Great Day to be a Bills Fan

by Coast

Bengals: 21
Bills: 33

Let's get to the point. Any quarterback controversy should be gone for good this season after today. Our offense looked drastically better from the opening gun than it has in a long time. The Bills had a killer instinct on offense in the fourth quarter. They put up 17 fourth quarter points and put the nail in the coffin on offense with Lynch's 56 yard touchdown run. I don't care about the opponent. The Bengals defense is bad but so was the Jets defense (who allowed 196 yards to Portis today) and our offense looked light years better. Losman shows an uncanny ability to get the ball to our best player in Lee Evans. Evans racked up 165 yards on 9 catches and a touchdown. He can be a top echelon player when Losman is in there.

Lynch had his best game of his career even before the long run. Do you think the threat of a downfield passing attack had anything to do with that? Lynch had 153 yards and the game clinching touchdown as well as the touchdown pass to Robert Royal to get us the lead. The offense racked up 480 yards. Most importantly, they controlled the clock and left the Bengals high powered offense on the sideline. Everything that everyone knocked Losman for he showed he could do today. He took no sacks. The offense kept the ball for 35 minutes and 14 seconds. They converted 8 of 13 first downs including a clutch third down pass to Evans that led to the long Lynch TD run. The offense came out and played like they were expected to play this year and now the coaches have no choice but to keep JP under center.

How about the time to throw JP had on a lot of instances today? The offensive line's pass protection was great today and finally they were able to get a push on the ground. On the Bills drive to take the lead, the Bills went 32 yards on 7 plays. They ran Lynch 6 consecutive times and then gave it to Lynch for the touchdown pass. For the first time all season, I can say what a play call by Fairchild. The halfback pass there was as perfect a situation for that play as you can imagine.

Enough about the offense and the quarterback because anyone who thinks Edwards should be playing still needs to go get their heads examined. The Bills defense held one of the best offenses in the NFL to 14 offensive points. They held them to under 300 yards. Chad Johnson was a non factor and had a drop that he probably would have taken in for a touchdown. Perry Fewell has been fantastic this season after the first two games and this week you can't even use the excuse that the opposing offense was bad. The Bengals were averaging over 25 points per game and were for the most part shut down. The defense had huge stops in back to back fourth quarter possessions to lead to two Bills fourth quarter touchdowns. And what can you say about the Bills run defense. The Bengals had 28 yards rushing in this game on 17 carries. This is with guys like McCargo, Kyle Williams, DiGiorgio and Ellison playing significant roles. What a job by these young guys. It is exciting to think about the young core of players on this team and maybe they are moving in the right direction.

Some quick thoughts about the game:

• Finally Lynch breaks out and shows what a great rookie running back he is. Unfortunately his fellow first round pick Adrian Peterson had 296 yards rushing on 30 carries and 3 touchdowns to overshadow Lynch. This is a league rushing record and this guy is only a rookie.
• Huge losses around the league today for the Bills fellow AFC wild card hopefuls. The Jags, Broncos, Chiefs, and Chargers all lose. I can't figure out the Chargers. You think they are going to get hot and then they lose 35-17 against the 2-5 Vikings. The Bills are one game back in the AFC wild card hunt right now.
• The Titans never play a good team except the Colts. They won today against the Panthers with VY having something like 110 yards passing. He had 43 in a win last week against the Raiders. Will this team fall apart like they should? Are the Browns for real? Wow we are in the playoff hunt after 8 games.
• The Bills are .500 at the halfway point for the first time since 2003 (after they started 4-3, they lost 4 in a row). Even better, the Bills are playing the 0-8 Miami Dolphins next week with a chance to get to 5-4. Then it's the Patriots.

What a win.