This week I had a chance to watch a game live from the press box at Ralph Wilson Stadium — quite a change from my usual viewing position in my grading dungeon.
How strange not to be able to rewind every play 10 times …
The Bills were trying to get their first win against New England since 2003, and given their performances in recent weeks, we were expecting them to make the Patriots work hard to lock up home field advantage in the playoffs. Well, they didn‘t. Not even a little bit.
Here's what I saw.
The temperature at game time was somewhere in the region of 24 degrees. Those temperatures are often thrown around on the broadcasts and I, as I’m sure you all do too, just file it away mentally as “pretty cold,” and then move on — after all, I’m usually inside, where it’s warm, on the couch. But in Buffalo, in December, with the wind blowing, 24 degrees enough to freeze you on the walk from the parking lot to the stadium doors. It’s not just “pretty cold,” it’s “Where did I put that stupid looking giant hat?? It’s freezing!” cold.
After a couple of security checks I arrived through the double doors into what I was reliably informed is one of the nicer press boxes in the NFL. I certainly had no complaints. Giant TV screens at either end, some smaller TV screens dotted around for replays, and rows of seats for the press to hook up their laptops and get down to business. There was also an impressive spread of food and drink for the hard-working scribes. Your usual collection of Patriots and Bills media were in attendance, and from the few chats we had, all seem like extremely nice guys. The atmosphere in there is that it's of a group of colleagues watching ball, there’s certainly no animosity or tension between “rival” outlets.
So I found the seating chart, located my seat, and was impressed with the view I had. Sitting directly above one of the CBS camera positions, I had a prefect view of the field, and set up my game-time equipment consisting of a laptop and a drink. I was particularly impressed to see bowls of popcorn dotted around the press box. Nothing says football like popcorn, and it’s good to see that kind of football staple isn’t forgotten by the press box.
The game started and we were underway, with the Bills threatening to make it a tough game for their first drive at least, even if they then went away from that and we were treated to an epic capitulation for the ages. The Bills gained more yards rushing on their first drive than they did during the rest of the game, and when they showed good decision-making in recognizing single man coverage on the outside and throwing a fade to Stevie Johnson, it looked like they had come to play. Why they then went to a spread offense and allowed themselves to be plowed out of the way is a mystery.
One interesting aspect about being cocooned in a press box is that you don’t get the sounds you’re used to hearing from the field through the TV microphones. Even going to games live, you’ll hear a lot from field level pretty clearly, but not inside the press box. This manifested itself particularly on false starts or other pre-snap penalties that are whistled dead by the officials — because you don’t hear the whistles — and it looks extremely strange to see everybody just stop playing in seeming confusion.
Passing wasn’t crisp from either side early on, with both passers missing some pretty standard throws. Some people were making a lot of the wind at the game, and while it’s true that it was a very windy day — the flags at the 300 level were going crazy in the strong cross wind — the flags at the goal posts were rarely far from slack. Wind at field level didn’t look like a factor.
I chose to watch Wes Welker for a lot of the game, focus on the dynamic he has within the Patriots offense and how the Bills chose to cover him. The Bills were obviously paying serious attention to Welker. They were so scared of him that he was able to draw a covering defender out of the box and a safety to take a couple of mis-steps just by faking a bubble screen from the slot when the Patriots were running up the middle. When you watch Welker from the slot you become convinced that he simply can’t be covered from that release. He is too quick for defensive backs, and too fast for linebackers, too smart for zone coverage and cuts too sharply for man coverage. The Patriots could march down the field doing nothing but throwing it to Welker if they felt like it. Woodhead coming out of the backfield and Gronkowski (or Hernandez as well usually) stretching linebackers’ responsibilities inside only makes things easier for Welker.
But Welker had three drops in this game, bringing him up to 13 on the season, leading the NFL. What is interesting, though not entirely illogical, is that Welker has always had more drops than people might think. In 2008 he had eight, in ‘09 he notched six. Not only has he dropped more passes this season, but he’s dropping a significantly larger proportion of passes. He dropped 5.7% of targets in 2008, 3.9% in ‘09, but this season he has dropped 11.0% of his targets. That doesn’t sound like a massive figure, but it tops guys like Brandon Marshall (9.3%) and Braylon Edwards (4.7%) on the season, and though it’s not really a concern for the Patriots or their fans, it’s worth mentioning.
The Bills have fought teams hard most of the season, but they shot themselves in the foot a lot in this game, with some fundamental lousy D at times, allowing completely free receivers on multiple occasions, most notably Gronkowski for a touchdown early in the second quarter. Alge Crumpler’s touchdown was another example of basic sloppy defending. Crumpler was allowed a free release outside, and just ran to the corner with no hope for the defender to get to the spot first. The Patriots are far too clinical for you to not make it tough for them.
It wasn’t just the D that shot itself in the foot for Buffalo in this game. Ryan Fitzpatrick, the catalyst for much of the good that Buffalo has had this season, showed why the Bills might still be looking for a quarterback next year and beyond. For all the good that Fitzpatrick does — and give him credit, he does do a lot of good — he seems to have a very hard time on occasions coming off something that he wants to throw even if it is covered. That can result in some badly forced throws, and that’s just not playing the percentages.
Give the Buffalo fans a lot of credit though. On a cold, cold, day they turned up in numbers, and the stadium was about as full as it was at kickoff deep into the third quarter after the Patriots had put up 31 unanswered points on the board. Even the frankly suicidal 300 level was no more bare than it had been on the opening drive.
Such was the excitement of the blowout that I started looking around the sidelines for something to capture my interest. Both teams were wearing the same Reebok sideline jackets that were being sold for $150 in the stadium Pro-Shop. I counted over $7,200 worth of sideline jackets alone standing on the sidelines. For that price, those things had better be pretty special at preventing the cold.
The game ended without the Bills adding to the field goal they scored on their opening drive, and though the game as a competition was a disappointment, it did have the silver lining of much of the traffic having already dispersed by the time I got back to the car and hit the road. Always look on the bright side.
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