What a game on Sunday huh? A game which was supposed to be a blowout loss on the road and was anything but (except for the loss thing). It was an exciting, back-and-forth kind of game which is the type of thing that we've missed dearly in Buffalo for far too long. Unfortunately, we came up short but the silver lining is the game was never out of reach. The Bills went down by two scores on a few occasions only to bounce back and bring the game back within reach, and the Buffalo offense showed the ability to put up points and compete.
Cynics will say that NE's defense is atrocious and that any team could do the same and that might be true, but the fact of the matter is that recent Bills teams haven't even been able to put up a fight even against the leagues worst teams (ie Cleveland). Bearing that in mind, you have to respect what the Bills were able to do offensively in Foxborough, despite the team who opposed them.
Defensively, the Bills couldn't have been much worse and that's the real lesson to take home from this game. We may be able to move the ball better with Fitz at the helm, but how do we fix a defense that lacks the personnel to be competitive? Our line is average, but our LB corps is Godawful and no help whatsoever in defending both the run and the pass. Poz should return vs. the Jets and should help as he is a great tackler and has a nose for making plays, but even so the secondary is in desperate need of some help. Perhaps the switch from zone to man this year is just going to take a little more time to set in for them but there are far too many plays where our safeties are out of position and our DBs are flat out beaten by receivers. This is especially disheartening for a team that has yet to record an interception a year after they had 28 (3 in the first two games of last year) and who has only one fumble recovery...unacceptable.
Bottom line, George Edwards needs to figure out 1)a way to put pressure on opposing offenses and force turnovers and 2) how to win the battle in the trenches and keep opposing RBs from putting up monster numbers (a problem inherited from the Dick Jauron Bills).
In the wake of the Pats game, we the Bills faithful have reason to be optimistic but can't help but demand more. Improvement is good, results are better and I don't think anyone will be completely satisfied in the strides we've taken this past weekend without a win against the Jets this coming weekend. Typically the Jets have struggled to beat the Bills, making costly errors and failing to show up offensively. If some of the defensive issues of the past few weeks can be remedied it's not unlikely that we can steal a win from NY. I just hope the Bills' signature 4th quarter INT/FUMBLE/STALLED DRIVE/MISSED FG isn't a factor in this one. And who knows, if we're lucky and can get a win at home vs. the Jets we have a nice matchup against the Jags the week thereafter and can maybe we go into the bye with a 2-3 record. Crazier things have happened. But hey, one game at a time.
By the way, how beastly was Beast Mode versus NE? Yeah, that's what I was gonna say,
THIS BEASTLY
Want to see him bruising some over-entitled defenders in green this Sunday. Catch the Bills fever, there is no cure.
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