By Mark Weiler

August 27th, 2007

Bills fans get it already. JP Losman can loft deep balls to Lee Evans for big plays and TDs. Everyone that wasn’t blind and deaf and that has an IQ greater than Poz’s jersey number gets that. The question for the ’07 version of the Bills, and something that will either validate or contrarily invalidate the Ivy League Dynamic Duo’s entire methodologies, even so soon as this season, is can the Bills do anything else correctly and well besides special teams. The answer, if Friday night’s game vs. the Titans is any guide, is no, they cannot.

Official word from team/player statements is that the Bills are concerned about "not showing too much." No worries there however. As well, if that’s the case, if the Bills have decided to essentially just show nothing rather than risk showing too much, then why not just start the backups from the get-go and opening kickoff. That would certainly make more sense given the host of circumstances, the least of which is not that this team stunk the joint up last season in terms of their ability to play fundamentally sound football. In fact, they were arguably the worst team fundamentally of any as documented here on multiple occasions since the end of last season.

Readers ask me via e-mail why I am not at all enthusiastic about this season. This past game is precisely why. The Bills are about as far away from fundamentally sound football as they can possibly be, and seemingly getting even worse after running, not walking, in the opposite direction from where they need to go. While some would suggest that preseason games are meaningless, the Wysman’s response to that is that perhaps any particular preseason game is meaningless, or perhaps for teams having performed decently in terms of fundamentals the season prior they’re meaningless, but for the Bills this preseason entirely is not meaningless in the least. It’s also turning into a grand lost opportunity for the team to do everything within its ability to have this team in as much of a steady state as possible.

Yet the growing legacy of this team from a coaching perspective, which is already becoming clear for those that are intellectually honest, is one of "hiding everything and using the element of surprise" so as to presumably circumvent the tenets of fundamental football by using an alternate strategy and tactical method. Has anyone ever seen a team use defensive ends in coverage as much as the Bills do? The question is asked most seriously.

Apparently this is tantamount to my six-year old son telling me about such an incredible weapon that he has for his imaginary wars against the forces of evil that he cannot even show it to me that it’s so secret. Frankly I trust his ability to produce that more than I do Jauron to produce anything in the way of fundamental football this autumn, with a season now just two weeks away.

Some will no doubt argue that Dick Jauron in his infinite wisdom is "saving the team." For what one might very reasonably ask. To "save something" there must first be something to save. At this point there are few players that if lost represent a loss of big play ability and other than in a special teams role, short of Aaron Schobel and Lee Evans, there is not one other player on the team even remotely capable of putting up three or four solid games back-to-back much less an entire string of solid games.

Or are they "saving" their "real" tackles and just using pretend ones now? Or "saving" their "real" coverage and only covering like they did last season now? Or is Losman "saving" his "real" good decisions and accurate passes while intentionally making poor short ones now in efforts to deceive? Are our starting DTs "saving" their "real" efforts at trying to get to the QB so as "not to show too much?" They certainly didn’t "show too much" last regular season either.

The excuse of "vanilla" or "saving themselves" only goes so far and is clearly now being used as an excuse by a coaching staff that must already realize that they’re flirting with statuses of persona non grata soon.

As well, not as if it is common sense that when you use the defensive linemen in coverage as much as this team does, coupled with the number of plays it allows, again, hinged to league-worst time-of-possession, nah, there aren’t any reasons to believe that those linemen will tire more rapidly than their counterparts on other teams. Sadly this team must use "schemery," for lack of a better word at the moment, due to their sheer and utter inability to get decent play otherwise.

Regardless, why would anyone think that the defensive linemen might tire out more quickly if they are used in coverage? Could it not possibly be that players weighing 270 lbs. aren’t meant to be utilized in pass coverage. Yet, this is what the coaching staff has this team doing. Apparently Jauron and Fewell believe that they are brilliant in this way. Otherwise there is no substantiation for it besides massive gaps in talent on entire units on the D, which of course the team suggests is not an issue. The time frame for finding out the reality there is down to less than two weeks now.

What on earth ever happened to simple out-execution in the trenches and play based on that? Do Levy and Jauron even have a clue there? To date it is pretty apparent that they really do not even have an inkling of one.

Lastly, if the Bills must resort to going from Kelsay and Schobel to Wallace, Ah You, Powell or whomever else makes the roster, the menu will have gone from Ground Chuck and NY Strip respectively, to Alpo in a NY second.

Once again, to reiterate ad tedium, the Bills last season were either dead last or within only a few spots of it in time-of-possession, plays run, plays allowed, and rushing defense. Their rushing offense was not good either and fringing on that as well.

Now, it is fully understood that little should be expected from a defense that is playing a team that featured one of the league’s worst few defenses and one that features offensive all-pros such as Roydell Williams, Brian Ealy, Bo Scaife, Lendale White, and Chris Brown. (sarcasm)

To date the Bills have played the Falcons, Saints, and Titans, two of last season’s worst Ds and an average one otherwise at best, with only the Lions, yet another horrid D remaining. Yet, the Bills have managed no red zone TDs, no long sustained drives without having a lone deep ball be the premise for the entire kit-n-caboodle.

In other words, shades of last season with a regression of sorts. Boy howdy!

Sure, perhaps it’ll all miraculously change in time to host Denver, then New England and Pittsburgh on the road. A show of hands of those that believe the Bills emerge from those three games anything other than 0-3 while bringing up the rear of the NFL statistically in the most fundamentally relevant categories.

Regular readers here know how vacuous the Levy-Jauron Ivy-League-Dynamic-Duo’s philosophies actually are given all of the evidence prematurely indicating the folly of it all. However even the Wysman is reduced to utter astonishment at how the team has seemingly actually regressed from last season.

Again, perhaps the team is "playing possum," but the team does not have the luxury of running that risk to be sure. Are we "trying to sneak up on" .500 this season? Objectively anyone looking through rose-colored lenses might expect a .500 season or so. The reality of it all seems to be shaping up such that if the Bills can win three or four games they should consider themselves fortunate.

I personally have lost any zeal and enthusiasm that I have had for watching this team. Fans expecting much in the way of competence will be tremendously disappointed this season and for the foreseeable future. The way to enjoy this team, if that is even possible, is to simply take nothing about it seriously ala its owner. Too many years of Wilson’s apathy towards the caliber of play of his own business venture coupled with wooden-headed figurines running this team have left the Wysman reviewing games only due to reader requests and for the simple love of analysis.

This preseason review comes to you courtesy of requests by readers asking why nothing has been written about the team. In short, there’s really nothing to write about that’s any different from last season or any different from predictions made here over the last months since last season.

The big hopes offensively for this team are JP Losman’s short game which thus far is looking only marginally, if that and in yielding the benefit of the doubt, improved from the well below average game he brought last season, along with Marshawn Lynch who at this juncture is looking worse than McGahee. In fact, if Lynch can’t do more than the 16 carries for 28 yards that he’s put up this with almost all of that coming on three single runs, then just name Thomas the starter now. Lynch has gotten absolutely nothing more than what his blocking has given him thus far this preseason. That is going to be a problem.

Losman can thank Lee Evans for having a job handed to him this season. The team and its fans can be thankful that Evans is a Bill. Absent Evans this team would have no offense worth even mentioning and easily the worst in the league.

The season’s prediction piece will not be up for another week and a half or so, but pencil in now that the Bills will have one of their five worst defensive showings ever this season. They can’t stop the run against RBs such as Jennings, White, and Brown. How on earth will they stop the RBs featured in some of their regular season games this year; Henry/Bell, Maroney, Johnson, Jones, Jones-Drew, Portis/Betts, Westbrook and others, many with far more balanced passing games to balance those offenses out.

Just because no one within the Bills’ organization seems to understand that the fundamentals of the game, which almost exclusively feed off of superb line play on both sides of the ball, does not alter either the fact that it is the basis for playoff and championship caliber football nor does it mitigate the outcomes. Ignorance may be bliss, but in this case it is also merely a recipe for disaster.

Perhaps the statement that "if you can’t run the ball you won’t be good," along with the converse regarding stopping the run has been heard once too often such that is has become nothing but a meaningless cliché at One Bills Drive. Who knows. What is known is that this team will win games, seemingly sans any tangible or visible improvement amidst only blatant regression, only via deep ball passes and big special teams plays. How many games a team can win in that manner remains to be seen, but allow it to once again be suggested here that the answer is a maximum of seven. (See ’06 season)

The bottom line to this entire façade and charade is that the Bills have not improved from what they were last season in the least based on three preseason games to date. Their running game is not better, their ability to stop the run certainly is not, their pass defense has regressed, and their passing offense is still entirely predicated on the deep ball to Evans.

This team is going to once again rank among the bottom three teams for time-of-possession, and poorly, last or near last in plays run and plays allowed. If that’s a good thing, then so be it.

As to this particular game, JP’s short-medium game was not crisp and clearly indicative that if that doesn’t improve, and yesterday, that he will begin facing heat from either Nall and/or Edwards. He had one interception, could easily have added two or three more in one half of play, and made several tremendously poor decisions. While Losman did loft another deep ball to Evans for a TD, he was fortunate to have had that play because on the play just prior to it he threw a pass right into Nick Harper’s hands yet which Harper dropped.

Losman had completions of 64, 56, 21, 12, 10, 7, 6, 3, 1, nearly had four INTs, and his and the team’s entire offense is clearly predicated on deep passes for TDs, exactly as last season’s offense was. 11 of 20 passes fell incomplete.

Lynch showed nothing running the ball other than what his line gave him. While he reminds the Wysman of Roger Craig, the former 49er, Lynch in this game had runs of 6, 4, 3, 2, 0, 0, -1, -1, and –4. He had one nice grab of one of the few nicely thrown short balls by Losman, yet for only a 3-yard gain, nevertheless validating that he does have hands.

The interior DL once again got pushed around and were disallowed by the Titan OL from being any sort of factor. They were anything but "disruptive," the premise behind which the success of the defense is entirely predicated upon. Ergo, expect a poor defense. They only got through on plays in which they were taken out of the play in that way. Pass blocking was OK, run blocking was poor.

On a very important and revealing play in this game both Preston and Langston Walker were absolutely taken to school by Randy Starks and Albert Haynesworth. That play was the broken play at just shy of the 9-minute mark of the 2nd quarter on which JP Losman under pressure scrambled to the left and nearly into the end zone. While good in terms of revealing Losman’s mobility and ability to maneuver out of trouble, the play had far deeper implications for the team as a whole and for the upcoming season.

The play was important on multiple levels. First it revealed how bad Langston Walker can be. He was literally thrown around like a rag doll weighing 200 lbs. by Haynesworth who had stunted around Starks. Literally. Second, Starks blew past and handled Preston with ease, again, literally with ease. As a team, on this most critical red-zone play on 3rd down at the Titans’ 11-yard line, the Titans overloaded the right side of the Bills’ offensive line. It will not take defensive coordinators faced by the Bills this season too much mental energy to begin doing the same, routinely.

Lastly, that was also not the only play on which the right line was utterly collapsed or revealed terminal issues. While Peters and Dockery have their lapses, the difference between the two sides of this line was as obvious as ever in this game. The Bills wasted their money on Langston Walker and the Ivy-League-Dynamic-Duo & Co. should be held accountable for "what they saw that others haven’t" in the massive waste of cap space and physical space not to mention actual dollars.

Sure, the play left the left side of the field open for Losman’s scramble attempt for paydirt, but the effort by the Titans blew up the play and collapsed the pocket instantaneously and revealed how horrible the right side of the Bills OL is. That single play, if viewed by teams prepping for the Bills this season, reveals a wealth of data and useful information. It is unlikely that more plays such as that do not develop often throughout this season. Either way, an offense cannot be run with "broken plays" as the basis for success. This offense is in a world heap of trouble in this way from week one and running through week 17. Perhaps at least pressure from fans and media will mount to prematurely correct yet another in what has only proven to be a string of poor Wilson decisions. Even so, why anyone would ever trust Wilson do make a good one in the future given his past record in this way. Hope is scant under Wilson.

The Bills D showed obvious signs of fatigue towards the end of the 2nd quarter. Had the unit been forced to remain on the field for an entire other half, the results would likely been alarming. If the Titans’ last drive of the 1st half is any indication, then the Bills are going to be in a world of hurt in the 2nd halves of this season. White had two carries for 23 yards and Young went 5-for-5 for an additional 55 yards and a TD against some extremely loose coverage for a 7-man defensive backfield while rushing only four linemen. Imagine having to run a D without the option of dropping the DEs into coverage. (sarcasm)

Tackling was horrendous indicative that camp was poor. Tackling is the "A" of the ABC’s of football and should need little clarification as to technique or importance. Another indication that the time in training camp was not well spent is the number of penalties that this team has committed, including numerous declined penalties, the "best of both worlds" indicating both a lack of performance on top of the advantage of having committed a penalty in one’s favor.

As well, these are all comments regarding the first half of play with the first teams on the field. What the second and third teams do is entirely immaterial to the season that is about to begin. One possible upside is that the second and third-teamers really are not all that much of a drop-off in talent, if a drop-off at all, when contrasted with a good many first-teamers on the Bills.

The Bills have one more preseason road game vs. Detroit. Y-A-W-N!!!

If Jauron is smart, …, then he’ll leave the starters in for three quarters in that game or until they can mount two straight drives of at least 5 minutes and 10 plays each, or the first-team defense until they can hold the Lion O to two straight 3’s-and-out. If the Bills cannot do that vs. the Lions, then this season is already awash in misery for fans. If Jauron is not willing to leave the first teams in until such a point, then he should simply sit them entirely until week 1. While he’s at it, perhaps the best strategy to employ might be to sit himself and allow the team to run itself as an autonomous collective.

As to the Bills, perhaps they should retain the throwback logo of the "standing buffalo," a paragon of inertia. Who knows, perhaps the buffalo is actually asleep which might even be more fitting for this team heading into a regular season that only smacks of large scale disappointment. Perhaps they can "upgrade" their logo and actually have the buffalo laying on the ground. If that ends up being too aggressive, then perhaps merely a logo of a fresh steaming buffalo pie, which will end up reflecting the Levy-Jauron era more accurately than anything seemingly.

Fans should not take this season seriously at all. For the hardcore football fans, find another autumn diversion either as a replacement for or in addition to watching Bills football if disappointment is to be avoided. Other than Lee Evans and special teams, there will be precious little success for this team this fall. If the special teams slips from its lofty spot atop the league, then things will become entirely laughable if sanity is to be maintained.

How far can big special teams plays, deep balls down the left sideline from JP Losman to Lee Evans, amidst a glaring pounding in just about every fundamental aspect of football otherwise carry a team? One need look no further back than last season for the answer to that question. The answer is seven wins under as fortunate a set of circumstances given those parameters that could possibly exist within the realm of reason.

Otherwise, simply take this season at face value and watch the side shows that may provide some entertainment value such as Lee Evans setting team records for receiving against the backdrop of some of the worst team performance that viewers of Wilson’s franchise will have ever seen. Then of course there’s the usual sideshow of watching Moorman punt his way to the Pro Bowl again which is the NFL equivalent of watching paint dry.

Mweiler@afceastreport.com