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[ Watch The Birdie II, Revenge Of The Feathery Thing (Page 14) ] Week 14 – Buffalo Bills (8-3-1) @ Arizona Cardinals (9-3) Strengths On defence, we're faced with what seems to be becoming a more and more popular setup around the league - a wonderful #1 wide receiver and pretty much no other threats in the passing game at all. Of course, there is the teeny-tiny problem of Travis Henry, whose only real drawback (is that an NFL position? Peyton Manning is a quarterback, LaDainian Tomlinson is a halfback, Dan Snyder is a drawback?) is his iffy hands. Given that Bledsoe is about as mobile as the Statue Of Liberty, we may throw in a few more blitzes than usual to try and throw his timing off. - The media attention just never stops at Sun Devil. After last week's national exposure, now we're playing the Game Of The Week against the AFC East leaders. What's more, it's Fan Appreciation Day in Tempe, the stadium packed to near-capacity by Cardinals fans desperate to get their hands on limited edition "No-Mark Is God" T-shirts and anticipating an Arizona victory. The anticipation lasts nearly three whole plays. A outside handoff to Travis Henry sees defenders converging, but just as it looks like he's about to disappear under a scarlet-clad onslaught...
...all three tacklers miss him in a manner that suggests they after the game they're going to get some part-time work standing behind trays of custard pies or carrying large panes of glass very, very slowly across the road. Henry squirts through a gap, shrugs off Dexter Jackson's attempt to cut him off and buggers off in the direction of the endzone. Bloody hell. BUF 7-0 ARI Early days, though, early days. Marcel Shipp is finding running on a tough Bill front 7 difficult, but still finds a way to contribute to the drive when he dislocates cornerback Antoine Winfield's shoulder as the scrawny little Jet-snubber tries to make a tackle. The very next play sees the receiver he would have been covering, Bryant Johnson, fading down the left sideline and catching a beautifully-flighted pass to tie the scores up. And following a Buffalo punt, we go after that side of the defence again with Johnno and Macca making nice receptions to bring us out to the edge of the red-zone. As we line up again, the Bills' front seven shuffles over toward that right side to try and stop the rot and, in a move that surprises absolutely no-one but Gregg Williams, Marcel Shipp runs a counter-play headed the other way. Tony Clement flattens the left defensive end at the point of attack, Marcel picks up a convoy of blockers and goes 22 yards to the endzone without a defender laying a glove on him. Sweeeeeeet. BUF 7-14 ARI
Buffalo can clearly feel the ground slipping away from beneath their feet, and want to get back into the game roughly nowish. Bledsoe goes to Clarence Coleman, who makes a nice move to get open but gets swarmed by defenders as he starts to turn upfield - No-Mark makes the hit, Adrian Wilson gets his hand in to rip the ball free and Jed Bowden scoops it up off the turf as the crowd go ballistic. It only takes three plays to get in from the 35 - Anquan gets us halfway, Marcel gets us to the 1 then Jeff Blake follows his centre over to increase our lead to two touchdowns. We add another three on the two-minute warning after a Bills drive stalls with Bledsoe hitting the turf on consecutive plays, but Buffalo just about keep themselves in the game with a sharp half-ending drive that's capped off with the unlikely sight of Josh Reed - Josh Reed! - beating our secondary deep and making the score at the break BUF 14-24 ARI - I dunno. We've looked more or less completely in control most of the half, but if this season's taught me nothing else, it's that no lead is big enough if you're the Arizona Cardinals. We're forced to punt away the first possession of the second half, and the Bills come straight back down the field at us, 9 of their 11-play drive being runs. Travis Henry does most of the damage but it's Willis McGahee who gets the score from 6 yards out, and from us being in a practically unassailable position, it's back to being a three point game. We regain a bit of a comfort zone when Johnno once again burns Dainon Sidney, the corner who's playing for the injured Winfield to the tune of a 63 yard score, but Buffalo don't panic and are playing on our weakness against the run and with 6 minutes to play Henry closes the gap again - BUF 28-31 ARI With the Bills offence in rhythm, and our fans getting a bit restless, it's about time for one of our patented, All-Marcel-Shipp-All-The-Time clock-killing, game-winning drives. Or not, as it turns out. One first down and that's your lot. The punt's a bit special, though, angling out of bounds at the Buffalo 7. 3:41 left to play. Ooooh-er. Tighter than a hair-rock band's pants, this one. Twice in quick succession we get the Bills to The Official Down And Distance Of The Arizona Cardinals, and twice the fluky gits convert to move the ball down to our 30 as we reach the two-minute warning. First and ten, and Levar Fisher comes blazing off the edge on a blitz, the Buffalo left tackle goes with him and completely ignores rookie end Larry Dickerson who shoots in underneath to absolutely bloody plant Drew Bledsoe.
Second down, and it's Travis Henry on the sweep, but for once in a second half that Henry has absolutely dominated, our defence swarms to the ball and cuts him down short of the line. Dickerson swats down the pass on 3rd down and the Bills are left with a looooooong field-goal to try and tie the game. With just a handful of seconds left on the clock Rian Lindell comes trotting in, the crowd-noise reaches a crescendo, the snap's good, the hold's clean, the kick's up... and it's straight, but it's low and it's dropping all the time. Surely it hasn't got the legs? Down it comes, down and down and down and... ...and pings off the crossbar with a hollow clang... ...and bounces back up into the air... ...and spins drunkenly up and over. Damn. Overtime. The Bills win the toss, and elect to take the ball, which isn't great. Our defence has been on the field most of the second half and it's starting to look that way. Sure enough, Buffalo go straight back to the well - a particularly irritating well named Travis Henry - for four straight plays that once again get them back into long field-goal range. But middle linebacker Ronald McKinnon knocks Drew Bledsoe to the turf to set up a 3rd and 7 at our 34, and we've a glimmer of hope - this'd be another awfully long kick, and if Lindell fluffs it we'll have great field-position for our next drive. We stack up against the run, and just as we thought it's a handoff to Henry. Defenders converge, just like they did on the third play of the game, defenders miss their tackles in slapstick fashion, just like they did on the third play of the game, and Henry's gone to the endzone, just like he was on the third play of the game. He's racked up more than 200 yards all told, and it seems as if rumours of our defence's rebirth have been greatly exaggerated. God-frigging-dammit. BUF 37-31 ARI, we fall to 9-4. [
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