Bills Roll

-Coast

The Bills laid it to Kansas City today 54-31. The Bills did what team with playoff aspirations should do to a bottom dweller...rout them. It was a nice win, a lot of good things happened...but the fact is, they beat a 1-9 team with a quarterback named Tyler Thigpen running the "shotgun eye formation."

I did see some good things today though. Let's start with the rookie cornerback who I thought was awful the first half of the season. Leodis McKelvin is beginning to show why he was the number one corner taken in the draft. The dude is a game changer. The pick 6 was a great play...he jumped the rout and took it to the house. The Bills were actually losing when this happened and this play essentially changed the game. He followed that up with another pick and then a great kick return to begin the 2nd half to put the nail in the coffin. He has played 2 straight good games and should only get better. Is Greer's job in danger? Probably not, he will play when he gets healthy, but McKelvin is making me feel a lot better right now about our corner depth.

Trent Edwards had the worst game in the history of his position on Monday night. He did take some strides today...in fact, he looked really good after the first quarter and made some big plays. He started the game off shaky...missing Royal on that 3rd and goal just can't happen, he was wide open. Edwards was inaccurate to start but as the game went on, he began making good and quick decisions with the ball. His running is what allowed him to have a great game though.
The touchdown run at the end of the half was a huge, slightly stupid, play. If he got tackled in bounds, the clock would have run out and the Bills would have got nothing. He also was able to get Evans the ball and on a deep ball too. That bomb to Evans was a dart...I didn't think I would ever see the likes of it again. I think we might have gotten our quarterback back, but I will not know for sure until I see him string a few good games together.

I am definitely not satisfied with the play of the defense. McKelvin made some plays, but other than him...they are just average. They allowed 31 points to the Chiefs and Tyler Thigpen. If the Bills didn't run away with this game, Larry Johnson might have run for 200 yards. He was ripping off big run after big run in the first half. People were wide open down field on way too regular a basis. Someone had to have blown an assignment on the Charles touchdown. Gonzalez had a 35 yard catch down the sideline when no one wanted to cover him. They allowed 462 total yards of offense to KC. The Chiefs averaged 12.2 yards per carry. If you are going to allow that many yard and a lot of points though, you better take the ball away, and the Bills did that 5 times. They also had 3 sacks, which is a miracle for this defense. Despite giving up tons of yards, the Bills did a good job getting off the field on 3rd downs...the Chiefs were 1-8.

The Bills remain in the hunt for another week and will keep things semi interesting into December I would predict. They have back to back home games...against the 49ers and Dolphins (in Toronto). The Bills should be able to beat San Francisco...then I will predict a win in a rematch vs Miami. That puts the Bills at 8-5 with 3 to go...at NYJ, at Denver, vs. New England. They would need to win 2 of those 3 to even have a chance. Can this team go on the road and beat a team that will without a doubt be playing a game with playoff implications? Then, can the Bills win at home and end this miserable 1-14 drought against the Patriots since 2000. Then the Bills will need help since they trail New England, Baltimore, Miami and Indianaplis in the standings. It is an uphill battle to say the least but for one week the Bills keep their slim playoff hopes alive and after the past month, what more can you ask for?