snafu

I would have thrown a bomb at the end if I were the Jets. Wind at their backs. Gotta use it.

Okay. Take the three. Can't argue with that decision.

Call a timeout and decide.

EJ trickery followed up by crappy o-line play. Good thing is that this drive has eaten up a lot of clock.

At first I said "oh no" with EJ. But I'll take it. Glad they went for it.

Mario, obviously.

Jets fans who made the trip have to be sweating so far. I know it's early, but they have just as much of a defeatist attitude as Bills fans. And screw them!!!

Fitz isn't looking good, so far.

6th missed x-tra point. That sucks. I know it's not a gimme, but 6 misses is bad.

That didn't look like a tip. Go for it!!,

Wow, not offsetting.

Nice quarter. Now score a TD into the wind. That will be big.

Should've been doing that with Sammy all season.

Tyrod!!!

He's been keepin the Jets out of the playoffs since 2010. He should extend it one more year.

Your plan is to pay him for games active, starts, and production. It isn't too hard for him to be activated on game day, especially when Rex keeps talking him up. I'm not sure how "starts" works in your scenario. Does that mean he's on the field for the first offensive snap? As for production, is he going to be paid for targets or catches? What about throwing blocks? What happens when he doesn't get thrown to? But even after all that (and the point I was lazy in making), I don't believe that Percy Harvin is the kind of guy who's mentally tough enough to gut out an entire season - or even an entire game within a season for that matter. Under your scenario, I could see him trying to pick and choose which game(s) to actually show up and play hard just to collect some incentive money. No professional football team needs that uncertainty. Not only that, I believe Percy thinks he's still worth a lot of guaranteed money, no matter how productive he actually is.

No way. He's not worth eating up a roster spot. What's his incentive to show up and give more than a half-ass effort?

Other than what's already been said... Always make sure your workmans comp is paid - you can be personally liable for that not matter how you're organized. Always make sure your unemployment payments are made to the state. If you have to collect sales tax then collect it and send it in like clockwork. Accurately report your income. Don't screw around with labor laws regarding overtime, etc. With any business, the trip ups are the paperwork and red tape obligations. Run those well and you should be good.

1980 U.S. Men's Olympic hockey Gold medal. Boston Rex Sox. Their first win erased a lot of old bad memories - especially having married a Mets fan.

True, and I didn't mean to make it about you.

I'll disagree a bit on Rex being the sole reason. To me there's a lot more to it than his shoving a square peg up everyone's round hole.

I can guarantee it that Rex in his interview with the owners and the GM didn't tell them that he was going to take their top tier defense and alter the style of play that would accentuate the players's weaknesses and and diminish their strengths. Without a doubt he expounded on how he knew defenses and that he would make this very good defense even better. The Pegulas were not equipped to discuss football topics related to schemes and philosophy. Rex is very glib and has an expansive personality. As an employee candidate he was much more appealing to work with than the dour former HC who to put it mildly lacked interpersonal skills. I understand why the Pegulas found him appealing. But acing an interview is acing an interview. He had a six year record in NY that was not stellar. He left the Jets in shambles. The Pegulas did not properly do their "due diligence" with this respective hire. To be blunt I had little regard for Rex when he was with the Jets and was very troubled when he was hired for the job in western NY. I consider him to be a self-promoting huckster who lacks the intelligence and flexibility to smartly adjust in a job that requires adjustment to changing circumstances. Words that have never been associated with Rex are discipline and smart. I did not expect Rex to take the players he inherited and apply schemes that took them out of their comfort zone to the extent that he did. He made players such as Dareus, Mario and collectively the LBs conform to his comfort zone by taking them out of their comfort zone. You need to recall that Dareus was such an interior force last year that he earned him a gilded contract. In Rex's scheme he was a shell of himself. Mario was a pass rushing force that opposing teams had to account for. His presence on the field positively impacted his line mates because he received so much attention. This season on the field he was invisible. Let's remember that Rex was present with the team when they participated in last year's draft and free agency period. The staffing on the defensive side of the ball barely changed. The first pick was used for Darby, a CB. The defensive lineup stayed the same. If he was so determined to change the scheme then there should have been more personnel changes on the defense to accommodate his scheme. I'm not talking about brilliant football minds here. I'm talking about the lack of common sense. A dumb person tried to outsmart others. That is a recipe for failure. The outcome was predictable. The Pegulas are mostly to blame for hiring this huckster. If you asked the Pegulas if it would have been smart to hire someone who would take an asset (the defense) and make it a turd they would have said no. They certainly expected that this glib talking and jovial personality to use a little more common sense. Ultimately they made the hire and they got what they deserved. Rex is Rex. And that is exactly what they got. I'm obviously speculating on this: the Pegulas seemed to have ignored football sense in favor of making an immediate big decision splash. Probably helped along by the marketing mind of Russ Brandon. Look what it did for season ticket sales. Usually a coaching change happens because a team wants to "move in a different direction". But that too often gets confused with bad fits between scheme and personnel when there are better coaching fits to be readily found. My gut reaction was to hate the hire, too. When you talk about Dareus and Mario, I can start the excuses to mitigate the Rex hate, too. Marcel plays much better with Kyle next to him and vice versa. Mario can be a bit of a diva and if he doesn't like his role he can be pouty. There's also the fact that the linebackers can't keep up. I wonder what things would have looked like if Schwartz stayed and Spikes left and these same linebackers had to play in that system. Maybe not such a good result. I'm not trying to defend Rex at all. It is just starting to get monotonous with a lot of the same perspective. Everyone around here is so pissed off that they're losing the handle on all of the reasons for the regression.

Since you raised the point that a lot of people make around here (and your posts are usually pretty well articulated) my questions are pointed to you, but they are not limited to you. Did you expect Rex to abandon his scheme? That simply wasn't going to happen. No coach the Bills have brought in has ever said "I've been doing things one way for years, but I think I will change it up this year". Or did you expect Rex to make the players that were already here do different things? This is what historically happens. It rapidly becomes the same problem nearly every time coaches are changed. Maybe the exception is when the protégé takes over for the retiring coach. Perhaps it is a coaching failure on Rex's part, but shouldn't most of the blame lay at the feet of the people who hired a guy who was most certainly going to drastically alter a very good defense?

They lost to New England playing one way. Then they lost to New England playing the other way. They beat Houston, They beat Miami twice. I'm having a difficult time trying to understand the point. Is it that if they pressure the quarterback, then they will win by bigger margins and lose by smaller margins?

And probably a safety. Especially if A. Williams hangs it up.