ColdBlueNorth

I am only speculating here, but it could be a ventricular septal defect (hole in the heart) which is more common that folks realize 1 out of every 500 or so. The septal tissue that separates the chambers in the heart is one of the last things to develop in an unborn child and there are many children born with this, but it closes on its own often by the age of 10 or so. If the hole is large and untreated oxigenated blood flows back into the right ventrical and then is passed back into the lungs forcing the whole system to work harder to supply oxigen to the body which can cause the heart to become enlarged. The added pressure to the lungs can cause pulmanary hypertension which sounds close to what Easly experienced on the practice field. Another bad side affect that can be caused by this condition is blood clots can develop in the primary arteries of normally healthy individuals who do not have precursors for clot and stroke (overweight, arterial disease, etc). I know more about this because it was that very situation that took out my brother-in-law this past summer when an undiscovered VSD caused a clot to form that found it's way to his brain's basilar artery. The artery was fully occluded when finally diagnosed and that is a stroke that you just do not recover from with current protocols. If this is what Easley has been diagnosed with then he is fortunate it was found and his option is an open heart procedure to surgically repair the septal defect. He could conceivably return to sports although he would need to be monitored closely for arrhythmia complications and there does seem to be a statistical increased risk of sudden cardiac death of those that undergo the intervention. I know that sounds dismal, but I think he could play, but he would need to be disciplined about working with the team physcians monitoring his recovery and continued heart health.

May be even more true the way penalties are called. I remember every run on the edge being called back because of a holding call on a TE, can't remember seeing even one of those penalties this year. I saw Merrimen hauled down from behind and sat on during a screen play against the Bengals and the official just looked the other way. All the rules to protect the QB, WR, and running backs where the defense cannot put a good hit on them. The only thing I have not seen a lot of is pass interference calls. Besides the one in our endzone against NE, I have seen DBs mugging guys all the way down the field without drawing the hanky. Interesting article and it is hard to argue with NE's success.

Sorry for the long post. I haven't really posted on the game, I kind of like to let the "kill em all" feelings settle down first. I am not ready to hit the panic button I don't think many fans are although it makes for decent news fodder to talk about all the fans jumping off the bandwagon, but most would agree that there is work that needs to be done on both sides of the ball and Gailey knows this. On defense: McKelvin is consistently exposed by average QB's and rookie receivers, and it is not a coincidence that opposing QBs target McKelvin the most. Yes, I do believe that both rookies Denarius Moore and Green will be good receivers for years to come, but this is not just a two-game observation. We will get healthier on pass defense if McGee can come back (stay healthy) and solidify that spot with some veteran saavy. Long term I am hoping that Aaron Williams grows into that role. McKelvin is overmatched when facing the taller WRs where he is not physical enough to jam receivers on the line and rarely appears to be able to track the long ball on go routes. He is probably better suited for covering slot receivers. I also agree that some of the longer conversions were spectacular circus catches, others he has just been late getting there and ineffectively waving his arms around in the air hoping that he somehow gets a piece of the ball. We seem to play a lot of man coverage and to do so you need to have DBs that can shut it down solo. Another defensive problem was containment; Gailey alluded to this in his presser right after the game where it looked like he could chew up 10 penny nails. I don't know if it was by design, but on two separate instances where we gave up big gains to the outside I saw Merriman and later Kelsey take inside moves leaving no one on the edge. If this is part of Edward's defensive playbook he needs to file it in the trash. Several times the rookie Dalton was able to pull the ball down and race 10-12 yards towards the sideline marker to pull out an improbable 3rd and forever conversion. One of the things I was looking for from the defense is our big boys in the middle being able to flush Dalton out of the pocket for Merriman and Kelsey to clean up. Well, he was flushed out, but I did not envision him running free. Also Benson and the rookie running back consistently made yards on the edge moving the chains, and in the second half they even started gashing our defense off tackle. What's the deal with the arm brace that Dareus is wearing, anyone know? Troup? Troup? Was Troup even on the field? Either way, they were more physical on the line than the Bills and our defense also played extreemly undisciplined; bad angles, no contain, not executing their fits and gap assignments - perhaps they read too many articles about lack of a pass rush and were so anxious to put pressure on a rookie QB that they lost sight of their number one priority which is always stop the run first. Benson is not McFadden - our defense has been better than that against the run, but they were not getting a whole lot of help from the 3 and out offense this game. I don't know, I think we have good players and you start to wonder if they would be executing better if someone like Wade Phillips was coaching them. This is year 2 under Edwards and this scheme and I do not see a marked improvement in the amount of yards we are giving up. The Edwards Wannstedt dynamic duo have got to coach these guys up better; and yes, I thought the same thing after our wins, but was a bit more subdued in my criticism because the halftime adjustments seemed so effective that I was thinking they may eventually get to the point where they dominate early without the halftime fix. I also was not sure if our defensive 2nd half surge was not simply a byproduct of our offense moving the chains and scoring while keeping the other teams offense cooling its heels. I know, it was a bit of both I am sure. The truth is usually a shade of grey. On Offense: Frankly, Fitz was terrible. He is known for being erratic and this was the worst I had seen from him. His throws either had too much heat and were high, or too little heat and were lucky they were not intercepted. His long ball was consistently too short and guys that were one on one with a step on the defender had to slow up which allowed the DB's to make plays on the ball knocking away at least 3 shots downfield that should have been long conversions. He needs to get better on those if he is to remain a consistent starting QB. The design of our spread offense is meant to single those guys one on one on the outside, and Fitz has got to be able to take advantage of that. Marvin and the Bengals coaching staff know Fitz better than any other team would, whatever they did on defense did have him out of sync - the testament to that fact was when Fitz held the ball so long he got sacked.... Fitz rarely takes that long to digest what his receiving options are. Gailey and Fitz need to get to work, because every team is going to roll out the Bengals defense tapes and try to mimick whatever they did to take one of the highest scoring offenses and bottle it up. It is a copy-cat league. Fred Jackson, one of my favorite players, just looked a bit slow for that game. There were plenty of draws and quick screens where he had so much green in front of him yet it just seemed to take too long for him to get his wheels going and he would consistently be tripped up from behind. I like Freddie's patience, but I found myself yelling for him to run already. Like most of the offense he just seemed to lack that normal spark he has to move the chains. The one shining moment was the absolutely perfect text book execution of pulling and sealing the edge that Corey McIntyre put on Freddie's TD run - allowing him to practically walk in untouched ... a thing of beauty. I didn't tape the game, but I am pretty sure that the Bengals used a nickel package for most of the game with two inside linebackers. I am thinking that one probably was told to spy Jackson on the short stuff he usually turns into long gainers. Well, I agree with what Chan said and I think that he is a refreshingly straight shooter. He just said that they have to execute better on offense, and they have to be able to get off the field on 3rd downs on defense. He also said that they have to be more physical at the point of attack both on offense and on defense. For much of the game it just looked like the Bengals wanted it more. I wonder how this team will respond?

No flags for the Bills in this game... ridiculous interference and offensive line takedowns. Well the Bills no what kind of game is going to be called, should see if they can get away with the same stuff.

Wasn't so much bashing Detroit, it is nice to see them rebounding along with the other "rust belt teams" rather I was dismissing the analyst who keep saying how much stronger their defense is compared to ours. I just think an intelligent analysis has to take in the strength of the opponents you face.

...and getting a big ol' chip on their shoulder. I keep hearing how 3-0 Detroit's defense is so much better than ours and I have to ask who have they played that has a decent offense? KC - a team we demolished on our opener. TB and MN - yeah, two offensive power houses there. They have a beat up Dallas squad that is no where near where it was a few years ago. You have to wait till the 24th before they finally get a team with a decent offense. If they can hang with Green Bay then maybe we can start talking about their defense. At least with Oakland I can give them props - they played us tough down to the wire, and they ran the ball down the Jets throats to win following that cross-country heartbreaker. If they beat the crap out of NE I would be so freak'n happy - maybe Brady will shave his head bald after that

Good stuff, and I like to hear that Buddy feels that Merriman is coming along.

My only worry is the lack of a pass rush, but I will reserve judgement to see how things go this week with Troup in the rotation and a team that is not the Patriots with Brady's quick release nor Oaklands rushing attack that shredded the Jets. If it is the defensive feeding frenzy I expect I will be less concerned. Merriman is still hurt, anyone with eyes can see that. I wonder if he can stay healthy any more - that would be a shame, he is an amazing player when not battling injuries.

awesome article. I think you have to have a pretty saavy QB to understand and be able to know how to exploit all those routes. I do disagree with some of the article, they make an assumption that this formation somehow disguises a lack of talent at the receiver position on the Bills, just because the Bills WR's don't have all the pedigrees there are plenty of one on one situations where our no-names are smoking defensive backs with speed and individual efforts. Not that route-running wouldn't be a premium in this type of offense - it would be.

I am not quite ready to throw in the towel yet either. At least not based on the way I think they wanted the defense to play the first few games, I will be interested to see if they turn the dogs loose on Cincy's young inexperienced QB regardless of Benson in the backfield -especially if our offense can get an early lead on them. If that happens there will be a lot of pressure on the Cincy offense to keep up with our offense. I do think that Moats has a future with the team, but I am not ready to say that Merriman is completely washed up yet. The Bills will also be able to rotate Troup in as well and I think that will help keep the D-Line pocket push going and spell Dareus and keep him fresh. With pressure up the middle, I expect sacks as the QB tries to step outside the pocket.

Thanks for the props

4 SB losses endless playoff droughts, home-run throw-ups, too many officiating gaffs to count....true Bills fans that are still around should be tough as nails by now. Like cockroaches after a nuclear blast, Bills fans would be driving through the rubble, scorched earth, and nuclear winter to the next home game happy they were getting sweet parking spots for their tailgate party.

Glad to hear that Troup is healthy enough to participate in Wednesday practice. Troup was really coming on in training camp and was supposed to be a big part of our defensive rotation this year...we have done a lot with Dareus and Kyle, but I am curious how we will fare if we can spell our big guys a bit more. Has Carrington gotten much playing time? If he has I haven't noticed - he is someone I would like to see come in on passing downs. I think with Oakland we really had to respect McFadden's ability to break the long one, with NE you have Brady's years of reading defenses and spread receiver formations where you are better off shelving most all your blitz packages. Curious to see if our defense cranks it up agains this Bengals team.

Actually, if you look at Welker's last TD reception our LB hits him hard when he comes across the middle to disrupt his route, but he had just enough of a window and our DBs were playing a bit deep on him... The other thing you notice is if they could have held Welker up for one more second Brady would have taken a sack - pressure was that close.

Same here. I never wince when those guys step up to the podium. I can see why they are team leaders, they are calm, articulate, and show very good leadership. I am lousy at presentations, so I know that is no easy feat and not everyone is cut out to do it.

Doesn't really matter, but I think we take Detroit and Baltimore simply because we have more offensive weapons. We have already proven we can go toe to toe with NE, but there are still those who are going to look at how the freaking planets lined up this past Sunday that allowed us to fell the mighty Patriots. Both the Saints and Green Bay would be interesting matchups - lots of offensive weapons and decent defenses. Oh well, that is we play the games - to prove the nay-sayers wrong.

Luckily the Bills are so far under the cap they can afford to lock up what they feel are their core players and still have room and time to develop guys behind them. Ol' Ralphy is going to have to wrench open that rusty wallet. You can't take it with you, but he can leave a lasting legacy if he handles the transition of this team wisely.

When the Bills front office hired Buddy Nix. Every other quality decision eventually leads back to the GM. Conversely you can trace how long this team has been piss-poor to the bone-headed forcing out of GM's Butler and Polian.

Corrected The Jets IMO are much more beatable than Oakland or NE. Sanchez is not Brady, and neither LaDanian or Green is in the same league as McFadden. There will be blitzes galore, but at the level the O-Line is playing at I like our chances of beating those for big chunks of yardage. Revis is great on bump and run coverage, and he does things that normally most guys get flagged on...not sure if it is just because he keeps his head turned around or what. Either way, Revis can't cover everybody and Oakland beat the crap out of them with the running game. Turn Freddy loose.

So? I blamed the Bill's Defense for years for not being able to stop their short-intermediate RAC passing game. I blamed our offense and special teams for turning over the ball, but those things don't happen in a vacuum - they happen because the other team is imposing their will on you. The old Bills teams did not lose just because of this or that, they lost because the Patriots as a team were better. Their defense didn't throw bad passes, but neither did Brady to be honest. If Leodis didn't undercut the route he was covering, the throw would have been completed, if Wilson didn't undercut and extend to pick off that Gronkowski seam route he would have caught a sure TD, if Marcel Dareus did not leap to get his hands up in the throwing lane the ball destined for Florence's hands would not have deflected off of him, if Scott did not dive to snag a bobbled ball a foot off the ground..... if our defense could not rely on its front 3-4 to pressure the pocket yet still remain stout against the run probably Belichik calls for them to run the ball down our throats forcing the Bills to replace a DB or Safety with another LB or DT thus opening up the passing game again...the list goes on because it is a team sport and you win or lose as a team.

Can't fault Byrd for that TD - pretty solid coverage. Don't think this defense can stop them when they are that to the end zone. Keys to the game were stopping Welker and Gronkowski and pressuring Brady..... Fail.

They have to know what we all know - the key to slowing Brady down is to shut Welker down...... arrrgggg.

Florence falls down waaaay too much - WTH. Is it too much to ask to cover Welker???? Totally giving up the outside to Welker - that is why I did not want him on Welker.

There is something so incredibly right about your avatar.... sometimes I read your posts too

Respect???? He predicted a score that was like 56 to 10. Yes, a bit of an exaggeration I know, but if that is respect then I am missing something. The Bills don't need Teddy's version of "respect". If they want respect they have to earn it out there by beating the crap out of the Patriots.