The best thing you can say about the Buffalo Bills’ performance on Sunday, against a far superior opponent in the Houston Texans, is that they didn’t get completely embarrassed, as they were earlier in the year against San Francisco and New England. The Texans won 21-9, but honestly, even though it was only a 12 point spread, you never really got the feeling that the Bills were capable of winning the game once their defense gave up the third touchdown of the day. The Bills’ offense played a decent game against a tough defense, and for really the first time this season weren’t able to score touchdowns. Against a Wade Phillips coordinated defense, that’s to be expected. The units he coaches have always been good at denying opponents touchdowns. (Remember during the Super Bowl era, when the Bills beat Denver and Wade’s defense, 10-7 in the AFC title game, with the touchdown coming on a Carlton Bailey interception?) This was a game in which the Bills’ defense needed to play out of their heads and keep the game close, and for the most part, they did. But at the end of the day, the Texans’ playmakers, RB Arian Foster and WR Andre Johnson, both topped 100 yards, and QB Matt Schaub was efficient if not spectacular, and routinely did what he needed to do when the game was on the line. There were 2 plays during the game that were maddening and typical of what Dave Wannstedt’s defense has done all year. One was a third-and- two situation on one of the Texans’ TD drives. On the play, Bills’ rookie corner Stephon Gilmore lined up 10 yards off of Johnson, then backpedaled at the snap of the ball. The result, predictably, was an easy toss from Schaub to Johnson for the first down and more. I understand the concept of respecting Johnson’s ability, but why does a team battling to get a win completely concede the first down and make it easy for the opponent to keep a drive alive? The second was the Texans’ final score. On the play, a third down and goal, the Bills only rushed the front four, and, again predictably, Schaub had all day to wait for a receiver to break open, and threw a touchdown pass to seal it. This has been a problem for the defense all year, and is a major reason why you never get the feeling that any of the players will step up and make a play when it counts. A definition of good coaching is to put your players in positions to make plays. Most coaches, including Wannstedt, are capable of doing this, but great coaches put their players in position to make plays when the game is on the line, on the 2 or 3 plays in each game that make the difference. They will put their players, on those plays, in a position to be aggressive, to dictate what the opposing team can do, somehow, some way. Wannstedt’s defense hasn’t done this all year and shows no sign that it will any time soon.
Next week’s game in New England should be ugly to watch. The Patriots have routinely gouged Buffalo’s defense, for at least a decade now, for 6 or 7 touchdowns per outing with Tom Brady probably breaking more of a sweat during the week’s practice sessions than he does against the Bills in the game. With Wannstedt too stubborn to change his passive approach, there’s no reason to believe it’ll be any different this time.