Is it REALLY made of pigskin?

NFL week four thoughts.

:: Geez, two crappy games in a row for the Bills. Ugh, yuck, foulness incarnate! (But if they had to lose at home, at least it was to a team that I like. If it had been, say, the Cowboys, I'd be vomiting in seven different colors.)

So what's wrong with the Bills? The running game's complete absence is the main answer. Starting running back Travis Henry sat out after getting hurt last week, but even in the first two games the running game didn't produce. I'm really confused as to why the running game is so nonexistent. It's the same offensive line as last year, plus they added Sam Gash, who is one of the best lead blockers in the business. And yet, the Bills thus far in 2003 cannot run the ball. I don't know if it's a matter of impatience, and they just need to keep pounding it until it opens, or what. But what does worry me is that each game with anemic rushing, even if they win, will make the Bills that much more likely to press last year's first-round draft pick Willis McGahee into service as soon as he's eligible to play and the doctors say his leg won't fall off.

Actually, I'm wondering if part of the problem isn't the offensive line after all -- a pretty big part, as a matter of fact. The Bills used to fall into this trap in the mid and late 1990s: they would start off the season completely unable to generate much offense, the line would get blamed, but as the year went on they'd get better, they'd have a few big games late in the year, and everyone would figure that the o-line was fine and nothing needed fixing in the offseason. And then the next year, the same pattern would emerge. I wonder if the Bills weren't overimpressed with the line's performance last year, and thus did nothing to improve it again in the offseason. Just a thought, but you tend to win (or lose) with the performance of your big guys up front, on both sides of the ball, and Buffalo's thus far hasn't been terribly good.

Also, there's the lack of a consistent number two receiver, although Bobby Shaw seems to be showing signs of life there. Josh Reed was supposed to be that guy, but he's simply not getting open. This really isn't all that surprising; NFL receivers tend to take several years to develop. Peerless Price blossomed last year, and that was his fourth year in the NFL; prior to that, he was generally viewed as an underachiever. Eric Moulds didn't come of age until his third year, and in fact, prior to the 1998 NFL season (when Moulds finally broke out with Doug Flutie at quarterback), the Buffalo News actually labeled Moulds as a rare "bust" for the Bills' drafting team.

And it really killed that at the one time when the Bills desperately needed their defense to stand strong and force the Eagles to go three-and-out, they instead gave up that long touchdown run that sealed the game for Philly. In general, the defense had its share of decent plays yesterday, but they didn't create any turnovers and their tackling was pretty suspect. There were a number of plays yesterday in which an Eagles ball-carrier or receiver would have been stopped had the Bills' defender wrapped him up as opposed to relying on the "big hit" to knock him down.

So, the Bills are 2-2 right now, when I figured they'd be 3-1. Not a disaster, but they've got bigger holes than I thought. And if Gregg Williams wants to keep his job, he needs to get those holes filled, pronto.

:: We're roughly one-quarter of the way through the NFL season, and right now my preseason predictions seem...well, they're not in good shape. Of all the teams I predicted to win divisions, only one -- Pittsburgh -- even has a share of first place. It's a long season, though, and things will probably shake up a bit. I can only hope, anyway.

:: OK, isn't that amazing-looking guy who threw all those touchdown passes for the Vikings yesterday the same guy who once injured himself by headbutting a wall in a touchdown celebration? Am I missing something?!

:: Now it's starting to feel like football season, when it starts to get dark during the late games. This is when I start to get interested in games other than the Bills. I even watched a bit of Kansas City/Baltimore yesterday. Ah, football....