Many Questions Answered

[Jan Reimers]

At least for one game, many of our nagging questions were answered:

The interior D can function very nicely without Fat Pat.
Chris Kelsay is developing into a good DE.
Troy Vincent has adapted beautifully to the Free Safety position.
Lindell looks like he can do the job.
Willis is better than last year.
JP is poised and confidant, and totally in control.
Gandy and the O line are solid.

Except for some red zone issues and another very ordinary performance by Josh Reed, we appear to have overcome many of the concerns raised over the long offseason.

[LifetimeBillsFan]

Good points, Jan. Now let's hope these issues will continue to remain resolved!

The one issue that you didn't mention that really bothers me--and IMO had a lot to do with the red zone problems--is penalties. While the Bills did a decent job of reducing the number of stupid penalties that they had in the preseason, they committed a number of "crucial" penalties--penalties committed at a bad time in the game or place on the field. The Bills committed FOUR penalties inside the red zone--three by the offensive line. Those are what coaches sometimes refer to as "drive-stopping penalties" because they disrupt the rhythm of the offense and, depending on the down, significantly reduce the percentages of converting with a touchdown. While the Bills were able to overcome one of those penalties on their TD drive, the other three, including the calls on Gandy and Anderson, help to stall drives in the red zone that ultimately forced the Bills to settle for FGs. While they didn't cost the team the game or lead to a major shift in momentum in this game, those are the kind of penalties that have the potential to do just that and that the Bills really have to concentrate on cleaning up before they do get into a really close game that could be lost as a result.

That's really my own criticism of the Bills performance in this week's game. As much as I liked Josh Reed coming out of LSU, I am now convinced that what we have seen of him is all that we are going to get from him. That concerns me only to the extent that the Bills will have to go with him until Roscoe Parrish is ready to play. As you said, Josh Reed is Josh Reed--and, fortunately, Roscoe Parrish is a lot better.

[OpIv37]

The interior D can function very nicely without Fat Pat.

.
although we completely shut down the Texans, I did see Ron Edwards get completely blown off the ball at least twice. Not a huge concern at this point, but definitely something that might be a problem against some of the better running teams.

[jamze132]

I was just so happy to look at the score and see that we had 19 by halftime. How many times in the last 3 years did that happen?