What is a heartbreaker? Some would say a member of Tom Petty’s band or songs by Dionne Warwick and Pat Benetar. For the Buffalo Bills, it was the ending of their game against the Titans this past Sunday, as they lost 35-34.
POINTING THE FINGER
Pointing the finger is never fun, but somebody has to do it. I feel like using my old French teacher’s tactic of slamming the yard stick against his desk, until everybody conjugated French verbs correctly.
Penalties. Lets start off with something that can be fixed asap. Reduce the penalties! The Bills committed a couple personal fouls. C’mon fellas, you can’t blame replacement refs this time. To me, keeping your cool and not getting those type of penalties are as expected as the free space on the BINGO board. Instead, the Titans gained some freebie yards. Buffalo was also called on a handful of false starts. Discipline is the key to nixing both of those penalties.
Making big plays. Unlike last game, when Alex Carrington tipped a field goal and Jairus Byrd picked off John Skelton, the Bills did not make many big plays when we needed it. Besides Brad Smith running back 89 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter, counteracting Chris Johnson’s 103-yard touchdown run, the game-changing plays were noticeably absent.
Defense. The Bills defense also blew a couple of surefire interceptions that would have turned the game around. If you are going to give up that many points per game (Umm… close to 140 for our last four games) and have a horrible pass rush, you have to take advantage of EVERY potential interception.
Where are the relentless sacks? Why was Matt Hasselbeck able to duck and spin away from our defenders? Chris Kelsay, the Bills DE, may have the answer.
“You watch film and not everybody was playing hard every snap, and that’s unacceptable,” said Kelsay, as stated on www.bostonherald.com.
Should we tap the defense’s helmets and ask “George McFly, is there anybody home?”
Maybe not, but Kelsay suggested, “We might have to grab guys by their shirt collar and tell them to get moving.”
A GOOD OFFENSIVE BALANCE
The Bills offense moved the ball well. Yes, Ryan Fitzpatrick threw a costly interception to Jason McCourty at the end of the fourth quarter, but you cannot blame the offense for this game. The Bills used an array of offensive weapons, Fred Jackson, C.J. Spiller, and Stevie Johnson all having a 70 plus yard game.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Bills defense, you have to step it up. Frankly, I am embarrassed by other teams breaking franchise offensive records every other week. We all know you guys have the talent, but do you have the drive for excellence?
I will leave you with a quote by Walter Cronkite:
“I can’t imagine a person becoming a success who doesn’t give this game of life everything he’s got.”
You have 12 days to think about it.
