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Week 2: Bills Falter In Green Bay
Defense wears down after Offensive failures.
by Steve Saslow
Here are our position by position grades:
Quarterback:
Trent Edwards only threw for 102 yards. That is hard to do when you are playing from way behind for a quarter and a half. He completed 11 of 18 passes and was picked off twice but neither were his fault. Usually I'm not a big fan of the quarterback rating but his 37 rating was right on. Grade F: They would have lost even if this was an A but there seems to be no hope in resurrecting his career.
Running Backs:
Marshawn Lynch got the surprise start.
Fred Jackson was the #2 back this week and had nine carries for 39 yards and a touchdown. He had some nice moves, he may be watching Spiller in practice.
C.J. Spiller only carried the ball once for three yards as he was used on third downs and more in the passing game. He caught four passes for 23 yards.
Corey McIntyre Wasn't out there too often but made a few blocks.
Grade A: The running backs are the one good unit on this team.
Receivers:
Lee Evans was held without a catch. He was wide open on one pass and would have had a touchdown but he was interfered with.
Steve Johnson made a brutal play when the ball went off his hands for the first interception. It set the tone for the whole second half. He caught three passes for 31 yards mostly in garbage time.
Roscoe Parrish also gets charged with an interception when he had the ball pulled out of his hands on a catch. Other than that he caught two passes for 34 yards and converted a third down with a four yard run.
Jonathan Stupar had a few impressive blocks on the Bills first TD drive including springing Fred Jackson outside for a score. Had two catches for 14 yards.
Grade F: They don't help Edwards at all.
Offensive Line:
Eric Wood was called for a holding penalty.
Geoff Hangartner made it through the game ok despite being banged up.
Andy Levitre left the game with a shoulder stinger.
Cordaro Howards got his first game action in place of Levitre and seemed to perform well.
Grade D: Gave up four sacks and 10 quarterback hits. Only save of a failing grade was that they opened up holes in the running game.
Defensive Line:
Kyle Williams jumped offsides twice on the opening series. No too many holes in the middle of the defense for the running game though.
Marcus Stroud Quiet game with three tackles.
Dwan Edwards had a quiet five tackles.
Spencer Johnson had three tackles.
Torell Troup didn't do much, he was in on one tackle.
Grade C-: Did a good job against the run but couldn't push the pocket on passing plays.
Linebackers:
Andra Davis knocked down a pass on the opening series and had seven tackles.
Chris Kelsay led the way with eight tackles and was very active.
Reggie Torbor did not start as he was eased back into playing mode. Had one assistant.
Chris Ellis got the start but was incredibly quiet this week.
Keith Ellison started for Posluszny and had four tackles but was quiet overall.
Aaron Maybin Continues to be in hibernation.
Akin Ayodele had one assist in his Bills debut.
Grade D: We knew pass coverage would be tough for this unit but it was really bad in this game.
Secondary:
Terrence McGee did his usual solid job in pass coverage.
Drayton Florence was beaten for a first down but was pretty good in coverage as well.
Leodis McKelvin was beaten for a big pass play but did do a nice job for the most part. He had four tackles.
Jairus Byrd made a beautiful open field tackle and had four overall.
Donte Whitner was beaten badly for a touchdown and dropped a sure interception. Had just two assists.
Grade D: Big open spaces in the secondary most of the day.
Special Teams:
Brian Moorman played with a sore back and averaged 46.4 yards on five punts. One went inside the 20 and one was hit too hard for a touchback .
Rian Lindell hit his only kick, an extra point.
Roscoe Parrish had one punt return for zero yards.
C.J. Spiller seemed to warm up as the game went on. He was real busy with six kickoff returns for a 29 yard average including a 41 yard return.
Donald Jones returned a kick for 18 yards.
Coverage Units did ok allowing 7.3 yards per punt return and 30.5 yards on kickoff returns.
Grade B: Not their fault they lost.
Coaching:
Chan Gailey had a very vanilla game plan. Too vanilla. Going to Lynch was an interesting move but using Spiller on third downs didn't work since he can't block. No adjustments after halftime as Green Bay took the game to the Bills.
George Edwards' defense hung tough for a half but they really struggled in the second half and they didn't have an answer for TE Jermichael Finley who went over 100 yards.
Bruce DeHaven's units did well but the kickoff coverage unit needs some work.
Grade D: Impossible matchup but there wasn't even little signs of hope.
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