Buffalo Bills

Extra Point: Defense maintains in Mistake by the Lake Bowl

Chris Ostrander1 Comment

Sunday had all the makings to be a full-on blow out. However, part-way through the first quarter the only thing that was blown out was C.J. Spiller’s shoulder.

However, the Bills maintained and fought back against the ebb in momentum they experienced to hold on for their second win of the season. The 24-14 win was, in many ways, impressive against a team the Bills couldn’t afford to lose to.

Prior to his exit, Spiller showed that his dominance is certainly no fluke as he danced his way through the Cleveland defense on a number of plays, including a lengthy TD reception on a swing pass. Without Spiller, the offense began to sputter before re-devoting to the run game with Tashard Choice.

Maintaining a consistent running attack was something that started to disappear immediately after Spiller’s injury, but the coaching staff reverted to the original game plan when Choice showed an ability to hit holes and grab chunk yardage on most carries. The success on the ground allowed Ryan Fitzpatrick to grab three more passing touchdowns against a Browns defense that looked out of their element on a number of plays.

Kudos should also go to the Bills defense that managed to contain a top-five pick out of the Cleveland backfield and forced the Browns to the air far more often than they likely would have preferred. The dominance of the Bills front four has been one a constant this season and there are now numbers that point to this success.

While week one was an ugly blowout, the front seven remained stout against the run. Weeks two and three showed continued success in the running game while also providing a handful of sacks from every member of the line. It is pretty clear that the front four will be capable of creating havoc and mismatches on a weekly basis, the key will be for the rest of the defense to capitalize off the opportunities created by the front four.

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The idea of a second Toronto date is foolish

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Rumor had it that the Bills next agreement with Rodgers would bring about more games being played in a baseball stadium north of the border. The Bills, however, put a stop to the rumor quite quickly.

Of course, you can never confirm much until all the chips are on the table.

With an agreement expected to be finalized within a few months, official word on the next few seasons of Bills in Toronto will be confirmed by both parties. While Russ Brandon’s proclamation will likely hold true, there is always the chance for amendments and additions to this sort of series. Maybe it won’t happen with this next set, but what about the set of games after that?

The Toronto series hasn’t necessarily taken off just yet. While the Bills have little interest in the fan turnout and experience – they’re getting paid either way – Rodgers Centre has yet to be packed to the gills for one of these contests. In fact, many have reported that the visiting teams are often the ones getting the most support. The Bills struggles have certainly played a role in the poor support in Toronto to this point, but there is little that would indicate any change in many trends at Rodgers Centre.

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When the QB of the future arrives, Bills should let him season

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Sometime in the near future the Buffalo Bills will need to acquire a player that can be pegged as the quarterback of the future. While it is certain that Ryan Fitzpatrick isn’t the quarterback of the future, when his replacement will be brought in is far less certain.

Discount Double Check was able to season behind a veteran before taking the reigns in Green Bay.

The safe assumption for the Bills will be to draft a quarterback in order to make a proper investment in the position and the future of the team. The free agency or trade option is always there, but a majority of the league’s elite quarterbacks were acquired with a draft pick. The question that will eventually need to be asked is; how long should this player be given to blossom?

In a league that has created a “what have you done for me lately?” culture, there isn’t much room for error for quarterbacks. Typically the higher a player is drafted, the shorter the time is for them to meet expectations. Just ask David Carr, Tim Couch or J.P. Losman. All first round picks who never found their way as starters in the league, now they’re either serving as a backup, winning UFL championships or on TV. However, are top prospect quarterbacks given too little rope to hang themselves with?

Alex Smith was all but declared a bust up until last season.  Suddenly, thanks to a QB friendly coach – and defense – Smith has begun to enjoy success and show some of the strengths that made him the first overall pick in 2005. That is seven years worth of ups, downs, trade rumors and other starting quarterbacks with his team only to arrive at the point the 49ers expected when they picked Smith first overall.

Obviously the Nines are being rewarded for their diligence, no matter how long it took. Seven years is probably far too long to wait if a quarterback is expected to blossom into the franchise cornerstone that comes along with a high draft pick. For most teams in the NFL, it seems as if three seasons is usually the magic number when it comes to quarterbacks, coaches or just about anyone else. Continue reading →

Extra Point: Bills rebound for win in opener

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You might say that Bills fans still have no clue what their team is capable of. Seven days after a no-show, blowout loss to the Jets, the Bills rolled up a number of big plays and trounced Kansas City 35-17. Which team will show up for the rest of the season remains to be seen.

Buffalo hitched their wagon to C.J. Spiller and let him carry the load and he did a fine job. Spiller scored two of Buffalo’s first half touchdowns and was a major player on the drive that led to the third. In all, Spiller accounted for 170 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns. On the other side of the ball, the Bills defense looked more like the unit most were expecting to see this season.

Yesterday’s win was very much a mirror image from week one for the Bills. The pass rush was effective, they were successful with blitz packages, the secondary was stout and their quarterback took care of the football. However, the constants through two weeks might be more noteworthy; the offensive line continues to play impressive football and Spiller is proving to be capable of carrying the offense.

In fact, this victory could quite possibly turn into one of the most well-rounded games the Bills play all season. Defensively, they didn’t give up anything big until very late in the game and they nearly had wire-to-wire control offensively.

Even the special teams looked solid as John Potter continued to bomb kicks through the end zone and even had a solid directional kick to the corner of the goal line on another occasion. I’m still a little iffy on the punt coverage after a few more kicks that the coverage team seemed to struggle with. What is difficult to ascertain is if this is a kicker issue (Moorman kicking punts that are difficult to cover) or a coverage issue (cover teams that aren’t filling lanes). Reagrdless, they prevented big plays on their end and produced one of their own.

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Extra Point: Bills drop opener in grand fashion

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Sunday’s outcome for the Bills was ugly. To say the least. An invisible pass rush, ineffective secondary and poor quarterbacking set the Bills back early in a 48-28 defeat at the hands of the Jets.

An offseason of hope and promise became two quarters of anger and frustration. Ryan Fitzpatrick, at times, seemed more in-sync with the Jets defensive backs than his receivers in the first half and the Buffalo defense looked lost when trying to defend the pass. Even the special teams units were ineffective, allowing a punt return touchdown to widen the New York lead.

Fitzpatrick’s performance was easily the most visible and alarming result from the game, he was inaccurate and could even be described as overmatched throughout most of the game. Aside from garbage time, when the Jets starters were watching from the bench, did he manage to sync up with his wideouts.

Defensively, the pass rush stayed in Buffalo, the linebackers failed to support in coverage in any way, shape or form and the secondary looked lost for the entire game.

It wasn’t all bad, just mostly bad. Bryan Scott injected a little promise with an interception on the first series and it seemed like the defense might have started to build some momentum. Of course, Fitzpatrick was picked shortly after the Scott INT and things went downhill quickly. Buffalo’s run defense was quite stout and didn’t allow any gashing runs until the result was well within reason and near the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter.

C.J. Spiller continued to build on his second-half surge from 2011 and looks to have rounded into a sterling NFL running back. His game breaking ability will soften the blow that is the loss of Fred Jackson. As for the loss of David Nelson, the Bills could be up the creek on that one. For a team that was injury riddled late last year, two knee injuries wasn’t the way to roll into 2012.

The loss was quite bad and has brought about a lot of criticism for the entire organization. Most fans are already to throw in the towel after the first 60 minutes and most of them are already calling for the head of anyone who works or plays football at One Bills Drive. You really can’t blame some of these fans. It has been 12 years without a playoff berth, the team finally invested in talent and then laid an absolute egg in their first game. Positions of question were exploited and fans are left thinking that these are indeed the “same old Bills” yet again.

Truthfully, there needs to be a bit more patience exercised by everyone. The Bills probably aren’t as bad as they showed on Sunday. They also aren’t as good as they will show in their most impressive victory. If they can rise to the median here, win the games they’re expected to win and build some positive momentum, they will still flirt with the playoffs. There is plenty of work to be done and there are some obvious issues at hand that need to be addressed immediately. But put your air raid helmets away. The sky isn’t falling just yet.

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Talkamania 16 via Buffalo Wins.com

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You may or may not be aware that I have been contributing some content over on Buffalo Wins.com. If you weren’t aware then start reading that site more often, we need some hits.

Joe had me come aboard for an installation of Talkamania in which we discussed all things Bills. In case you haven’t noticed, I have rededicated myself to offering a bit more Bills coverage this season that I plan to sprinkle in with the already abundant Sabres and hockey content I produce.

Check out the podcast, it is worth a listen for nothing other than the dulcet tones of Joe and myself.

Three thoughts for the Bills schedule

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In an attempt to offer some thoughts on where I see the Bills season going, I will offer three thoughts for each game of the year. Rather than giving a firm prediction for each game I will simply say what should be expected from the Bills.  Hopefully this offers a little different take as compared to your typical season preview. Continue reading →

Bills have options despite shortage at receiver

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Food for thought: the Bills have four specialists, four wide receivers and four quarterbacks. You might say three quarterbacks and five wide outs depending on your point of view.

Regardless, the Bills enter week one with a very interesting set up in terms of their 53-man roster. Tavaris Jackson, Tyler Thigpen and Brad Smith are all filling a role behind Ryan Fitzpatrick as Buffalo’s signal caller. Meanwhile, only Stevie Johnson, David Nelson, T.J Graham and Donald Jones are the wide outs for Buffalo’s typically spread open attack.

Dorin Dickerson’s versatility may fill the Bills need for receiving depth.

The choice to retain Thigpen was obvious. Jackson, while a fine option to fill the backup role behind Fitzpartick, hasn’t learned the offense yet and would leave the Bills crippled if Fitzpatrick was injured early in the year. In addition, Brad Smith has a wonky groin and seems better suited as a receiver than quarterback.Smith’s groin could potentially keep him out of, or limited, against the Jets. There is still five days until kickoff which allows for plenty of healing time. Regardless if Smith plays or not, there is a better chance he will be contributing as a receiver rather than at QB (outside of wildcat plays).

What might be the best option would be to cut ties with Smith. He hasn’t proven to be worth the investment they made, particularly with so few spots available for gimmick tools (see: kickoff specialist). It might just be in the best interest of the team to retain Thigpen as a third string passer, cut ties with Smith and fill the vacant spot with a proper receiver from a practice squad, waiver wire or free agency.

It seems safe to assume that the Bills will not attempt to go through the season with just four receivers while carrying an equal number of quarterbacks. At some point they will cut ties with a signal caller to free up a roster spot for either a playmaker or some other position of need. In the short term, however, they do have some options. Continue reading →

Jackson in, Young out as backup QB carousel keeps spinning

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Well, that was fun while it lasted. For a brief moment, the Bills had the first and third picks from the 2006 NFL draft on their roster.

For what it’s worth, one is a $100 million superstar and the other was a re-tread that Buddy Nix decided to take a chance on. I’ll let you take a guess which one just got released. On a side note, the 2006 Draft was the one in which the Bills took Donte Whitner at number eight ahead of such players as: Jay Cutler, Haloti Ngata, Chad Greenway, Kamerion Wimbley and Tamba Hali. Oh, the Bills also traded back into the first round for John McCargo that season. Isn’t this fun?

After acquiring Tavaris Jackson from Seattle for an undisclosed draft pick, the Bills chose to part ways with Vince Young after a relatively mediocre preseason from the former University of Texas star. While Young had a seemingly firm grasp on the backup quarterback job, he didn’t have a firm grasp on his place on the Bills roster.

Young enjoyed what was reported to be an adequate training camp and offseason, along with a strong performance against the Vikings in Buffalo’s second preseason game. However, he threw a pair of interceptions against the Steelers on Saturday and certainly didn’t look like he had a very good grasp of the offense.

Young’s lackluster performance against the Steelers looked to be the cherry on top of the sundae for him to be shipped out the door. Young looked lost in his few series against Washington in the first preseason game. Granted, he was playing with the threes and had to rely on his legs behind a patchwork line. However, it was more of the same happy feet and poor decision making on Saturday night. This time, his struggles came at the expense of the Bills and Steelers backups.

Signing Young in the spring time came as a decent reprieve from a pattern of late round prospects getting most of the looks from the Bills. Of course, Young was just above average under center this preseason, which expedited his departure. Continue reading →

Deskchair Quarterback: Backups fall short against Steelers

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The first team carried their weight, especially on defense. Looking at the first half of football last night, the Bills defense was effective, the special teams were solid and they moved the football offensively.

However, the backups were less than stellar. Luckily, the backups aren’t going to be playing all at once this season.

Mario Williams picked up his first two sacks of the preseason against Pittsburgh.

The Bills managed field position for the entire first half thanks to stout defense and a number of phenomenal punts from Brian Moorman. While Ryan Fitzpatrick and the offense struggled to consistently move the ball, they did their part in controlling the clock and field. Of course, they only came up with seven points. A score matched by the Steelers’ 90-plus yard drive to close the first half.

However, Vince Young tossed a pair of interceptions, the Steelers second team offense cruised (sound familiar?) and they ran up 31 unanswered points in the second half. Young’s regression last night was unfortunate due to the previous progress that he built on over the first two weeks of the preseason.

There were standouts for good and bad over the course of the game. Terrence McGee looked like an aging veteran who just returned from knee surgery. Andy Levitre could be Buffalo’s most consistent and effective lineman and the tandem of Marcell Dareus and Kyle Willaims should wreak havoc on opponents this season. Depth still seems to be an issue for the Bills, however. With a number of rookie and first year players being counted on for primary roles on both sides of the ball, there will be plenty of growing pains this year.

The main issue that many fans had with last night was the third-straight loss and continued offensive struggles that the Bills have shown on offense. While the second-team contributions need to be ignored, the lack of a consistent attack with the starters could begin to be an issue as the season is set to begin. Continue reading →