The Skinny:
You live by the turnover, you die by the turnover. Lawrence Tynes hit a 23 yard field goal with 1:40 left gave the Giants a 27-24 win over the Bills. Buffalo had a chance to take control of the game but Ryan Fitzpatrick threw an interception at the Giants 4 yard line with just over 4 minutes to go to give the Giants a chance and the ball back to drive for the winning score. Ahmad Bradshaw rushed for 104 yards and three scores in the Giants win. Fitz did throw a touchdown pass to Stevie Johnson to tie the game midway threw the fourth quarter. Fred Jackson had an 80 yard touchdown run and Naaman Roosevelt had a 60 yard catch and run for a score. For only the second time in his career, Jackson ran for over 100 yards in a Bills loss.
The Turning Point:
See above. The Bills had a first and 10 at the Giants 27 with 4:10 remaining in the game. They had the Giants on their heels and went for the kill. Fitzpatrick underthrew Johnson who had separation on Corey Webster but the short pass was picked off. Johnson was called for a facemask penalty moving the ball to the 19. The Giants right there knew they had a good chance to win.
The Big Drive:
That would be what the Giants did with the ball after the interception. They marched 76 yards in 9 plays to Tynes game winning field goal Drayton Florence was called for two of his three pass interference penalties on the drive, the first one allowed the Giants to convert a third down. The two penalties covered 26 yards. Bradshaw also had a 30 yard run on the drive.
Stat I Didn't Like:
Turnover ratio: The Bills were a -2 as they didn't have any takeaways and Fitz threw two picks. Without getting any turnovers the defense is exposed.
Stat I Did Like:
Fitz's Completion Percentage: He was 21 of 30 as he continues to hit on a high percentage of his passes.
Quick Slants:
- Jackson continues in MVP type season with a career long 80 yard TD run.
- Roosevelt's 60 yard run gave the Bills two scoring plays over 50 yards in the game.
- The Bills OL gave Fitz time to throw but two of his three sacks were coverage sacks.
- Lost in the shuffle was the two sacks in a row Fitz took on a 2nd quarter possession that knocked the out of field goal range. Both time he could have thrown it away and they could have taken a shot at three important points.
My Take:
While there are no acceptable losses some hurt less than others. Losing on the road to a non division foe the week before the bye week is a bit more acceptable than others. The Bills were resting hurt players to give them an extra week off. The loss hurts them in the standing as it dropped them behind New England but doesn't hurt them in a tiebreaker scenarios. The Bills went on the road against a good team and turned the ball over twice and still almost won. The Giants are inconsistent but they were on there game this week and needed to be to barely pull out a victory. I don't think this loss will hurt the psyche of the team, they will bounce back from this and the bye comes at the right time as this team is pretty banged up right now.
What's Ahead:
The bye week than Washington in Toronto.
