Seen and Herd: Week 16-Atlanta Falcons vs. Buffalo Bills

My apologies for the late post. The holiday stretched past Christmas Day with the big family in town. I've visited just about every town in Western New York throughout the past week.

Now to that agitating—yet not surprising—loss on Sunday.

Injuries show

I'm not one to make excuses. In fact, I really dislike bad ones. I was one of those guys that hated my friends explaining how they missed tackles in backyard football because they didn't have cleats. Never cut it with me. 

So keep that in mind when I say the injury catastrophe that hit the Bills this season had a direct effect on their underwhelming performance—it's not a cop-out.

The Bills have played some pretty horrible offense. They've been locked in the cellar of run stopping all year long, but their Week 16 putrid performance opened my eyes to the evil fracas the injury bug can inflict on an NFL team. 

Buffalo infamously shipped 18 players to Injured Reserve in 2009, and finally the second, third, and practice squad guys were exploited by NFL starters.

This was most glaring with the offensive line. We banked on continuity growing each week with the young blocking corp. Every game they'd get better in protection and run blocking. 

Unfortunately, Buffalo will most likely finish the year with 10 different line combinations, the enemy of continuity.

Brian Brohm's debut

Many will look at his numbers (17/29 146yards, 2 INTs) and will instantly throw the young signal caller into the "another irrelevant Bills starter" box, forgetting him altogether.

In this day and age, when good players are extremely hard to come by, you've got to dig deeper.

His live arm was on display, and made many accurate throws to the Bills wideouts, something the other two starters had trouble doing each week.

However, he rarely received more than two seconds to make his choice and release the ball, and is playing in probably the most vanilla offensive scheme in the league.

This may be wishful thinking, but this former second-round pick has promise, and should be great competition for the starter next season; even if he's a long shot to be under center in Week One.

Fewell's gonads?

Remember the home game a month ago against the Dolphins? When interim head coach Perry Fewell preached the gonads of Ryan Fitzpatrick dialing up his TD bomb to Terrell Owens? Recall when Fewell gave Rian Lindell the shot at 56-yard field goal in the fourth quarter that he nailed?

Where was that Sunday? He punted from the Falcons 37-yard line in the second half, and let his hesitance to go for it on fourth down lead to a field goal. What's up with that?

I understand no one wants to be embarrassed or shutout, but really, what do you have to lose if you're Fewell? 

Out of playoff contention, wins were the only thing that would have assured him a head coaching job next season. This isn't Dick Jauron here. Playing extremely conservative to "lose with honor" doesn't cut it, especially when you haven't made the playoffs this decade.

I still like Fewell, and would be fine with him being held on as a defensive coordinator next season. But Jauron's cautious demeanor lurked on the sidelines this Sunday. Not angry, just surprised.

Matt Ryan

If there's anything good about this 28-point loss, it's the fact that Buffalo got a butt whooping from Matt Ryan. We saw him up close. We saw what a young, enthusiastic, athletic, and smart, (insert another positive synonym) quarterback can do for a franchise.

The Falcons fell short of the postseason this year, but had Ryan not been injured for two games, it's a safe bet the Falcons would be playing for their playoff lives in the season finale.

He made me jealous, and even more hungry for the Bills to place the off-season onus on acquiring a franchise quarterback. Not some Tulane-standout, or injury-prone Stanford grad that might develop into a decent starter. The last time the Bills offensive was relevant was with Drew Bledsoe, a leader with superb football QB and a rocket arm. That's what Buffalo needs.

Again, bad timing for the Bills. It doesn't look like there's one of those elite QB prospects in this year's draft. Matt Ryans don't grow on trees, but we now know firsthand how a great quarterback can single-handedly win you ball games.

News

Bills FS Jairus Byrd was just named to the Pro-Bowl. Congrats to the man. He was the most exciting facet to the Bills season. Nine interceptions in 13 starts, not bad for a rookie. Outstanding draft pick from the Bills? Imagine that.

What's Ahead

Bills/Colts at the Ralph 1 p.m., Sunday. Sadly, the last Seen and Herd to follow.

Look for my "Best Games of the Decade", and an early, in-depth look at the crucial off season very soon...