-Coast
For the first time since the Brady Belichick era began, I
went into a Bills Patriots game honestly thinking that the Bills had the better
roster and were the more talented team. What a fool I feel like now. The
Patriots have the greatest quarterback of all time and the greatest coach of
all time. The Bills have Kyle Orton who they picked up 6 weeks ago and Doug
Marrone, who is starting to show that maybe he really just is not good enough
to coach in this league.
When I think back at yesterday’s game, the main reason for
the loss is the coaching. The Patriots were better prepared, seemingly knew
what we were going to do on defense at all times and just took it to the Bills.
They made half time adjustments and scored on all 4 of their 2nd
half possessions. The Bills on the other hand weren’t up to the challenge yet
again.
Here are the major coaching errors that were the reason why
the Bills lost in my opinion.
1.
The Bills made Mike Williams a healthy scratch.
I don’t necessarily hate him not playing, but to look onto the field and see
the recently promoted from the practice squad player Kenny Ladley out there on
special teams, I just scratch my head. Who cares about special teams? The good
teams don’t care about special teams. The good teams aren’t going to sit a
player they traded for in order to allow more special teamers to suit up. Mike
Williams has been starting for this team and now he is benched so we can have
more special teamers available? I just do not agree with that.
2.
Sammy Watkins had 0 targets in the first half.
Zero. Zilch. Nada. 2 first round picks to get a guy as good as Watkins
presumably first and foremost for games like this one. Biggest game of the year
vs. the New England Patriots. Everything the Bills do should be aimed at
beating them. Sammy Watkins was a complete nonfactor. He was an afterthought.
The Bills were resigned to ignoring him just because Revis was covering him.
You know who knew how to get open vs. Revis? Steve Johnson. You know who threw
the ball to Johnson when Revis was covering him? Ryan Fitzpatrick. You know who
knew how to gameplan offensively to get Johnson the ball against Revis? Chan
Gailey. And all this was before Revis ever get hurt and was in his prime.
3.
The end of the first half was laughable and
honestly could have warranted being fired in itself. The Bills got the ball
with inside 20 seconds left somewhere around their 30 yard line with 2 time
outs. 2 15 yard pass plays and they are in field goal range. The first problem
is they ran the ball which shows they weren’t even trying. What is the best
case scenario if you run the football there? You get a 10 yard gain or so?
Teams never break a run there. They were clearly trying to just run it out.
Spiller of course fumbles and the Patriots get the ball at the 42 yard line
with 0 timeouts and 6 seconds left. Ok, fine, just cover the sidelines, don’t
do anything stupid and it’s 10-7 at halftime. Instead, the Bills defense allows
15 yard cushions on the outside, Edelman catches an easy out route to get into
field goal range and Gostkowski nails it. 13-7 at halftime. 100% inexcusable.
4.
CJ Spiller’s use or lack thereof continues to
mystify me. CJ Spiller cannot run the ball up the middle, I think we all have
learned that by now. The Bills in general can’t but continue to beat a dead
horse, which is a whole other issue. Why can’t we split this guy out and get
him involved more in the passing game? Seeing what the Patriots do with far
less talented players, it really makes you wonder what they could do with a guy
like Spiller. You know who could get CJ Spiller involved and turn him into one
of the premier young players in the entire league? Chan Gailey.
5.
The defense in the 2nd half was
pathetic. Many of us have been hanging out hats on this defense being good week
in and week out. Well, in 4 2nd half possessions the Patriots hung
24 points on them. Can’t do much worse than that. Brady was picking them apart,
but even worse than that, was the last Patriots possession and the personnel
that was on the field. Down 8 with New England starting at their own 7 yard
line, the Bills had their 2 best pass rushers and 2 of their best players overall
on the sidelines in Jerry Hughes and Mario Williams. Marrone admittedly thought
they were going to run the football, which shows complete cluelessness about
their opponent. The patriots couldn’t run the ball all day and are certainly
not the type of team to just run the ball 3 times and punt when the game is in
the hands of their hall of fame quarterback. Secondly, Hughes and Williams were
on the sideline because of the rotation? Rotation? Are you serious? Is this
Chan Gailey circa 2012 with the Jackson Spiller rotation? I don’t care about
rotations. Game is on the line and you have two double digit sackers on the
sideline including a guy who your franchise inked to a $100 million contract.
Amateur stuff.
There are a few other things I want to mention about this
game.
The officiating was terrible and seemingly consistently went
in New England’s favor. Surprise Surprise. The Watkins pick offensive pass INT
was one of the worst calls I have ever seen (though it did not hurt them).
Worse was the Robert Woods push off. From all accounts, this was a very ticky
tack call and is hardly ever called. Woods’ arms touched the DB but hardly
pushed off. That was a 1st down and 10 from the NE 30 down by 9.
With the penalty the Bills were backed up to their 40 and never could get their
way into FG range, being forced to punt, and NE subsequently drove down to take
a 30-14 lead. Without that penalty, the game is 23-17 at worst. That call completely
changed the flow of the game.
Kyle Orton was good and in my opinion was borderline great
in the 2nd half. He did have two turnovers in the first half, but
come on, they did not decide the game. Quarterbacks turn it over so the people
quick to point that out have it in for Orton from the get go. The game was 10-7
at the end of the second quarter and the Bills had the football despite the
turnovers. Orton made many great throws in the game and the Bills passing game
looked good in the 2nd half. I just wish they would use it more and
run it less.
The Bills are still in this. They play the Vikings this week
at home in a game they have to win, obviously. Then, the season rides on that
Jets game. If they beat the Jets in NY to go to 5-3, I think they still have a
shot given the Patriot’s much tougher schedule. If they lose to the Jets to go
to 4-4, forget about it, throw in the towel, start planning how to use your 2nd
round pick in May’s draft and let the coach/GM search begin.
Buffalo Bills (5-5) - Previously: #19 - So... can we finally stop pretending that the Bills are a good team? Yeah? OK, cool."