Did Buffalo Bills QB Ryan Fitzpatrick Play Hurt?

That was a hell of a hit, London layed on Fitz and it was all legal. I am sure it didn’t feel good.

I don’t think he was hurt at all. He said he wasn’t.

Plus – if he was then Chan wasn’t doing him any favors having him throw 340 times after the hit for almost 38 pass plays per game.

I believe in the Flutie Curse. Until we bring Doug Flutie back to Ralph Wilson Stadium, honor him for his service, and publicly apologize to him for not giving him the Playoff start in 1999, the Bills will never return to the Playoffs.

& came to the conclusion he had to crack a rib or 2 on that shot.

sure enough he favored it after & play indicated a problem. (@ least he toughed it out thou, unlike his …)

Someday I’d like to see a few of our pass rushers put Brady on his kester like Fletcher drove through Fitzy. The mental injuriese that a QB endures from those hits plays with a QB’s psychy and they start to get a bit “jittery” between the ears on future ocassions. Their confidence is shaken and they start to release the ball quicker than expected.

Later in the year, I can’t remember which game exactly, I watched a Fitzy interception where it was a play action with a little boot leg.. the OLB didn’t go for the fake and when Fitz turned around the guy was bearing down on him quickly. A lot of QB’s (including Fitz earlier in the year) might have tried to allude the rusher by stepping up and or fake pumping to get the guy airborne, then making the read and throw… this time Fitz really rushed the throw out to the flat and right into the defenders arms for a pick 6.

Fitz is tough, but I hope he is tougher mentally. We certainly had a “softy” in Trentative, so I never want to see that happen again to a Bills QB.

At what point did the injuries to the O-line start piling up?

The hit probably did affect his performance, but I don’t think it was all to blame.
We all know Fitz is an up and down guy. I think there’s a happy medium to be found here between the conspiracy and denying that anything was going on at all. That seems the most reasonably and likely scenario of all.

I think it’s a mischaracterization to call this a conspiracy theory. This is something that Fitz said himself. People think he was playing hurt because he said so. The 3 games after the hit he was bad before he returned to form in the next 2 games against the Jets and Titans. After the season he said he was hurt during that period.

Yes.

I broke ribs during my military career. It’s a horrible injury, because unless the rib punctures a lung, you can do pretty much anything. The pain is unreal, though. Try repelling, running, crawling, etc with broken rib. You can do it, but it’s painful.

I think the same thing happen with Fitzpatrick. He broke a rib, and just played through the pain. The pain limits motion though. And I think the pain caused enough changes in his play that he couldn’t perform up to the same standards as the first seven games.

Injuries……the Fletcher hit……injuries……arm fatigue…..defenses adjusting to our scheme…..the fact that we were always playing from behind……injuries…..

Yes, probably. but as I have opined before, I think the slump started in week four…..
You could see it, locking onto receivers, holding the ball too long, no longer smartly avoiding the rush and finally throwing crazy passes into triple coverage.
I also say a painful injury would affect his throwing more than the top QBs because he needs everything he’s got on a lot of his passes ( you can see that as well… The high effort wind up that is…..)
I wish Gailey and Fitzy well because he is clearly our guy next year and I bleed Buffalo Blue) I truly hope I look like a dork for saying this and they (Gailey and Fitzy) shut me up big time next year.

But his performance down the stretch was mostly the result of-

A. Horrible Bills defense
B. Statistical correction back to norm
C. Fred Jackson going down

I don’t think there’s anything to it. He played well the rest of the game and took some sacks. He didn’t wear any additional padding the rest of the season. The Bills didn’t limit his throws in games and it doesn’t seem like they lightened his practice load at all. I remember when Steve McNair used to not practice at all and play every week and it doesn’t seem like the Bills did anything for Fitz. Would he really still be throwing a bunch of passes in practice and lifting weights with a broken rib or two? Wouldn’t somebody in the media pick up on it if Fitz was getting that lighter practice load?

This is the same Ryan Fitzpatrick who had a great statistical start to the 2010 season before struggling down the stretch in a huge way. I think I remember people talking about him getting hurt and his numbers going down as a result last year as well, but maybe I’m thinking of something else. Either way, it seems like it’s always some excuse with the QBs. Some reason why he’ll be better in the future. The OL wasn’t good enough for Trent Edwards and then he got TO and he was gonna be good. Then Fitz wasn’t the QB through an offseason and he’d be better because of that. And he struggled because of injuries to his teammates or because the players around him weren’t good enough or the team didn’t have a deep threat. Now he wasn’t healthy? I guess my conspiracy theory is that I go the other way with it. That I think people invent excuses just to give themselves a reason to believe that things will change without Buffalo actually making changes.

Banged up? Sure. Everyone in the league plays hurt. We just rode the roller coaster ride Good Fitz/Bad Fitz. Some of us got a lil sick after the ride, and others can’t wait to hop back on next year. Personally, I’ll think I’m going to sit on the bench and watch others get on and off, while I enjoy a cold beer. I’m not giving the guy a pass or an excuse (and it’s a loooong list that fans are offering up) for his poor erratic play. I’m sorry, but what was the reason why Fitz liked to throw into triple coverage? Was his beard too long, getting in his face, and throwing off his balance? Our terrible D? So Fitz was throwing more, playing catch up? The breakdown says 60-40 in both halves. Honestly, we have to thank the D for some of our 6 wins. The only way we stayed in games the we were in were because of turnovers.

I really just think Fitz is his own worst enemy.

It sure looked like Fitzy was wearing an unusually big flack jacket under her jersey in the latter part of the season.

I’d rather figure out what happened to cause Fitzpatrick’s 1st half of the season play. Cause that’s the outlier performance in his career. Not the 2nd half performance.

Its definitely Billy Buffalo’s fault!

He needs to be replaced by Basilius Buffalo.

:-)

Which would go a lot farther in explaining the drop in his play. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that he played with a crack rib, or heavily bruised ribs. Any sustained injury to his ribcage would explain the drop in play. In which case it would have been up to Chan to lesson his responsibility in the offense, which obviously didn’t happen.

So my inclination would be to say that he was hurt, but not truly injured. Something in the range of severely bruised ribs that couldn’t heal because of the continuous activity.

He was hurt, not disabled. The issue was the loss of Fred Jackson and how that impacted the entire offense. Fitz was forced to try and make plays where none were available.

It means a heck of a lot to me to see a player with the kind of spirit that would make him keep going for team through rivulets of searing pain. If his ribs broke, he had every excuse to ride out the year and not be blamed for anything. Yet he had enough fire to keep playing, keep preparing, keep on as the team’s No. 1 QB and leader. I wouldn’t trade that kind of guy for the world.