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Bills defense fails to halt Jets
By RICK ANDERSON, MOP Squad Sports Staff Writer
Oct 11, 2004 - 8:11:00 PM

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Sometimes the difference between winning and losing is something so small that it can't be detected. Maybe it's a lucky bounce, maybe it's the confidence of a quarterback. The Buffalo Bills seem to be on the verge of winning an actual football game. They've come close in all 4 losses. In their game against the Jets, the elements were there to pull a major upset of the New York Jets.

The problem was that the components were still unsynchronized and the end result was yet another loss, 16-14 to the Jets. Bills head coach Mike Mularkey is still looking for his first NFL victory.

The Bills now are at the very bottom of the barrel with a 0-4 record. The are actually one better than the Miami Dolphins, 0-5, who lost to the New England Patriots earlier Sunday. The Bills seem to be on the cusp of finally winning and maybe even becoming a respectable team again, but as for the moment, it's the little things that keep doing them in.

After it appeared as if the Bills were on the verge of winning, Chad Pennington took the Jets down the field 60 yards and ate up 5 minutes in the process to set up Doug Brien's 38-yard winning field goal. The Bills desperately tried to get down to field goal position, but a sack and not being able to get another long ball down the field allowed the Jets to remain tied with the Patriots with a 4-0 record. Meanwhile the Bills are tied with the Dolphins with 4 losses.

This game had plenty of fireworks despite the low score, especially in the fourth quarter when Drew Bledsoe led the Bills to 14 straight points and a sudden lead over the unbeaten Jets. Bledsoe, showing that he can still throw the long ball, connected on touchdown strikes to Mark Campbell and Lee Evans. Evans caught his first touchdown pass of his NFL career, a 46-yarder that Bledsoe threaded the needle on. The 16-yard Campbell pass came after Willis McGahee cracked a 21-yard run around left end after Bledsoe pitched out to him on third down.

The offense was stagnant the entire game. The Bills first 6 possessions they had to punt. Mental mistakes with penalties and more sacks on Bledsoe dug a hole for the Bills. Late in the third quarter, Bills head coach Mularkey called the entire offense over and he ripped into them for their inept performance. The offense responded by scoring two straight touchdowns and taking the lead.

Bills offensive guard Chris Villarrial was the only Bill who gave some sort of indication of what Mularkey said to the offense.

"He had every right to be pissed off," Villarrial said. "We're out there sputtering and not getting things done. It's good that he got pissed off. Guys started to step up and we put up a fast 14 points. The outcome's not what we wanted, but as far as maturity we took a step today."

The Bills D, meanwhile seemed to be keeping the team in the game by limiting the Jets to 10 points in the first half when the Jets were knocking on the door 4 times. The first time the Jets got into the red zone, the Bills defense held and Doug Brien missed a gimmie of a field goal attempt. Another time, the Bills recovered a fumble deep in their territory stopping a Jets drive. The Jets did get on the board when Pennington hit on a 1-yard pass to Chris Baker, cumulating an 80-yard drive on 8 plays.

The Bills helped enormously on this drive when they committed 3 straight fouls that sparked the Jets. The Bills D had been containing the Jets offense, stopping Curtis Martin (who finished with only 77 yards on 22 carries) and finding a way to stop the Jets from getting into the end zone. However, like the first three games, the Bills started getting into Yellow Trouble. The first was an offsides that gave the Jets a 1st and 5. Then the bonehead mistakes started. Pierson Prioleau committed a inane infraction when he jumped on Wayne Chrebet a full 5 seconds after Chrebet was on the ground after hauling in a reception. That tacked 15 yards on top of the yardage gained by Chrebet and put the Jets midway in Bills country. On the very next play, Prioleau was flagged for interference on the goal line and the Jets were on the scoreboard 2 plays later.

The Bills were still shooting blanks when Mularkey finally lit a fire under the Bills and the offense responded. Suddenly the offensive line was protecting Bledsoe and he found his receivers when green wasn't flying all around him. First the 16-yard bullet pass to Campbell shot holes in the Jets shutout bid. Then the bomb to Evans, who has now caught 3 of them so far this season, was a thing of beauty. The pass had pinpoint accuracy and gave the starving Bills fans something to finally cheer about. But like in all the other 3 games this season, the Bills came close, but couldn't hold on at the end when it really counted.

The good thing is that the Bills offense is starting to show signs of jelling and maybe next week, in the Bay of Pigs battle of the winless against Miami, the Bills may just win their first game. But then again, they are finding so many ways to lose games that the Bills may be the only winless team after next week.

Bills Talk

Bills owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr. was furious over the Bills situation so far this season along with yet another loss.

"I thought we played lackluster," said Wilson after the loss to the Jets. "It was very, very tough to watch this offense. I mean, I've watched this game for 60 years. I've heard all the clichés about how we fought back hard. Baloney. The Jets were flat. They weren't exactly the Super Bowl winners.

"If you think I'm going to be smiling that we came back and we fought back, baloney," Wilson continued to fume. "The fans have to be bored.

"I was hoping we'd come down here and really open it up. I've had enough of this smash-mouth football. Hey, where we are is 0-3. If Drew throws an interception and it's run back for a touchdown, OK. Then we're 0-4. But I don't like to go 0-4 the way we did."

Bledsoe, while he played a little better, especially when given the proper protection, cited the mistakes which keep on occurring.

"It's the same stuff, the same little stupid mistakes that are beating us up," admitted Bledsoe, "but didn't start warming up until the Bills were down 13-0."

Bledsoe hit 16 of 29 passes for 197 yards and two touchdowns, much better than in his previous 3 games, but he knows he and everyone else has to improve if they want to win a game this season.

"I don't know what it takes to figure it out. I promise you I'm doing everything I can. Mike talks about it, I talk about it, Tom Clements talks about it, but we have yet to get it fixed. That's where my frustration is coming from."

For once it was the offense that showed up, late in the game anyway and it was up to the defense to preserve the victory. Like 2 of the other 3 games, the defense fell down on the job.

"The offense put the game in our hands," Pat Williams said. "They drove down the field and scored and said, "Here you go, defense.' We didn't stop them."

"Elite defenses finish games," said Sam Adams. "Elite defenses do the things that it takes to win. We want to be that elite defense. We have the capabilities of being that defense. You see signs of it statistically, but we haven't closed."

The Bills D was rated No. 2 overall last year but certainly has a lot to prove after 3 letdowns thus far in 2004.

"You have to continue to fight," Adams went on. "No one on this team is going to lie down. Not because of coaching or administration - but because it's not in our nature to do so. We're going to go out and fight."

Outside of Lee Evans who caught that 46-yard touchdown, the brightest new light on the team was McGahee. He seemed to spark the team right when they needed it most.

"It felt good to get out there," admitted McGahee. "I've just been waiting for my opportunity, just staying patient. Once I get my opportunities, I try to make the most of them."

McGahee described his 21-yard carry that gave the Bills a first down when they needed it most.

"I was thinking just get the first down," McGahee said. "We needed about 9 yards, so I was trying to get what I needed to get. Once I got the first down then I can think about the six points."

McGahee talked a little about Mularkey's rant in the third quarter.

"Some of us need to grow up and I felt like it was coming towards me," McGahee described the Mularkey pep talk. "I felt like I had to go out and make a play after that speech. You have to grow up, like he says."

McGahee then looked at how far he's come so far in his knee rehabilitation.

"I look at where I started, I feel like I've been doing a really good job coming back," McGahee described. "I still have a lot of work to do, but I'm getting better every day. The best is still yet to come."

Mularkey said he was proud of his team afterwards.

"I was very proud of the way they fought back there at the end," Mularkey said after the game. "It was good to see them respond like that.

"As we've lost these four, we can win four, that's how close we are. These guys realize that, they know that, there's no heads down, there's a lot of football to go and we'll get it done."



Copyright © 2004 Bills Thunder & Rick Anderson, all rights reserved.


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