Patriots held the ball for a quarter more and wore Bills out.
by Steve Saslow
Here are our position by position grades:
Quarterback:Trent Edwards struggled with his accuracy all day completing only 13 passes on the day of 23 he attempted for only 120 yards. He threw a terrible interception that led to a Patriots field goal. He showed happy feet at times as he was under a lot of pressure early. Even when he had time to throw later in the game he was misfiring. One of the few drives he showed poise on was the Bills field goal drive in the first half. He threw it behind James Hardy on the two minute drill late in the first half and then misfired on a pass to Roscoe Parrish on the next play stalling that drive. He also threw too late on a screen to Marshawn Lynch on the Bills opening second half series forcing a punt. His touchdown pass to Hardy was a bit underthrown as well but Hardy came back for it. Grade F: His worst game of a completely horrid stretch as he is in a bad sophomore slump.
Running Backs:Marshawn Lynch couldn't get anything going and may have done too much dancing since he knows he won't have any lanes to run because of the pathetic offensive line. He averaged 3.3 yards on 14 carries. The longest run of the game was eight yards. Fred Jackson didn't do any better as he got 14 yards on 4 carries. Jackson caught two balls but Lynch couldn't pull in a screen pass that was thrown late. Corey McIntyre did lead block for a third and one run for a first down. Grade F: They should sue the offensive line for non support.
Receivers:Lee Evans only caught two balls despite being single covered a lot. Roscoe Parrish made some plays early but was taken away as a threat late. He led the way with four catches for 31 yards. James Hardy had two catches including a nice come backer for the only touchdown. Robert Royal was back to being invisible with one catch for six yards. Derek Schouman had a catch on the opening possession but then disappeared. Steve Johnson also had one grab. Grade F: Didn't do anything to make big plays.
Offensive Line:The offensive line continued its season long struggle. They opened up no holes for the running game so the Bills got desperate and used the wildcat formation a few times. Jason Peters is probably the worst lineman on the team right now. He got called for a false start and beaten for a sack and did nothing when they ran to his side on third and goal in the 2nd quarter. Kirk Chambers was doing pretty good in his first game at guard but then was beaten for a sack that stopped a fourth quarter drive when the Bills had finally stolen a little bit of momentum. Duke Preston was beaten on a bull rush at least once but played a bit better in this game than last week. Grade F-: 3.3 yards per carry and two more sacks is awful.
Defensive Line:Ryan Denney knocked down two passes and had a big tackle for loss. He finished with 11 tackles including a team high eight solo takedowns. Chris Kelsay was in on seven tackles. Marcus Stroud had a huge tackle for loss on a third and one play in the third quarter. He was also in on the team's only sack and forced a fumble on the play. Otherwise he was quiet as there seemed to be holes to run through in the middle of the defense especially on scrambles by Cassel. Kyle Williams had five tackles including a nice one when he moved laterally to bring down the ball carrier in the open field. Spencer Johnson had five tackles and John McCargo is just not in the team's plans. Grade D: Gave up two many running and passing lanes.
Linebackers:Paul Posluszny and Keith Ellison combined for two stops early on and played well throughout as they were very active near the line of scrimmage. Poz had 10 tackles while Ellison finished with seven stops. Kawika Mitchell had 11 tackles as well. Grade C: Made a lot of plays but a lot of them were after the damage was done.
Secondary:Terrence McGee battled Randy Moss all day and did pretty well holding him to five catches for 53 yards but he was beat on some plays. On one second quarter possession he was beaten for receptions of 19 and 9 yards. He responded with a nice pass breakup in the end zone when he had perfect coverage. In the opening drive of the third quarter he had nice coverage on a long pass but was beaten in the slot on a third reception that kept a scoring drive alive. He had good coverage on a bomb in the fourth quarter that fell incomplete. Jabari Greer was beaten by Wes Welker for a 21 yard pickup that setup the first touchdown. He was on Welker most of the day and he had a 100 yard game. Reggie Corner played in slot and took on Welker at times. He had good coverage and made some plays but was also beaten for a few receptions. He did do a good job of tackling. Bryan Scott had seven tackles and continued his good run support with two stops for losses. Ko Simpson got called for a very flimsy late hit penalty on New England's first drive. He was then beaten by Welker for a 27 yard reception on the 2nd quarter scoring drive. He finished with 11 tackles. George Wilson got a half of sack on a safety blitz and recoverd a fumble on the play. Grade C: Still need to stop the short passing game better.
Special Teams:Brian Moorman averaged 41.6 yards on five punts including 4 inside the 20 and a net of 39.6 yards as they allowed only one 10 yard punt return. Rian Lindell hit his lone field goal attempt, a chip shot from 25 yards out. There was only one kick return and it was bottled up for 13 yards. Roscoe Parrish fair caught a punt in the third quarter that was returnable. He should have looked to make a big play that the team desperately needed. Leodis McKelvin broke lose with an 85 yard kickoff return unfortunately the game was already over. He averaged 46 yards on three returns. Grade A-: The only unit that played a full game.
Coaching:Dick Jauron may need to get more vocal when trying to challenge plays. He didn't get the refs attention on the first drive pass to Welker that should have been called incomplete. Why did they waste a timeout before a punt on 4th and 3 at Pats 39 late in the first half? That left them without enough timeouts to get the ball back. Turk Schonert has totally given up on the running game as twice they threw on third and one and didn't have the confidence to go for it on 4th and 1 from the 46 when they needed a big play. Perry Fewell once again couldn't find a way to stop the short passing game but he did slow it down a bit. Grade F: Changes may be needed as it should be panic time.
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