Buffalo Bills 24 - Oakland Raiders 23

An unbelievable game and an unBILLievable finish.  The Bills rallied from down 23-14 with under 5 minutes to go to defeat the Raiders 24-23 on a Rian Lindell 38 yard field goal as time expired.  A great finish and a great performance by Trent Edwards.  3-0 is a beautiful thing, especially after the performance for 3 quarters.  More on the big comeback win later!!!!

     
Buffalo Bills (1-0) at Jacksonville Jaguars (0-1)
Sunday, September 14, 2008, 1:00 PM ET

All right Rumblers, it's time for a new feature that I will call "Opponent History".  Each week I will look back at the last five times the Buffalo Bills played the current week's opponent.  This week's opponent for the Bills are the Jacksonville Jaguars:

October 18, 2001: Bills 13, Jaguars 10
This was one of the few highlight games of the 2001 season that saw the Bills go 3-13 in Gregg Williams' first season as head coach (he's now the Jags' defensive coordinator). The immortal Jake Arians hits a 46 yard field goal with 1:03 left on the clock, giving the Bills their first win of the year and Williams' first as Bills head coach (and it was a road win, no less).  The Jags finished 6-10 that year, good for fifth in the old AFC Central.

September 14, 2003: Bills 38, Jaguars 17
The game after the Bills beat up the Patriots 31-0, the Bills headed into Jacksonville and hung 38 on the Jags. Travis Henry runs for only 26 yards on 21 carries but gets 3 scores, and Drew Bledsoe throws for 314 yards, highlighted by a 54 yard pass play to Bobby Shaw, and a 37 yard score to Eric Moulds.  Buffalo started the '03 season out 2-0, only to flop badly and finish the year 6-10.  The Jags were 5-11.

September 12th, 2004: Jaguars 13, Bills 10
The '04 season opener sees the Bills drop a heartbreaker to the Jags on a 7 yard TD pass from Byron Leftwich to Ernest Wilford in the back of the end-zone as time expires.  The Bills rebounded later that year behind break-out running back Willis McGahee to finish 9-7 and miss a playoff berth by the skin of their teeth (thank you, Willie Parker); the Jags finished 9-7 as well.

November 26th, 2006: Bills 27, Jaguars 24
The Jaguars racked up 207 yards rushing in this one, but the Bills - on the strength of a Roscoe Parrish 82-yard punt return for a TD and a Rian Lindell FG as time expired - pulled out the win.  That may have been Parrish's finest game as a pro, as it was also his fancy footwork on a sideline throw by J.P. Losman that got the Bills into position for Lindell's game-winner.

November 25th, 2007: Jaguars 36, Bills 14
The Bills go into Jacksonville with playoff aspirations only to have Fred Taylor quickly squash them with a long 50 yard TD run just 5 minutes into the game. Taylor would finish with 104 yards on only 14 carries.  Buffalo was in this game in the third quarter, trailing 22-14 on two nice scores (a screen pass by Anthony Thomas and a reverse by Parrish), but a long touchdown reception by Reggie Williams and a Maurice Jones-Drew score sealed Buffalo's fate late.

Bills' record, last five meetings: 3-2
Next meeting: Sunday, September 14, 2008 (Jacksonville is favored by 5.5)

Each Tuesday this season, we here at Buffalo Rumblings will review the week's Buffalo Bills game on film (i.e. good old fashioned DVR) to get a little more in-depth perspective on how the Bills are performing.  This week, in honor of their spectacular opening day performance, we'll start our film reviews with an analysis of the special teams.

Clearly, the Buffalo Bills have the best special teams unit on the whole in the NFL.  "Experts" may talk about other team's players (namely Chicago's Devin Hester), but they also know that when they want to talk about all-around special teams play, Buffalo is the mecca.  What we may not realize, however, is that the Bills' special teams - while explosive and dominant on Sunday - weren't perfect, and it was largely due to personnel turnover.

Kick Returns
Terrence McGee only got one shot to return a kick, and it was this close to being a big play.  On the opening kick of the game, McGee had a rather large cutback lane and was headed for it, but a Seahawk got enough of his ankle to slow him up, and Seattle avoided early disaster.  Not much to report here, because Seattle's other two kickoffs were touchbacks.

Punt Returns
What else is there to say about Roscoe Parrish?  He takes a lot of chances when he returns punts - mainly because he can - and clearly, he blew up on Sunday to the tune of 6 returns for 120 yards and his poetic 63-yard touchdown return.  Don't expect Parrish to ever get six punt return chances in a game ever again after this performance; I'm still not quite sure why Seattle kept kicking to the guy.  He can be a bit boom-or-bust, but when he booms, it's sonic.

Parrish is so good because he's incredibly adept at making the first guy miss; from there on out, it's 10-on-10 blocking, in essence.  Buffalo's punt coverage was very good Sunday, in particular on the touchdown return; John DiGiorgio, Jon Corto (twice), Bryan Scott, Justin Jenkins and Copeland Bryan all had key blocks on that play.  Bobby April knows exactly the type of player to use on his units - the guys who never, ever quit - and that's why the Bills are so solid in all facets.  I could watch the Parrish TD over and over and over...

Kick Coverage/Kickoffs
Rian Lindell wasn't awful on his kickoffs, but there's definitely room for improvement.  The weather played a part in this one, as windy conditions forced Ashton Youboty to hold for Lindell on kickoffs on more than one occasion.  He had one touchback, and his kicks were high and deep.

Buffalo's kick coverage wasn't spectacular.  Seattle's Josh Wilson ended up averaging 26 yards per return on four returns, including a 39-yarder that helped set up Seattle's lone touchdown of the game.  Of course, some of this can be forgiven when the same unit forces a fumble and the kicker recovers it later in the game; Corto's strip and the ensuing touchdown put the game completely out of reach before the third quarter ended.

Punt Coverage/Punts
Brian Moorman showed off some more inconsistency punting, shanking a couple, and booming a few more.  Again, the weather factored in slightly, but we can't blame any of it on the long snapping - Ryan Neill was impeccable.  Moorman's a veteran, and if Buffalo's offense has stretches like they did early in this game, he'll have his opportunities to iron out his issues.

Moorman did out-kick his coverage a couple of times, which was the biggest reason that Seattle's Nate Burleson averaged 18 yards per return and routinely was able to turn the corner.  Once Moorman gets his kicks higher, Buffalo's punt coverage - the clear strength of the unit last year outside of punt returns - will return to normal.  The team's gunners, Jenkins and John Wendling, were excellent as usual Sunday.

General Observations
- The touchdown pass from Moorman to Ryan Denney in the third quarter was a work of genius by April.  Perfect design with a dash of luck.  Not much to report from the film, other than the fact that it's hilarious to watch.  Yes... the Bills' special teams are so good that it's literally funny.

- It's important to realize that some of the coverage woes came at the hands of new personnel.  Buffalo's undergoing a serious facelift (dare I say youth movement?) on all of their coverage units in particular, and some of the longer runs the team gave up yesterday may have simply been growing pains.  Those guys work hard, however, so they should only get better the more they play.

- In general, an outstanding performance.  Nearly flawless, though it would be nice to see them tighten up coverages and become a bit more effective with their kicks.  Definitely not much to complain about, however.  These units were the clear difference in Buffalo's opening day win.

Lindell, Moorman form elite K/P duo (Photo Source)

Prior to the 2008 NFL Draft - in fact, prior to the free agent signing period of this past March - we took a look at the Buffalo Bills' roster position by position, breaking down then-current personnel, finding holes, and building our community needs list.

Now that free agency and the Draft have been completed, and the Bills have infused their roster with new talent, it's time to repeat our process.  Where has Buffalo gotten better?  Where have they gotten worse?  How will additions impact which Bills veterans remain on the roster?  These are questions that we've been attempting to answer for the past week or so, and will continue to do so.

We continue those discussions today with an examination of Buffalo's special teams.  To view our previous discussions on Buffalo's ST situation (pre-off-season), bang it here.

Rian Lindell: In the early portion of the '07 season, Lindell was up to his old tricks, missing key kicks in a loss to Denver and the gut-wrenching loss to Dallas on Monday Night Football - both one-point losses, no less.  But Lindell made up for his early season misgivings with game-winning kicks to beat the Dolphins and Redskins, and though his successful kick percentage dipped a bit, he enjoyed one of his best seasons as an NFL kicker.  He needs to develop icier veins in crunch time - the Bills will be playing a lot of close games, in all likelihood - but Lindell is a very good kicker.

Brian Moorman: Still heralded as one of the game's best punters, Moorman was not as excellent in '07 as he has been in previous seasons.  Yes, he was still an asset to this team, and he's one of the team's most looked up to leaders, but there were stretches last season where Moorman would strike the ball inconsistently - sometimes for an entire game.  As he ages, he'll likely have a more difficult time dealing with Buffalo's inclement wind conditions (and those can be year-round).  For now, he remains established as one of the game's best, but it'd be nice to see him rebound a bit this coming season.

D.J. Fitzpatrick: This poor guy.  He's a young second-year guy who's probably a better punter than kicker, and has a good leg.  But the guy just doesn't get reps, and has no prayer of making this team's roster.  At least he gets to learn from one of the game's best in Moorman.

The Rest: Here's a list of players that we've identified as either guys who will be counted on to perform on special teams, or guys who need to do that in order to make the roster.  Don't try speaking this list out loud in one run; you'll run out of O2:

RB Dwayne Wright, RB Xavier Omon, RB Bruce Hall, FB Darian Barnes, FB Jonathan Evans, FB Mike Viti, WR Roscoe Parrish, WR Justin Jenkins, WR Scott Mayle, WR Felton Huggins, WR James Jones, TE Derek Fine, TE Derek Schouman, TE Tim Massaquoi, TE Teyo Johnson, OG Jason Whittle, OG Duke Preston, OG Christian Gaddis, OG Robert Felton, DE Copeland Bryan, DE Ryan Neill, DE Shaun Nua, DT Jason Jefferson, DT Corey Mace, DT Teraz McCray, LB John DiGiorgio, LB Keith Ellison, LB Alvin Bowen, LB Blake Costanzo, LB Marcus Buggs, LB Jon Banks, CB Terrence McGee, CB Jabari Greer, CB Leodis McKelvin, CB Will James, CB Reggie Corner, CB Ashton Youboty, CB Kennard Cox, CB Dustin Fox, S George Wilson, S John Wendling, S Bryan Scott, S Jon Corto.

Characteristic of this time of the year, the Bills have 43 players on their current roster that comprise one of the league's best special teams units.  That's more than half of the roster.  A large portion of those players are guys who have been added to the roster during this off-season.  This is a very young unit, and very much revamped, but there are guys who have the chance to either revive (read: Keith Ellison), start (Alvin Bowen) or make (Justin Jenkins) their careers on this unit.  I, for one, will be keeping an eye on how the team rotates through specialists during the pre-season, because it's those battles that will decide the final few roster spots.

That does it for our State of the Roster II series, which broke down every player at every position currently on Buffalo's roster.  We'll have a recap post up from the entire series later on this evening.  Go Bills!