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Week 11: Both Sides Of Football Shine In Second Half
35 unanswered points after intermission was huge team effort.
by Steve Saslow
Here are our position by position grades:
Quarterback:
Ryan Fitzpatrick threw three awful picks in the first half. Only two counted thanks to a penalty. One was returned for a score and one led to a touchdown. He made up for it in a big way as he threw four touchdown passes in the final 32 minutes and 316 yards passing.
Grade B+: Put them in a hole but got them out of it.
Running Backs:
Fred Jackson finished with 116 yards on 21 carries including a 30 yard TD run to put an exclamation point on the victory.
Quinton Ganther came on briefly when Jackson was banged up and ran for 11 yards on his one carry.
Jehuu Caulcrick got one carry in his first game and got two yards to convert a third down play.
Corey McIntyre saw some time as a blocker but was limited with his ankle injury.
Grade A-: Jackson is the man once again.
Receivers:
Lee Evans caught only two balls but one was a 54 yarder .
Steve Johnson made a great run after the catch on a 36 yard third down play on the Bills opening drive. He then really turned it on after halftime catching three TD passes and eight of 11 passes thrown his way.
Donald Jones made a beautiful run after the catch on his 28 yard touchdown, the first of his career. He finished with five catches for 70 yards.
Shawn Nelson had one catch for nine yards.
David Martin was confused on a third and two play and was in pass protection when he should have been going out for a pass. He did catch two passes for 15 yards including a big gainer at a big time in the game.
Grade A+: Chan Gailey is really good with wide receivers.
Offensive Line:
Demetrius Bell was solid protecting Fitzpatrick's blind side. He's really coming into his own.
Eric Wood left with a knee injury.
Craig Urbik got extensive playing time when Wood went down.
Mansfield Wrotto had a false start penalty down in the red zone.
Andy Levitre got called for a holding penalty that brought back a 15 yard run by Jackson and had a false start.
Grade B: Really settled down in second half.
Defensive Line:
Kyle Williams had two great goal line stops near the end of the half.
Marcus Stroud forced a fumble that was returned for a score. Knocked down a pass.
Dwan Edwards had a good rush and QB hit on the Bengals first possession.
Grade C: Gave up huge holes in the running game, especially in the first half.
Linebackers:
Chris Kelsay was very active in the backfield. Had two tackles and a sack.
Reggie Torbor was quietly in on six tackles.
Paul Posluszny once again led the team with 10 tackles including one tackle for a loss.
Akin Ayodele had seven tackles.
Grade B+: Really shut things down in the middle of the field.
Secondary:
Drayton Florence was beaten by Ochocinco for a third down conversion on the Bengals opening TD drive. Got the first TD of his career on a fumble return and then picked off a pass.
Terrence McGee played a lot in the second half and was beaten for one big pass play.
Leodis McKelvin was beaten deep by T.O. for a 48 yard gain on the last play of the first quarter and then in the end zone for a TD on the same drive. Was called for a costly illegal contact penalty negating a Kelsay sack. Saw his playing time drop significantly in the second half.
Jairus Byrd was late giving McKelvin help on T.O.'s touchdown in the 2nd quarter.
Donte Whitner had a vicious hit that caused an incompletion. He had six tackles in all but was beaten for one big pass play.
George Wilson played a lot for Byrd in the second half and his interception and long return was huge. He also almost had a second pick.
Bryan Scott had a sack and three tackles.
Reggie Corner played a lot in the dime coverage of the second half. Made a few nice plays in coverage but did get call for one pass interference penalty. He had six tackles.
Grade B-: Really shut down the passing game in the second half.
Special Teams:
Brian Moorman had one punt late in the game and he kicked it into the end zone for a touchback instead of directional kicking it out of bounds inside the 10.
Rian Lindell missed a 33 yard field goal. He has now missed three in a row.
Leodis McKelvin averaged 19.3 yards on three kick returns and had a fair catch on his one punt return possibility.
Coverage Units Jon Corto got called for an illegal block in the back penalty. Gave up a 23.7 yard average on seven kickoff returns.
Grade D: Didn't do much to help the comeback.
Coaching:
Chan Gailey kept his team together after a poor start. Had them use the last second first half field goal to their advantage. Made adjustments in the offensive game plan after halftime to have much more success.
George Edwards had his unit beaten on two crossing routes in a row down at the goal line. The third time they went for that Wilson had the big pick. Made some fine halftime adjustments of his own.
Bruce DeHaven had two penalties called on returns and had Lindell miss a field goal but it didn't cost the a victory.
Grade A: Incredible use of the 12 minute halftime.
 Bills Blitz
NFL.com Gamebook
Bengals Game Preview
Gameday Homepage
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