Historic. Epic. Fantastic. Best game in years. Use any superlative you want, Sunday’s game against the Green Bay Packers is not one you’ll likely forget any time soon.
In a lengthy dearth of playoff appearances, a whole generation of fans has grown up not knowing a truly big game for the Bills. Sure, there have been some great wins and more than just a few soul-crushing defeats, but rarely have Bills fans been able to see a truly memorable win like they did this week.
Ok, it’s not exactly an AFC Championship game and the win doesn’t guarantee the Bills their first playoff appearance in a decade and a half, but it is memorable for more than just the performance on the field. For the first time since 2004, the Bills will not have a losing season (I’ll give you a minute to grab a mint – you may have thrown up in your mouth after reading that amazing stat). It also means that this is the first time since 1996 that the Bills have gone the entire season without a losing record – every week they have been at or above .500.
Coming into Sunday’s game a win looked like a very tall order. Green Bay is arguably one of the best teams in the NFL and was riding a 5 game win streak. Aaron Rodgers, a future Hall of Fame quarterback, had thrown 35 touchdowns and an astounding 3 interceptions. His worst game of the season came in week 1 in Seattle against the Super Bowl champion Seahawks who also happen to have the NFL’s #1 defense – in that game he was held to 189 yards passing with 1 touchdown and 1 interception for a quarterback rating of 81.5. Against a formidable New England team he threw for 368 yards and two touchdowns in a 26-21 victory. Make no mistake – Aaron Rodgers is the real deal.
Sure, Sunday’s game was in Buffalo in front of an enthusiastic full house, but we’ve seen the Bills not play well at home in front of an emotional crowd (the New England game comes to mind – even the joy of having a new owner couldn’t prevent the Bills from being flat and never really being in contention to win at any point in that game). Some, like Bills Daily, were strangely optimistic that the Bills would win the game. As a professional curmudgeon (I have my membership card in my wallet – don’t make me show it to you, dammit!) I was fully expecting the loss that would put the final nail in the Bills’ season.
The game started as I expected, for the most part. Green Bay started with the ball and didn’t do much with it – in fact, in their second possession they went 3 and out. Rodgers didn’t look good at all – he seemed really out of sync with his receivers. On the other hand, the Green bay running game was finding success early in the game with Eddie Lacy and James Starks. Lacy carried 10 times for 73 yards in the first half while Starks added another 19 yards on 4 carries – heck, even Rodgers contributed with a 19 yard scramble. Green Bay averaged 7.3 ypc in the first half. The Bills defense was obviously focused on not allowing Rodgers to kill them through the air and were doing a decent job of it, but they were being gashed by huge runs in the second quarter.
Offensively the Bills were their normal train wreck. Of their 7 first half possessions, 5 were for 3 plays or less and 3 drives yielded negative yards. The offense managed a single long drive of 81 yards which brought them to the Green Bay 9 yard line but they were forced to settle for a Dan Carpenter field goal. In the first half the offense put up a paltry 111 yards of offense, had 8 penalties for 50 yards, failed to convert any third downs and scored 3 points. Kyle Orton also threw an interception. Special teams bailed out the offense by scoring a touchdown when Marcus Thigpen returned a punt 75 yards for the score.
It’s been obvious for weeks now that Orton is not a good quarterback. He may have his decent games, but the full body of his work over multiple games shows he does not represent an appreciable improvement over E.J. Manuel. Or Ryan Fitzpatrick. Or J.P. Losman. Orton is just the latest in a long string of guys who might make decent backup quarterbacks but who aren’t going to take Buffalo to the next level. Throw in an offensive line that has struggled in pass protection at times, struggles to open holes in the running game and can never seem to make the blocks needed to execute a good screen pass and you have the continuing saga of a team in need of an offense.
When you look at how well the Buffalo defense has played – limiting Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers to 50% completion rate for 358 yards no touchdowns and 4 interceptions – you know they have what it takes to get to the next level. They say that defense wins championships and that may be true, but the small asterisk beside that also says your offense can’t be completely inept, and right now the Bills offense is completely inept. The Bills need to improve their offense from inept to mediocre and they may just be able to make the playoffs. A better offense, not even a great offense, and the Bills potentially win in Houston, against Kansas City and in Miami…and are sitting around wondering who they’ll meet in the playoffs. Instead, they need to win out AND get a bunch of help to have a post season opportunity. How maddening is it to think that but for a continuous string of backup caliber quarterbacks the Bills might be turning the page? Time waits for no man, and if the Bills keep waiting for a better quarterback they won’t be able to hold together their current special defensive unit – that would be a tragedy.
With an even mediocre offense the Bills blow out the Packers on Sunday. If you think the Bills garnered national attention for beating the Packers, imagine what would have happened if they could have actually moved the ball and scored touchdowns instead of making Carpenter the team MVP.
For the second time this season the Bills got a huge assist from their opponent when they out-Buffaloed Buffalo. The Browns did it a few weeks back when they found ways to lose, even when they had opportunities. The Packers, on the other hand, refused to shift their game plan away from a pass offense that wasn’t working to a running game that was. On a day where Rodgers and his receivers just weren’t getting the job done and the Buffalo pass defense was playing strong in coverage, the Packer running game looked very good – but Green Bay abandoned it. In addition to winning on Sunday I think the Bills get royalties from Green Bay for stealing the Bills’ patented “abandon the effective running game” method of losing games.
But hey, I’m not complaining – I loved watching the Bills win on Sunday. As much as the offense makes me want to do terrible things to myself thinking about what could have been, I did enjoy the game, even if it gave me another ulcer. In true Bills fashion, right up until the end they were setting themselves up beautifully for a 1-point loss. With a loose ball rolling around in the end zone and actually coming to a rest before anyone seemingly saw it I knew this could be the clincher – until Eddie Lacy picked it up and ran it out of the end zone without being tackled. Luckily, being within the last 2 minutes of the game, by rule a fumble is marked dead at the spot of the recovery unless it is recovered by the player who fumbled (Rodgers), so Lacy picking up the ball caused it to be spotted in the end zone – safety. What’s more, referee Bill Leavy immediately stopped play, made the correct call and explained the call to a somewhat confused audience (I watch a lot of football and love that I still learn new things every season). Seriously, the Bills get a weird call go their way – when was the last time that happened?
Onto Oakland, a game that can’t be taken lightly. Right now the Bills are pegged at having a 6% chance of making the playoffs, but if they win out with games in Oakland and Foxboro their chances are 1-in-3. That the Bills have meaningful games in December is fantastic and almost enough to satisfy me – almost. Hopefully new management does something – anything – to ensure a strong Bills defense in 2015 has at least a competent offense and quarterback to help them get back to the postseason.