Buffalo Bills: Did The Bills Defense Hit Rock Bottom Vs Jacksonville Jaguars?

On Sunday, the Buffalo Bills forced three turnovers and still lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars 36-26 at Ralph Wilson Stadium. The Bills didn't have a single turnover, so when you win the turnover battle by a convincing margin of three to none, you would like your chances of winning the game. But this is the 2010 version of Buffalo Bills, and their defense is reaching new lows in Bills franchise history.

For the first time in their 51 year history, the Bills defense has allowed at least 30 points for four straight weeks. That has never happened before even when the Bills has some really bad teams. The funny thing is this is a defense that has mostly veterans on the unit, not a bunch of kids making rookie mistakes.

The current Bills team is 0-5, which hasn't happened since 25 years ago. This horrific start is putting a serious test to the heart, stamina, pride and credibility of Bills fans to keep the spirit. The days of Talking Proud, Talking Proud, could turn in to the sad sack paper bags masks shortly, but the next home game won't be until after Halloween.

The Bills Charge Out Of Gate With 10 Points Off Of Two Turnovers

In the first six minutes of the game, the Bills had already created two turnovers. One came on a fumbled punt return by the special teams unit, while Andra Davis (see picture) made a great one handed catch of a pass that was deflected at the line by Torell Troup.

The Davis interception and the fumbled punt led to the Bills putting up a quick 10 points on Jacksonville before the Jaguars even knew what hit them. Unfortunately for the Bills, the Jaguars kept their composure and kept creeping back in to the game.

Lee Evans Catches 45 Yard Touchdown From Ryan FItzpatrick

The Ralph was rocking after Lee Evans caught a 45 yard pass from Ryan Fitzpatrick following the fumbled punt return. The quick strike was a great play call to capitalize on the turnover and get the Bills on the scoreboard early. The fact that the Bills were able to get another turnover right after that would only have been sweeter if they could have turned it in to another touchdown.

Unfortunately, the Bills would then experience a problem that they hadn't seen that often this season. The problem was that they waited to have penalties called on them when they were down in the red zone. Each red zone penalty proved costly and very well could have cost the Bills this game.

It is a shame that they couldn't go up 14-0, because that might have forced the Jaguars in to doing something that they didn't want to do.

After Early Turnovers Jaguars Score, Score, Score On Bills Defense

After the Bills opened up a 10 - 0 lead, the teams exchanged field goals to make it 13-3 Bills with 12 minutes left until the half. The Jaguars not only managed to tie the game by the half, but their offense found a way to score seven times while the Bills scored just once during that same span. Despite spotting the Bills 10 points, the Jaguars outscored Buffalo 36-16 the rest of the way.

The game was blacked out in Buffalo because the Bills couldn't sell out the game in time. The Bills have already lost their first three home contests and won't return to the Ralph until they host Detroit on November 14th. It will be interesting to see if there are more fans or empty seats attending that game.

I chose the last two slides to show the packed house that was there in the first half. I will also choose some other slides later to demonstrate how many people left this game early because they couldn't take watching the Jaguars run over their beloved Bills team any more.

How Do You Stop a Weapon Like Josh Scobee?

Despite efforts by Jairus Byrd and Reggie Corner to block Josh Scobee's long field goal attempts, Scobee was automatic on Sunday, hitting on all five field goal tries. He hit on all four long attempts from 40 yards and out. The fact that he made each one hurt, but the fact that he didn't miss one either hurt equally as bad, because any miss would have resulted in great field position for the Bills.

Then on each subsequent kick off, Scobee would kick it deep, and C.J. Spiller would try to find an east - west route to run, which usually resulted in him not reaching the 20 yard line, creating terrible field position for Bills offense to start a drive. The Jaguars kick returners focused on running the ball back north and south, and were extremely effective at giving the Jaguars great field position. Just one more way that the Jaguars outplayed the Bills on Sunday.

3-4 Vs 4-3: The Bills Rush Defense Is Broken And Needs Fixing ASAP

The Jacksonville Jaguars rushed for 216 yards Sunday, which makes the 3rd straight game that the Bills have allowed at least 200 yards of rushing.

In this contest, the Bills went with four down linemen in Marcus Stroud, Kyle Williams, Torell Troup and Dwan Edwards in an attempt to get bigger and more physical at the line of scrimmage. Sure, the Bills had some tackles that led to losses, but the Jaguars were able to pick up 5.4 yards per rush by cranking out their 216 yards on 40 carries. That is the number of carries we would like to see the Bills ground game cranking out.

Paul Posluszny, Donte Whitner and Andra Davis were busy all day long making tackles all over the field. The defensive line just doesn't win the line of scrimmage very often, and that is allowing running backs like Maurice Jones-Drew to take their time, let a lane open up, and then run to daylight.

When asked in the locker room after the game about all of the problems with the Bills defense, Donte Whitner responded with the following:(courtesy of www.buffalobills.com).

“I can honestly tell you that the coaching staff is doing a really great job of preparing us throughout the week,” said Whitner. ”Now, us as players, we have to do an even better job of going out there and executing the game plan, understanding what they are going to do to us each play and not give up things that we have practiced against. Things that are so simple in the football world.”

Ryan Fitzpatrick Throws 3 TD's and a Number Of Strange Passes Too

Ryan Fitzpatrick had three touchdown passes on the day, one to Lee Evans and two to Steve Johnson. The picture on this slide shows Johnson making a very difficult catch with one hand along the sideline for one of his scores. Johnson did drop one other touchdown pass right at the goal line,but he redeemed himself on the following play by catching the touchdown.

Roscoe Parrish made a terrific catch when he was upended on the play, but held on to the ball. The Bills four wide outs had a respectable day, as Lee Evans led the Bills with five catches for 87 yards, Roscoe Parrish had four catches for 58 and Steve Johnson had five catches for 46 yards. David Nelson had a good game as well.

Ryan Fitzpatrick was sacked three times in the game, and completed 20 of 30 passes for 196 yards. His three touchdowns and zero interceptions resulted in a QB Passer Rating of 121.5. He wasn't very effective in scrambling or running with the ball this game. Fitzpatrick did have some accuracy problems in the second half as he either badly overthrew or underthrew wide open receivers along the sideline.

The Bills Still Aren't Giving The Running Backs Enough Touches

In his first major opportunity for playing time this year following the trade of Marshawn Lynch, Fred Jackson quickly reverted to 2009 form as he led the Bills with 73 yards in just 12 carries. C.J. Spiller also had some production, as he amassed 31 yards in five carries. Just 17 carries for your featured running backs is not enough dedication to the running game.

The Bills are losing the physical battles and part of the reason is that they don't let the offensive line have enough chances to beat up the opposition by calling for too many passing plays. Backpedaling won't lead to beating anyone up.

The Jaguars know the answer as they handed the ball off 40 times Sunday. They even called up a kid from the practice squad, Deji Karim, who was activated for the game. All Karim did was rush 15 times for 70 yards. Even wide receiver Mike Thomas had three rushes for 53 yards against the Bills.

This current team is too easy to beat. They don't penetrate the line of scrimmage and George Edwards is not able to create zone blitzes to counter the running game or the passing game. The Bills did get two sacks on David Garrard, but those seemed to be due to good coverage.

Is There a Way To Light a Fire Under George Edwards' Butt?

Here is where this slide show takes a turn down the dark side of the current state of affairs of Buffalo Bills football team.

Several times during the second half the cameras panned over to George Edwards, the Buffalo Bills Defensive Coordinator, who stood there with his headphones and clipboard and acted like he was part of a golf gallery on the PGA Tour. When was the last time you saw a defensive coordinator so calm and passive while his defense was being shredded apart?

When I think of defensive coordinators, I think of guys with the veins in the middle of their foreheads throbbing and getting ready to explode. The rage of Buddy Ryan. The eyes of Mike Singletary.

Not George Edwards. It seems the cerebral approach is his preference for the violent sport of football.

Despite the Donte Whitner quote that the problem does not lie with the coaches, I have to ask the question: Is George Edwards in over his head?

He has veteran players all over his defensive unit. Yes, he was playing without three key players on defense this week: Terrence McGee, Keith Ellison, and Bryan Scott. I didn't see Ashton Youboty in the game as he was hurt in practice earlier in the week. Arthur Moats was also out, and I did not see Aaron Maybin in the game.

The fact remains that he has veteran players that are seasoned and know how to play the game. He had the off-season to prepare them and now with five games in the books, the defense appears lost and they keep giving up one big play after another. They tried a new wrinkle on Sunday because the 3-4 was not working at stopping the run.

If Edwards was demonstrating some passion and fire on the sidelines, I apologize for not seeing it in person. I just want to see that he cares and is angry about running a unit that has sunk to epic lows in Bills history. This level of play is not acceptable.

It Is Not Going To Be Getting Any Easier Bills Fans

Here is a bunch of empty seats in the background on Sunday while the Buffalo Jills do their thing. The Bills are now having their bye week and then travel to Baltimore, Kansas City, and go up to Toronto to play the Chicago Bears. Then we have Detroit at home. It is not that unfathomable that the Bills could be staring at 0-8 by the time we host Detroit.

What will happen during the two weeks off?  The Bills will examine the benefits of the 3-4 vs 4-3, figure out if they want to bring in any new blood to replace the guys that are not getting the job done, and go to the drawing board to add some new wrinkles to the team.

As C. J. Spiller looked effective when he was split out wide against the Patriots, that part of his game has not been explored ever since. Why is that? I haven't the foggiest notion. It is a good question for Chan Gailey, who was supposed to be a genius at taking the talents of players and creating plays to take advantage of those skills. Like using Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller in the passing game.

Shawn Nelson will be back for week seven and that should help because the tight end combination of David Martin and Jonathan Stupar do not scare anybody. The Bills keep getting burned by one tight end after another however, as the Jaguars man-child Mercedes Lewis erupted for two touchdown catches. That makes five touchdowns given up to the tight ends in the past three weeks. Another area that George Edwards can't seem to figure out what to do or how to fix it.

Sorry for all the negative comments this week, but I continue to try to tell it like it is, and see no reason to do any sugar coating this week. We now have two weeks to stare at an 0-5 mark and show up for work on Monday and try to be positive and productive.

Final Thoughts and How Badly Was Brian Moorman Hurt?

At the post game press conference, Chan Gailey was asked about any injuries and responded that there were a few nicks but nothing major. He must have conveniently forgot about Brian Moorman writhing in pain after his knee was caught under him when he was hit from behind while trying to run for a first down in the fourth quarter off of a fake punt.

A major injury to Moorman would be a blow to the Bills, as he has been one of our best weapons at giving the team a fighting chance in the battle for field position.

The Bills will have to take a deep breath and reintroduce themselves to each other. They are one of three teams without a win so far, joining San Francisco and Carolina. They released Trent Edwards and Marshawn Lynch is now in Seattle. They will lose other players as well, as it is clear that Gailey and Buddy Nix will not sit still and accept mediocrity.

The Bills need to come out of the bye week with a renewed vigor and passion for the game. I would not be overly upset at seeing us give up a touchdown pass if it meant blitzing the quarterback and knocking him down. It gets old seeing the quarterback having so much time to pass. If my defense keeps giving up 30 points week in and week out, I expect to see the coaches angry and upset.

There is much being said about trying to change the culture in the Bills locker room and exorcise the feelings that it is acceptable to lose. This will take a renewed dedication and commitment by the coaches and players, along with more patience and understanding by the fans to make the rest of the season watchable. At least I enjoyed seeing the big hit that Andrew Luck laid on the USC defender on Saturday and wondered what it might be like to see him in a Bills uniform. Keep the faith Bills fans.