Bills 4-1

The Bills suffered their first loss against the Arizona Cardinals last week. They got blown out 41-17. Things went bad from the start as starting QB Trent Edwards suffered a concussion on the 3rd play of the game. That forced the Buffalo offense to rely on second string QB JP Losman. Losman was the started until he suffered an injury last season and Edwards took over. Edwards deservingly won the starting position and as long as he was healthy, has started every game since.
Back-up players are always drilled about being prepared to play but no one expects to get into a game that early. Losman played well early in the game hooking up with Lee Evans on a long 80+ yard touchdown pass. At that moment the Bills looked like they could regroup. They were only trailing 14-7 and obviously had big play potential. Unfortunately they didn't seize that opportunity. The injury definitely didn't help the Bills, neither did the 4 turnovers but that is not what lost the game for them.
Regardless of mistakes Losman made, mostly late in the game, the defense is responsible for that loss. The defense gave up points on every Cardinal possession in the first half. For a Defense that was ranked high in most team categories going into the week they failed miserably. I don't want to hear excuses about Terrence McGee being out because their are 10 other guys out there to make plays. Perhaps the most disappointing part of the defensive play was 3rd down conversions. Going into week 5 the Bills Defense was ranked #1, only allowing opposing teams to convert on 19% of 3rd down attempts. In week 5 against Arizona the defense allowed a 60% conversion rate. Giving up 9 out of 15 attempts.
The Bills are now 4-1 and it as a fan it sucks to not see them 5-0 but in terms of the team I actually think this could be a positive thing depending on how they respond. Buffalo has a very young team and young teams can learn a lot more from loses then they can from wins. They need to isolate their mistakes and learn how to either eliminate them or at least minimize them. The timing of the first loss also has an upside. The team is now allotted an extra week to think about this loss and figure out how they can move past it together. Losing sucks and until your next win it is very hard to get that knot out of your stomach. Maybe having to deal with that knot for an extra week will add a little extra motivation towards playing better next time they hit the field.
On a completely unrelated note the Sabres won their first game. If you want to read my thoughts on their performance, the new captain, the star who appeared to be attempting to make this his break out year and more check back in a few days.