vincec

Great signing. DB is set. Barring injury, I don't think they'll bring in another safety. They need to see what Byrd brings to the table. One obvious need is going to be WR. People are saying that the Bills are deep there and that's true as long as they have TO. If he leaves, then they have one good receiver and a bunch of #3 and #4 guys. That's not a strong group. Maybe someone will step up, but I think the Bills need to look for a burner in the first couple of round of the draft. Another early need will be DL. Schoebel and Stroud aren't getting any younger, and they're the two best players. Maybe Maybin will replace Shoebel, but who replaces Stroud?

It looked like he was trying to go down, but a NE player was holding him up so that teammates could try to strip the ball.

Yes, but I still get to hear about it from people on this board, in the newspaper, on the radio and on TV, including during the games. It's a fantasy to think that you don't have to hear the babble if you don't want to, unless you're going to turn off following the Bills all together, which I'm not prepared to do yet.

Isn't that the truth!... and they're not the only ones. Do people really care about all the minute details of these people's live? I certainly don't. Just shut up and play football.

Believe it or not, I'm actually more concerned about Kelsay being out vs the run that Poz. This is mostly because I have very little confidence in any other Bill DE vs the run. Maybin and Ellis are pass rushers, and Denney is below average, IMO. I think that Buggs will fill in fine in the run defense. I'm not so sure about the pass D.

Or that playoff game against San Diego after the 1980 season when Dan Fouts threw a 50yd td with like 2 minutes left to win... on the same exact play that he had been intercepted on the previous drive... but our inept offense was unable to run out the clock and...

I really place very little stock in the whole "culture of winning" thing. Teams at the NFL level win because of their players and coaching. If the Bills had another stud pass rusher, I'll bet that we would've won that game.

I though the same thing during the game. They used to use the sneak a lot in years past. I think it may have been a combo of not wanting to challenge Stroud + Williams, who were dominating the middle of the run defense and fear about Brady getting hurt.

I thought Ellison was pretty good. He was unlucky on that second TD pass. He had good coverage. If we were getting the same pressure on Brady at that point as we were in the first half that wouldn't of been completed.

I was fine by 11pm. I guess I just have other things to worry about...

What gives someone the right to kill someone else because he is standing in a certain spot as opposed to another? Exactly what has he done to the property "owner" to warrant death? People interpret property rights way to rigorously in many parts this country.

I thought he played a pretty good game. He is a LB not a DB, so to expect him to have better coverage than he had on that second TD 20 yards downfield isn't realistic.

Exactly. Or just go to bed and worry about something that really affects your life instead of flipping out over multi-million dollar athletes playing a game for your entertainment.

Whenever we blitzed NE during the game they completed passes against us and almost burned us a couple of times. The best defense we played was when we were getting pressure with a 4 man rush. This stopped happening late in the game. IMO, this is mainly because 1) our DL got tired from being on the field so much which is both their and the offenses fault and somewhat 2) Kelsay getting hurt shortening our DL rotation. All this being said, if McKelvin doesn't fumble, our offense would've had a chance to win us the game or at the VERY least run some time off the clock and punt NE back to make things tougher for them (as well as give our defense a rest).

I guess not. Ellis was ahead of Bryan anyway didn't even play against NE so for now we stand pat. I'd keep my eye out for opportunities, however. Why, Ellison isn't hurt... and he played pretty darn well except on that TD pass to Watson. I think it's Buggs for now in the run set. Nah. Let's give the young guys the experience. Brooks isn't what he used to be. Depends on who it is, but anybody good is likely playing for someone...

Unfortunately, I think that the DL just got worn down. Losing Kelsay from the rotation didn't help. Another thing that I thought was interesting is that the ho huddle is supposed to wear the OPPONENTS defensive line down, but on that last drive the NE linemen were flying.

No, the difference is that when NE is driving for their two late scores the Bills couldn't get pressure on Brady but when Buffalo had the ball at the end of the game Edwards was sacked 2 plays out of 4. Think back to the Giants Superbowl win against NE. At the end of the game, when Brady had the ball and was trying to drive NE to a score, the Giants D put him on his back. I remember one vicious sack and a couple of hurries out of 4 or 5 plays. That's how you close a team out and win a close game.

Tim is exactly right. Besides confidence and experience winning tight games, you close games out by: 1) being able to put pressure on the QB when they are in obvious passing situations (where was that on NEs last two drives?) 2) being able to run the ball in obvious running situations to run out the clock (sadly, no opportunity for this) 3) having good time management (like not wasting TOs and not waiting 8 sec before calling your last one) I'm not so sure about how well D Bell played, BTW. He may have played to expectations, but they were very low. The second, and basically game ending, sack on Edwards last drive was his man that beat him cleanly. He also had the penalties. He looked very quick and athletic, but he needs more work. The interior of our line played very well however, IMO. There was a good pocket to step up into and they got out there to block on screens and things. The few runs in the middle looked pretty good.

My thinking exactly...

Why not screen on that down, dammit...

Nope.

50 seconds, 2 TOs. All we need is a field goal to win. I would've taken this if you'd told me before kickoff.

That deep middle to the TE really shouldn't be there against Tampa 2.

Opportunity for someone on the D to make a statement.