Bills Zone’s Postgame Report Card: Bills vs. Jets

by Michael J. Thomas

The Zone's Michael J. Thomas' week 5 report card.

Quarterbacks: Drew Bledsoe did not lose this game. He did exactly what was asked of him, handing the ball off and mixing in a couple long bombs downfield. Bledsoe was 16/29 for 197 yards and threw 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. The interception was at the very final seconds of the game in a desperation attempt, and really didn’t do anything.

He did miss on a few passes, under throwing or overthrowing the receivers. However, he brought the team back in the 4th quarter to take a 14-13 lead with 6 minutes to go. If only the defense could’ve held on.
Grade: B

Running Backs: Travis Henry struggled against a tough Jets defense and only ran 12 times for 33 yards. He did not receive any help from the offensive line. However, Willis McGahee came in and converted three, 3rd down plays, including a 3rd and 9, where he ran for 21 yards on a sweep. He finished the game with 8 carries for 42 yards, and impressed many people. Daimon Shelton caught 2 passes for 22 yards and made some nice blocks for the backs.
Grade: C+

Wide Receivers: Eric Moulds had a good game, not great, but not bad. He dropped a pass that was right in his hands and was held or grabbed for most of the game. Moulds had 6 receptions for 54 yards and never made the big play because of the coverage that Donnie Abraham had on him. Lee Evans caught another deep pass from Drew Bledsoe and it was a beauty! Bledsoe found Evans for 46 yards and the touchdown. Josh Reed continues to frustrate fans with his hands as he dropped one pass and missed the other one, with a wonderful 0 catches for 0 yards. It looks like Bobby Shaw is going to jump past Reed on the depth chart. He made some solid catches and had 3 of them for 37 yards. Overall, it was a sloppy first 3 quarters for this unit as they each had at least one drop and were not in a rhythm. They found that rhythm in the 4th quarter as they drove downfield 2 times for 2 touchdowns.
Grade: B-

Tight Ends: Finally the tight ends became involved in this offense a bit. Mark Campbell caught only 1 pass for 16 yards, but it was a nice touchdown pass. Tim Euhus caught two passes for 20 yards and both of them had some nice blocks for Bledsoe and the running backs.
Grade: B+

Offensive Line: On Sunday this line proved something. They showed that when Bledsoe has more than 3 seconds to throw, the offense actually clicks. Unfortunately, they didn’t do it too often. Bledsoe was rushed into a bunch of throws and sacked 4 times. The run blocking was poor. There were a couple holes here and there, but most of the time the backs were hit at the line of scrimmage or right near it. Oh and to make matters worse, Ross Tucker fumbled a snap on 3rd down and 8 when the offense was moving down the field. He does have an excuse that this was his first time playing center with Drew Bledsoe and it was a shotgun snap. He didn’t do a bad job snapping the ball other than that one play. This unit is definitely showing improvement and hopefully will get better and give Bledsoe more time from now on.
Grade: C+

Defensive Line: Aaron Schobel had a great game. He finally got his first sack and put a ton of pressure on Chad Pennington, sometimes forcing him to make some bad throws. Schobel also had a forced fumble and a pass defensed. Chris Kelsay had a sack, 2 tackles and pressured Pennington many times. Ryan Denney was quiet with 3 tackles and he rotated with Kelsay for most of the game. Even Justin Bannan got into the action as he got past the Jets OL and forced Pennington to throw an interception. On the run defense side, they did a pretty good job holding Curtis Martin. This was the first time he had been held to under 100 yards rushing and it’s mainly because of the two big guys in the middle. Sam Adams had 5 tackles and was pretty active, while Pat Williams helped to plug the holes to shut down Martin. Overall, this was this best game of the season. Yeah, Chad Pennington did get time to throw and passed for over 300 yards, but he was also rushed into many passes and was sacked 2 times by the defensive line after only getting sacked 4 times in the first 3 games. You could definitely see some fatigue towards the end of the game.
Grade: A-

Linebackers: London Fletcher led the team with an incredible 21 tackles and had a solid game. He made one really nice play where he ran down the field and stopped Santana Moss from getting the touchdown. Fletcher also had a game where he did not get any penalties. Takeo Spikes’ day was quieter. He had 5 tackles, but one of them was for a short loss. Jeff Posey had a solid day, getting his first interception since 2002 and making 5 tackles.
Grade: B+

Secondary: Nate Clements had an excellent game, shutting down his receiver for most of the game and making 4 tackles. Clements also forced Chris Baker to fumble the ball and Pierson Prioleau recovered it. Terrence McGee started in place of Troy Vincent and was picked on as predicted. He allowed Wayne Chrebet to convert four, key 3rd down plays and was burned for 90 yards. However, he did manage to make 10 tackles. Izell Reese was quiet for most of the game, with only 1 assist. Pierson Prioleau was the goat of the day with a bonehead unnecessary roughness penalty after Wayne Chrebet was obviously down on the ground for a little bit. He also was guilty for a questionable 35-yard pass interference penalty in the end zone. These two penalties helped the Jets get the first touchdown on the board. It was a long day for this unit as Chad Pennington threw for over 300 yards. Not a terrible day for a unit that is missing two star defensive backs. Lawyer Milloy is definitely missed.
Grade: C+

Special Teams: Brian Moorman had an off game, but still did better than the other punter. He had an average of 36.6 yards on 7 punts with 2 of them inside the 20-yard line. Rian Lindell was not called up for any field goals because the offense never got within range. He did have 1 nice kickoff for a touchback. The coverage was a bit shaky on the punt returns and they almost let Santana Moss take the ball into the end zone. Thankfully, Pierson Prioleau made the tackle to stop him. The return teams did nothing special. Nate Clements had 1 punt return for 6 yards and Terrence McGee averaged 23 yards on kick returns. The only thing that really hurt this unit was penalties on punts as Jabari Greer had a false start and Jon Dorenbos had a holding penalty.
Grade: C

Coaching: There is definitely some light in the tunnel. The Bills were never really out of it and kept the score 0-13 until the 4th quarter when Coach Mularkey finally had it. He chewed out the offense after another bad drive and the result was two consecutive touchdowns. It’s nice to see a little emotion and hopefully they can keep it up. Mularkey also decided to mix in a few young guys as Lee Evans, Willis McGahee and even Tim Euhus were involved in the offense and provided a spark. The only problem that I have with the coaching was the fact that they went into prevent defense in the final 6 minutes and allowed the Jets to drive down the field and kick the game winning field goal. Other than that, it was a pretty good game. I think that they are so close to being there and they realize it. In the 2nd half, the defense had a spark and forced turnovers. The offense woke up in the 4th quarter, just a little bit too late. Let’s see if they can carry this energy and spark into the game against the Dolphins next week.
Grade: B