Game balls...

[Buftex]

I had the misfortune of being at this game today. Playcalling (or the abandonment of the runnning game) was the main culprit for today's miserable loss. This seems to be a return to the Wade Phillips era, if something works, stop doing it...why Willis McGahee has had as few carries the last two weeks, as he has, is puzzling. Mularkey/Clements will have a lot of questions to answer for this one....

 

However, as we have seen in Bills fandom ever since Jim Kelly left, we are starting to divide ourselves by which QB we support. Aren't we getting tired of this yet? JP may yet turn out to be a decent QB, but I, for one, don't know that it is fair to anyone (fans, the other 52 players on the roster) to write off a season on a player who is clearly not ready to compete at any competant level, in the NFL.

 

It isn't all JP's fault, the coaches did not put him in the best position to win, but this guy, after 4 weeks, has not improved at all. Holcomb may be no better, but I would prefer to see him start, with a weeks' preperation under his belt, than another terrible QB performance. Once it is determined that Holcomb gives us no better chance to win, then we can go back into developing a very green QB. We have 4 vital games coming up. Four conference games, three of them within our division.

 

You could see it in the body language of many of the Bills offensive players (most noticably Moulds, Evans and McGahee) this team is about to implode. It is going to get ugly unless this team starts winning some games. After the interception that Losman heaved, if you were at the game, you could just sense the feeling of utter disgust Moulds felt, as he peeled himself up off the carpet, and walked toward the Bills sideline. The only positive on the play was that JP did make a good read on a long pass (Moulds was open), but his inaccuracy (or is it fear of throwing picks) did him in again. JP's best pass of the day, was on a third and long to Josh Reed. Don't know if it was visable on television, but Losman had Moulds wide open (and I do mean WIDE open) in the center of the field on the very same play. JP had time on the play (it took Reed some time to run his route, and get open at the marker), he just didn't see it....Moulds looked a little po'd again. My point is, the plays are there to be made, they are not being made. It hasn't all been poor offensive line play. As I was sitting close to the Bills bench, I had my binoculars keyed on the principles, in between plays. It looked like a very sullen offensive bunch. The only communication going on, seemed to be between Holcomb and Losman. After Losman was pulled, Holcomb seemed to go out of his way to talk Losman up, and give him a pat on the shoulder. It seems the greatest leadership coming from the offensive players, is coming from the backup QB.

 

For those who want to rip on the defense, the fuel for the fire is there. This unit is clearly not what it was the last two years, but it has also kept the Bills in games, until very late, the last three weeks. Their inability to make third down stops continues to be an achilles heal, but they are still keeping the scoring fairly low. The offense needs to convert third downs a little more often. I still think, if the offense can achieve any level of competency (with McGahee in there it shold not be this difficult), the defense will solidify itself. They are on the field far too long.

[SACTOBILLSFAN]

Moulds sucks he gave up on two passes that could have netted first downs and short armed another ball...way to help out the youngster. EM=cap casualty

[Dwight Drane]

I had the misfortune of being at this game today. Playcalling (or the abandonment of the runnning game) was the main culprit for today's miserable loss.  This seems to be a return to the Wade Phillips era, if something works, stop doing it...why Willis McGahee has had as few carries the last two weeks, as he has, is puzzling.  Mularkey/Clements will have a lot of questions to answer for this one....

 

However, as we have seen in Bills fandom ever since Jim Kelly left, we are starting to divide ourselves by which QB we support.  Aren't we getting tired of this yet?  JP may yet turn out to be a decent QB, but I, for one, don't know that it is fair to anyone (fans, the other 52 players on the roster) to write off a season on a player who is clearly not ready to compete at any competant level, in the NFL.

 

It isn't all JP's fault, the coaches did not put him in the best position to win, but this guy, after 4 weeks, has not improved at all.  Holcomb may be no better, but I would prefer to see him start, with a weeks' preperation under his belt, than another terrible QB performance.  Once it is determined that Holcomb gives us no better chance to win, then we can go back into developing a very green QB.  We have 4 vital games coming up.  Four conference games, three of them within our division. 

 

You could see it in the body language of many of the Bills offensive players (most noticably Moulds, Evans and McGahee) this team is about to implode.  It is going to get ugly unless this team starts winning some games.  After the interception that Losman heaved, if you were at the game, you could just sense the feeling of utter disgust Moulds felt, as he peeled himself up off the carpet, and walked toward the Bills sideline.  The only positive on the play was that JP did make a good read on a long pass (Moulds was open), but his inaccuracy (or is it fear of throwing picks) did him in again.  JP's best pass of the day, was on a third and long to Josh Reed.  Don't know if it was visable on television, but Losman had Moulds wide open (and I do mean WIDE open) in the center of the field on the very same play.  JP had time on the play (it took Reed some time to run his route, and get open at the marker), he just didn't see it....Moulds looked a little po'd again.  My point is, the plays are there to be made, they are not being made.  It hasn't all been poor offensive line play.  As I was sitting close to the Bills bench, I had my binoculars keyed on the principles, in between plays.  It looked like a very sullen offensive bunch.  The only communication going on, seemed to be between Holcomb and Losman.  After Losman was pulled, Holcomb seemed to go out of his way to talk Losman up, and give him a pat on the shoulder.  It seems the greatest leadership coming from the offensive players, is coming from the backup QB. 

 

For those who want to rip on the defense, the fuel for the fire is there.  This unit is clearly not what it was the last two years, but it has also kept the Bills in games, until very late, the last three weeks.  Their inability to make third down stops continues to be an achilles heal, but they are still keeping the scoring fairly low.  The offense needs to convert third downs a little more often.  I still think, if the offense can achieve any level of competency (with McGahee in there it shold not be this difficult), the defense will solidify itself.  They are on the field far too long.

462539[/snapback]

Good insight.

 

I was at the Tampa game and Losman had Moulds open 4 occasions where it ended up incomplete, including in the endzone in the 4th.

 

Our D played well today, except for the 3rd downs, which has always been a problem. I think Crowell filled in nicely, and for as much as people knock Adams, i think this was his best game. Where we are getting burned on the ground is by the QB, and that lies squarely on the coaches "scheme". McGee outplayed Clements today and the D overall played average to good. The O just is horrible. We are gameplaning like an inferior high school team going against a great high school team. We seem happy just to get a first down or two.

 

Losman seems to be taking this debacle in stride, and I wouldn't doubt he ends up being a very good QB. I've knocked him since the begining of spring, but since my worst fears are true, I still think he is hanging in there for a kid.

 

It's a circle the wagons week....maybe Thurman can keep the crowd fired up at the Ralph and add a little inspiration. I'm willing to root full bore next week in hopes of salvaging this...hopefully the players do the same.

[Buftex]

Moulds sucks he gave up on two passes that could have netted first downs and short armed another ball...way to help out the youngster. EM=cap casualty

462544[/snapback]

 

The pass that EM "short armed" (the one to the sideline) was really not a good pass. Even had Moulds caught it, it likely would have been a yard short of a first down. Not sure which two passes you are referring to that he "gave up on". There was another high, short pass that Moulds tried to catch one handed.

 

Being at the game, I kept my eyes on the receivers, and I saw Moulds, like last week against the Falcons, getting open in time for plays to be made, but the QB couldn't get him the ball, or didn't see him. I am not one of those who puts Moulds in the "all-time great" category, but I am not sure what else he could have done today. JP seemed intent on making Shelton his primary receiver, when he had better options.

[DonInBuffalo]

My observations and review of the stat sheets aren't quite in synch with the previous comments. In spite of being down late in the game and having to pass on pretty much every down during that portion, the Bills still ran the ball more times than they threw today. (yesterday, whatever) McGahee had 4 carries in the first series, and gained more than 2 yards on only 1 of them. The Bills had poor field position in each of their next two drives, which went 3&out, and McGahee had one carry on each of those, for a combined total of 5 yards. The next possession was the INT, which was IMO the turning point of the game. Moulds was bracketed by a pair of defenders. That ball never should have even been thrown. If your primary receiver is double-covered, somebody (or everybody) else is either single covered or open, so you should check down. Somehow, Don Criqui knew the Bills were going to go long on that play well before the players even broke the huddle. Maybe Wyche tipped him off with some sort of signal. BTW, the announcers were brutal. Criqui should have retired years ago, and Gannon is even worse than Tasker, if you can believe that's possible.

 

The Bills had one more drive late in the 1st half, but most of it was in no-huddle types of formations. McGahee opened the 3rd qtr. with another nice 14 yard gain, but the Bills were placed into a long yardage situation when Losman got sacked on the next play. On the next series, McGahee managed a few nice gains of 7 and 5 yards, but the Bills offense once again stalled after getting only one 1st down. Losman was pulled after this series. At this point in the game, if I added correctly, the Bills had 21 rushes and 14 passes. What do you want them to do, run on every single down?

 

As far as communication goes, just from what I saw watching on TV, they showed Losman sitting on the bench quite a few times, often reviewing pictures with Clements, and other times talking to Moulds or others.

 

While the offense has been less than adequate, I have to chime in and say that the defense hasn't been holding up their end of the bargain either. A very big part of the reason they have been on the field so long is their inability to shut the opponent down on 3rd down. During these 3 losses, they have allowed more than 50% of 3rd down conversions. That ranks them at or near the bottom of that category in the entire league. Obviously, that's just not good enough for a team that expects it's defense to carry them more often than not.

[Buftex]

 

The Bills had one more drive late in the 1st half, but most of it was in no-huddle types of formations.  McGahee opened the 3rd qtr. with another nice 14 yard gain, but the Bills were placed into a long yardage situation when Losman got sacked on the next play.  On the next series, McGahee managed a few nice gains of 7 and 5 yards, but the Bills offense once again stalled after getting only one 1st down.  Losman was pulled after this series. At this point in the game, if I added correctly, the Bills had 21 rushes and 14 passes.  What do you want them to do, run on every single down? 

 

As far as communication goes, just from what I saw watching on TV, they showed Losman sitting on the bench quite a few times, often reviewing pictures with Clements, and other times talking to Moulds or others. 

 

 

462573[/snapback]

 

 

As far as your "what do you want them to do, run it on every single down?" query, at this point it might not be a bad idea. After their first posession, if memory serves me, the next three drives started in the shadow of our own goal line. McGahee was given a carry on each drive, and picked up few yards, that is true. However, since we are going with stats, I would guess that with the way things have been going thus far, the Bills offense stands a better shot at picking up a first down with three consecutive runs, than it does with ill-conceived/executed pass plays. JP is just not very good yet, and he is particularly tough to watch close to his own goal line. The Saints had a tough time handling McGahee today, he should have been used more....this game was winnable!

 

 

As far as the communcation goes, there was a big difference in what was going on on the sidelines early in the game, and about midway through the 3rd quarter. The frustration level was pretty visable on the bench. Holcomb was the only "rah rah" guy on the sideline, for the offense.

 

I still think the defense will start to play better. Their is no lack of character guys on that side of the ball. They are missing the middle prescence that PW gave them, and Sam Adams is just not as effective with Tim Anderson or Ron Edwards next to him.