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These reruns are painful to watch
9/20/2004
By JERRY SULLIVAN
OAKLAND, Calif. - Do you suppose I could submit last week's column and leave it at that? Really, why torture ourselves unnecessarily? What exactly can be said that hasn't been said before?
The Bills have become the NFL's version of the movie "Groundhog Day." The alarm clock rings on Sunday morning. You yawn, go out to the stadium, watch Drew Bledsoe stumble around behind that sieve of an offensive line, feel sorry for the poor defense, tabulate all the bonehead plays and go down to the locker room to hear the players and coach insist they really are a good team.
They're not a good team. They're a tease, a redundancy, a Sunday afternoon squandered. They are an indictment of their president and general manager, Tom Donahoe, who promised to fill his locker room with tough-minded winners and instead patched together a mentally soft squad that always seems to find a way to lose.
Worst of all, they have become unwatchable. How many of these wretched road performances can the average fan take before the TV set gets heaved through the family-room window? It makes you nostalgic for bad preseason hockey. How many 13-10 losses can one person endure? If not for a late, garbage touchdown, the Bills would have gone without an offensive TD for the seventh time in their last 10 road games.
They're 0-2, only it seems a lot worse. They've lost to Jacksonville and Oakland, two flawed foes who couldn't run the ball and committed countless stupid penalties. If you had the Bills pegged as a playoff team, you had both games checked off in the "win" column. The opposition will get a lot better, starting with the Patriots after the bye week.
The Bills could be 1-5 after their trip to Baltimore (can't wait to see the offense humming in that one). They'll be hard-pressed to equal last year's 6-10 record. They have lost 11 of their last 13 road games, averaging nine points in the losses. So 10 points seems just about right for an offense that has become as predictable as political mail.
"We can't take too much more," said defensive tackle Pat Williams. "It's like a damn hill. We just can't fall over the mother, it's like something is pulling us back. I don't know what it is yet, but we've got to get it straight."
It's hard getting over the dang hill when you're carrying one of the NFL's worst offenses on your back. The conservative, low-risk attack sounds good in theory. It worked OK in the opener against one of the league's worst pass rushes. But in a road game, against an aggressive defense, it was the same old thing Sunday.
Bledsoe got pressured and he couldn't buy enough time to make plays. He got sacked seven times. He threw balls low and off-target. A couple of times, he held onto the ball too long. He made one big pass to Eric Moulds for 36 yards. He hit Lee Evans for 65 yards in the waning moments. Both came when the Raiders called off the blitz and dropped into zone coverage.
I know, it's not all on the quarterback. Donahoe has made a mess of his offensive line. He made a big miscalculation when he didn't bring in an established left guard. The special teams show promise, but they continue to make stupid mistakes. The secondary is average at best with Lawyer Milloy out. Coy Wire is not a starting NFL safety.
But Bledsoe is the greatest manifestation of the Bills' problems, of Donahoe's misguided plan. He's simply not good enough to lead a winning team anymore, not in today's NFL, where a quarterback needs to make snap decisions under duress and have enough mobility to buy time in the pocket.
The contrast was evident Sunday. Oakland QB Rich Gannon is 38 years old, but Bledsoe makes him look like a fraternity pledge by comparison. Even at 38, Gannon made things happen with his legs. Gannon made plays on the run. The Raiders were confident enough in his mobility to let him throw from his end zone. He scrambled for 20 yards on one play.
The great players make everyone around them better. Bledsoe is doing the opposite. He finally threw long to Evans in garbage time, but otherwise the 13th overall pick hasn't been a factor. Moulds didn't catch a pass in the first half. Bledsoe makes a bad offensive line seem even worse.
Coach Mike Mularkey said his offensive problems are "correctable," but he didn't sound all that convincing about his quarterback.
Publicly, Bledsoe will never admit his confidence has wavered. All the Bills maintained an optimistic front after this bitter defeat. The defensive players say it's a team game and they're not discouraged by having to carry the offense.
"No, we're in it together," said cornerback Troy Vincent. "Separation isn't an option. That includes ball boys, trainers, medical staff. . . . We started this thing together, and we'll end this thing together. Hey, we're 0-2. We have a lot to build from. From personal testimony, I've been in this situation before and ended up in the NFC Championship Game a year ago."
It's true. Vincent was on the Eagles team that started 0-2 a year ago. Then, after a bye week, they went on the road and turned their season around by beating Buffalo. The Bills should be so lucky.
e-mail: jsullivan@buffnews.com
9/20/2004
By JERRY SULLIVAN
OAKLAND, Calif. - Do you suppose I could submit last week's column and leave it at that? Really, why torture ourselves unnecessarily? What exactly can be said that hasn't been said before?
The Bills have become the NFL's version of the movie "Groundhog Day." The alarm clock rings on Sunday morning. You yawn, go out to the stadium, watch Drew Bledsoe stumble around behind that sieve of an offensive line, feel sorry for the poor defense, tabulate all the bonehead plays and go down to the locker room to hear the players and coach insist they really are a good team.
They're not a good team. They're a tease, a redundancy, a Sunday afternoon squandered. They are an indictment of their president and general manager, Tom Donahoe, who promised to fill his locker room with tough-minded winners and instead patched together a mentally soft squad that always seems to find a way to lose.
Worst of all, they have become unwatchable. How many of these wretched road performances can the average fan take before the TV set gets heaved through the family-room window? It makes you nostalgic for bad preseason hockey. How many 13-10 losses can one person endure? If not for a late, garbage touchdown, the Bills would have gone without an offensive TD for the seventh time in their last 10 road games.
They're 0-2, only it seems a lot worse. They've lost to Jacksonville and Oakland, two flawed foes who couldn't run the ball and committed countless stupid penalties. If you had the Bills pegged as a playoff team, you had both games checked off in the "win" column. The opposition will get a lot better, starting with the Patriots after the bye week.
The Bills could be 1-5 after their trip to Baltimore (can't wait to see the offense humming in that one). They'll be hard-pressed to equal last year's 6-10 record. They have lost 11 of their last 13 road games, averaging nine points in the losses. So 10 points seems just about right for an offense that has become as predictable as political mail.
"We can't take too much more," said defensive tackle Pat Williams. "It's like a damn hill. We just can't fall over the mother, it's like something is pulling us back. I don't know what it is yet, but we've got to get it straight."
It's hard getting over the dang hill when you're carrying one of the NFL's worst offenses on your back. The conservative, low-risk attack sounds good in theory. It worked OK in the opener against one of the league's worst pass rushes. But in a road game, against an aggressive defense, it was the same old thing Sunday.
Bledsoe got pressured and he couldn't buy enough time to make plays. He got sacked seven times. He threw balls low and off-target. A couple of times, he held onto the ball too long. He made one big pass to Eric Moulds for 36 yards. He hit Lee Evans for 65 yards in the waning moments. Both came when the Raiders called off the blitz and dropped into zone coverage.
I know, it's not all on the quarterback. Donahoe has made a mess of his offensive line. He made a big miscalculation when he didn't bring in an established left guard. The special teams show promise, but they continue to make stupid mistakes. The secondary is average at best with Lawyer Milloy out. Coy Wire is not a starting NFL safety.
But Bledsoe is the greatest manifestation of the Bills' problems, of Donahoe's misguided plan. He's simply not good enough to lead a winning team anymore, not in today's NFL, where a quarterback needs to make snap decisions under duress and have enough mobility to buy time in the pocket.
The contrast was evident Sunday. Oakland QB Rich Gannon is 38 years old, but Bledsoe makes him look like a fraternity pledge by comparison. Even at 38, Gannon made things happen with his legs. Gannon made plays on the run. The Raiders were confident enough in his mobility to let him throw from his end zone. He scrambled for 20 yards on one play.
The great players make everyone around them better. Bledsoe is doing the opposite. He finally threw long to Evans in garbage time, but otherwise the 13th overall pick hasn't been a factor. Moulds didn't catch a pass in the first half. Bledsoe makes a bad offensive line seem even worse.
Coach Mike Mularkey said his offensive problems are "correctable," but he didn't sound all that convincing about his quarterback.
Publicly, Bledsoe will never admit his confidence has wavered. All the Bills maintained an optimistic front after this bitter defeat. The defensive players say it's a team game and they're not discouraged by having to carry the offense.
"No, we're in it together," said cornerback Troy Vincent. "Separation isn't an option. That includes ball boys, trainers, medical staff. . . . We started this thing together, and we'll end this thing together. Hey, we're 0-2. We have a lot to build from. From personal testimony, I've been in this situation before and ended up in the NFC Championship Game a year ago."
It's true. Vincent was on the Eagles team that started 0-2 a year ago. Then, after a bye week, they went on the road and turned their season around by beating Buffalo. The Bills should be so lucky.
e-mail: jsullivan@buffnews.com
