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The Buffalo Bills dropped a 27-24 heartbreaker to the New York Giants on Sunday in the “new Meadowlands”, AKA Metlife Stadium. They now head into their bye week with a 4-2 record, dropping a game behind New England in the AFC East race after the Pats defeated Dallas later in the day. The loss to the Giants wasn’t a big surprise. New York is a solid team and figured to be focused after falling asleep and being embarrassed by Seattle at home last week. By winning, they also have unlocked the secret to beating Buffalo – although the Bills are extremely competitive this year, if you protect the ball and don’t turn it over, you can beat them. The Bills are a work in progress, especially on defense, and if they are going to stay in the race for the playoffs for the long haul, they are going to have to improve on that side of the ball. They need to find ways to pressure the opposing quarterback, whether it’s rookie Marcell Dareus continuing to progress, Alex Carrington getting more playing time or Arthur Moats getting on the field more even after Chris Kelsay returns from injury. One big bright spot on defense was the return to action of cornerback Terrence McGee, who had a great game defending both the pass and the run. McGee’s return moved the target off the back of Leodis McKelvin and onto Drayton Florence, who struggled all day. Although the defense gave up large chunks of yardage, another 100+ yard rushing day by an opposing back and more long drives, they did make a big stop near the end of the game, holding the Giants to a field goal and giving the offense an opportunity to tie or win the game. Ryan Fitzpatrick, who has been terrific all year, wasn’t up to the task this time. In fact, his underthrown interception prior to New York’s winning field goal drive probably cost Buffalo the game. The pick left me with mixed feelings, however, since his throw to Stevie Johnson on the play represented an aggressive attempt to “go for it” rather than take the conservative route and play for a field goal. That’s one of the things I like about the Chan Gailey regime – the aggressiveness on offense. In his postgame press conference, Fitzpatrick in fact took the blame for both of his interceptions. They were similar in that both were throws to Johnson, both picked by Corey Webster and both underthrown. Fitzpatrick admitted that in both cases, he had the perfect call, the perfect matchup and that Johnson ran a great route. He just didn’t execute the throws.

There were a lot of positives in the game for the Bills, like McGee’s play, which included a perfect form tackle on a Giant receiver that should be made into an instruction video and sent to all NFL teams to show some of the league’s mediocre defenders how it’s supposed to be done. There was another fantastic game by the team’s best player, Fred Jackson, and a great catch-and-run by local hero Namaan Roosevelt for a 60 yard TD. There were good contributions from C.J. Spiller in the passing game. The Bills get their bye week at a good time. They’ll be able to get players like Kyle Williams, Demetrius Bell, hopefully Chris Hairston if his ankle injury turns out to be not too serious, Shawne Merriman and Kelsay healthy. The best thing about the Bills, coaches and players alike, is that they realize they need to keep improving if they’re going to stay in the hunt.