San Jose Bills Fan

Yeah, actually that's almost the only explanation for him signing with the Panthers. The Panthers already have Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams AND it was widely reported that Tolbert took less to sign with Carolina than to stay in San Diego.

Really good point. For people who aren't confident at their trade, adversity has a way of crumbling the cookie.

However he did just fine against Bryan Orakpo and Jared Allen in the preseason. There was a holding call in one of those games which was just another bad call by a bad official.

As for Denver, looks like it's not gonna happen. Except for some fantasy footballers.

Anyways I don't think you can argue against the fact that the poor officiating has adversely affected the product.

Can't remember seeing Von Miller and Elvis Dumervil look so ineffective. But disappointing pass rush for Denver.

Atlanta's not a real great defense but they're looking pretty damn good tonight. Manning is afraid of pulling the trigger… some combination of good coverage and jitters from his earlier INTs.

IMO, Choice is a mediocrity. I'll say it again… I wish the Bills had a big thumper to run behind that massive O-line. I'd have been thrilled had the Bills signed Cedric Benson/Michael Bush/Mike Tolbert this offseason.

The Tebow trade rumors? Could you imagine Demaryius Thomas opposite Stevie Johnson?

Demaryius Thomas continues to emerge as a great receiver. Julio Jones meanwhile has dropped a couple. Most everything has gone Atlanta's way and yet their lead doesn't appear very secure at the moment. In spite of the near unwatchability of the first half, this could be an interesting second half.

Not when you have the power of your convictions. Two games into the season is only premature for people who hedge or are unsure of what their own eyes are telling them.

Well then how do you explain the harps I heard when we drafted him?

or all the parrots on this board who kept stating that Glenn was a right tackle or guard prospect. This BTW was the majority of people who opined on Cordy Glenn. There were only about 3-4 posters here who tirelessly, inexorably, banged the drum for Glenn… certain that the steady development they witnessed during his final season at Georgia (culminating in the domination of LSU's pair of projected first round speed rushers Sam Montgomery and Barkevious Mingo in the SEC Championship game) made Glenn's immense talent a bit freaking obvious. Pretty much lost all faith in Mike Mayock after this one. Also, only a very few people insisted that Bruce Irvin would be drafted in the first round. The parrots followed their flock leaders. As some of us stated BEFORE the draft, we would have been fine had the Bills taken Glenn in the first round. To miraculously get him in the second round approaches divine intervention.

Oh don't worry. Someone will come up with something.

After the meltdown in the second half of last season, I became worried about the coaching. Yes there were lots of injuries but a good coach wouldn't let his team fall apart like the Bills did, IMO. The question I've posited before is whether Nix would fire Gailey. Personally I believe that Nix has the nad to fire Gailey… and he might have to in order to save his own skin. Donahoe had two hires so maybe Nix might have one more chance. I believe that the talent on hand is pretty good (not great) but good enough to win with. I think the talent level is good enough that the Head Coaching job would be attractive to more candidates than it was when Gailey was hired. However the uncertainty surrounding future ownership of the Bills might mitigate that.

There was nothing wrong with the run D. If you think the run D was a major reason for the loss I don't know what to tell you. The D as a whole failed mostly because they were unable to make big plays or force the Jets into negative plays. For instance, a holding penalty to an offense quite often ends up killing a drive but the Jets had very few offensive infractions. More disturbingly I don't remember the Bills getting any tackles for losses in the run game or the pass game. My biggest gripe with this defense is the coaching. If you prescribe to the belief that talent is the only determinant of NFL success, you are wrong. Any unit, be it offense or defense cannot be predictable if they hope to be successful. You cannot play vanilla schemes and win in the NFL. It's that simple. Even talent-laden defenses like the Steelers and Ravens make it a point to be unpredictable and complex. Is it not the height of arrogance/stupidity to think that you can just line up in a base scheme, rush 4 guys all the time, and outplay the offense? What was plan B… or was the assumption that the Bills D would simply outplay the Jets O because of nothing more than talent? When the Giants were unable to pressure Romo consistently last Thursday Night, they started blitzing more often. Did the Bills blitz even once? Wannstedt has given his critics plenty of ammunition. It's hard to imagine a defense with this much talent playing this poorly.

Well, the Jets ran the ball 36 times to 27 passes… so there's that. Absolutely. There are many factors which may make individual linemen look bad on any given play. To the untrained eye, valid evaluations can be made on some plays but not on all plays. Certainly it's hard to evaluate O-line play when the quarterback play is poor, for instance.

I have a numerous thoughts on this subject that have been expressed before and this is a good place to re-state them. You can quibble about run/pass percentages but then you'd be missing the point (as if there's some magic number out there). For nearly a year, there have been people on this board saying that the Bills should run the ball 3-4 more times a game. That point is based upon observation, not statistics. If you watch the games critically and anticipate plays or playcall pass or run in your own mind, you'll find that the Bills rely too heavily on the pass. But it's only 3-4 times a game which makes the difference between optimum playcalling and something less. People who claim Gailey is pass happy are right IMO but not by the margin that overreactionists believe. It's a matter of degree. As far as the dogma that the Bills can only run effectively out of a spread offense, I say bullspit for several reasons. Firstly does anyone even remember the Bills attempting to go to a run-heavy offense? No. So how can you draw this conclusion? Secondly, this offensive line is healthy for the first time in quite a while. They have been banged up for much of the previous two years. Thirdly not only is the O-line healthy but Cordy Glenn is a dominant run blocker so the left tackle play in the run game is MUCH IMPROVED. Glenn made the Steelers Brett Keisel his personal pushcart in the Bills-Steelers preseason game. He did the same against the Jets and if the Bills were smart, they'd run behind Glenn and Levitre like the Raiders used to run behind Shell and Upshaw. As far as people pointing to yards per carry in trying to explain what an effective running game is, yards per carry is actually somewhat irrelevant. The Jets ran the ball 36 times and passed 27 times against the Bills. The Jets "ONLY" averaged 3.3 yards per carry. This mediocre ground attack allowed the Jets to avoid any semblance of 3rd and longs, kept the Bills pass rushers honest, and allowed the Jets mediocre O-line to play aggressively. The emphasis on the run was a huge reason the Bills never generated a pass rush. The yards per carry was less important than the simple commitment to run the ball. Also as we all know, offenses that run the ball to keep their opponents honest tend to be very effective with play action. A team simply doesn't have to average 5 yards per carry for their run game to be a valuable asset. The mere fact of running the ball is its own reward. Buying into the contemporary belief that passing is the only way to victory will prove to be a false theory for all the NFL teams which pass too much and miss the playoffs. Why are the Patriots going to two tight ends? Has San Francisco's and Houston's run-heavy attacks made their quarterbacks more or less effective? Are the Green Bay Packers hurt by their inability to run the ball? When the Giants beat the Packers in the Super Bowl, they actually averaged less per carry than did the Patriots but they ran the ball 9 more times than did New England. It was their stronger commitment to running the ball that made a big difference in favor of the Giants. The last time the Patriots won a Super Bowl (in 2004) they had the ability to run the ball with Corey Dillon. A good offense doesn't need to lead the league in rushing but it sure helps them to actually make their opponents honor the run.

Well as I've said a few times, I could see a scenario where Gailey is fired by Nix. It appears that Gailey is in it over his head and it might give Nix one more season. IMO, the talent is good enough to win but the coaching is not.

Good.

Touchdown.

Landry was right in Freddy's line of sight… Freddy has to make sure that his feet ARE NOT PLANTED when taking a shot like that. The play was like slo mo to me… you could see the hit coming a mile away. I'm very surprised that Freddy didn't protect himself better.

They've got McGee replacing McKelvin as the nickel corner.

Didn't like the spread/empty set on 2nd and 10. Exactly the situation I want to see running backs/tight ends. Second pick.

Except for throwing too late on his pick, Fitz has thrown the ball well.