Sisyphean Bills

Dareus and Dwan were stout today.

I did have to laugh at one point when he was praising how awesome the coverage was on one play, as the replay showed a guy running wide open -- no one within 20 yards of him -- the QB just misread it. That's football.

When Stevie Johnson and David Nelson went on IR in the parallel universe, Fitz lost is top receiving targets.

Actually, when Chan started letting Spiller carry the rock, the offense started making plays.

That was a craptastic heave to be fair. Lucky it wasn't picked.

We have lineman playing OLB.

Some interesting calls, no doubt.

The tough part is answering why he was unused.

Improvision?

Must have heard the Bills are drafting a runner...

Yeah, the Broncos trying to run up the middle is making George Edwards look like a brain sturgeon.

What did John McCargo think?

Andy Dalton was counted out last year.

Well, he's behind ex-NFL QB Donovan McNabb in terms of QB rating on the 2011 season...

Well, that's a lot of hair splitting.

On the third hand, the Jets chances of making the playoffs are now 49.1%, so maybin those sack numbers aren't all that. http://www.sportsclubstats.com/NFL.html

Where is the Trent Richardson option?

The search for the next Marion Motley continues... given the Bills draft history, ruling out drafting a RB would be going out on a limb.

The message seems to be that a true franchise QB would cost Ralph money. Sifting through the dregs in the bargain basket is good enough for the fans of the Buffalo Bills. And don't forget the injury proof runners. Jim Brown carried his team to a championship and who remembers the QB on that team?

So, you read Ralph throwing the skill position players under the bus and translate that to mean he's going to pay top money to bring back the same skills position players. I don't know Kat, man.

Football is the ultimate team game IMHO because it takes a team, from ownership all the way down, to win and win consistently. So, I totally agree that it's not just "one thing." For example, losing (and losing in epic fashion) is not just simply the result of 1 or 2 guys on offense and/or on defense going on the IR list (even if they are good players). Back to the passing game, briefly. Fitzpatrick is still a limited NFL QB. Chan designed a system to suit his skills, but that system has been decoded now. Fitzpatrick's early success has come apart and he's struggling in the same offense as he operated early in the season. Pre-snap reads, spreading the defense horizontally, and getting the ball out of the QB's hand in under 2 seconds isn't creating the same space as it did early in the season and the production has unquestionably plummeted. But, yeah, a few key injuries, a garbage defense, etc, don't help the situation any, of course.

Can I file it in the same circular file as the Captain Checkdown concussion excuse?

Neither school is in the southeast ... maybe there are some good movies on.

Seems like a good argument, though DC's data was strictly for the passing game and it showed the passing game's yard production being cut in half though maintaining a (near) constant volume. The conjecture about Jackson though doesn't address that the losing streak began before he was actually injured and went on IR. Several of the Bills early season wins were very narrow (re: the thread on "Unsustainable Winning"). A precipitous drop in the overall production of the passing game (nearly 50%) likely has a pretty negative effect on the ability to make a fourth quarter rally and take a come-from-behind victory. There have been many threads devoted to questioning the Bills coaches on the logic of abandoning the running game altogether, even defending Spiller as a good back that just isn't being used. Another conjecture on contributing factors is that the Bills defense has gotten figured out just like their offense. It's clear anybody can run wide on this defense at will and with zero pass rush, one can matriculate down the field and score almost at will. And, many of the average or better teams played during the losing streak have done just that, burying the Bills in an avalanche of points early in games.

Interesting data. Johnson, Nelson, Chandler, and Spiller attributed for 72% of the receptions in the first set and only 57% in the second set. Since they appear in both sets, one can't attribute the drop to the "IR list" directly. What is also interesting is that the passing game by these numbers is fairly consistent in terms of catches, only increasing by 3 completions (4%). In terms of yards, the floor dropped out: the yardage is down 46% despite the slight increase in catches. One (rather bogus, IMHO) argument could be that #3 WR Donald Jones was a huge loss and that defenses were constantly rolling their coverages in his direction. Another argument might be that once other teams had enough tape on what the Bills liked to do, they shut it down and the Bills simply lack a counterpunch. Gailey has said he's still trying to do the same things as earlier in the season.