. Unless he suddenly became Steve Tasker, it didn’t look like Rogers had a chance to get out of the end zone before touch the pigskin.