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Week 13: Offense Struggles In 23-3 Defeat
Valant effort by the defense goes for naught.
by Steve Saslow
Here are our position by position grades:
Quarterback:
Tyrod Taylor threw an interception to former Bills practice squad player Eric Lee that thwarted a very promising opening drive in the red zone. Taylor played with a bum knee for three quarters but his arm was awful.
Nate Peterman played the final quarter and didn't do anything in garbage time.
Grade F: 15 completions won't do it against anyone let alone New England.
Running Backs:
LeSean McCoy got called for an illegal hands in the face penalty and dropped a sure first down pass. He did well running the football gaining 93 yards on 15 carries.
Travaris Cadet was wide open for a would be touchdown but Joe Webb overthrew him on the wildcat play. He gained 22 yards on four carries.
Grade B: They ran for 183 yards as a team.
Receivers:
Zay Jones was bottled up pretty good by Stephon Gilmore. He only had two catches on seven targets including three throws in the end zone during garbage time that went incomplete.
Jordan Matthews continues to be a non factor as he had one catch for 14 yards.
Deonte Thompson caught two balls for 21 yards.
Charles Clay led the team with 20 yards receiving that says it all.
Grade F: The worst unit on the team is getting worse.
Offensive Line:
Eric Wood was called for a holding penalty that wiped out an 11 yard run by Shady.
Grade C: Gave up four sacks but for the most part there was time to throw and room to run.
Defensive Line:
Kyle Williams sacked Tom Brady on a third and goal play forcing them to settle for 3.
Jerry Hughes had one tackle for loss but wasn't very active.
Shaq Lawson got a first quarter sack thanks to great coverage downfield.
Adolphus Washington had a big tackle for a loss on the Pats opening drive. He then sacked Brady late in the first half.
Grade B: Three first half sacks from this unit without the help of blitzes was very nice.
Linebackers:
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Preston Brown had eight tackles.
Lorenzo Alexander had a huge hit on James White to force the incompletion and a punt.
Ramon Humber was beaten for Brady's first completion of the game. He had seven tackles.
Matt Milano had a great open field tackle that kept Dion Lewis from having a huge gain.
Grade : .
Secondary:
Tre'Davious White did a nice job in coverage most of the day and had an interception.
E.J. Gaines moved to the slot for a bit when Johnson went out and played well in coverage.
Leonard Johnson struggled a bit when he got Gronk so did everyone else.
Micah Hyde was on Gronk a lot and was not up to the task. He led the team with 12 tackles.
Jordan Poyer was in on 10 tackles.
Grade B: Good job in coverage for the most part.
Special Teams:
Colton Schmidt had one of four punts go inside the 20. He had a bad touchback on one punt. Finished iwth a 48.8 yard average and a 41 yard net.
Steve Hauschka hit his only kick from 49 yards out.
Brandon Tate ran back three kicks for 68 yards, a 22.7 yard average.
Coverage Units gave up a 17 yard kickoff return of a short kickoff and an 11 yard punt return.
Grade B: Not the issue in the loss.
Coaching:
Sean McDermott came up with a creative gameplan but was outmatched by Belichik.
Rick Dennison came out with some very creative opening drive personnel combinations that allowed the Bills to drive right down the field before an interception ended it in the red zone. The creativity went away when the team fell behind.
Leslie Frazier had his unit ready to go until they wore out in the second half. Was able to generate pressure with a four man rush.
Grade D: New coaches same result against the Pats.
 Bills Blitz
NFL.com Gamebook
Patriots Game Preview
Gameday Homepage
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