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Cash

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    The "Official" Bills Gameday thread!!

    in The Stadium Wall Archives

    Posted

    Randy Cross: "If you're a Buffalo Bills fan, this is exactly the kind of play you want to see." Talking about an on-target pass to a wide-open receiver that popped into the air, and he was so wide-open that no defender was within 5 yards of making the interception.

     

    I'd rather see what happened on the next play! That's what I'm talking about!

    Last Field Goal of the Game

    in The Stadium Wall Archives

    Posted

    Ok - great game by the bills yesterday. I'm not here to bash the bills or Jauron or "temper enthusiasm" like I heard in a few other posts. I'm not second guessing coaching or playcall - I want to see what people think about Jauron's game managment strategy in dealing with the fourth quarter field goal.

     

    Now the bills were up by one point with less than 30 seconds left in the game - on the 27 yard line. At this point, I'm thinking - with 29 seconds left, we should go for it here. Granted, it was 17 yards, but we probably could have managed a dump off to a running back, picked up 8-10 yards. Jacksonville would get the ball back on the 20-25 yard line with 20 seconds left and have to drive almost 50 yards to have a shot at a 40-45 yard field goal.

     

    Now we all know what happened - Lindell came in and boomed a 43 yarder and the rest is history. His field goal put us up by 4 points - forcing JVILLE to score a touchdown if they wanted the win. My concern was WHAT IF he missed? I'm not the most ardent supporter of Lindell (I know I probably should be) but his notable and untimely misses early in his career have forever scarred me (see week 16 against Pitt -Bledsoe's last year). If he missed, JVILLE gets the ball back on the 35. I think either decision would have been good, but I guess kicking the field goal (and knowing it went in in hindsight) was a better choice.

     

    It is good to note that the Cheatriots**** had a similar decision to make with 1:56 left on the Jets 29, leading 19-10, with a 4th and 3. Cassel went for it and hit Welker on a slant - game over after a kneel. Obviously these were different circumstances - they had a 9 point lead, more time on the clock, and obviously only 3 yards to make. You could almost argue that the Pats* would have been better off to kick the field goal and be done with it. The Jets would have then needed 2 TD scores. But Bellicheat was probably scared of a block, or he maybe wanted to shove it down the Jets throat even more.

     

    Either way, we won the game and I'm proud that Lindell made the kick.

     

    If it had been a much shorter distance to convert (maybe 5 yards or less) I'd have advocated going for it. However, given how unlikely it was to make it, I think the higher percentage play was to send out your kicker for a FG he makes about 85% of the time. Making the FG pretty much wraps up the game, as long as you don't allow a big return on the kickoff.

     

    I agree with those who feel that the bootleg on 2nd down was a mistake. However, it is a defensible one, because it did have a reasonable chance of working. And even though it failed as much as possible, it still kept the clock moving and didn't force us out of FG range. As much as I loved the playaction pass to Schouman on the previous series, Jacksonville is probably too good to be fooled by the playfake twice like that. I'd have preferred a handoff. Don't think it would've made a difference, though, because we still wouldn't have gotten the first down.

     

    All in all, I just have to say how pleased I am with that last drive in comparison to similar situations last year. I feel like last year, the philosophy was more about not getting embarrassed than winning. Specifically, I'm thinking of the last-second losses against Dallas and Denver. In both of those games (especially Dallas), our coaching staff basically decided to give the opponent a shot at a game-winning FG and hope it missed, rather than risk giving up a touchdown. I was worried that we'd see a similar move yesterday, where the Bills would run 3 straight times, then punt on 4th and short -- hoping that Jacksonville wouldn't be able to get into FG range in time. Instead, the Bills showed a real desire to put the game away, and if the Jags had been fooled by that bootleg, the Bills would have put it away 100%. As it was, they still did a pretty good job.

    My Take on Crowell, Peters

    in The Stadium Wall Archives

    Posted

    bills only had 6 LB's before the crowell injury - poz, mitchell, ellison, digiorgio, corto

     

    regardless, i think the better decision would have been to waive copeland byran (as the bills are carrying 5 DE's - only 4 of which will dress on gameday) and allow crowell to have surgery.....if things didn't look favorable post-surgery, that would have been the time to decide to move on

     

    I agree. Do the Bills usually have 6 LBs dress on gameday? If not, their whole reasoning for putting Crowell on IR is blown apart. But even if they do, I'd still prefer to waive one of the Inactive 7 instead of losing 8-14 games (probably closer to 14 than 8) of contract-year production from an established starter.

     

    This move still strikes me as punitive and somewhat childish. Especially since Crowell is seeking a second opinion. I think the Bills assumed that the timing of Crowell's decision made it an Eff You move, and immediately struck back with an even bigger Eff You move. That will definitely hurt them in the short run, but it could go either way in the long run. I'm still very curious to hear from Crowell on this issue, because no one's gotten a quote from him since he went on IR.

    final cuts are in

    in The Stadium Wall Archives

    Posted

    Ideally you'd like your LS to be a starter or primary backup at another position. But most LS are specialists these days.

     

    I think most teams don't want that, because that makes your LS much more likely to get injured, and it's not a position you usually have a backup for.

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