Sisyphean Bills

Right, because no one has ever exaggerated here. When someone says something like "the Bills offense really missed Evans", it is not as big a stretch as you seem to think to believe that they might be saying that Evans would have made a rather large difference in the game versus the obvious point that Evans is a good player and better than a UDFA rookie with limited playing time against the best team in the NFL. At least to anyone that is a native speaker of English. It was crystal clear when I wrote "the extreme view that he would have single-handedly had a massive total reversal influence in this game" what I meant and that I wasn't quoting someone. When having a conversation with someone about a spectrum of outcomes, setting the extremes is a useful way to delimit the discussion point, but, if you're bent on misconstruing things. Bully for you. We'll see if Nix and Gailey take your advice. Like I said, I'm not sure he'll be around and it won't surprise me if he's not.

Speaking of which, wasn't it reported someplace that Edwards was consulting with Phillips to try and learn how to tweak his 3-4 into the hybrid 1-gap scheme on the fly?

http://subscribers.footballguys.com/2009/09bramel_idpguide.php

Nobody is missing the obvious that more weapons would help an offense. Did not having Evans and Parrish and having Nelson go down and not having a TE and not being able to execute against a heavy front hobble the offense? Obviously, these were all factors along with 7 turnovers, penalties, and a terrible defense. The real contention is simply one of degree. Having one more weapon that can run fly routes may or may not have changed anything the Patriots defense threw at the Bills. Given 7 years to go on wrt Lee Evans, the extreme view that he would have single-handedly had a massive total reversal influence in this game, as his presence has never done so before against the Patriots, is highly dubious. Belichick is a great football coach and he can and will adjust his defense from one series to the next because that's what he does. Do we really have evidence that Lee Evans dictates to Belichick? To Cat's OP, the point was just not to draw too strong a conclusion from this one game and decide that Lee Evans is the "magic bullet" and indispensable to the future of Gailey's offense. He isn't.

The Bills are not one of the elite teams and have far less talent than those teams, so doing exactly as the elite teams do should get them where exactly? There is a solid argument to be had that the Bills are a bad football team and that to become a good team they need to aggressively pursue every possible opportunity in a timely process to become a better football team and not get too caught up in conservativeness or, worse, vain posturing.

That's the other side of "you can't have it both ways". If you claim this is an all new regime (and there is a strong argument that it really isn't because so many of the exact same decision makers are still in their jobs) and everything is now being done the right way as opposed to the wrong way that was done under the previous regime, then can you really claim that yet another low-impact draft class is a big and significant change? Sure, one can say that you have to wait for a draft to prove itself bad, but that has been the mantra for Bills fans for a decade or more and wears thin for some. Furthermore, this is a bad team, and talented, dedicated players should be able to contribute something to a banged up team depleted of talent and be able to win jobs that are otherwise manned by players signed yesterday off some other team's practice squad. Spiller has been a disappointment. His contribution at a position where rookies can come in and make a significant impact has been paltry and spotty at best. Troup has seen some playing time and Carrington finally got on the field late in the season, but like you said these guys were drafted for a 3-4 system that the Bills don't have the players (especially at LB) to implement. Easley missed the entire season. Wang can't get on the field despite numerous injuries to the OL, drops down the depth chart with each new street free agent signed, and despite being moved from T to G. It isn't until we get to Arthur Moats until we find a rookie that has gotten playing time and made some significant plays -- and he's doing that at the expense of a former 1st round pick drafted by the previous head coach and same scouting department. To be clear, I'm not writing this draft class off myself, only making the point that the results so far are underwhelming. It's hard to see based on early returns that this draft class is ostensibly and significantly different than, say, the class that brought in Kyle Williams in the late rounds, Donte Whitner, and a couple of special teams depth players. Hopefully, it turns out to be different, but this is obviously not a repeat of the 1975 Dallas Cowboys draft. Finally, it's not really some all-new and novel strategy to build through the draft. The Bills haven't sat out drafts in the past (though for the production one might argue that they have effectively). They've been trying to build a team with the draft all along, but they have been putrid at it and the results speak for themselves. The change is that now they've decided to tell free agents that they are not going to be active in that market, that they are publicly committed to their own form of cheaper and younger. The cynic would ask what sort of change that is in actuality as the Bills haven't been able to attract the best free agents in recent years at any rate and have had to significantly overpay for the free agents they have signed. As far as bright spots, Gailey has been coaching his ass off to get a banged up team almost devoid of talent to a 4-11 record. The offense can actually execute plays as opposed to what it was under Jauron. Fitzpatrick stepped up and showed he can run this offense and, at times, pretty darn well. Stevie Johnson showed some talent (as well as some things he needs to improve). Fred Jackson is who we thought he was. Kyle Williams has become a dominant force. Kudos go out. Still, the Bills will need a lot more than a few more "Arthur Moats in the 6th round" type of drafts to compete with the Patriots and become anything more than their ongoing status as just another also-ran.

Do you really think Belichick wasn't going to make an adjustment to stop a running game that was torching them at the start? Or that Belichick hasn't coached defense against Lee Evans before and been able to make him disappear? For that matter, wasn't cutting Randy Moss supposed to be a mistake for the Patriots because they wouldn't be able to do anything without a deep threat to stretch the field? Don't get me wrong. I'd rather have Lee out there than Naaman Roosevelt any day of the week. But, I don't see Lee Evans as being our Peyton Manning, the one guy that if he goes down the entire offense necessarily must fall apart. If that were true, then explain last week. The Bills played an extremely well coached defense today, and they were confused and largely ineffective as a unit. Maybe they learned something from the ass kicking they received.

Evans is an experienced WR unlike the kids playing much of the game today, but the difference in this game was clearly a lot more than the 2-3 touches Lee averages a game. (Lee does nothing really to help the defense, which seemed almost helpless to stop the Patriots at times.) Don't undersell Belichick in this equation either. Playing inexperienced players against his defense is obviously not a favorable matchup, but it's not like Lee Evans mere presence would completely flip that equation on its head either despite what some of his ardent supporters would wish. But as far as still needing Evans, the real problem is that Evans is just not the sort of WR that Chan Gailey prefers. Again, it would not surprise me all that much if Gailey/Nix brings in a bigger and more physical WR that fits his offense better and tries to deal his aged 9 route specialist. After all, we have to have patience and experience the pain.

Pretty hilarious that Buffalo is a banana coast in the eastern US today...

Jets are going down. Next week's game may mean something. Yay.

So he can throw another INT.

It's tough to get off blocks in the NFL.

He'd be a franchise QB if he had a shiny decoy though.

Yeah, Cutler sucks.

Just take the long term view. In some number more years, Nix and the Bills proven scouting staff will have out drafted the rest of the AFC East.

Good thing the Bills have the QB position fixed for the future.

Yes, I'm sure the game would be close with the decoy out there.

Nothing says I trust my OL and defense like abandoning the run the instant the other team scores.

Are we talking about collar sizes or something?

How about a WR? Or a DB?

No.

He sells jerseys.

Actually, it tells you exactly what Gailey thinks of his patchwork o-line.

Weak article. The guy clearly is only on cloud 2 or 3.

"We started with no players": who's job is it to bring in players in the off-season? "Our drafts in the last 10 years have been terrible": who's been involved in the draft each and every one of the past 10 years? Of course, Ralph goes on to praising the players and coaches for fighting against the odds and not giving up -- as well he should after the first divisional win in 2 years. Whether you want to call it a parapraxis or not, some of those comments were barbed.