DON’T GET ME STARTED is ready to visit with Doug Marrone and sing a decades long commercial that was played on radio and then early television
The commercial was sung for Pepsodent tooth past. It went, “I Wonder Where The Yellow Went…….etc”
If I was to answer that line, I would say, “The yellow is on the football turf in the Bills games. First of all, everything good that could be said about the Bills come-back win was said and written about. Now, let’s get to one big fact. The Buffalo Bills penchant for taking penalties may have contributed to the loss against the Patriots. 13 penalties were called against Buffalo. Naturally, much of the time it resulted in change of possession favoring the Pats.
Last Sunday 7 more penalties hit the Bills. Two of them were brutal. Remember Marve Levy? He always preached, “Play hard but don’t play dumb” or something like that. Dumb is the word to be used on the Bill who was flagged for holding before Carolina punted. That gave the Panhers a big first down.
Then dumb #2 came into play. Cam Newton sent a 3rd down pass toward the right sideline that was going out of bounds. Receiver Steve Smith was well out of bounds when Buffalo defensive back Williams crossed over the sideline and belted Smith to the ground. Naturally here comes the yellow flag and Carolina gets another 1st down start.
Let’s face it. Doug Marrone watched 4 exhibition games where the Bills were constantly being penalized. Then came the first two games of the season and – Buffalo has been hit with the flag 20 – that’s right – 20 times. At that average, Buffalo would be looking at 160 penalties in the season.
The coaching staff has to do something…..especially the dumb penalties. Let’s take the New England Patriots’. Ridley is the featured running back for the Pats. In the first quarter, Ridley carried the ball……and fumbled it with the pigskin recovered by Buffalo. Coach Bill Belichik pulled Ridley out of the game and sat him on the bench for the entire game. Would Marrone do the same? Who knows? Certainly the two Bills guilty of the dumb penalties could have been taught some kind of lesson, Of course it might have hurt the Bills secondary.
The point here is that it’s up to the coaches……beyond telling them not to take penalties. Ram it home; threaten them with ejection out of the game; threaten them with other ways to punish them. Maybe that will get the message to them. Penalties can kill a team’s chances. The 13 against the Bills in the opener allowed the Pariots to run 89 plays because penalties kept moving the chains for them.
Let’s hope that after reviewing the tapes of the two games, the coaches will stress how important it is for the Bills to have the officials keep that yellow in their pockets on Don’t Get Me Started.
Filed under: Don't Get Me Started
Tagged with: Art Wander, Buffalo Bills, Doug Marrone
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