Bills Lose To Browns 6-3, Confirm Their Own Incompetency

On Sunday, the Buffalo Bills and Cleveland Browns put on a show that clearly set NFL football back about 50 years. That the Browns escaped with a 6-3 victory was due less to their own superiority than to the Bills proving their utter incompetency. 

In most cases, when you hold the opposing quarterback to a 2-for-17 stat line, you're going to win the game. But these are the Bills we're talking about, and they countered with an extraordinary stat line of their own. 13-11-9. As in 13 penalties, 11 on the offense, nine of them being of the false start variety. 

Bear in mind, this wasn't due to crowd noise making things difficult for the Bills offense to hear itself. No, this game was in the confines of Ralph Wilson Stadium, the Bills own home field. So, what was the excuse for this performance?

Coach Dick Jauron stated that the Bills were trying to run a hurry-up offense, and the pace might have "confused" the team's young, inexperienced group of offensive linemen. Really, Dick?  If that's truly the case, why not an adjustment to a more conventional attack, giving the inexperienced players an opportunity to settle down and play better?  Perhaps an inability on the part of the head coach to make such an adjustment is a better explanation.

Worse yet was the Bills final possession of the game. The Bills get the benefit of a 15-yard roughing the passer penalty, putting them a mere 30 yards outside viable field goal range, with time for QB Trent Edwards to defy odds and successfully maneuver the ball down the field for a potential game tying kick. However, this would've required Edwards to actually attack the Brown's defense.

What was Edwards' preferred method of attacking the Browns defense to get the ball into field goal range? A four-yard pass. Needing 30 yards of field, with less than a minute to play, Edwards chooses a four-yard pass. Further proof of the Bills incompetence.   

There will be those who would blame Roscoe Parrish for failing to keep his eyes on a bouncing punt, mishandling the ball, allowing the Browns to fall on his fumble and subsequently kick the game winning field goal.  A bad play on Parrish's part, certainly.  But the reality is that it never should've gotten to that point.

The hard reality for the Bills is this: Incompetency reigns in this organization, from the top right on down, and it has resulted in an atmosphere where players realize that critical errors are going to be tolerated, with no fear of reprisal or of losing their jobs.  Examine this year alone for just a moment.

The Bills had an offensive tackle in Jason Peters who is regarded as one of the best young players in the game at his position. Either Ralph Wilson, or marketing man Russ Brandon, who masquerades as the Bills GM, decide they don't wish to pay Peters the going rate. Ignoring the fact that the man who will replace him, Langston Walker, has already failed once at the position miserably, they choose to trade Peters, getting a late first round draft choice for him.

On Draft Day, with the number eleven pick, the Bills pick Aaron Maybin out of Penn State. Never mind the fact that Penn State has a dismal record lately with players like Maybin, or that Maybin is a classic 'tweener who some scouts say will have a very difficult time adapting his talents to the pro game. Or the fact that the Bills clearly lack the coaching acumen to bring out the best in a player like Maybin. There were far better choices to be made in that position.

What better choices?  Well, for starters, they could've traded down five to seven spots. A GM with average acumen would've done that. Too bad what the Bills have as a GM is someone whose true expertise is in the area of marketing rather than in evaluation of player personnel. But Michael Jenkins was available to the Bills at No. 11 and would almost certainly have helped the defensive backfield.

Other players who were available, and could've still been there when the Bills traded down were Brian Cushing, Clay Matthews and Rey Maualuga, USC's fine trio of linebackers. Or, if they would've preferred an area of desperate need, OT Phil Loadholt, currently a starter with the Vikings

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