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Buffalo Bills: Special Teams Need to Play Smarter Moving Forward

ByPaul Taylor|

Special teams need to show more discipline for the Buffalo Bills

There were a lot of things you could point out about the Buffalo Bills 40-32 loss to the New England Patriots. Most significant of all though, was the lack of good judgement and discipline.

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One week after conceding 11 penalties against the Indianapolis Colts, they followed this up with 14 more versus the Patriots. This is, quite simply, unacceptable.

While all three facets of the team are to blame, the special teams received a considerable amount of the criticism. They accounted for six penalties against New England, and this doesn’t include the three that were declined.

Rex Ryan discussed this aspect during his news conference on Monday with the media, including Chris Brown of buffalobills.com: “I met with Danny (Crossman) today about our special teams penalties. That seems to be a big thing.

“There’s a big difference between being aggressive and being foolish.  That’s the number one thing about our football team that we have to understand.”

One example that stood out for me, was when the Bills were forced to punt from their own one-yard line, when the game was tied at 7-7. The ensuing return had an unnecessary personal foul penalty tagged on at the end of it.

Sep 20, 2015; Orchard Park, NY, USA; Buffalo Bills head coach Rex Ryan talks to head linesman Jim Howey (37) during a time out against the New England Patriots at Ralph Wilson Stadium. Patriots defeat the Bills 40 to 32. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports

This set the Patriots up at Buffalo’s 13-yard line. They scored two plays later to take a 14-7 lead, and never looked back.

However, even this was put in the shade by an earlier instance, when the Bills held a 7-0 lead and had just forced New England to give up possession. Marcus Thigpen returned the punt to the Patriots 46-yard line, and they were looking in great shape.

Unfortunately, Randell Johnson was called for a block in the back. This led to the ball been moved all the way back to the Buffalo 28-yard line.

Ryan referred to this, while speaking to Brown and the rest of the media: “The blocking in the back is killing us.  We’ve got to learn from it.

“Thigpen’s going to get at least a 20-yard return, you don’t need that block.  We have to be smart—pass through. Run through it.”

In truth, it’s still early in the season, with Ryan, his coaching staff and the players likely still getting familiar with each other. (No matter how important training camp and preseason games are, they don’t compensate fully for regular season football.)

However, this still has to be resolved soon, before the season beings to go off the rails, with Ryan stressing the need for more common sense: “We’ve got to be smarter at those things.

“There are certain calls that could have gone either way, probably so.  But if they’re close enough to call we have to find a way to get better at it.”

Next: Bills vs Dolphins clash now takes on extra significance

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