JP Losman is sacked.

AV correspondent Dave Staba reports on Sunday’s loss from the cheap seats at Ralph Wilson Stadium:

Trent Edwards rolled to his right.

And he rolled to his right.

And then he rolled some more.

Finally, a moment before he would have run completely off the field, Buffalo’s quarterback flung the ball towards his intended receiver, who was evidently sitting in a third-row seat near the southerly corner at the tunnel end of Ralph Wilson Stadium.

No one wearing a Bills uniform was in the vicinity of Edwards’ throw, which he released midway through the second quarter, with his team trailing San Francisco 7-0. The National Football League’s play-by-play insists the intended receiver was Josh Reed, whom it places in the “front right corner of end zone.”

As the official account of the game is understandably commentary-free, it does not mention that Reed would have needed to be roughly 19 feet tall to have gotten a hand close to Edwards’ fling.

Taken in isolation, the third-down play was unremarkable. With no open receiver or clear running lane, Edwards did the sensible thing. Following the incompletion, Buffalo was in position for a kick no more daunting than a routine extra point. Neither the quarterback nor the coaches who called the play could have known that the generally reliable Rian Lindell was about to become far less so, bonking the sure thing off the left upright.

The truly galling part about the incompletion, one of 11 issued by Edwards before a worsening groin injury forced to him to pack it in for the day at halftime, was that it was immediately preceded by another one. With the Bills all of six feet away from tying a game they absolutely had to prevent a steadily unraveling season from complete disintegration.

(more…)

From high in the silver-lined clouds whereon he lives, Dave Staba reports on Sunday’s loss by the Buffalo Bills to the Miami Dolphins:

The fourth quarter of Buffalo’s annual visit to South Florida on Sunday could, in theory, have gone worse for the Bills.

The cart used to wheel the injured off the field could have slipped into gear and careened, driver-less, down Buffalo’s sideline, dissembling the knees of Trent Edwards, Marshawn Lynch, Lee Evans, Brian Moorman, Donte Whitner, and Kawika Mitchell.

The National Football League could have lifted its Michael Vick-induced ban on the playing of “Who Let the Dogs Out?” on stadium public-address systems every time the home team registers the mildest of achievements, which, given Buffalo’s self-immolation over the final 15 minutes of a 25-16 deflation, would have led to near-constant loop and countless royalties for the Baha Men.

(If you don’t think this would be so catastrophic, that’s because you weren’t at a football stadium in the fall of 2000, particularly Dolphins Stadium for Miami’s 22-13 win over Buffalo that October. Whoever was running the audio portion of the game presentation hit the button after each of Miami’s five scores, all six sacks of Rob Johnson, and whenever else the mood struck. I was keeping count in the press box and the tally reached 17 before I had to give up and start writing early in the fourth quarter. Go ahead. Try to get it out of your head now. You’re welcome.)

Or they could have been playing a better opponent, in which case the final score could easily have been 40-16.

It started off well enough, with the Bills trailing by but a single point and the ball at Miami’s 47-yard line. If anything, Buffalo seemed poised for the sort of triumphant rally that produced three of their first five wins.

Then Edwards, who had been nearly perfect in the first five fourth quarters in which he had appeared previously this year, dropped back to pass.

(more…)

Safe in the electrified comfort of his home, AV football correspondent Dave Staba reports on Sunday’s win over the Chargers:

Two pivotal plays in Buffalo’s partially electrified win over San Diego on Sunday showed why anything short of the Bills’ first playoff appearance of the millennium will be a crashing disappointment.

Trailing by four points with a little more than five minutes left in the first half, moments after the first balloon-forced blackout, an efficient drive following an unforced fumble by Chargers quarterback Phillip Rivers had Buffalo two yards away from a touchdown.

(The Season Ticket coverage team would like to take this opportunity to categorically deny any involvement in the release of metallic-tailed helium balloons in the vicinity of Ralph Wilson Stadium, which team officials have blamed for the power outages that denied ticket holders their right to high-definition highlights on the stadium’s Jumbotron. Besides causing tremendous embarrassment to NYSEG, the mishap also triggered immeasurable cursing among local television viewers who  had spent the morning trying to hook up archaic antennae, thanks to the stunningly dumb standoff between the local cable company and Buffalo’s CBS affiliate, only to lose their hard-won signal for extended periods twice. Like the power company, we’re blaming this one on the kids.)

The call sent in from the sideline was a run to Marshawn Lynch, a pretty safe call considering the second-year running back’s propensity for carrying opposing tacklers into the end zone.

(more…)