Sisyphean Bills

Wasn't Fitz relaying the plays in?

Who's the QB coach with Fitz playing?

So long Donte.

Note to Brandon: that's why you need blockers.

Circular logic. Well run, organized, good teams don't need to go through training camp and pre-season and then figure out that their offensive plans were crap.

7th out of 8. Well, it could be worse. Raiders 406 * Broncos 391 * Chiefs 381 * Patriots 380 * Chargers 364 Titans 363 Buffalo 349 Jets 334 *

For a new one, we can throw in Buggs.

Trading him for a doo-rag?

Who'll play the Jets?

Marty told Dan Snyder once that if he was hired, he'd run the football side of the business his way and that the team would win. It turned out that Snyder was more interested in keeping his hands on the controls than he was in winning and decided to go in another direction. Marty was also fired in San Diego after a 14-2 season because of major dysfunction with AJ Smith. So, while Marty would turn this team around and quickly, it is not clear that he'd be given free reign to do so. NB: Strong personalities like Polian and Donahoe haven't always gotten along with our ownership's inner circle.

That feeling would be transient though if there was a total house cleaning with a new front office and coaching staff coming in. I think you are probably hitting very close to the mark here, actually. TO is the one and only superstar on the team and serves multiple purposes. OTOH, it is another indication that RB is in over his head if he is truly clinging to TO as a way to keep the beer sales going for the rest of this season and to try and save marketing face. The Browns got rid of Braylon Edwards. The Bucs got rid of Gaines Adams. The Chiefs got rid of Jared Allen. Sometimes you have to move a name or superstar player to move your team forward.

Is the firestorm avoidable? In some sense, hasn't it already begun? (What's Jauron's approval rating at?) The marketing campaign for season tickets in 2009 is in the rearview mirror. I understand people that bought season tickets because of TO will probably feel jilted if TO were traded. OTOH, the Bills aren't even using the guy as it is. Getting something for him, rather than watch him run around as a decoy would be understandable, even preferable if the team was going to make a strong move in a new direction. PS: If the OP is accurate, I kind of wonder if the Bills FO is considering trying to re-sign TO this off-season or something.

This. T.O. is a media distraction. People can focus on his sunglasses, door kicking, poor attitude, and so forth and that translates directly into less column space devoted to ripping on Brandon, Jauron, and the rest of the nutless squirrels. They can't use him on the field of course and trading him could help the team in the future, but why get rid of your human shield? Maybe he'll have a meltdown and save their jobs.

You're absolutely correct. It's nothing but a fading hope that Ralph is not happy with this situation, but I am not at all confident that anything significant will be done. Putting himself back in charge as President, hiring Levy, promoting underachievers for no reason other than they are there, extending and keeping Jauron, etc. are a track record that does nothing to buoy fan hope.

Unfortunately, even the triple option requires blocking.

T.O. is a UFA at the end of this year.

That's what boosters are for.

I think part of it is playing the Tampa-2 defense and the trend of putting smaller players on the field and closer to the line of scrimmage. This is compounded by having razor thin depth. So when the first string smallish athlete goes down, he is replaced by a guy that lacks size, athleticism, and experience. The backup players have largely shown to be an injury waiting to happen since they're smaller, less athletic, are going to make mistakes, and get caught in bad positions. (Jabari Greer was a notable exception; his drafted replacement being on IR, though.)

Must be in a parallel universe...

The problem with your take is that these problems were predictable, foreseeable, and avoidable in most cases. I'm actually not mad at all. I predicted this, though like other fans hoped otherwise. This is a bad team and they make far, far too many errors both on the field, coaching, and in the off-season. When one pulls their head out of the hole in the ground, it's just obvious. Take the injury excuse. Butler has never been healthy in his career. Why assume its all going to be A-OK this time even when he is nursing his way through camp? Does that make any sense? Bell was banged up most of the pre-season as well. It was totally obvious they needed depth at OT. A blind man could see it. They were disappointed in Walker, so they cut him outright. WTH? Now, some want to come back and excuse the horrible OT play and depth with a lame "if there were no injuries"? Are you !@#$ing kidding me? As far as blame, you're wrong. I'm not campaigning to blame any particular person. The Bills have a number of bad players on this team. The Bills have bad coaching and poor design. The Bills have poor scouting. The Bills make poor evaluations of players both internally and externally. The Bills front office is a mess and its committee of decision makers is failing badly. Finally, the owner clearly surrendered the season this past off-season, choosing to stay the course after a flame out nosedive. He refused to take ownership of the situation, make any changes, or hold the people that work for him accountable for the results. I think that covers the entire team from bottom to top. So, yes, I blame the organization for putting a poor product on the field. I'd much rather they played competent and competitive football. You don't play the game to merely exist. You should be trying to win. [Edit] PS: The above paragraph does not say that every move made has been an error. There have been a few good decisions, but they pale in comparison to all the decisions that have gone awry.

Yes, that remark was total revisionism. Marv said Jauron "never had any true home games in Chicago." Not 1 home game in 5 years?! Not to mention that every team with a winning record has to win at least 1 game on the road (excepting Katrina aberrations).

There is a chance that Ralph actually does want to win and that this current train wreck is both a terrible surprise and embarrassment to him. In short, that he has been duped by those around him and given some, shall we say, naive advice. For example, if he is listening to Marv Levy, then he is hearing a steady refrain of "stay the course" and "be patient" punctuated with random and disconnected names of Hall of Fame players and coaches. He needs to get over his fear that he'll !@#$ it up again and hire another Tom Donahoe. He needs to get past that and hire a proven football person and give them control to re-build this team from scratch. He can't afford to be overly patient and hope his front office and coaches figure it out someday. He's 91 and some of these cats have been making bad decisions for a decade now.

How many 80 year-old people want to work 18 hour days and devote themselves utterly to a very demanding job? How many have the energy to sustain that effort over a long grind? The Bills principles were both in their 80s at the time and Mike Mularkey nailed it -- the front office was being restructured so that it didn't give the team a chance to compete. Nothing has changed, much. Marv stepped aside and his GM figurehead role wasn't filled. The "heavy lifting" football-wise is still done by the same crew (excepting Nix who in effect replaced Bogdan who was not a Donahoe hire either) that brought in McCargo, Losman, Parrish, Mike Williams, etc. with Russ Brandon picking up the slack.

WTF are you talking about? I've been saying this line was going to be a mess for many months now and was being called a "bad fan" for not drinking the kool-aid about Langston Walker "easily" flipping to LT and being an "upgrade". My post was about the defense. The ostriches don't want to hear it, I know. The defense looked "great", especially compared to the offense, and particularly against Tampa and Cleveland (the 26th and 31st best offenses and both worse than our own which is 25th) and got blasted for over 460 yds on the ground by the Saints and Dolphins. I know, I know. Let's play the injury excuse card...

Schobel's laurels are great, just don't rest on them.