Tag: NFL 2011

Wow, the Eagles appear to be a slowly-evolving train wreck. After this loss, they’re 1-4, which is rather shocking considering the free-agent money they slathered around during the offseason. It appeared at the time that they were looking to buy themselves a Super Bowl championship; now they’re in a desperate spot where they almost need to win out to have a shot at the playoffs. Wow. What a disaster.

And thing is, they don’t look bad. The Eagles — whom I’ve always rather liked, despite the presence of Michael Vick, who has a long way to go before I remotely consider forgiveness for his dog-fight ring — make a lot of big plays, and they do a lot of great things on the field. Problem is, they tend to make ridiculously huge mistakes. It’s really something to behold. I’ve never seen a team so bound-and-determined to shoot itself in the foot as this one.

The best example came at the very end of the game, when the Bills were clinging to a seven point lead. They faced fourth-and-one just past midfield, and they lined up as if they were going to go for it. This, however, was an old ploy, which I’ve never seen work. The offense lines up and everyone stays as still as a frozen rock as the quarterback goes through a hard snap count. The hope is that somebody on the defensive line will be stupid and jump before a snap of the ball happens, thus committing an off-sides penalty and giving the offensive team a free first down. This was what the Bills were doing. The color commentator on teevee actually said that’s what the Bills were doing. It was so obvious. Everybody watching the game, either in person or on teevee, knew that this was what the Bills were doing. I’ve seen this tactic many, many times in my years of watching football, and I’ve never once seen it work.

Until today. One of the Eagles jumped, refs threw the flag, Bills got a first down, and they ran out the clock. Game over. Wow. The replays showed Philly coach Andy Reid’s head nearly exploding when he saw his guy jump. But ultimately, it’s his fault, isn’t it? The Eagles are very talented…but they appear to have almost no discipline. And it’s killing them.

(BTW, everyone on teevee was harping on Vick’s four interceptions. That’s bad, but as I saw it, two of those weren’t even his fault — they were balls his receiver was able to get hands on, but the ball ended up being bobbled about and deflected into the hands of Bills defenders. I don’t have any idea how to change this, but it’s always struck me as mildly unfair that those kinds of picks get charged against the quarterback’s stats. I know how the NFL officially scores it, but as far as I’m concerned, Vick had two picks, not four. And two of his receivers had “Contact-ball Interceptions”. Or whatever you want to call it.)

As for the Bills, they are 4-1, huzzah! They’re shaping up as a team that needs to score lots of points, though, because the defense can’t stop anybody. Maybe that will change a bit. I hope so, anyway — but at least for today, there were a lot of big plays made by young members of the Bills’ D, so maybe those guys grow and become more consistent at making plays. Alex Carrington, Kelvin Sheppard, and Reggie Corner all made big plays today — or they made something happen that allowed George Wilson to make one of his several big plays. Quite a game, although I would like to see the defense overall become better at forcing punts.

Oh, and I’m sure he won’t stay in the doghouse for too long, but linebacker Danny Batten made the most blatant leading-with-the-helmet hit on Michael Vick that I’ve ever seen. That one was so cut-and-dried that nobody with a pulse could possibly deny it. If not for the Eagles’ defensive lineman who jumped later on and cemented the victory for the Bills, Batten’s hit would have been the dumbest penalty of the day. It may well be the single stupidest penalty I’ve ever seen any Bills player commit, ever. And I remember Andre Reed’s throwing of his helmet in Super Bowl XXVI.

What else to say? Hmmmm…Fred Jackson continues to run like a man possessed, a fact which the Bills would have done well to remember on one drive early in the fourth quarter, when their lead had fallen to ten points and they really needed to move the chains or, failing that, at least grind a bit of clock. Instead they threw three incompletions, going three-and-out and running insignificant time off. Ugh! And one of my Facebook friends pointed out that the Bills often seem to end halves of games with at least one timeout left. That speaks to much better discipline under Chan Gailey than the Bills had under their previous coaching regimes.

Next week, the Bills are on the road to play the Giants. Then they have their bye week. Go Bills!

A couple other random football notes:

::  I thought that the Jets were guaranteed to be awesome? Because they aren’t.

::  I hate having to do this, but I now must root for the Dolphins. I do not want them ending up with the top pick in the NFL Draft. I’ve had to put up with being in the same division as Tom Brady for ten-plus years; just as his career is starting to enter its twilight, I do not want to have to start putting up with Andrew Luck for a similar period. So come on, Chiefs, Colts, or Vikings! Win the Draw of the Luck!

::  But how sick would it be if the Colts get him, and go from the Peyton Manning era to the Andrew Luck era? Aieee!!!

OK, that’s about it. What a fun football season thus far!

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I really didn’t think I’d get to post this. I didn’t want to jinx it, so I didn’t create the cartoon until the final score was recorded and in the books and the players were in the locker rooms. But, at long, long last, here it is:

Oh my, what a game! The Bills spotted the Patriots a 21-0 lead before they came roaring back, getting the jitters out and making it 21-10 before halftime. Then they made it 21-17 in the third, and when the fourth quarter dawned, it was Pats 24, Bills 17. Then the Bills put up 17 points to the Pats’ 7 in that quarter, and that’s all she wrote.

Much has been made in these parts of the Bills’ losing streak to the Pats. The Bills had lost fifteen consecutive games to the Pats, dating back to September 2003. Here’s my blog post from that game. My, how much water is under the bridge! George W. Bush was President. The Iraq War was about six months old. Unless you were unusually well-versed in Illinois state politics, you had no idea at all who Barack Obama was.

Little Quinn would not be born for nearly twelve months. We’d been living in Buffalo again (after our Syracuse winter) for five months. I hadn’t met a single other Buffalo blogger. The Daughter was four and was starting pre-school. The week after that game, The Wife and I went to see the hot new movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. We were still a few months from the theatrical release of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and I was starting to despair of ever finding a job: my first interview at The Store was still three months away. And while I’m honestly not sure, I think I had yet to reveal in this space my unhealthy obsession with overalls.

As for football stuff that’s happened since the last time the Bills walked away from the Pats with a victory? Well, the Buccaneers were the defending Super Bowl champions. Aaron Rodgers had yet to start his first game at Cal. The Bills’ head coach when they last beat the Pats was Gregg Williams; since then, Mike Mularkey and Dick Jauron would walk the sidelines before Chan Gailey. The Bills’ starting quarterback that day was Drew Bledsoe; since then, we’ve had the JP Losman and the Trent Edwards eras before finally arriving at Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Yeah, it’s been a while.

We were discussing this matchup at work the other day, a few friends and I, and I said, “I don’t want that one win back in ’03 to be the only time the Bills ever beat Brady. And I don’t want to not beat him until he’s 38 and clearly in physical decline. I want to beat him now.” Well, I got my wish. Hmmm…let me try that again. “I don’t want to write a publishable book when I’m 67 years old, I want to write one now!” Huh, I think my space-opera-in-progress just got better!

Some thoughts from the game:

::  Brady piled up big numbers, along with Wes Welker. So what? The Pats’ defense looks awful. They’ve been sliced-and-diced three weeks in a row now, and they’re only 2-1 because their offense is really good. Well, take it from a guy who remembers the Bills’ glory days, Pats fans: awesome offense that scores a lot plus crappy defense that stops nobody equals somebody else holding the Lombardi trophy.

::  The Bills’ defensive game plan appears to have been, “Let Welker get his catches, just don’t let him break a giant gain, and contain everybody else.” That’s pretty much what they did. Aside from their tight end, nobody other than Welker really stepped up for the Pats. They might want to look into that, because if the Pats think that Brady’s going to be putting up 400 yards a game all season, they’re deluded. Defenses are suffering now, all over the NFL, but they’re going to settle in sooner or later, as offensive players get dinged up and as defensive guys find their chemistry after an abbreviated preseason with no offseason workouts.

::  I really hope that since the Bills are doing well, CBS will decide that their games deserve an announcer upgrade. Marv Albert isn’t that good anymore, but Rich Gannon is awful. At one point, the Pats were lining up with first-and-goal, and he said — and I am not making this up — “Well, the Patriots have options here. They can either throw it or run it.” And it was funny to see his reactions to Tom Brady’s first two interceptions, as he made the case both times that they weren’t really St. Tom’s fault. This led me to comment on Twitter, “Brady could literally hand to ball to a defender and Gannon would blame Brady’s RB for not being there for the handoff”. Of course, after picks three and four — with the fourth one being run back for a TD — Gannon just didn’t talk at all. I guess he can’t decide what to say when something happens that is outside of his preferred narrative (in this case, the Godlike status of St. Tom the Overrated).

::  By the way, St. Tom sure showed a lot of heart on Drayton Florence’s pick-six, didn’t he? He just kind of jogged toward him but made no effort whatsoever to actually knock him out of bounds and maybe, just maybe, prevent him from scoring.

::  I love comebacks, but I wish the Bills would figure out how to play well in the first quarter too.

::  The Bills still need to improve on the pass rush. Their run defense has improved greatly, but the pass D still needs some help from the front seven to rush the passes.

::  The Bills’ offensive line, which had fans terrified during preseason, gave up zero sacks and largely played very well in pass protection and in a fairly productive running game.

Next week, the Bills are at Cincinnati, which may be an interesting game. The Bills and Bengals don’t play every year, so the streak doesn’t include nearly as many games as the Bills’ skid against the Patriots, but the Bengals have not beaten the Bills since the two teams met in the AFC Championship Game after the 1988 season. Last year, the Bills trailed the Bengals by 17 before beating them by 18. Giddyup!

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Wow, what a game! It very nearly ended up as a Bills loss, but alas for our lovely Raiders fan….

This game was one of those wonderful heart-stoppers that are so fun to watch…fun and maddening, as you watch each team drive home the killing stroke only to allow the opponent to get back up and keep fighting. This was a game that validates that old chestnut of football commentary: “I think the last team to score might win!”

The Bills looked bad for most of the first half, which after two games might well be shaping up as a pattern. Poor running defense combined with a Ryan Fitzpatrick interception led to the Raiders taking a 21-3 lead into halftime (would have been 21-6, had the Raiders not blocked a Bills field goal as time expired). But in the second half, the Bills came right back, scoring 21 straight points for a 24-21 lead. Then the Raiders made it 28-24. Then the Bills made it 31-28. Then the Raiders made it 35-31. And then the Bills, with fifteen seconds or so left, made it 38-35. And then the Raiders put up a Hail Mary as the clock expired, which came down in a crowd of players; luckily it was a Bill (rookie Da’Norris Searcy) who made the catch, securing the win.

It was a game of huge offensive plays on both sides, with some amazing catches. It was also a game of colossal errors for the Raiders, who seemed to commit penalty after penalty at times.

Random thoughts about the game:

::  Some folks are saying things on Twitter like “The Bills are actually fun to watch again!” But for my money, they started getting fun to watch again last year. They seem to have the same kind of approach to the game with a bit more experience and a bit more talent. I still think they’re a way off from being a consistent winner, but I do not think they’re several years off, anymore. But last year, for the most part they were usually entertaining and they teased fans a lot before losing because they simply didn’t have enough talent. Late in the year, injuries took their toll so they ended up closing the year with a couple of blowout losses, but for the most part, they were a calm, collected, never-quit-fighting team last year too. It’s just that this year they’re better. How much better? Well, in the words of Chris Berman, “That’s why they play the games.”

::  Stevie Johnson continues to be a beast who lays it all out on the field, every time. The Bills can not let him get to the free agent market after the season. Come on, guys — extend him already! (I have a feeling they will at some point. They are already talking with Ryan Fitzpatrick, and they seem to be taking a “talk to one guy at a time” approach to this stuff.)

::  Fred Jackson is just astonishing. He just is. Everybody knows it. But CJ Spiller seems to be settling in and figuring things out, too. I’m thrilled to have this one-two-punch at running back.

::  I felt kind of bad for the Raiders when they took an Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty after the Bills scored a touchdown, and their coach (Hue Jackson) threw the challenge flag. Yes, he’s a head coach, so he should know that the NFL is automatically reviewing all scoring plays now, which makes those plays “unchallengable”. But still, that’s a brand new rule and he’s a rookie head coach, so…well, sucks to be him. I sympathize. (But not much. It’s still football, folks!)

::  But also on the topic of Raiders and penalties, I’m no expert, but there were an awful lot of Raider hits on Ryan Fitzpatrick that really looked to me like late hits/roughing the passer’s. All went uncalled. He took quite a few pops after the ball had been out of his hands for almost an entire ‘Mississippi’.

::  On the go-ahead touchdown from Fitzpatrick to David Nelson, wow…I can’t believe the Raiders let somebody get that wide open. Seriously, there were about five yards of space on either side of Nelson before you saw a Raider. Ouch. Apparently their defensive plan for that play relied on getting a sack, because they either didn’t try coverage or they blew the coverage. Yipes.

::  With two wins already, the Bills are virtually eliminated from the Andrew Luck sweepstakes, unless they lose every game they have left (unlikely) or this is one of those years where the NFL’s worst record goes to a team with three or four wins (also highly unlikely). Right now, I’m thinking that the Draft brings the best available right or left tackle to the Bills. (More likely right, on the basis of Demetrius Bell being off to a not-bad start this year.)

::  CBS’s coverage was a mixed bag. The announcers were just kind of there, but apparently now it’s a Big Frakking Deal now whenever any NFL player comes from Harvard. This just gets annoying. I know, you have to fill up airtime, but Ye Gods.

::  Also, CBS continues to irritate with their “camera shots from the area of the game” thing that they do when they come back from commercial breaks. As usual, we get the same shot of Niagara Falls that everybody who has ever watched a football game from Buffalo has seen, with the announcers saying “Ah yes, the magical splendor of Niagara Falls, thirty miles down the road from Buffalo!” or some such thing. Then, next time, we get the same shot of a guy in the kitchen at the Anchor Bar tossing chicken wings in hot sauce that everybody who has ever watched a football game from Buffalo has seen, with the announcers saying “Ah yes, they’re making Buffalo wings [nobody here calls them Buffalo wings!] at the legendary Anchor Bar where they were invented!”. Annoying. It bugs me every time, because NFL cities are cities, and each one has lots of cool stuff about that nobody knows about.

So, later on, they have a shot from Buffalo’s Naval and Military Park, with a big old shot of the USS The Sullivans, which really impressed the hell out of me. I really think that CBS (and FOX, if they do the same thing — I don’t recall if they do!) should allow cities to pick where they take these shots, so they can get a little free publicity for area attractions. The only problem with the Naval Park shot? This time, the announcers didn’t say anything! Couldn’t they come up with a scripted sentence or two, like, “There’s downtown Buffalo and their Naval and Military Park, where several decommissioned ships from our nation’s Navy reside for tours. Lots of great history here in Buffalo!” Ugh.

::  Next week the New England Patriots come to town. Do I like the Bills’ chances? Actually, I do. Sure, the Bills have lost fifteen in a row to the Pats, and they’re 2-20 against them since the 2000 season, but there’s this odd pattern that always seems to happen in both games, no matter whether the first game is in New England or in Buffalo. What happens is that the Bills play the Pats really hard the first time they see them, sometimes even nursing a lead well into the fourth quarter, before losing a tough one; then, the second time they see them, the Patriots just…well, they beat the crap out of ’em. It’s kind of weird. So, will the Bills actually beat the Patriots? Enhhhh…I don’t think so. I don’t think they’re ready to take that step yet, I’m sorry to say. I’d love for them to do so; I’d love for them to beat the Pats at least once while St. Tom the Overrated is under center for them. But I think that may have to wait for next year.

But, like Chris Berman always says, and like I quoted above already, “That’s why they play the games!”

::  Whoa! Commercials for Hawaii Five-0‘s season premiere tomorrow night, and Terry O’Quinn is joining the cast? SQUEEEE!! Terry O’Quinn always makes things better by just being there. He doesn’t even have to have dialogue.

OK, that’s about it. Will my poor pie-faced football fan next week at last be wearing a Patriots hoodie? Here’s hoping!

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Last season, in keeping with my general liking of pies in faces, I decorated my football posts with this picture every time the Bills lost:

I’ll still be using this one this year, but I’ll be modifying it whenever the Bills actually win. So, here’s to our poor lovely Chiefs fan!

Yeah, it’s a bit infantile, but what can I say? We’re talking about a sport that has big guys putting on contact gear and slamming into one another at high speeds.

So anyway, what about the Bills’ 41-7 dismantling of the Chiefs?

::  After a rough first series or two, Ryan Fitzpatrick settled down nicely, completing 17 of 26 passes for 208 yards and 4 touchdowns. That’s a great day. And he spread the wealth around, throwing a TD each to receivers Stevie Johnson and Donald Jones, and the other two to tight end Scott Chandler. Fitzpatrick didn’t have any of those “OMG please don’t get picked off” throws that he seemed to air out once per game last year, either. This guy is certainly making the most of the opportunity he’s getting in Buffalo.

::  And Scott Chandler? A tight end who catches the ball? And whose catches are clutch catches, including multiple scores? We haven’t seen that in Buffalo since the days of Pete Metzelaars. It got to the point with him that the Chiefs were devoting lots of attention to him, which allowed other guys to get open. I can’t overstate how much I am praying that this is a harbinger of what this guy can do on a regular basis. A good tight end can make so many good things happen for an offense. I’ve often wondered if quarterbacks like JP Losman and Trent Edwards might have developed differently had they had a decent tight end to dump the ball on and draw attention away from receivers.

::  The defense looked quite a bit more stout today, but it still has some way to go. They certainly showed that they’re susceptible to the hurry-up offense.

::  Fred Jackson continues to amaze. He’s just a fantastic player. I don’t think he ever fails to pick up positive yardage, and there were several plays today where he ran into a pile of Chief defenders and single-handedly pushed the pile back as he forced them to yield a few more yards. What a player. I hope he’s got a few years left in him. He’s old for a running back in terms of years, but he’s only been in the NFL for a couple of years, so in terms of mileage, he’s still in his prime.

::  For Bills fans hoping that the team can still finish with the top pick in the draft and get Andrew Luck (assuming his stock doesn’t drop due to a bad season), this victory doesn’t help. Over the last ten years, the teams that wound up with the top pick averaged just 1.7 wins a season. The Bills are halfway to screwing themselves out of Andrew Luck!

Next week, the Bills open at home against the Raiders, a team which seems to be highly regarded for reasons I don’t quite understand. They were 8-8 last year, but it was a very odd 8-8 — they went 6-0 in their division, but 2-6 outside it. We’ll see. Bring ’em on!

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