Bills collapse on both sides of the ball.
by Steve Saslow
Here are our position by position grades:
Quarterback:J.P. Losman hit Lee Evans for a nice bomb early but he threw another red zone interception to ruin the drive, it was an absolutely horrible pass. He completed just 10 of 27 passes for an inflated 181 yards thanks to two big pass plays and garbage time. He had a QB rating of 33.6. Grade F: Can't play in this weather which could be a problem for his career.
Running Backs:Willis McGahee was knocked out of the game briefly with a shot to the head. Shaud Williams didn't do anything when he replaced him gaining just 4 yards on three carries. That was one more yard than McGahee had all game. Daimon Shelton didn't help the anemic rushing totals in the blocking game. Grade F-: 7 rushing yards by this group! Is there any grade lower?
Receivers:Sam Aiken got the start for the suspended Eric Moulds and caught one pass for eight yards in garbage time. Lee Evans was the go to guy. He got behind double coverage to catch the only nice pass of the game from Losman. Roscoe Parrish only caught one pass for five yard. Josh Reed had two catches in the final minutes and has nice runs after both of them including a pretty 51 yard touchdown scamper to avert the shutout. Mark Campbell also had one catch for four yards. Grade D: Evans and Reed made a few plays but not nearly enough for this group.
Offensive Line:Chris Villarrial returned to the lineup and was called for a devastating false start penalty in the red zone in the first quarter. Mike Gandy had two false start penalties. One of them deflated the momentum of a big pass to Evans. There were no holes for the running game and Losman was running for his life most of the game. Grade F-: The reason for the inevitable demise of the Donahoe era.
Defensive Line:Aaron Schobel was active, he had a sack and a nice open field tackle among his six stops and some pressures. He also had a bad offsides penalty that negated a sack by Tim Anderson. Schobel was also called for roughing the passer. Anderson had a pass deflection in the game and was active with seven tackles. Chris Kelsay had three tackles. Sam Adams played a bit more than he has recently and had three tackles. Grade D: Got no pass rush without a blitz and allowed big holes for Dillon to run through.
Linebackers:Can anyone play besides London Fletcher? He once again led the way with 14 tackles and had his first career interception as a Bill. Jeff Posey was even quiet for him. Angelo Crowell had 12 tackles and was active in run support. Grade C: Can't do it by themselves, missed their share of tackles in the running game.
Secondary:Terrence McGee was in on seven tackles and beaten a couple of time. Nate Clements was beaten for a first down but had an interception late in the first half in the end zone. Troy Vincent had three tackles, missed many more and was awful in coverage. Lawyer Milloy had eight tackles and knocked a pass away that forced a punt but didn't matchup well with TE Ben Watson most of the game. Eric King played a lot and was stiff armed on a touchdown. Grade F: Allowed 336 yards passing.
Special Teams:The coverage units allowed a 29 yard kickoff return on the Pats only return, it resulted in a drive start at the 41. The punt return team caused a delay of game penalty with their scheme. Punt return units allowed a 14 yard return of their first punt, it would have been more if not for Tim Dwight slipping down. They allowed only four yards on the other two returns. Brian Moorman averaged 43.7 yards on six punts, no small feat given the weather conditions. Two were inside the 20. Ryan Neufeld was called for a questionable holding penalty that negated a 63 yard kickoff return by Terrence McGee. He did averaged 25.2 yards on five returns while Neufeld returned one for 23 yards. Roscoe Parrish had a 43 yard punt return. Rian Lindell missed a 32 yard field goal in the snow. Grade C: Even this unit made mistakes but the return game sure is exciting.
Coaching:Mike Mularkey must have been gun shy after this bad week. He got very conservative at times. Didn't go for it on 4th and 3 at the Patriots 46. Then attempted a field goal with the score 21-0 and it was missed. Jerry Gray constantly got burned by blitzing. Brady picked them apart. Too many stupid penalties this late in the year. Grade F-: Didn't have the team focused. The distractions were the coaches fault as well.
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