An Indianapolis based Bills fan with a couple of notes from watching the game in the dome:
-I see what attracts the Bills to Losman. When you watch him on the field he is very much in command (versus Kelly Holcomb for example who looks a little lost). He is always working to make something positive happen on the field. You can tell that he has natural leadership qualities. My only question is: can he throw the ball where it is suppose to go? This is critical talent for a QB and he didn't demonstrate a very good job of it tonight.
-The entire Bills defense is extremely effective when there is a blitz on. On the other hand, when there is no blitz, the Bills look pretty marginal. It appears that they don't know what they are doing. Everyone in the defensive backfield gets out of position after about 3 seconds. If we go into prevent mode this season, we won't stop anyone. That's not a bad thing, just a comment. I would suspect that the Bills will knock several quarterbacks out this year. They were pounding the Colts QBs all night.
-The Bills did not cover the TE position at all. This appears to be a scheme thing, not a player thing. There were clearly spots in the defense that the TE could run to and be wide open. In a regular season game, the Colts TEs would have had 15 catches for 200 yards.
-As a former Coy Wire fan it pains me to report that he can't play safety. I'm not sure he can play, period. There wasn't a single play where I saw him in the right spot at the right time. He *looks* like he should be good, but he's not.
-On the other hand, I've never been a big London Fletcher fan, but he is clearly the leader and QB of the defense. After watching this game, man, I would hate to lose him.
-Rashard Lee cannot return kicks, but he will be the #3 back.
-Josh Reed will be cut. He costs too much while being too average. He has trouble getting seperation and does not make a good target of himself.
Sam Aiken plays like a much better receiver.
-Ted Marchibroda can design some pretty passing plays. He doesn't do so well with his run schemes though.
-Random comments from the Colts post game radio show:
Tony Dungy: "I thought we played really well tonight. Our defense was just great." - WTF game was he watching? You ran for negative yards and gave up over 120 on the ground, Tony! And you lost.
Bill Polian: "It was a good game for us. We saw a lot of things we wanted to see. I think Jim Sorgi did a great job." Huh? If Peyton Manning goes down, this is a 8-8 team, at best.
Someone please explain to me why Dungy and Polian would be happy with this game?
Bonus trivia: why did the Colts sit 20+ injured players? Here's one possible answer. When a Colt's lineman went down injured in the 3rd quarter, he laid on the ground for 30+ seconds until Peyton Manning (on the sideline) started screaming at the medical team to get it's butt on the field. Medical team, what are you doing?
-Dustyr
