2003Contenders

I've had a bad taste in my mouth about this guy going all the way back to 2004, when he admiited that he couldn't throw the football in Buffalo's windy conditions. Bledsoe had no problem that day.

Sounds like the Bills are legitimately interested in Hue Jackson. Interviewing him will satisfy the Rooney Rule.

Well, knowing what we know now -- that Orton was 8 days away from announcing his retirement (reportedly without cluing the coaches in ahead of time), I think it helps to explain some of the spineless things we saw out of him in that game (and others). The Bills also lost their top DT (who had helped shut down the Raiders running game prior to his departure) as well as their top corner (the Bills had only allowed 6 receptions to that point). Meanwhile, the Bills have always had trouble winning games out on the West Coast -- even when they were good 15+ years ago. And even with all that, the game down to one fluke play on a 3rd and 22 conversion.

Trying to get him involved in the must-win game was understandable. Doing so and inactivating Bryce Brown in the process was unforgivable.

Honestly,I think part of the issue with Orton is that what we see is in some ways a representation of the coach's mind-set. That is, by his very nature Marrone is a conservative coach. He prefers to condense the clock by playing strong defense and not take unnecessary chances with the offense. This is similar to how Jaraun used to be -- only, Marrone has a far superior defense to any that Jaraun ever had. That is just the way it is. As long as the Bills are in the lead or within a score, you are not going to find Orton take many shots down the field.

I wish we all had a crystal ball back then. I can't personally blame the Bills front office for what went down with all of this back then. In fact, I distinctly remember watching the Bills and Packers scrimmage back in 2005/2006 and thinking to myself how much better JP looked than Rodgers at that time. Shows what I know! I think the moral of the story is that the Packers did a masterful job of grooming Rodgers. Truthfully, regardless of who has been in the front office or coaching ranks for either organization, the Packers have shown a great tradition for developing quarterbacks over the last 20+ years. Favre, Brunnell, Hasselbeck, Brooks, Rodgers... Who have the Bills EVER developed? Even Jim Kelly came to the Bills after a couple of years under the tutelage of Mouse Davis and June Jones in Houston.

Bingo! I couldn't have said it better myself. I honestly thought the coaching staff put the players in a pretty good position to upset the heavily favored Broncos and the players (with some hindrance from the officials) failed to come through. Hopefully Orton understands that he is playing for the team's season, his job and likely his career next week against the Packers. I hope the coaches understand this as well -- and are willing to make the quick switch to Manuel in the event that Orton once again fails.

Exactly. The Bills lost for a number of reasons yesterday. Orton was terrible for 3 quarters. Aaron Williams whiffed on a backfield tackle that led to a long gain, which ultimately led to a TD. The defense eased up in the redzone. The offense was incapable of moving the ball quickly late in the game. The team did indeed commit way too many penalties -- and was unable to overcome those penalties. And -- yes -- the officiating was incredibly one-sided. I can't wait to see the All-22 angles to determine whether or not the holding calls on the INT-returns were legitimate. If they were not, then that is a minimum of 6 points that the offense would have scored that was directly forfeited by field position. We know that the well-documented questionable penalties against the secondary provided the Broncos with their first 14 points, which likely would have been 6 without those penalties. There was a missed (and obvious) hold on one of the Broncos long runs that set up a TD. Was I the only one who saw the defender tackle our punter on what what went down as a "shank" after a poor snap? How about the defender who head-butted a helmetless Lee Smith? That should have been a 15 yarder, automatic first down and possibly and ejection. And it happened right in front of the officials! They sure didn't miss Pears foolish late hit after the whistle later in the game.

Or... maybe the coaches identified that Peyton Manning was simply not going to allow any of our defensive linemen to touch him. The ball was coming out of his hand on the rare occasions when he decided to pass the ball within 2 seconds. In fact, the defensive formations were more or less pleading with Manning to run the ball, which is exactly what he decided to do. For the most part that plan worked, as the defense kept the Broncos' offense in check. Alas, the whiffed tackle by A. Williams on the long Thompson run and the poor officiating on the part of the refs further aided the Broncos' offense and led to the 3 TDs they scored. I really think Hughes' playing time is a non-issue. I guarantee he sees ample snaps next week against Aaron Rodgers and the Packers.

You would think that the "crack" journalists in Buffalo would get the inside scoop on what is really going on here. I personally find it hard to believe that Marrone is the villain here. After all. let's remember back to the preseason. Williams was the one getting most of the reps with the first team, while Robert Woods appeared to be the guy in Doug's doghouse. Williams was also a key component early in the season when EJ was starting. He had some notable receptions -- including one that helped to set up the winning field goal in overtime against the Bears in week 1 and the long TD in the Houston game. He has been practically MIA since then. Maybe it is Orton who has a problem with him? I only wonder because the timing of all these issues appears to coincide with Orton being named the starter. I also remember that when Williams' agent asked for a trade, it was Whaley who said something along the lines of "Well, if he really is a #1 WR like he thinks he is..."

Orton and Fitz are different quarterbacks with different skill sets, but they are very similar in that both lack the consistency to be good week in and week out. Even the great ones will have off days -- but they consistently play at an elite level most weeks. Orton (like Fitz) has also shown that he CAN play over his head every now and then. If he can do that once or twice over these last 4 games, the Bills just may have a shot at the playoffs.

I actually think Hackett tried to come up with some plays to get the ball in Sammy's hands on multiple occasions, including some rarely seen screens yesterday. I think Sammy's lack of success yesterday was multi-fold: 1. Joe Hayden is a genuine shutdown corner 2. Sammy is not fully healed from the groin injury. Has he had a big game since? 3. Orton was particularly awful yesterday.

My guess is that the ref forgot that the tuck rule had been revised last year. No excuse for that.

Let's see... What was the over-under supposed to be for this game again?

Why doesn't this make me feel better? Maybe it is because the Bills themselves could have had Arians. In fact, the Cardinals wanted Marrone over Arians too -- but the Bills swooped in first.

Yea, despite everything else that went wrong in the game, it really did come down to colossal blundering on that sequence of plays -- all 4 downs. Orton probably threw his 4 worst passes of the day on those consecutive plays. There really seemed to be no plan or strategy from a play-calling perspective there. It was almost like each pas was a wing and a prayer. There was over 3:00 to go (and they had all their timeouts) when they got down there around the 15, and I still do not understand why they were playing in desperation fashion like there was under 30 seconds to go and no timeouts. It was in their best interest for a variety of reasons to take their time, eat the clock, mix in some running plays, etc. If the strategy was to conserve time in the event that they didn't score a TD -- then they should have kicked the field goal. Just poorly handled by Marrone/Hackett/Orton.

The way things are headed he may very well go undrafted.

In life there are certain traits that people have that may make them successful in one arena -- but unsuccessful elsewhere. In athletics it may not necessarily be physical talent -- but some special motivating factor that allows a professional athlete to excel at his preferred sport -- but fail elsewhere in life. Michael Jordan and Pete Rose are two obvious examples as their off-the-charts competitiveness made them so great at their respective sports but also hindered them in life afterwards. In the NFL, Thurman Thomas and Tom Brady are two good examples of guys who were under-appreciated coming into the league, and used that under-appreciation as an extreme chip on their shoulder to excel and defy odds. Flutie was like that too. Under-sized, mediocre arm -- but an enormous chip on his shoulder that he carries to this day. I think the fact that he was 5'9" and 175 lbs made him seem like an every-man to the masses. He was an easy guy to root for in those regards, compared to Rob Johnson, who had that prototypical NFL QB physique -- but was completely out-of-touch. Because Flutie always felt under-appreciated and underestimated, he used that to his advantage to motivate himself. At the end of the day, this turned more into paranoia than anything else -- as he devolved into being a bad teammate: Taking full credit for 13-10 style victories and imposing a You-are-either-for-me-or-against-me atmosphere in the locker room regarding the QB rivalry. It was a shame, really.

What are people going to do when Boobie and Tanner are active this week -- and Brown is still inactive?

Yea, I don't understand why anyone would root against EJ. Those who do simply must be tools who were opposed to the Bills drafting him in the first place and want to be "right". EJ seems like a stand-up guy -- and has handled the demotion as well as anyone could hope. I have made it a point to watch him on the sidelines, and he is clearly doing his best to be involved -- was clearly enthusiastic about the offense completing the winning drive on Sunday. Obviously the right QB is starting right now. It takes some players longer than others to develop -- especially at the most crucial position. Coming out of college, Manuel had all the physical tools and the right mental make-up (intelligence, confidence, character) -- but he played in a remedial offense for Fisher at FSU. For that reason, he was the definition of a developmental QB. History has shown us that the more polished QBs coming out of college (think Manning and Luck) are the ones that are best-served playing right away, taking their lumps on the field and learning as they go. The college QBs who didn't play in pro style offenses tend to take longer to develop, provided they have the right skill set and mental make-up (think Rodgers, Romo and Alex Smith). I have heard in many places that accuracy is something that you either have or do not have. If that is the case, then EJ may never be what the Bills hoped he would be when they drafted him in the first round last year. However, most of his problems (from what I have seen) have been mechanically-related, and I hope that additional seasoning will help him progress. If the offensive line doesn't improve, we may see E.J. Manuel again sooner than we think... :-(

The problems with the offense are multifaceted. 1. In Hackett's defense, I suspect that a good portion of the playbook has been whittled down, first due to EJ's inexperience and then due to the fact that Orton arrived a mere week before the season started. I also believe that if the passing game starts to ignite that defenses will be less inclined to crowd the box. 2. Spiller does not do enough things well to get the number of carries that many of his fans long for. He is a liability in pass protection, doesn't have great vision and situationally unaware way too often. His football IQ is severely lacking. With that said, he IS very talented -- and can score from anywhere on the field. Teams must game plan for him -- the problem is that he is easy to game plan for. I wonder what Bryce Brown is lacking that keeps him inactive every week.

Bingo! I think man-for-man that the Bills have an overall more talented roster. With Bellichick and Brady the Patriots have two guys who are smart, talented, and obsessed with out-working their opponent. They spend countless hours dissecting the opponent's strengths and weaknesses -- and then figure out how to eliminate that strength and highlight the weakness. Note that Watkins was a non-factor mostly and that Duke Williams was picked on early and often. Meanwhile, we have an OC obsessed with running the same play over and over again that never works and illustrates the shortcomings of our offense. Bill B and his coaches are also masters at halftime adjustments. The Bills' coaches, meanwhile, have done a poor job of making counter-adjustments.

I will be anxious to see the All-22 this week to discover what the Patriots did (or the Bills didn't do) that gave Brady so much time in the 2nd half. The defensive line had him befuddled in the first half, but allowed him to get very comfortable in the 2nd. The lack of pressure (plus the absence of A. Williams) played a role in the secondary breakdowns. I wonder of D. Williams is this year's version of J. Rogers?

Bill, we gotta make this look right. So we will call several meaningless penalties against your team -- but an approximately equal number of back-breaking penalties against the Bills. That way all the "impartial experts" can say we were fair. Is that OK with you?

Were the Bills sold on EJ as a franchise QB? Absolutely not. If they had been, they would have drafted him with the #8 pick and not made the risk the trade down. Where I think the front office failed -- and in this case I blame Nix, as it was obvious in his pre-draft quotes -- is that the Bills seemed bound-set-and-determined to draft a QB in the first round. The infamous Nix recording illustrates that the team had no illusions to the fact that the draft was a very weak one for QBs. In the final analysis, they took a gamble on EJ, believing that he had the intangibles to be the best QB in the very weak class. Thanks to the new CBA, if he never pans out, the misfire will not set the franchise back for years and years. The book isn't shut yet on Manuel either, IMHO.