| October 18, 2003 | « Previous Story | HOME | Next Story » | Posted at 01:04 AM |
Game Grades:
QB: B- Bledsoe was anything but solid in the first half. Had the team’s only two turnovers but a great block too.
RB: A+ Henry showed, albeit versus a terrible front 4, that he is not going to pave the way to McGahee’s starting anytime soon. His play was the reason for the success of the offense.
WR: A Josh Reed really stepped up this week with catch after catch doing away with any notions of a “slump.” Shaw and Coleman caught the only other balls thrown to WRs.
TE: A Campbell made a couple of very nice catches and Neufeld was excellent in a blocking role on several plays.
OL: B They did what they had to do against a poor DL.
DL: C+ Once again, it was Schobel and Williams with 95% of the contributions of the line. Adams produced a goose egg stat wise and should have made several easy plays and Denney’s contributions were nominal. Same old, same old. No sacks other than a last minute sack on Mr. Sack, Rob Johnson in a situation made for a sack-seeking team.
LB: B+ The reason for whatever pressure on Ramsey that there was was due to the ability of the LBs to play up and not having to worry about any threats out of the backfield. They did what they had to.
DB: A Allowed one touchdown to Gardner on a perfectly thrown Ramsey ball. Other than that shut down the passing game allowing less than 100 yards on only 8 other completions.
ST: D+ Punting was good as usual. Returns were not. Coverages were average. Kickoffs were not good either.
Coaching: B It would have been very difficult to have "coached" this game poorly. So if by nothing else but default, the coaching was decent.
The Bills won convincingly. Convincingly as the score goes, but not convincingly in my book that they still have a realistic chance of making the playoffs. Sure, the Bills won by 17, but they also left the Skins in this game until near midway through the fourth quarter when they should have been able to put them away sooner. Moreover, the Bills were able to score only the 24-point average that the Skins have allowed this season against a Ramsey-led one-dimensional offense with no running game. As well, a miscue, a simple fumble after the snap having nothing to do with the play of the defense, on third-and-inches at the Bills’ one yard line prevented the Skins from putting up seven points up to the Bills’ ten at the time.
The Skins have arguably one of the worst defensive lines in the game today. Through seven games this season, the Skins front four has amassed only 5.5 sacks. This was evident throughout the game as the Skins front four put little to no pressure on Bledsoe most of the day. It was a good game to put the offensive line into some sort of sync, but clearly not representative of a typical NFL defensive line and especially not typical of the types of defenses that the Bills will be facing from here on out as the easy portion of the schedule has now passed. For the most part, the Skins were only able to apply pressure from their back seven. The only sack of the day was registered by Jessie Armstead.
Moreover, while the defense played well, consider the offense that they played. They faced a rushing-challenged offense without a bonafide starting running back and a team who’s “strength” is their passing game led by a second-year first time starter facing the strength of the Bills D, namely their secondary. A win is a win, but I see little reason for Bills fans to begin holding out hope that this was somehow the win that will propel the Bills into the playoffs. There are still too many issues which abound.
Henry’s success was due to much better blocking against a very sub-mediocre Skins defensive line. Nevertheless, Henry showed heart and played with intensity. If he plays that way each week henceforth, the rushing game will at least not be as lackluster as it has largely been providing he can get some good blocking. As well, obvious to everyone who watched the game, many of Henry’s rushes were around the ends and on toss plays or sweeps which is uncharacteristic of Henry or the way that the Bills have used Henry primarily in the past. Blocking up-the-middle was still suspect with flashes of being solid only on two or three drives.
As to pressure by the Skins, Bruce Smith most clearly is no longer an even average defensive end as he struggles to do much of anything these days. I find it difficult to imagine that he will achieve his sack record in any other fashion than capitalizing off of offensive miscues for the remaining 1.5 sacks that he still needs. Never having been primarily known for his strength, Bruce’s speed is only a fraction of what it used to be and no longer even approaches being worthy of anything other than the most routine of game planning. The rest of the Skins defensive line was rotated in and out similar to the way that the Bills have rotated their linemen this season. The big difference is that the Skins’ line is absent a pro-bowl caliber defensive tackle in Pat Williams and does not even possess a defensive end as good as Aaron Schobel.
The defense stepped up and played solid ball although they logged only one sack by Posey and generated no forced turnovers getting only the one botched snap turnover very fortuitously on the aforementioned 3rd-and-inches at the Bills’ goal line. This was arguably the most critical play of the game.
Drew played well in the second half throwing for just over 100 yards on 100% completions missing only one which was negated by a holding penalty. However, a Bledsoe fumble on a bizarre Bledsoe rush play on a 1st-and-20 ended in the Skins recovering the ball near midfield. In the first half Drew was a lackluster 11 of 18 for 139 yards allowing one sack as well on a blitz. Drew’s second half performance was clearly the result of the Skins needing to focus on stopping Henry thereby opening up some nice situations for Drew to pick apart.
All in all, this game while fun to watch and be at, was not indicative that the Bills are anything other than what we have seen thus far through nearly a season and a half in the Bledsoe era. They remain a team that is capable of beating only .500 or sub-.500 caliber teams or in games with extensive mitigating or unusual circumstances such as the home opener versus the Patriots or last year’s two games versus a Lucas-led Fins team. Fans should not put much credence in this game as anything other than that.
This week’s contest at Arrowhead Stadium should be a much better indicator as to whether or not this “new attitude” was anything other than having taken advantage of a team with a whole host of issues. Unfortunately for the Bills, yesterday’s Monday night game was not the type of game that will cause the Chiefs to lapse at home next week. It not particularly emotional for them and they have most of Sunday next week to rest thereby mitigating the usual adjustment of teams having played on Monday night needing to play a one or four o’clock game the following week.
The victory was apparently bittersweet as well. On the way out of the stadium overheard were several conversations expressing mixed emotions in that such a win would perhaps keep the chances of a Greg Williams and Kevin Gilbride not being fired at season’s end alive. Obviously this win does not have at least some fans convinced that Williams will not be resigned and Gilbride fired at the end of the season. Also on a related note, Gregg Williams was led into the stadium by two police officers and led out by three of them. This is not a good sign for Mr. Williams.
My take on this game in a nutshell is that the Skins are among the bottom 25% of teams in the league. Such a victory is what it is, a win over exactly such a team. Had this been anyone of the remaining teams on the schedule, I am not convinced that the effort put forth on Sunday would have been enough to emerge with a victory against more than one or two of those remaining teams. I have no idea how this current Bills team expects to beat the Titans on the road, K.C. on the road, Indy at home, New England on the road, or even Miami at home assuming that Fiedler is not injured this year. I also see a Pennington-led Jets as being a struggle, a road game in Dallas being a struggle, a road game vs. the Giants being a struggle, and even a home game vs. the Texans being a struggle.
While the Cowboys are tremendously overrated given that their defense has only played offensively-challenged opponents, they are still led by Parcels and are a team believing in themselves, a position that the Bills may not be in by then. While the Giants are not good, they do bring an offense to the table that the Bills are not good at stopping, namely one with a decent TE and one that features a running back such as Barber capable of exploiting the middle territory vacated by the Bills’ linebackers as they attempt to play up. That should be a good week for fantasy owners who have Shockey. Houston seems to improve each week and the emergence of Domanick Davis may round out a Carr-led passing attack nicely. Throw in a decent defense and that may be a good game. The Bills barely beat the Texans last season and since then the Texans have improved while the same cannot necessarily be said about the Bills. The Jets beat the Bills minus Pennington and the return of Pennington only adds another element that the Bills will need to defend against. The Jets will likely be playing with a renewed vigor by then as well.
I don’t mean to throw a wet blanket on the party, but 17-7 through three quarters versus the Skins at home, a team with no defensive line to speak of, and a team with no balance whatsoever on offense really doesn’t do much for me. The Bills were only able to sack the Skins QBs twice. Once on an unusual play where Posey registered a sack and once on Rob Johnson in the waning moments of the game by Aaron Schobel. Other than that the pressure was good but not great and in my estimation only what it was due to the fact that the Bills did not have to worry about the Skins rushing game in the least. Throw in the fact that the Bills did not force a single turnover and I simply cannot be convinced that this win was anything special.
I was happy at the game, it was fun to watch, good to see, and even very exciting and entertaining. But if I had to venture a guess as to the outcome of the last 9 games, I would predict 2-7 or 3-6 and that the Bills are headed for 6-10 or 7-9 at this point with not a single win against the Chiefs, Colts, Titans, Dolphins, or Patriots forthcoming. The Bills have only proven themselves completely incapable of beating such caliber opponents under normal circumstances. It will be up to the Bills to demonstrate that is not the case this week if they are to shed that stigma.
Obviously I hope I am wrong, however this week’s game in Kansas City will reveal much about the Bills. I may revise my prediction following that game if the Bills are even still in the game after three quarters even with a resulting loss. Barring that however I see little difference in this team simply because they beat a team with a young and inexperienced one-dimensional offense also led by a coach on the bubble along with a fragmented defense. It was a breath of fresh air, but I have a hunch that the air is not going to be so fresh in the ensuing weeks. Following the nationally televised Chiefs game the Bills have a timely bye week at exactly midseason. I’m a betting man but I would not bet against some interesting front office activity during this bye week dependent upon the outcome of Sunday night’s game.
Mark Weiler is a writer/analyst covering Bills football for BillsZone.com. For questions or comments; mweiler.billszone@cox.net.
