Saturday, October 15, 2011

Who Are The Bills??


     The Bills are a surprisingly good team this year.  With wins over Oakland, New England and Philly already, they travel to New York to face the Giants Sunday afternoon.  I say the Bills are surprising because some of their stats belie their record.  They are 30th in yards per game on DEFENSE.  They give up a little over 420 yards per game, however they have 12 interceptions to counteract that fact.  They are 29th in the league in rushing defense, while forcing 5 fumbles in the process. They are last in the league in sacks with a total of 4.  To say that this was a stout defense would be a lie, but they manage to create turnovers, and that’s how they have won some of these games.  With all of that yardage and the negative statistics on defense, they are in the middle of the pack allowing 24 points per game.  They do have some injuries to their defense this week.  Their nose tackle Kyle Williams most likely will be out of the line-up Sunday as will Steroid freak Shawn Merriman, no great loss there.  Merriman has been missing in action for them for a while now, even when he has been on the field.  It is a bad stat when your safeties lead your team in tackles, but when your D-Line has a total of 30 tackles and no sacks thru 5 games, someone has to be stepping into the hole.
On Offense the Bills rank third in points scored with almost 33.  They are 4th in rushing yards and 13th in passing.  They are led by Ivy League (HARVARD) QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, who seems to have found a system he can work within.  Head coach Chan Gailey has turned this part of the team around.  Fitzpatrick  now completes 66% of his passes.  He has 10 TD’s with 4 INT’s.  He has not fumbled the ball so far this year.  He is a possession Qb with the ability to throw the ball deep.  Again the stats say he averages 7 yards a throw, but he has only been sacked three times, and has thrown for a total of over 1200 yards.  Stevie Johnson and Fred Jackson are the stars of this offense.  The Bills know how to spread the ball around through the air, and can pound you on the ground.  This is a true west coast offense, one that can give the Giants fits if they are not careful.
Finally we face a team without a Special teams nightmare waiting to happen.  The Bills average 7 yards a return on punts with a long of 10, and 24 yards on kickoffs with a long of 25.  Hopefully the Giants can win a field position battle this week.
Giants need to avoid the turnovers this week, and turn both of the sack stats of Buffalo around.   The Giants should be able to keep Eli upright against a team with a total of 4 sacks, and hopefully can have Ryan Fitzpatrick visit the Meadowlands turf more times this game than he has all year…it would go as a big plus towards winning this game.

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