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.
Archive for the ‘Football’ Category
NFL – Throwback Thursday: Birth of The K-Gun Offense
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.
Did Bills’ RB Ronnie Harmon have “Alligator Arms” on this potential game-winning pass?
NFL – Bills’ Game Review
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.
NFL – Throwback Thursday: AFL Rivals Join The NFL
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.
Oakland’s menacing defensive end Ben Davidson
NFL – Bills’ Game Review
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?
NFL – Throwback Thursday: Lombardi Loses
The Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles square off on this week’s NFL schedule, harkening back to another meeting between these two franchises that will be this week’s Throwback Thursday feature. That meeting was the National Football League championship game of the 1960 season, and was historic in the fact that it was the only post-season loss in the head coaching career of Packer legend Vince Lombardi. The decade of the 1950s had been dominated by the likes of the Detroit Lions, Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Colts, as those three clubs won 7 titles between them. So when the Packers and Eagles qualified for the title game in ’60, it was a matchup of “new blood”. Green Bay hadn’t played for a league title since 1944, while the Eagles were making their first championship appearance since 1949. There were some quirky things about the game – it was played on a Monday – December 26th, because the NFL didn’t want to play on Christmas, and was scheduled for a noon start time, because Philadelphia’s home stadium, Franklin Field, had no lights and the league was concerned that there could be sudden death overtime, which had happened two years previous in 1958. The Packers had been a losing franchise in the ’50s, and Lombardi took over as head coach in 1959 and produced a winning season, then got his club into the title game in 1960. The Packers were an unknown quantity at the time. Bart Starr was on the roster, but he shared quarterback duties with Lamar McHan. In fact, the Packers got to the title game with an 8-4 record, and were 4-0 in McHan’s starts and 4-4 in Starr’s. Other future Packer legends, like Paul Hornung, Jim Taylor and Ray Nitschke, were in the early stages of their careers. The Eagles, on the other hand, were pretty much a one-year wonder. They were led by veteran QB Norm Van Brocklin, who would retire after the title game, and coach Buck Shaw, who turned the Eagles from chronic losers into NFL champs in three seasons. The title game would be Shaw’s last with Philly also. Philadelphia wound up winning the game 17-13, and the game ended with Green Bay driving deep into Eagle territory. With only 22 seconds left and no timeouts, Starr threw a short pass to Taylor and he was tackled at the ten by Philly’s Chuck “Concrete Charlie” Bednarik. The rules were a lot different in that era, and Bednarik, after making the tackle, held Taylor down as the clock wound down. As the final gun sounded, Bednarik snarled “You can get up now, Taylor. This damn game’s over!” Winning the title was a bit of a crowning achievement for players like Bednarik, Van Brocklin and veteran receivers Tommy McDonald and Pete Retzlaff, who all played well. Ted Dean, an Eagle rookie phenom, scored what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown on a five yard run.
For Green Bay and Lombardi, the game was not their greatest moment. Lombardi, in fact, made some tactical mistakes, including going for it on fourth down (and failing) on several occasions deep in Eagle territory. The Packers outgained Philly 401 yards to 296, but couldn’t finish the job. In typical Lombardi fashion, the coach took the brunt of the blame, claiming afterward “When you get down there, you have to come out with something. I lost the game, not my players.” Lombardi also exhorted his players to remember the feeling they were experiencing in that losing locker room, and told them they wouldn’t ever feel it again. His words were prophetic, as the Packers grew into a dynasty that dominated the 1960s, winning the NFL championship 5 of the next 7 seasons, including the first two Super Bowls.
From left, Norm Van Brocklin, coach Buck Shaw and Chuck Bednarik celebrate winning the 1960 NFL title
NFL – Bills’ Game Review
For the second season in a row, the Buffalo Bills outplayed the Kansas City Chiefs for most of the day, then proceeded to hand them a win with what now has to be considered “Buffalo Bills football – 2014 edition” – that is, combining costly mistakes, questionable coaching decisions and breakdowns at the worst possible crucial times to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The Bills blew a 13-3 lead in the second half and lost 17-13. Buffalo’s offensive effort was average, as they struggled to run the ball at times, but had success running at others. Kyle Orton completed some impressive throws at times, and missed the mark on some others. It could be argued that the Bills played well enough on offense, defense and special teams to win the game, but were done in by the two things that have hampered them in the 1 1/2 year Doug Marrone regime – turnovers and penalties. The two turnovers were game-changers, and underscored why the Bills are still the same old Bills, despite what their players say. Bryce Brown took off on what looked like a sure touchdown run only to have the ball knocked loose at the four yard line. The ball bounced directly into the hands of tight end Scott Chandler, but he lost the handle on it and allowed it to bounce out of the end zone for a touchback. After the Bills’ defense made a stand, Leodis McKelvin wiped out whatever momentum that stand might have given his team by fumbling the Chiefs’ punt. Did the Bills’ supposedly dominant defense stiffen up and bail out McKelvin? No, two plays later, the Chiefs were in the end zone on an eight yard Alex Smith run for what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown. It’s tough to assign any blame for the defeat on the defense, since they pressured Smith most of the day, sacking him six times, and contained K.C. back Jamaal Charles for the most part. However, at the most crucial points of the game in the second half, they allowed Charles to run 39 yards for a score on fourth down and one, and allowed an 18 yard scamper by Charles right after McKelvin’s fumble. Again, the Bills played what has become their “signature” game – they played well enough to win but gave the game away. It’s that maddening habit that keeps them from getting any respect from the national media, why they aren’t considered real contenders and why, against the New York Jets in their last game, they became the first team with a winning record in NFL history to be an underdog against a team with one win. Most of the pro football experts know what to expect from this team – that they’ll collapse at critical times during games and at some point every season, and the Bills feed that lack of respect by continually delivering those collapses.
Other than letting a sure win get away, did the Bills accomplish anything positive on Sunday? Absolutely they did. After a slow start, their running game started to click, with Brown and Anthony Dixon grinding out good chunks of yardage. The offensive line had a decent game, blocking well enough for the backs to total 111 yards and allowing only a single sack on Orton. McKelvin, before his disastrous fumble, set up the offense in good field position with some nice punt returns. The defense, other than the pair of breakdowns involving Charles, had another good day, sacking Smith six times, with three coming from Marcell Dareus, who is now establishing himself as a solid Pro Bowl-caliber player.
NFL – Throwback Thursday: The Free Kick Game
The oldest rivalry in the National Football League will be renewed this weekend when the Chicago Bears take on the Green Bay Packers, and this week’s Throwback Thursday post will feature a game played between these two storied franchises. The game took place on September 13, 1964, and certainly wasn’t the most classic matchup of the many these two division rivals would play against each other over the years, but it included a play that caught a lot of people by surprise that day. First, let’s set up the recent history these clubs had against each other at the time. In 1962, on their way to their second consecutive NFL title, coach Vince Lombardi’s Packers had throttled the Bears twice in the regular season, by overwhelming scores of 49-0 and 38-7. The following year, Bears’ coach George Halas was on a mission to even the score, and he succeeded, as Chicago handed Green Bay their only two losses of the season. To add salt to Lombardi’s wound, the Bears would go on to win the title that year and unseat the Packers as champs. So, the September, 1964 matchup being featured this week here was somewhat of a “rubber match” between the teams. The stars of each team did their jobs in the game – Green Bay’s Bart Starr threw a pair of touchdown passes, and Chicago tight end Mike Ditka caught a scoring pass from Rudy Bukich. Bears’ kicker Bob Jencks booted a pair of field goals, one of them being an 8 yarder in the first half. That’s something that would be impossible to do in today’s game, as the goal posts are now located ten yards deep in the end zone, as opposed to directly on the goal line as they were at the time. The NFL eventually got tired of receivers running “post patterns” that ended with the player crashing into the goal post. The hero of the game was Packer star Paul Hornung, a versatile future Hall of Famer who had been a college quarterback, and was not only a triple threat as a passer, runner and receiver but was also his team’s placekicker. That was another oddity of the era – no specialists, each team’s placekicker and punter played other positions also. On this day, Hornung’s kicking ability was the difference in the game – he supplied 11 points with his foot in a 23-12 Green Bay victory, 3 field goals and a pair of extra points. Two of the field goals were short, routine kicks, but the third was the play that surprised both teams and all the people in the stands. As the first half was winding down, Green Bay forced a Bears’ punt, and the Packers’ Elijah Pitts called for a fair catch at the 48 yard line. Lombardi, to the surprise of everyone, invoked a little-known rule known as the “fair catch free kick rule”, which allows the receiving team to attempt a field goal, uncontested by the opponent, from the spot of the fair catch. Neither team had ever heard of, let alone practiced, a “free kick”, so there was a lot of confusion, but Lombardi, and luckily the officials, knew all about the rule. With Starr holding and the half nearing an end, Hornung calmly booted the 52 yard attempt, which was fairly long by 1960s standards, before the soccer-style specialists took over.
The Packers and Bears may have spent a little too much energy trying to outdo each other, as neither team won the championship that year – the Cleveland Browns did. It took five years, but the Bears extracted a bit of revenge in 1968, as their kicker that year, Mac Percival, used the same “free kick” rule to boot a game-winning 48 yard field goal to knock off the Packers, 13-10.
Green Bay’s versatile star, Paul Hornung, splits the uprights
NFL – Buffalo Bills Mid-Season Report Card
So what kind of grade do the Buffalo Bills deserve at the midway point of the 2014 season? There have been some some exciting highs and disappointing lows, but the club has managed to keep its’ collective head above water with a 5-3 won/loss record heading into their bye week. Here is my analysis of how the Bills have fared, position by position, through eight games and what they’ll need to do to stay on course to earn a playoff spot in the season’s second half:
Front Office / Coaching
GM Doug Whaley made the bold move of trading away next year’s top draft pick to move up this year and pick Sammy Watkins, and that move looks like it will pay big dividends going forward. Whaley also did a good job of improving the overall depth of the roster through the rest of the draft and free agent signings. Head coach Doug Marrone hasn’t completely won me over yet as the man who can pull the franchise out of the doldrums and lead the team to a winning season. His quick hiring of Jim Schwartz as defensive coordinator after Mike Pettine left to coach in Cleveland was a great move. The Bills’ defense through the first half of 2014 has been even better than last year’s unit. He stayed with special teams coach Danny Crossman and those units have been far better than last year’s, although a lot of the improvement can be attributed to Whaley’s stocking of the roster with better special teams players. Marrone gets high marks for making a quick decision to bench EJ Manuel at quarterback in favor of veteran Kyle Orton, a decision that was also bold and has proven so far to be correct. The negative on Marrone is his inability, to this point, to get the players to stop committing foolish and/or unnecessary penalties and mistakes, many of which have been a result of the immaturity of the players. In my mind, he has to lead this team to a winning record, not necessarily a playoff spot but a record above .500, with enough significant improvement to give fans hope for the future, to save his job. If the team falters to another 6-10 season with a second half collapse, then he gets piled onto the scrap heap of failed coaches along with Chan Gailey, Dick Jauron, Mike Mularkey, etc.
Quarterback
This position obviously has gone through a complete transition from the start of the season. Manuel was benched in favor of Orton, and the move has paid off with the veteran presence of Orton steadying the unit. The offense has been far from a dominant unit, but Orton has shown terrific leadership in guiding the team to 3 wins in 4 starts since he took over. Orton has made his share of mistakes, mostly turnovers and holding the ball a little too long at times resulting in sacks, but for a guy who joined the team after training camp was over and has had very little time to adapt to his teammates, he’s done a great job, with the hope being that he gets even better in the second half of the year. Although he was benched, Manuel’s future should still be bright. He has a good attitude and now gets a chance to step back and learn the position at a much easier pace. He was placed in a very tough spot, with the impending ownership change putting him in a position that if he failed, it could possibly cost a lot of people in the organization their jobs. It was a little too much to ask of a player who didn’t even get a complete rookie year in 2013 to progress, due to injuries.
Running Back
Just as the quarterback position has gone through a complete transition, the running back spots will have a totally different look for much of the second half of the year, although not by choice. Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller went down with significant injuries in week seven against the Vikings, and now Anthony Dixon and Bryce Brown will have to carry the load. Dixon was a free agent signee who figured to help mostly on special teams and short yardage situations, but now he’ll get a lot of playing time, at least until Jackson gets back. Brown was inactive for every game until week eight, but now will get a major amount of carries also. He was acquired by Whaley in a draft day trade, a deal that looked questionable when Brown was not dressing each week, but looks like a smart move now. Fullback Frank Summers has been a steady performer as a lead blocker, and with the injuries has even gotten a few touches in the running game that he normally wouldn’t have. Former Dallas Cowboy Phillip Tanner has been added to the roster for depth, but likely won’t stick around after Jackson and Spiller return.
Receivers
Since Orton took over as the starting quarterback, Watkins has emerged as a major playmaker on the receiving corps. He is exactly as advertised when he came out of college – a dynamic player with the ability to score from anywhere on the field. Besides Watkins, Robert Woods has been the other major downfield threat in the passing game. Chris Hogan started the year playing only on special teams, but now seems to have moved past Mike Williams on the depth chart as the third receiving option. Williams has hardly seen the ball since Orton has taken over, and was even de-activated for a game. The Bills need to figure out a way to utilize his talents more in the second half. Another non-contributor has been Marquise Goodwin, who is a top deep threat but can’t stay healthy. The same can be said for Marcus Easley, although he’s rarely ever used as a receiver, but is an important special teams gunner. One player who has to be thrilled that Orton is now under center is tight end Scott Chandler, who has become a favorite target of the veteran QB. The Bills have used some double tight end formations at times, and Orton has found both Chris Gragg and Lee Smith for red zone touchdowns. I’m not a big fan of Smith, who for the most part during his time here has seen very few snaps but always managed to get called for dumb penalties. In the last couple of games before the bye, he was at least trumping his mistakes by making some positive contributions, and it would be a big help if he continues that trend in the season’s stretch run.
Offensive Line
This unit has not been a strength of the team so far, but it is a work in progress and figures to get better in the second half. After Chris Williams was put on injured reserve with back problems early on, the line had two rookie starters in guard Cyril Richardson and tackle Seantrel Henderson, and both have had their ups and downs. That’s typical for rookies, especially on the O-line, but this unit has had the added handicap of having to adjust to a different quarterback (who plays a completely different style) and now all new running backs. Veterans Eric Wood at center and Cordy Glenn at left tackle have been mostly solid but have even had their own rough moments, which is probably due to all the unfamiliarity among the players on the unit. Guard Erik Pears supposedly grades out as one of the worst offensive linemen in the NFL, but he remains a starter, while Richardson was replaced by veteran Kraig Urbik in week eight. Second round draft pick Cyrus Kouandjio has been the only mostly disappointing player from the 2014 draft class, as he has struggled, but his upside, combined with the fact that offensive linemen generally need time to develop, makes it hard at this point to consider him a bust. Kouandjio’s struggles have been offset by the play of Henderson, a talented but supposedly troubled rookie who has grabbed his opportunity by the throat and cemented himself in the starting lineup. It’s somewhat puzzling that despite the problems on the line, veteran Chris Hairston has had very few chances to show what he can do.
Defensive Line
The defense overall is the strength of this team, and the defensive line is without a doubt the strongest part of that defense. The starting four of Mario Williams, Kyle Williams, Marcell Dareus and Jerry Hughes all are Pro Bowl-caliber players. All four have taken their turns being disruptive players, and Dareus in particular is having a dominant year, leading the team in sacks, which is unusual for an interior lineman. What makes this unit really a problem for opposing teams, however, is the play of the four guys who back up the Pro Bowlers – Corbin Bryant, Stefan Charles, Jarius Wynn and Manny Lawson. They are all playmakers, and there is very little drop-off in performance when Schwartz rotates them in and out of the lineup.
Linebacker
This unit wasn’t particularly strong coming into the season, and when Kiko Alonso went down with a freak season-ending injury prior to training camp, all appeared lost. The remaining players have held their own, however, and taken full advantage of the dominating play by the D-line in front of them. Veteran Brandon Spikes was signed as a free agent to help shore up the team’s play against the run, a weakness of last year’s defense. As the starting middle linebacker, he has done just that. Although his statistics aren’t eye-popping, Spikes adds a tough, physical attitude to the unit that it lacked in the past. Nigel Bradham never showed much promise in his first couple of years here, but this season his play has improved dramatically for the most part, to the point where he’s earned a starting spot on the outside despite a one game drug suspension to start the year. Another free agent veteran signee, Keith Rivers, has been mostly steady at one of the outside spots, but the gem of the ‘backers through the first eight games is rookie Preston Brown, who was forced into action when Alonso went down. Brown has made his share of rookie mistakes, but he has made steady improvement as the season has progressed, filling in when needed. With his combination of speed and toughness, Brown has managed to both lead the team in tackles and make some plays in the back end defending passes. Two other veterans, Ty Powell and Larry Dean, are on the roster to add depth and help on special teams. The unit is rounded out by another rookie, Randell Johnson, who has also mostly contributed on special teams. He shows flashes of the same type of speed and power combination as Preston Brown, and could be a diamond in the rough in the future if he continues to improve. It’s clear that Whaley has a “type” of player he looks for when drafting linebackers.
Defensive Backs
The Bills lead the entire NFL in interceptions through the first half of the 2014 season, so their secondary players must be doing an adequate job. The starting cornerbacks have done mostly good work. Stephon Gilmore is supposed to be the team’s “shutdown” corner, and after a slow start his play is improving, and should get even better in the second half. On the other side, Leodis McKelvin has played better than Gilmore, showing great ball skills that he didn’t necessarily have in past seasons as he leads the league in picks with four. Whaley signed Buffalo native Corey Graham to add depth to the secondary, and the veteran has delivered, seeing action at both corner and safety and coming up with significant plays in that playing time. Nickell Robey has picked up where he left off last season as the club’s top nickel corner, while the other reserve corners – Ron Brooks and Ross Cockrell – have made most of their contributions on special teams. Starting safeties Aaron Williams and Da’Norris Searcy have had peaks and valleys, but mostly have been solid. Williams, especially, had the daunting task of replacing the departed Jairus Byrd, a Pro Bowler, and has more than held his own with his play and leadership. With a pair of young safeties going on injured reserve early in the year, Duke Williams has been getting more playing time on the back end than he expected, and has done a decent job, especially with his physical play against the run. Both Aaron Williams and Searcy have battled nagging injuries, so Duke Williams and Graham have had to fill in.
Special Teams
The special teams units have played head-and-shoulders better than last year’s units. They count a kickoff return touchdown (from Spiller), a blocked punt by Dixon and a game-winning 58 yard field goal from Dan Carpenter among their accomplishments this year. Adding Dixon and Graham to the roster immediately upgraded all the coverage units. The kicking game has been solid also. Carpenter has been money in the bank on field goals, punter Colton Schmidt may be the most underrated player on the team, as he leads the NFL in punts placed inside the opponents’ 20 yard line, and long snapper Garrison Sanborn has been invisible, meaning all his snaps so far have been accurate. The decision to keep a “long distance” kickoff specialist, Jordan Gay, has worked out alright so far. The “bomb squads” will face numerous challenges in the second half of the year, among them finding out how their young kickers, Schmidt and Gay, handle the Buffalo winter winds. Also, their top two kickoff returners, Spiller and Goodwin, have been injured and McKelvin has had to handle both jobs along with his cornerback duties. A third kickoff return option, Marcus Easley (also a top coverage gunner) has been hurt too. The Bills may want to try to find another option to handle those returns so McKelvin doesn’t get overworked.
NFL – Throwback Thursday: The Greatest Game Ever Played
The matchup on this week’s NFL schedule that will give us the Throwback Thursday post is the Monday night game between the New York Giants and Indianapolis Colts. These two franchises played a game on December 28, 1958, that became known as “The Greatest Game Ever Played”. A decade later, the Colts, located in Baltimore back then, would be locked in a historic game with a different New York team, the Jets, and that game changed the course of pro football history as Joe Namath guaranteed a victory for his club and then delivered it. In this Colts-Giants clash in ’58, however, history was also made. It was a game that propelled the sport into the modern era and sent pro football on it’s course to becoming the nation’s most popular sport. It was that season’s NFL championship game, televised across the country on NBC, and turned out to be the first “sudden death” overtime game in league history. Hall of Fame quarterback Johnny Unitas became a national hero that day, as he thrilled the TV audience by guiding what today is routinely known as the “two minute” drill, in leading the Colts down the field on a 62 yard drive to set up a game-tying field goal by Steve Myhra to send the game into overtime. Prior to that last drive, the game was actually somewhat sloppy, as both teams turned the ball over multiple times. In all, the teams combined for 7 turnovers, and one Giant touchdown came on a one yard run following a play that saw Kyle Rote fumble, with teammate Alex Webster picking up the ball and running it down to the one yard line. Baltimore defensive back Milt Davis, playing with two broken bones in his right foot, forced a pair of New York fumbles. Colt defensive end Gino Marchetti suffered a broken ankle and refused to be taken to the locker room for treatment. He spent the rest of the game after the injury sitting on a stretcher on the sideline watching the action. Once the game reached overtime, there was a lot of confusion about what to do to begin the extra session, even among the officials. The “sudden death” rule had just been implemented for the game by then-commissioner Bert Bell. They eventually figured it out, and after the Giants went three-and-out on their first drive, Unitas engineered another classic drive down the field, culminating in a one yard scoring plunge by back Alan “The Horse” Ameche, his second TD of the day, to win the game for the Colts. Unitas was brilliant, as was his future Hall of Fame teammate Raymond Berry, who finished the game with 12 receptions for 178 yards and a touchdown. As the Colts drove down the field toward the winning score, there was an incident that delayed the game when a fan ran out on the field. Rumor has it that a television cable had become unplugged causing the game feed to go dead, and an NBC employee was ordered to cause the distraction to buy time to fix the problem. An estimated 45 million people watched the telecast, and that number would have been higher, but the game, played in Yankee Stadium, was blacked out in the New York area. The impact of this game was far-reaching, as pro football became tremendously popular. That spike in popularity is the reason Lamar Hunt and his “Foolish Cub” of fellow owners decided to launch the American Football League in 1960. The game featured 17 people who would go on to become Hall of Famers, including Colt coach Weeb Ewbank, who would also be the winning coach in that Jets-Colts Super Bowl a decade later, and Giant offensive and defensive assistants Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry.
Alan “The Horse” Ameche scores to end “The Greatest Game Ever Played”