SageAgainstTheMachine

You're close. The Bills kicked off in the first half 15 times. They elected to receive once, against the Saints.

I'm glad somebody else noticed this. Over the years, I think my eyes have picked up on subtleties that make NFC football seem like a different entity than AFC football.

Well, that's the perspective of the fans. General managers are paid to be objective. The Bills finished 6-10 and Pettine got hired because it was obvious that his defense wasn't part of the problem in Buffalo. I imagine the same could hold true for Schwartz.

Then again, certain franchises (including the Bills) have become coaching graveyards. If I was a hot-commodity coordinator, I'd want nothing to do with Oakland.

Against an elite offense (This year, I'd call only Denver elite) you don't give them the chance to immediately put 7 on the board. Against anybody else, I like deferring because it gives you a better opportunity to game plan around the end of the first half. Most people seem to agree with this logic nowadays, but I can remember Jauron and, to a lesser extent, Gailey getting lambasted because "a winner wants the ball!".

I started a similar poll last year about Mike Pettine and I believe you guys unanimously voted "No". For the record, I was in the "No" camp as well, but we all see how that turned out. Like most years, there will be a small handful of coaching vacancies after the dust settles from 2014 (Raiders already, and I imagine the Jags, Dolphins, Jets, Titans, and 49ers will be searching). Schwartz' teams may have under-performed in Detroit relative to their talent, but NFL teams have a known history of hiring retreads. Furthermore, I honestly believe that Terry Pegula will start his regime with a new head coach if Marrone delivers anything less than a playoff berth this year. Terry ended up swallowing a hard pill when he insisted on keeping Lindy Ruff and Darcy Regier, and I don't think he'll risk that again. Not saying it's right, but I think that's how he probably sees it. In the instance that Marrone is fired, Schwartz is a pretty logical choice. There's already obvious camaraderie with the locker room. Did anybody else see the post-game speech in the locker room? He's a popular guy. An egomaniac, I suspect, but a popular guy.

The Pats might have the worst WR corps in the NFL. Would probably be the league's worst offense were it not for Brady.

George Wilson

........

I pledge to say "drat!" and then move onto week 5.

That would have been the most prototypical Bills thing ever. I was surprised it didn't happen.

I think that if Jason Peters can keep up with Freeney's speed on the edge, he'll be fine and Peters is pretty agile. It's Brad Butler against Robert Mathis that worries me. If we let him get to Losman too often, then we don't stand a chance in hell against Manning. Everybody, remember to start Brandon Stokley in fantasy this week.

I do trust the wisdom of bettors in large numbers. Where there's corroboration, there's some degree of truth. But it's also true that perceived chances don't always reflect real life chances. I imagine that bettors are reacting to our drubbing of Miami last week and the weather forecast. Those things are certainly factors, but I don't think they vault us into a 80% chance of winning. Really, it's a matter of strong correlation. But as you say, it's not causation by any means.

I honestly believe that he's the quickest defensive lineman off the snap, and he's rarely off sides to boot. That said, he's not a hall of famer unless the Bills win a couple super bowls. I don't know if it should work that way, but it does.

I suspect he'll limp through the season, but always be ready for Sunday. A lot of prognosticators (of fantasy and real-life football) had Ladarius Green supplanting Gates as the predominant tight end in SD. Nope.

After reading this, I want to re-watch the game just to see if Marcel Dareus was as big of a factor as Buscaglia indicates. KW was (as usual) a lot more visible in penetration, but if it's true that Dareus handled mostly double teams, then there's a ton of inherent value in that. Despite his issues off the field, I feel that Dareus is getting closer and closer to validating his #3 overall selection.

I think it was the 2005 season when the Bills had a 21-0 lead on the Dolphins and Gus Frerotte went down. Rosenfels came in and threw like 300 yards in the second half to beat us 24-23.

Funny how "game manager" has become a euphemism for any starting quarterback that isn't a household name. Kind of like "character actors". To me, it's a specific term for a QB whose savvy and risk-averse nature overcomes an inability to hit intermediate and deep routes. Think Chad Pennington or Matt Cassel. The Bills run a ton of plays on the ground because that's where their strengths lie, but when EJ is asked to throw he has the full gamut of routes at his disposal. In my opinion, he is NOT a game manager. On the same token, Fitz (a below average starter overall) isn't a game manager. He's a misbegotten gunslinger.

I wonder if there's any positive correlation with winning games at the beginning of the season vs. the end of the season. So, we know that teams who win in week 1 and week 2 make the playoffs 63.3% of the time. What about teams who win in week 11 and week 14?

I liked Searcy's the best. He didn't hit him hard, but Searcy showed some incredible instincts on a big play.

I think that Rodak generally comes off as a lazy dill weed who looks for the negative in the Bills because those are the easy stories after 14 years. This article in particular, though, is just showing a statistic without editorializing. The headline about Spikes is fair because his 15 snaps are surprisingly low, even for a guy who predominately plays the run. Why look to be slighted when there's nothing offensive?

Is there a comprehensive statistic that takes game-situations into account? If there isn't, there should be. At the end of the game, the Bills were glad to give up 5-10 yard chunks in order to leverage the game clock against the Dolphins. Either way, Tannehill's final numbers look rather mediocre, but anybody who watched the game knows that we shut him down.

No kidding. He's walked away from RWS limping and demoralized two years in a row.

...since 2006-2007 when we beat the Fins in 4 straight games. This might seem rather arbitrary, but to me it's just another statistical symptom of our improvement. It's been a long time since I felt like the Bills owned a division rival. Remember 2011 when the Jets blew us out and altered the course of our season? I don't see this team getting pushed around like that.

Yeah, that was weird. The Dolphins have a DT Earl Mitchell who made a few tackles on running plays. Maybe that was the confusion? Either way, pretty sloppy.