One Fan's View: A winning streak!

by Kevin Shenoy

All of a sudden the Buffalo Bills have a spot in the middle of the AFC East. That’s pretty impressive considering the utter doom that we all felt after the Cleveland game.

However, while I’m sure the locker room is ready to spin this as progress and that times are a-changin’, I have a couple fun stats that say these wins aren’t really anything special. They are what most of us think they are: other teams playing to lose harder than the Bills. This in and of itself is a novelty and worth some excitement. Normally, Buffalo really corners that market on wanting to lose more. But let’s not kid ourselves, these have been some pretty bad football games.


Your disturbing stats:

Jarius Bryd had 2 interceptions with 67 return yards. Compared to TO’s 3 catches for 27 yards, Josh Reed’s 2 catches for 14 and Marshawn’s 1 catch for 7 yards, Bryd is one of our most productive receivers. He not only beat each one of them yardage wise, but he also outproduced their sum yardage. Go ahead and compare Byrd to their “star” receiver, Lee Evans, and he only trailed him by 8 yards. The offense has problems.

The Bills picked up 9 first downs for the entire game. Even a putrid Carolina team that also features 2 good running backs, an underused star receiver and a struggling quarterback picked up 20 first downs.

Converting third downs remains like some Da Vinci code that the Bills can’t crack. They were 3 of 14. They, at the very least, kept ahead of Carolina and their 2 of 13. Bottom line, unless you are scoring a lot on 2nd down, 21% conversion rate is probably not going to cut it. The best percentage during the year is 40% conversion rate vs the Pats and a 35% conversion rate vs. the Browns.

Remember how much excitement we had during the Browns game? For the record, the Saints lowest conversion rate during the season was one of Buffalo's highest.

Carolina averaged 6 yards per play; the Bills averaged 3.1. That ties back to 3rd down conversions because if you run 3 plays for 3.1 yards each time, it still brings up 4th and short. And you know how Buffalo's coaching staff feels about 4th and short.

They punted 8 times out of 13 drives. That last drive was actually kneel downs, so it was really 12 drives. In other words, 67% of Buffalo's drives ended in punts. I am going to guess that playoff teams that expect to win in the playoffs do a little better than 67% of drives ending in punts.

And worst of all, in this win, the Bills still managed to pull the same old stunts from our colossal collapses. Look specifically at the last 12 minutes of the game. It is strewn with classic Bills meltdown. Buffalo was up 14-2 with the ball with just over 12 minutes to go. Uncharacteristically, Fitz airs it out 50 yards to Evans and enter the red zone. Instead of using that momentum to close out the game, the Bills elect to run Lynch into the middle of the line 2 times for negative 2 yards. This brings out 3rd and 12 at the Carolina 18. Fitz checks down to Lynch for 7 and settles for a field goal. Still, the team lacks killer instinct.

To be honest, I was feeling it after the bomb to Evans. The Buffalo Carolinians were cheering the team on. It was a nice throw. It was a gutsy call. I thought that they were going to close it out. But yet again the Bills ventured into the redzone the way I use to step into our family pool which is to say take one step in, complain like hell that it is too cold, and then run the other direction quickly. So the Bills darted from the field in 3 plays and brought out Fancy I.

At 17-2, you should feel comfortable that the game is essentially over. But our beloved Bills go into full blown crisis mode. They let the Panthers move 78 yards in just over 3 minutes and convert 2 fourth down plays; one being a 4th and 4 conversion for 45 yards to the very receiver who has complained he doesn’t get the ball enough, and the other being the TD run where either the Bills were attempting tackles or tickles. I’m not sure. This was not good, but, of course, that’s not the end of it.

The Bills get the ball back with 6 minutes and change on the clock. Dick Jauron and staff, after repeatedly telling us they’d look at the film and make corrections for 3 years, proceed to do the exact same thing they have done under 3 different offensive coordinators. They play not to lose.

In less than a minute (a Carolina penalty stopped the clock), the Bills took Fred Jackson and ran him up the middle 2 times for 3 yards. The Panthers even cut them a break and commit the aforementioned penalty to make it 3rd and 2. The Bills run a reverse with the uninterested-to-be-hit TO gaining only 1 yard. This gives Carolina over 5 minutes to get the tying score.

If it were not for the timely muffed kick (notice I say muff because it literally shows that their guy dropped it versus our players doing anything to cause it), who here doesn’t think the Panthers go 80 yards in 5:15 to make it 17-15? And who here doesn’t think they run for 2 yards for the 2 point conversion?

Instead the Bills take another field goal to seemingly ice the game for the second time. Yet after that kick game sealing kick, Lindell proceeds to boot the kickoff out of bounds and the team takes a 15 yard unsportsmanlike penalty on the following play. They gave up 55 yards in less than 10 seconds. Thank god that Jake Delhomme is playing like a wet, soggy diaper. If this was New England, do you think an 11 point lead with 2 minutes to play is safe? Oh wait, it wasn’t.

I like winning and all, but if these types of performances are used to justify keeping this coaching staff together, I think we all just lost big time over these last 2 weeks.

DVD Extras:

• Dick Costanza - Someone please validate this for me. George Costanza famously decided to do the exact opposite because his instincts were so poor. He ended up on a roll by just doing to opposite. I say we get that episode sent to Dick Jauron, sit him down, tape his eyes open, and play it on repeat for 24 hours. Then let him sleep and digest everything for 24 hours and see what comes of it. Perhaps only then he’ll not relive those last 12 minutes over in the exact same fashion that he has for the last 3+ years. Maybe he’ll start ordering tuna on toast (which would be incredibly helpful for the Miami game).
• Musings from Work – This has nothing to do with the game. I know in every industry at every level, there is a slew of abbreviations and acronyms that drive people crazy. Recently at my office, a new position was created to “help” deal flow. Help is in quotes because it actually slows things down more than anything else. Regardless, this group has to provide a “credit application” request to me. The abbreviation of the excel file sent to me is named “CrApp”. I’m not even kidding you. You’d think they’d go with “CA” or “the app”. No one refers to it as CrApp, but you see it as such in emails. Additionally, no one but me seems to find it funny. Perhaps everyone is much more mature than me, but I laugh every time followed by pointing at the monitor. It is enjoyable to receive a file, say, “What is this crap,” and still be techinically correct. I am now desperately trying to figure out some football abbreviations and acronyms that are just as fantastic as CrApp.
• JP Fitzpatrick - Fitzpatrick put up purely Losmanian figures with 11 of 22 for 123 yards. Yet for some reason it doesn’t drive me as crazy as when Losman did it. Why is that? Oh, right, it’s cause we didn’t give the Cowboys a bunch of picks and watch them draft a useful player after us.
• Fitz and TO – We all knew that you have to throw TO the ball like 15 times for him to get 8 catches a game. Apparently, Fitzpatrick needs to force about 15 passes before he starts connecting with people. At the beginning of the game I thought, “Fitzpatrick is going to make a run at the Derek Anderson record of futility.”
• End of the game #1 - At the end of the game, Jauron seemed to want to shake every single hand of each Panther player and coach. “Thanks for doing that for us.” “Thanks for helping me keep my job.” “That was wonderful, Jake, keeping doing what it is you do.”
• End of the game #2 - Always good to hear “Let’s go Buffalo” outside of Buffalo. I wonder if native North Carolinians hate Buffalo. We made their Stanley Cup (shudder) run of 2006 a living hell by outnumbering them at their own stadium. And then this. Jarius Byrd’s first interception was greeted by more cheers than boos.
• The D Bell Penalty – Admittedly, the Bills are taking less penalties, however, our good pal, Demetrius Bell took his ritualistic false start penalty in the second quarter which led to the safety. Derek Fine also gets artistic credit on the safety for holding his block for the same amount of time I could hold a speeding train.
• Talking about great blocking – Marshawn Lynch whiffed on two blocks on the TO reverse that was supposed to seal the game. He missed on the first DE, but TO sidestepped that player. After whiffing, Lynch turns around and goes back at the DE that TO just passed. If Lynch would have just kept running forward, he probably makes the block on the guy who tackles TO a yard short of the sticks. Keep up the great work Marshawn! It’s great to have you and your 47 yards worth of production back.
• Byrd Man! – This year my wife’s friend was short a few people to continue his fantasy league. He asked me, and I obliged. Still short players, he asked Shelly. She also agreed. I know she personally enjoys partaking in uber-masculine things like fantasy sports and naming her team painfully girlie names. She loves the fact that at some point a man will have to hang his head and say, “I lost to the Princess of Kitties”. In fact this same friend invited her to play fantasy baseball a few years ago. She not only angered the guys with the team name, but she really ticked them off by making the Princess of Kitties world champions (insert proud husband face here). This year, she dusted off the Princess of Kitties moniker and set her sights on fantasy football. During the draft, she was at an audition. I was given the fiduciary responsibility of drafting her team as well as mine. Well, this league is bizarre. Not only do you draft team defense, but you have to draft 6 defensive players. So as the draft was winding down, I recalled that Byrd was a ball hawk from the NFL draft day analysis. I was going to pick him. Unfortunately when I realized that, it was Shelly’s pick. So as any honest person would do, I gave her Jarius Byrd and settled on Reggie Corner as my corner selection. Also important to note that I almost lost to a winless team this week and really could have used Jarius Bryd and his machine like ability to get INTs. I survived without him but only won by a point. .
• Shelly and Casper – Cartoon Network! 11am and 3pm every day! “Casper goes to Scare School.” Shelly is the voice of 26 different characters. It’s weird because some of the voices she does are voices I’ve heard her use when she impersonates people when telling a story. And then there are others that I really didn’t know was her at all. It’s very exciting this world of voice-overs and cartoons. Remember, when watching Casper, it is intended for young kids. As opposed to watching Bills football, where it looks like it is being played by young kids. There is a difference, but it’s subtle.
• Be a Giants fan: revisited – Remember my friends asking me to join them as fans of the Giants due to Buffalo’s futility? It seems to me that the Giants are slowly turning into the 2008 Buffalo Bills. They beat up on some weak teams early and now are in the process of falling apart. Sorry, Giants fans. I’ve been there, done that.
• Bend but don’t break – I realize we are running a bend but don’t break defense. And here is the thing. Those types of defenses almost always rely on turnovers to survive. But when the turnovers dry up, the bending starts breaking. The defense is getting smoked by giving up a lot of rushing yards (116, but the damage was worse because the Panthers eventually gave up on running for no real reason. Obviously once it was 14-2, they had to pass to get back into it, but even down 7-2, they started passing more.) My question is can this team win with a more realistic +1 or +2 in the turnover battle versus +4 and +6 from the last two weeks.
• Byrd Crazy - So there are only 2 ways for Byrd’s success to end. Either he gets injured and never returns to form or he leaves in 2 years and is a bonafide star for someone else. Which is it?
• 4 -4 at the Break? - What kind of fan are you? If the Bills make it to 4-4 at the bye are you the type to say, “buckle up, it’s go time?” or are you of the Roger Daltrey persuasion where “you won’t get fooled again?” I won’t tell you who I am, but I am swinging a microphone 10 feet above my head and Mark is doing jumping windmill’s to the side of me.
• 1950’s vs 2009 – In the 1950’s the Dow Jones was a mere 210 points. Today, even at our depressed levels it’s close to being over 10,000. So much has changed since the 1950’s. The only thing that hasn’t is the way you watch a football game. Why are we still watching games with the Tecmo Bowl side viewing? In the 1950’s, I would guess the game was more run oriented, therefore, you didn’t really need to see receivers run their plain vanilla routes. However, almost 60 years later, we still see the game in the same fashion, and the game itself has changed dramatically. You don’t get to see if receivers are genuinely open or not. Once a pass play starts the camera pans back to keep with the QB. You literally have no idea what is going. You barely can see the original line of scrimmage. Of course, you can see these Madden cam angles on occasion on Monday and Sunday nights. Mind you they don’t show the whole game live with that angle, but they’ll tease you with a couple highlights. Haven’t we all gotten to the point that we’d rather get the Madden cam? I feel like TV is slacking. They are all just patting themselves on the back for putting down the yellow first down line. I’m not asking for a Fotrax smar puck gimmick either. Am I the only person who is angered by this?

As always, Kevin Shenoy can be contacted at binaural02@hotmail.com. While I may not be able to respond to each email, I certainly appreciate the feedback.