RealityCheck

I would have preferred that they win football games.

QB is still a huge question mark. Urbik and Pears are bad players. His job may be safe for now, but I don't think that fact is synonymous with him having a lot of time to bolster the talent on offense enough to make the playoffs. Anything less than 9-7 next season would be on Whaley in my book.

Always the excuses for terrible players. Fitz is garbage. It's not Bruce Lee's fault.

Orton made the right read when he retired. Unfortunately it was inaccurate and some fans think he is just fooling about and will return to his non-playoff form.

If Peyton can't take that team the distance, what will he do in Buffalo as he hits his 40s. The fat lady is warming up.

Hopefully Jerry commits suicide. We could all then participate in a thread writing epitaphs. It would be a bonding moment for sure.

Good point. They can only cycle through so many coaches before it becomes clear that the offense is very weak from the football out. That has been a constant.

Between Roman and Ryan, I see improvement on both sides of the ball in the near future. It is ridiculous to think otherwise. Next year's defense will be on another level. The LBer corps will emerge behind the D-line as an elite unit next year. If they can run with authority and shut down apposing offenses, they can go to the playoffs in style.

I think they should have OJ letter opener day.

Precisely. They should have easily been 11 and 5 if not for coaching.

Huge loss to the Steelers organization.

I have held my breath since the birth of my fan hood. It's a lot easier than you think. I am a fan of Brown's game myself, but I don't see a significant difference in their play, outside of pass protection of course. You can't replace Fred's carries and catches without inclusion of pass protection plays. Brown has a very small body of work as of yet when it comes to blitz pickup. A young stud like Brown should have been head and shoulders above Fred in theory, but I just don't see it yet. Maybe next year is Brown's year, it would be great for the team to start September off pounding the rock with success.

I don't understand how people can dismiss Fred so easily. Until someone on the roster actually outplays his a**, I believe he has earned at least a moment of silence from his detractors.

With the right QB, Watkins could be the next Jerry Rice. With the wrong QB, he could be the next Eric Moulds. See where I'm going with this.

Buffalo is a grave yard for coaches. Each seat should have a coach's name and an epitaph emblazoned on it. Doug Marrone is the latest coach exiled to the phantom zone. The world just swallowed him up.

If Marrone could get this team to 9-7, the next coach will easily get 11 wins next season.

Are you trying to undermine the matrix?

There is only one man that could have taken OJ's name down off that wall, and that's Ronald Reagan. If someone knows a necromancer, I would suggest you call them up. While you're at it, tell Nancy to have my bean pies ready when I see her. She ain't getting off that easy.

Chris Brown and Billy Buffalo got you covered.

This is such a new and innovative mind-set that Marrone was just a little too ahead of his time. Buffalo isn't ready to accept a win at all costs mentality. 9-7 and everyone is upset. It sounds like everyone will absolutely love next season's record.

It is a fans prerogative to do so. I don't get caught up in the drama of millionaire excuse making, nor have I ever paid much attention to interviews from the players, coaches, and front office types. Every team is what their record says they are. Every game is one highly specific situation after another that can't be looked at accurately without context of everything else on the field that precedes it in chronological order. For me that is the beauty of football. Broad statistical averages say absolutely nothing about match ups and situational football. The only outcomes that matter to me are winning or losing. Nothing these guys say will change their past performance. I don't need their eye witness testimony when there is a video of the events. Ray Rice would agree. Using interviews to gain context of what is not understood by watching the game itself is a waste of time. I am happy that Marrone is gone. I am also happy that they were 9-7. Obviously, it's JMO. The guy wasn't wrong about everything, just as it is true that Whaley hasn't been right about everything on the offensive side of the ball.

You basically called the O-line p*****s by making this assertion. How can you not hold the players responsible for their performance? If playing like garbage is their response to being told that they are playing like garbage, then they are garbage. These guys were never good and I have never seen them do anything over the past 4 years to make me believe that they were ever capable of run blocking with power. If they couldn't run the draw out of the shotgun they got stuffed. Fred was also a much better player in Chan's tenure. They get zero push consistently. Chan was vilified for going 5 wide on 3rd and short for reasons that fans still deny to this day. They are weak at the point of attack.

I am fascinated by the logic that because the O-line was good under Chan, a few years ago, that of course these same players couldn't have possibly regressed or, I dunno, sucked to begin with. They were never good, the front 5 has been shuffled a few times, guys have been banged up, they have gotten older, and the very idea that Irbik and Pears belong on this team is garbage. Moving tackles inside appears to be a garbage philosophy too. Marrone is a cookie cutter coach plain and simple, but if not for the bad press and the collective angst towards him, some people might have a different opinion on the quality of said O-linemen. Whaley looks brilliant at picking some defensive guys, but that is equally tempered by his awful assessment of offensive personnel.

Bob sucks.