Buffalo Bills Gain Respect But Lose MNF Heartbreaker to N.E. Patriots

The Buffalo Bills started out their 2009 season on Monday Night Football by throwing away a game they had in the bag, as New England eliminated an 11 point lead with less than six minutes to play. The Bills were on the road facing the heavily favored New England Patriots and came away with a gut wrenching 25-24 loss. This marks the third consecutive game on Monday Night Football in three years for the Buffalo Bills and all three have resulted in games that the Bills lost by one point or two. In fact the 25-24 outcome is the exact same score as the loss versus Dallas two years ago. Like that game against the Cowboys, this one will also be leaving a bitter taste with Bills fans for quite some time to come.

My observations of the game as follows:

The Bills defense did a very good job throughout the game, especially when you consider that New England was able to control the clock for 37 minutes to only 23 for Buffalo. By the final five minutes of the game, the Bills defense had to be exhausted. What was especially encouraging about the Bills defense was that they stuffed New England on both 4th down attempts they tried. Those defensive stops are just the same as causing a fumble on the spot, because you are turning the ball over to the offense. Look at those two stuffs, plus the missed field goal and that was three times the Bills escaped from being pinned down deep in their own territory. In addition, the pressure they put on QB Tom Brady was something that was missing for most of last year. Brady was sacked and the interception he threw to Aaron Schoebel, which he returned for a 26 yard TD, was the result of pressure and a great read from Schoebel.

The Patriots are still going to rely on a heavy combination of passes from Brady to Randy Moss and Wes Welker. Ben Watson found some holes in the deep middle of the Bills defense in the last two drives and his catches brought the Patriots back. The ground game was okay but nothing special.

The Bills offense made a number of mistakes as penalties from Demetrius Bell (three of them in the first half alone) negated positive plays that would have kept drives going. Lee Evans was hit and coughed up a pass that would have kept one drive going, and Terrell Owens dropped a pass that would have kept another drive going. Those shorter drives kept the Bills D on the field and the Patriots eventually wore them out. Overall the Bills were penalized 9 times for 71 yards, while New England was flagged 6 times for 55 yards. Trent Edwards seemed to be content to take what the Patriots were giving him, but he more or less ignored throwing to Lee Evans or Terrell Owens in the first half. You could see from the way that T.O. was lining up in the 2nd quarter no huddle offense, that his body language was showing his disdain for being a decoy. He needs to be involved in the offense and it showed when he caught two passes in the second half for 46 yards. T.O. also had one key penalty on offensive pass interferance that negated a good catch and would have kept a drive alive. Fred Jackson played a great game, netting 140 combined yards on rushes and pass receptions.

It might be a long year for the Patriots defense. When you lose the likes of Mike Vrabel, Tedy Bruschi, Rodney Harrison, Richard Seymour and Ellis Hobbs, that is a ton of solid experience to have to replace. Then you lose Jerod Mayo to injury and all of a sudden the Patriots are looking fairly vulnerable on defense. Agreed that Bill Belichick is a coach that is a master at the game, but he will be severely tested this season to keep New England's defense championship caliber.

Parting shots:

What in the world was Leodis McKelvin thinking when he returned that kickoff that led to the turnover? He is a talented return man, but the time for him to throw caution to the wind was after the Patriots had taken the lead, not before. What was surprising was that he was pretty much erect when he got hit, making it easier to cause the fumble. You would think with the game on the line, he would have been in more of a prevent mode, and ready to go down, but to PROTECT THE BALL AT ALL COSTS !! That lackadasical approach to the return costs the Bills the game, plain and simple. I commend Dick Jauron for standing behind his player, but either Jauron or Bobby April have got to impress upon McKelvin the urgency in not coughing it up there. Come to think of it, McKelvin should have been concerned already, because he had already fumbled on the kickoff return after the Patriots cut the lead to 17-13. Luckily for him, Bills rookie LB Nick Harris was there to pick up the ball and run another 17 yards with it.

Trent Edwards will need to take a few more chances down the field. It was a nice change of pace to see the Bills offense move the ball down the field after so much pre-season futility, but as Edwards stated in the post-game press conference, " Sometimes I had the ability to pump the ball three or four times before I threw, that is how much time the offensive line gave me". That in itself is a big positive, but Trent should be looking to stretch the defense and utilize his weapons in Evans and Owens. I trust that will be an ongoing development as the season unfolds, or things will be getting ugly with T.O. sooner than later.

To all of the nay sayers that predicted a Patriots blow out, you are surely eating crow this morning. The parity that exists in the NFL today is still in evidence and if you give a team ten days to prepare for a game they will make it a contest. This pre-season in particular demonstrated that it does not mean a thing when it comes to what a team will do in the regular season. The Buffalo Bills went in to the home of one of the top AFC teams, and lost by a point. They are not that far away from being in contention for the playoffs, but they are a team that still has to put games away when they have a late lead. Teams that make the playoffs know how to seal the deal, and the Bills are still trying to master that.

The loss of Paul Posluszny for any amount of time will hurt and hopefully they have not lost Chris Kelsay for too long either. It will be interesting to see if either of these teams go after existing free agents Derrick Brooks or Jon Runyan to strengthen their depth due to injuries or to inexperience. The Bills rookies performed pretty well - the lineman protected Edwards and didn't have that many penalties (except for Bell). Things may be looking up for the Buffalo Bills after all.

If you are a Bills fan stay positive. If you a Patriots fan, hope that Coach Belichcik can continue to spin his magic.