Offensive miscues killed them down the stretch.
by Steve Saslow
Here are our position by position grades:
Quarterback:EJ Manuel did what he needed to do to get the Bills a win. He got them down into field goal range in the final seconds but Johnson fumbled. He got the down the field in overtime than Chandler fumbled. He took a big shot to the ribs and returned to the game and played pretty well.
Grade B-: Not his fault that they lost. He went 18 of 32 for 210 yards and a touchdown run and pass with no picks.
C.J. Spiller had his best game of the season despite re-aggravating his ankle injury. He had a 77 yard run to setup one touchdown and added a 36 yard touchdown run of his own. Finished with a season high 149 yards rushing.
Fred Jackson showed how good an NFL running back he is. He just kept grinding away and had a touchdown run and a touchdown reception. He finished with 78 total yards on 15 touches
Grade A: Nice bounce back effort from this unit.
Stevie Johnson had five catches for 55 yards but instead of being a hero he was a goat thanks to his fumble.
Robert Woods wasn't very active but had a big 33 yard catch and added a 15 yard roughing penalty to get the Bills in position to score a touchdown.
T.J. Graham did not catch a pass and dropped one of his two targets.
Marquise Goodwin was thrown to deep three times but couldn't connect as he did not catch a pass.
Scott Chandler had four catches for 63 yards but had the crucial fumble.
Grade F: This unit lost the game for the team.
Grade A: No sacks and 6.3 yards per carry on the ground. Nice game for this unit.
Defensive Line:Mario Williams had four tackles and a sack but was called for a roughing penalty.
Marcell Dareus had a sack and knocked down a pass.
Kyle Williams struggled in this game having just two tackles and was called for a penalty that was declined.
Jerry Hughes had two sacks.
Alan Branch had nine tackles in an expanded role.
Grade C: Gave up 151 yards on the ground but did have three sacks.
Manny Lawson was very active with five tackles and a sack.
Kiko Alonso recovered a fumble. He was beaten deep for a sure TD that was dropped by Smith. He led the way with 13 tackles.
Arthur Moats had two tackles.
Grade C: Just average and they needed to be better.
Jairus Byrd had a very quiet nine tackles and no big plays.
Stephon Gilmore had an awful hands to the face penalty that gave Atlanta a first down early in the third quarter instead of a third and long. He was beaten by Roddy White for a 22 yard gain to keep alive a field goal drive.
Leodis McKelvin was beaten by White for a 29 yard gain by White on the first offensive series of the second half otherwise he did a solid job in pass coverage.
Ron Brooks replaced Gilmore when he got banged up was beaten for a 3rd and goal TD pass by Tony Gonzalez.
Nickell Robey had the costliest penalty of the game with his pass interference call in the end zone in the final minutes.
Aaron Williams was called for a costly illegal contact penalty on a Falcons drive late in the game but it was an awful penalty call since he did nothing wrong.
Grade D: Allowed 311 yards passing and came up small in big times.
Brian Moorman had a decent day as he averaged only 42.7 yards per punt with a net of 39.3.
Dan Carpenter hit all four extra points and his only field goal from 29 yards out. Would have liked to see him get another chance.
Leodis McKelvin averaged 9 yards on three punt returns but wasn't back there late in the game perhaps because they didn't trust him? He bobbled another punt in this game.
Jim Leonhard fair caught a late punt.
Marquise Goodwin returned two kicks for 28 and 27 yards.
Coverage Units only allowed 24 yards on 4 punt returns and a 28.8 yard average on four kickoffs including a reverse on the opening kickoff.
Grade B: Not their fault today as there were no penalties on special teams.
Doug Marrone was dejected after this one and should take a hit since his team couldn't put the game away when they could have. For all the talk of changing the culture they are still a losing team.
Nathaniel Hackett had an unimaginative game plan but they did have success on the ground.
Mike Pettine huge step back for his unit. They got pressure on Ryan but gave up 34 points.
Grade D: Crushing loss.
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