Immediately after Sunday’s gut-wrenching loss to the New York Jets, it’s very difficult to try and muster up anything at all good about the Buffalo Bills. Listed beneath are the grades I’m handing out to the team. We’ll commence off with the offense first.
Offense: D
What stopped the grade from getting an “F” was Bills Running Back (RB) CJ Spiller’s rushing performance. Spiller ripped off a 56 yarder for a Touchdown (TD) in the second quarter. But, the Bills would not get on the scoreboard once again till the score was 41-7 in the third quarter. At that point in the game, New York Jets Head Coach (HC) Rex Ryan had place in most of his backup players in on defense, and eased up on their attack of the Bills offense. By Ryan performing such, the Bills were able to score 3 TD’s among the third and fourth quarters. By that time, it was as well tiny, also late for the Bills as the Jets went on to win 48-28.
RB’s: A+
CJ Spiller had 169 yards (yds) on 14 carries and one particular rushing TD. Spiller had a 56 yd TD run, a 49 yd run, and nearly broke a few more for large gains. All round, the Bills had 195 yds rushing on the day. Currently, Spiller, as nicely as the Bills offense ranks #1 in the NFL in rushing yds.
Wide Receiver’s (WRs): C
When your starting Quarterback (QB) is either telegraphing his passes, throwing behind you or is late with his throws, it’s extremely tough for a WR to make any plays. Bills WR’s Steve Johnson and Donald Jones had combined for 9 receptions (rec), 96 yds and two TD’s. Jones was the ideal pass defender on the field as he batted down a Ryan Fitzpatrick pass that would have been intercepted by the Jets. Also negative Jones couldn’t play each WR and Cornerback (CB).
Tight Ends (TEs): B
Beginning Bills TE Scott Chandler had 4 rec’s for 38 yds and 1 TD. Chandler played as effectively as you could have expected from him, given the limited amount of throws from Fitzpatrick. Lee Smith had 1 rec for five yds.
QB: F
Regrettably, F is the lowest grade you can give a particular person. If an individual could have the honor bestowed upon them with obtaining a lower grade than F, the honor would belong to Fitzpatrick. Even although Fitzpatrick was late acquiring the ball out to WR Steve Johnson on the initial pick, if that ball was thrown far enough to the outside, it is either incomplete or caught by Johnson. The second interception was thrown behind an open David Nelson. These had been not negative choices, individuals had been just bad throws by Fitzpatrick. The third pick that the Jets returned for a choose six was indeed a negative selection from which you see from the likes of High School QB’s, not beginning NFL QB’s. Fitzpatrick was either throwing behind his WR’s, slow to throw the pass or telegraphing his passes.
Offensive Line: A
The Offensive Line gave Fitzpatrick adequate time in the pocket on Sunday to make his throws, and did not enable a sack. Also, the line opened some great holes for Spiller to blast via.
Defense: D-
When it requires practically to the fourth quarter to force a punt, then you know your group is in trouble. When your offense turns it more than 4 times, it tends to make everyone’s job on defense that much tougher.
Run Defense: B-
The Bills run defense, especially in years previous against the Jets was putrid. But on Sunday, the Bills run defense held the Jets to 118 rushing yds at 3.three yards per carry. Even though the run defense showed considerable improvements, primarily due to the extremely touted defensive front four of Buffalo, they could not hold the Jets in 3rd and brief circumstances.
Pass Rush: F
No sacks on Sanchez, and there had been only a handful of times where the Bills were capable to chase Sanchez out of the pocket. In week 1, the $ 100+ Million dollar investment to shore up the pass rush did not payoff.
Pass Defense: F
The Bills CB’s and Safeties had been either providing the Jets WR’s & TE’s a 10-15 yard cushion, or becoming physically manhandled at the line of scrimmage. By far, this was the Bills weakest group of the complete team.
Specific Teams: D-
Looks like the only ones that showed up for the unit were Bills kickers, John Potter and Rian Lindell. The particular teams unit gave up a costly 68 yd punt return for a TD.
Coaching: F
Just like Fitzpatrick, if anybody deserves a lower grade than F, then that honor must be shared with Chan Gailey, Bruce DeHaven and Dave Wannstedt. The Bills looked like they had been nonetheless in preseason mode. The Bills defense looked very vanilla, and barely brought any blitzes. Wannstedt did a very poor job of making alterations all through the game.
Right here are some post game quotes from Gailey: ‘”We want to tighten up our coverage which will support our pass rush,” why thank you, Captain Clear!
“This is a cliché and I recognize it. It is a single of sixteen and if you win enough, you get in the playoffs.” I have two issues with this quote. Initial off, Gailey has been preaching since day one as Bills HC that he doesn’t hope to win, he expects to win. So, now Gailey has either lowered his expectations, or has been blowing smoke up our collective butts. Second, although Sunday’s game was only 1 of 16, it was against a division rival [Jets], and the game is only a single of six. Proper now, the Bills are -1 in the AFC East. Last season, the Bills were 1-five in the division. The greater your win/loss record is in the division, the greater the probabilities you will have of producing the playoffs.
A single issue is for confident, the entire Bills group, both players and coaches want to straighten this ship out rapid prior to there is a mass mutiny amongst the natives [Bills fans].
