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NFL – Throwback Thursday: The Blunder Bowl

18 Dec

The Dallas Cowboys and Indianapolis Colts clash in the NFL’s week 16 schedule, and for this week’s Throwback Thursday feature, we’ll encore a post that we published during Super Bowl week in 2011. It was Super Bowl V,  a mistake-filled game played on January 17, 1971, between the Cowboys and Colts (who were based in Baltimore at the time):

 

Super Bowl V may have been the strangest of all of the 44 NFL title games played since the Super Bowl began. It was played following the 1970 season, the first year the NFL and AFL merged into one league with 2 conferences, after Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Baltimore were transferred from the old NFL into the American Conference of the new NFL. After the AFL had established itself as the NFL’s equal with 2 consecutive stunning Super Bowl wins, by the Jets and Chiefs, suddenly the game wound up with 2 old NFL teams playing each other, which took some of the competitiveness out of the game which existed when the young AFL was trying to make a name for itself in earlier years. Both teams entered this game with issues – the Cowboys had gained a reputation for being a good team that “couldn’t win the big one” after failing in the playoffs every year since the early ’60s. The Colts returned to the game where they had suffered the “embarrassment” of being upset by the upstart AFL Jets 2 years earlier, only this time were representing that upstart league as AFC champions. Nonetheless, both teams entered the contest needing to win badly to erase a losing stigma, despite being successful, winning franchises.

The game was an artistic mess, and it looked as if neither team was going to be able to erase that losing stigma, or if either was even capable. The game, which became known as the “Blunder Bowl”, featured 11 combined turnovers, including 7 by the winning team (a record that still stands today), 14 total penalties and a boatload of punts. The Cowboys finished with 113 passing yards, the Colts had 69 yards rushing. All 3 quarterbacks who played in the game, John Unitas and Earl Morrall for Baltimore and Craig Morton for Dallas, completed less than 50% of their pass attempts. A rookie kicker, Jim O’Brien, won the game by kicking a field goal with 5 seconds left, but only after Cowboy RB Dan Reeves let a pass slip through his hands that LB Mike Curtis intercepted, to set it up. Baltimore’s Don McCafferty became the first rookie head coach to win a Super Bowl, but obviously his coaching genius wasn’t much of a factor in the win. For the first and only time in Super Bowl history, a player from the losing team – linebacker Chuck Howley of the Cowboys (pictured below) – was named the game’s MVP. Howley refused to accept the award, saying it was meaningless to him after his team lost. So the Colts, ultimately, erased the stigma of being embarrassed by the Jets in Super Bowl III, but, instead of winning back the glory for the old guard NFL, their win gave the upstart AFL, now the AFC, a 3-2 lead in title games between the leagues. The Cowboys’ story finally got a happy ending also, as they returned to the Super Bowl the next season and soundly defeated Don Shula’s young up-and-coming Miami Dolphin squad in Super Bowl VI to finally give Tom Landry his long-awaited championship. One thing this game accomplished – it firmly established the fact that the old battleground days of the NFL and AFL were over, and that the NFL was now just one big happy family. From this point, the game grew immensely in the 1970s and beyond into the monster it is today.

 

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Dallas Cowboy LB Chuck Howley

 

NFL – Bills’ Game Review

14 Dec

If the Buffalo Bills wind up missing the NFL playoffs for the fifteenth consecutive season, it won’t be due to the efforts of their defense. Coordinator Jim Schwartz’s unit put forward their best effort of the season, in a year that has included consistent, if not always dominant, efforts, in being the main reason for a 21-13 upset win over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. As with every one of their eight wins on the year, it was a great “team” win by the Bills, but the win wouldn’t have happened without the shutdown performance of the defense. On offense, the Bills were their usual pedestrian selves behind Kyle Orton. They did just enough with the running game, as Fred Jackson, Anthony Dixon and Bryce Brown made contributions, and completed a minimal amount of passes, just enough to account for four Dan Carpenter field goals. The special teams had a terrific day, with Carpenter’s field goals, a blocked field goal, some terrific kick return coverage highlighted by Marcus Easley, and a 75 yard punt return touchdown by Marcus Thigpen being among their accomplishments. It was the defense that owned the day, however. After allowing Eddie Lacey to run for 73 yards in the first half, they tightened up and limited him to only 24 in the second. They held Aaron Rodgers, whose trademark is accuracy, to 17 completions in 42 attempts for a paltry 185 yards. It was the second week in a row the Bills’ defense held a future Hall of Fame quarterback in check. Although Buffalo’s vaunted pass rush only had a single sack (it was a strip/sack by Mario Williams that caused a safety and basically ended the game), they kept Rodgers feeling uncomfortable in the pocket most of the day. It was a very un-Rodgers like performance, but credit the defensive effort by the Bills for causing it. Unheralded newcomer Bacarri Rambo, signed less than a month ago and pressed into the lineup due to injuries to safeties Da’Norris Searcy and Duke Williams, picked off a pair of Rodgers passes, and the secondary in general had it’s best day of the year covering receivers – maybe the best in many years in fact.

One thought from the game: Critics of general manager Doug Whaley have to give the guy his due. The Bills still have a fighting chance at a playoff spot because players he plucked off the waiver wire within the last month – Thigpen, Rambo and tight end MarQuies Grey, have stepped in and made significant plays to help the team pick up much-needed wins. Buffalo now finishes up the regular season with road games at Oakland and New England, and must win out and get help from a number of sources to qualify for the post-season. Chances are they won’t make it, but coach Doug Marrone and his staff, especially Schwartz, deserve credit for giving the fans some meaningful late-season games for the first time in a decade.

 
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NFL – Throwback Thursday: The Bounty Bowl

11 Dec

Two long-time NFC East rivals, the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles, will square off this week on the league schedule in a game that will likely decide the division championship. The Throwback Thursday post for the week will feature a game played between these two franchises on Thanksgiving Day in 1989, at the beginning of the Jimmy Johnson era of Dallas football, that would become known as the “Bounty Bowl”. It was Johnson’s first year as Cowboy coach after taking over for the legendary Tom Landry, and the team was enduring a horrific season that would find them finishing with a 1-15 record. The Eagles were coached by Buddy Ryan, considered a defensive “genius” who had earned the Philly head coaching job with his great work as defensive coordinator in the mid-1980s with the Chicago Bears. His Eagle team was a defensive powerhouse, and a heavy favorite to defeat Dallas on this day. The game pretty much followed the script, as the Eagles harassed Dallas’ rookie quarterback, Troy Aikman, all day and crushed the Cowboys 27-0. It was what supposedly happened during the game, however, that had Johnson fuming afterwards. Dallas’ coach accused Ryan of putting up bounties of up to $200 on two Cowboy players – Aikman and placekicker Luis Zendejas, who had been with Philly earlier in the season, was cut, and signed with Dallas. At his post-game press conference, Johnson said this: “I have absolutely no respect for the way they played the game. I would’ve said something to Buddy, but he wouldn’t stand on the field long enough. He put his big, fat rear end into the dressing room.”

For his part, Ryan denied the accusations, saying that his players had no intention of hurting anyone, and even claiming it was in the Eagles’ best interest to keep Zendejas in the game, since he was in a slump. He also joked about Johnson’s comments, saying: “I resent that. I’ve been on a diet. I lost a couple pounds, and I thought I was looking good.” The facts show that Eagle players took numerous cheap shots at both Aikman and Zendejas during the game, and the Mexican-born kicker said afterwards that during his time in Philadelphia, Ryan had paid an unnamed player $100 for each of two hits on an opposing punter. The game caused such a fury that when the two teams played later that year in Philadelphia, the contest was dubbed “Bounty Bowl II” by the media, with CBS Sports doing a pre-game opening that featured wanted posters of the involved players showing bounty amounts. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue attended the second game, and although no incidents occurred on the field, Johnson, some of the referees and television announcers Verne Lundquist and Terry Bradshaw were pelted with snowballs, ice and beer. Even Eagles’ player Jerome Brown was hit with a snowball while standing on the sideline, attempting to get the fans to stop throwing things. Eventually, Johnson got the last laugh, as he built the Cowboys into a dynasty that won a pair of Super Bowls in the early 1990s, while Ryan never reached that level of success as a head coach in stops at Philadelphia and later with the Arizona Cardinals.

 

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Jimmy Johnson complains to the officials as Luis Zendejas (6) is helped by trainers after enduring a hard hit

 

 

 

 

NFL – Bills’ Game Review

07 Dec

The Buffalo Bills’ 24-17 loss to Denver on Sunday afternoon was a heartbreaking one, as the team fought hard but couldn’t make the plays to pull off an upset over a superior opponent. Their defense put on a valiant effort – they intercepted Peyton Manning twice and snapped the future Hall of Famer’s streak of games throwing at least one touchdown pass at 51. Their vaunted pass rush failed to sack Manning, but they certainly contained him enough to have won the game, had the offense been able to produce something beyond the two late touchdown drives that made the final score close. As in most of their losses this year,  the Bills made too many mistakes, didn’t make enough plays and got just enough questionable officiating calls to keep them from winning. In addition to the pair of picks they got from Manning, the Bills also got a turnover on a fumble recovery near the end of the first half, but they had three turnovers of their own to offset the three their defense came up with. As for the officiating, both of Buffalo’s interceptions, by Corey Graham and Stephon Gilmore, featured long returns which were nullified by questionable penalties. In addition, there was a terrible pass interference call against Nickell Robey that kept a Denver drive alive. Not to beat a dead horse, but Buffalo will continue to be disrespected by the league officials until they fight their way out of the losing stigma they have attached to them. The Bronco defense, of course, deserves credit for playing a terrific game in holding the Bills’ offense in check. Their effort, and a strong rushing attack, led the defending AFC champs to victory on a day when Manning was sub-par.

Among the positives for Buffalo to take from the losing effort – they controlled the clock, outgained the Broncos and never quit, as Orton led them on the two late touchdown drives to keep the score close after they fell into a 24-3 hole. Sammy Watkins re-emerged as a potent passing attack weapon, with 7 catches for 127 yards. The loss left the Bills with a 7-6 record, but their playoff hopes, although slim, remain intact as Miami, Cleveland, San Diego and Kansas City all lost. They’ll continue the late-season gauntlet the NFL schedule-makers stuck them with next week when they play their final home game of 2014 against Green Bay.

 
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NFL – Throwback Thursday: Back To The Future

04 Dec

The Washington Redskins and St. Louis Rams meet on this week’s NFL schedule, and that matchup harkens back to a meeting between these 2 franchises that was played way back on December 11, 1949, a game that will be today’s Throwback Thursday feature. It was played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, as the Rams were located in L.A. back then, and even though it took place 65 years ago, it could be considered a look into the future of the sport. The final score was one-sided, as the Rams, an offensive powerhouse of that era, won handily 53-27, but it was a game that, if you scanned the final statistics, looked like a game that could’ve been played today. The two teams combined for 725 yards passing and 962 total yards,  unheard of totals for the time. The Redskins were quarterbacked by the player who basically invented the forward pass in the pro game, Hall of Famer “Slingin” Sammy Baugh, while the Rams’ QB situation was a two-headed monster, as a pair of future Hall of Famers, Norm Van Brocklin and Bob Waterfield, shared playing time at the position. Van Brocklin threw 4 touchdown passes, and Waterfield added 2 more. Another future Hall of Famer, split end Tom Fears, caught a pair of scoring throws, but on this day, his less-heralded teammate, Bob Shaw, caught 4 touchdown throws. Baugh was valiant in a losing cause for Washington, completing 29 of 48 passes for 308 yards, and was responsible for all 4 of his team’s touchdowns, throwing 3 TD passes and scoring on a one yard run. Unfortunately, he also was responsible for “slinging” 2 of his team’s 4 interceptions on the day, which most quarterbacks who are put in a position of having to try to bring their team from behind can relate to, as the ‘Skins trailed 53-14 at one point in the fourth quarter. Baugh’s backup, Harry Gilmer (who would one day coach the Detroit Lions in the 1960s), threw the other two. Washington had a total of six turnovers in the game, and in another similarity to today’s game, the two clubs combined for a total of 20 penalty calls. For the Rams, Waterfield hit on 14 of 22 throws for 253 yards and his 2 scores, while Van Brocklin, amazingly, got his 4 TD throws on only 6 completions (on 10 attempts for 152 yards). In another rarity for what is known as the “three yards and a cloud of dust” era, Shaw and Fears both had over 100 yards receiving. The Rams would go on to advance to the NFL Championship game in 1949, but their offensive powerhouse would meet a fearsome opponent the day of the title game – Mother Nature. The game was played in a driving rainstorm at the L.A. Coliseum, which turned the field into a mud pit, slowing down the Ram attack to the point where they were shut out by the Philadelphia Eagles, 14-0.

 

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Slingin’ Sammy Baugh looks downfield for a receiver

 

NFL – Bills’ Game Review

01 Dec

In a tight AFC playoff race that finds 12 of the 16 teams with .500 records or better, the Buffalo Bills kept themselves in the hunt in that race with a 26-10 win over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday at Ralph Wilson Stadium. Their chances of actually qualifying are razor thin, but they kept themselves alive with the win. The victory was a lot like most of the Bills’ triumphs this season – the defense played a great game, and the offense did just enough to secure the win. The Browns held a slim 3-0 lead at halftime, as both teams’ first half offensive performances were pretty listless. Buffalo’s defense played another solid game, with 2 sacks, 2 interceptions and a strip, fumble recovery and return for a touchdown by Jerry Hughes. The offense finally came alive in the second half, as QB Kyle Orton led the team on an 8 play, 84 yard scoring drive that included a key fourth down conversion that saw Orton scramble to buy time, then complete a long pass to Robert Woods to set up the touchdown, which came on a short toss to Chris Hogan. Like their earlier home win over Miami, the Bills then settled for field goals on their fourth quarter drives, with Dan Carpenter hitting four of them. At that point, the Bills were controlling the action and seemed comfortable taking the conservative route and adding to their lead. Orton threw for modest yardage, the running game added a decent 106 yards, including the yardage needed to control the clock in the final quarter, and the defensive effort helped minimize the damage of two Orton interceptions. Buffalo has four games remaining in the regular season, three of them against arguably the three best teams in the NFL – Denver, Green Bay and New England. Depending on how the rest of the AFC contenders do, the Bills will probably need to beat 2 of them and win the game they’re expected to – against the Oakland Raiders. To have any chance for success, the defense will have to play even more “lights out”, since they’ll be facing Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady. The offense will have to raise its’ game, as most likely it will take more than field goals to topple the offensive juggernauts of the Broncos, Packers and Patriots.

 
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NFL – Throwback Thursday: Birth of The K-Gun Offense

27 Nov

The game from this week’s NFL schedule that we’ll feature in this week’s Throwback Thursday post is a contest between the Cleveland Browns and Buffalo Bills. The game was played in January of 1990 and was an AFC divisional playoff game. It featured a classic shootout between two of that era’s top quarterbacks, Buffalo’s Jim Kelly and the Browns’ Bernie Kosar.  The backdrop to the game was this: the Browns had lost a pair of heartbreaking games to John Elway and the Denver Broncos in the playoffs in previous seasons, and Buffalo, coming off an appearance in the AFC championship game the prior year, had regressed in the 1989 season. They ended the regular season with a couple of losses that almost cost them a playoff berth altogether, and those losses caused some infighting in a very competitive Bills’ locker room that earned the team the nickname “The Bickering Bills”.

The game itself was exciting and included some memorable plays, including a 90 yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Cleveland’s Eric Metcalf and a pass to Buffalo’s Don Beebe in which he was flipped by a Cleveland defender and landed squarely on his head. After falling behind late in the game, Buffalo’s coaches made the decision to go to a fast-paced no-huddle offense to save time, and it turned out to be highly successful. Kelly led his team on a couple of late scoring drives to bring the Bills to within four points at 34-30, hitting Thurman Thomas with a short scoring toss. Unfortunately, Scott Norwood slipped on the icy turf on the extra point attempt and kicked the ball into the backs of his offensive linemen, keeping the score at 34-30 and forcing the Bills to go for a touchdown rather than a tying field goal later on. After that drive, the Bills defense held Kosar to a three-and -out, and after the Browns punted, Kelly proceeded to lead his club downfield with a quick passing attack featuring short throws to his backs, mainly Thomas. The drive included a pair of fourth down conversions, and reached the Cleveland 11 yard line with 14 seconds left. Then came a controversial play in which Kelly found a wide open Ronnie Harmon in the corner of the end zone, and tossed him a pass that he got both hands on, but promptly dropped. There was controversy among fans and in the locker room afterwards about the play, with Harmon claiming the pass was overthrown but fans and some teammates accusing Harmon of having “alligator arms” and not going all out to make the catch. On the next play, Kelly tried to hit Thomas in the end zone but the ball was intercepted by Cleveland linebacker Clay Matthews, father of the current Packer legend.

Despite the loss, some good came out of the game for Buffalo. On the plane ride back home, the coaches, after seeing the success of the fast-paced offensive attack guided by Kelly, decided to make it their base offense the following season, and it was the impetus for the team’s four consecutive trips to the Super Bowl in the early 1990s. Named the “K-Gun” (supposedly after tight end Keith McKeller), it played a major role in making Hall of Famers out of players like Kelly, Thomas, Andre Reed and James Lofton.

 

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Did Bills’ RB Ronnie Harmon have “Alligator Arms” on this potential game-winning pass?

 

NFL – Bills’ Game Review

25 Nov

The Buffalo Bills have been on a downward slide, losing two games in a row to fall to 5-5 for the season. With their hopes of breaking a 14 year playoff drought slowly slipping away, the Bills had every excuse to fold up their tents and give up on the year after the weather event of this past week put them at a real disadvantage. The heavy snowstorm stranded the players in their homes for days, forcing cancellations of vital practice sessions. It also forced their scheduled Sunday home game against the New York Jets to be moved to Detroit and postponed until Monday night. To make things worse, the Jets were coming off a bye week, so they had two weeks to prepare as opposed to the two days the Bills got. Despite all that, the Bills went to Detroit and played an inspired game, excelling in all three phases to blow out the Jets, 38-3. On offense, quarterback Kyle Orton shook off a pair of subpar performances to play a solid game, highlighted by ending the team’s red zone troubles by tossing a pair of scoring passes, to Robert Woods and Scott Chandler, in the first half. The ground game wasn’t spectacular but did enough to keep the Jets honest, and Fred Jackson and Anthony Dixon scored rushing TDs. Dixon also contributed to a special teams touchdown, blocking a Jet punt that Manny Lawson recovered in the end zone for the score. Special teams also contributed a 53 yard field goal by reliable Dan Carpenter, and kept Percy Harvin in check on kickoff returns. Harvin stubbornly kept attempting to run out kicks from deep in his own end zone, and the Bills on most occasions didn’t allow him to reach the 20 yard line.

It was said before the game that the players, cooped up in their homes all week, were anxious to play the game, and the Bills’ defensive unit played like a bunch of caged tigers who were set free. They dominated the Jets all night, containing New York’s rushing attack and shutting down the passing game with seven sacks and an interception. Mario Williams, who is playing his best football since signing with the Bills, had a pair of sacks and was relentless all night. Jerry Hughes, who some NFL coaches are saying is the most impressive athlete on a talented Buffalo D-line, also had two sacks. It was the Bills’ most dominating defensive performance this season. I haven’t always been very impressed with the job head coach Doug Marrone has done in his two years here, but he deserves credit for focusing his players in very tough circumstances, resulting in a great “team” win. By having the game rescheduled to Monday night, the Bills also are put at a disadvantage again this week, as they now have one less day to prepare for an important conference matchup on Sunday against Cleveland and their old defensive coordinator, Mike Pettine. It has to help that they’ll be back in their friendly confines of Ralph Wilson Stadium, with their home fans and the elements hopefully helping to motivate them.

 
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NFL – Throwback Thursday: AFL Rivals Join The NFL

20 Nov

The NFL schedule this week includes an AFC West battle between two old enemies, the Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs, so a past game between these two clubs will be our Throwback Thursday feature. When the merger took place that joined together the National Football League with the American Football League, it stipulated that the leagues would begin to exist as the “new” NFL beginning in 1970, with the teams divided into the National and American Conferences. Great care was taken to try to preserve the rivalries built up among teams in each league. One of those was the AFL Western Division rivalry between the Raiders and Chiefs. It wasn’t a rivalry that existed when the AFL was founded in 1960 – the Raiders were a bad team with financial problems in the league’s first couple of years, while the Chiefs began their life as the Dallas Texans, one of the league’s better clubs on the field behind the coaching of Hank Stram. Unable to compete with the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, owner Lamar Hunt moved his franchise to K.C. where it enjoyed even more success. When the Raiders hired Al Davis to be their head coach in 1963, they soon shunned their loser label and became an AFL powerhouse. Both clubs developed into flagship franchises for the new league, and being in the same division it was inevitable that they would become bitter rivals. The two teams won 3 of the final 4 AFL titles as the league wound down, and their rivalry continued on into the NFL in the ’70s, and thrives even today. There have been many classics played between these two teams – including an AFL title game in 1969, a season that saw the Raiders sweep the 2 regular season meetings, only to have the underdog Chiefs come into Oakland and upset the Raiders in the title match. The Chiefs had a mascot, a live horse named Warpaint, that would circle the field after every K.C. touchdown. In a 1975 clash, the Chiefs blew out the Raiders 42-10, prompting Oakland coach John Madden to utter: “We couldn’t beat the Chiefs, but we damn near killed their horse!”

The game we highlight for Throwback Thursday is the first encounter they had as members of the NFL, played on November 1 1970. As usual, they were locked in a battle for the division lead, only now it was for the NFL’s AFC West lead, not the AFL Western Division. The Chiefs scored first on a short run by Wendell Hayes, then Raider QB Daryle Lamonica hit his tight end, Raymond Chester, on a pair of short touchdown tosses, to give Oakland a 14-10 lead. Kansas City scored the next 10 points, on a field goal by Jan Stenerud and a TD throw from Len Dawson to his star wideout, Otis Taylor. The Chiefs now led 17-14 and appeared to be on their way to the win, until Taylor became involved in another play. On this play, Dawson scrambled for first down yardage, and on his way down to the ground, got speared in the head by Raider defensive end Ben Davidson. Taylor immediately came to his quarterback’s defense, jumping Davidson and igniting a bench-clearing brawl. Both Davidson and Taylor were ejected but under the rules at the time, Taylor’s penalty nullified the first down and the Chiefs were forced to punt. This allowed Lamonica to drive his team down the field to set up a tying field goal by Oakland’s old reliable, George Blanda. Blanda nailed the kick and the game ended in a 17-17 tie (there was no overtime in the NFL then). That tie eventually cost the Chiefs the division title, as Oakland won the rematch on their home field later in the year to win the head-to-head tiebreaker.

 

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Oakland’s menacing defensive end Ben Davidson 

 

NFL – Bills’ Game Review

14 Nov

The Buffalo Bills’ 2014 playoff hopes came crashing down to earth on Thursday night with a demoralizing 22-9 loss to the Dolphins in Miami. The loss left the Bills at 5-5 for the season and, of course, still mathematically alive to qualify for the post-season, but after the listless performance by Kyle Orton and the offensive unit against Miami, there’s no realistic chance that this team will win enough games for the remainder of the year to stay in the race. Orton looks like he has hit the imaginary “wall” that critics said he would after he took over the starting job at quarterback. His play in the last 2 games has been excruciatingly ordinary, and with the defense doing its’ usual job of keeping the team in the game, it was depressing to watch Orton and the offense fail to produce a touchdown, and look lost in the second half as Miami rallied to win. The defense didn’t make stops when they needed to, as usual, but they can’t be faulted for the team’s recent slide.  Although they haven’t been a dominating unit, coordinator Jim Schwartz’s defense has been consistent all season and played well enough to win almost every week. They’ve limited opponents’ rushing attacks for the most part, created turnovers and harassed opposing passers well enough to lead the NFL in sacks. Dolphin QB Ryan Tannehill played a conservative but efficient game and burned the Bills all night with quick throws and timely scrambles, and although the Bills sacked him 5 times, he managed to drive his team to a pair of second half touchdowns, while Orton did virtually nothing. Buffalo defied the odds again – they didn’t turn the ball over, and forced two fumbles, yet still lost. The game also featured a couple of staples of contests involving the Bills – mistakes by the Bills, and ridiculous calls by the officials. An intentional grounding call on Orton that gave Miami a safety was questionable, and an interference call against Stephon Gilmore later in the game was absolutely outrageous.

Coach Doug Marrone now has a decision to make. His team is technically still alive for the playoffs and he is personally fighting for his job, so does he stick with the struggling Orton or throw in the towel and give EJ Manuel another kick at the can, to find out once and for all if the franchise needs to try and find yet another signal-caller in the off-season?

 
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