Bills-Giants Recap

Turnovers were once again the story this week for the Buffalo Bills, just not in the way they've become accustomed to. The Bills lost a tough one on the 27-24 to the New York Giants, largely on the strength of two Ryan Fitzpatrick interceptions.

The shame of the whole situation is that Fitzpatrick otherwise acquitted himself fairly well, going 21/30 for 244 and 2 TDs (plus those picks). Both throws were good decisions, but badly underthrown deep balls to Stevie Johnson, including one with only 4:10 left in a tied ballgame.

Thoughts:

- Once again, Fred Jackson was the workhorse, piling up 168 total yards and a touchdown. He had the longest touchdown run of his career with a brilliant 80 yarder that tied the scoring up at 7. No doubt in my mind that he's the NFL's MVP up to this point in the year. No player is more important to the success of his team than Jackson.

- As hard as this loss was to take, I don't feel as though I watched bad football being played. This was. more than any other Bills game I've watched this year, a game of inches. Both teams had great individual efforts and big mental errors. Unfortunately this one really did come down to those two picks. If Fitzy managed to throw those passes just five yards further downfield, we're talking about the Bills being 5-1 right now. I'm sure he knows it to. I was watching with some friends who were Giants fans, and their hearts were going out to him. Hopefully he's puts those behind him during the bye and plays a great game against the Redskins.

- I'm beginning to wonder if Marcell Dareus is a bit too heavy right now. He's had some dominating flashes, but I saw several plays this week where turned the motor off. I'm not sure what the issue is, but that is not a good sign.

- I was hoping for to see more of Spiller in the passing game, and my hopes were somewhat answered. It wasn't a tremendous performance, but Spiller caught a career high five passes for a season high 39 yards. Doesn't sound like much, but considering that Spiller had six catches for 16 yards in the previous five weeks, its improvement. Here's hoping that its a taste of things to come.

- The pass rush was, once again, pretty awful. Shawne Merriman and Kyle Williams haven't really lit up the stat sheet this year, but their loss was definitely felt in the passing game. Arthur Moats once again flashed some skills, but started getting neutralized once the Giants committed to using an offensive lineman on him. Dareus had a few strong inside rushes, but had plenty of problems keeping it up (see above). I've got to think upgrading the pass rush has to be priority number one going into next year.

- I was dead wrong about the Giants pass rush not being a factor. The Giants sacked Fitzpatrick three times, and harried him pretty consistently. Erik Pears in particular struggled with the speed rush on the edge. Part of it has to be chalked up to the Giants ability to read the snap count, and/or the Bills inability to change it up. That crucial encroachment penalty that Fitzpatrick drew towards the end of the game was a product of Fitz finally exploiting the Giants twitchiness. Its something that the Bills will need to work on going into the bye.

- Thanks to my friends Dreyer and Andrea for the hosting and for the wings. Pleasure to watch the game with you guys!

Next week is the bye, and it probably couldn't have come at a better time. The Bills need to rest up and do some re-assessment. 4-2 is better than a lot of folks assumed we be right now, but the truth is that we could be better.

(AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Bills-Giants Preview

The Bills tour through the NFC East continues this week as they travel to New Jersey to face the New Giants. The Giants are fresh off of a disappointing loss to the Seattle Seahawks, one in which they turned the ball five times.

- Don't expect the Giants to turn the ball over five times again this week. Thus far this year the Giants have been fairly careful with the ball and even after last week's terrible performance are +2 in turnovers for the year. The turnover hungry Bills defense has made a living off of turnovers this year, but I don't expect them to be able to fall back on that this week.

The good news for the Bills defense, is that the Giants have managed to find other ways of getting themselves off of the field. The Giants are 29th in the NFL on third down, converting just 29% of their chances. The Bills defense is 15th in the league on third down conversions, keeping opponents to a 38% conversion rate.

- This will be a game of weakness against weakness. The Giants are 31st in yards per carry in the NFL (3.2) and the Bills are 31st in yards per surrendered per carry (5.5). Something has to give. The pessimist in me tells me it will be the Bills defense, but the critical observer in me says otherwise.

A cursory look at the Bills first five opponents reveals some very impressive running games. The Bills have faced four of the top ten rushing offenses (per carry) in the NFL in the first five weeks (Eagles- 1st, Raiders- 3rd, Patriots- 7th and Chiefs- 8th). And don't go thinking that these teams are all in the top ten because they faced the Bills. The only game that the Bills truly were gashed in the run game was against the Eagles. Even then, a lot of those yards came on two plays, Vick's 53 yard scramble and McCoy's 32 yard run.

Which brings us to the point of the conversation. While last year, teams continually ripped off five to seven yard runs against an overwhelmed front seven, this year the problem is much more with big plays. The Bills have surrendered eight runs of 20+ yards this year, which is tied for 2nd worst in the NFL right now. Its the occasional mental lapses which are sinking this defense, and thats what they need to fix.

Easier said than done admittedly. The good news is that the Giants have been particularly good at creating big plays in the run game. They've managed only one rush of 20+ yards all year. If there is a better opportunity for the Bills defense to get a handle on the running game, we haven't seen it.

- I've been beating the drum about this for the last couple weeks, and I say again: CJ Spiller needs more touches. I understand the difficulty faced in getting Spiller touches- its hard to find a place to put him. He can't quite do all that the wide receivers are asked to do, and you obviously want to get Fred Jackson as many touches as you can, but you have to believe there are opportunities to be had for him. Maybe play more split backs, which would get both Jackson and Spiller on the field. Maybe he should get more reps as on the outside, where his speed could be a big advantage vertically (something we're currently missing with the injuries to Jones and Parrish). Gailey has earned my trust with this offense, so I'm hopeful he'll find a way to make it happen, but I think its need sooner than later.

- This could easily turn into another shootout. Like the Bills, the Giants have been soft against the run this year. After strong outings against the Redskins and the Rams, the Giants have let up 177, 156 and 145 yards in successive weeks. They're 21st in yards, 17th in yards per attempt and most troubling, 28th in touchdowns surrendered. While better against the pass, they still give up 250 yards a game.

Don't get me wrong- the Giants still possess an excellent pass rush. Jason Pierre-Paul has quietly been a revelation with 7 sacks, and the Giants lead the NFL with 18 overall. The Bills however, have been down this road several times thus far this year. They played the NFL's best pass rushing team from a year ago in the Oakland Raiders and only surrendered one sack. Last week, the faced the league leading Eagles and only surrendered two. Whether by virtue of the Bills quick passing game, the play of its line, Fitzy's decision making or a combination of all three, Fitzy has kept a fairly clean jersey this year. We may very well see a lot of scoring.

- I suppose it probably doesn't have to be said, but I'd just like to stop and point out just how well Fred Jackson is playing. He's averaging 142.2 yards per game this year, third in the league behind Matt Forte and Wes Welker. His 480 rushing yards is third in the league, and 48 more yards than the Giants have collectively managed. Jackson has seven 20+ yard runs, tied for best in the league, but has yet to fumble. On top of all this, he's arguably the best pass blocking running back in the league.