ColdBlueNorth

That was a four man rush and Bell got beat again. We should have our oline line up in a V formation like the Steelers do. I believe it is illegal, but hey if they don't call it against them maybe we can get away with having linemen that aren't on the line.

that is a very good question

I don't think Turk offered us a whole lot. His offenses have been wildly inconsistent in the past, or have we forgotten the 3 games towards the end of last year where we scored 3,3, and 0. This year I believe that our injuries and youth up front have played a big role in our offensive ineptitude, and Trent's lack of productivity (a small part, I have never thought that Trent was a great QB). In the NE game we had Bell and Butler as our bookends where they had practiced all offseason. Jackson ran all over NE that game. After Bell got hurt and Butler was lost for the season the line was a shambles. We also lost our starting tight end that was a go-to guy for Trent and a good blocker, and then Shawn Nelson went down.... Our defense also lost a lot of starters so when other teams started scoring early on us, their defenses knew Trentative would not be able to throw the ball faster than their blitzers could blow by our rookie and scrub linemen filling in. I think that Meredith is the best right tackle we have fielded since Butler went down and that is a relief. Edwards is not a QB that can pick up a team by being creative on the run. There was nothing he could do on the sack he took that caused his injury, but there have been plenty of times where he escapes the pocket and just does not create anything. Elite QBs are the ones that can take a broken play and still be dangerous. Let's face it, every QB faces pressure, breakdowns in protection, etc... not all of them fold like TE seems to do. It will be interesting to see what Fitz is able to do with a full week of practice with the starters.

Ahhh... Then Belichick must've finally learned the value of protecting his QB from unnecessary hits. Tennessee is terrible this year on defense.

I agree with Belichick about running up the score - he basically says that the other team needs to get better and stop them. Heck the Bills in their hurry-up K-Gun days embarrased quite a few teams. In regards to the Tennessee game, if I were coach Fisher knowing that my secondary was sucking, I would have blitzed everyone, every down to knock Brady into next week. As far behind as they got, do you really care whether they score again? I don't feel sorry for the Titans, but I don't see the logic of the Patriots having their franchise QB out there late in the 3rd and 4th quarter throwing bombs when they have a 30 point lead. I would think you would be asking for a beat-down of your QB at that point. Just my OHO.

He did look pretty solid, but then again our defensive linemen do not exactly strike fear into the guys playing across from them.

The supposed domination was a flat-out pancake of Stroud by their Center. Check out the Jones' run for the TD I think it is even in the "highlight" vid on the home page. If the interior guys are doing their job you do not have runs like that up the middle - and we have given up too many. It is true that if our linebackers and safeties came up to fill the right gap that would be nice, but you expect Stroud to be that guy that takes on two blockers. When Stroud is on his game he can be that type of player, but he has not been. Buffalo drafts pretty light on the defense, and it shows when teams get smash-mouth on us. The really scarey thing about the running plays that worked for the Jets (most all of them) was that we were selling out to the run. We had no respect for a pass and simply had everyone crowding the line and they still were able to blow through our guys.

You can tell this is a patchwork defense particularly against the run with Scott, and Mitchell out. Wilson has more range than Scott, but Scott is better against the run. I felt that Mitchell was our toughest LB and had the veteran experience to know how to play the run. All that being said, if your best defensive lineman is getting thrown aside and pancaked that is simply a case of not being tough enough. Stroud has to play better, they really count on him to hold his ground. It is nice to have Poz back, and he is a good all around linebacker, but we need some run stoppers. We also just need the DLine and the linebackers to be more responsible within their gaps. This does not resemble much the "D" we put out there against NE, but at least we have enough defensive backs to stil play the pass.

have a sick kid so I was bored enough to go back through the game and watch the jest running game. Although our defensive line has some serious issues with cut-back runs, and we did have shoddy tacking on sweeps to the outside, what really hurt us were runs right up the gut. I have always been a big Stroud fan but the Jet's center Nick Mangold totally dominated him 1 on 1, on the touchdown run I think it is Stroud that gets pancaked. The center Mangold and their right guard Moore created a lot of movement and some huge holes. Once in the secondary, it is asking alot for our smallish backfield to actually stop a runningback with a full head of steam.

As usual the answer is not so cut and dry. Sure injuries can be unavoidable, but the Bills have had an inordinate amount of injuries over the past 3 years. I should be a stat monkey and actually work out our average compared to other NFL teams, but I would wager that we are near the top if not alone at the top. Nutrition, conditioning, and flexibility go a long way towards preventing injuries. I think we do miss Rusty Jones and his program which kept the athletes on this team running at a high level. I also think that the soft camps probably do not help too much and Jauron has way too much trust in his players using their own conditioning programs. An interesting thing to note is that many folks early on said that Jauron would have done better in Chicago is it were not for all the injuries that plagued that team. Sound familiar???

I've seen enough of Trent... the Bills broke another QB. At least with Fitz in there I feel like watching because I don't think he will check down to a 3 yrd pass when it is 3rd and 15, or 4th and 11. By the time Trent decides to throw he is late and the opportunity is gone. Fitz also moves and slides better in the pocket giving him enough time to throw. He appears to have the arm-strength needed to hit those difficult out routes without tossing the ball out of bounds and the timing to finally take advantage of the slants between the deep and the underneith coverage. If we could have somehow merged Losman's brain with Edwards we would have had a QB with some moxy and a long ball, who could check down and protect the ball when needed. Instead it look like the Bills drafted the extreem ends of the spectrum. Losman needs to sit for a long time and figure out how he needs to play this game. Maybe if the fog from his concussions lift, he will remember how to play the QB position.

I don't think it is a different scheme... both this week and last week we were going against quarterbacks that suck like our own have for the past decade - although Sanchez is simply a rookie who hasn't seen alot who has not played in the cold much, if at all. Knowing that these QB's cannot read coverages well when pressured, Fewel put in some risky blitz packages designed to hurry them into mistakes. Against a veteran QB we would have been eaten alive ala Arizona last year.

I would say that most times you are correct, our ends cannot contain or shed blocks, and our smallish linebacker core gets blown up at the next level, and our safeties and corners take bad angles.... all true. But I have seen several off-tackle runs that appear to move the pile 6-8 yards a pop, or allow the runner to break right into the secondary. Although Stroud is a MAN, I think our other DTs are a bit too light and ineffective in the interior against the run. Also, we may be more susceptable whenever Stroud is out due to D-line rotation. We need a real stout DT that can play alongside Stroud and a slightly bigger, tougher middle linebacker. I was happy when they moved Mitchell to the inside which I felt was a more natural position for him although he plays the weakside well and is effective blitzing from there, but his injury was a key loss. Each year this team gets riddled with injuries, although some have dismissed it as accident I am in the camp that nutrition, flexibility, and proper conditioning does limit the number of injuries. I do think we miss Rusty Jones and although they probably like it the soft camps have not helped these players either.

I am not going to crown Fitz as "the answer", but he was able to hit a deep out and another that was bobbled out of bounds - those are tough throws. And the slant to Evans was in stride and allowed him to split the coverage for the go-ahead score. That soft spot has been there all year, but Trent is always tentative with that throw. That is not a throw that a QB can think too much about (its there then gone), he has to throw it to a spot and trust the receiver to make the play. With the bad weather causing passes to float and no practice with the first team, I think that Fitz did a good job - you cannot point at him and say that he lost the game for us. BTW - that fullback we have cannot catch a cold, AVP called a weak-side throw to him off playaction and he was wide open, no defenders within 15 yards of him and he dropped it. I have seen them throw that pass to him before and he did the same thing.

Damn, your using my avatar Now I have to find another one... just loved that choking Jauron image though.

Do any of them come with corrective glasses, balls, and a metronome? That way maybe Trent would see the open receivers, have the courage to throw downfield, and the timing to get it there before the receiver is out of bounds or the defender recovers and jumps the route. Edwards just hasn't been the same since Adrian Wilson knocked all the testosterone out of him last year and scrambled his brain. I don't know what it is going to take to get him back to where he is developing again, but standing behind our line of rookies getting beat like a red-headed step child is not the route I would take as a coach.

I disagree............... I think that people here are very believable I was also not high on the Maybin pick... I wanted B-lo to trade up with Oakland. Then Al could have had his coveted bust of a receiver at a more resonable price and we would have had our shot at Raji who reminded me of a cross between Sapp (who I admired as a player, but hated everything else about him) and our dearly departed Pat Williams. All that being said, it is way too early to be throwing around the bust label. The kid definately needs to get stronger - I don't know if that means bulking up where he could lose some speed, or simply hitting the weight room and working on techniques for shedding blockers. It would be nice to see a flash of his touted potential now and then on obvious passing downs, but why anyone would pass on those 3rd and long situations when we are giving up around 400 yards on the ground is beyond me.

I don't know if it is Jauron or AVP, I tend to lean towards Jauron. He has established himself as being so risk adverse that we become extreemly predictable. Watching the Falcons later in the evening I could not get over how much better the coaching and time management for other teams seem to be. Everyone on the same page, even with Mularky calling offensive plays:) Chicago looked like a version of us, but with a real QB. I swear they tried to run on every first down, even when it was obvious that Atlanta was loading the box.

Actually a good move. Really...what could it hurt? We certainly were not tricking anybody, we go three and out faster thus keeping our defense on the field longer, the scrubs who are playing the part of O-linemen are confused and penalized half the time. I say give them slow-blinkers a chance to ask what gap they are trying to block for in the huddle, and on what count and maybe they actually pull it off. At this point any semblance of order by the offense including successfully huddling and breaking the huddle would be a step up from what we have had to endure.

True that.

Made sense to me, but here are the cliff notes... current forecast: season sucks already long-range forecast: we have more key injuries, we are not near the level of play of our divisional foes, and our season could reach new heights of futility & failure, perhaps even the worst Bills team ever. Then again I use a lot of pauses and stuff. I don't think I have lost anyone yet, but you did give me flashbacks to nazi-like English teachers who wanted to revoke my writer's license. Besides issues with his composition and style, did you have anything else to add regarding the content of his post?

not too shabby.

No.

I voted for a coach/GM model My thoughts on that are that we do need to clean house, only a tenured coach that could assemble a staff could do both roles so that takes care of the coach with experience option, and lastly I do not believe that Ralph meddles as much as folks think. With an absentee owner you need someone at the helm that can execute a strategy both personnel and coaching that can get the Bills out of the hole that they are in.

He should do the honorable thing... he can check Japanese history for some suggestions.