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A couple positive observations
I'm not going to focus on the negatives. There were a lot of them. It was a bad game. You don't have to be a rocket scientist or even watch football to realize that the Bills played a pathetic game.
So instead of repeating the negatives over and over again as so many Bills fans and media members will do leading up to Thursday, I thought I would post some positive things I saw. Not that there were many.
Our running game is going to be good this year. Despite horrific pass blocking by Chambers, the interior line wasn't awful. Wood instantly makes them better. By a huge margin. Others may disagree with me, but I felt that Meredith had one hell of a night. He played a lot of snaps and, correct me if I am wrong, didn't let up a sack or QB hit. (The hits on QB that I saw and the main pressures came from the right side of the line.) I felt that the line opened up some holes and even on some plays where there was a breakdown in blocking, the running backs got free. I think if you put our healthy starters in on the line our run blocking and pass blocking gets a little better. Specifically the run blocking. Our backs are talented too. They're going to get their yards. It's sad that we'll only be able to keep 3-4 of them. Simpson and Bell looked excellent. Particularly Simpson on a few plays. I had no idea he was that fast.
Edwards threw it deep. That's a good sign. He over threw it a bit, but I felt that had Johnson put on a burst of speed to chase it down he would have scored. Had that been Evans going after it, he probably would have caught it. Evans seems to thrive at chasing down the slightly overthrown deep ball once he has separation. Ie. Losman.
Troup had some solid plays. Especially against the run. I thought he did an excellent job of strafing the line a few times taking up two blockers. He had a few busted plays, but I liked it for a first showing.
Maybin. It's kind of hard to put him down as a positive, because even though he had some good plays he has some really bad ones. His problem is that he has one rush. The speed rush. He doesn't have any counter moves. The one time he spun inside and rip moved his guy he gets a sack. He got thrown to the ground at least twice that I saw. But, there were times that he was right on the QB. He seemed to run up field a lot, but the few plays he slowed it down a bit he was right in the QBs face. I think with some coaching (and added muscle) he could contribute as a situational rusher this year. But he has yet to show he can be an every down guy. (Although there was one run play he read perfectly. He got through the line, saw it was a run. Broke down, kept his shoulders square and moved down the line for an assisted tackle. Gain of a yard on the play.)
David Nelson. He will make this team. It's going to be hard to say no to this kid. He has great size and hands, and shows some speed. I'm not just putting him down here because of the TD. There were a few catches and routes that were nice from him. Even when he didn't get the ball I was trying to watch him. I did a lot of rewinding and fast forwarding.
All in all, it wasn't pretty. The QB play was down right awful (to say the least. Edwards had a few good plays then plenty bad ones and Fitzpatrick's first few series were a clinic on how NOT to play football), our defense was disturbingly bad (Even our secondary had breakdowns), our special teams made big time errors and our linebacker depth was disappointing.
But I think once you put players like Poz, Wood, Green and Bell into the mix you'll see a little better pass protection (if only slightly better) and Poz is much better than Mitchell or Ellison or whoever that was making some pretty big mistakes inside.
We're not going to the playoffs this year, but I don't think this game was a 100% indication of how the season will turn out.
We've got a lot of work to do though.
So instead of repeating the negatives over and over again as so many Bills fans and media members will do leading up to Thursday, I thought I would post some positive things I saw. Not that there were many.
Our running game is going to be good this year. Despite horrific pass blocking by Chambers, the interior line wasn't awful. Wood instantly makes them better. By a huge margin. Others may disagree with me, but I felt that Meredith had one hell of a night. He played a lot of snaps and, correct me if I am wrong, didn't let up a sack or QB hit. (The hits on QB that I saw and the main pressures came from the right side of the line.) I felt that the line opened up some holes and even on some plays where there was a breakdown in blocking, the running backs got free. I think if you put our healthy starters in on the line our run blocking and pass blocking gets a little better. Specifically the run blocking. Our backs are talented too. They're going to get their yards. It's sad that we'll only be able to keep 3-4 of them. Simpson and Bell looked excellent. Particularly Simpson on a few plays. I had no idea he was that fast.
Edwards threw it deep. That's a good sign. He over threw it a bit, but I felt that had Johnson put on a burst of speed to chase it down he would have scored. Had that been Evans going after it, he probably would have caught it. Evans seems to thrive at chasing down the slightly overthrown deep ball once he has separation. Ie. Losman.
Troup had some solid plays. Especially against the run. I thought he did an excellent job of strafing the line a few times taking up two blockers. He had a few busted plays, but I liked it for a first showing.
Maybin. It's kind of hard to put him down as a positive, because even though he had some good plays he has some really bad ones. His problem is that he has one rush. The speed rush. He doesn't have any counter moves. The one time he spun inside and rip moved his guy he gets a sack. He got thrown to the ground at least twice that I saw. But, there were times that he was right on the QB. He seemed to run up field a lot, but the few plays he slowed it down a bit he was right in the QBs face. I think with some coaching (and added muscle) he could contribute as a situational rusher this year. But he has yet to show he can be an every down guy. (Although there was one run play he read perfectly. He got through the line, saw it was a run. Broke down, kept his shoulders square and moved down the line for an assisted tackle. Gain of a yard on the play.)
David Nelson. He will make this team. It's going to be hard to say no to this kid. He has great size and hands, and shows some speed. I'm not just putting him down here because of the TD. There were a few catches and routes that were nice from him. Even when he didn't get the ball I was trying to watch him. I did a lot of rewinding and fast forwarding.
All in all, it wasn't pretty. The QB play was down right awful (to say the least. Edwards had a few good plays then plenty bad ones and Fitzpatrick's first few series were a clinic on how NOT to play football), our defense was disturbingly bad (Even our secondary had breakdowns), our special teams made big time errors and our linebacker depth was disappointing.
But I think once you put players like Poz, Wood, Green and Bell into the mix you'll see a little better pass protection (if only slightly better) and Poz is much better than Mitchell or Ellison or whoever that was making some pretty big mistakes inside.
We're not going to the playoffs this year, but I don't think this game was a 100% indication of how the season will turn out.
We've got a lot of work to do though.
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