Sunday’s Bills’ game against New England falls into the “burn the films” category of games, as the team handed the Patriots an easy 34-3 win by turning the ball over seven times. It’s unfortunate that they made so many errors, because they showed that they could move the ball offensively against the best team in the AFC early in the game, and did lots of good things in the passing game during the contest, but for this game, the “bad” Ryan Fitzpatrick showed up. Fitz was personally responsible for 5 of the turnovers, with 3 awful interceptions and a pair of fumbles. His QB rating for the day was 37.1. I have no idea how the quarterback rating system in the NFL operates, but I know a 37.1 rating is not good. Still, he managed to throw for 250 yards and spread the ball around well among his undermanned corps of receivers, with Stevie Johnson, Naaman Roosevelt, Donald Jones and C.J. Spiller all making plays. Fred Jackson was running well early in the game and seemed primed for a huge day on the ground (he had 81 yards for the day as it was), but the turnovers put the team in a huge hole and eliminated the running game from the game plan. Spiller showed he still has a long way to go to be an NFL-caliber star player, contributing 2 more fumbles. The Bills’ defense, which had been gradually improving, played one of its’ worst games of the year. Tom Brady & Co. moved the ball at will and took advantage of the turnovers to score 21 easy points. The Pats, who don’t have a dominant running game, became the latest Bills’ opponent to rush for over 200 yards. Brady’s stats weren’t great, but he threw 3 touchdown passes, all to tight ends. All the ghosts that haunted Buffalo’s defense earlier in the year – no pass rush, no run defense, no clue as to how to cover tight ends, poor tackling, etc. – were all on display in this game. It was without a doubt a regression game by the defense, but the fact that the offense put them in bad spots all day also didn’t help. One thing about Fitzpatrick’s play that the coaches can consider when evaluating his future as the team’s starting QB is that as awful as he was, all the mistakes he made are easily correctable.
NFL – Bills’ Game Review
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