Buffalo Nickel and Wide-Right Awards

Sep 29, 2013; Orchard Park, NY, USA; Baltimore Ravens tight end Dallas Clark (87) watches as Buffalo Bills middle linebacker Kiko Alonso (50) makes a second half interception at Ralph Wilson Stadium. Bills beat Ravens 23 to 20. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports

The Buffalo Bills have beaten the defending Super Bowl Champs, the Baltimore Ravens 23-20.  Joe Flacco threw a career high 5 interceptions and the Bills were able to hold of Rice and Pierce in the running game.  The Buffalo Bills defense looked liked they were ready to play and look like a completely different team.  The defensive line was able to get pressure, one of my keys to being successful, and they were able to capitalize on the turnovers they got, for the most part.

For the Buffalo Nickel award, it is definitely going to a defensive player, the only question is who?  Kiko Alonso and Aaron Williams were able to come away with 4 interceptions.  They all came at key times in the game and were able to turn the momentum right back into Buffalo’s favor.  I think between them, Alonso had the bigger of the game changing interceptions as it led to the Bills running the clock out to win the game.  Alonso will get this weeks Buffalo Nickel award.

For the Wide-Right award, it could go a couple of different ways.  The declined penalty in the 3rd quarter still sticks in my head as the wrong move rather than taking the illegal formation and moving them back to about 2nd and 20 and giving the defense a little more of a cushion to work with.  In the end, Alonso came away with his first interception two two plays later after the Ravens got the first down so it really wasn’t a big deal in hindsight.  The other issue I had was I felt that the Referees called a terrible game and there were some calls that could have really hurt the Bills fi it was not for their defense.  Also, Manuel did not have the best second half of his professional career again.   Fumbling his own read option and almost losing it could have been disastrous.  In the end though, I still think that Marrone not accepting that penalty was a major mistake and his game handling has not been the greatest.  The Time management has gotten better, but there is still a lot of improvement on his end as well.  Wide-right award goes to Marrone.