2003Contenders

Also sounds like Schobel isn't anywhere near close to coming back either.

Just gives Jauron/Fewell one more excuse for backing off the WRs and applying even less pressure on the QB this week.

Indeed, death by a thousand paper cuts from Wes Welker. I agree. Throw everything but the kitchen sink at Cassel.

I can't say that I blame Trent for throwing it away in that situation. 1. He had just killed the other drive in a similar situation with the INT-RETURN. 2. I am sure when the coaches called the play, they told him that they were going to go for it on 4th down if they failed to convert on 3rd. The conversation probably included a reminder for him to just throw it away if it wasn't there on 3rd.

Call me an optimist. First, I think the team needs to treat this week as their Super Bowl. The coaches need to have a game plan for going into New England and coming away with a victory. It really should not be THAT formidable. The Pats are down to their 3rd or 4th running back. Cassel is unseasoned -- and could perhaps wilt if the defense can find a way to get to him. Both the Dolphins and Chargers were able to put up some serious points against this defense. Turk needs to come up with some imaginative plays. The only "trick" plays I can recall this year came on Special Teams. Moreover, the Bills need to bog down and commit themselves to the running game. Put the ball in Marshawn's hands. If they can somehow eke out a victory here, you would imagine that they would be favored to win the next 3 games heading into their next gauntlet of division games. That would then put the team at 9 victories with 4 games left to play. Barring a serious collapse, I still believe that they can find a way to win 11.

Oh, kudos to Washington no doubt for knowing the rule and doing what he did to draw the penalty. The problem is that the rule itself is just dumb.

I wonder what the real story is with Schobel... These have been two VERY important games he has missed. For a guy that had previously never missed a game in his entire career, I am really starting to worry about the true nature of this injury.

Moreover, I think it was Wyche that had the infatuation with JP. He was the one that scouted him in Louisiana at a workout headlined by Eli Manning. Wyche came away feeling that JP had actually had the better workout of the two.

Bingo!

In a way, I kind of admire Mort for sticking up for TD. Still, like some have said, he shouldn't cut down the current regime to do so. I will say, though, that I don't think he was necessarily doing that here. He went out of his way to praise the current team. Now, the John Butler reference is itself amusing. I don't want to berate a man who is no longer with us -- or who certainly did do a number of good things for the franchise over the years. We all know that Butler wanted the San Diego job for a year or more before he actually took it -- and he left us with a wonderful 2000 draft class as his parting gift of apathy.

Schobel did play in the Arizona game, which is where he aggravated the injury. Looking back, they should have held him out of that game.

I think part of it is that he is very conservative by his very nature. A good, early statement yesterday, for example, would have been going for the the TD on 4th and goal from the 1.

As someone said, that wasn't Turk's best game by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I almost wonder if his putting Jackson in wasn't an attempt to outsmart the Dolphins with a package that maybe resembled more of a pass formation than a run formation with Lynch in there. That is the sort of out-thinking that hurt us so badly with prior OCs, whom I choose to leave unnamed...

I think the root cause is the absence of a real pass rush. The team is incapable of applying consistent pressure with the front four. That means that the DBs have to hold coverage for FAR too long. I also believe that the pad that the CBs are giving the WRs is a crutch because the coaches realize the anemia of the pass rush.

Does anyone know when Schobel acquired his foot injury? The first I remember hearing of it was the week leading up to the Arizona game. He was ineffective that day and on the bench since then. He didn't register but 1 sack in the first 4 games; however, he was at least applying pressure. Chad saw very little pressure yesterday -- unless blitzers came at him.

Honestly, I was not especially impressed. We have all seen Chad enough to know that a game like that from him was an aberration. Every aspect of the Bills team underperformed yesterday. However, given the following: 1. Pennington and Ginn having career games 2. No Schobel and, therefore, no pass rush 3. No Josh Reed for most of the 2nd half 4. A totally reshuffled OL by the 4th quarter 5. Probably the worst overall Special Teams we have seen (except for Lindell) 6. Turning over the ball on 5 straight 4th quarter possessions (counting the safety as a "turnover") 7. Trent having probably his worst game, since being named starter 8. The Dolphins, as Chad Pennington admitted after the game, realizing that this game was their season 9. A horribly coached game all the way around (abandoning the run, not pulling McGee, playing DBs 10 yards off the WRs, etc) If I had told you that all of these things would be true, you would have figured a blowout loss -- rather than a game that was undecided until the final few minutes. I hope the coaches burn this tape and just move forward. The team played probably their worst game of the year (even worse than in the Cardinals game, where they were clearly simply outclassed) against a team that played probably as well as they are capable of playing. Nothing more.

I think they are trying to help preserve him for the long haul. When the weather turns bad, the offense is going to need to be able to run the ball. Also, if other defenses follow the Dolphins' strategy of dropping 8-9 guys into coverage, we are going to need to aggressively run the ball. Remember, also, that Marshawn hit that proverbial wall at then end of his rookie season.

Does anyone have a breakdown of how well the offense has done this year when facing the blitz? It seems to me that the Raiders and Rams blitzed quite a bit -- and then backed off in the 4th quarter, which also coincided with the offense getting its acts together. I know the Cardinals blitzed quite a bit, but that was primarily with JP in the game, and he has always had problems reading the blitz. The reason I ask is that I have a feeling that the Dolphins are probably going to try to throw everything but the kitchen sink at Trent, especially after having seen how the Chargers REFUSED to blitz -- and Trent wound up virtually untouched. From what I have seen, Trent certainly seems smart enough to be able to identify when it is coming, but have he and the receivers been able to make the necessary sight adjustments thus far this year to beat it?

You know, this could just be another match-up situation. I suspect that the coaches are more worried about Ricky and Ronnie this week than they are of the Chad. Thus, they are more inclined to want the larger bodies crowding the line of scrimmage as opposed to the sleeker guys in the deep secondary. Just a thought.

I wonder just how severe this injury to Schobel is. Last week they led us to believe that it was really no worse than it was leading up to the Arizona game. I wasn't too surprised to see him sit last week, since I suspected that the coaches decided it was best to avoid the chance of a set-back against a non-division foe like the Chargers -- with three straight division games on the horizon. Well, the Miami game is here, and it doesn't sound like he is playing again this week. Considering how well he has played against Miami and Pennington, I would have thought that Schobel would be chomping at the bit to get back on the field. That leaves me wondering if the injury isn't much more serious than we were initially led to believe. After all, it started up before the Cardinals game, rested during the bye, rested last week -- so we are now 4 weeks into it.

I don't think so. I believe this is the perfect example of the coaching staff trying to use the best personnel on hand to match up against the opponent. Namely, Fewell and Jauron saw Scott being a better match-up against Antonio Gates because of his size. Next week against Miami, who knows what kind of formation they will want to use to combat what they perceive to be Miami's top weapon(s). The idea of using all 45 guys that dress that day in a specific role is something that the Patriots have worked to their advantage the past several years. It's good to see the Bills doing the same.

Also liked the play where Jackson stiff-armed two defenders.

Who cares about who has the strongest arm? Jim Drunkenmiller may have had the strongest arm of any QB EVER -- and it didn't do him a lot of good.

Actually SD headed into the game with 17 sacks, good for 5th in the NFL. I wouldn't worry too much about the "low" score either. The Bills could have easily made it at least 26 if not 30 points but elected to be classy, safe and smart at the end of the game. As for stats, we out-gained San Diego (#1 offense in the NFL) by about 100 yards yesterday.

Wrong! The first turnover came just a couple of plays after he came in for Trent. The Cardinals went on to march down and score the first TD -- and everything continued to go south from there. Might the entire tone of the game been different if the first drive for the Bills had ended with a score and the Cardinals were not playing with a lead? Now, I blame that turnover more on the OL (Fowler in particular), than on JP -- but still...