Redemption for the Buffalo Bills

               Just like that, Monday night means nothing anymore. The Buffalo Bills stepped on the pedal and put away the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this Sunday, 33-20. Buffalo came out motivated and pumped in their home opener. It seemed like these two teams played each other often or as if they were in the same division but amazingly enough this was Tampa Bay’s first trip ever to Buffalo during the regular season. After this Sunday beatdown Tampa Bay is not going to want to come back anytime soon.

                While Tampa somewhat reminds me of Buffalo a few years ago they might not be the cream of the crop, but still give them credit. They have young talent but have basically taken over and erased what was the Tampa 2 defense.  Tampa allowed 438 yards and Buffalo loved every single yard of it.

                Buffalo started things off right by involving T.O. right from the get go on a reverse that only amounted for 13 yards but was much more exciting than a 13 yard run sounds. After a steady dose of Fred Jackson Buffalo went to the air and found Lee Evans for a TD which electrified the sold out crowd.  Tampa responded by moving quickly down the field but only to be stopped by Donte Whitner who took a pick six back 76 yards. While Buffalo still squandered some opportunities and in no way, shape, or form played a perfect game a win is a win.

                What was more important was redemption from last Monday. Moving forward and moving on with the season. While Buffalo’s defense had some key plays and applied constant pressure I worry about the amount of passing yards being put up by these QB’s. I realize the circumstances of both teams playing from behind but Buffalo’s pass defense is by far one of the worst when it comes to yardage so far this season. On the bright side the run defense held Tampa in check and they were only able to amount for 57 yards.

                I believe that Buffalo has a fear of Terrell Owens and that we possibly saved ourselves for another week. After a bomb by Trent Edwards to Owens that was dropped Owens was not able to get into the scheme of things. He showed his frustration on the sidelines and even his emotion when Buffalo went for it on fourth down early in the contest. While I believe those things are great and fun to watch and see I’m just waiting for a blow up. Terrell Owens had redemption himself as he made up for his drop with a 43 yard touchdown pass. Bills fans celebrated by throwing popcorn in the stands. Entertaining? Yes. Maybe that’s all it needs to be?

                More importantly, the emergence of “Fast” Freddy Jackson has been amazing. We all knew that Jackson was a special talent but until he was given the chance to shine I don’t think we realized just how much. What an amazing story Jackson is. Jackson ran for a career high 163 yards and also had 6 catches for 25 yards.

                While Buffalo will quickly move ahead and start planning for the league’s most dangerous offense I think it is important to sit back and enjoy this for at least today, well, and possibly tomorrow. This is a young Buffalo team under the leadership of someone who has been quite impressive so far this season, Trent Edwards. The Bills looked and found redemption and now continue down the road.

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