Week 5: Bills Blown Out By Cardinals 41-17
Defense embarassed by high flying birds for first loss of season.
by Steve Saslow

at Week 5 Bills   17 Cardinals   41 Gameday Grades

We knew this would be a tough battle and it got a lot tougher after Trent Edwards was knocked out of the game on the third play after taking a shot while completing a pass to James Hardy for a first down. The concussion would knock him cold and send the team reeling to a blow out loss to the Cardinals 41-17 to give the team their first loss of the season.

J.P. Losman was given extra reps this week just in case he had to play but it didn't help too much. The team seemed a bit in disarray after Edwards went out and Losman fumbled his second snap of the game and the Cardinals recovered and they were off to the races.

The Cardinals dominated offensively as they scored on all four first half possessions to open up a 10 point halftime lead. It would have been worse except Losman did what he does best with a bomb to Lee Evans for a career high 87 yard touchdown pass. Losman would also run one in from two yards out to keep the Bills in the game at halftime but it was shortlived.

The Cardinals maintained control of the game despite the Bills closing the gap to a touchdown early in the third with a Rian Lindell field goal. The Cardinals re-gained control and put up 17 unanswered points to pull away and gain their third win of the year.

I flew across country to watch this game but I knew going in it was a tough spot for them. When Edwards got hurt for a minute you thought Losman may be the guy to lead the team in a shootout. It didn't matter though because the defense got a huge wakeup call as this time there was no second half adjustment against a high powered offensive team.

The good news is the team now has the bye week to lick their wounds and hopefully they will get Edwards healthy in time for the Chargers to visit in two weeks.

Here are our exclusive gameballs and goats from the Bills game against the Cardinals:

Lee Evans - He had a nice game with his brand new contract as it was nice to see him hook up with Losman again.

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