Report Card: Bills Offense
By Dennis Amo
Brian Spurlock-US PRESSWIRE
As we have done so many times this year, we are looking at a loss. This loss is also one that is tougher to take than others because it basically puts the Bills out of Playoff contention. There needs to be a major miracle and a lot of teams falling out for any hope at this point. So in all reality, almost all hope is lost for playoffs this year. Looking back on the game and grading the offense we will start with the Quarterback. Fitzpatrick, at one point was 8 of 22. He had a couple of big play throws but it seemed as the offense fell apart the closer they got to the end zone. The late interception with 4:31 left on the clock, was a damaging really only in field position as Johnson came back and was able to strip and recover the ball. Fitz did not play the best and at times cost the team with costly inaccurate throws. Fitzs gets a grade of a C-. The Running Backs are next on the list. We saw more of Spiller, which was expected. Spiller had some great plays and seemed to keep the offense moving for most of the game. There were times that his decision making to bounce it to the outside was not the best choice, and it would have been better if he put his head down and got 2-3 rather than no gain or a loss. Jackson did not look at all like his old and struggled at times. Spiller gets a B- and Jackson a C. Johnson made some catches but also dropped some; Seems to be his M.O. this year; C, at best, for Johnson. The offensive line was pressured by Freeney and Mathias and had their hands full, and at times had to keep multiple people in to assist in blocking. This helped but it was not consistent and Fitz was under pressure for most of the game. The offensive line gets a C- as well. Chan Gailey is the Last to receive a grade and to be honest, his repetitive play calling is getting to be a bit annoying. Yes, the screen and draw plays work once and sometimes twice, but when you begin to run them back to back in some cases, they take away from what could have been. Gailey is a decent play caller and is a genius at times, but unless it is an ‘at the line call’ by Fitz, then I think we need to add a couple of other plays to the playbook. D+.
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