Bills mistakes propel Jets

After the Bills roared to a 4-0 start this season, the Bills media and fans were confident that this would be the year the Bills would break their playoff drought. The media was downright giddy, looking over the schedule and predicting the Bills would not lose more than 5 games.

How all that has changed in just two weeks. The Bills, who hadn't played one AFC East foe until last week, now are 0-2 against their divisional rivals. They were once again humiliated, this time at home and against the Jets by a score of 26-17. It was not pretty. In fact, the Bills put on their scariest performance of the year on Halloween weekend.

Where do we begin in discussing this monstrosity? Let's start at quarterback. Trent Edwards, who some were claiming better than any quarterback in the NFL a few weeks ago, is making some pretty nasty mistakes. He turned the ball over 3 times on Sunday. One was with the Bills knocking on the door in the red zone when Abram Elam stepped in front of an Edwards pass and had clear daylight in front of him as he rambled for a 92-yard touchdown.

Before that, after the Bills were in front 7-0, Edwards was sacked deep in the Bills territory and fumbled. The Bills defense held tough that time and allowed only a field goal.

Edwards wasn't the only player who had a poor performance, as his entire offensive line in front of him is resembling Swiss cheese these days. The overweight, overpaid O line cannot pass block as well as they should and their run blocking is even worse. The Bills ran the ball 17 times for a mere 30 yards. That translates to a scrawny 1.8-yard average. The University of Buffalo Bulls could run block better than these fat cats.

On the defensive side, the Bills once again cannot mount any sustained pass rush. That allows the opposing quarterback plenty of time to look over the field and finally find his receivers. Brett Favre won his first game in Ralph Wilson Stadium after losing his first three visits. Favre was 19 of 28 for 201 yards. He threw one pick, when Jabari Greer intercepted a Favre pass and went 42 for the Bills second TD of the day.

The Bills were actually better in the first half than the second. They controlled the clock with two straight long drives, consuming up over a quarter on the clock. But the net result was a -7 on the scoreboard. That's when Edwards threw that pick that went 92 yards the other way. The Bills drove down again and went for it on 4th and 1 near the goal line and were stopped.

In all, the Bills are crashing and burning after their great 4-0 start. The way it is going with the poor play on both sides of the ball, the Bills will be lucky to end up 8-8 this season.