Seen and Herd Week Eight: Buffalo Bills vs. Houston Texans

Well, the excitement sure was fun while it lasted.

In the back of my mind I wasn't completely feeling a Bills playoff push on the horizon, but after the first half on Sunday, the thought that Buffalo was possibly a legitimate football team certainly creeped into my mind.

Then in one of the worst halves of live football I've ever witnessed, that notion was totally erased from my head.

A record of 3-5 sounds a whole lot worse than an even 4-4.

Offense? What Offense?

Buffalo, for the second straight game only managed nine first downs. If you're not sure how low of a number that is, Houston easily complied 24 first downs. This is including a first half when Matt Schaub was pressured into bad throws and the run game couldn't get going whatsoever.

The Texans nearly doubled the Bills in time of possession (39 minutes to 20 minutes) and this wasn't because of a defensive inability to get off the field.

Ryan Fitzpatrick displayed why there's no quarterback controversy, even with how brutal Trent Edwards has been this season.

He again made Lee Evans and Terrell Owens look like second tier wide receivers, and although many are pointing to terrible offensive line play once again, he was only sacked twice.

In a game where Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson combined for 18 carries and 71 yards, you'd think they let Fitzpatrick air it out.

Not the case on Sunday.

Throwing 15-23 with 117 yards and two interceptions is the type of game Bengals fans have been warning us about this past month.

Trent Edwards will remain the starter when he's cleared to play.

Play-calling

I'm always a nit-picker about play-calling and use the Bills horrible choice of offensive plays to sometimes deflect bad performances by players.

This is one of the times where the Alex Van Pelt and Dick Jauron were as critical to the loss as Terrell Owens and Ryan Fitzpatrick. 

There is absolutely no creativity on the offensive side of the ball. Even in the victories against the Jets and Panthers, I wasn't overly pleased with the vanilla sets the Bills were putting on the field.

They did use motion, for what I think was the first time all season, but it lead to nothing special.

On an early third and long, they did use a five wide set, that ended in a Steve Johnson reception one yard short of a first down. It really put the Bills day in a nutshell.

Outside of that, it was bunched formations on first down, and on third down three wide -- Terrell Owens and Lee Evans outside, and Josh Reed in the slot.

Too easy to defend.

The reverse call was obviously a great decision, but those were negated by an odd pitch call on third and short for Fred Jackson and an even more strange fake punt reverse for Justin Jenkins.

Brian Moorman said after the game that if the play worked, everyone would have applauded Jauron, but when it gets blown up, it looks bad.

True, true. But, in recent years the play that's been most successful has been Moorman, who was an accomplished track star in college, running the ball upon receiving in from center. Not wasting time reversing another player back to the middle of the field.

Don't get it.

The Bills attempts at creativity, are so poorly drawn up, I sometimes wonder where the coaches get their ideas from.

I don't think it could get much worse for Evans and Owens, who are on pace for their worst statistical seasons. Evans was only targeted once in the first half. That cannot ever happen.

Remember when people were beginning to say Trent Edwards must say "screw it" and throw the ball deep. It's time for the Bills coaching staff to say the same and move far, far away from this predictable, "Pop Warner" offense.

I thought the predictability left with Steve Fairchild. Guess not.

Byrd living up to hype once again

Jairus Byrd is really the lone bright spot on the team, as the best defensive, and best offensive player.

Without his interceptions giving the Bills short fields, they had no chance to score, because they can't move the ball more than 40 yards to sustain a drive.

He's had two interceptions in three straight games. If he's not on track for a Defensive Rookie of the Year trophy and a Pro-Bowl appearance, I'm not sure what you have to do to win these honors.

How awesome was his wing-flapping after his second interception. Hard not to get pumped over the future for this kid.

Where the Bills lose

I heard it all on Sunday.

"This team is terrible."

"I can't take watching this horrible team anymore."

"Let's leave, it's too hard to watch."

The quotations from these disgruntled Bills fans are all valid. The product on the field right now is, in many phases of the game, very bad.

When something is this wrong the first question that arises is, why?

Here's why.

Tell me what these names have in common.

Brad Butler, Derek Schouman, Kawika Mitchell, Marcus Buggs, Leodis McKelvin, Trent Edwards, Johnanthon Scott, Jamon Meredith, Donte Whitner, Bryan Scott, Shawn Nelson, Kyle Williams, Aaron Schobel, Keith Ellison.

I could be missing a few.

This appears to be a list of Bills starters, players that would be instrumental to the Bills making a run at the postseason. In reality, it's a list of players that either were out for some or all of the game on Sunday.

Our linebackers at one point were, Paul Posluszny, Ashlee Palmer, and Chris Draft. Nothing against these guys, but that starting unit isn't going to get the job done.

Too many injuries. It sounds like a cop-out excuse but it's been the real reason behind the Bills lackluster performances becoming more common that we'd like.

Take this many starters and role players off any team, and they'd struggle.

As you know, I'm an overly optimistic person, especially when it comes to the Bills, and I think that if Aaron Schobel stays in that game, the Bills are in it late, and maybe even pull out another surprising win.

Without him the entire second half, Schaub could have eaten a sandwhich before he had to throw.

Even Keith Ellison's absence was felt, and I never thought I'd say that. The run defense was gashed in the second half because Kyle Williams, Schobel, and Ellison were out of the game.

I don't know if it's sheer unluckiness or JT Allaire not having the correct strength and conditioning program in place, but with the injuries piling up each week, it's impossible to progress on either side of the ball.

Is the season now a lost cause? Close. Many believe Chris Johnson and the Titans will stampede all over the Bills defense and the offense will remain stagnant. Who knows, but at 3-5, another slip up casts the Bills into the decade of futility.

Man, if they miss the playoffs for a 10th consecutive year, I'm not sure what I'll do.

They need changes, and they need to make them fast. Hopefully the bye week will give the players time to heal and more importantly allow the coaches to clear their heads and institute some football plays that actually work. 

There's a long way to go.

Bills vs. Titans Nov. 15th...Seen and Herd to follow