It should come as no shock that his teams are 4-11 and one for their last nine against Belichick and the Patriots.
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Brady was tagged by the Bills’ multi-layered pass rush, hit 10 times and knocked down seven. We’re still waiting for a prognosis on the last two but Bill Belichick can’t be too far from calling up Reggie Wayne. Both the Patriots and the Panthers building the anticipation of a run to the record books the longer the season goes.
Now on to the real gaffes that completely overshadowed what could have been a great game.
The quarterback explained that throwing the ball out of bounds isn’t always a bad play. The ball was in midair when that happened, meaning no one had possession and the down would be replayed. It was New England’s lowest scoring output of the season. As for everyone saying it prevented a touchdown, Amendola was still 45 yards from the end zone. As for his legs, perhaps his knee is more of a problem than he’s letting on, but he made some poor decisions on read-option plays, and he also seemed reluctant to scramble for yardage.
Amendola might not have made it all the way to the house with the pass that Brady gave him, given that his man stopped running, but it certainly looked like he was in a lot of space. New England’s biggest special teams play came on a punt in the 3rd quarter when defensive back Brandon King forced a fumble that was recovered by linebacker Jonathan Freeny.
“Tyrod I expect him to be able to play”, said Ryan Tuesday afternoon.
Though Taylor finished the game against the Patriots, he was hampered by an injury to his right shoulder in the final quarter. This week it was the talented 2 year speedster Sammy Watkins. It isn’t as big as the other call, but the Bills still deserved that opportunity to launch one to the endzone, and the refs taking that chance away was the ideal ending to the referees horrific performance. In the National Football League, a player has to clearly and intentionally slide or kneel to give himself up.
The Bills, who lost special teamer Marcus Easley to a head injury in the first quarter, saw offensive tackle John Miller carted off in the second quarter.
Watching Monday night’s game, it was clear the Bills were frustrating Tom Brady and the day after, the numbers back that claim up. “You’ve got to figure out, when things aren’t going well, how to rally”. However, for some reason the paid professional official thought otherwise. The edge players, Chandler Jones, Rob Ninkovich and Jabaal Sheard were outstanding at setting the edge and keeping Taylor in the pocket where he’s much less effective.
Good officials are the ones you don’t notice when watching a game, this officiating crew was the exact opposite.
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Perhaps the most trying game of their regular season comes this weekend, when they’ll suit up to do battle with the Broncos, who have one of the better defenses in the NFL. There is no excuse for what took place in Monday’s game, and something has to be done. It’s pretty obvious that Amendola did not have the ball when the whistle was blown, so it makes you wonder if the refs fudged the rule to make it a bit more equitable. Unfortunately for everybody involved, the officials turned out to be more of a story than the teams involved.
