The second Adrian Wilson rocked Trent Edwards, this game was over. The Buffalo Bills had played solid football all season en route to a 4-0 record heading into this desert tilt, and the Cardinals were coming off an embarrassing performance in the Meadowlands (against the not-good team that plays there, not the studly one). You knew the Cardinals would bounce back a bit at home, and the Bills were playing their second consecutive road game ... so a few pieces were in place for a hard-fought Cardinals victory.
As I said, though, those pieces were shattered the second J.P. Losman took the helm for Dick Jauron's troops. I doubt there ever was doubt, but if there was, it is all gone now. Losman cannot QB an NFL football team, and Trent Edwards can.
You could skew the numbers a bit if you wanted to paint the opposite picture. Losman completed 15 of 21 passes for 220 yards and a touchdown pass. Of course, 87 of those yards came on one long TD pass. That leaves 133 yards for the rest of the 14 completions ... in addition to the three turnovers.
Of course, Losman is the easy target. The defense continually let the Bills down Sunday as well. The Cardinals offense was an absolute machine, churning down the field efficiently, drive after drive ... even without Anquan Boldin. They controlled the game by moving the chains, running 76 plays to the Bills 46 and owning a 12 minute advantage in time of possession.
The Bills may have needed a wake-up call, as they had a little too much trouble with the Rams last week before waking up and slamming the door shut. Assuming Trent Edwards is alright after a week off -- the Bills have a bye next week -- the team will be ready to tackle the unpredictable, but usually tough, Chargers at home in Week 7.
The Cardinals proved the debacle in New York was more fluke than real, and they are clearly the class of the incredibly weak NFC West. They will be fully confident and focused to take on the Cowboys at home this coming Sunday.
Maybe Adrian Wilson takes out Tony Romo this time around.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-06-2008 @ 3:25PM
A.J. said...
Well, you know the saying - sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. In a division like the NFC West, all you need to do is catch a break or two and you'll be sitting up top. Now, the Bills' defense played so badly that I'm not sure they would have won the game even if Edwards had played the entire time, but it would have been a hell of a lot closer - that's for sure.
Reply
10-06-2008 @ 4:55PM
Pete said...
No way anything the Bills did on the field Sunday would have changed their being trounced by the Cardinals. Truth is the Bills play great at home as do the Cardinals.
Anquan or no Anquan, Trent or no Trent, the Cardinals kicked the Bills all over the field. The Bills defense better play better than they did or they are heading for trouble.
The Cardinals have no excuse for not winning the NFL west as long as Kurt Warner is in the lineup. The Bills are good and, as usual they have that tough, blue-collar defense but, it didn't do its job Sunday!
Reply
10-06-2008 @ 5:32PM
A.J. said...
I'm not sure about the first statement. I don't like your choice of the word 'trounced'. Perhaps the Cardinals would have won, yes, that's highly likely, because Kurt Warner (receiver injuries notwithstanding) has a hot hand right now.
As much as you seem to like the Cardinals, put yourself in a Bills uniform for a second.
You're undefeated - on top of a division that has been dominated by Tom Brady and the Patriots for God knows how long. Hell, your team, led by a guy in his first full year as a starter, is playing just a beat better than the Brett Favre-led New York Jets squad. Your offense and defense are firing on all cylinders, and you and guys around you are thinking after years of bad quarterback after bad quarterback after bad break after bad break, "Hey, we finally found our team, and we finally found the guy to lead this team."
Then he gets slammed to the turf, gets carted off the field, and you're forced to put the offensive game in the hands of the guy that has proven himself not to be a winner (otherwise, why did he lose the starting job in the first place?). That doesn't just hurt your offense in terms of the guy behind center. Losman didn't help his case much with the two turnovers. That gets into the head of your entire team, when you have a guy behind center that's known to do that.
And as for that "tough, blue-collar defense," they were out on the field for 36 minutes in that game - which likely doesn't happen with an offense that can sustain drives...which Trent Edwards would have done to a greater degree than Losman did. It wasn't like the Bills just lost their starting quarterback. Trent Edwards was, like Kurt Warner, giving the Cardinals better play from the position than they had seen in years.
For an example of how much better a good defense can look when an offense converts some first downs, look up this year's Chicago Bears.
10-07-2008 @ 12:11AM
TRUE FAN AZ CARDZ said...
Amazing how some people can't face the reality that the Big Red Machine was firing on all cylinders! That usually means trouble for the apponent. Don't come up with lame excuss that the Bills didn't play good football, they simply couldn't hang with the better team.
Reply