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The playoff hopes of the Buffalo Bills for this season were all but ended by the 28-24 loss to the New York Jets on Sunday, and that’s a major disappointment to their fans, who had high hopes after the team started 5-2. After 4 straight losses and devastating injuries to a number of key players on a roster that didn’t have a whole lot of talent to begin with, the Bills now have to use the final 5 games to figure out which players are going to be part of the team going forward into next season. With Fred Jackson out for the year, they’ll find out whether C.J. Spiller can carry the load at running back, or if he is just a novelty, Reggie Bush type of player. They have to decide whether Stevie Johnson is worth investing big dollars in. He is a good enough player, but his selfish antics and penchant for dropping balls in the most critical situations are things that don’t appear to be getting better. He is the Bills’ version of DeSean Jackson, a talented receiver for the Eagles who is a major distraction for that team. GM Buddy Nix should step in at this point and suspend Johnson for next week’s game, since his selfish touchdown display and drops at the end of the game practically single-handedly cost the Bills the game on Sunday. He should then be told to spend the time he spends dreaming up ridiculous celebrations on catching extra passes after practice to improve his game, and that he has the final 4 games to prove that he deserves to be signed to a new contract for next season. After 3 straight awful games, the Bills’ offense at least returned to respectability, against a good Jet defense. There were plenty of positives to build on the rest of the season – the play of 2 players whose development has solidified them as major factors going forward, David Nelson and tight end Scott Chandler. The beleaguered offensive line played a decent game, other than having some penalty problems. Guys like Kraig Urbik, Chad Rinehart, Erik Pears and stellar rookie Chris Hairston will be getting valuable experience the rest of the way. Johnson, for the second time this year, had pretty good success against Derrelle Revis, the guy who supposedly blankets all the great receivers. On talent alone, he is worth keeping for the future, but he needs to be given a wake-up call attitude-wise, which is why I think a suspension would be a good idea.

On defense, the Bills have been bad all year, even when they were winning. They played well in routs against the Chiefs and Redskins, but in all other games have not been able to stop anybody consistently. Their third down defense has been really bad, and they have not been able to make stops at crucial times in close games. The Bengals, Giants and Jets all drove downfield at will when the game was on the line and picked up wins. That being said, there were signs of improvement from the defense in Sunday’s game. Although they buckled and gave up touchdowns at the end of both halves, with both TDs looking like they were the result of blown coverages, overall the new players in the secondary, Aaron Williams, DaNorris Searcy and Justin Rogers, all made plays on the ball and had decent coverage on receivers at times. The linebackers looked a little more active than usual, and even disrupted some passes. They’ve clearly moved on from Leodis McKelvin, who likely won’t be back next year. Again, the experience players like Williams, Rogers and Searcy get the rest of the year will help them going into next season. The biggest negative with the defense is the lack of a pass rush. The play of the youngsters in the secondary is even more impressive considering the lack of pressure on the opposing QB. Somehow, the coaching staff has to accelerate the development of players like Marcell Dareus, Alex Carrington and Torell Troup (who wasn’t even active Sunday) on the defensive line, and figure out how to manufacture some pressure from their stable of young linebackers.