Bills GIF Recap: Week 6

Oh, Hello,

The Buffalo Bills played the Cincinnati Bengals at home on Sunday. Here’s how it went:

Get cozy. It’s going to be a long one.

Good to have you back.

14:24 — E.J. Manuel underthrows Charles Clay, ruled incomplete pass (0-0 tie)

You, not so much.

Bills challenge, ruled complete for a 19-yard gain (0-0 tie)

Terrible throw. Whatever. Let’s skip ahead to the good part.

9:24 — Manuel runs for 2-yard touchdown (7-0 Bills)

Again with the quick start. It seemed like things would go OK for the Bills in this one. They moved the ball well despite some shaky quarterback play, and McCoy looked great. Good balance between the run and pass, and even E.J. got involved on the ground.

So, yeah, what was everyone so concerned about anyway?

7:51 — Bengals go 3-and-out, punt (7-0 Bills)

Defense!

6:22 — Bills go 3-and-out, punt. Ron Brooks takes a taunting penalty (7-0 Bills)

The Bengals next drive started at Buffalo’s 49. The Bills lost the field position game outright on Sunday, and it cost them.

6:04 — Andy Dalton throws 15-yard pass to Tyler Eifert (7-0 Bills)

The Bills defense wasn’t great, but for the most part they controlled Eifert and A.J. Green. It was everyone else that caused them problems.

3:35 — Dalton throws 13-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Hill (7-7 tie)

not great

2:38 — Manuel intercepted on deep ball to Chris Hogan (7-7 tie)

Truly, this was a terrible throw.

Kind of amazing the Bills got out of this one without points given the draft started at their 45. They wouldn’t dodge bullets forever, though.

12:47 — Manuel scrambles and throws ball away, called for intentional grounding (7-7 tie)

Oh. Oh E.J. I haven’t missed you at all.

To say that Manuel was out of sync is to be very kind to a haphazard, possibly broken young man. He was rushing everything. You could see the gears spinning inside his head, frantically trying to process the game as it happened. Any slight deviation from plan sent him asunder. It was really sad—and frustrating—to see him try to work through it.

12:36 — Colton Schmidt punts 53 yards from his own 2 (7-7 tie)

Seriously, though, this was a great punt. Flipped the field as best he could while not allowing Adam Jones the chance to return it. This was really as good as it could have gone given the hole E.J. dug for the Bills. Too bad it was all for naught.

11:04 — Dalton throws 13-yard pass to Hewitt. Bills challenge. Overturned. Incomplete (7-7 tie)

If you win two challenges in a half you should get something special. Free points or a coupon for a free Grand Slam at Denny’s or something. MAKE THE MINIGAME MEAN SOMETHING ROGER!

10:24 — Bernard runs for 24-yard touchdown (14-7 Bengals)

Well, that stunk.

8:58 — Bills 3-and-out, punt (14-7 Bengals)

Not a bad punt, but a good return and a Goodwin facemask penalty set the Bengals up at Buffalo’s 36 to start. You can’t win games when you’re giving them these short fields. Oh, and your quarterback is suffering an emotional crisis on every snap.

7:16 — Bengals kicker kicks 47-yard field goal (17-7 Bengals)

Probably the best cast scenario here.

5:19 — Manuel throws 8-yard pass to Sammy Watkins (17-7 Bengals)

Oh hey Sammy still plays for the Bills. While we’re talking about him, let’s talk about targets. There was a piece written by Tyler Dunne last Thursday that I thought was really well executed. Dunne got some flack for it that I thought was undeserved. The story included all the things you want a reciever to say: I trust my quarterback, and I want him to trust me.

Anyone who saw the entire quote and reacted negatively is searching for something to get upset about. There’s an agenda there. The same goes for anyone who quoted the “get me the ball” part without giving the context for the full quote. Which is inevitable, I guess, but still not justified.

The narratives that surround football are so obvious I sometimes struggle to believe that people haven’t caught on yet. There’s one game a week, which means there’s an incredible amount of time and space to fill between games. That’s why these little controversies flare up in the middle of the week. It’s the same reason training camp stories are often so overblown: there’s inches to fill and radio static to interrupt.

How you react to all the nonsense, however, is entirely up to you.

0:26 — Manuel throws 22-yard touchdown pass to Watkins, who is injured (17-14 Bengals)

NOW AFTER I’VE SAID ALL THAT it is incredibly fitting that a poorly thrown ball from Edgerrin James Manuel is what might make Sammy Watkins miss significant time with an injury. What a horrific turn of events. No one recovered from this. I don’t think anyone has yet, really.

Also:

I have nowhere to put this GIF, I just miss the show sometimes.

OK let’s talk defense. They weren’t great! No sacks and not a lot of pressure on the fair-haired football-chuckin phenom. That was disappointing. Do I think anyone necessarily BLASTED Rex Ryan and the defensive scheme? I mean, sure. I guess. Whatever.

11:01 — Dalton throws 10-yard touchdown pass to Marvin Jones (24-14 Bengals)

Is this a team in CRISIS? Nah. Let’s all calm down a bit. Andy Dalton has proven he can be a pretty solid regular season quarterback. So far the Bills have been bested by three Good Quarterbacks this year. The games where Good Quarterbacks are not playing, the dominated defensively. So they’ll work on it.

6:34 — Bills drive stalls after offensive holding penalty, punt (24-14 Bengals)

Looking back at this game it’s interesting how clear it is that Manuel isn’t going to be successful in this league. It’s oddly similar to the Houston game in that way. It was just obviously not working and there was no solution. Just that he’s not the guy.

1:45 — Dalton throws 4-yard touchdown pass to Eifert (31-14 Bengals)

Dalton, on the other hand, does offer plenty of upside. Listen, he’s clearly not the best quarterback in the league. His teams have always petered out in the postseason. But this team is pretty solid overall. Great tight end, a dynamic wideout in A.J. Green, and a guy who can distribute the football. Buffalo would kill for a consistent, injury-free guy like that right now.

Quarterback play is so important in football. Getting it right at that position also seems to be the hardest thing for teams to do. Injuries are the biggest issue for the Buffalo Bills because injuries are impacting them at quarterback. The simplicity of this problem just happens to make it that much more frustrating.

1:00 — Bills go 3-and-out, punt (31-14 Bengals)

Yeah, really frustrating.

Well, they sure are kicking something.

8:30 — Manuel throws 22-yard pass to Robert Woods (34-14 Bengals)

Actually, pretty nice throw.

7:19 — Manuel runs for 16-yard gain (34-14 Bengals)

fine

6:52 — McCoy runs or 4-yard touchdown (34-21 Bengals)

Not even for you, The Sean.

3:12 — Bengals punt to Buffalo 4 (34-21 Bengals)

If you’ve been on Deadspin over the last few weeks, you know this is true.

2:16 — Manuel throws 19-yard pass to Chris Aggro Gragg (34-21 Bengals)

Should we go play-by-play here or just get to the bitter end?

0:46 — Manuel throws incomplete pass on 4th and 20 (34-21 Bengals)

Don’t come back.

Let’s get out of here.

See you next week.