One Fan's View: JP and his patent double sack

by Kevin Shenoy

Hostile Environment and Bad Signs

 

Well, I went to my first “hostile” environment football game in Arizona this weekend. I put hostile in quotes because it really wasn’t at all…at first. In fact when we got to the game, there were just as many Bills jerseys as Cardinal Jerseys. The Cardinal fans seemed ok with it. No one was telling us to do anything with ourselves. In fact the only trash that was spoken prior to the game was from two people. Once the game was out of hand, it became significantly more hostile (more on that in the DVD Extras).

 

Prior to the game, the first trash talker was a mid 30’s guy in a Cardinals’ jersey and told us that the Bills sucked and that we were going down. Shelly was in the Moulds/Molds jersey and lowered her sunglasses to look the guy in the eye. He immediately backed down, smiled and said, “That’s all I got. Sorry, I get stage fright.” We all laughed. It was totally innocent. The second incident was not.

 

The second person who talked some trash to us was an 8 year old son of a Bills fan. The hex he laid down on the Bills made him a son of something else. And I should have known it was an ominous sign. He was a harbinger of death if you will and only 8 years old! This only adds to the reasons I don’t like 8 year olds or kids in general.

 

The kid walked up to us and says, “Who is your back up QB?” His Bills-clad father says, “he’ll know. Bills fans know who their back up is.” So I said, “J.P. Losman.” I guess the father and son had some bet because the kid looked about as disappointed as I would be about 30 minutes later when I heard “JP Losman enters for Trent Edwards.” The father asked the son to give me a high five. So I put my hand out and the kid thinks about it, and then decides against it. Instead he tells me the Bills suck and runs back to his family. Yeah, I got dissed by an 8 year old (this should be a Fox TV show).

 

As someone who looks for meaning in everything, I can’t believe I didn’t think, “Oh.my.god. Edwards is going down today.” It was a football omen, and I failed to recognize it. Oh.my.god. Does that mean I am like JP and can’t read the tealeaves?

 

When Trent goes, so goes the game

Once inside the stadium, there were plenty of Bills fans in our section. It was awesome. We audibly had the “Let’s go Buffalo” clap going, there was the off-key drunken Shout song singing, and a general excitement to see all the Bills gear. People were in vintage jersey’s, homemade stuff, Buffalo hats, etc. It was awesome.

 

Then the 4^th play of the game happened. Awesome left on a cart and in comes JP. Two running plays later a turn over. Wow, who knew JP was going to put on a clinic of his career in one game. If Losman is like a fine wine, this was his vintage year of 2005. It made me think of the Tampa game in 2005 where he sprinted out the back of the endzone for no reason at all in the second week of that season. And even though the defense wasn’t up for the job, they weren’t meant to take this kind of beating.

 

Losman killed yet another potentially exciting game within minutes (Patriots home game last year). The only way he could sustain a drive was by throwing it long…once. He took the running game out of it early by not being able to read the defense. The Cardinals smelled the blood in the water and stacked the box to stop the run and to confuse Losman. Losman couldn’t get the ball out quick enough for the dump off passes making running after the catch impossible. He showed us his patented double sack move where he gets sacked once, and then on the second play sprints back to the 1 yard line and gets sacked again. The only play he didn’t give us was where he rolls out, no one is going to hit him, yet he fumbles anyway. Maybe he did late in the game, but I left with 3 minutes to go and was trying to avoid not getting killed.

 

The most annoying thing about Losman from my birds eye view seats was you could see who was open on every play. The receivers are getting open.Why is it under Edwards, Josh Reed is a legit target, but with Losman, he’s only a blocking WR? In my opinion a defense could literally rush all 11 players, and Losman would still wait to show off his long ball accuracy. He may have completed some underneath stuff during the game, but receivers had to make tough catches.

 

The Bills defense also reverted to the style it plays when Losman plays. How come this defense wasn’t out there for the first four games? I think it connects back to Losman’s poor play. You’re putting the poor defensive play on Losman? Are you crazy?

 

The Bills came onto the field with all sorts of excitement. They were really into it based on their huddle at the 25 and the jumping up and down before the game. You could see the energy that the Bills came out to evaporate quickly when Losman entered the game. Losman sucks so badly that I apologize to the word sucks. The defense, in turn, feels that they’ll have to have a perfect game to have a chance to win. They know they have to score a TD. And I think that pressure makes them play worse. I think that makes them lose focus on third down. They’re looking for the big play instead of the stop. They know just getting the stop doesn’t help. They need points.

 

Now  I’m not saying the defense didn’t absolutely stink as well. Letting a team go 6 for 6 on drives in the first half felt like Super Bowl 3 (Super Bowl 27 depending on how you count Super Bowls). I couldn’t believe that the dump off underneath to the running back worked every single play. Where was Poz? Defensive linemen weren’t even putting their hands up to try and knock it down.

 

I also couldn’t believe that receivers could catch the ball and then pull the most sandlot like move of stopping and cutting back into the middle making defenders miss.You know of what I speak, no? You catch it running your route, but then you just stop, óle your friend and change directions and run again. Usually when you run this in a pickup game, you’re laughing the whole way to the endzone taunting your buddy. Nevermind the fact that your pal who blew his chance to tag you ends up Donte Whitnering you in the endzone.

 

But the thing that makes me feel that the Bills will sort that out is that they put the Cardinals in a lot of 3^rd down situations. They just couldn’t stop 3^rd down. They let 60% of 3^rd downs get converted. I have faith that the defense will fix this. The tackling issues will get sorted out.

 

On offense under the stewardship of JP Losman, I don’t see it getting better. In fact I see it getting worse. The Evans touchdown. I was excited when it happened. It was an amazing toss. But JP didn’t throw to 2 checkoffs in plain sight while in the pocket. Instead he opted to wait 2 more seconds to launch his prayer to Evans. It worked and it felt great, but on all the other plays when it didn’t work out, we were off the field pretty quickly. He got sacked 5 times because of waiting too long for a play to develop. He fumbled because he waited for a play to develop.

 

I’m sure the few Losman apologists will site how Frank Reich could never come in a game for Jim Kelly and win in that game. Reich always succeeded the following week. Then years later after the Billy Joe Hobert incident, we knew why that was the case. I’m sure we have to hear for the umpteenth time, “just give Losman time, it’ll be different next time. He needs more snaps during practice.” You’ll never hear these same guys bring up the fact that they told us he was our best option for backup. I’m not so sure that the 75 year old Bills fan sitting two rows below us wasn’t a better back up option than JP. I think that old man still gets us to lose by 24 points.

 

Bring in Hamdan. Bring in the Ronnie Brown play, because like the Dolphins, that may be our only hope until Edwards can play again. Losman’s stats say he threw for 220 yards, yet you back out his prayer to Evans touchdown, it was a mere 133 yards. How many times have you seen him do that? He even struggled to throw his garbage time yards. He threw to Evans long again and pathetically whiffed short. “what a strong arm the kid has.” His interception was extremely weak. The DB didn’t even have to break for the ball. It just ended up in his hands. This was our best option for a back up QB? If he has to play against the Chargers, I hope God will guide the Bills to victory because we know JP certainly won’t.

 

 

DVD Extras:

-         Special Thanks to the Smith brothers Michael, Bryan, thanks for a good time for my inaugural visit to Arizona. Despite the loss, I had a blast. Even more thanks for schlepping us around from location to location.

-         Concern with Edwards I don’t even want to say this, but I think Edwards may be the Bills version of Tim Connolly. Extremely gifted player who is the difference between an average team and an above average team, but can not stay healthy. When I was flying home, I checked the internet and saw people saying, “He’s walking.” Or “he was on the flight.” This is the exact same thing after Connolly got decked in the Ottawa series in 2006. I have my fingers crossed that this is not the case. I also hope that Edwards comes back with the Mark Kelso helmet so that this never happens again.

-         Reason 21023 why hockey is pretty awesome No way your starting QB gets body slammed to the turf without a huge fight in hockey. I wish we had this kind of jungle justice in the NFL every now and then.

-         JP Losman to run Lehman Brother One thing I’ve noticed is that these overpaid CEO’s all seem to take the credit (and the oodles of money) when it all goes right. But they rarely fess up and give money back when times are rough. JP is very similar. His fans often run to his defense when things aren’t going well. “The OL didn’t block for him”, “the running game didn’t get going”, “the fumble was both marshawn and his fault.” Yet on the 87 yard prayer throw, it was all JP. Doesn’t he have a magnificent arm? JP should become a CEO since he knows how to deflect blame when things go wrong but unilaterally accept all praise when one play goes right.

-         Whitner in Coverage Anytime the Cardinals went to a 4 receiver set, Whitner was in on one on one coverage. And every time, no matter who was the receiver, the ball went to the Whitner receiver. Without a bigger push from the front DL, that play is going to torch us all season.

-         Stroud? Is he fully healthy? He was dominant in the first 4 weeks. He was nowhere to be found on Sunday. Is that injury going to be a problem?

-         More bad omens The Bills weren’t even out on the field for the national anthem. How did the NFL allow that to happen, I’m not sure. But you figured that wouldn’t be good for the Bills by missing the National Anthem.

-         Mark is the weaklink, Science points to it  I don’t want to jump the gun and make baseless claims. That is often best left to politicians. But I can’t bite my tongue on this one. Mark was told to watch the game on delay for superstitious reasons. Being a die-hard Bills fan, he struggled with the idea, but did so by watching on a 2 minute delay. Arguably 2 minute delay isn’t really cutting it, but I digress. As he thought about it, he concluded it was too stupid and clicked to live. Moments later Edwards was hurt, and he went back to delay. However, the damage was done. And that being the case, I will now claim that Mark injured Trent Edwards. Forget the helmet to helment pile driver sack. Mark simply killed this team by refusing the stick with the delay. Mark, I’ll give you a chance to redeem yourself as well as possibly giving us the counterpoint to what you were thinking, but this loss is on  your shoulders as much as it’s on the defense and JP’s.

-         Buffalo and Ralph don’t know football So I went to this new Arizona stadium and sat in the last row tucked away in the corner in section 433. We sat right under the air conditioning vent that provided AC for the entire stadium. It honestly felt like I was sitting at the Ralph in December in a speedo.Cost of the ticket $50 per seat. At Ralph Wilson stadium I sit on the 45 yard line right under the press box. Both seats are made out of the same durable, exported plastic. So as far as I can tell, the seat material is exactly the same. Yet if I wanted my exact OP seats in Arizona, I would have had to dish out $180 a seat. So why is it that we all need new stadiums? It’s a nice stadium, don’t get me wrong. But I’d much rather be able to attend 8 games a season in a stadium built in the 70’s with updates than sit in a new stadium for one game thinking, “I’m probably going to forgo my mortgage payment because of this experience.” I really believe that all this stadium building is going to be the undoing of professional sports. When Corporate America had the cash to spend on boxes, they put the average fan out of going to a game. Now that Corporate America is short on cash and won’t be able to justify these prices to their shareholders and the public. Can you imagine hearing that Citigroup is buying Personal Seat Licenses to the new Giants stadium for $80,000 a year, but laid off a bunch of hard working moms and dads so some schmoe who is killing the institutions can sit in a good seat at the game. So assuming that corporations start keeping their cash to fund their business, who is paying for these over priced seats?

-         Cubs/Phillies Tracker Cubs are out. So now we just have to see the Phillies fail and we are in the running for a Super Bowl run. Yeah, one loss isn’t the end of the world for the Bills. I assume Edwards comes back healthy at some point and saves this season. The Cubs were the real threat. 100 year drought. If they won the World Series, there is no way Buffalo puts its 40+ year drought to bed. Phillies, either way, no one likes their town. If they win, I am less concerned. I would like to see them lose just to be on the safe side.

-         Coaches in Uniform I watched some baseball on the flight over to Arizona. Why are managers in a full uniform? Is there some expectation that they might have to play? Why can’t we get an NFL coach to petition to be in full gear, shoulder pads and all? Dick Jauron, all eyes are on you. Getherdone.

-         Vegas betting tracker Just when I was running away with my 25-1 odds bet for the Bills to win the AFC, they drop into the upper middle of the pack. Yet I still maintain that it isn’t as stupid as it once looked.

-         Jetblue Tracker Flights to and from Arizona were great. No hitches. I did notice that ESPN was happy to show a good 3 minutes of highlights during their primetime show of the Bills game and the good people of Jetblue didn’t touch the microphone. So that brings up the question, “is this Murphy’s law? Or has the situation been fixed.” As a Bills fan, I have to side with Murphy’s Law.

-         Arizona Fans after the win So as I said, going to the game, Cardinal fans were pretty nice. Once they were winning, they turned on us. To enter the stadium felt like a box of kittens. With 10 minutes left and no hope for a Bills win, it turned into a lions den. Obviously there was some pent up anger to the fact the stadium had a 50/50 split of Bills/Cardinal fans. And yes, we were obnoxious with our signs, facepaint, chants, and overall happiness. But once the game was out of hand, the section I was in got out of control. One particularly annoying Cardinals Lady fan started to taught a Bills Lady fan who was leaving. They were just about to physically fight when the Bills Lady fan’s friend pulled her back. Then a Bills Male fan launched a beer 16 rows down and got kicked out. And then there was a  Bills fan who fought two Cardinal fans AT THE SAME TIME. That was particularly enjoyable as the Cardinal fans wanted to take this guy down, and he had none of it. I didn’t even get the sense that he was drunk. Walking out of the stadium another fan said to Shell, “have a nice flight back” in a particularly spiteful way. To which I thought, “enjoy a flight back to a state that isn’t in a desert and observes Martin Luther King Day? Sure, I will.”

-         Different industry to collapse If there had to be an industry to collapse, why couldn’t it be cable/satellite TV instead of finance? This whole saga with channel 4 in Buffalo not being broadcast on Time Warner got my blood going. I have no idea what the current status is, but I’ll say this. Time Warner is a monopoly that ruins TV. DirecTV is an inadequate backup. From a New Yorkers perspective, I can’t get DirecTV because I don’t have the right angle to the sky. Doesn’t that sound stupid to you? Call me simple minded, but if science can possibly create blackholes right here on earth, they why can’t they get a dish to simply point to the sky and make contact with the main satellite? And why is DirecTV getting the NFL Sunday ticket exclusively? But this isn’t about DirecTV, this is about Time Warner. Time Warner’s fight with Buffalo WIVB seems similar to the one with NFL Network. They claim they can’t find a fair price for the channel. Fair enough, because the NFL is abusing it’s anti-trust exemption by not providing it’s channel to the NFL fan. Both are at fault. But now to do this with regular free channels is ridiculous. Furthermore, Time Warner’s lobbying efforts have slowed down Verizon’s Fios ability to roll out throughout the country. To those I know who have it, Fios takes Time Warner’s product to town on a nice date, buys an expensive dinner, makes mad passionate love to it and then doesn’t ever call back. Time Warner provides the least number of HDTV channels of the three, yet charges the most. I actually wrote my congressperson a letter when I was stuck waiting 30 minutes on the phone trying to get my cable back. I complained that they have a monopoly and have zero customer service to fix your issues. The congressperson forwarded my letter to a congressional subcommittee that is looking at this issue of TW’s monopoly as well as to TW. TW called me within the week and gave me a direct line for future issues that I have. Apparently every now and then a Congressperson actually gets something done. That being said, I still hate TW and bide my time until I can get a better product for a better price.

-         Jets guarantee bet rollover minutes Last week, I said the easy money bet was picking against the Jets simply because they went for 2 with less than two minutes to put them up 20 instead of 19. As it turns out, I should check the schedule before I write anything. They were off this week. The good news is that I think the football gods still stick it to the Jets when they play the Bengals at home. I realize how ridiculous this sounds, but my name is Kevin Shenoy and I approve this message.

-         Wash with Care I got a couple tips on handwashing and cold wash with line drying. Thank you. My wife, my dad, and the people who sit next to me at games thank you.

-         Do I know finance? Funniest thing about the bailout is that most Americans have little to no opinion on Hank Paulson. But most NFL fans know for sure that Ed Hochuli let fans down in the Chargers game and needed to be reprimanded immediately. And he was. He got a game suspension and thousands of emails asking, “why do you even bother to breathe air”. If you ruin a football game, we expect answers and punishment. If you oversaw the demise of the US economy, we’d like to hand you a blank check to try again. Sure, you got it wrong with bailing out Bear Stearns and even made comments that the economy is on strong footing while everyone knew MBS securities were making banks teeter on the edge of self-destruction. If you ever watched a friend play poker at a casino and he lost all his money, would you lend him all your money to try and win his cash back? This is what is being asked from us from the package and we’re letting Paulson QB the whole thing. Regardless of what side of the aisle you typically vote, Paulson is a bad apple and he shouldn’t have the keys as the government works on a solution.

-         Bailout Stadium Add on  With all the pork added on to the new bailout package, it’s a shame we didn’t get$1BN added to build a new state of the art stadium in Buffalo and $1BN to pay the owners over 10 years for having unsold suites. I figure if you are going to spend $850Bn recklessly, what’s the harm in spending $852BN recklessly. 

-         The Office and Aaron Rodgers Just throwing this out there but is there an uncanny resemblance between Ryan, the now receptionist at Dunder Miflin and Aaron Rodgers? Or does Rodgers look more like Scott Stapp from Creed?

                                                                                                       

 

You can reach Kevin Shenoy at binaural02@hotmail.com. I may not be able to answer each email, but I love the feedback, specifically when it’s positive.