Sisyphean Bills

Good question. Obviously, staying healthy is not the only goal of these games. By the way, wasn't it the league that was pushing for an 18 game season?

It's a poor argument for that point, a point that I did not neglect. "It is pre-season." Here's an article that states the case without conflating Super Bowl pedigrees as a feel good chaser. http://www.nfl.com/p...rseason-success PS: This article is interesting. http://www.madduxsports.com/blog/nfl-coaches-preseason-records-16939/

My comment wasn't about the Bills/Vikings game, actually. It was just about the annual "vanilla" excuse. It happens every pre-season that there are posts of the "don't worry, they game planned and we didn't" mental pablum. How many NFL coaching staffs honestly game plan pre-season games? None, these days. (OK, Jimmy Johnson did it his first year in the NFL.) I don't see any teams playing their starters for 4 quarters. It laughable. Do they stay up late worrying about how to attack the 4th string secondary and what it's weaknesses in coverage are to win one for the Gip in the last 2 minutes? Of course they don't. Running a couple of gadget plays in a preseason game does not constitute real game planning. PS: It is preseason, it doesn't count, and the overreactions are customary.

Comparing the recent Bills teams to their Super Bowl teams is comparing apples to pancakes. But, it is preseason.

Yeah, I don't buy the OP's theory either. I've never heard a coach tell players to lie down out on the field to avoid an injury. Not playing hard is actually a good way to get yourself injured. By the way, it doesn't speak well for the talent acquisition, if most of the final roster can coast on its laurels and go at 50% because they "know" the depth on the team has no hope of taking their jobs.

From this thread, we've learned that Vince Young is either going to take over as the starting QB or be cut immediately.

The term "vanilla" does seem to be used as a ready excuse all too often. The truth is vanilla does not excuse poor fundamentals. Not many teams' coaching staffs are going to fritter away time game planning these scrimmages, so it comes down to vanilla on vanilla and the best man winning his individual battles. Vanilla doesn't explain away being slow, not tackling, not blocking, dropping passes, fumbling, and all the other mistakes and brain farts we see many players making. Of course many of them aren't going to make a roster either.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/_/id/10660/tyler-thigpen Odd comparison. I don't see the ostrich neck or the skilz.

Such indignation over a 7th round pick. Got any rants on youtube for blown 1st round picks? That'd be pretty entertaining!

Anybody here old enough to remember Anthony Gray? That dude ran for several miles in the pre-season and everyone thought he'd make the team easily. Turned out he got cut because the coaches didn't trust him to pick up a blitz. For that matter, CJ Spiller is a great runner who has struggled to get on the field for similar reasons. In fact, Spiller's struggles are precisely why Choice was brought in in the first place. Now, I'm not saying White isn't a complete back and maybe even a better option. Chan has already let some of his old Georgia Tech players go since coming to the Bills.

Things just aren't the same without the Bills Wang.

OK. You actually seem to be referencing numbers from a poll, which is good. All too often, people whip out a number like that with absolutely nothing to back it up, but also with full knowledge that no one would even think of questioning it because it sounded like they knew the poop.

Link?

Agree. And a WTF to the original post.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/dolphins-release-chad-johnson-ushering-era-diva-wide-133701532--nfl.html Hope he is taking notes.

I was going to say the same thing. Better a 7th round flyer than a 1st rounder.

Night and day between Choice and White. Choice is starting from a position where the coach trusts him. White has to earn it.

I thought the point was that Buddy was smarter than all those other teams that did sign Zach Miller because he knew Miller would get a concussion last week.

Chan did alright in the recruiting department. But, getting back to the original point, crediting Chan for Nesbitt's career is sort of like giving Pete McCulley all the credit for the golden era of 49ers football. BTW, Nesbitt fit in well in Paul Johnson's flexbone offense. He was never what I would consider a consistent passer however.

Exactly. Nesbitt came in on special packages under Gailey as a freshman. It wasn't until after Gailey was fired and Paul Johnson was hired and brought in a completely different offense that Nesbitt really became a factor.

What did you tell him? Nesbitt came in a few games as a 3rd down rushing specialist?

So, you are saying Buddy can predict who will get concussions? He should get out of GMing in the NFL and cash in on a lottery.

Not likely. But, I suspect Nix said much the same thing in his interviews as when he was brought out before the cameras for his introduction. "I believe we're not that far away" and specifically on the QB position "We've got some talent there. They can't do much flat on their backs."

You guys may need to brace yourselves, though. Chan is a bit of a crotchety old tinker when it comes to his QBs. No old pot or pan can't be patched up.