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NFL – Bills Game Review

25 Oct

It was easily their best effort this season, but the bottom line is the Buffalo Bills fell to 0-6 on Sunday in Baltimore, losing a 37-34 overtime heartbreaker to the Ravens. Let’s get the negatives out of the way first. The Bills lost mostly because they did what losing teams do – turned the ball over too many times, made mistakes at the worst possible times, and couldn’t get stops on defense when they needed them. The secondary was completely fooled on a flea flicker play, and still can’t figure out how to cover an opposing tight end to save their lives.  However, there were two plays in the game in which the Bills got really bad breaks. An end zone interception by Reggie Corner late in the first half was negated when he was ruled out of bounds. On the play, Corner had perfect coverage and made an outstanding one-handed catch while the Raven receiver held his other arm. Corner came down clearly inbounds, but one foot was on the ground, the other on the receiver’s ankle. He landed on top of the receiver, who then rolled him over out of bounds. The ruling was that Corner never got the second foot down. The play was technically a correct call according to the NFL rule book, and all I’ll say is that the NFL rule book needs an infusion of some common sense. So, the Bills don’t get the interception, don’t get the blatant offensive interference call, and the Ravens not only get a field goal, but C.J. Spiller fumbles the ensuing kickoff and the Ravens get a touchdown on the next play. The 24-10 lead the Bills built up is cut to 24-20 at halftime, and the Ravens now have the momentum. The other play was the fumble by tight end Shawn Nelson in overtime. Nelson, playing for the first time since coming off suspension, was stripped of the ball around midfield by Ray Lewis on a play that was a classic case of a player’s forward progress being stopped. The whistle wasn’t blown, of course, and then to compound the mistake, center Geoff Hangartner took off his helmet and slammed it to the ground, drawing an automatic personal foul penalty that handed the Ravens their winning field goal position. Another case of doing what losing teams do – finding a way to do whatever it takes to give the game away. Once the Bills correct that problem, they’ll start winning. There’s no doubt that their offense is gradually improving each week. Surprisingly, they shredded a solid Baltimore defense for over 500 yards, including Ryan Fitzpatrick’s 374 passing yards, the first Bill to throw for over 300 in 65 games. The running game, using both Spiller and Fred Jackson, was effective, although the game plan obviously was to throw on the Ravens. Lee Evans and Stevie Johnson had monster games, and Roscoe Parrish and David Nelson made plays also. Fitzpatrick is spreading the ball around nicely, and if he can clean up the interceptions, this team will win some games before the season’s over. Even the defense showed some progress coming out of the bye. They forced a couple of turnovers, got at least some pressure on Joe Flacco and kept their team in the game for the most part, despite being  put in bad field position situations by the turnovers throughout the game, including overtime. Sunday’s game should at least be a confidence builder for the Bills, who now realize they can compete with anybody and win as long as they don’t get beat by their toughest opponent, themselves.

 
2 Comments

Posted in Football

 
  1. Margaret

    October 26, 2010 at 2:50 pm

    Ryan Fitzpatrick had the second highest QB rating behind Peyton Manning. He looked poised and confident and shows some real promise. and FINALLY they are throwing to Lee Evans who showed how effective he can be.

     
  2. Louise

    October 25, 2010 at 4:06 pm

    The Bills gave a great effort in a very entertaining ball game! Great to see that ‘no quit’ attitude as well even when thing turned against them. Can’t wait for the next game!