Sisyphean Bills

We can still go 10-6. Be bright eyed and bushy tailed!

Who do you fault for this? It wasn't Cleveland's defense. Was it all Trent Edwards? He was totally outplayed by Brady Quinn, starting his second game. Or do you think all that dink-and-dunk shif right at the line of scrimmage was coming from the sidelines? Either way, that was dismal.

Neither of these teams is very good, I'm afraid.

They are both good and about the only thing that was going on O tonight. Marshawn showed some awesome hands tonight, catching some badly thrown ducks out there and turning them into huge plays. The problem with Marshawn isn't his talent. He's a stud and can do whatever they ask of him. The problem is that he is trying to hit a grand slam on every single play. With good coaching, he'd of already broken that nasty habit; but, alas, it just continues on and on, run after run, game after game.

Duke Preston sucks. Bills the only NFL team to have not run play action all year?

And to think that Polian only got his chance because of a massive coronary had by one Terry Bledsoe, who's leadership had achieved successive 2-14 seasons and a very empty talent cupboard. Polian and the merry band of USFL refugees including Butler, Smith, Marv, Kelly, Kent Hull...

Deano, personally, I agree that it is way too early to call McKelvin a bust (and I never have). Sully's article was clearly critical of the pick and makes some interesting points. Sully could've mentioned that 3 of the next 4 picks after McKelvin are playing significant minutes or starting for their respective teams and that the 2nd CB taken plays in his team's nickel package and has made 2 picks this year. I don't think even Sully was saying McKelvin is a bust; he was really more saying that McKelvin hasn't had much impact in his rookie year, which could be considered a disappointment since the Bills defense stunk big time last year. I think the choice of quote may not be merely so coincidental or haphazard. The tone of the article suggests that Sully isn't terribly impressed with the kid and the quote does and is intended to support that impression. Like him or not, Sully is a professional at his craft too.

What's wrong with saying, "Sure, I want to play and I'm not happy to sit on the bench. I want to play. Still, the guys that are playing are doing a great job. They're kicking ass and taking names." ? What he said comes across as "I don't give a damn if I play or not. It doesn't matter anyway because the other guys are doing OK."

Yeah. Super self-motivated.

Saying that McKelvin doesn't get the defense and saying that the defense is uber-complicated are two very different things. For example, we could say that VJ91 doesn't get that "2+2=4", but that doesn't mean that most kindergartners can't grasp the concept or that it is "overly complicated". Fewell's schemes do not seem uber-complex. No, they seem more on the simplistic side typically (as you seem to agree in the next paragraph). Last season, for example, the Bills just ran their defense no matter what the other team did and the excuse/reason was that "all of their starting defensive players were on IR" [sic]. There were a lot of injuries on defense last year, and yet the Bills were able to bring in and play rookies, converted WRs, and others on their defense without having to jettison the entire system, right? Yes, I agree. I don't like seeing our secondary take super-duper deep drops, no pass rush, and huge open spaces underneath for the opponent to play pitch-and-catch and move the chains straight down the field. I think it is a piss poor, weak sister, afraid-to-let-your-players-make-plays sort of scheme. The corollary to all this though is that, no matter what we think of Fewell's system -- whether it is easy enough that street free agents can come in with little preparation and play it, or it is ridiculously complicated with zillions of sight adjustments to the coverage per snap -- Why did the Bills essentially spend their top pick and a top pick in the draft on a guy that has so much "rookie immaturity" (their words) that he can't get on the field and provides essentially ZERO impact?? This is a team that was being billed as primed for a playoff run and yet this pick is taking on some similarity, according to Sully, of the sort of arrogance demonstrated when Donahoe picked Willis McGahee knowing that McGahee wouldn't play a down for 2 years. Compare that to the Patriots, who are getting great production and valuable minutes from guys like Green-Ellis and Guyton in addition to their top pick Mayo.

Did we give up when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?! NO!

And it's spelled, L O S I N G.

What makes you guys think the defense is super-duper complicated? If you read the article it says that McKelvin doesn't do the "little things". That doesn't mean he doesn't understand our vanilla Tampa-2 system. It means that he has poor technique and is probably drifting and free-lancing too often. It wouldn't surprise if he has been taking chances and trying to make big plays when the staff just wants him to play off, keep everything in front of him with a 10-yard cushion, and make clean open field tackles.

Thomas Dimitroff wasn't too bad either. Nor is Atlanta's rookie class doing poorly. Just coincidence, though. How's this for obvious? Many successful NFL franchises have owners that have no trouble pulling the trigger to bring in elite, proven talent at all levels of the organization and also don't feel a need to micromanage their entire organization. You hire the best to be the best; and, the joy of it is that they are the best and so they get it and get it done without you having to punch their buttons every nanosecond.

Also, Harbaugh did not come in and "change it all up", cutting high paid veterans that might be on the decline (or present dissenting opinions), go with all new systems regardless of players strengths... but, yes, Ozzie has hit a number of grand slams over his long tenure with that team.

The interesting factoid about this one is that the Ravens have 16 players on IR already this season. And, yet they are winning with a rookie head coach and a rookie QB. I am definitely interested in seeing how it goes as they run the gauntlet of their schedule... A stop gap GM wasn't the answer for a major rebuild project. I think very highly of Marv and know he did his utmost. But, he should be enjoying his retirement and even he admitted that the grind wore him out after only 2 years. The perpetuation of futility is unavoidable when the decks get cleared every few years. It takes both good players and continuity to build something special. Steve Young always puts it, "It takes 1000 snaps." And, he's assuming that the right group of talent has been assembled. The results of this decade are undeniable. The Bills haven't kept things together (Donahoe with his "the NFL is like the NCAA and you gotta rebuild every year" theory) and/or haven't put the right combination of talent on the field (breaking in young QBs by giving them no weapons; pretending great pass rushers emerge by clicking your ruby slippers together).

I was wondering what the red rubber nose was about.

Well then. Put a check in that box. Modrak/Guy have been stocking this roster with nothing but overwhelming talent since Donahoe hired them. And they both just got promoted last year too.

Mort takes a ton of heat on this board, but you aren't really that far away from what he contends about this franchise. I don't agree with Mort that everything was hunky-dory under Donahoe; but, his contention that Ralph wasn't an upgrade as President/part of the GM-hydra is not altogether wrong either. How much energy can a 90 year old really put in to competing with guys that could be his grandsons or great-grandsons? The days of Mom-and-Pop AFL football operations are long gone, and while Ralph hasn't lost his mind completely like dear Uncle Al in Oakland, his decisions to minimize the number of football men in the top decision making posts, while it may be out of the box, hasn't paid any dividends.

I got a solution for you. Don't read the threads.

Maybe you missed the smilies or your sarcasm detector is in for repairs. I was being sarcastic. Actually, I think people that want to censor a message board to merely see the opinions they hold are the idiots in dunce caps.

I agree it is worth discussing. But only if you are an idiot, like Chandler pointed out above. In fact, it does take a very high IQ to clap your hands together and repeat the refrain, "Everythings gunna be alright, rock a bye."

Last year, the Bills played the NFC East, which had eventual SB Champ Giants getting into the playoffs as a wildcard. (And some would contend that nearly the entire team was on IR.) The Bills played a rookie QB most of the year, etc. This year, Tom Brady went down in the 1st quarter of the 1st game and the Bills play the weak sister NFC West, which as a division is markedly worse than last year and atrocious overall. The Jets and Dolphins (feign surprise) did not stand pat and did improve their clubs, but so did the Bills (Stroud, losing Fairchild), right? So would an 9-7 record be a improvement? a big improvement? What about 8-8?

"This is more than just another team. We're family. We play for each other."