bobobonators

At the end of the day losing TT for the Jags game was killer; and not being able to win one vs either the Skins, Eagles, or Giants. Unacceptable.

LOL. My expectations were the following: Best case scenario 10-6 and our defense would regress a bit. I had zero idea how the offense would do because i had no idea how TT would perform. It turns out the offense performed much better than expected, but the defense was a bit worse than what I expected them to regress to. I'm not going to sit here and pretend I understand every single intricacy of Rex's scheme, but how different is Rex's scheme from the one that Pettine runs? Pettine and Rex were together from 2002 - 2012 - tied at the hip. Look at the numbers MW, KW and Hughes put up under Pettine in 2013. They were very good. Just how much of a difference is there between Rex and Pettine in terms of complexity? Is it really THAT different? Or could it also be that MW, Hughes, MD all had down years as a unit from last year? How often do we see players get paid and then regress? pretty often.

There have been numerous posts about how MW dropping back into coverage has been exaggerated, though I don't remember the stats off the top of my head.

LOL. I'm confused. We'll see. We though Pettine did a pretty good job when he was with us for one year, but that was because look how bad our defense was before he got to Buffalo. The defense Pettine had was pretty similar (in terms of core players) in personnel to the one we had this year and the scheme was pretty similar too. There weren't too many threads in 2013 discussing how the personnel didn't fit the scheme.

What do you mean?

Though I loved Schwartz, I don't think one can simply say our defense was going to continue to be as stellar this year as it was last year. Some players on this D had career years (or matched career highs) last year (Hughes/Dareus/MW mainly) and our DLine was healthy most of the year. Hughes and Dareus got paid and KW got injured this year. MW through a hissy fit and decided to stop playing. A regression to the mean may have occurred regardless of who the D-Coordinator would have been. Look at Schwartz's time in Detroit (Granted he was the HC and not the DC - Gunther Cunningham was the D-coordinator): 2009: Last in yds/game; last in pts/game (*he inherited a god-awful team) 2010: 21st in yds/game; 19th in pts/game (huge improvement) 2011: 23rd in yds/game; 23rd in pts/game (slight regression) 2012: 13th in yds/game; 27th in pts/game (more of a regression) 2013: 16th in yds/game; 15th in pts/game (improvement) The previous three years before Schwartz arrived to Buffalo the Bills were: 2011: 26th in yds/game; 30th in pts/game (George Edwards) 2012: 22nd in yds/game; 26th in pts/game (Dave Wannstedt) (first year that MW, KW and MD are all together) 2013: 10th in yds/game; 20th in pts/game (Mike Pettine) (first year that Hughes, MW, KW and MD are all together) With Schwartz in 2014: 4th in yds/game; 4th in pts/game - It's almost impossible to get better than this in 2015. It was an epic year defensively. Coincidently, the year after Schwartz left Detroit, Detroit had a monster defensive year: 3rd in pts/game; and 2nd in yds/game under Teryl Austin. However, under Austin they finished 18th in yds/game and 23rd in pts/game this year. That's a huge drop off but to be fair, the Lions lost several key players over the off season. What all this says to me is that Schwartz's scheme may have indeed been a great fit for this Bills defense but it also can't be ignored how 2014 was a perfect storm in terms of production from key players such as MW, MD and Hughes. The current crop of players on this defense had been together a few years already and were improving a bit each year through 2013 until finally exploding in 2014. We couldn't have possibly expected MD/Hughes/MW to have even better years than their career years in 2014 and they didn't - not even close. The KW injury also hurt this defense. At the end of the day, in 2015 under Rex we finished 15th in pts/game; and 19th in yds/game - numbers that are pretty similar to those produced by this core crop of defensive players (KW, MW, Hughes, MD, Gilmore, etc) in 2013 under Pettine. In fact, Rex's defense gave up almost 2 points less per game (22.4) this year compared to Pettine in 2013 (24.2). Unless you're truly an elite defensive unit, defensive standings/rankings are fluid from year to year. This year we saw that regression with the Bills. Regroup, add some new blood in key spots (LB/DE) and perhaps we can have a bounce-back year next year on defense. Above all, remaining healthy in 2016 is key. Lets see what Rex can do in yr two. Many of us (including myself) viewed this year as a failure in large part due to the way the defense performed. However, part of the reason we feel so down on the defense may be because our expectations were simply too high for this defense.

Don't jinx it!

I'm already excited - so it won't take much.

#13 in the NFL in total offense with a QB who never started before; with basically 1 WR (granted, Sammy is really good); and the starting RB missing a bunch of games due to injury. The Bills led the league in "big plays" this season (rushing plays over 10yds and passing plays over 25yds). Job well done IMO.

He's auditioning now? No.

It's the last game of the season man. Finish strong.

Exactly.

Spikes did nothing after leaving here. POZ was the centerpiece of bad defenses while he was here. Are we really going back to ted washington and Pat Williams? Some posters on here may never have seen them play for us. Its the NFl. Theres a lot of turnover

How did Wilkerson and Richardson have very good years under Rex if Rex is as clueless at using personnel as some are making him out to be? It appears some players on this defense thought they were the greatest defense to ever play in the NFL and when the results werent the same as last year, the complaining started happening. Newsflash: last year's defensive production wasnt the norm it was more of an exception for this group in recent years.

After years of being average, the Jets got a coach that took them deep into the playoffs 2 years in a row. How will Bills media canonize the next Bills coach that is able to break the playoff drought and take us to an AFC Championship game? Perspective.

And risk having Brady not even touch the ball the remainder of the game (which is exactly what happened)? The OT rules still need to be worked on IMO. The idea of one team not getting the chance to even touch the ball on offense in OT doesn't seem right - especially since there is still time on the clock for OT.

The OP is giving him way too much credit.

Divisional rivalries aren't as simple as Team A beat Team B therefore Team A is better. The 6-10 Rams were not better than the 12-4 NFC Champion Hawks last season, and they aren't this season. The 5-10 Ravens led by Mallett are not better than the Steelers this season. Sometimes teams, despite how bad they are, play a divisional rival tough. Again, if a Jets fan came on here stating what some are stating, they would be laughed off the site.

And the Rams are better than the Hawks the last 2 years.

LOL. Wait, so are the Bills almost as good as the Jets or are the Jets a disaster also? I'm just trying to see what nonsense it is you're arguing here. Because if you think the Bills are a disaster what does that make the Jets? #6 in total defense #8 in total offense 10-5 W/L record. You're coming off pretty foolish. No matter what happens this Sunday - the Jets have had an excellent season. We all hate the Jets/Pats/Fins, there's no reason to have idiotic arguments about how much better we are when it just isn't true. Could you imagine if roles were reversed and a Jets fan came on here saying they were better than us at 7-8? LMAO. I'd love to know your response.

My point is that he's making a big deal about the Jets losing to us therefore how much better can they be. Weird things happen in divisional rivalries.

And the Steelers (who you probably think are worlds better than the Jets) lose to the Ravens in basically a must-win game with a QB who was on the team barely 1 week. You're making yourself look kinda silly man

Other than maybe the Cardinals and Panthers and the Patriots (if they can get some WR back), how many teams in the NFL going to the playoffs are really that much more dangerous than the Jets (if they make it)? The Chiefs? Nope Broncos? Not really Skins? Nope Packers? Not really Hawks? Maybe Vikings? Not really Texans? Nope Bengals? Not really Steelers? Maybe, but as of now they're not even in it.

This thread is ridiculous. In another thread I stated how the Jets have a better W/L record than we do. W/L's don't matter. I stated how they were top 10 in defense and offense. Stats don't count. So W/L's don't count and stats don't count. Beating the Patriots doesn't count b/c the Patriots have injuries. Gotcha. Talk about being blind to reality.

What im saying is that we have talented players that have played ALL KINDS of schemes in the NFL. Instead of focusing on learning Rex's "complex scheme" they appear (some do) on complaining about it. But this goes back to my belief that bc the defense had ONE dominant season last season some players thought they were above learning a new scheme. Reality is if you dont believe in something from the onset youre most likely going to do it half-assed.