By: Michael Cardus
I’m pretty tired of talking about the horrific Buffalo Bills’ defense. I’m also tired of talking about the bad play calling from the Buffalo Bills coaching staff. Ditto for Fitzpatrick’s keen ability to throw an interception at exactly the worse possible time.
But that’s really all that can be said about this week. The defense had a great opportunity to show that their worth the $$ when they attempted to stop the Titans in the red zone after failing to stop them do anything else all game. They were successful for the first 3 attempts, although the incomplete pass coulda-woulda-shoulda been an interception by George Wilson. It hit him right in the gut. The next play, the Titans scored what would be the winning touchdown.
How they got there – the Bills were ahead with just under four minutes remaining and simply needed to run out the clock for a win. For some reason, Coach Gailey called a pass play, and Fitz threw an interception that allowed the Titans to go the other way and score the winning touchdown. I don’t understand why you wouldn’t run there. Anyone, and I mean anyone, can run against the Titans’ defense. This is not the 49ers or even the Cardinals of the last couple of weeks. Jackson and Spiller had success all day. Keep running the football, and run out the clock. That interception killed momentum and putting the Bills’ defense on the field was the worst thing that could have happened for the Bills.
Some people also questioned why Gailey didn’t go for the 2 point conversion on two touchdowns in the third quarter, since the Bills ultimately lost by 1 point that could have been gained had they executed te 2 point play. He explained that in general he doesn’t go for two until ten minutes left in the game, and that “I always have felt like you wait til the end to see if you need it.” Well guess what, we needed it. I believe you should try for the points when you can, and even if they hadn’t converted, they would have been only down by 2 instead of 1, which still makes it a one possession game. I wouldn’t blame the entire loss on that decision, but taken with everything else, it’s just another thing that could have been the game-changer.
Next week is a bye week, so it gives fans and the players a lot of extra time to mull over this loss, which isn’t a good thing. It wasn’t all bad – there were good points: Stevie Johnson seems to have gotten on track and Fitz was able to get him the ball more than in other weeks; Fitz had a really great throw to Donald Jones in the end zone; and the dynamic duo of Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller racked up a combined 166 yards. However, they face the extremely good 6-1 Houston Texans when they come back. That should scare the heck out of Bills’ fans, since Arian Foster versus the Bills’ defense may just be a nightmare.
