mjt328

Why does everyone call Manuel "poised" ??? He seems scared.

Trent Edwards reincarnated.

Quit running the read-option!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think the downfall of this offense is the read-option. NFL defenses figured it out. Period. Not to mention that EJ is terrible at it. We've abandoned the read-option for the most part over the last couple weeks. EJ comes back and we are doing it again.

I really like the Lawson signing back then, and I was actually hoping we grabbed him back in 2012 (when he signed the 1-year deal with Cincinnati). Branch and Hughes were both surprises to me. I didn't expect either guy to do much.

Excellent post. I would really like to see more study done into schemes and tendencies (as opposed to just records) to see how the Bills matchup against certain teams. You are right how they always seem to struggle with the Jets at the LOS. I remember the Trent Edwards years when our offense always struggled horribly with 3-4 base defenses. Last year, our defense struggled bad against everyone. But they couldn't stop the read-option to save their lives.

This article was spot on. A very accurate assessment of the team from top to bottom. In my opinion, the problem with ESPN and other sports-news outlets isn't objectivity. It's that 99 percent of the writers/announcers don't know anything about the Bills. In fact, they don't seem to know anything about ANY teams and players that aren't in the top quarter of the NFL (New England, Denver, New Orleans, San Francisco, etc...)

I don't believe in moral victories. And I'm extremely disappointed in our record. However, I agree that we are a MUCH better team than our record indicates. We spent the first 5 games with an absolutely decimated secondary. Stephon Gilmore and Jairus Byrd were both hurt. Leodis McKelvin and Ron Brooks missed quite a bit of time. Forced to start guys like Justin Rogers. Forced to move Aaron Williams back to a position he stinks at. Those injuries contributed heavily to our losses to New England and New York. We have spent the last 4 1/2 games being led by our 3rd/4th string quarterbacks. Jeff Tuel's play certainly cost us the game yesterday, and probably the loss at Cleveland too. The front office certainly deserves some blame for the lack of depth. However, it's extremely rare (outside of Buffalo at least) for any team to get ravaged by injuries this bad. Most teams would pack it in when the starting QB goes down for a significant period of time. We were on our 4th option Sunday and seriously outplayed a 9-0 team. I'm very impressed with the 2013 rookie class. And I've seen great improvement over the last 2 weeks from Nathaniel Hackett - who I felt was dragging the team down with terrible play calling. If EJ can continue to develop, we are close. Real close.

I believe you are thinking of Marquise Goodwin's fumble Week 1. It was a very similar play.

Re-post this 100x. I've read some insane stuff on message boards (not just this one). And I know that a lot of Bills fans hate Stevie for no good reason. But this topic absolutely takes the cake. Our WR gets open in the endzone. And it's his fault. Really? Yeah. Personally, I blame CJ Spiller and Fred Jackson. If they hadn't gashed the Chiefs for 70+ yards on the drive, we could have just punted. That would have saved the INT return.

Some of you have no idea HOW or WHEN to assign blame. I've blasted Hackett a lot this year, but you can't blame him for this one. His "terrible" play call got Stevie Johnson WIDE FREAKING OPEN in the end zone. If Tuel takes a split second to scan the defense, instead of blindly rifling it a spot, it's a touchdown. 17-3 lead. It was a bad throw by a 4th string QB. End of story.

Let's review: > Buddy is secretly recorded by pranksters voicing his displeasure in Fitz, effectively killing our chance to re-negotiate with him as a quality backup. > Kevin Kolb is sacked and injured by a wet mat in training camp. He returns to pre-season action just in time for a concussion to end his career. > UDFA Jeff Tuel - though clearly not ready for real NFL action - plays just good enough in training camp, that our front office is forced to keep him on the active roster. > Our first top QB draft pick in a decade injures his knee twice in roughly 5 games worth of NFL action. > Thad Lewis (3rd/4th string) actually plays well enough to give us a chance. So naturally, he goes down with the season on the line. Yeah. Cursed sounds about right.

In my opinion, the Bills have a squad talented enough to make a playoff run. Of course, the missing piece is consistency at QB. Our biggest loss this year was EJ's injury, since it takes away valuable development time. I hope you're right and he picked up some stuff on the sideline. We will need it for next year.

Age catches up with EVERYONE sooner or later - (unless you are Barry Sanders or Jim Brown and retire early). Remember Jerry Rice's last year in Seattle? Not many people do. He played 11 games and had less than 400 yards. Remember LaDainian Tomlinson's last few years in the league, splitting time with Shonne Greene? Talking to "experts" back in August, they would have expected the Patriots/Tom Brady to have absolutely no drop-off. This was the same guy that won Super Bowls with Troy Brown, Deion Branch and David Patten. Before this season, people said Brady could succeed with anyone catching passes. Now they want to blame his supporting cast for his struggles. I've watched enough Patriots football this season to know it's definitely not just the receivers. People don't want to admit it, but Brady's accuracy is way off. Sure they are still scraping out wins. And thanks to another year of no competition in the AFC East, they will certainly win the division. But I still think the end is in sight.

Exactly. Sometimes aggressive play backfires. A couple weeks ago, the Bengals caught us on a corner blitz by Robey - hit the WR on a screen and he went 40+ yards.

I like Stevie too, and think he is criminally underrated by our fans.

You would think so. But most Bills fans hate Stevie.

From my observation, I don't think Hackett is doing a very good job. Sure, if you cherry-pick certain statistics (such as this 20 points each week thing), you can make it appear like our offense is doing OK. But that's why statistics can be misleading. Take a closer look: By game, the team has scored: 21, 24, 20, 23, 24, 24, 21. That's an average of 22.7 points per game - good for 16th in the NFL. Personally, I don't think that's very good. We should expect better. Most weeks, 22-23 points will result in a loss. The Bills have yet to break 25 in any game so far this season. In the course of 7 games, you will also see that: - 2 touchdowns were defensive scores - 7 scores (2 touchdowns and 5 field goals) came after turnovers that put the Bills in scoring position at the start of the drive - 3 scores (all touchdowns) came after punt returns already had them in scoring position at the start of the drive No matter how many points we have scored... the simple fact is, the Bills offense is not sustaining drives and consistently picking up 1st downs. I think play calling is a major factor. Since Hackett handles that aspect, I have no problem calling him out. I don't agree with the critics that say all we do is Run-Run-Pass. It's not true. However, I do think that Hackett needs to do a better job of mixing things up and keeping the defense off balance. If the defense is crowding the line, don't keep calling runs between the tackles over and over. I want to see some play-action, screens, quick slants - things to keep the defenders honest. Put the QB under center sometimes. Etc., Etc... I also don't buy the injuries/rookie players/inexperience excuse. We have a lot more talent than anyone (including our own fans) gives us credit for. Hackett is getting a pretty good effort from his players, including EJ Manuel and Thad Lewis. He's also got a strong offensive line, a good group of receivers and the best RB-duo in the NFL.

People don't understand the game. They think - "Hey he's just a cornerback, so all he needs is his feet." Gilmore has always been a physical player. He likes to jam WRs at the line. It's absolutely impossible for him to jam someone at the line with a club on your hand. With that said, I think that Gilmore was showing incredible improvement towards the end of last year. In his limited training camp/pre-season action, he was starting to look like a legitimate shut down corner.

I'm thrilled the Bills won. But they were still thoroughly outplayed today, and still sit with a 3-4 record. I would love to proudly proclaim the Bills are on their way. But there is still a lot of garbage on this team that needs fixing. We won't get saved by turnovers every week. I can't get too excited, because I know that without a couple amazing plays by Robey and Mario, this is another loss. If Hackett doesn't improve his play calling, we are at a disadvantage every week.

Love having this guy on the team. Spiller (when healthy) might be the most explosive RB in the NFL. FJax might be the toughest.

Bull. This is why "stats" are overrated. People keep pulling out this "we are 1 of 2 teams to score 20 every week" nonsense. They neglect to point out that in 7 games, we also have YET to score 25. And if you take away the defensive touchdowns, our offense scored only 14 against the Patriots and only 16 today. That is not "a lot" of points. If you were to break it down, you would also find that most of our offensive points have come from big plays (such as the deep touchdown throw to Goodwin in Cincinnati or CJ's run against the Browns). Although these plays are awesome, it only amplifies the FACT that we are NOT sustaining drives. You want to pull out some stats about consistency? How do we rank against other teams in 3-outs? How many scoring drives have we had of 7 or more plays?

We have talent. And our players are playing hard every single week. Coaching (unfortunately, on both sides of the ball and special teams) is really pulling this team down. - Crossman is a proven loser at ST. He should have never been hired and needs to go right now. - Hackett makes a good call once in awhile, but seems to have no feel for the game. He's predictable. Every week he seems to leave half of the playbook at home. If he doesn't improve drastically by season's end, they need to replace him with a veteran coach. - I love Pettine's attacking defense, but the last few weeks his scheme is leaving guys completely uncovered. You always take risks with the blitz, but there has to be someone available to at least make the tackle if a quick pass is completed.

I can't handle Dan Dierdorff. Every Patriots incomplete pass comes with an excuse why it wasn't Brady's fault.

Yes, we won. Can we please fire Crossman. My patience is about shot with our rookie OC too.