With the Dolphins playing the rivaled Bills this week, we decided to meet our enemy once again and did a short Q & A wit Joey Pinzone of Bloguins Buffalo Wins. Here are some of his thoughts on this weeks game.
1) Did The Dolphins get good news or bad news that Fred Jackson is missing ?
I think a little of both. Fred is a great back. He's good between the tackles and runs hard. However, this pretty much guarantees that you'll see a lot of CJ Spiller. The Bills have had issues this year with not running the ball enough and not getting the ball into CJ's hands. The guy averaged 10-yards a touch last week and is averaging 7.3 yards a carry. He's had over 100-yards in total offense in 11 of his last 14 games. The problem is that he is only averaging 12 touches a game this year. That's not enough. So, you can only assume that with Jackson out of the lineup, those touches will go up.
2) Do you trust Ryan Fitzpatrick ?
Not really. You pretty much hold your breath whenever Fitzpatrick attempts a pass. He's just so up and down. Some games, he looks great. Other games, you want him pretty much out of here. He's very erratic and the word is out on how to defend him. Cover all the underneath routes and dare Fitz to beat you deep. He's only 4-19 on passes that travel more than 20 yards down the field. I think the bigger problem is that the Bills place too much pressure on him. They should be a running team, except they always have to get the passing game involved. Over the last two weeks, the Bills have dropped back to pass 90 times while Fred/CJ have had 37 carries. That's not a good enough ratio. I'll say this, if you put Fitz on a team like the 49ers, I don't think they miss a beat. He just can't be counted on to make big plays.
3) In the next 5 years who do you expect to be a bigger threat in the AFC East, Miami or Buffalo ?
That is a tough one. I'll just go with Miami because the Bills have been bad for so many years. We haven't made the playoffs since 1999. I mean, I have no right to say we are better than any other organization. I will say, I think your owner is kind of a tool. His whole "Let's get B-List celebrities to pay shares of the team" is fricken lame.
4) How do you feel about the Toronto, Canada series ?
Yeah, it pisses us off. It is nothing more than a cash grab for the organization. They get like double the gate in Toronto than at Ralph Wilson Stadium because the Rogers people as bad as the Bills have been over the last decade. From what I gathered, the Rogers people decided to drop ticket prices but are still having problems selling seats. I will say the Bills do have a contingent of fans who come down from Canada to watch the team play. The Bills have said that like 13,000 of their gameday tickets are purchased in Canada. Buffalo is only like a 15-20 minute drive to Canada and about 75 minutes to Toronto. Still, it sucks because the Rogers Center is fucken dead. No atmosphere. No crowd noise. It worries me that the Bills will lose a game there because they didn’t have the home field advantage and it will cost them the playoffs.
5) What do the Bills need to do in your eyes for the season to be a success ?
The defense has to play much better. They have been a disaster this year. The Bills are 1-4 in games in which they have scored 28 or more points. Sorry, but if you can score 28 points in this league, you should be able to win. The fact is the Bills have invested almost 200 million in contracts on the defensive line. They should be much better than this. They are on pace to give up over 60 touchdowns this year and are on pace to shatter the club record for points given up. I fault Dave Wannstedt for most of it because he doesn't blitz enough and just rushes his four guys. No creativity what so ever. NO stunts. No fake blitzes. Nothing. It is like he's calling defensive play calls from the original Tecmo Super Bowl game for Nintendo. Our linebackers are also terrible, but we all knew that coming into the season. We just thought the DL would hide the LBs issues.
6) Prediction and why ?
This is going to be a tough one, but I like the Bills' chances against a rookie QB. I also think they should be able to pass on you guys as your secondary isn't exactly deep. The Bills' offensive line has played pretty well this year in terms of protection and should be able to neutralize Cameron Wake. I think it will be close. 23-20, Bills.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
