OpIv37's Postgame Review

by Bryan Ault

It's tempting to make this article the most simplistic analysis in the history of mankind:

The Positve: the 2nd half.
The Negative: the 1st half.

But I feel like I owe BZ and any readers more than that. Plus, I'm way too opinionated to stop without commenting further.

First of all, props to the coaching staff for halftime adjustments. They were horrible at it the last two years, but they're great at it this year.

Second, if we've confirmed one thing this year, it's that Steve Fairchild was a terrible OC. Last year, we all knew that his offense was predictable, conservative and did not utilize the talent he had. This is nothing new or shocking. But did anyone really think Schonert would be able to do so much better with pretty much the same personnel? He's doing an amazing job using different formations (ie, the 3WR bunch, Lynch and Jackson in the backfield at the same time, etc.) and makes much better play calls and in-game adjustments.

The positive:
-Lynch and Jackson are a great RB duo

-Edwards continues to show smarts and poise.

-Evans rebounded well from a poor performance last week.

-Josh Reed made some big catches. The dude seems to get drilled every time he touches the ball, but gets up like nothing happened.

-HUGE hits by Poz, McKelvin and Ko Simpson

-Donte Whitner had a great game. He flew from the other side of the field to take Jackson's feet out on that 9 yard run, and he was blitzing but still managed to chase Jackson down on that screen play near the end. Both of those plays went for significant gains, but without Whitner's efforts they're both touchdowns. He also had a sack and a stop at the line of scrimmage.

-Poz had a great game overall, including the tackle on Holt (after Holt beat McKelvin) that would have gone for a huge gain if Poz didn't read and react properly.

-Kyle Williams is a steal.

-Ashton Youboty may be the best tackler on the team.

-S/T was solid.

The negative
-Too many stupid penalties, especially Peters, Fowler and Ko Simpson (I'm giving Royal a pass on the 2-point conversion- more on that later).

-Peters just had an all-around terrible game.

-Fowler sucks..

-Whittle CANNOT play FB- fortunately the coaches went away from that strategy later in the game.

-James Hardy made it painfully obvious why he hasn't been on the field much. He's not ready to compete at this level yet.

-Same goes for McKelvin. I actually screamed "PROTECT THE *@!DAMN BALL" seconds before he fumbled.

-The DL was dominated in the first half (although they improved in the second.

Incompletes:
Kawika Mitchell, Keith Ellison. These guys were non-factors.

Also, Schobel only made two plays that I recall. I'm starting to think he's washed up.

Op's Over-Analysis on the Week: Is Marshawn Lynch hurting?

First, I have to start by saying I'm a huge fan of Lynch. The guy runs hard every play and does something amazing every game. The stiff arm he put on that LB was absolutely amazing.

But today, he was slow to get up after every play. At one point, the coaches stopped using Jackson on punt returns and started using McKelvin, despite the fact that Jackson had a few decent returns (they did eventually go back to using Jackson). I can't help but wonder if Lynch is sore or hurt in some way.

Please understand this is PURE SPECULATION on my part- the team has not released anything publicly to suggest that Lynch is injured. It may just be me reading into it too much, but there is a reason why this section is called "over-analysis."

General Comments/Looking Forward:
-After the 2-point conversion by Jackson was called back, both Jauron and Schonert were asking for an explanation from the officials. I can't hold that one against Royal. I think Royal did exactly what he was coached to do and 1 of 2 things happened: either the refs made a terrible call, or Jauron and Schonert thought it was legal but it wasn't. I'd really like to know what happened there.

-Who would have thought that the Bills and Titans would have the best records in the AFC after 4 weeks?

-This team is fairly deep at corner. McGee, Greer and Youboty can all play, and despite McKelvin's problems, he did get better as the game went on.

-Spencer Johnson was on the field a LOT and played well for the most part, but hopefully Stroud isn't seriously injured.

-There were two plays where McMichael got open against Whitner, but the pass rush disrupted the throw and Green couldn't get the ball to him. For some reason, Whitner seems to struggle one on one with TE's. But, no harm, no foul. As I already mentioned, Whitner's overall performance was great.

-I LOVED the Lynch run on 3rd and 5 in the 4th quarter. It was a gutsy call by Schonert in that situation, and it paid off because the OL got the initial push and Lynch finished the job with a great individual effort.

-Props to George Wilson and Lynch for getting into it with the Bills fans in the stands at the end of the game.

-I saw at least two BLATANT holds by St. Louis that weren't called. On one play, Johnson came up the middle and the guard had his arms wrapped around Johnson's shoulder pads. On the other one, Kawika Mitchell was basically tackled trying to defend a screen when the Rams were pinned deep. I know technically holding can be called on almost every play, but these two non-calls were ridiculous.

-The mental toughness of this Bills team is amazing, but we have to start faster to be competitive.

-St. Louis really is a terrible team. They played tough in the first half of the game despite a large number of distractions, but Buffalo dominated them 25-0 in the second half.

-The Arizona game scares me. They're a decent team, and they're going to want to rebound after being embarrassed today. We're undefeated and traveling 3000 miles to play a non-conference opponent the week before the bye.