Bills lose for first time this year as Cards offense dominates.
by Steve Saslow
Here are our position by position grades:
Quarterback:Trent Edwards was knocked out of the game on his third pass of the game as he completed all three passes he threw. J.P. Losman did pretty good in his place but not enough. Losman held the ball too long and was sacked five times. He lost a fumble and threw an interception. He also ran for a touchdown and threw an 87 yard touchdown pass. Grade D: Needed a super human effort from this unit to get a win.
Running Backs:Marshawn Lynch averaged 4.2 yards a carry but only ran it 13 times for 55 yards. Fred Jackson only had one carry for five yards . Corey McIntyre was inactive and didn't make his Bills debut. Grade D: Barely used as they were constantly in comeback mode.
Receivers:Lee Evans had a career high 87 yard touchdown reception and finished with 122 total yards including a 22 yard run on an end around. Josh Reed led the way with four catches for 45 yards. James Hardy caught three balls for 35 yards . Robert Royal had two short catches and Steve Johnson had his first career reception. Grade C: Not the reason for the loss but could have done more.
Offensive Line:The unit gave up five more sacks but most of those were coverage sacks as Losman had time to throw. They take some of the blame for the hit that knocked Edwards out of the game. The 4.9 yard average in the running game was encouraging but may be misguided since they were playing from behind all game. Grade C: An average game from this unit in a below average game.
Defensive Line:Aaron Schobel was pretty active with four tackles and a quarterback hit along with a pass defensed and a tackle for a loss. Chris Kelsay had three tackles one for a loss and one quarterback hit. Marcus Stroud had three tackles and helped keep the base running game under wraps for the Cardinals. Kyle Williams was quiet and in on four tackles. Ryan Denney had two tackles. Spencer Johnson had a tackle. Grade D: Not bad against the run but no pass rush which was needed.
Linebackers:Paul Posluszny had eight tackles. Kawika Mitchell had seven tackles and a few good hits. Keith Ellison remains missing in action with one tackle. Grade D: Didn't help stop the very successful short passing game.
Secondary:Terrence McGee did not play and his place was taken mostly by rookie Leodis McKelvin. He had four tackles and was beaten on many short passes. Jabari Greer had 12 tackles but that is too many meaning too many passes were completed. Ashton Youboty had four tackles and dropped a sure interception. Donte Whitner had nine tackles. Ko Simpson left the game in the first half with a hamstring injury and was replaced by George Wilson who had three tackles. Grade F: Gave up a whopping 33 completions.
Special Teams:Brian Moorman failed to have a punt downed inside the 20 for the first time in a long time. Rian Lindell hit his one lone long field goal attempt from 48 yards out. Fred Jackson had two punt returns for a decent 34 yards and had a 13 yard short kickoff return. Leodis McKelvin averaged 22.2 yards on six kickoff returns. Justin Jenkins was called for a bad offside penalty on a field goal that allowed the Cardinals to turn it into a touchdown. Grade C: Not the reason for the loss but did nothing to turn things around.
Coaching:There was no halftime adjustments this week. They had no answer for the short passing game of the Cardinals that was successful all day long. They seemed a bit unorganized after Edwards went down and Losman didn't seem ready to run the offense. Grade F: A lopsided loss deserves a failing grade.
Game Analysis and Review
NFL.com Gamebook
Cardinals Game Preview
Gameday Homepage
