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Wildcard Playoffs: Bills Offensive Struggles Mightily in Wildcard Loss
Solid defensive performance wasted as the offense couldn't do anything.
by Steve Saslow
Here are our position by position grades:
Quarterback:
Tyrod Taylor was awful in what is almost certainly in his final season in Buffalo. He completed 17 of 37 passes for 134 yards.
Grade F: The one thing that comes out of this loss is the world saw that Tyrod is not the answer.
Running Backs:
LeSean McCoy gutted it out with 75 yards rushing and 44 yards receiving. He also drew a pass interference penalty that could have been a touchdown reception.
Mike Tolbert had a 10 yard reception to convert a third down. He had four carries for 15 yards.
Grade C+: Shady is the lone true weapon of the offense.
Receivers:
Kelvin Benjamin had only one catch for nine yards and was a non factor.
Deonte Thompson was called for a costly holding penalty and had two catches for 23 yards.
Zay Jones was part of the passing attack for the first time in a while and had two catches for 20 yards.
Charles Clay got hurt early in the game which cost him a lot of playing time as he only had three catches for 15 yards.
Nick O'Leary had two catches for 22 yards but a key drop.
Logan Thomas had one catch and one pass that deflected off of him and was intercepted.
Grade F: They did not help Taylor at all.
Offensive Line:
Grade C: Actually protected Tyrod pretty well allowing only two sacks against the second best sack team in the league.
Defensive Line:
Kyle Williams was a non factor in what could be his final game. He had one tackle and said he has a lot of time before having to make a decision on his future.
Jerry Hughes had three tackles and was in the backfield some.
Eddie Yarbrough had five tackles.
Grade B+: Gave no room for the running game.
Linebackers:
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Preston Brown had six tackles.
Lorenzo Alexander had 10 tackles and a sack.
Reggie Humber had six tackles replacing the injured Matt Milano.
Grade B: Couldn't contain Bortles' scrambles.
Secondary:
Tre'Davious White dropped a sure interception.
E.J. Gaines .
Leonard Johnson had a sack and a big stop in the running game.
Micah Hyde had four tackles and left twice with head injuries.
Jordan Poyer had five tackles.
Colt Anderson got in the game when Hyde went out and dropped an interception and got hurt on the play.
Grade A-: Gave up very little in the passing game.
Special Teams:
Colton Schmidt had five of his eight punts go inside the 20 but that was because the Bills had advantageous field position. He had a 40.6 yard net and one went in for a touchback.
Steve Hauschka hit his only kick a 31 yard field goal.
Brandon Tate returned five punts for 21 yards and had a 10 yard kick return.
Coverage Units gave up only two punt returns for two yards.
Grade B: Played their part.
Coaching:
Sean McDermott coached a bit tight by not taking some chances on 4th and short plays. Punting with less than four minutes left could be questioned.
Rick Dennison needs to go. His play calling his baffling. Passing on 1st and goal at the 2 instead of running it is ridiculous.
Leslie Frazier had his defense ready and they did their part except they didn't get any takeaways.
Grade C+: Nice season gets a tough ending.
 Bills Blitz
NFL.com Gamebook
Jaguars Wildcard Game Preview
Gameday Homepage
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