Ryan Fitzpatrick had the Bills on a roll early, but the team has lost seven in a row. (Rick Stewart/Getty Images)

The Buffalo Bills have been a Jekyll and Hyde team this year winning their first five of seven and then losing seven straight. I needed to talk to someone in the know to find out just what has been going on with this team and how they will match up against the Broncos this Saturday.

That’s why I asked Brad Andrews from BuffaLowDown to talk about the team that he knows best. He is the editor for the site and he knows the inner workings of the Bills better than most.

Let’s got Inside the Villain’s Venue with BuffaLowDown.

Q: The Bills won their first five of seven games, but they’ve lost seven in a row since. Why the dramatic drop in performance?

Three reasons:

1) Injuries. The Bills are not a deep team at all and really needed about eight key guys to stay healthy…and almost all of them got hurt. DT Kyle Williams, RB Fred Jackson, LT Demetrius Bell, C Eric Wood, LB Shawne Merriman, CB Terrence McGee and WR Roscoe Parrish all are out for the year or just getting back now, and those were really huge losses.

2) Ryan Fitzpatrick. More on him later.

3) Turnovers. The Bills got really lucky early in the year and were forcing four or five turnovers every single game. Since then, nothing has gone Buffalo’s way on defense.

Q: Ryan Fitzpatrick leads the league in interceptions. Is this a giant concern for the Bills with them facing an intense pass rushing duo in Von Miller and Elvis Dumervil?

A: Huge concern. Fitz doesn’t take a lot of sacks but does rush to get the ball out too quick and makes some horrible decisions as a result. The reason he’s struggled so badly lately is that teams know he can’t throw it deep very well and that he’ll throw it quick if there’s any pressure at all. So now they’re just playing tight coverage on the Bills wide receivers and daring Fitz to beat them deep. He can’t do it.
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Knowshon Moreno has yet to fulfill high expectations in the NFL as the #12 overall pick. Photo by US Presswire.

Passing on defensive tackle Marcell Dareus with the #2 overall pick in the 2010 draft surprised many fans and analysts alike. Arguably, the recent firings of former offensive-minded coaches Mike Shanahan and Josh McDaniels were indirectly caused by their refusal to invest high draft picks on the defensive line. John Elway and co. passed on picking young defensive tackle help for the remainder of this past April’s draft.

As if this wasn’t troubling enough, Fox’s recent comment begs the question, “What will it take for defensive tackle to finally become the Broncos’ #1 priority?” The Broncos were statistically the worst defense in the league last year. Much of that had to do with the defensive line getting consistently pushed back off the ball.

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Ryan Fitzpatrick has the arm, but not the supporting cast. (Sports Illustrated)

For a Christmas Eve game, the Broncos travel to frigid Buffalo. On paper, this seems to be an even matchup if we compare the two teams from last year. Like the Broncos, the Bills went 4-12 in 2010 and have had to basically build from the ground up.

The Bills brought up the rear in most statistics categories. They were ranked 18th in rushing and 24th in passing. Ryan Fitzpatrick threw for 3,000 yards, and had 23 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. His main target was Stevie Johnson. Fred Jackson led the team in rushing with 927 yards and 5 touchdowns on the season. The team was hoping that rookie C.J. Spiller would come in and make an immediate impact in the backfield, but he averaged just 20.2 yards per game.
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