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Week 13: Bills Pull A Clunker In Minnesota
Four interceptions were lone bright spots.
by Steve Saslow
Here are our position by position grades:
Quarterback:
Ryan Fitzpatrick struggled holding on to the ball. He threw one interception but fumbled three times, losing two of them. He completed only 15 of 25 passes for 158 yards and a late touchdown.
Grade D: Struggled but was under a lot of pressure in the game.
Running Backs:
Fred Jackson got going a bit in the 2nd half but only had 42 yards on 11 carries and one reception.
C.J. Spiller returned from an injury and carried seven times for 35 yards and caught two short passes.
Corey McIntyre fumbled after his only reception after a vicious hit by Winfield.
Grade C-: Down game for this unit as well.
Receivers:
Lee Evans had a nice day but mostly in garbage time. He had three catches for 72 yards.
Steve Johnson caught his first pass but dropped his second on a third and 9 pass down field. Finished with two catches for 36 yards and had only four passes thrown his way.
Donald Jones caught one pass.
David Nelson had four catches mostly in garbage time including a touchdown reception from 12 yards out.
Grade C-: Not much doing here when the game was still a game.
Offensive Line:
Demetrius Bell was beaten by Jared Allen for a sack and forced fumble, a pressure, a hit that forced a fumble, and a false start.
Geoff Hangartner left the game in the first half with a knee injury.
Kraig Urbik took over at center for Hangartner when he was hurt after starting at guard.
Mansfield Wrotto was called for a false start penalty.
Cordaro Howard came in at left guard when Urbik moved to center.
Andy Levitre missed a block on a third down screen pass. The Bills had to punt. He was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. He was forced to play center in the fourth quarter because of the injury to Urbik and had a fumbled exchange with Fitzpatrick on the Vikings goal line.
Ed Wang got some playing time at guard when Urbik went out.
Grade D: Gave up only one sack but several pressures against this patchwork unit.
Defensive Line:
Kyle Williams had a quiet game with just four tackles, one for a loss.
Marcus Stroud only had one assist.
Spencer Johnson was busy with six tackles.
Grade D: They were shredded for 210 yards rushing.
Linebackers:
Chris Kelsay got a hit on Jackson that forced an interception. He had three tackles.
Paul Posluszny had 15 tackles and a sack.
Akin Ayodele was busy and had 10 tackles.
Arthur Moats had a huge hit on Brett Favre knocking him out of the game. He also got pressure on Poz's sack.
Grade D: The worst unit on the team.
Secondary:
Drayton Florence picked off two passes and returned one for a score.
Leodis McKelvin was beaten by Sidney Rice for a 46 yard completion and then by him for a touchdown although he was clearly interfered with him. He was then called for interference in the end zone all in the first quarter. He did pick off a pass in the third quarter and almost had a fumble recovery but the pass was ruled incomplete.
Jairus Byrd had three tackles.
Donte Whitner picked off a pass and had seven tackles.
Grade B: Four interceptions went for naught.
Special Teams:
Brian Moorman punted six times for a 44.2 yard average and a healthy 40 yard net with three going inside the 20.
Rian Lindell had a quiet day with just two extra points and no field goal attempts.
Leodis McKelvin fumbled two kick returns, losing one that setup a Vikings touchdown. He averaged only 7 yards on three kickoff returns.
C.J. Spiller returned two punts for 12 yards and three kickoffs for an 18 yard average.
Coverage Units allowed just an 8.3 yard average on punt returns and two decent kickoff returns for 55 yards.
Grade C-: Moorman's punting was good but not much else.
Coaching:
Chan Gailey saw his team lay a clunker and he was not happy about it. Five turnovers were awful.
George Edwards didn't have an answer for the Vikings offense.
Bruce DeHaven didn't have a chance to have his unit make a difference in this game.
Grade F: Worst effort in two months.
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