Mike Rodak explains that Bills' leaders stepped up on both sides of the field. Offensively, the debut for Kyle Orton at QB for the Bills went off to a shaky start. Cornerback Reshean Mathis for the Detriot Lions would intercept Kyle Orton early on for a pick-six for the Lions, creating a 14-0 disparity against the Bills at the beginning of the game. Orton would pick up throughout the rest of the drives. Orton would have a Buffalo Bills career game and break a twenty seven long QB drought. As Mike Rodak clarifies, not since the Ryan Fitzpatrick era (27 game long drought) of the Buffalo Bills has a Bills QB thrown for at least 300 yards or more. Orton would have an excellent career game throwing for 308 yards from 30 completions of 42 pass plays attempts through the air. Despite the early pick-six and the fourteen point hole, the Bills had a stellar game on both sides of the field.
Buffalo Bills Head Coach Doug Marrone benched his star Quarterback, EJ Manuel, earlier on this week, replacing Manuel with Orton. In fact, there has been favorable sentiment towards Kyle Orton's play. Just ask Bills' rookie Wide Receiver Sammy Watkins. Watkins remarked on notable differences between EJ Manuel and Kyle Orton as Orton took the helm this week in practices. Sammy Watkins noticed the favorable differences as he stated that Orton's reads and evaluation were positively different from Manuel, as was Orton's quick releases while throwing the ball. After the game, Watkins had more to say on Orton's performance:
"It carried over a lot...He had his mistakes but he had his veteran time where he lifted us up and moved the ball and had a couple of reads where he saw the coverage and shot it in there...That's just preparation he has in practice. He's got a crazy memory...The way he reads things and the way he studies, it's definitely a veteran move...It's great. As far as EJ making passes, he can do everything Kyle [is] doing...But just the presence and how he leads the group. ... We just have to keep getting better on both sides of the ball."
One of those key reads came up big in the fourth quarter when the Bills trailed 14-12 after an Orton 2 yard strike to the often under-utilized Tight End Chris Gragg. During the two point conversion, Orton successfully read the defense making a quick play adjustment and instead of a pass play, Orton created a nice read for veteran Runningback Fred Jackson to tie the game up with a nice quick run. Fred Jackson, among many other Bills players had equally high praise as Watkins on Kyle Orton's successful Bills debut. While Jackson commented that EJ Manuel could have made the same reads, Fred Jackson was pleased with how Orton lead his team and commanded the offense, especially with calling out plays for advantageous gains on the run and through the air. As Rodak puts it, the numbers don't lie when comparing offensive productivity between EJ Manuel and Kyle Orton. Orton's stellar play would lead to a 34% increase of efficiency in targeting the Bill's cast of Wide Receivers (14 of 21 completions to his wideouts).
While the Bills offense was great, Mike Rodak explained that the Bills defense should not be taken lightly. In fact, the Bills defense has been one of the most consistent weapons for Buffalo. Rodak points out that strong showings the last four games for the defense has lead Buffalo to have the second best run defense in the NFL. The defense only allowed 69 run yards from twenty carries on Sunday. Additionally, Buffalo put up monster numbers against the Lions as the Bills recorded six sacks in the game. Of those six sacks, Bills defensive superstar Marcell Dareus (DT) managed to get half of them. Dareus, who was plagued with off the field issues during training camp, has been having monster games for the Bills. Marcell Dareus was placed with even more pressure this week to be the playmaker on defense as fellow defensive tackle Kyle Williams was out with a knee injury. Dareus can boast a nice five tackle, three sack game and can also be proud of his defense's performance. The Bills defense held the Lions to a scoreless second half which allowed the Bills to come roaring back for the come from behind victory. The Buffalo Bills now have the best record in their division at 3-2, atop of the Patriots (whom had a much needed pick me up win against the unbeaten Bengals). The Bills will hope to add to their lead and effectiveness next Sunday against the Patriots for bragging rights and dominance of the AFC East division.
References:
http://espn.go.com/blog/buffalo-bills/post/_/id/14003/kyle-orton-snaps-bills-27-game-drought-in-debut
http://espn.go.com/blog/buffalo-bills/post/_/id/14036/marcell-dareus-sets-career-high-with-three-sacks-against-detroit-lions
Photography/ Image Courtesy:
Buffalo Bills: Doug Kerr
Kyle Orton: Jeffrey Beall
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