Good news, bad news

The good news is that Byzantium's Shores is, as of this writing, the Number One result for this search. Yay, me!

The bad news is that...well, that the Buffalo Bills also looked like pansies yesterday. But then, the Bills almost always look bad when they play in Tampa. Whether they're playing the Bucs or the Giants in a Super Bowl.

Anyhow, last Friday I was talking to a guy at The Store about my thoughts on the (then) upcoming game. I pegged it as a likely loss for the Bills, reasoning that the defense would play OK at first, but that the offense would struggle to the point of going three-and-out a lot and probably turning the ball over a bit, and that the defense would therefore be on the field for entirely too long and eventually succumb to the Bucs' running game.

Well, aside from the turnovers -- somehow, the Bills didn't turn it over all day (although they would have if the Bucs' defensive backs had held onto the ball) -- but everything else happened exactly as so. Three-and-out, three-and-out, three-and-out. A defense that looked a bit flat at the outset only got flatter, and the Bills lost a 19-3 ballgame that wasn't even that close. The defense was a disappointment: they seem to be able to bring all kinds of pressure when they're nursing a lead, but when they're playing behind, they seem almost tentative. And Jerry Gray's supposed genius for making halftime adjustments sure wasn't in evidence, either. In short, I was amazed at how flat the Bills' D looked yesterday.

J.P. Losman's play was nowhere near as good as it was in Week One; he kept missing receivers and forcing balls and, in one very costly moment, tried to throw the ball away from his own end zone -- but after he'd lost track of where he was and stepped out of bounds for the safety. Ouch. However, the things that Losman did wrong are things that, as he gains experience, he'll theoretically do wrong less often. He'll learn how to put the right touch on a ball that he's throwing to a receiver who's not blanketed, but who still isn't wide-open. He'll learn how to look off defenders and how to account for that one guy he consistently fails to account for. And so on. This was the type of game everybody knew they'd see sooner or later from Losman, and I'm kind of glad we're seeing it sooner. We learn in large part by screwing up, so if he's gotta learn, I say, let him screw it up right now.

I also tend to get grumpy about the Bills' offensive line, but even though the running game stunk yesterday, I was surprised that the Bills' O-line only surrendered two sacks, and under special circumstances: the first was the safety when the Bills were backed up right to their own goal line and happened because Losman stepped out of bounds before he could throw the ball away, and the second came in the game's waning minute when the outcome was decided and everybody just wanted to get the hell out of Dodge. The Bucs' great pass rusher, Simeon Rice, wasn't much of a factor (he had the second of the Bucs' two sacks), which speaks well of new left tackle (or guard, I can never remember) Mike Gandy.

Receiver Josh Reed seems to be waking up again, after spending the last two years in the doldrums. Reed's got talent, and his re-emergence is a nice thing to see. However, one thing that the Bills have missed for years is a real quality pass-catching tight end. They haven't had one since Pete Metzelaars. I kind of suspect that this deficiency (I don't care, Mark Campbell is average at best) also hampered Drew Bledsoe, who had his best years as a QB in the NFL when he had Ben Coates making those catches over the middle in linebacker territory. There were quite a few moments yesterday when I thought that a really good tight end roaming the middle of the field would be just the safety valve J.P. Losman could use. Sure wish the Bills had one.

And one final note on the Bills: for some reason, Willis McGahee seems to be trying this year to run in the "Squirmin' Thurman" mode, doing a lot of east-and-west running and trying to be elusive. Where's the more Emmitt Smith-like runner from last year, the guy who was barreling north-and-south at full speed and who was knocking defenders aside with a lethal stiff-arm? Come on, Willis -- run it the way you know how. Let's see that burst and that strength again.

That's about all from yesterday (except, of course, hooray and a big thank-you to the Carolina Panthers, who brought the StuPats down to earth). Next up for the Bills: Atlanta's Falcons come to town, maybe with Mike Vick at quarterback. Now that ought to be exciting....