| November 18, 2002 | « Previous Story | HOME | Next Story » | Posted at 12:04 AM |
Positives:
The rushing game was moving along swimmingly. Until the end of the game of course, when the Bills opted to discontinue its use in favor of the less effective Gilbride passing game thereby costing us the game.
For near 3 quarters the defensive line was able to pressure Green and the K.C. passing attack. That is about as solid a game that we can expect from this under-manned, under-talented, and out-coached defense.
The Bills as a team, both offense and defense, contributed to holding the mighty Chief offense to only 17 points.
Negatives:
The rushing game was moving along swimmingly. Until the end of the game of course, when the Bills opted to discontinue its use in favor of the less effective Gilbride passing game thereby costing us the game.
The Bills, for the third time in four games, were unable to put up more than 16 offensive points. This time with two weeks to prepare and against a defense not much better than our own.
Once again, and for the 8th game in 10 outings, the Bills had no interceptions. There were no forced fumbles not to mention any fumble recoveries either.
Why did the Bills lose this game? Because Gilbride almost completely and once again, abandoned the rushing game that had been the reason for their success early on throughout the first half. In the first half, Henry had 16 carries and the Bills dominated the time-of-possession by 21 minutes to 9 minutes. In the second half, Henry had only 8 carries and the time-of-possession was almost the opposite with K.C. dominating it approximately 19 minutes to 11 minutes. On four trips to the red zone, the Bills offense managed only 16 points on the merits of 1 Touchdown and 3 field goals. Henry had only 3 carries in the red zone, for 21 yards nonetheless. However, his carries came from the 14, 15, and 20 yard-lines. It does cause one to wonder whether Gilbride really trusts Travis Henry. The game-winning drive was aided by two penalties for 44 yards committed by the Bills. Sure, there were some good plays. But for every good play that I had annotated, there was another that was equally bad.
Gilbride appears to be like a kid who was given instructions not to do something or that there would be big consequences, while naturally ignoring the advice of elders, doing the opposite, and consequently getting burned. Had he listened to conventional NFL wisdom and basic common sense, he would have allowed the rushing game to carry the Bills to victory on Sunday. Instead, I suppose he reasoned, “why run the ball when you can put the ball in the air? Afterall, what bad can happen when you throw the ball?” Henry got the call 16 times in the first half while only getting the nod 8 times in the second half. Did he not play well? I am not quite sure what Kevin Gilbride thought. But what I saw was a running back that kept the Bills in the game, the K.C. offense off the field, had a rushing average of over 5 yards-per-game and one that had turned an outstanding performance in the first half, hardly get the call at all when the game was on the line!
The Bills passing game, while starting off with a bang this season against inferior competition, put up 14 touchdowns over the first 6 games. Bledsoe was on pace for 40-some TDs and fans were all talking passing title and an NFL record for passing yardage. Well, that honeymoon seems to be over now with the Bills’ passing game yielding only 4 touchdowns in the last 4 games. The passing attack has gone flat on a pace that over the course of the season would yield only 16 TDs, a sorry output given the composition of this team offensively. Any yardage records should be so far out of anyone’s mind to be almost embarrassing for anyone originally suggesting them. So why has this happened other than the fact that the Bills started to face the tougher teams on their schedule? In any case, one of two things had better happen next week in the Meadowlands; either the Bills win the game in a convincing fashion, or Bledsoe had better start slinging some touchdowns. Otherwise the criticism is going to begin to come from many fans fast and furiously.
What puzzles me is that the Bills really did not need a touchdown to win the game with a fresh drive starting at their own 44-yard line and 4:45 on the clock. Simply some time off the clock and a field goal likely would have won it the way that Mortensen had been kicking. All the Bills needed to do was to consume 4-minutes and change on a drive starting from their own 44 yard-line. So what better way to do that than to go deep on the fifth play of the drive at the 4:26 mark on a drive that had been one rushing play to 3 passing plays up to that point! Gosh, I sure can’t think of a better way to gain some yardage and chew up some clock after your running back had averaged over 5 yards-per-carry! I mean, up until that interception the Bills had run 4 plays, three of which were passing plays going 1 for 3 for 11 yards, in approximately 30 seconds. And for this Kevin Gilbride continually gets credited for being a “mastermind” and for coaching well?
Yes Bills fans, while the Bills are still alive mathematically, their practical chances of making the playoffs just went down the drain this weekend as they were unable to amass more than 16 points against an extremely weak K.C. squad. Couple this with the fact that the Bills had two weeks to prepare for this game and it appears even worse. It seems as though the Bills can only barely beat the scrubs of the league by 7 points or less.
I have little hope that they can possibly do all the things that would be necessary to win anymore than one or two of their remaining games. To date, the Bills have beaten 4 teams that are a combined 10-29, likely 10-30 after the Monday Night game, and a sad and disarrayed Miami team that appears to have rebounded and which we will need to play again at full strength seemingly. The Bills have lost to three teams that are currently 5-5 in N.E., the Jets, and K.C., along w/ 6-4 Oakland and 7-3 Denver. It seems that this Bills squad is incapable of beating any team that is .500 or better. This is not good news for a Bills team that must face 5-5 and resurgent Jets, 8-2 Green Bay, and 5-5 New England on the road and 6-4 Miami and 7-3 San Diego at home. Heck, with the way that Cincinnati is currently playing, I am not so sure that I am willing to lay any wagers that the Bills can even win that game at the Ralph! At this point, I will suggest to Bills fans that simply hoping to attain a .500 record may indeed be merely hoping.
What would be necessary to win some games is:
1. Putting together a game plan for four quarters;
2. Executing well for four quarters;
3. Actually scoring more than 20 points against what will be some very good defenses coming up when we have struggled against much worse defenses;
4. Tackling well;
5. Good play-calling and coaching;
6. and running the ball when it makes sense to do so.
The last one is the one that I have the least hope will occur with the pass-happy Gilbride at the helm. It seems that Gilbride would rather throw the ball in spite of doing what’s best for the team. Well, I would suggest that our “Drew Bledsoe marketing effort” is now over and that wins are the goal! This is no longer the offseason or preseason. It is midseason and what is occurring should simply not be occurring.
We need to begin looking ahead to next season when we are supposed to have a shot at the playoffs and advancing in them and are even expected to by many fans including myself. Yet, there appear to be many things that if they remain unchanged, will hinder us in our quest to do so. What should the Bills focus on for the remaining six games of this season?
As to strategy, why is it that Gilbride seems to eventually in many games abandon the rushing game when it has been the reason for success for the team up unto the point at which he abandoned it?
Why, and ever since the Bills got out of the cupcake portion of their schedule, have they had trouble scoring? Afterall, on paper this offense is a “powerhouse!”
Why, while often managing to put up large yardage totals, does Bledsoe seem to struggle putting the ball in the endzone?
Why has the overall production of our passing game been on a decline after the first four or five games?
Why are we near the bottom of the league in penalties committed?
Why have the Bills only scored 13 2nd-half points in the past 4 games?
How come the Bills defense, the highly touted 46 defense which is supposed to “disrupt play” and create confusion and turnovers, does not seem to be doing that?
Perhaps it is a matter of perspective. Perhaps the confusion and turnovers are supposed to happen to us as the result of the play of the D. That’s gotta be it! Please pardon any confusion on my part for thinking the former.
Bottom Line:
While mathematically the Bills are still alive in the playoff hunt, there will be no playoffs for the Bills this season. It is completely unrealistic to think that with only one week to prepare over the next few weeks, vice the two that we had for K.C., that we can regularly beat teams equal to or better than the Chiefs in our next 5 games with 3 of those 5 games on the road. It is even more unrealistic when you consider that we have not beaten such caliber opponents all season long. Not even once. If by some odd stroke of fate and some injuries to other teams the Bills do make it, look for a prompt, early, and embarrassing ouster from them. But something can still be salvaged out of this season. They need to start asking, Greg Williams and Tom Donahoe that is, why on earth Gilbride prefers to pass the football when very clearly it is in the Bills’ best interests to run it? That apparently is only a question that Kevin Gilbride can answer. The follow-on is what are they going to do about it heading into next season?
They should also be thinking ahead to who the new defensive coordinator will be. They need to start resolving some of these coaching issues so that they are not occurring at the start of next season. How they handle it is up to them as the professionals that they are. However, I would strongly suggest that if it is not handled, then next season may see some big changes following it and the Bills may end up squandering a year that otherwise fans will be expecting a solid season accompanied by a respectable record along with a return to the playoffs.