Buffalo-New England: Lucky No. 13 No Problem for Pats, As Bills Fall

When you have to put 15 different players on the Injured Reserve list in one season, your team is in trouble. When you have to pick up a hot-headed offensive lineman that is so bad that the woeful St. Louis Rams waive him, you know that you are really in trouble. Dire Straights, to be precise.

Such is the case for the Buffalo Bills, as new guard Richie Incognito demonstrated for all to see why the Rams let him walk, as Richie Rich (my new nickname for him since he can afford all these hefty fines levied against him by the NFL), was flagged three times for 30 yards in penalties.

Thanks Richie. You wanted a fresh start, and there you go, you had it. Can we now push the eject button on your career as a Buffalo Bill?

Speaking of penalties, it might have been a national holiday—Flag Day to be precise, as the Bills set a record for most penalty yards in the first half of a game this year with 104 yards. Heck, that is more yards than Ryan Fitzpatrick usually throws for in an entire game!

Patriots Have the Bills Number

Today's win gave New England thirteen straight wins against the Bills, which ties the mark for longest winning streak of any opponent over another team in the NFL. And to think we had a long losing streak before against Miami.

Patriots have now swept the Bills season series for six straight years. Say that five times fast. The streak is getting old, so saying it fast makes it feel less painful in some way.

The win pretty well clinches the AFC East Division for New England, as the Jets and Dolphins both lost today, meaning that the Patriots have a two game lead with two games to go. You have to like their chances to win the division with that kind of a lead.

What Did The Bills Do Right Today?

The Bills won the time of possession battle—33 minutes to 26. Plays were basically dead even. Buffalo outgained New England 241 yards to 224. The Bills only committed one turnover on offense, as did New England.

The Bills defense kept pressure on Tom Brady with a variety of blitzes but never did get to him for a sack. The pressure forced him to throw an interception to Paul Posluszny in the first quarter, but the offense couldn't capitalize on the turnover.

The pressure forced Brady to complete only five passes in the first half—his lowest total in over three years. In fact, Brady wound up just completing 11 of 23 passes for 115 yards, a TD and an interception, which all adds up to a meager passer rating of 59 (very un-Bradylike).

So, Why Did The Bills Lose?

The first and foremost reason was due to untimely penalties. Twice the Bills were flagged for pass interference calls that set New England up at the one yard line. Both times they converted the ideal set up by scoring touchdowns.

The first call was against Donte Whitner, who was clearly clueless as to where the ball was, and deserved to get flagged. The second call was against Reggie Corner, and seemed to be rather dubious from what I saw.

The big yardage in penalties wasn't all the fault of the offense this time—four penalties on the defense, six on the offense and one on special teams, which was a big one on Aaron Maybin, when the Bills recovered an onside kick in the final two minutes, only to see the play wiped out due to Maybin jumping the gun on the kick off.

The second reason was the offensive line gave up six sacks to the Patriots, which was their highest total for the year. Bantu-Cain had three sacks alone, and in two of them he manhandled Fred Jackson and Jonathan Scott.

Lack of time to throw by NFL standards has plagued the Bills all season, and today was one more example of how bad it can get.

And not to sound like a broken record, but one more loss can be attributed to the lack of conversions on third down by the Bills. This time, Buffalo only managed to convert twice out of 12 tries on third down.

Just dreadful. The lack of conversions convinced head coach Perry Fewell to bench Fitzpatrick in the fourth quarter.

No sooner did Trent Edwards replace him at QB, did we realize that Edwards still hasn't learned a thing from watching on the sidelines. He was sacked twice out of three plays, and the second sack saw him get hurt and carted away to the locker room.

Is that the final snap we get to see of Trent Edwards? If so, that is probably kind of fitting, as his year could pretty much be described as a disaster, which is what he provided the team in relief today—a disaster.

Perry Fewell went to Edwards hoping he could provide the team a spark. The Bills need to find one of those battery chargers because there just aren't many sparks or fireworks that will be created by either Fitzpatrick or Edwards at QB.

It should be noted that Fitzpatrick had amassed 101 yards at the time of his benching in the fourth quarter. That means Fitzpatrick had passed for under 300 yards in 11 quarters of football.

Again, this is not up to NFL standards of a winning team. It also means that the Bills are nuts if they don't give Brian Brohm a chance to show what he can do over the final two games of the schedule. They have absolutely nothing to lose by giving him an audition.

Fitzpatrick is capable of making some plays, but outside of what he did in garbage time, he has not been the answer. To be sure, he is trying to make plays behind a patchwork line.

The offense is not consistent enough to win in the NFL against an average to above average team. The Bills beat bad teams (except those that hail from Cleveland) and can't beat good teams.

The Bills drove the length of the field with their opening drive (14 plays which was nice to see), only to lose a touchdown due to a penalty on tackle Andre Ramsey, who was just promoted from the practice squad, because tackle Jamon Meredith was declared inactive due to injury.

The lack of consistency from week to week in the offensive line, by shuffling new guys in and out, was costly today. Incognito was awful, as you are expecting someone with five years of experience to show the way on how to play, not on how to kill drives, one after another.

The Bills only had three drives that were of the three-and-out variety. Not great, but not terrible. New England surprisingly had four drives of the three-and-out kind.

More Injured Bills to Report and Other Bills Bits

Besides the injury to Trent Edwards, there were two more Bills that left the game on defense and did not return. Terrence McGee hurt his arm, and Bryan Scott had a head injury. No word yet on severity, but we will know more next week.

The Bills finished the AFC East portion of their schedule today going 2-4, which probably is about right, considering the level of talent we have been reduced to relying on week after week.

As the final two weeks unfold, I want to see Brian Brohm, Steve Johnson and James Hardy get some work. For that matter, Nick Harris, Ashlee Palmer and Chris Ellis too. Give the kids a chance to see what they can do, and reward them for their hard work.

It's not like the veterans have demonstrated that they are capable of winning on their own. Another loss at home, and a chance for Fewell to take a step up in the minds of the Bills front office, fell short today.

I think we can conclude that there will be a new sheriff in Buffalo next year, but we won't know who that is for some time to come. So maybe we can all forget about the Bills for one week, and think about the holiday season, cherishing our families and friends, and the spirit of giving.

Happy Holidays to all!!