WhitewalkerInPhilly

Actually, over the last two years EJ has looked numbers wise as good as or better than Cassel. And Tyrod has been backing up a SB Championship QB who is making bank.

And you think...Rex Ryan...of all people...would be overly cautious? On something he has vowed to not be a part of?

So, what you're saying is that after Rex promised an open QB competition, coming from a scenario where the lack of an open competition screwed him over, decided to settle, sight unseen, on an aging veteran whose high water mark was limping into first in a terrible division, watched the OTA's where said vet was the worst easily, and went "yep I'm staking my career on this" The only way he does that is if the plan is to tank for a higher draft pick next year.

Absolutely! Granted CK did come into camp out of shape last year. But when CK, Seantrel, Henderson...and even URBIK of all people show marked improvement, you have to assume the coaching and scheme are at least partly responsible

I absolutely detest the instant first down on holding. I don't know how many times we've seen third and insanely long, or a 4th down and long punt get simply erased because a ref is feeling too touchy that day.

Thanks OP! From what I was going on it hardly seemed as if Taylor was unable to make throws from the pocket like some people seemed to indicate. Dude...you could have faked it to make it *look* like you read the OP.

It's really too bad, but our depth is ok.

Well, in fairness, if one guy misses by a mile and the other has his receivers catching a case of the drops it does matter. I will note that this gives some leeway to EJ but I still think Tyrod had the better day.

I might be harping on this too much, bit Roman has a track record of heavy used of unbalanced/ heavy sets. I see no problem with having a close fought match with CK and Seantrel. Whoever loses out should still get quality playing time.

I know this has been answered by others, but I thought I'd get into the scheme answers based on the plays I've seen Roman draw up. Basically the easiest way to defend a scrambling QB is to spy him, usually with an extra LB or S so that even if the QB beats the D-line pressure (how we blew up Cam) they get stopped for small gains. One of my favorite formations Roman dreamed up is a 6 O-line, 1 TE, 2 back and 1 WR formations. The LT is swung over to the right side, where he's joined by THE RT aND swing tackle.(Glenn, CK and Henderson). The TE takes the LT spot (Clay), the WR goes wide left (Sammy) the backs on either side of the QB.(McCoy and Felton) At base, it's drawn up as a sweep. Shady uses FOUR, count them FOUR run blockers to get around the side. If you've spied your SS or WLB you have two tackles and a FB going against a pair of LB. If you don't spy the QB to defend the run, the QB is free to run. Are they sending the house to defend the run? You can easily turn the play in the play action fake on an audible, and suddenly Sammy is in single coverage with minimal safety support. With his speed he can turn a 5-8 yard route to a touchdown. Of course there are ways to defend it running QBs, but Roman was able to mask Kaepernick for 2 years. He might have done it for a third, but there were injuries to the O-line and with Crabtree not on his game the only real passing threat was Davis. The Bills don't have that problem right now.

Agrees with all of the above. The only thing I can think of as a negative is that someone mentioned that it seemed odd that they ran it up the middle on third and long with Cassel. But with only one new player starting on the O line, it seems to be playing far, far better. No matter who winds up starting I think Roman can scheme an offense for them.

"IK! Yer up! Let's see of Johnny has a jaw like Genos!"

I'm shocked, even I'm shocked, after the Trentative/Holcomb/Brohm nightmare, after Fitz, after all the EJ slamming and 12 weeks of Orton, that people are coming down on Tyrod after having easily the best night out of all the Qbs. Are there faults to his game? Does he run a bit too early and often? Have defenses learned how to contain running QBs? Yes. But Tyrod is the one who kept the offense clicking. He, to me, embodied the philosophy that Rex and Roman have been embodying from day one: We run first. We run the ball down their throats. When you need to, make the big play to keep it going, but keep on grounding and pounding. I can't remember the last time we had a boring 90 yard touchdown drive, but Tyrod made it look easy. The Goodwin throw was perfect from the pocket, and well diagnosed and placed well to give the speedster room to go. He extended play with his legs and threw on the run after blitzes. He, when the defense gave him the chance, tore up the field with his legs. And if Tompkins doesn't drop that ball off his fingertips we get to shut up about his passing ability. Exactly. I don't believe Russel WIlson has ever been better than 12th in QB rating. You take what the defense gives you. If they start spying you in the pocket that means there's one less S or LB in pass coverage and they bite *hard* on the bootleg pass.

That would explain a lot. They roasted Darby early and often, and usually that means they rotate a safety toward you. And Darby did improve throughout the night, and from the way Murph and Kelso were calling it, Darby's two biggest mistakes were when the WR could have been out of bounds and the Panthers quick snapped it to avoid a review and Kelvin Benjamin's TD where he apparently flagrantly pushed off and didn't get called by the refs. That'll be good experience for Darby knowing that Offensive PI will be ignored more often than not. That's where I am too. Cassel might be very capable of making the high percentage throws, but eventually, like we learned with Chan and Fitz defenses start only covering 15 yards back. If you have absolute precision like Tommy Boy, you can make it work, but otherwise you catch on quick. With mobile QBs, there is also a weakness and admittedly most teams have studied the read option enough that it doesn't take the defense by complete surprise anymore. But the way most teams defend against it is to have a LB or S spy the QB to contain his run, which means there is one less player defending your receivers. To me, Tyrod showed enough promise throwing on the run (escaping a sure sack to throw to Karlos) and in the pocket he had that nice throw to Goodwin. Goodwin made the play after the catch but it was almost a sure first down even before that. He has entirely earned a chance to play with the 1's vs Cleveland.

I know! I'm impressed! 90, but like Murph and Kelso were saying "When was the last time the Bills had a "garden variety" 90 yard scoring drive?"

Yeah. CK is out there right now. And he is really making throws when he has to.

Holy crap, Karlos is looking amazing! I'm less and less worried about Taylor's throwing ability.

Just like we expected, the offense looks just fine, but the defense is giving us some cause for alarm. ...Wait.

Wait, we're seeing the offense actually move down the field with impunity, and we're able to slam it in during red zone time. WHAT TEAM IS THIS?!?

I heard Roman did that a lot in SF.

Jeez Mulligan is not helping himself.

Still...are we to talk considering our QB situation. And then Brady might skate... Ok, negative time is over. GO IK GO!

Alas, I was making fun the Brady apologists.

Hey, the league can't suspend IK! Their report didn't correctly take into account Newton's Laws of Motion and the Conservation of Momentum. And I'm pretty sure they didn't explicitly include breaking the jaw of a teammate. It's a sham I tell you, a conspiracy!

Hey, if they can sweep Bradford's leg in December... Seriously though, I'd save my gate for Tommy Boy if he skates on his suspension.