Sunday, November 11, 2007

The Bills Escape South Florida

Bills 13
Dolphins 10

by Coast

Was it pretty? Definitely not. But as the old saying goes, "A win's a win." The Bills survived an ugly performance for three quarters to steal one from the now 0-9 Dolphins 13-10. The Bills are remarkably at 5-4, one game behind 2 teams for the wild card, have a 5-3 conference record, have won four in a row and Bills fever is once again sweeping through Western New York.

The Bills had anything but their A game today. Good teams however find ways to win games when they are off their game. Am I saying this Bills team is good? It just might be true. They have a young defense with a bunch of no name guys holding teams week in and week out out of the end zone. A 2nd year player in Dante Whitner is emerging as the vocal leader of the defense and he is starting to play like it too. They have an offense led by JP Losman, a guy who for no reason is hated by the fans and media who would love nothing more for him to lose his job. The only problem is, he won't let it happen. Their rookie running back Marshawn Lynch plays every down like it is February in Tempe. He is emerging as not only a good back but a top 5 back in this league.

Once again the defense played a solid game. The Dolphins played like they had nothing to lose on offense. Their running back had a solid game (27 carries for 124 yards for Jesse Chatman). They controlled the time of possession (36:59 to 23:01). All that said, the Dolphins only scored 10 points and mustered only 269 yards of offense. In fact, the Dolphins offense is the worst offense in the NFL hands down that I have seen. They struggled for every single first down. Their touchdown drive was 18 plays 80 yards for an agonizing 9 plus minutes. Yeah this was agonizing to watch and was a march but was probably the luckiest drive in NFL history. On once occasion on a 4th and 1 inside their territory, which was asinine to even go for given the way the Bills offense was playing, Cleo Lemon reached his one arm flailing the ball in the air to get the first down. The ball seemed like it was hanging there forever and it was a miracle for him that it wasn't knocked out of his hands. The Dolphins receivers dropped crucial passes when they needed them. Cleo Lemon threw the ball 50 rows into the stands after his touchdown scramble like he just won the Super Bowl. I guess when it is that rare for you to score a touchdown or to even be winning it is such a relief when it happens that you just want to throw the ball into the crowd.

First off let me say for the first half of this game, the entire offense including the quarterback was absolutely awful. There is no denying that. The offense looked asleep for the first 30 minutes. They went 3 and out 4 consecutive possessions and a lot of that can be blamed on the quarterback. But let's look past that. There was no running game during this stretch. Josh Reed made a bad play not getting his feet down. The pass to Evans in the end zone was under thrown big time. For the blunder at the end of the first half however, you can't blame Losman entirely for the Bills not scoring. After completing a pass to Reed for a first down around the Bills 45, why was a timeout not used. There would have been a minute left, first and 10 with still another timeout. Instead we got to the line no huddle when we didn't need to be doing that and Losman ended up getting sacked, we called a timeout and it was 2nd and 13 with 33 seconds left. Mismanaging timeouts is among other things a major shortcoming for the head coach. On the final play of the half, the receiver needs to run a rout that doesn't take as long as the one Reed ran, even though there was still time remaining.

The 2nd half was a different story however. The Bills got the key safety and after the Phins 18 play 80 yard drive, the offense had to answer. The defense was tired and once again JP Losman had 15 minutes to play for his career and once again he got the job done. He led the Bills on a 65 yard march that included an agonizing 4th down conversion by one inch that saved the game. Lynch scored the touchdown and the Bills gave it to him for 2 and on a great 2nd effort, like he does so often, he scored to give the Bills the lead. Then JP led them into field goal range after a great punt return from Parrish to set up Lindell's game winning field goal. Losman was 6-7 for 74 yards in the 4th quarter. Since his return as starter, JP is 10-14 198 yards and 1 td in the fourth quarter. More importantly, the Bills have outscored their opponents 38-0 in this frame including 2 fourth quarter come from behind wins. People still want to bash the quarterback but he is doing what a good quarterback does and what a good leader does. He is getting the job done when it matters most. As far as Lynch, he is proving every week that he is a guy that this team can depend on in crunch time to get tough yards, unlike the last guy that played the position here.

So the stage is set. The 9-0 New England Patriots @ the suddenly red hot 5-4 Buffalo Bills. The Bills have won 4 in a row and now have the 2nd longest winning streak in the NFL (tied with Green Bay). It does not get any bigger than this game and it will be the biggest game in nearly every single player on the Bills rosters life. This can be the win that marks the emergence of this team for real.

Quick Hits
  • Commentary was awful. Steve Tasker is awful. They talked up Miami hardcore the whole game and then with the Bills down 8 first and goal on the three Tasker says "You know this game isn't over." Thanks Steve. Also, Tasker was calling for the Bills to put in Edwards in the middle of the third quarter. Yeah good idea, put in a rookie who has been injured and not getting many reps in practice when your team is losing a close game in the 2nd half on the road. I was just embarrassed that he used to play for the Bills.
  • Gaines had a game he would like to forget. Dropped a probable touchdown on a nice seem route when JP laid it in there for him. He also could have picked up a first down on the Bills last drive but for some reason just stopped running and ended up a yard short.
  • Cleo Lemon is a disgrace and so is Marty Booker and Cam Cameron. Nice hiring. Cleo Lemon is reigned in so much playing quarterback that there is little doubt that the rookie Beck could run the offense just as effectively. So, why not play him?
  • Jesse Chatman seems like a good player. He is tough to tackle.
  • You gotta love saying the Bills played bad and need to play better after a win. I haven't said that this millennium.
Sunday 8:15 biggest game in OP since 99 (yes, bigger than that Steelers game with that shitty quarterback and running back and coach we had).

No comments:

Post a Comment