Buffalo Boy's Blog
Giving You More Than Just My Two Cents
Jets 31, Bills 27
Now the bad, they suck. As if we didn't know that. At this point why bother playing JP Losman. He is playing for selfish purposes. Why not give third string quarterback Hamdan Gibran a shot. See what he has and if he can reliably back up Trent Edwards next year.
JP proved yet again that for every good play he makes there is one bone headed one waiting in the wings. With 2:06 remaining, JP had the team in line to beat Brett Favre and the Jets. Instead, on a simple bootleg, JP fumbled the ball. He had to know the pressure was coming and instead of doing the simplest possible thing, tucking the ball away and taking the sack, he held the ball out for all to have a go at it. The result, another way to lose.
I put this one squarely on JP's shoulders. It was a much better coached game than recent games, though by no means am I sticking up for Dick Jauron. His job to me is still on the line. Especially after his comment after the game:
“Of a number of heartbreaking losses that was the worst to this point,”
No Dick, that is your name isn't it? Dick.... The most heart breaking was losing to Cleveland because of your horrible coaching calls. Losing to San Francisco and failing to look like a team that had any serious hopes that were still lefl, not looking like a team interested in winning a Miami game last week. Those were the most heart breaking moments. The cake had already been baked before today, This was just the nasty, too sugary icing on that cake.
Really, coaching was awful even before this game started. Everyone including JP knew that he was playing this for his own selfish goals. He was playing this to remain a viable option for other teams in the league. The announcers said it all game long that JP's intent was to build a "video resume". Knowing that, they should have never put him on the field today. At least with Gibran starting, people may have actually watched. We are all about the underdog in this city, after all, we have stomached this team as an underdog every single week since Jim Kelly retired.
Up until that fumble, JP's resume might have been decent enough to warrant a team giving him a shot after this season, now forget it. He had better hope there is a team looking for a quarterback in the CFL (no offense to CFL fans).
Knowing the history here, this team will play the last two games and win them convincingly, giving what fans are left who actually watch the two remaining games false hopes for next season and convincing their senile owner to give their inept coach a contract extension.
Mike, you're so off-base on this one. Not only don't I think you should be commenting on the Bills, you're analysis is flat-out wrong. Number 1 - you never wrote anything about the Bills when they were winning, yet you've decided they're worth you're time now that they're losing.
Jauron's at fault for the fumble. He [and probably Shoenert] put JP in a position to pass 10 yards from their own goal line with the game on the line and Lynch once again running well. In no way is JP much to talk about, but this was a legitimate sack/fumble that should never have even been a possibility.
So not only are you wrong about that, but then you're comment about the Cleveland game is wrong the other way. Yes, the play-calling at the end was too conservative, but Jauron didn't throw 4 g*ddamn interceptions, Edwards did. The defense and special teams kept them in that, and the offense just pissed it away and we got a bad kick at the end.
Miserable article Mike, have to take issue with you on this one. Why don't you glorify all the successes of the Browns instead?
Rob, you can make that call on that play if you want but they clearly called that play because JP could run his way out of it, it is his qualities that he can run in a boot leg. Whether or not they run there it doesn't matter because the clock wasn't going to be an issue with the two minute warning 6 seconds away. I liked the call, it was agressive and they wanted to change it up since they had run on the previous two plays with the Jets anticipating run, they decided to go bootleg. It is such a basic play to just tuck the ball and protect the damn thing. Thats all he had to do. IF there wasn't a pass, take the sack or better yet get rid of it.
The Cleveland game was about coaching. All i wanted to make light of there was that this was not the biggest heart breaking loss of the season, not by a long shot. Nobody but me and you were watching the damn thing because every one and their mother knew this game meant absolutely nothing to their playoff chances which were done alread.
Maybe, Trent Edwards shouldn't have been on the field for the Cleveland game. They put him in such bad spots in that game and gave him such a bad game plan it was ridiculous. It should have never come down to a field goal to win in Cleveland. Lets face it, this team has gotten worse as this season has gone on. To blame Edwards for Cleveland is being nit picky. This last 8 games has been a team effort from the coaching on down to the guy handing out towels in the locker room.
Where the coaching has been obvious is that you are supposed to get better as the season goes on. They have gotten worse since they were 5-1. Coaches are there to make you better as the season goes on, name one player that has gotten better....I can't.
You run the ball in that position. Gutsy should never enter the equation when you are out of the playoffs and looking to spoil a rival's chances. You run the ball, you run the ball, you run the ball. If you don't get a first down, you then punt, wasting as much clock as possible, and rely on the D to keep them out of the end zone. A FG would have merely tied the game.
Blaming Edwards for Cleveland is not nit-picky and I'm not blaming just him. I thought they came out aggressive and things just didn't work out. The staff had a game plan that if executed would have won the game. THey almost did anyway. The only time coaching came into question was the runs at the end of the game prior to the missed FG. And even there, should they have passed? Well they could have. But Lynch also could have busted a couple rushes and then the FG is maybe 38 or 40 yds instead of 47.
The team stunk it up as the season went on, it should have been in doubt when it took comebacks to beat Jax, Oak, and StL. You hope that's "learning how to win". It wasn't, go back to drawing board and figure out what to do. Edwards should get 1 more year to make it happen. The coaches.. who knows, everything's a lose-lose situation. Get new coaches and Edwards fails.. whose fault is it? Keep the coaches and they fail, you wasted one more year on a staff that can't implement a working system. This just plain blows.
Thanks for such a great post and the review, I am totally impressed! Keep stuff like this coming.