ghz in pittsburgh
09-25-2006, 08:39 AM
Funny thing is every guy in the pool came to me asking how the Bills lost that game. "Look at the stats, the Bills out gained the Jets by a mile, QB throws for 300 yard, RB goes for 145, a WR catches for 100 yard, and the offense gives up just one TD the other way only," as they said to me.
Indeed, the kind of stats on paper normally means the Bills should be able to overcome the turnovers they had yesterday. But as usual, the stats sheet does not tell the whole story. Losman and company need to learn from their mistakes, the little things JP and Willis have been talking about. And they need to look no further than across the field: I give a lot of credit to Pennington and Co. for what they did yesterday. Generally over matched, they found way to make it count when they had chance. 3 TD drives on a day they did not do very much on the other drives. Does anyone agree with me on this: that last drive they had is a killer!
I mentioned 4th and short on Bills in their openning loss to the Pats. This game is the same way. When they had 4th and 2, they had to resort to Losman passing to Reed trying to convert - I'd much rather they run McGahee in that case. 1st and goal at 1 yard line and they could not pound it in. Then the Jets had 4th and short and they convert. The way the Bills play the short yardage situation, they are not destined to win many games.
That brings back to the trenches. On offense, the onus on 4th and short is on the O-Linemen, particularly interior linemen. The Bills are not very good there and likely will have new guards next season (right now they just try to run behind Villarial). On defense, in this sceme, penetration is key to stop 4th and short and they have ways to go yet in getting that done.
Overall, I think the Jets did a great job preparing against our defense, prevented us from generating the kind of pressure in the first two games. On offense the plan and matchups clearly favored us and it showed. Unfortunately the execution was not as good as the coaches expected. That's my general impression.
Indeed, the kind of stats on paper normally means the Bills should be able to overcome the turnovers they had yesterday. But as usual, the stats sheet does not tell the whole story. Losman and company need to learn from their mistakes, the little things JP and Willis have been talking about. And they need to look no further than across the field: I give a lot of credit to Pennington and Co. for what they did yesterday. Generally over matched, they found way to make it count when they had chance. 3 TD drives on a day they did not do very much on the other drives. Does anyone agree with me on this: that last drive they had is a killer!
I mentioned 4th and short on Bills in their openning loss to the Pats. This game is the same way. When they had 4th and 2, they had to resort to Losman passing to Reed trying to convert - I'd much rather they run McGahee in that case. 1st and goal at 1 yard line and they could not pound it in. Then the Jets had 4th and short and they convert. The way the Bills play the short yardage situation, they are not destined to win many games.
That brings back to the trenches. On offense, the onus on 4th and short is on the O-Linemen, particularly interior linemen. The Bills are not very good there and likely will have new guards next season (right now they just try to run behind Villarial). On defense, in this sceme, penetration is key to stop 4th and short and they have ways to go yet in getting that done.
Overall, I think the Jets did a great job preparing against our defense, prevented us from generating the kind of pressure in the first two games. On offense the plan and matchups clearly favored us and it showed. Unfortunately the execution was not as good as the coaches expected. That's my general impression.