I hate to think about it but here it is: the rookie Edwards will have to go through a pressure game next week, against a winning team, on the road. Like it or not, the QB is the focal point.
I remember Big Ben's first pressure game - the Jets playoff game in his rookie season. The Steelers were 15-1 in the regular season so he didn't really have a must-win game there (I don't mean to diminish his accomplishment that year, including all those games he brought them back in the 4th quarter). He threw a couple of bad picks and nearly handed the game to the Jets not once but twice.
To the Bills, I think it will be the opposite. If the Bills made playoff this year, I think everyone would consider that playoff game a bonus and they may have a lot less pressure to make it a must-win situation. But to make the playoff, they have to go through the pressure games - none bigger than the one next week. It is widely considered winnable, and it falls squarely on their performance, again none bigger than Edwards' performance.
Part of me wishes that he does not have to take on taht kind of pressure so early in his career (what? A total of 7 starts of his career in NFL in his 1st year?), but part of me wants to see if indeed he has that little "Brady" in him that he still performs about as good as he normally does.
I remember Big Ben's first pressure game - the Jets playoff game in his rookie season. The Steelers were 15-1 in the regular season so he didn't really have a must-win game there (I don't mean to diminish his accomplishment that year, including all those games he brought them back in the 4th quarter). He threw a couple of bad picks and nearly handed the game to the Jets not once but twice.
To the Bills, I think it will be the opposite. If the Bills made playoff this year, I think everyone would consider that playoff game a bonus and they may have a lot less pressure to make it a must-win situation. But to make the playoff, they have to go through the pressure games - none bigger than the one next week. It is widely considered winnable, and it falls squarely on their performance, again none bigger than Edwards' performance.
Part of me wishes that he does not have to take on taht kind of pressure so early in his career (what? A total of 7 starts of his career in NFL in his 1st year?), but part of me wants to see if indeed he has that little "Brady" in him that he still performs about as good as he normally does.
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