Bills Packers Reaction

-Coast

Usually I don't like to look too much into pre season games, but last night was way too ugly to ignore. The offense sucked, the defense sucked, the special teams sucked...I am very alarmed by a 24-0 drubbing in the first half.

The Bills starting offense was pathetic. I know we didn't have TO but we didn't have TO at all last year and I don't remember us looking this bad. Can Trent handle the no huddle? He was lost. It seemed like the no huddle was tiring out our offensive line more than it was tiring out their defense . Dom Capers was relentless and Edwards was sacked multiple times.

The first drive went 5 plays, 11 yards and ended with an interception. The 2nd drive went 3 plays, -5 yards and resulted in a Trent fumble lost at our own 5 yard line. The third drive went for 6 plays and a stellar 13 yards ending with a punt. The fourth drive went for 15 yards on 6 plays ending with the 3rd turnover in 4 possessions on a Fred Jackson fumble. Finally, the fifth drive, the starting offenses most productive drive of the day, went for 19 yards on 5 plays. I have never seen a more pathetic offensive unit in my life. Edwards completed 7 balls for 45 yards. That is about 6.5 yards per completion. Last week in his 10-10 performance, captain check down completed 10 balls for 79 yards. He completed one ball to Evans for 36 yards. You take away that one pass, which was obviously more of the exception than the rule, Edwards has completed 16 passes for 88 yards. That is 5.5 yards per completion. Even worse, the starters have produced 3 points in their last 8 series. Trent attempted one pass down field and it was intercepted. It is clearly an issue with him mentally, the guy plays the position scared...he can't just forget about interceptions and mistakes. He missed a wide open Josh Reed on one medium range pass in which I received three text messages with in one minute that read "Yikes", "Wow", and "Michael Vick could have made that throw". People may be so quick to blame the coaching staff, like me-they suck, but Fitzpatrick and Hamdan had no problem throwing the ball down field in throwing for 249 yards. We needed Michael Vick.

The only bright spots for this offensive game came from the reserves. Who is Jonathan Stupar? This dude has had back to back solid games. He led the Bills receivers with 5 receptions for 63 yards and a touchdown. Xavier Omon still trying to make his case to make this team, cashed in with a 52 yard reception in the 2nd half. Steve Johnson still proving that he is as much of a stud as I say he is, contributed with 52 yards on three catches. Although he didn't do too much, Shaun Nelson looks like a beast out there. He is huge and fast. The reserves put up 21 points in the 2nd half and owned the Packers back ups...for whatever that is worth.

Aaron Rodgers looked like he was running his offense against the scout team defense yesterday. Yeah, the offense hung the defense out to try with 4 first half turnovers, but outside of a lucky 4th down stop on Green Bay's first drive, the defense showed little resistance. Rodgers was 8-9 for 98 yards and 2 touchdowns...ugly. The pass rush as usual was non existent. Even the rush defense, which has been so good for the first two pre season games, looked bad...allowing 43 yards to Ryan Grant including a real easy touchdown run. Driver and Jennings caught TD Passes. I said before the game that this would be a good test for our defense, facing a good offense, and they failed miserably.

Once again though, the reserves looked pretty good. Reggie Corner had an interception, making up for the pathetic drop he had last week against the Bears. Copeland Bryan looked good out there...he had a sack and forced fumble. Right now, the Bills defense end depth chart looks like this: Schobel, Kelsay, Denney, Maybin, Ellis, Bryan. With Bryan and Ellis rising up the depth charts it seems to me that cutting one of the two scum bags in Kelsay and Denney makes sense. My personal opinion is to cut Kelsay. He doesn't do anything...neither does Denney, but at least Denney isn't making 5 million per year. I have been saying it since, well, 2006, cut Kelsay as soon as possible.

Finally, Nic Harris. The dude is all over the field out there making plays and breaking guys legs. I am done with the Keith Ellison experiment. He sucks. He had the best play of his career yesterday and it was during a pre season game. He has reached his ceiling. Somehow we haven't replaced him in THREE seasons. Nic Harris has upside, plug him in there with the first unit and see what he can do. We know what we got with Ellison and that is nothing. Harris could be a star. He led the Bills with 9 tackles yesterday, 6 of which were solo tackles. No other Bill had more than 5 tackles or 4 solo tackles. He stands out when he is in there. Start him, why not?

I predicted 5-11 earlier...and I can't really find 5 wins on the schedule right now. Hopefully TO turns Trent Edwards into a different player, but I hate scared quarterbacks and that is exactly what Trent is. He plays scared. I can't wait to see TO in Trent's ear and see a tear running down Trent's cheek on national television opening day. It is going to be ugly this year, unless something miraculous happens in the next 3 weeks.