CentralVaBills Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 they MUST win this weeks game for us. MUST. Classic defensive struggle, and the better defense will win period. So, if our D is so good, they must shut down the Ravens, WITHOUT Jamal Lewis, WITHOUT Todd Heap, and with an inexperienced QB. If they want to earn the rep that only Bills fans give them credit for being a top notch defense, they need to win us this game this week. And this doesnt' mean give up 13 points and brag. This means they cant' allow time consuming, field position drives. Penalites that lose us field position. Choking late against a offensively challenged NFL offense. As a matter of fact, as scary as Baltimore's defense is, I hope we kickoff first and start the battle of field position right off of the bat. We'll see if the D is for real or not this week. THEY NEED TO WIN THIS GAME FOR US! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Campy Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 they MUST win this weeks game for us. MUST. Classic defensive struggle, and the better defense will win period. So, if our D is so good, they must shut down the Ravens, WITHOUT Jamal Lewis, WITHOUT Todd Heap, and with an inexperienced QB. If they want to earn the rep that only Bills fans give them credit for being a top notch defense, they need to win us this game this week. And this doesnt' mean give up 13 points and brag. This means they cant' allow time consuming, field position drives. Penalites that lose us field position. Choking late against a offensively challenged NFL offense. As a matter of fact, as scary as Baltimore's defense is, I hope we kickoff first and start the battle of field position right off of the bat. We'll see if the D is for real or not this week. THEY NEED TO WIN THIS GAME FOR US! 76021[/snapback] I don't disagree with your observations, but I do disagree with you in that the key matchup will be our D vs their O. I think the game will be won or lost by the performance of our O. The only way I see us winning is getting up early and forcing them to pass. But if our O can't move ball, they'll have penty of time and possessions to run and they won't have to put the game in Boller's hands. Just my opinion... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeRay Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 I would add to this... After the Bills D got smoked on either game ending or game securing drives for 3 of their 5 games, how may of us fans were confident that the D would have held up against the Dolhins if the offense had not sealed the deal and kept the ball away from the dolphins? Speaking for myself, had the dolphins gotten the ball back with under 3 minutes left and the wind at their backs... I would have been stevestojaning my drawers. Bottom line.... as you indicate, this defense is not as good as everyone thinks and I think part of their problem is the defensive line, but a bigger problem is the secondary... I view them as average at best... with Milloy and Vincent slightly better... they just have no one with consistent big play ability on either the Dline or secondary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drnykterstein Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 is lawyer playing? if he's not, then i'm not an apologist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CentralVaBills Posted October 19, 2004 Author Share Posted October 19, 2004 I don't disagree with your observations, but I do disagree with you in that the key matchup will be our D vs their O. I think the game will be won or lost by the performance of our O. The only way I see us winning is getting up early and forcing them to pass. But if our O can't move ball, they'll have penty of time and possessions to run and they won't have to put the game in Boller's hands. Just my opinion... 76062[/snapback] No way. We have sunk alot of money into the defense. Our O will not score much at all. The defense needs to TRULY win this game for us. Their offense is putrid. Our defense, IF it is top notch (which it isn't), should win this game for us. You can not count on the offense to do much. But any team could count on a top notch defense shutting down a putrid Ravens offense. By what you said, it should work even more the other way around. It should be much easier to shut them down, then for the Ravens to shut us down. Top Notch? We'll see this week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zow2 Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 they MUST win this weeks game for us. MUST. Classic defensive struggle, and the better defense will win period. So, if our D is so good, they must shut down the Ravens, WITHOUT Jamal Lewis, WITHOUT Todd Heap, and with an inexperienced QB. If they want to earn the rep that only Bills fans give them credit for being a top notch defense, they need to win us this game this week. And this doesnt' mean give up 13 points and brag. This means they cant' allow time consuming, field position drives. Penalites that lose us field position. Choking late against a offensively challenged NFL offense. As a matter of fact, as scary as Baltimore's defense is, I hope we kickoff first and start the battle of field position right off of the bat. We'll see if the D is for real or not this week. THEY NEED TO WIN THIS GAME FOR US! 76021[/snapback] I agree, If Baltimore's offense converts 50%-60% of their 3rd-down conversions then we really suck. In order to stop time consuming drives, your defense must get off the field on 3rd-downs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fan in San Diego Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 If we can get a lead early, it will make the offense's job easier. Should be less blitz's if we can establish a lead. If we can get a lead the defensive job becomes easier as well. We should be able to blitz a little more if they are behind. I wonder if Sam Adams will be allowed to blitz more this week? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Campy Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 I guess I'm the only one who believes our D will have a much easier task in shutting down their O than our O's task of moving the ball against their D? That's why I think the game will hinge more on the performance of our O than our D. Sans Heap and Jamal Lewis, their O isn't gonna' scare many people. Their D on the other hand... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRW Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 I guess I'm the only one who believes our D will have a much easier task in shutting down their O than our O's task of moving the ball against their D? That's why I think the game will hinge more on the performance of our O than our D. Sans Heap and Jamal Lewis, their O isn't gonna' scare many people. Their D on the other hand... 76126[/snapback] No, I think that's true. IMO the point is more that our D should be able to shut them down almost completely and let our offense try to just play a mistake-free game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fake-Fat Sunny Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 they MUST win this weeks game for us. MUST. Classic defensive struggle, and the better defense will win period. So, if our D is so good, they must shut down the Ravens, WITHOUT Jamal Lewis, WITHOUT Todd Heap, and with an inexperienced QB. If they want to earn the rep that only Bills fans give them credit for being a top notch defense, they need to win us this game this week. And this doesnt' mean give up 13 points and brag. This means they cant' allow time consuming, field position drives. Penalites that lose us field position. Choking late against a offensively challenged NFL offense. As a matter of fact, as scary as Baltimore's defense is, I hope we kickoff first and start the battle of field position right off of the bat. We'll see if the D is for real or not this week. THEY NEED TO WIN THIS GAME FOR US! 76021[/snapback] I know exagerration is a big part of both the internet and being fan but I think your exaggerations here miss a couple of key points: A big issue determing the potential outcome of this game may well be not the O or the D but ST performance. Ravems rookie BJ Sams has returned two punts for TDs and has returned 4 kicks for 20 or more yards in the 5 Ravens game. The Bills O has been anemic much of this season and will be facing a tough Ravens D which is not close to performing at their old SB levels but will be a tough matchup for the Bills. The same is true for a Ravens O which struggled even with jamal Lewis and losing him is going to put a lot of pressure on Kyle Boller whose 61.3 passer rating pales even im comparison to the much maligned Bledsoe. This game has all the makings of a 0-0 shootout and not only will field position be a big key. but if Sams is able to put points on the board as he has been able to do in 2 of their 5 games the Bills will even have a tougher row to hoe. How you can make such uequivocal statements which totally wipe out questions about Lindell's placekicking when their kicker Stover has made all of his attempts including one from 50 yards and the opportunities we have because McGee was leading the league in KO returns is beyond reality. ST is going to make a huge difference in the performance of both team's O and D and may flat out decide this game. 2. In terms of overarching analysis you seem to pose a false choice between those who judge our D to be mediocre and those who judge our D to be great. I think this choice is simply wrong as the Ds performance late in games simply indicates they are not great. However, their statistical performance which easily ranks in the top third of the league clearly indicates the D is better than mediocre. They virtually shut down MI with the wind at their backs Sunday and held them to a mere 36 yards in enitre second half Sunday and in terms of the only stat that really matters for a unit (W/L is the only stat that matters for the team) they have held 4 of 5 opponents below 20 points. If only our O could score a reasonable amount. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBob Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 I guess I'm the only one who believes our D will have a much easier task in shutting down their O than our O's task of moving the ball against their D? That's why I think the game will hinge more on the performance of our O than our D. Sans Heap and Jamal Lewis, their O isn't gonna' scare many people. Their D on the other hand... 76126[/snapback] Hey Campy, please stop apologizing for our defense! LOL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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