Bleeding Bills Blue

Bridgewater had more TO's, more sacks, fewer rushing yards, fewer TDs in his 2 years starting vs. Tyrod's... I get it - he was a young raw rookie, and he showed some improvement from year 1 to year 2. Problem he's run through his rookie deal, and he lost 2 full years where he could've improved. He's still young, but now he's got a bum knee.

Yup... 2 certainties... the patriots will be good. The browns will be bad. I don't care who they drafted, when you have a bottom 3 offense and defense the year before, you are not close to being good.

I worry about the positive weed test. Had enough with the Alabama lazy asses.

Teams change from year to year. Typically a good team is still a good team a year later. But Carolina was 15-1 in 2015, and 7-9 in 2016. So Atlanta being an unstoppable juggernaut doesn't hold water to me. They lost their O coordinator... that will have an effect.

I still don't like.. fear him. He's... alright i guess? Lousy in the red zone. Mediocre on 3rd downs. Still never led a team to a winning record, nor played in a playoff game. Hasn't even made the pro-bowl in 6 years playing (And everyone says its not hard to make it anymore...)- missed another due to ACL. Missed time in 5 of 7 seasons. Has shoulder, knee, and concussion issues.

Contract is certainly cheaper, but i think Tyrod is a better player.

I think Tyrod improving or remaining the same is the difference between 6-10 and 10-6. If we finish 10-6 then he likely had a helluva year.

28 touches over 16 games is a pretty small sample size. One of them he got hit 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage, and right out of a hand-off (http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-game-highlights/0ap3000000767053/Jonathan-Williams-fumbles-recovered-by-Sheldon-Richardson).

I root for them what seems like every year - my wife is a patriots fan. She roots for the bills when i bring her to bills games (unless they play NE).

The way I look at it - there are a ton of areas for improvement. We need to be able to run a no-huddle offense. We need to be able to pass on 1st downs and consistently gain yards. We need to scheme to get people other than Watkins open. We need to have a bigger route tree than like... outs/hitches/gos. We need to be able to utilize play action. We need to be able to run more plays from under center. We need to run screens to help with pass rushers.

You'd be cutting it close. My sister-in-law left in the 3rd quarter and was super early, so it'll be tough to find a sweet spot. That was also the game where they "ran out" of coffee. And we got smoked by NE.... what a day!

Yeah - that call is the kind of thing that irks me. How can they not have like... a guy in a booth to overrule a terrible call like that?

He's more of a gamer than like 90% of the team too, plays hurt, puts in the work, and wants to be great. I don't know how good he has to be to "turn the corner", but if his last start was any indication. Maybe he has a bit? He still needs a ton of work on window passing, and timing passing, but it looks like he's willing to put in the work. Easy guy to root for. His last start FWIW - 26/39 329 and 3 TDs, another 60 yards rushing. The team had 30 First downs, and he led a 4th quarter comeback. 8-18 on 3rd down as well...

The issue was the predictable nature of our run attack in that game. It was so obvious on 1st down that we were going to run. We came out swinging in that game, and just wilted so horribly. Siemian - more yards passing, more passing attempts, slightly better YPA, fewer sacks. Tyrod - More yards rushing, Better completion %, more total TDs, 11 more sacks, but for only 5 more yards, fewer turnovers. Siemian had quite a few games with a ton of attempts, and didn't really have great numbers. 30/50 for 230 and a TD? 17/43 for 183 and 1 INT? gross.

I mean - seattle and MIA-2 come to mind. MIA1, OAK, PIT, NE2 were all not even as close as the scoreboard indicated. However, win the seattle and miami 2nd game... and the NYJ game has actual ramifications.

They were 7-8-1 last year. They beat NE if the holder doesn't drop the ball on a game winning FG. They missed 2 FGs against Seattle - including a 24 yarder in overtime to win. They also missed 2 XPs and a FG in a 3 point loss to miami. 1 of the XPs was returned for a 2pt conversion - all in a 3 point last second loss. That's the difference between 10-6 and 7-8-1...

Either way - anything can happen. there are only a couple guarantees ... a Tom brady led patriots team will win 12-16 games this year. And the browns will stink.

Turnovers tend to fluctuate from year to year. % of fumbles recovered tends to fluctuate. Some years every pass that gets deflected lands in jairus byrds hands, and other years they all end up on the turf.

Atlanta scored 339 points in 2015, and 560 in 2016. Which team are they? Carolina scored 500 points in 2015, and 369 in 2016. Which team are they? Cincy... 12-4 in 2015, 6-9-1 in 2016. Jets 10-6 in 2015, 5-11 in 2016. Is all of this because they "played a harder schedule"?

I think the idea is... you can't use a teams previous season's success as a measurement for the difficulty of your schedule this year. There are obvious exceptions (NE is the big one, CLE on the other end of the spectrum). Tons of roster turnover, injuries, and good/bad luck can drastically alter a teams success.

Belichick's gotta be in there. I know he doesn't call them anymore, but he did win 2 with Parcells as the game-day caller. But hes had a top-10 defense like... the majority of his time in NE.

We had 3 200 yard rushers. We were a confused unit, that couldn't tackle, or rush the passer consistently. Tackling, and rushing the passer would make the secondary look better. But if they are bad, it will still be a rough year. Hopefully a scheme change and better coaching/play design will result in more stops on running plays, more 3rd and longs, and more 3 and outs.

1-6 when they scored fewer than 20 points per game. Also 1-6 when they had 1 or fewer takeaways on defense. Great defense - but they're without Ware so Ray is a full-time starter and they lose depth. They were remarkably healthy a year ago, i think only CJ Andersons injury having a large effect on them. They play KC, SD, and OAK twice. None of them are cupcakes. They play the NFC and AFC easts. Outside of the Jets, all those teams can compete with a team like Denver. Then they play CIN and IND in their other games. Also not cupcakes. If they remain healthy, and QBs develop, they are probably a playoff team with a top 5 defense. If the defense suffers a few injuries, and they struggle to stop the run as they did a year ago, they are under 8 wins.

I think missing camp definitely hurt him. Not to mention he had a shoulder injury, so he couldnt lift for several months. He didn't seem to have the bend or strength to push the tackles and set the edge, so i wonder if that was part of it.

I will say this - the wifi at the stadium was absolutely incredible. I was shocked how fast it was. I could watch highlights from other games and check scores with no speed issues.