For a guy who keeps saying that Steve McNair is his starting quarterback Brian Billick sure has a lot of faith in Kyle Boller. Ryan Wilson has been all over the play-calling problems that have plagued the Ravens offense but there hasn't been anything worse than Billick's work in the second half of yesterday's game. After the second half kickoff, Willis McGahee carried the ball four times for 72 yards including a 46-yard run that cut Buffalo's lead to 9-7. From that point, Billick called McGahee's number four times. After a Buffalo field goal on the next drive he called three pass plays before a punt. When the Ravens got the ball to the Buffalo 15 in the fourth quarter Billick called a run for Mike Anderson and then three more passes before turning the ball over on downs. Most damning was the final possession of the game. The Ravens had three plays and needed a yard to continue the drive. Billick called passes each and every time.
The Bills defense hasn't done a very good job against the run or the pass but after watching McGahee carve them up how do you ignore him the rest of the way? After the game Billick spoke about his team's lack of focus, evident in 11 penalties and three misplayed kick returns. They could have overcome that if their coach had focused a bit more on what was actually working.
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. If the team needs a yard and you call a pass... may as well put the cheerleaders on the field.
Posted at 12:39PM on Oct 22nd 2007 by Stacey Franchise
2. I'm not coming to Billick's defense here, I'm a Bills fan and was at the game yesterday. That drive that McGahee had those 72 yards on was the only time he was really effective all game. After that he was being treated on the bench for quite awhile and thats why Mike Anderson and Musa Smith were in. So I don't know if they never showed it on TV coverage but McGahee was on the bench for the majority of the 2nd half, getting fluids through an IV i think. I didn't understand why they didn't run for it though either when they needed a yard. Nice to see some worse playcalling than the Bills staff though late in a game, that was a nice changeup.
Posted at 2:25PM on Oct 22nd 2007 by JMills