Cowboys 44, Bills 7: Three Good And Three Bad

To me, the game changed in the 2nd qtr, Bills were only down 21-7 and Dallas was driving, the commentators even commented that Dallas was 5-5 on 3rd downs and on the drive to go up 28-7, Dallas converted I think 3 or 4 3rd downs.

The inability to get off the field on this drive sealed the game IMO.

“Buffalo has two games against the Dolphins and one against the Broncos, and Buffalo should be favored in all three games”

Early line is Miami (-1). I can’t say we don’t deserve to be the underdogs.

The usuals. Great tackling in the secondary… Wilson, Byrd and McGee. Moorman punted well. Freddie and Levitre again.

A major failure in the game was the poor play of the 2010 and 2011 draft classes. With injuries mounting, they were asked to step up and responded with remarkably poor play.

2010

Spiller – Most notable was his stumble and drop of a perfectly thrown bomb by Fitz. But give him credit for a good 35 yard KO return in garbage time.

Troup – Dominated and buried at the point of attack. NT’s are supposed to be disruptive. Troup was ruptive instead.

Carrington – The invisible man.

Moats – Completely ineffective on the pass rush, even worse in run defense. His corner was turned with ease almost every time and he showed no ability to shed blocks. Forget pass defense.

Batten – Might make a decent backup for a team with quality players around him.

2011

Dareus – Solid, the one player who deserves to be on the field.

Sheppard – Shows potential, but his skills are suitable for 3-4 inside only.

Searcy – Played a perfect game. Was in position in blitzes and pass defense to make numerous big plays and failed every time.

C. White – Injured himself failing to make a tackle.

More points.

Coaching mistakes right from the start in each half. How does Ware go unblocked on the Bills first offensive play? Gailey obviously didn’t drive the point home to his crew. The ridiculous challenge on the second half kickoff on something the team has practiced over and over again, with plenty of time to review the tape. On most teams, $15M man Brad Smith would have been given a stern lecture for screwing up a simple play. Players insufficiently coached and a coach who doesn’t seem to care, what’s the point?

Belichick completely outcoached Rex Ryan Sunday night. It was much more than Gronkowski. The Pats repeatedly stacked three receivers and ran “pick plays” to keep the Jets from isolating a single player on Revis island. When the Pats had the Jets on the ropes after a turnover, they ran the no huddle to prevent the Jets from making substitutions. The Jets DL and LB’s were completely winded and exhausted, brought back memories of the Jim Kelly days.

$25M under the cap is coming home to roost now. Nix draft failures, weak coaching, and lack of quality backups are killing the season once again.

This is a brilliant analysis of what has gone wrong with the Bills. I would add only one observation: having no pass rush makes the DB’s look worse than they are. With a decent rush that gets consistent pressure on the QB our current CB’s would also be just fine (McGee especially when he is healthy). I’m not saying that we don’t need to think about replacing our three starting CB’s before long given the fact that McGee and Florence are getting older and McKelvin is a disappointment. Rather, my point is that we can probably hold off on that for a while, getting the chance to see what we have in Williams and Justin Rogers, if we can only improve the pass rush.

The DL was pushed all over, including Dareus.
No individual battles were won. All of them were physically dominated and I put that on the players.

Time to practice in pads.

DJ, you are (again) spot on. What is concerning to me, as Rick A alludes to above, is the fact that we have spent the majority of 2 drafts on defense, yet your comment:

The combination of these two edge deficiencies is crushing Buffalo, regardless of scheme or defensive call. Edwards can only dial up a certain number of blitzes a game. Scheming won’t help hide these weaknesses. Buddy Nix must legitimately address these two areas in the next off-season.

is true.

So, in the off season, we need to spend yet more draft picks on defense to “solve” the problem. And, in other words, the offense will languish even further as a result. It has a mediocre, quasi-accurate QB, no deep threat, an average OL with NO depth(well I guess Levitre IS the depth), a #9 draft pick that can’t get on the field, and vanilla game plans that “fit” this personnel. That’s some “status quo” to maintain while the defense gets two three years of attention to get “fixed” but still can’t muster a pass rush or stop the run.
How is this an effective, constructive approach to fixing this team?

I’m not into naming names, but it seems like we’re only sucessful about 20% of the time we target him. He is a good WR, and deserves a #3 or #4 spot, but I think he is a weak starter.

I understand that he is the only receiver that can really stretch the field, but he isn’t striking any fear into opposing defenses.

I might be getting ahead of myself here, but I wouldn’t mind seeing Roosevelt get some reps as the #2 WR. He appears to catch everything thrown his way, but doesn’t get a lot of chances. What’s the worst that could happen?

I’ve read all the previous post, and I’d like to say I Love the the passion and insight of the Rumblers. Every week I keep saying we should give some carries to Corey Mc. He’s a big guy with a high motor, quick feet, powerfully built, & deserving of a chance to carry the ball, on any other team a guy like that would have already been given a chance even if he fails, we should know by now if he has anything to offer with the ball in his hands. If he suceeds it would add a power element to our O. What do we have to loose? I agree that our safeties are playing great.Where is Buster Daivs, or some other speed reciever? Why not give Naman a shot at the 2 spot? Have our guys ever heard of strengh training? Also why can’t our guys shed blocks?