2004: Week 17 loss to the Steelers
2005: Halloween loss in Foxboro where Holcombe threw the 3 yard out to Moulds on 4th and 7
2006: Christmas Eve loss to the Titans when Dick Jauron infamously didn't know if his team was in field goal range or not
2007: The Dallas game on Monday Night Football
2008: The Browns game on Monday Night Football
2009: The Patriots opener...you guessed it...on Monday Night Football
2010: The team sucked...but we still had the Ravens and Steelers overtime heartbreakers
2011: The loss in New Jersey where Stevie dropped the potential game winning pass
2012: The loss in Foxboro when Fitz threw the INT in the end zone
These name only a few of the many brutal losses this team has faced over the years. This year has had its share...weeks 1 and 7 produced last second or overtime heartbreaking losses.
Then there came the week 9 match up with the 8-0 Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs were 2-14 last year, picked up Alex Smith and Andy Reid and all of a sudden were 8-0. I have been claiming all year that they were a fraudulent team. They have squeaked out wins vs. bad teams and then other bad teams without their starting quarterbacks. Coming in to the Bills game today, the Chiefs have faced the likes of Gabbert, Fitzpatrick, Keenum, Pryor, and Campbell. Their other three games came against the wildly inconsistent and under performing NFC East. In other words, I truly felt that the Chiefs were the WORST team the Bills have faced so far. Maybe I am being sour because the Bills can never luck out or have the good fortune to start 9-0 when we have beeen mediocre the past 13 years. Well...the Chiefs won 23-13 and according to CBS, which flashed the headline "Chiefs roll past Bills to go to 9-0" during the Patriots Steelers game, I must have been way wrong. about them.
Well, I WASN'T. The CHIEFS WERE AWFUL. The Bills DOMINATED the Kansas City Chiefs on BOTH SIDES OF THE BALL. It really was one of the most one sided football games I have ever watched the Bills play. Let's just look at some of the stats (Bills stat shown first).
First Downs: 25-15
Plays: 77-54
Yards: 470-210
Yards Per Play: 6.1-3.9
Passing Yards: 229-115
Rushing: 241-95!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YPC: 6.3-4.1
That is incredibly lop sided. I want someone to figure out if there has even been a more one sided affair that resulted in the team that got thoroughly dominated win by 10...it is truly amazing.
So why did the Bills lose? I attribute 95% of the blame to Jeff Tuel and 4% of the blame to TJ Graham. The other 1% of the blame can go to a variety of different things.
Jeff Tuel sucks. I had no expectations coming into the game, but he even disappointed me. Yeah, he started out decent and threw a nice deep ball to Goodwin (but, like I have said many times, the deep ball is the easiest throw for a QB to attempt...high reward/low risk). The Bills led 10-3 at halftime and got the ball 1st to start the 2nd half. The only reason why the Chiefs had any points in the first half is Tuel threw a horrendous interception in the Bills territory that didn't seem to be intended for anyone. The first drive of the 2nd half featured a 61 yard exciting run by Spiller. Eventually, the Bills had 1st and goal from the 1 yard line. Jackson stuffed on back to back plays and here were go with another 3rd and 1. The Bills run a pass play. Stevie Johnson breaks WIDE OPEN into the back of the end zone...I mean WIDE OPEN. Tuel never even looks...at anything. In fact, I am pretty sure he threw with his eyes closed. He got the snap, closed his eyes, and just chucked it. Sean Smith completely blew his coverage on Johnson, who broke WIDE OPEN if I hadn't mentioned that yet. How was Sean Smith rewarded? It wasn't by Tuel finding Johnson for the touchdown...rather Tuel threw the ball right into Sean Smith's arms standing at the goal line. Smith returned it 100 yards for a touchdown, a 14 points swing and a 10-10 game.
I have made many outlandish comments in my career as a Bills fan, but I feel pretty confident about this one. That Tuel pick 6 was the worst play I have ever seen a Buffalo Bills football player make in my entire life. He showed complete ineptitude and proved that he never should have been allowed on an NFL roster or let alone start an NFL game. Tuel was inaccurate all day...yeah he hit Goodwin on one deep ball, but he was off on the other 10 he tried. People are saying balls were dropped...I guess you can consider TJ Graham or Robert Woods not making acrobatic over the shoulder catches drops. Tuel was AWFUL, just awful.
TJ Graham has been a huge disappointment his whole career in my opinion. He has not developed into any sort of reliable wide receiver. Today he finally killed the Bills in a big way. On a 3rd down and long, Graham ran an underneath route, caught the ball, got stripped, and the Chiefs returned the fumble for a touchdown.
As I mentioned, the Bills dominated the game. I truly believe if Tuel doesn't throw that pick 6 the Bills win. If Graham doesn't fumble, who knows, we could win. In a game where your team is 100% completely dominated the opposition, you need to do whatever it takes to not turn the ball over. Jeff Tuel was 4-22 in college. He embarrassed himself in Cleveland. His lone bright spot was literally the 2nd half of week 1 of the preseason since he was playing high school football. He never should have started this game. Matt Flynn should have started. He may not know the offense, but the Bills could have run a dummied down offense that required Flynn to simply not throw an interception. There is no way possible Flynn throws that pick 6...no other human with a brain or eyes would have.
The other 1% of the blame can go to a variety of areas, so here are my thoughts.
- Scott Chandler sucks and had about 10 drops
- The refs sucked again and in my (un)biased opinion, the Bills got screwed. Let's look at the Goodwin "incomplete" pass. Goodwin comes down with the ball. The ref closest to the play calls it a catch. Then, a 2nd ref comes in and waives it off. Then, according to replay, it looks like Goodwin makes the catch, bounces twice, rolls over and then Flowers knocks it out of his hands. IT WAS A CATCH and if called a catch on the field, as it was initially, it would not have been overturned. Further, Graham was being absolutely mugged on the Smith pick 6...he was basically carrying a guy...should have been pass interference. The Bills had a punt return touchdown called back on a block in he back and I have seen not called before, even if it was probably a penalty. Byrd got called with a pretty atrocious personal foul (although so did KC on one roughing the passer). Whatever, the refs sucked.
- Special teams TD called back on a block in the back was killer
- McKelvin tries picking up a fumble and returning it 2 yards rather than just jumping on it...KC ends up recovering. This reminds me how lucky KC is...they have recovered more fumbles than they have FORCED (you do the math)
- Hackett play calling inside the 5? I DISAGREE...they drew up a play on 3rd and goal from the 1 that resulted in their best WR being WIDE OPENNNNNNNNN and Tuel threw it to the wrong team
If the punt return isn't called back, Tuel doesn't throw the TAINT (and Bills get a FG...let's be conservative) and Graham doesn't fumble and the Bills punt, the Bills win the game 23-6. That score would have been indicative of how lopsided the game was. Whatever, I am keeping the faith. Hopefully EJ comes back and the team continues to improve. Win the next two games going into the bye and the Bills will be one game back of the wild card. That is all we can hope for now...extend the season as long as possible.
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