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.