Behind Enemy Lines: Bills vs. Jets
An outsider's inside perspective
by: Gregory Gethard
To those of us in New York City, Buffalo seems like a distant, foreign land. But the city of Buffalo, and this may shock you, is in New York State! Who knew? And, they also have a football team and everything.
As it just so happens, the Buffalo Bills are playing the NY Jets this Sunday. Helping me help you understand a little more about this mysterious city's football team is Brian Galliford of the Buffalo Rumblings blog. Here is our exchange!
Gethard: Please don't take this the wrong way, but Buffalo doesn't get a lot of (re: none) media attention here in the New York metro area. But a quick glance at the standings reveals the Bills are a pretty good team. What are the team's biggest strengths and weaknesses? And, for self-obsessed New York Jets fans, who are the Bills we should pay most attention to?
Galliford: No offense taken. We're used to it, clearly – QB Trent Edwards does one little interview with Chris Berman, and suddenly he's playing like Rob Johnson. The further under the radar this team is, the better.
The Bills aren't dominant in any one area, which is why they've lost two of their last three games after a 4-0 start. The strength of this team, however, is the fact that we're good enough on offense, defense and special teams that if one unit falters in a given week, the other two have shown the ability to pick up the slack. The Bills will situation you to death, as well – as an example, the defense isn't statistically dominant, but boy, can we get off the field on third down. (At home, at least.)
You'll do fine keeping track of Edwards, RB Marshawn Lynch, WR Lee Evans and MLB Paul Posluszny. Those are the team's youngest stars, but clearly, we have a few more good players as well (DT Marcus Stroud tops that list).
Gethard: The last time I checked, JP Losman was your quarterback when Doug Flutie was busy or something. Now, it's Trent Edwards. Where did he come from, how did he develop and is he actually the NFL's best kept secret?
Galliford: Edwards is a Stanford grad that never had the chance to "develop", at least in the traditional "let's-sit-him-for-a-year-like-Carson-Palmer" sense. Losman got hit in the knee by Vince Wilfork's helmet in Week 3 of 2007, and boom – Edwards is on the field. If Edwards is developing, he's doing it now as he plays. It's led to some consistency issues for the offense as a whole. A lot of Bills fans call Wilfork's hit "dirty"; I lean more toward "divine intervention".
I wouldn't call him the best kept secret, because people were starting to take notice of him last week on a national level, and he tanked in Miami. Does anyone realize that the Tennessee Titans are 7-0? Where did that come from? I'd consider them the NFL's biggest secret, because for whatever reason, we'd rather talk about the soap opera that is the Dallas Cowboys organization, water pills, Tom Brady's knee, or your very own Brett Favre.
Gethard: How did you guys lose to Miami? Seriously.
Galliford: The same way the Jets almost lost to Miami, and the Pats got spanked by Miami – the Dolphins are an underrated football team with an efficient and creative offense. Buffalo should have won the game – in fact, they were within a score of the lead until there were approximately four minutes left in the fourth quarter – but they couldn't stop gift-wrapping turnovers for Miami's defense. Turnovers killed the Bills, and I think that they got a little over-anxious at the coaching level when Miami started its comeback. I'm chalking it up to youth in our team and in our coordinators, but they've got to grow up quickly.
Gethard: Lee Evans seems like a particularly wonderful player. He's averaging over 20 yards a catch, if Yahoo's stats are to be believed. Is this actually possible? What should we expect out of him? (BTW, he seems like an absolute fantasy stud that I wish I had instead of Hines Ward. My bad.)
Galliford: Averaging 20 yards per catch must be possible, because we're seven games in, and Evans is still at that mark. He's there because offensive coordinator Turk Schonert is finding ways to get him open – in fact, he has 15 grabs over the team's last two games. Evans is, quite simply, the league's most explosive pure deep threat. He can't run guys over like Brandon Marshall or squirt through guys like Steve Smith, but Lee is an elite receiver. I can't imagine how good this guy would be if the Bills actually had a #2 receiver to take the heat off of him on the outside.
Gethard: How are you guys handling the "sharing the team with Toronto" rumors? I, personally, never want to see this. This is because of a pathological and unexplainable dislike of Ontario, as my Canadian province of choice is Quebec. Also, I am probably guessing you guys really know how to grill before a game. Thoughts?
Galliford: Yeah, we know how to tailgate. In fact, SI.com ranks the Bills #1 in the NFL in tailgate experience. Take that, Toronto – we're fatter and happier than you.
Bills fans like to freak out about Toronto, and for good reason – I guess they're a legitimate relocation threat for the franchise, and things like that. I'm not particularly concerned. The Bills will play seven more games in Toronto over the next five years; a potential move to Toronto is barely a blip on my radar. The blip is made less conspicuous when I hear that former Bills greats Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas, as well as Buffalo Sabres owner Tom Golisano, plan to do what they can to keep the Bills in Buffalo for as long as possible. Kelly in particular has some major influence in this area. I don't want to see the Bills move up north, obviously, but I don't spend a lot of time stressing about it, either. Right now, we're the Buffalo Bills.
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