Balls & Boobs:

[WG]

I've got a nice pair of double-Ds for our DL again. Up until about 4 minutes left in the first half, they put absolutely no pressure on Indy's O.

Denney/Newman should get the NFL's highest honors for logging the Bills first and only sack by the first/second team Ds through the first three games!!! The number of times that Manning went back to pass in the first half, we should have put quite a bit of pressure if not logged 2 or 3 sacks against Indy in the first half alone.

Game Balls:

Watson for creating a VERY nice TO on the punt early.
Special Teams again overall.


Boobs:

DL gets a nice pair of Double-Ds as usual.
STs for allowing a long KO return to start the game
GW and team for the penalties!!!


This was a weird game. I just looked at the box score/PBP, and other than that goal line O, Indy, out of 33 plays in the first half, 27 of them were designed passing plays.

Drew had some good moments, but also:

Had 3 sacks in one half of play w/ two of them being on 3rd downs. His lone INT in the first drive of the second half also came on a third down. I didn't see the INT so I cannot comment on it. He had a very nice 25 yard pass to Moulds w/ 9 min. left in the 2nd Q, and a very nice thread to Reed for the TD. After that, while he played OK, he didn't do anything spectacular.

Much as in the Cincy game, our only score by the first unit came on a short drive that was set-up by the STs. Watson's FF and REC in this case giving us the ball back at Indy's 10. Other than that, we didn't score in over a half w/ the first team!!!

1st Q: 3 and out. 3 and out. TD on three plays set-up at Indy's 10. 6 and out.

2nd Q: 1 long drive (over 6 min.) resulting in no points. 3 and out.

Henry: Gains of -5, -3, 1, 17, 1, 3, 6, 0, -3, 0, 3 or 11 for 20.

Minus that 17 yarder, 10 for 3. Not good!!

-5, -3, -3, 0, 0, 1, 1, 3, 3, 6 Half the runs were for no or negative gain.

This is pretty scary to me!

[WG]

We didn't give up a lot of rushing yards against our first team, but they only ran a few times and this was two guys named Finn and McDougal that we're talking about who ran the ball.

Neither one has ever played in the NFL.

[The_Philster]

This is Jim Finn's third year in the league.

[WG]

Yeah, and what's he done? Nada!

He's had 1 carry for 1 yard in his two seasons in the league. Nothing to get all pumped up about stopping was my single point.

[WG]

Like I said, he hasn't played in the NFL. Being on a roster doesn't mean he's played. Unless of course that one carry negates that.

[The_Philster]

Well...he hasn't been a guy to carry the ball...but he has been in the league. Sam Gash and Larry Centers hardly ever carry the ball either.

[HenryRules]

I don't know the stats, but during the second quarter, I thought our offense ran the ball pretty well - all backs included. The problem there was a bunch of holding penalties that took back some nice gains. The holding penalties mean our line suck, but our RB's did do a good job of reading and hitting the holes when they were there.

[Michael82]

you forgot the big set of double Ds to Pierson Prioleau! He had that DEFINITE late hit on Marvin Harrison in the endzone! That was uncalled for!!! :angry:

[Valerie]

I have a hard time listening to a game and really following it. I do much better with having a picture and no sound than the other way around. So, that being said, I really can't say who I think sucked and who was good. But, judging by what I did hear, the Bills have problems! It didn't sound like they really had a clue as to what was going on. Hopefully as the season gets underway they'll be able to iron these problems out and continue to improve each week.

[JefftheBillsfan]

i thought the DL played as well as they are going to. true its jim finn...but if you look he never had any place to go. we would have stopped most RBs last night. all you can ask from our DL is to hold up at the point of attack and let the LBs clean it up and thats what they did. when it comes down to fletch, robinson, or newman i like their chances against most RBs. I come away from this game satisfied. also...i wouldn't worry about the late hits and what not...i think they are just sending a message.

[WG]

But Jeff, if you look at last night's game, w/ our first team on the field, they barely ever tried to run. Other than when it was a yard or two shy of the goal line, they ran only 6 times by my count in the first half. The balance between running and passing for them was like 4 or 5 to 1.

So I don't think it was a good measure. Indy may have had some sort of agenda like trying to pass against us since we have a much better passing D and they wanted to practive that way. Or, perhaps, since they've apparently been struggling as well, they thought they could light us up and give themselves the boost of confidence that they needed heading into the season.

In any event, wholes are supposed to be closed on passing plays, and over 80% of the plays they ran in the first half were designed passing plays. I notice we didn't get any pressure on Manning until the clouds broke briefly midway thru the 2nd Q when Newman/Denney recorded their sack. So I wouldn't give them too much credit. Apparently it was the second half where Indy put up most of its runs w/ McDougal.

Besides, even if we did shut down McDougal in the 2nd half, that really doesn't mean much to us. Heck, even if the first unit was on the field, McDougal isn't anything compared to who we'll be facing this season.

[Typ0]

We sucked. Sucked in pre-season is still sucked. Any NFL franchise that puts a team on the field with glaring weaknesses is going to get clobbered by the good teams. Our running game sucks. We can't stop the run nor can we pressure the passer. It is going to be a long season as a bunch of bottom feeders. If we can't beat the JETS we are finished. I'm glad I am going to that game it might be the last one of the season for us.


Game Balls
Travis Henry for his determination and hard work.

Chris Watson for creating a ST fumble recovery.

The whole team for having the guts to take the field.

Boobs
Travis Henry for running backwards every time he got in trouble. What the hell is he doing? He lost more yards than he gained in this game.

Chris Watson for a blatant interference penalty on third down that kept an INDY scoring drive going.

Greg Williams for committing 16 penalties for 97 yards. When are things going to get better haven't we suffered enough?

[Rebecky]

Reading the play-by-play, I had the feeling, in the first half, Indy was just working on long pass patterns. They'd get the ball, and consistently Manning would attempt three long (over 10 yard) passes. Not the play calling you'd see in a regular season game.

[WG]

True, but we responded favorably for the most part reinforcing the notion that our pass D is very good. The problem is that like you said, teams won't do that each week. If this game were for real, I dare say that the Edge would have had 150+ yards rushing which would have opened up the game bigtime for the Dolts.

Typ0,

"Travis Henry for running backwards every time he got in trouble. What the hell is he doing? He lost more yards than he gained in this game.'

Just about right. He was 11 for 20 w/ a long of 17. 10 for 3 after that for an YPC avg. of three-tenths of a yard. Obviouslyi we don't have 34 attempts to get the first down! LOL

The neglect of our DL this offseason in favor of the "marketing approach" is gonna determine our entire season. It rears the proverbial question, "would you rather have the best D or the best O?" Unfortunately we're still far from the best O w/o a decent running game. As I see it however, we could have had very close to the best D w/ a minimal amount of effort, yet we didn't seem to think that made a difference.

Bottom line: In this league, you just can't win w/o a decent D. Just ask the Niners. They had a prolific O in '00 and were 6-10 w/ one of the worst Ds in the league. Last year they improved their D, and they improved to 12-4, doubling their wins!

[John Doe]

Boob of the game: The D-line coach John Levra. He was warned before the game that they would be calling the neutral zone tightly and did nothing about it even after the first 2 penalties were called.

I would not give him a game ball, but I don't recall Trey Teague's name being mentioned whole night, and that is a good thing for an offensive lineman - he must be doing something right. After this game, I think that Jerry Ostroski has a place on our roster.