Published: October 12, 2009 11:04 pm      

BILLS DVR REWIND: Rollouts haven't helped Edwards

Notes collected after a Sunday in which even die-hard Bills fans wish they’d spent their afternoon raking leaves:

• Between an inexperienced line and defenses that are teeing off on a conservative passing attack, give rookie offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt credit — he’s trying to get Trent Edwards on the move so pass rushers can’t assume he’ll be a sitting duck in the pocket.

But Edwards is at his best when he has a clear lane to throw and men moving north and south, not east and west. And the quarterback fails to step into throws when he’s rolling out.

For example, a play-action pass in the first half rolled Edwards to his right as Shaun Nelson and Terrell Owens dragged across the field. Cleveland defensive end Kenyon Coleman was originally fooled by the fake, then pursued Edwards.

With Coleman on his tail, Edwards ran hard to the sideline, missing Nelson with a short off-balance throw. If he’d have stepped in, Coleman would have laid a whipping on him, but Edwards could have hit Owens, who was open and dragging deeper.

Since the Bills saw the pressure, they added extra protection the next time they ran a similar play. Nelson again lined up on the left side of the formation, but instead of going into a pattern, he pulled across the line and blocked the end. Jonathan Scott also helped to the right and the duo had a pair of Cleveland defenders contained. Edwards had two choices: He could keep rolling wider and deeper, meaning a tough off-balance throw. Or he could have stopped between the hash and the numbers, and stepped into a crisp throw downfield.

Rather than step in, Edwards flipped a soft toss while falling away to his right.

Owens made an incredible catch on the pass, getting both feet in and holding the ball for a short gain. With absolutely everything going right — no margin for error — the Bills picked up seven yards.

But his failure to plant and throw finally caught Edwards in the third quarter with the Bills driving. This time, the play wasn’t a called rollout, but Robaire Smith flushed Edwards out of the pocket to his left. Owens was originally coming to the sideline, but broke long and was a step behind Eric Wright.

D’Qwell Jackson was closing in on Edwards, so rather than set his feet, he lofted an off-balance throw that Wright easily stepped in front of.

In the post-game interview, Edwards said he thought Wright had simply made a great play.

He was mistaken.

Edwards’ throw, another in which he seemed afraid to step in and take a hit, was the problem.

n Good players scare others into making mistakes. That was the case when Geoff Hangartner was called for a false start in the third quarter. As the CBS team of Don Criqui and Randy Cross aptly pointed out, center Hangartner rocked back just before he snapped the ball, drawing a penalty in the process.

How come?

It’s probably got something to do with the previous play, a simple Freddy Jackson run that the Browns stuffed.

On that second and 6, Hangartner snapped the ball, then tried to block nose tackle Shaun Rogers. Since Hangartner didn’t get great footing — and partly because Rogers is a beast — the Browns’ run-stuffer threw the center off to the side and stopped Jackson for a short gain.

Think Hangartner knew he had to get moving quickly on the following play? Obviously so. He tried to get an extra edge on Rogers, and got caught.

That explains one of the nine false start penalties. Kind of.

n I’m confounded by the sequence at the end of the third quarter in which the Bills smartly called timeout to get the Browns to punt into the wind.

The Bills stopped Cleveland on a third down, and with the clock winding down, Buffalo pulled its special teams unit to the sideline, knowing the quarter was about to run out.

But here’s the kicker — the ball was live. Officials set the ball on the turf, and Drayton Florence was the only member of the Bills’ return team on the field. Had the Browns been smart, they’d have snapped the ball quickly, put all six blockers on Florence, and punter Dave Zastudil would have walked for the first down.

The gaffe went largely unnoticed on the telecast, aside from Florence jumping up and down looking for reinforcements.

Sad as that is, it proves that an already horrific performance could have turned out even worse.

Contact sports editor Tim Schmitt at 282-2311, ext. 2266.