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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Listening to the players and coaches that make up Buffalo's offensive platoon late Sunday afternoon left me as confused as they looked for most of the preceding three hours.
"Everything we do now has to be basic -- we're not a team right now that can spread it out like the (St. Louis) Rams do," said Moulds, whose three receptions against New England netted the Bills a total of 7 yards. "You've got to be able to have your line ready to play, your backs and receivers in position, and we're not doing that."
You certainly aren't. But eight games into the regular season, how could that be?
Buffalo's offensive disarray was largely responsible for the Patriots' 21-11 win. A false start by Jonas Jennings killed one should-have-been touchdown. Jay Riemersma's holding infraction not only erased another, but made necessary the play on which Rob Johnson's season very possibly ended.
Penalties were only part of Buffalo's miseries. Just getting out of the huddle was more than the Bills could handle at times, leading to two wasted second-half timeouts. Those would have been pretty handy at the end, after Buffalo cut New England's lead to three points and desperately needed to stop the clock.
On the first, Johnson was clearly having trouble either getting the call straight, or getting it at all, walking toward the sideline and yelling as the seconds ticked away. The Bills didn't break the huddle until just eight seconds remained on the play clock, making an on-time snap impossible.
Making the mix-up even more inexplicable -- it was second-and-1. Offensive coordinators strive for that particular down-and-distance, since you can run just about anything. If it doesn't work, you should be faced with a makeable third down.
What did two huddles and a timeout produce? A rollout to the short side of the field, a pass to Moulds behind the line and a 3-yard loss.
The second came after blitzing New England cornerback Terrell Buckley rode Johnson into the turf, ending his afternoon and likely his season.
Johnson was down for several minutes before being helped from the field. Alex Van Pelt entered armed with a full play clock and, you would think, the call for the next play.
Not so fast. Van Pelt had to burn Buffalo's last timeout with 4:12 left. On third-and-27, no less. That down-and-distance is the diametric opposite of second-and-1. Realistically, there's only one thing you can do -- send two or three receivers deep, throw it up, and hope for a spectacular catch, a lucky bounce or a pass interference penalty. If it's intercepted, it serves the same purpose as a punt.
But no. Van Pelt ultimately threw incomplete (and well short of the first-down marker) not only on third down, but also on fourth.
The Bills did subsequently get back into the game, when Kendrick Office sacked Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and relieved him of the ball, setting up Buffalo's only touchdown on Van Pelt's 17-yard pass to Peerless Price.
A near-miss on the ensuing onsides kick attempt and Travares Tillman's complete miss while trying to tackle ex-Bills running back Antowain Smith closed the deal. But by even approaching offensive cohesion, the Bills could have put themselves in position to defend against onsides kicks, rather than trying them.
A dejected Sheppard clutched the blame for the chaos.
"Yeah, we probably need to simplify things a little bit," Sheppard said in response to Moulds' critique. "We had some confusion lining up today and that comes back to us -- probably too many things, too many things to think about."
But Van Pelt said responsibility extended to the players.
"A couple of those were some wordy, lengthy formations," said Buffalo's quarterback of the immediate future. "Maybe it's a little bit too much, maybe the guys need to study a little harder and know it a little better. If that's the problem, maybe we should cut back a little bit."
Maybe the calls are too long, the formations too plentiful. But in a few critical aspects, it sounded like the Bills' version of the West Coast offense isn't complex enough. For instance, why didn't Johnson audible to a safer play when anyone with one working eye could see a blitz coming?
"We don't make a lot of checks -- we have very few," Sheppard said. "I don't know that he made one today."
Let me see if I've got this straight. Tom Donahoe and Gregg Williams put their faith in Johnson when they chose him over that other guy last winter, yet their offensive coordinator won't let him change the decisions made in the coaches' box?
Not that Sheppard, by his own admission, actually sees much of what's going on before he makes his calls.
"The next thing I do after I call a play is look for the next call," Sheppard said. "Sometimes, I see it finish and sometimes I don't. Usually, what I do is listen for the next down and distance."
Again, maybe I'm just confused. But as I recall, the whole point of taking play-calling out of the quarterback's hands and putting it in those of a coach is because you can see the whole play develop from on high. If you're watching.
Not that Johnson did anything to indicate that he should be given Jim Kelly-esque latitude in calling his own plays. With marginally better protection than he received a week earlier in Buffalo's loss to Indianapolis, he continued his regression since what amounted to his high point for the year, the defeat in San Diego.
It's one thing to stand up under the rush. It's quite another to be oblivious to it. That's what happened when he got hurt -- Johnson rolled, and rolled, and rolled to his right, knowing that Law was somewhere behind him, but unable to find an open receiver and unwilling to throw the ball away.
The Bills weren't saying anything about Johnson's injury at press time, except that he would be evaluated back in Buffalo on Monday, but a local television station reported that he suffered multiple breaks to his clavicle.
Not that there was much Johnson or his receivers could do when they saw the blitz coming.
"They were basically blitzing and playing man coverage," Price said. "It seemed like they were getting there before we could get into our routes. There's not much you can do as a receiver when they're doing that, especially when the receivers are not blitz adjusting or hot adjusting, when you're not involved in that, there isn't much you can do as a receiver."
What?
The vaunted West Coast offense allegedly gives the quarterback and receivers multiple options that change according to what the defense presents. Yet Sheppard's version doesn't allow the quarterback to change plays or his targets to alter their routes as needed?
This offense sounds oddly similar to the non-geographic attacks that came before it, those masterminded by Dan Henning and Joe Pendry. Like its predecessors before it, Sheppard's system robs any input for the game from the people playing it.
Since his arrival, Williams has made plenty of noise about his coaching staff making Johnson a better quarterback and the Bills a better team. Thus far, the team is 1-7 and Johnson may not be a quarterback again until next year.
Let's be realistic. Any semi-realistic chance Buffalo had at a playoff spot landed with a thud when Doug Flutie did the same in the end zone at Qualcomm Stadium two weeks ago. But there were still goals that could be accomplished -- achieving some sort of offensive identity and deciding on whether Johnson warrants the contract restructuring and extension necessary to keep him on the roster.
Instead, the Bills are looking at half a season with little to accomplish beyond moral victories, operating with a quarterback who has been a career backup for very good reason.
And wondering how it could have all gone so wrong.