During the abbreviated work week between their abject surrender to the New England Patriots and Saturday's visit by Denver, a number of Buffalo Bills talked about playing the Broncos on national television as a chance at redemption for a lost season.
Even with the playoffs out of reach, they would demonstrate to both present and future employers what they're really made of, prove what kind of team they really are.
They sure did.
In getting bludgeoned by the Broncos, the Bills showed once again that they're the kind of team that:
Which isn't to say that only negatives emerged from Denver's cosmetically respectable 28-17 thrashing of the home team.
For instance, Bryan Kelly Holcomb might be, as some cynics suggest, Alex Van Pelt without the arm, but few National Football League quarterbacks have a greater mastery of the horizontal passing game.
Of Holcomb's 37 pass attempts, 27 of them were aimed at receivers less than five yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Which goes a long way toward explaining three other numbers -- the 22 completions he rang up and the impressive-sounding and thoroughly meaningless 88.0 quarterback rating he compiled, as well as the 10 points he put on the board when the game was still in doubt.
Coach Mike Mularkey might not be much at play-calling or maintaining relationships with veteran players, but his team sure is undisciplined. Two plays before the aforementioned field goal-turned-punt, Buffalo faced a third-and-3 situation at Denver's 28-yard line.
Up 7-0, a first down would sustain the march toward a second touchdown and a commanding lead. Even an incomplete pass would keep the ball on the long end of field goal range.
In the offensive huddle, the Bills had a plan. Unfortunately, there were 12 of them. Weather conditions to the contrary, this was not a Canadian Football League game, so the yellow flag flew, pushing them back five yards. After Lee Evans dropped one of Holcomb's trademark three-yard flips, on came the "field goal" team.
The defense did its part, too.
In an effort to amuse ourselves, the BillStuff coverage team -- me; Tim, our senior wing analyst; Scott, our Sabres correspondent; and Tim's sister -- gathered at Gabriel's Gate on Allen Street in Buffalo, and pondered who might be the first Bills defender to make a really, really stupid play.
London Fletcher and Nate Clements were the early consensus picks, based on previous performance, but we were proven wrong.
Three plays before Smith scored Denver's first touchdown, Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer threw incomplete on third-and-goal from Buffalo's 14-yard line. Denver's field goal team was about to run out, until realizing that Bills cornerback Eric King arrived many seconds too late on a blitz, flattening Plummer, drawing a roughing penalty and giving Denver a fresh set of downs.
Of course, even in a fairly busy tavern in the heart of historic Allentown, we were about the only people who noticed.
If there's anything this Buffalo team is guilty of, beyond underachievement from the players and condescension by management, it's that their maddeningly mediocre performance has made some of the most passionate football fans on the planet simply stop caring.
BILLS MVP: Eric Moulds showed that he can still run after the catch, if he gets one thrown to him on occasion.
THE OTHER GUYS' MVP: Hopefully, someone will make McGahee and whoever designs Buffalo's 2006 offense watch a tape of Mike Anderson demonstrating the proper technique for wearing down a defense.
SABRES REPORT: OK, we've got to squeeze something positive in here. Wednesday night at HSBC Arena against the Dallas Stars provided a great game in a better atmosphere, and not simply because a former president was in the building. The two hottest teams from their respective conferences put on a show to which most NHL playoff games can only aspire.
When Martin Biron fended off Dallas' final push to tie the game, preserving a 4-3 win, you could almost feel the building shake like the old Aud. For perhaps the first time in the post-Hasek era, the fans seemed to believe that this team could be more than a fluke.
Back-to-back wins over floundering Pittsburgh demonstrated that they just might be right.
WING REPORT: Twenty mediums and 10 Cajuns arrived promptly after we ordered -- almost too promptly, leading to speculation as to whether there may have been a big vat of them in back. Crisp carrots and celery cut fresh, rather than in a SpongeBob SquarePants plastic bag, along with suitably creamy blue cheese, were a nice touch. The Cajuns were finely seasoned, earning a B-plus, while the mediums rated but a B.
BS FANS OF THE WEEK: Anyone who sat through the cold at Ralph Wilson Stadium, or, for that matter, even watched this stinker to the bitter end.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Dec. 20 2005 |