Mango

Totally in awe that Gugny didn't start this

That's what I meant. Writing going through my day on the mobile telephone

Yes

EJ is being sit because he needs to learn. To get it back I want it earned not lost by Orton. So week 1 2015 if he wins the position back!

I get the sense that there is turmoil between Whaley and Marrone. I know shocking stuff. It will come down to Pegula most likely. 8-8 most likely but could go, 9-7 will keep him. The wildcard is how Hackett and how tied Marrone is to him

I can turn a blind eye to weed, drugs, dwi's, even illegal gun ownership. No way I take AP or RR at any contract ever on my roster. I keep hearing that the courts have handled this and it isn't the NFL/employers job to. Well go knock your wife out cold, or beat your kid with a stick and shove leaves in his mouth, march into your bosses office, tell him you did it, and that it is all over the news. See if you come back to work tomorrow.

We played ourselves last week against KC, this week against MIA, and then again versus CLE.

Brady is playing lights out in NE. He isn't going anywhere. Bledsoe got booted(traded) in NE because Brady was on the roster. Tommy is 10x the QB Bledsoe could even pleasure himself to. There might not be an upgrade in the entire NFL over Brady, let alone on the NE roster. I hate Brady for dominating us for years, but would welcome him tomorrow if he showed up, and if it cost us 3 1st round picks I would take it. With this D, we are immediate favorites for the SB. Not to mention he is a "Buffalo" guy. Bounced in and out of the starting role at college. Passed on over and over again in the draft. Shows up day one to practice and tells Kraft I am the best decision you ever made. Has played with a chip on his shoulder for over a decade and he has taken that chip and turned himself into one of the greatest QB's of all time. This has Buffalo story written all over it. I really don't get the hate on the guy so much so that you wouldn't take him on our team. But guys like Rapelisburger and AP are A-OK.

Orton is a band aide. Serviceable enough to not cost you games, provide the right amount of leadership, but also won't win you games. He is a reasonable place holder for EJ, another QB from the draft down the line, or even sooner, a FA like Bradford or Hoyer. When you have a QB of the caliber of Orton, the O should be designed around 2 guys, Spiller and more so Watkins. That's were the talent is, and you get the ball to them in a position to succeed. The last place you want to be with a guy like Orton or Fitzy is putting the ball in his hands with the game on the line. 9 GW drives over 10 years is nothing to brag about. Hell, the guy benched for Orton has 3 in 14 games. And EJ is (rightfully) on the bench. He is a game manager average/slightly below average NFL starter at best. Love the guts, moxy, and leadership from the guy. Glad he is here to fill this role. After the KC game, I am not sure what the biggest problem with the Offense is anymore. Which is actually the most frustrating part. Play calling, for the most part was better on Sunday. The OL dare I say played well, our skill positions seem to be good. Running game was exactly what we had hoped all year. Orton played "OK". Timing was off a bit, missed some reads, but that will happen with every QB not named Tom or Peyton. He is making some great throws that I watch and immediately think, EJ never would have completed that. Even on the 4 passes to end the game, people are claiming guys were open. They were some pretty tight throws to say the least. He did misfire big time. I guess I just don't have the answers as to where we go or what we do. Fire Hackett? OL? QB? WR? RB? All seemed to do an OK job but keep coming up short when it comes to points on the board.

How upset I am about the KC game still.

this line of thought is why we have been irrelevant for 14 years. you don't get rid of players without having a replacement plan for equal or better production. We currently don't have anybody on the roster to replace him, and similar to Byrd, we aren't gaining strength elsewhere by eliminating the salary. Stop, just stop.

You mean kind of like the sabres hired Nolan.....

Come on. The heaviness of being a must win game was not nearly at the height it was this past week. Basically saying we won games so we can't be the same team. The same old Bills blow it when it matters most. That's what they did, even after 2 weeks of preparation. I do hope they prove me wrong down the line.

I feel like Sunday vs kc already proved that

Not a Hackett fan, would love to see him go. On the fence on Marrone, he may be a great manager of a good staff. Mckelvin, he's played above average. No need to run him out of town. My take on releasing anybody at any level, whose the replacement? If we don't have somebody on the roster to fill the role, or a FA that we are marrying ourself to, then releasing anybody is a bad idea. Coach, OC, DB, doesn't matter. Releasing Leodis would create a fairly large whole on the roster that we can't necassarily replace. See what Whaley did with Byrd. That's how you handle these situations responsibly.

It's the lack of a move like this that lead me to believe Whaley is acting separately from Marrone. Whaley is doing his best to put together a good roster and is leaving the pieces in place for either a new OC or HC to come and work with. Just a theory/feeling, no evidence.

My getting into the EJ v. Orton debate. Interesting you mention the WR's. There was a point where Orton missed a throw to Woods and he threw a shite fit after the pass. I immediately thought "uh oh" we won't get going now. Which actually kind of happened. Not hating on Woods at all, but our WR corps isn't doing any favors to anybody at points. I like the idea of the pitch count. Not sure what it correlates to in regards to baseball, but makes enough sense to me to reason my way through it. What I think we saw from Orton was more akin to the type of QB he actually is. If anything his first few games are a statistical anomaly to his career numbers. Number of throws for a retired guy only makes it worse.

So Mike Williams definitely not playing...

When we are 9 games into the season and realize that the offense has cost us 2.5 games, Houston, KC, and SD (this was a loss anyways I think but the D was good enough so .5) it is a problem. It isn't a system failure by the team, just one aspect. On the flip side the defense won us 3 (Chicago, Miami, NYJ). The team is being carried by basically 11 players on an entire roster. Without this defense, even an average one, we are a 4 win team tops. The other 2 wins I will say we were serviceable on both sides of the ball, while the D still outplayed the O. So no expectations aren't too high when all we are asking for is an average offensive production.

Front load every bodies deal. We have 25 mil in cap space next year. It's the only way it works imo. This is a 12 win team with an average offense. If we invest right now in the defense, we MUST draft really well at OL and QB the next few years.

This game scares me mostly because we are the road team on a Thursday

I would generally agree. I will say it is the timing of the poor decisions though. I agree for most of the game play calling was better, but it was a crucial moments it failed us. I don't think that's debatable.

Thought the same thing at the pats game. It was a struggle in my section to get people going. My uncle and I looked at eachother at the start of the Pegula speech that started with "please sit down and be quiet down". Just a warning, the FNC is notoriously one of the quietest rinks in the league.

A second of devils advocate, then to my actual opinion. Special teams is an important part of the game, and should not be over looked. That said, what I extrapolate from Marrone's comments are, my buddy Danny Crossman was on the chopping block last year. I am going to give him the tools necessary to succeed. Marrone may actually weigh those equally with the team and come away with this decision. I don't. Field position doesn't matter if you aren't scoring points and sustaining drives. If we get the ball at the 40 or the 50 doesn't matter if the offense only goes 25 yards regardless. There is one spot in particular that is irking me in all of this, kick off specialist. I believe I read somewhere we are the only team in the league with one this year. There is MW's roster spot. It is doubly frustrating because the defense is lights out generally. Same concept as the offense. Starting position is irrelevant if your defense can consistently hold up. I realize special teams are a very important part of the game and shouldn't be over looked. Christ that was the only way we seemed to score points or win games when Bobby April was here. I just think our Defense can make up for any loss in field position lost(gained?)on the kickoff, and 7 points instead of 3 is always better. We have the only special teamer worth having anyways. Garrison Sanborn can do it all.

Scenario 3 in which you don't convert 4th down and instead of marching down the field in field goal range you have to march to the end zone. Something our offense has proven to my be capable of on a regular basis