Observations From the Play-by-Play

[JDG]

I just read the full play-by-play online, but did not see or hear the game.

 

Kelly Holcomb clearly had a horrible outing. In four drives he went three-and-out three times. On the fourth drive, he threw an INT returned for a touchdown

on the second play of the drive. Overall, he was 2 of 4 for 16 yards. Cover-your-eyes awfull.

 

Unfortunately, it looks like Losman has taken the lead in this QB derby by default, not by being good, but simply by not being nearly as bad as Holcomb against

the Panthers' second string. Losman's first drive was also three-and-out, and he managed only one first down on the next two drives, one was by Anthony Thomas

rushing the football, the other by Alan Ricard's run after the catch on a swing/screen pass.

 

In the more things change the more they stay the same department, Losman's first two pass attempts were in the direction of Josh Reed - both incomplete.

Losman's fascination with getting the ball to Josh Reed is absolutely incomprehensible to me... although given that this was the preseason, Reed may well have bee the best WR on the field in this case, unlike last

year.

 

Yes, Losman led the team to 13 points - but 10 of those points came on short fields. The only sustained drive was a field goal against Carolina's scrubs late

in the game. Even worse, Losman did not show that he had improved his decision making - taking a whopping 5 sacks in less than three quarters of work. Ugly. His

final stat line is 15 of 24 (a promising 63%), but for a measely 144 yards (less than 10 yards per completion, and a paltry 6 yards per attempt). So much for Losman helping us with the deep ball.

 

Some other interesting notes from the play-by-play:

 

- John DiGiorgio was the first-string long-snapper in this game, playing three quarters. Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like this undrafted free agent has

a roster spot for him to lose.

 

- The more things change, the more they stay the same. 1st posession, 3rd and Three, its a pass.... sack. UGH!

 

- Lionel Gates went in for the 2nd team, ahead of Anthony Thomas

 

- The WR battle continues to look wide open, with all the WR's getting playing time in this one. Well, Martin Nance did not have a catch.... which puts him on track for the practice squad, at best...

 

- George Wilson started the game at punt returner, but Jonathan Smith got most of the work at punt returner in this game. Later in the game, Wilson would lose a fumble. Give the edge to Smith in this battle for a roster spot after one game.

 

- Sam Aiken had been thought to be hoping to stick a roster spot based on being a special teams ace. Leading all WR's in the game with 4 catches for 73 yards, more than double anyone else for each, won't hurt his case any either, though...

 

- Kevin Everett caught his first professional pass - for one yard. Welcome to the NFL.

 

- Not comforting to see Delhomme cut through McGee and Clements and company like melted butter.... but its only the preseason, right?

 

- Kyle Williams stuffed Panters starter DeShaun Foster on consectuve 2nd and 1 and 3rd and 1 plays, forcing a punt. A nice way to start a career as a rookie...

even if it is only the preseason...

 

- Donte Whitner was whistled for unnecessary roughness... and seemed to be making a lot of tackles, suggesting that he was getting picked on.

 

- Josh Stamer and Liam Ezekial both forced fumbles.

 

- Kiwaukee Thomas seems to have gotten extensive playing time, he may be very much in the mix for the nickle CB slot .

 

- It was nice to see Lindell hitting from 50 and 45.

 

- Moorman was booming some monster punts, including a 65 yarder, although he did have one partially blocked as well. Moorman is a stud of the first order.

MVP!!!!!

[Risin]

You need to watch the game.

 

JP wasn't great, but he showed poise we've never seen before.

 

Early on, he was the victim of some drops, and being too uptight.

 

Once he settled down, he looked very good.

 

I don't want to hear he did it against second and third stringers. If you seen how piss-poor the blocking was, and how little seperation the receivers were getting, you'd realize he was at no advantage.

 

I was encouraged by his play, not because he was good, but because he looked improved from last year, all while still learning a new offense.

 

For you to talk about the sacks, without seeing the game is ignorant. He escaped at least 2, that were surefire losses.

 

Out of the 5, 1 was his fault. 1 was a coverage sack, and the other 3 were terrible protection. As I stated earlier, it could have easily been 7.

 

You hammer Losman, then go on to kiss Moorman's ass. If you watched the game, you'd see that Moorman had a couple of brutal punts, to go with the good ones.

 

In fact, the camp fodder punter, had the punt of the night.

 

Maybe you need to take the anti-JP blinders off, and WATCH the damn game.

 

Bottom line on JP: He showed the ability to MANAGE A FOOTBALL GAME!!! On top of that, he showed decent accuracy in the short passing game. Both of those were knocks on him coming into this season.

[34-78-83]

Looking merely at the game play by play is always going to lead to many false assumptions, and it shows here. This is much the same as what a typical ESPN reporter would do before commenting on the Bills game

[Catholic Guilt]

You hammer Losman,  then go on to kiss Moorman's ass.  If you watched the game,  you'd see that Moorman had a couple of brutal punts,  to go with the good ones.

 

Excellent point I forgot to mention. He had two horrible punts in the game. I'm on the JP bandwagon. Let the kid play - the reads will come.

[Pyrite Gal]

Play by play can give you some indications which are good of how the game went, but given that the key last night was how the players and team looked rather than the outcome, the indications taken from it can lead to missing a lof of the story.

 

One can gather a bit of that from the posts above and from the general chatter. The main thing though is that the week 2 and week 3 games will tell you alot more about how the players and the team are doing rather than this first week stuff.

 

Its important as you only get one chance to make a first impression and production in the first weeks says a lot about how folks will produce over the next two weeks, but the play-by-play simply misses alot.

 

Particularly I would be careful in assuming that a player getting a lot of PT in game 1 or even performing well means that the player is a leading candidate for a position. For example, I think DiGregorio did get a lot of prominent PT yesterday, but more than likely this means that because he did and Lindell connected well on some long FGs and a PAT that it makes DiGregorio a more likely candidate for the PS than it means long time NFL long snapper Schneck is in any danger of not making this roster.

 

Given Lindell having a much improved year in real games with Schneck last year and Schneck making the Pro Bowl with Moorman last year, its hard to see the Bills throwing him under the bus for an unproven player who did well in pre-season.

 

If Degregorio shows any chance of being an eventual back-up position player at C or G for the Bills this would do a lot more for him making this team on the PS than his pre-season long snapping performance.

 

QB gets a lot of attention for the non-pychotic fan of the Bills, but his and KH's performance mostly indiciated to me that JP remains the likely starter as KH despite his greater experience is no threat. However, he should not be designated the starter yet because he did nothing to grab the position by the throat and merit the reward.

 

His performance did seem to be early mental issues and he clearly settled down as the game went on and the Panthers went to more back-ups that indicate JP may well be adequate as an NFL starter, but giving him a bunch more reps this week will not make that happen.

 

KH simply sucked in his performance last night. However, both the fact that Nall is a great unknown and JP has not taken the job as his own yet, means that Holcomb will actually get a serious amount of time next week and a good amount of focus in practice as the battle for #2 Bills QB is underway in earnest assuming Nall is back in shape.

[JDG]

This seems to be the same debate as occurred last year.... some fans watch the game and talk about Losman's poise, other fans look at the numbers and cite the lack of production. Based on the results, I must say that never in NFL history has a QB who looked so poised produced so little.

 

Sorry, but the numbers don't lie - 6 yards per attempt isn't going to get this team anywheres. If Kelly Holcomb produced only 6 yards per attempt you would all be whining about his lack of arm. O.k., Holcomb actually played horrible, but the point still stands. Five sacks in less than three quarters is also unacceptable - it is going to send us backwards rather than forwards.

 

Yay! Losman was better than Holcomb. He was still pretty bad, though...

 

As for Moorman, I obviously can't tell from the play-by-play if the blocked punt was his fault, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt. The other bad punt he had was not recorded properly in the play-by-play, so I can't tell what happened there. Still, from what I see in the record book, Moorman had punts of 47, 36, 64 (!) - 59 net, 54 (!), and 48 - 38 net. That's a huge punting day.

 

If Losman had that kind of day, y'all'd be sending him to the Hall of Fame....

 

JDG

[JDG]

Yvel -

 

I was waiting for someone to call me on the DiGiorgio observation. He's my personal "adopted UDFA" for the year, so I've been rooting for him.

 

More seriously, though, it seems very unusual to me for a team to not use their regular long-snapper, even in the pre-season. Was Schneck hurt? If not, while I intentionally overblew my assessment, there might actually be a little bit of smoke there.....

 

JDG

[Risin]

This seems to be the same debate as occurred last year.... some fans watch the game and talk about Losman's poise, other fans look at the numbers and cite the lack of production.   Based on the results, I must say that never in NFL history has a QB who looked so poised produced so little.  

 

Sorry, but the numbers don't lie - 6 yards per attempt isn't going to get this team anywheres.   If Kelly Holcomb produced only 6 yards per attempt you would all be whining about his lack of arm.   O.k., Holcomb actually played horrible, but the point still stands.    Five sacks in less than three quarters is also unacceptable - it is going to send us backwards rather than forwards. 

 

Yay!   Losman was better than Holcomb.   He was still pretty bad, though...

 

As for Moorman, I obviously can't tell from the play-by-play if the blocked punt was his fault, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt.   The other bad punt he had was not recorded properly in the play-by-play, so I can't tell what happened there.   Still, from what I see in the record book, Moorman had punts of 47, 36, 64 (!) - 59 net,  54 (!),  and 48 - 38 net.   That's a huge punting day.  

 

If Losman had that kind of day, y'all'd be sending him to the Hall of Fame....

 

JDG

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The short passing game was stressed last night.

 

JP attempted 3 passes over 10 yards, IIRC.

 

Two were completed to Aiken, and 1 he was being pressured and overthrew a deep ball, that could have been a TD. (reminded me of the same pass he missed against Carolina last season, if I'm not mistaken.)

 

JP didn't have the time to go downfield, and it looked like the routes run by the receivers were all short.

 

WATCH THE GAME, then post again.

 

(you will look less ignorant)

 

Edit: Sorry, he tried a fourth downfield, after he miraculously escaped a sack, reversed his field, and threw a bullet to Peerless Price that was knocked down. If Price wasn't a pansy, and was more aggressive to catch the pass, it would have made a play of the week clip.

[JDG]

The short passing game was stressed last night.

 

JP attempted 3 passes over 10 yards,  IIRC.

 

Two were completed to Aiken,  and 1 he was being pressured and overthrew a deep ball,  that could have been a TD.  (reminded me of the same pass he missed against Carolina last season,  if I'm not mistaken.)

 

JP didn't have the time to go downfield,  and it looked like the routes run by the receivers were all short.

 

WATCH THE GAME,  then post again.

 

(you will look less ignorant)

 

Edit:  Sorry,  he tried a fourth downfield,  after he miraculously escaped a sack,  reversed his field,  and threw a bullet to Peerless Price that was knocked down.  If Price wasn't a pansy,  and was more aggressive to catch the pass,  it would have made a play of the week clip.

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If you think calling me ignorant is going to hurt my feelings, you really haven't spent much time around here.

 

Again, this is a replay of the debates from last year. Losman doesn't produce and its the wide receiver's fault, or the offensive line's fault, or (my personal favorite), it was the lousy gameplan! After every game, Losman's acolytes would talk about how good he looked in the games, while it was left to some other fans to point out that the results were all-too-often the same - completing less than 50% of his passes, passing for less than 150 yards (and often less than 100 yards!), and far too few points on the scoreboard. Well, Moulds is gone, we have two new offensive lineman, and even Mularkey has been shown the door, and once again - Losman doesn't produce, and its the wide receivers fault, the line's fault, and the gameplan is still crimping Losman's style. Oye.....

 

I don't know what it is about Losman - maybe a fascination with mobile QB's or something.... particularly 1st round draft pick mobile QB's. If we were having this conversation a couple hundred years ago, we might think that it was witchcraft. ;-) At the end of the day, though, about the best you can say for Losman last night is that for one of the few times in his career here in Buffalo, Kelly Holcomb didn't outplay him....

 

JDG

[ajzepp]

I don't know what it is about Losman

 

Um, maybe it's the fact that he's only started like EIGHT games, and those of us who understand that a QB takes time to develop are focusing more on his growth than his final numbers?

[Risin]

If you think calling me ignorant is going to hurt my feelings, you really haven't spent much time around here. 

742359[/snapback]

 

 

I would never try to hurt anyone's feelings.

 

Just calling a spade, a spade.

[Risin]

Um, maybe it's the fact that he's only started like EIGHT games, and those of us who understand that a QB takes time to develop are focusing more on his growth than his final numbers?

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Hope you're not trying to hurt his feelings, speaking truths like that.

 

[Rico]

Again, this is a replay of the debates from last year.  Losman doesn't produce and its the wide receiver's fault, or the offensive line's fault, or (my personal favorite), it was the lousy gameplan!   After every game, Losman's acolytes would talk about how good he looked in the games, while it was left to some other fans to point out that the results were all-too-often the same - completing less than 50% of his passes, passing for less than 150 yards (and often less than 100 yards!), and far too few points on the scoreboard.    Well, Moulds is gone, we have two new offensive lineman, and even Mularkey has been shown the door, and once again - Losman doesn't produce, and its the wide receivers fault, the line's fault, and the gameplan is still crimping Losman's style.   Oye.....

742359[/snapback]

No real difference from the "It's Not Drew's Fault" crowd of 2003-2004, other than JP isn't a proven failure yet.... and the only way to find that out is to let him play. After the KH disaster yesterday, I don't think that'll be a problem much longer.

[ajzepp]

Hope you're not trying to hurt his feelings,  speaking truths like that.

 

742365[/snapback]

 

feelings schmeelings!!!

[The Jokeman]

Yvel -

 

I was waiting for someone to call me on the DiGiorgio observation.  He's my personal "adopted UDFA" for the year, so I've been rooting for him.

 

More seriously, though, it seems very unusual to me for a team to not use their regular long-snapper, even in the pre-season.  Was Schneck hurt?  If not, while I intentionally overblew my assessment, there might actually be a little bit of smoke there.....

 

JDG

742342[/snapback]

I'm not sure if Schneck was hurt but remember the reason he was let go from Pittsburgh was ultimately the cap. As a veteran, now Pro Bowl, Long Snapper is going to cost you more than an undrafted free agent would. Although with the blocked punt Moorman may need more time to develop time with DiGiorgio.

[cåblelady]

At the end of the day, though, about the best you can say for Losman last night is that for one of the few times in his career here in Buffalo, Kelly Holcomb didn't outplay him....

 

JDG

742359[/snapback]

[SamsBuffetTable]

the blocked punt was by an unblocked man. It had nothing to do with the longsnapper.

[faderphreak]

Seriously this crap is gettig out of hand. We are such a microcosm of the whole country right now. One side believes one thing another believes somehing else. Here is the deal. Mularkey and Donahoe F'd up big time. Period. We can debate the semantics of specifically how but that is the bottom line. The kid should have been allowed to play all last year no matter how bad he sucked. Especially after it was apparent that the defense was not the squad we all remembered. Instead, fearful of losing their own jobs, they played musical quarterbacks and we will be lucky if the kid doesn't become damaged goods as a result.

 

Let the kid play the year. I seriously doubt that Kelly is the future of the team. He is merely a seat holder. I did watch the game cutaways on NFL network and I listened on Field Pass and it looked and sounded like while kelly was in he did not look farther than ten yards down the field. If that is all he has to bring to the table, let Losman play. If he stinks up the joint, then you take appropriate action next year.

 

 

Here is an interesting statline to give you some ood for thought?

 

Year G GS Att Comp Pct Yards YPA Lg TD Int Tkld 20+ 40+ Rate

2004 9 7 197 95 48.2 1043 5.29 58 6 9 13/8 11 4 55.4

2005 16 16 557 294 52.8 3762 6.75 78 24 17 28/184 49 8 75.9

 

 

Guess Who?

 

 

Now here is our guy:

 

Year G GS Att Comp Pct Yards YPA Lg TD Int Tkld 20+ 40+ Rate

 

2004 4 0 5 3 60.0 32 6.40 17 0 1 1/0 0 0 39.2

2005 9 8 228 113 49.6 1340 5.88 58 8 8 26/197 15 6 64.9

 

 

 

 

Amazing what can happen when a quarterback is allowed to develop, isn't it? Relatively speaking, looking at what J.P did last year in eight starts he is about as far along, relatively speaking.

 

Take the ups. Take the downs. Let the kid develop. Let the kid play.

[Kelly the Dog]

JDG, I think you make some pretty astute observations about what happened in the game even though you didn't see it or hear it. You can tell alot by the play-by-play. I know, for example, I never read any books by Charles Dickens. But I did read the page at the front with all the chapter headings. And I could tell by some of those chapter titles that those pages within them completely sucked. Why read the book? You just don't need to.

[faderphreak]

JDG, I think you make some pretty astute observations about what happened in the game even though you didn't see it or hear it. You can tell alot by the play-by-play. I know, for example, I never read any books by Charles Dickens. But I did read the page at the front with all the chapter headings. And I could tell by some of those chapter titles that those pages within them completely sucked. Why read the book? You just don't need to.

742445[/snapback]

 

Never quite looked at it that way but that is funny.