After Buffalo's latest loss, placing blame becomes a common practice for those outside the walls of One Bills Drive. Coming under scrutiny has been the offensive line, and it's best player Jason Peters. Many outside observers still wonder if his play has been less than his Pro Bowl standards. But after seven games in which to get his game up to speed coming off his holdout, Peters believes he hasn't missed a beat.
"I think I've been doing okay," said Peters. "I think I have. The plays I have given up are just hustle plays on their part. If you watch the film, I dominate the guy. We're either down or we need a big play and Trent is trying to buy time. I'm running him up the field and they're covering back to the ball. It's nothing that I'm doing wrong, the play extended and they're making plays."
That seemed to be the case on the first sack by Joey Porter when Peters ran him up field away from the pocket, but there was good coverage which allowed Porter to come back down and race through the pocket to trip up Edwards from behind.
Head coach Dick Jauron wasn't going to heap Pro Bowl praise on Peters, but believes his left tackle is getting the job done and is playing as well as he did last season.
"I don't know about Pro Bowl (play) because I don't watch every other tackle in the league," said Jauron. "I don't know how every other left tackle is playing, but I know this left tackle is playing very well."
Peters believes he's playing at a similar level to that of last season.
"I think so. If you watch the tape we had 68 plays and I dominated him for 67," said Peters of his most recent performance. "There was one play where he made a play and he had a good game. If you watch the other 67 plays I dominated him. But he's a good player."
Joey Porter, who had a pair of sacks in the game including one that led to a safety, claimed that Peters was jump setting him throughout the game. It's when an offensive lineman steps out at a pass rusher instead of letting the pass rusher come to him.
The Dolphins linebacker said he countered that on the sack that led to a safety.
"The lineman was jumping me all day," said Porter. "I took an inside move because he was jumping short. Set a block and came under, made a play and the ball came out."
When asked to describe how that play unfolded Peters pointed only to himself.
"I put the blame on me," Peters said. "With the three man rush I knew I had help inside, but he beat me inside and that's on me."
Through seven games Buffalo's offensive front has surrendered 18 sacks, just two more than they did last year when they set a team record for fewest sacks allowed (26). But critics are convinced that the protection hasn't been as consistent.
The bottom line however, is Peters feels his play is at a level where it needs to be and for those that disagree he encourages you to pay close attention.
"We've got a home game Sunday," he said. "You watch me and you grade me."
