Buffalo Bills 20, Carolina Panthers 9
The Buffalo Bills forced the Panthers into some big time mistakes and that covered for another lackluster effort by the offense. Ryan Fitzpatrick completed 11 of 22 passes for 123 yards with 1 TD pass. He also carried the ball 7 times for 10 yards (1.4 ypc) in this game. Marshawn Lynch was the leading rusher for the Bills in this game with 40 yards rushing on 17 carries (2.4 ypc) with 1 TD run. Lee Evans had his best game of the season for the Bills with 5 grabs for 75 yards (15.0 avg) with a TD. The Bills finished up with only 167 total yards in this game as they only had the ball for 25:20 of this game.
The defense was in bend but don’t break mode for the Bills as they only gave up 7 points on offense (the Panthers got a safety on D). Linebacker Paul Poslusny led the way for the Bills with 11 tackles in this game. Safety George Wilson was also very effective finishing with 10 tackles, 1 tackle for a loss, 1 pass defensed and 1 interception. S/CB Jairus Byrd was a game changer for the Bills yesterday as he finished up with 2 tackles, 2 passes defensed and he picked off two passes. The Panthers finished up with 425 total yards on offense (116 rushing, 309 passing) in this game. The Bills somehow improve to 3-4 on the season.
This was a pretty ugly game with two pretty bad teams going at it. The Bills have been inconsistent this year, and are not utilizing Terrell Owens very much at all. I guess they picked up T.O. just to sell tickets, as the talented receiver has not caught more than four passes in a game and has only one touchdown this year. He had three catches for 27 yards in this contest, giving him a total of 18 catches in seven games. That is about 2.5 catches per game. An even bigger surprise is T.O. isn’t crying to the media every week about not getting the ball.