Game 22: Falcons 13, Bills 10

Falcons win the toss. Jason Snelling is the starting RB. He gets 22 on a handoff out of the shotgun
to put the Falcons in Buffalo territory. A couple more fat openings and Jennings has Atlanta inside the 10. Paul Posluszny did not start for Buffalo but got sent in pretty quickly because of Atlanta's rushing success. He stuffs a 3rd-and-goal run from the 1. Atlanta goes for it, but gets stuffed by Donte Whitner on 4th-and-goal. So the Bills start things out with a huge goal line stand.

Marshawn Lynch starts and powers the Bills out of the shadow of their own goal post, then Losman hits his favorite target, Lee Evans, with a 36-yard bomb. A Jason Peters holding penalty bogs the drive down, though, and Buffalo punts.

Joey Harrington immediately throws a what-the-hell-is-that bomb that McGee picks off and returns inside the 20. Buffalo does nothing with it, though. They lose -20- on a bad shotgun snap, Losman misses Peerless Price wide open down the sideline, Rian Lindell misses a 55-yard FG attempt. Not precision offense, there.

Continuing that theme, Atlanta does absolutely nothing with the prime field position, as Roddy White and Laurent Robinson both drop passes en route to a 3-and-out. The good news: they pin Buffalo at the 1 with the punt. The Bills start to dig their way out of that hole as the first quarter expires. No score.

A 10-yard run by Lynch doesn't do much more than give the punter some room. It goes back to Atlanta.

Which Snelling regrets. Wire gets him for a loss on first down and DESTROYS HIM on a shovel pass on 2nd, driving the air out of his lungs and the ball out of his hands. John McCargo recovers for the Bills.

Bills leave Losman at QB but bring A-Train in at RB. Doesn't help the Buffalo offense, though. Chris Houston knocks a sideline pass away from Evans to force another 3-and-out of a drive that started in beautiful field position. Lindell's 48-yard FG finally pops the scoreboard's cherry. 3-0 Buffalo.

Adam Jennings returns the kickoff across midfield AGAINST THE VAUNTED SPECIAL TEAMS OF BOBBY APRIL. You know what they'll do with the prime field position, right? New Atlanta QB is Chris Redman. Wire is actually playing LB tonight, not safety, despite the #27 jersey. McCargo makes a terrific play to stuff a 3rd down run but Atlanta converts on 4th down. Jabari Greer breaks up an end zone pass.Riley Swanson freezes White on 3rd-4 at the 20 to force a FG. Cundiff sticks the 33-yarder to tie the game at 3.

3-and-out for Buffalo. Daren Stone came in on a safety blitz and jumped over a VERY weak blitz pickup attempt by A-Train.

Redman to Robinson on a deep square in for 31 puts Atlanta right back in FG range. Bills blitz big on 3rd-and-9, and you'll never guess who misses a sack - Anthony Hargrove - but there's more than enough pressure to force Redman to throw it away. Cundiff hits from 46 to give Atlanta a 6-3 lead.

Bills 2:00 offense is so conservative, they 3-and-out, even with Losman still at QB. Atlanta gets the ball back with 1:08 left. Steve Fairchild's clearly a student of the Mike Martz school of crappy 2-minute drives.

Redman scrambles for 15 across midfield with 0:28 left. Greer makes another big pass breakup. He's making the all-Preseason team. 10 to Jennings sets up a 54-yard attempt for Cundiff, who is farther left with it than Barack Obama. Falcons lead 6-3 at halftime.

Uh-oh, Trent Edwards is in at QB for Buffalo. His first pass actually travels 10 yards in the air for a
first down. Chris Houston's covering Roscoe Parrish; talk about speed vs. speed. Edwards hits Parrish with a perfect 10-yard pass for another first down. Jimmy Williams sacks him a couple of plays later, though, as Atlanta has come out of halftime blitzing. Buffalo will have to punt.

An Arlen Harris sighting! Now in at RB for Atlanta. Loses two yards! 2nd down, Arlen picks up McCargo, who is about to bury Redman. In doing so, he leaves Hargrove alone for the sack. Even worse, on 3rd down, freaking Hargrove picks off a screen pass to give Buffalo the ball near the Atlanta 10. That's more plays made by Hargrove in one series than he made his entire career as a Ram.

Superb play by Edwards, buying time by rolling left to the sideline and making a terrific 10-yard TD throw to Parrish just past a lunging Houston. 10-6, Buffalo.

Atlanta 3-and-outs when Adam Jennings can't corral Redman's pass on third down.

Fred Jackson of Coe College takes a screen about 20 for Buffalo. Parrish then gains about 6 on an end-around. Atlanta stops the drive with a blitz and sack on 2nd down. Bills punt into the end zone for at least the 2nd straight time.

Atlanta drives to midfield, then takes a big loss as Arlen bobbles the ball away on what was supposed to be a reverse. We-give-up run on 3rd down and punt to end the 3rd quarter. 10-6 Atlanta.

Edwards settles for a dumpoff on 3rd down and Buffalo punts it back. Punt is into the end zone yet again.

DJ Shockley enters at QB for Atlanta. He smokes one to Eric Weems over the middle for 22 and across the 50. He continues to drive them to the Buffalo 25 before he blows out his knee untouched on a 1st-down scramble on 3rd-and-5. Shockley's night, and season, are over. That's that great FieldTurf that nobody ever, ever, ever gets hurt on, by the way. Redman returns to finish the drive. Facemask on Buffalo sets Atlanta up at the 4. Two Harris runs and a defensive hold give Atlanta a fresh set of downs at the one. Off play-action, Redman rolls and hits an open George Cooper to put Atlanta up 13-10 with 2:41 left. 14 play, 80 yard, 7 minute drive.

Bills return kick to 24. Edwards hits Donovan Morgan for 18 near midfield. Edwards has looked very sharp tonight. Just when I say that, it's a couple of wild throws, a false start and a 1-yard dumpoff to leave Buffalo facing a 4th-and-9 at midfield. Falcons surprisingly blitz on 4th-and-9 and bury Edwards to seal the win with 1:28 left, with Arlen Harris killing the clock with 3 runs.

Despite losing the game, Buffalo looked much the more-promising team. Trent Edwards was as sharp week 2 as he was dull week 1. And though they lost a lot of defensive people, they have a lot of new talent stepping in. Coy Wire plays that bastardized LB/S position the way Rams fans wish Adam Archuleta would've played it. John McCargo's been disruptive at DT. Jabari Greer is playing as well as any DB I've seen. And Paul Posluszny may prove to be the best pick of the 2007 draft.

Not as much to say about Atlanta; of course, they started their 3rd-string-at-best RB, so they weren't trying for much. Chris Redman looks like a serviceable backup QB. Adam Jennings continues to make plays as a kick returner and a wide receiver. Chris Houston's looking pretty good for a rookie at DB. But there's no spark to the Falcons, as if something is dogging them.

GUFFAW!

22 down, 43 to go. Next game: Eggles-Panthers.