San Jose Bills Fan

My DVR didn't record the Cinci game and as a result I missed the game. I seem to remember that Lewis looked good in his start last year against the Steelers on rollouts or maybe it was the preseason game he played this year? Anyways my thought was that maybe the Bills don't want him to be tempted to run the ball so they're nixing those plays in an (misguided?) attempt at avoiding injury. Just a thought and probably wrong. Thanks for posting, CB. I see they highlighted the one play fake/sprint roll throw to Chandler. As you can see, Mario is no Bruce Smith. He's more similar to Reggie White in that he uses his size/speed/strength as opposed to having the arsenal of moves that Bruce had. One other thing Mario does well is that he uses his hands quite nicely. Martin and Clabo were like tackling dummies out there.

I think TCali is saying that Manuel should be better at climbing the pocket. I'm a big EJ fan but either he has an aversion to stepping up in the pocket or Hackett is failing as a QBs coach. EJ has to learn to climb the pocket. He would also be well served to abandon is over-reliance on the Tarkenton-inspired reverse spin move. The pros already know this tendency and are gonna eat him up on it.

Outstanding observations as usual. Even without the full services of Cameron Wake, the Dolphins have an excellent pass rush. This was obviously a factor in Lewis' play. And yes, Thad spent 4 seasons as the starter at Duke. Apparently many people are unaware of this fact. Lewis played college football for the Duke Blue Devils. While at Duke he set school records for career passing touchdowns and career passing yards. He also set Duke's school record for most consecutive pass attempts without an interception, 206. During his four years as a starting quarterback, he threw for 10,065 yards, 67 touchdowns and 40 interceptions, and ran for 9 touchdowns. During his senior season Lewis was a finalist for the Davey O'Brien Award, presented to the nation's top quarterback. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaddeus_Lewis I'm also very surprised that there has been no commentary of the fact that against Miami, every pass play but one was a pocket pass. There was only one designed rollout. It's weird to me anyways that a very mobile QB who has shown an ability to throw on the run would be forced to sit in the pocket against a good pass rushing team. It seems like it would be beneficial to mix in a few rollouts and moving pockets.

Actually no. George Young was the Giants GM at the time and he took LT based on production. LT was a consensus All-American, had 16 sacks his senior season, and held numerous Tarheel defensive records. He wasn't drafted first overall only because the late Bum Phillips didn't like him. The Giants happily selected Taylor 2nd overall. There was a pre-draft poll of the NFL's 28 GMs and 26 of them said that given the opportunity, they would draft LT first overall. It was as close to a no-brainer as can be.

Alright fellas. Good seeing y'all. Have a good week!

He had one reception for 22 yards. How do you not design a game plan that places the ball in his hands in ways other than a handoff?

Yes, whether he was staying or going they couldn't have done a better job of devaluing him and at the same time, casting the organization in a bad light.

It's amazing. You have the best running back in the league, a true 3-down back and you haven't done anything to design imaginative ways to get the ball in his hands. No swing passes, no shuttle passes, no screen passes, amazingly unimaginative offense by Bill Musgrave Maybe the OC is the reason that every Minny QB looks lousy?

And going full circle that's the stupidity of this Freeman situation. Last year at this time he was viewed as the Bucs franchise QB in training. Then they let a guy like Schiano run Freeman out of town in spite of the fairly high probability that Schiano will be fired at season's end. It makes zero sense. The owner and/or GM needed to intervene and figure out a way to perform damage control in order to protect assets, especially from liabilities like Schiano. The character assassination alone that Schiano performed on Freeman was reprehensible. It was a textbook case on how to devalue an asset as quickly as possible. How does a team allow a guy with his head in the noose the latitude to damage team assets? Mind bogglingly stupid.

The few "hot seat" articles I've seen seem to mention Schiano and Kubiak a lot and there's a lot of speculation that Coughlin will "step down" after this year. However you have to think that Leslie Frazier's seat is pretty warm too.

Ponder was airing his hurt feelings the other day which I thought spoke poorly of his perspective or maturity, take your pick. It's pretty easy, Christian. You've sucked in every game you've played as a pro. The Vikings don't view you as their QB of the future. You have millions and are apparently a babe magnet and you have two degrees. Your glass is overflowing. Be happy. What's amazing to me is how badly Eli has been playing this year. He's still throwing to Cruz and Nicks. I can see how he can slump a bit but to suck as badly as he had? Hard to understand.

Yo bro. Good to see you. What's the new avatar? I guess I missed that one. Still considering how well he throws on the run, it's odd to me that there was only one called rollout.

As horrible as Ponder has been in his career, it's hard to believe that Freeman gives the Vikes the best chance to win tonight.

Haven't read the board recently so I'm not sure it's been mentioned but the thing that jumped out at me about Lewis and the Bills offense was that in spite of him being extremely mobile and adept at throwing on the run, not one single Bills pass play featured a designed roll out. By design he was confined to the pocket on every pass play. Hey 26! All is well. I'm just swamped with a few things lately. Hope you're having a great October.

The incredible effort by Giants punter Steve Weatherford was something to behold. He managed to occupy multiple blockers, slow down the return and almost made the tackle at the goal line. Too bad none of his teammates were hustling enough to catch up to the play. Really one of the greatest efforts I've ever seen by a punter on a punt return.

In that same game which was the SEC Championship Game, Cordy also stonewalled Barkevious Mingo (drafted 6th overall by the Browns this year). I believe Georgia gave up 4 sacks in the game but Cordy was pretty impermeable.

Yep. When the Bills failed to sign Clabo there was the predictable uninformed overreaction. I was happy the Bills pursued Clabo and disappointed when he re-signed with Atlanta but I knew that he had manipulated us to get the best deal with the Falcons and didn't really want to come here. Because of that I was at peace with what happened. At the time of Erik Pears' ascendency I said he could be the second coming of Tyson Clabo. They were both big guys who were undrafted, and took about 5 years and 5 teams before they learned how to play O-line in the NFL. This is a very common story and one that some of the experts around here should keep in mind when judging how worthy some players are. However in some people's minds, Clabo will always be a better player than Pears because Pears is on the Bills and Clabo didn't come here. During the same offseason there was a big groundswell here for the Bills to pursue Dallas OT Doug Free. Like Clabo, Free has regressed and Dallas decided to draft his replacement and move him to the right tackle. That same offseason many people here wanted the Bills to pursue TEs Zach Miller and Kevin Boss, myself included. Miller has unfortunately been derailed by a serious knee injury but I predict that he'll become the great tight end in Seattle that he was before his injury. As for Boss, he signed with the Raiders for 4 years and $16 million. The Bills likely knew when he was a free agent that he was already a concussion risk. As it turned out Boss lasted less than one year with the Raiders and less than one year with the Chiefs and is now out of football. Concussions have probably ended his career. The jury is out on Cordy Glenn and Jonathan Martin (and Riley Reiff for that matter) because players can easily regress or improve based on their coaching and work ethic. But when I was touting Cordy Glenn as the best tackle in his draft class I was also saying that Martin needed to get much stronger and that he projected to being a finesse tackle a la D'Brick. I'm real pleased with Cordy's development. He doesn't quite have the feet of the very greatest tackles but he has good feet plus ridiculous wingspan and straight-line speed for a 345 pound man. He can be beaten to the outside and still push his man out of the play. It doesn't have to be textbook. Cordy also has a mean streak and seems to have a really good work ethic. I still love Cordy and hope the Bills can re-sign him when the time comes.

Holding out hope for New Orleans but it's doubtful. There are a lot of major things coming up in the next year that'll squeeze our Bills budget tighter than a Bruce Smith sack (not sure what that means). But we'll look forward to seeing you at the opener next year. :thumbsup:

Actually my point is that it has a negative impact. Thus the comment about the 11.25th Man. Actually CC this is a negative take. When I attend games I scream AND clap my hands. It takes me days to get my voice back to normal. One can be against something without it being a negative take. There is such a thing as valid criticism. If giving out white pom poms is what it takes to get fans into the ballgame, something is seriously wrong.

Here are several reasons why the "White Out" game is a stupid idea: 1) Girls wave pom poms, men don't. 2) Pom poms are made of balls of cutup paper. They absorb more noise than they create, a net minus in decibels not to mention the energy wasted in doing whatever you're supposed to do with them. On the plus side if it rains they could come in handy wiping your seat dry. 3) When you're manipulating a stupid pom pom, you can't bang on an object to make actual noise, nor can you cup your hands to your mouth to amplify your screaming, nor can you clap your hands. Pom poms are a great way to reduce crowd noise. They will transform the 12th Man into the 11.25 Man. 4) As mentioned on page one, white is the universal sign of surrender. If the Bills really wanted to do something cool, they should give out commemorative Thundersticks or Vuvuzelas. I thought that after the first White Out game (the horrible loss to the Jets) that this stupid idea would go away. Sadly I was wrong.

http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/162208-thelegendofkikoalonso/

And as I replied at the time, Brady is throwing to two rookie wide receivers who aren't reading the field the same way Brady is. In other words, a pass that doesn't connect can be as much the receivers fault as the QBs fault. Given Brady's track record, I"m giving the benefit of the doubt to the future HOF QB and not the rookie wide receivers. Also in last week's game, there were numerous drops by the NE receivers.

This one obviously isn't looking so great. You can't comment on a game that's at halftime!

It's always an adjustment.