| November 29, 2004 | « Previous Story | HOME | Next Story » | Posted at 02:45 PM |
Quarterbacks Drew Bledsoe had a pretty good game. He did not lose it, but also did not help it with 3 intercepted passes. However, he did not let that bring him down, like he normally does. After Bledsoe threw the 1st interception, he drove the team down the field for a field goal. After the next pick, he came back onto the field with about 3 minutes to go and executed a perfect touchdown drive, using the 2-minute offense. He did the same thing in the 3rd quarter after his 3rd interception. It was nice to see some confidence in Drew Bledsoe and the fact that nothing really fazed him.
Bledsoe finished the game completing 25/37 for 275 yards, 1 TD, and 3 INT. He had a 67.9% completion rate and the 3 picks were really the only bad passes. You could even say that the three interceptions might not have happened against another defense; the Seahawks are currently leading the league with 17 interceptions and had 14 going into the game. Quarterback JP Losman came in for garbage time and handed the ball off most of the time, except for one play, in which he found Tim Euhus for a 17-yard gain to move the chains on 2nd and 4. If the team keeps playing this good, it looks like garbage time is the only time we may see JP Losman and I agree with that move. You can’t kill the team chemistry and the winning mentality now, by taking Bledsoe out. The only way Losman should get a start is if the Bills get mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. Grade: B
Running Backs: WOW! That’s basically what most Bills fans were thinking when Willis McGahee was about to get stuffed at the goal line and bounced outside to get into the end zone for the touchdown. Or how about when Bledsoe tossed him the ball on a fake QB sneak on 4th and 1? He didn’t just get the 1-yard that he needed for the first down, but also another 29 yards for a touchdown! Or how about the killer stiff arm that Willis used to get into the end zone on another run? Again, WOW is all I could keep thinking. McGahee had his best game yet with 28 carries for 116 yards and 4 (yeah that’s right, I said FOUR) touchdowns. He also caught 2 passes for 26 yards.
Travis Henry had 1 catch for 5 yards, which converted a 3rd and 3, but he also broke his leg in the same play. Joe Burns took over for Henry as a reliever and had 7 rushes for 14 yards. Daimon Shelton did a great job blocking and caught 1 pass for 24 yards. It was basically all McGahee on Sunday and the scary part is that he is only 85% recovered. Just imagine once he gets that burst back. I can’t wait! Grade: A+
Wide Receivers: Eric Moulds was back to normal. He caught 8 passes for 93 yards and didn’t drop any of them. This was mainly because the Seahawks had to cover Lee Evans in the 2nd half. Lee Evans did a great job taking some of the coverage off Moulds by making some big plays and forcing the defense to worry about the long ball. Evans had 6 receptions for 70 yards, including a nifty one-handed touchdown catch in the end zone. He also ran for 15 yards on a reverse, which converted a 3rd and 3. Sam Aiken had 1 catch for 11 yards. Jonathan Smith caught 2 passes for 10 yards and had 1 run for 3 yards. Overall, it was a good game for the receivers and all of them were involved in the game for a change. Grade: A
Tight Ends: Mark Campbell was contained with some double coverage in the end zone and was held to check for most of the game. He did have 3 receptions for 31 yards, including a sweet 18-yard catch and run to the 2-yard line, which setup the touchdown to Lee Evans at the end of the 1st half. Tim Euhus caught 2 passes for 22 yards, one of them being a nice 17-yard pass from JP Losman to convert a 2nd down and 4. Overall, it was a quiet day as Seattle keyed on Campbell in the red zone for the whole game and the tight ends were busy blocking and making holes for McGahee to run through. Grade: A-
Offensive Line: Another good game for this unit. It looks like McNally needed a little bit of time before he could work his magic and it is starting to show. Drew Bledsoe had lots of time to throw and was hardly touched or rattled by the Seahawks. He was sacked once, which was immediately after Jonas Jennings went down with an injury and Marcus Price came in. Price was beaten easily for the sack, but did a good job after that. The line also opened some nice holes for Willis McGahee to run through and that definitely helped the offense out, plus they didn’t have a single penalty and that was big for a road game. Overall, it seems like this unit is really starting to jell and that’s a huge part of why this offense is doing so well lately. Grade: A
Defensive Line: On the stat page, the front four was pretty quiet. Aaron Schobel and Chris Kelsay applied some pressure on Matt Hasselbeck, which apparently was just enough to force him to make some bad throws. They also did a good job helping to stuff Shaun Alexander. Ryan Denney was the only one with a sack, and he also forced a fumble during that sack which Pat Williams recovered. Sam Adams and Pat Williams were busy plugging the middle and working on the offensive line to shut down all holes for Shaun Alexander to run through. Pat Williams also made a great play sniffing out a QB sneak and stuffing Hasselbeck at the goal line, which forced Seattle to kick a field goal. It may not have looked like they did a lot, but they were outworking the Seahawks’ offensive line, which definitely resulted in Shaun Alexander getting shut down. Grade: A-
Linebackers: Another great game for one of the top linebacker corps in the NFL. Takeo Spikes was dominant with a sack, 3 knocked down passes, and at least 4 tackles. That number seems rather low, because I saw Spikes in almost every play. He was a huge reason why the Bills held the NFL rushing leader to only 39 yards on 13 carries. London Fletcher was the other reason. He had 7 total tackles, and also intercepted a two-point conversion pass from Matt Hasselbeck in the 4th quarter. Jeff Posey had 2 tackles, with one of them being for a 3-yard loss on Alexander. Overall, it was another great day by this unit as they continue to prove to the other teams why they are the best unit in a top-notch defense. Grade: A+
Secondary: Terrence McGee started out a little slow in the first half, but then dominated in the second half. McGee had 8 total tackles and an interception. He did a good job covering the Seahawks’ receivers, but was also helped by quite a few dropped passes. Nate Clements continued to keep up his solid coverage and even helped with stopping the run. He finished the day with 7 tackles. Kevin Thomas had 3 tackles, but was also called for an illegal contact penalty that kept a Seattle drive alive in the 2nd quarter. Rashad Baker had 5 tackles, including a key stop on Hasselbeck to keep him from getting into the end zone on a QB sneak. This play resulted in a Seattle field goal. Lawyer Milloy was quiet and wasn’t used in hardly any blitzes to get the quarterback. He had 2 tackles, but was solid in pass coverage. Overall it was a good day by the secondary, but they had some help from Seattle with all the dropped passes. Grade: A
Special Teams: Another solid game by the Bills’ best unit. They may have not made the same exciting plays as last week, but they still did a good job. The surprise onside kick to open the second half was brilliant. It basically told the Seahawks that they are in for the kill. It was a nice move by Bobby April and perfectly executed by Rian Lindell. Lindell also did a good job with the kickoffs and made all 5 of his extra points. He also made one 25-yard field goal and missed a 53-yarder, which didn’t count, because a Seattle player got a 15-yard penalty for leaping. Brian Moorman only had 1 punt and it was for 36 yards. As for the kick/punt returning teams, you could tell Seattle was scared of them right away when they kicked the ball out of bounds instead of kicking off to the deadly trio of Terrence McGee, Jonathan “Fast Freddie” Smith, and London Fletcher. Terrence McGee had 1 return and it was for 23 yards. Nate Clements had 2 punt returns for an average of 3.5 yards. Eric Moulds caught the Seattle onside kick and ran it for 2 yards. The coverage team did a good job too. They held Seattle to an average of 17.8 yards on 6 kickoff returns. Overall, it was another good day by the Special Teams and another day where you wish we had this special teams unit in 2000 against the Titans. Maybe the “Music City Miracle wouldn’t have happened. Grade: A
Coaching: Mike Mularkey continues to prove why he is the Buffalo Bills head coach. He has done a great job recovering from a 0-4 start to the season. You can tell that this team is beginning to build some confidence and is developing into a dangerous team. It just took a little bit of time for the whole team to jell and learn how to win. Both sides of the ball had a great game plan and it worked to perfection.
Tom Clements had a nice offensive game plan, controlling the clock with the run for 36:24 and passing the ball when necessary. He also did a nice job throwing in a couple gutsy trick plays that all seemed to work. The best was when they chose to go for the 1st down on 4th down and 1 at the 30-yard line. Coach Mularkey called a fake quarterback sneak in which Drew Bledsoe pitched the ball back to Willis McGahee, who would run for the first down. It worked better than they thought. McGahee took it 30 yards down the field for the touchdown. Another good call was from Bobby April when he chose to do an onside kick instead of the kickoff to open the second half. Rian Lindell did an 11-yard squib kick that he was able to recover. It worked perfectly and showed that they had the mentality that they were going to do everything it takes to win the game. The team came out and added another 21 points in the 2nd half.
There was one more move that impressed me that took place before the game. Mike Mularkey was calling up other head coaches to find out what they do differently on away games. Whatever they told him seemed to work. Let’s see if he can do the same thing next week against a pathetic Miami team. Grade: A+
