Doesn’t it feel wonderful coming out of Foxboro with a moral victory last night? Let me think…..no. But then again…no.
The Patriots didn’t look like defending champions for most of the night. The Bills looked like the better team. But in the end NE made the plays they needed as champions do, and the Bills…
The fact is though if someone had said before the game would you take the Bills having the ball in Patriots territory with a chance to win at the end of the game I know I would have taken it in a heartbeat. So why does this game leave me feeling so empty?
Aaron Schobel must have taken the “5 layers of protection” Visa ad with Tom Brady and his offensive line personally.
New England’s defense is a shadow of the dominating unit of past years without Richard Seymour and Rodney Harrison.
Kelly Holcomb is a good fit for this offense. He doesn’t have Drew Bledsoe’s arm, but he has a quick release and is very accurate on the short pass. Holcomb seems content to throw mostly short balls which frustrated Bledsoe, a guy who wanted to make plays down the field. Until the pass protection is upgraded dink and dunk is the only way to go.
Of course dinking and dunking a 4th and 7 with a 1 yard pass is taking things to an extreme.
This loss vaguely feels like winning the office NFL pool and then losing your wallet on the way home.
It was fun seeing sideline shots of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady looking flustered on the sidelines. Pity it didn’t last.
Seeing Justin Bannan back in the mix at DT tells you all you need to know about the Bills depth at that position.
Speaking of DT, Ron Edwards was a drop-off from Pat Williams. And Tim Anderson is a cliff dive from Ron Edwards.
Funniest moment of the game was after a penalty forced NE to retry a field goal attempt, Paul McGuire laughed at the Bills for attempting to “ice the iceman” by calling a timeout before Adam Vinatieri’s kick. And of course Vinatieri then proceeded to hook the kick left.
Mike Mularkey had to be impressed with the effort last night from his team. He had to be impressed with how the Bills controlled the clock and how they rushed the passer. But in the end he knows a golden opportunity to make a statement that the Bills are contenders in the AFC East was wasted. Instead he’s staring across the edge of an abyss with hordes of disgruntled fans ready to apply boot to butt. Because in the NFL, there’s no such thing as a moral victory.
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