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Bills Week 15 Report Card

Quarterbacks: It’s hard to gauge Trent Edwards performance by the numbers due to the snowy conditions. He completed 13-33 passes for 124 yards, while his counter part, Derek Anderson, went 9-24 for 137 yards. I think Edwards look uncomfortable in the snow, as many of his passes sailed inaccurately into the blizzard. He was hurt by some horrendous play calling as well.

However, on the final drive, he did rally the troops with three big completions, but it wasn’t enough to get into the end zone. He definitely showed me something there.

Edwards did go to Stanford and he did attend high school in Los Gatos, California. Playing in the snow is something he hopefully will learn with time. After all, Jim Kelly did go to Miami. Grade: C-

Running backs: Marshawn Lynch had a nice day considering he faced a lot of eight and nine man fronts from Cleveland. Lynch showed up in the cold and got 82 tough yards on 21 carries including a 29-yard burst. Freddie Jackson wasn’t as good with just 16 yards on seven carries. I don’t fault Jackson for the screen pass on the final play, that was just a horrible call. They gave it a nice effort, but they simply had nowhere to run. Grade: B

Wide receivers: Lee Evans made a few gutsy catches, finishing with four for 36-yards. However, Braylon Edwards, made a few highlight reel grabs on his way to 64-yards. Josh Reed caught three passes for 29-yards. Evans struggled to get deep against Leigh Bodden on the stop-and-go, because he wasn’t comfortable with a hard stop in the snow. Roscoe Parrish was targeted a few times, but couldn’t get open. Buffalo needs a big, Braylon Edwards sized target for this type of weather, because speed doesn’t do much in the snow. Grade: C+

Tight ends: Robert Royal caught a pass for 9-yards and Michael Gaines caught two balls for 14-yards. However, Gaines dropped one pass that him on the hands across the middle. Gaines would’ve at least gained 20-yards, if not scored a touchdown. Grade: D

Offensive line: They did get a decent day out of Marshawn Lynch considering the fronts they faced all day. It was tough work for them to continually create holes when Cleveland knew the run was coming. The line was alright in pass protection, as they allowed no sacks and Edwards was hit five times. Grade: B

Defensive line: Aaron Schobel made a great play to sack Derek Anderson, while facing a double team. He also had two hits on the quarterback. The rest of the line was quiet, allowing Jamal Lewis to run all over them for 163-yards. Tackling is likely to be a big focus of practice this week. Grade: D

Linebackers: This group gets more of the blame for Lewis’ big day, as they missed an incredible amount of tackles. John DiGiorgio (five tackles), Keith Ellison (four) and Angelo Crowell (five) posted their worst games of the season. They looked like high school kids trying to bring down Lewis. Grade: F

Secondary: Terrence McGee and Jabari Greer had a touch match-up with Joe Jurevicius and Braylon Edwards. Greer broke up and nearly intercepted a deep pass to Edwards on the first play. McGee finished with six tackles. Bryan Scott also nearly picked off a pass and recorded five tackles in extended duty. Edwards beat McGee a few times, but only because he made ridiculous catches. The long play to Jurevicius was all luck. Donte Whitner did an outstanding job on Kellen Winslow Jr. (two catches, 28 yards) and finished with five tackles. Considering the offense has the advantage in these conditions, they played well. Grade B+

Special Teams: Who would have thought special teams would be the difference in a Bills loss? The first bad snap of the year by Ryan Neill led to a safety, when Moorman had to kick through the back of the end zone. Meanwhile, Phil Dawson showed off his leg in drilling two incredible field goals. The rest of the special teams weren’t bad. Moorman converted a fourth down by running a fake punt. He also was good on most of his punts, averaging 35.9-yards and landing three inside the 20. The special teamers nearly busted a few for a touchdown. The coverage teams held Josh Cribbs to one kick return for 26-yards and two punt returns for 5-yards. Grade: C

Coaching: Steve Fairchild should just resign and enjoy his time at Colorado State. His play calling was scared of the snow and wind. They took a deep shot to Evans once and the rest of the time, the plays were predictable in running the ball. The offense didn’t stand a chance until the final drive, when Edwards threw every time. Perry Fewell’s team couldn’t stop the run, but they did a great job in limiting Cleveland to a pair of field goals. I think Dick Jauron should’ve told Fairchild to throw the ball more at the half. I’m giving defense a B, offense an F and special teams a B (can’t blame a bad snap on Bobby April)

This entry was posted on Monday, December 17th, 2007 at 4:09 pm and is filed under Cleveland Browns, Report cards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.