Week 2: Bills Put It All Together For First Win
Defensive line gets pressure with five sacks.
by Steve Saslow

Here are our position by position grades:

Quarterback:

Ryan Fitzpatrick was inaccurate with his passes early but didn't make any big mistakes. He then threw two touchdown passes to put the game away. He finished with pedestrian numbers completing just 10 passes but throwing just 19 as the Bills concentrated on the running game.
Grade B: Managed the game nicely.

Running Backs:

C.J. Spiller was incredibly again running for 123 yards and adding 47 receiving to go along with two touchdown runs and a big 27 yard catch and run.
Tashard Choice had his best game as a Bill averaging 4.6 yards with his 37 yards on just eight carries including a nice run for a first down.
Johnny White had 11 yards on five carries.
Grade A: The Bills committed to running the football and that got them the victory.

Receivers:

Stevie Johnson was quiet most of the game but did have a nice 49 yard catch and run for a score.
Donald Jones had just one catch for negative one yard.
T.J. Graham had his first career catch for 7 yards.
Scott Chandler had a touchdown reception from 10 yards out and added a 43 yard catch and run.
Brad Smith had one catch for 16 yards and ran twice out of the wildcat for 5 yards.
Grade C: Didn't do much but weren't part of the main gameplan. Did make plays when it counted.

Offensive Line:

Grade A: Very nice day for this unit allowing no sacks and paving the way for 201 yards on the ground.

Defensive Line:

Mario Williams didn't get a sack but he did recovery a fumble, knocked down a pass, and had two tackles.
Marcell Dareus had a sack and another tackle for loss as he played well under tough circumstances.
Kyle Williams was on fire with two sacks.
Mark Anderson had three tackles, one for a loss and knocked down a pass.
Alex Carrington had a big play with a sack and forced fumble.
Grade A: Got some nice pressure with four of the team's five sacks.

Linebackers:

Nick Barnett led this group with six tackles.
Kelvin Sheppard had just four tackles but had a nice sack.
Arthur Moats had two tackles.
Bryan Scott recovered a fumble.
Grade A: Did a nice job stopping the run and keeping the middle clogged.

Secondary:

Stephon Gilmore had a much better game than last week with seven tackles and three passes defensed.
Aaron Williams had three tackles and a pass defensed.
Terrence McGee had five tackles and a pass defensed as he played more this week and looked good.
George Wilson had five tackles as he shared time with Searcy.
Da'Norris Searcy had three tackles as he saw some time with the first team.
Jairus Byrd had an interception and seven tackles as he was much more active than last week.
Grade B: Nice game despite giving up 300 yards most of them were in garbage time.

Special Teams:

Brian Moorman punted seven times in a blowout for an average just under 50 yards per punt but is net was 38.3.
Rian Lindell hit all five of his kicks. All extra points.
John Potter had four touchbacks in six kickoffs.
Leodis McKelvin had an 88 yard punt return for a score and 10 yards on his other two returns.
Brad Smith had one kickoff return for five yards.
Coverage Units allowed 15.3 yards on four punt returns and 40 yards on two kickoff returns.
Grade B+: Big TD by McKelvin, coverage units could have been a bit better.

Coaching:

Chan Gailey realized Spiller was his best weapon and went to him early and often and that is why they blew out the Chiefs. Got the team to focus after tough loss. Nice rebound win.
Dave Wannstedt had the defense ready as they got more pressure on the QB than they did last week. This was how the defense was supposed to operate.
Bruce DeHaven must be happy that his unit scored a touchdown instead of giving one up.
Grade A: Great bounce back effort.



Bills Blitz
NFL.com Gamebook
Chiefs Game Preview
Gameday Homepage