Dan

Bingo.

Jimbo needs to sit down with Trent and slap him around till he grows a set and learns to fight back.

9 drives, 3 games, 0 touch downs. Absolutely abysmal preseason thus far for the first team offense. Makes you wonder if they'll try and show something, anything this weekend against Pittsburgh. At some point just sheer pride has to kick in, right?

Seeing as how the Bills apparently haven't been practicing to actually play against any of our opponents, I'm not sure he missed all that much.

Precisely. There are multiple instances where the QB may get tackled behind the LOS and therefore he's sacked; yet there's no clear lineman to blame it on. So, it really is a pointless measure of a lineman's performance. However, that doesn't mean it's totally without merit. In an unofficial review of game tape, I would certainly do this. If anyone can recall the youtube compilation of Peters' 11.5 sacks (I'm disinclined to find the link), clearly several of those sacks were on him - unless his assignment was to block air. While, for several more it's much harder to tell who, specifically, is to blame due to blocking assignments. However, with that being said, whether its your blocking assignment or not, shouldn't a lineman recognize a defender coming through untouched and try to get in his way - especially if the guy he's supposed to block isn't there? For example, during the GB game, we had a nice run to the left side set up. The RB (#22, maybe) ran out and had plenty of room; #77 pulled out there was one DB coming in untouched. He ran right by #77 and hit the RB for a 2 or 4 yard loss. I call that a screw up. I'm sure #77 was coached up to seal the edge by stopping the DE, so that's where he was looking. But, the DE was held up at the line and no where in sight. So, why not look for someone else coming in free to block? Technically, he may have done his job, but realistically, he screwed the pooch. I see much of the line play the same way. I don't care what your assignment is on Friday. I don't care what X's and O's are drawn on the chalkboard. When you hit the field, defenders don't know that their supposed to go to certain gaps. So, you have to adjust and react. If a player can't do that and continually lets guys run by him untouched, what good is he? It's why the safety blitz is so effective against the Bills. You have a safety coming in untouched, with noone responsible to block him. Rather than someone do something about it, they all just keep their head down, hide behind their assignments and let the QB get clocked - the QB included. Someone has to recognize the breakdown and react to it. But, it's easier to stand around and say it wasn't my fault, I guess.

Very much as I see it as well. I could care less that they lost the game. Or even that they looked disinterested. However, when Trent comes out afterward and says, in essence, we looked so bad because we haven't played against a 3-4 defense since last December and that's a hard defense to play against; well, that makes me more than concerned for the season. My only hope is that he and the team are sandbagging it, intentionally, to try and gain some edge over the Pats* in week 1. Because, if they're not spending at least some of their practice time going against 3-4 defensive alignments, then I think it's entirely worthwhile to ask just what the heck they're doing with all this practice time. Its absolutely unthinkable that they haven't, at this point in the offseason, practiced or prepared for the defensive alignment that every other team in our division utilizes. Maybe they're content with just winning the AFC west. I don't really know. It just defies all logic and common sense.

I'm watching. My assessment after 1.5 quarters... the Packers showed up to play a game of football. The Bills thought it was another walk through practice. They seem slow, disinterested, apathetic, confused.

yeah.

It truly makes you wonder... what the hell are they doing in practice every day? They have 6 divisional games against a 3-4 defense. Teams that they went 0-6 against just last year. And yet here we are, after training camp, half way through preseason, and they haven't prepared in any way for a 3-4 defense?!?!? Honestly, I don't know where to begin. You don't have to be a genius to realize that if you're entire division plays a 3-4 defense, you should be prepared to play against a 3-4 defense. Can our coaching staff really be this dumb? I can take a loss in preseason. But a loss like this, with these kinds of comments is just pathetic.

In the world of body language... scratching/rubbing your nose, ear, or neck while talking is a tell tale sign that the person is telling a lie (or at the very least highly uncomfortable with their answer).

Zero first team touchdowns in 3 games. I'd say the offense is failing the test.

Both technically correct. Trent has looked sharp thus far, the ball has yet to hit the ground as he's 14 of 14 in his first two preseason games. I like it. Of course, some would probably prefer: Trent has yet to throw a touchdown and had 1 interception in his first two preseason games. Great read, Lori. Your previews are by far the most informative and insightful out there.

Favre has been praised in light of his poor play for quite some time. It even extends to fans... It's never Favre's fault. His head didn't just get bigger, the rest of the league just got smaller.

"After two games, Trent Edwards has yet to throw an incompletion. Can’t get much better than that ..." Well, if one of those completions was thrown to one of your-uns and not their-uns, that might be a little better. Still though 13 of 14, is pretty good. Hopefully, he can get a TD completion today.

//raises fists to the sky while looking up and screams// SKOOOOOOOOOOOOOOBY!!!!!

Wow... one of the few times I can claim to have sources deep within the organization! called it

It most certainly is. However, to this point, the Bills' FO made a great decision. Could you imagine the scene here if the FO had given Peters' big money this summer and then he have the camp and pre-season he's had so far in Philly? Granted, all things would be different if he were in Buffalo and its a somewhat silly notion to even pose the question; however, at this point... the Bills traded away a headache and got a couple of promising players that are doing their all to succeed here. While Philly has gotten the same effort we all saw last season from our franchise LT - next to none. I, for one, hope the season continues to prove that the Bills' FO made a great decision.

Can't any one say anything positive about Buffalo and actually mean it?

Perhaps Maybin's agent had been hoping for the Crabtree deal to get done; but with camp ending and Crabtree's deal nowhere in sight Maybin and/or his agent settled for the "standard" deal the Bills put on the table a month ago?

Excellent news!! I was curious to see how this would play out with you and Schefter going head to head on scoops. That guy is good! I can't express enough my gratitude for someone of your caliber posting here to keep us informed and knowledgeable. Thanks and keep up the good work... so I can avoid working and just read this board for updates all day.

Maybin has the same agent as Vick, yeah? Any chance the guy was working overtime on Vick and just let the Maybin negotiations slide until the Vick deal was done??

I definitely like the inability for new members to start a new thread for a bit. 25 posts?, but 50 wouldn't be so bad. I'd also suggest allowing all members to see when a poster is on probation or whatever cautionary action the moderators may have taken. It would be nice to realize someone is about to be banned for posting crap. I'd also be in favor of a moniker for posters that repeatedly fabricate sources in feeble attempts to scoop everyone with information they don't have. That way new posters could know Soprano was really clueless, for ex. The suggested rankings seem fine. However, I'd say spread the post counts out more (or add a few more categories) I'd suggest keeping the top 2 or 3 rankings to the top 10% of current post counts (more or less). my 2cent

Point taken. But, what's the point then? I finally read the article and I've already read half of it in his twit/blog page. Not to mention how much time does it take to think of all those creative ways to say something as opposed to just typing the actual word.

Which begs the question... how much is too much? So you're hired to write articles. Then the news goes 24/7. So now you're writing an article every day. How much research and editing can be done in less than a day anyway? Then the internet age comes to fruition and you have blogs in between the daily articles. Because someone decided we need to hear people's informal thoughts in between the daily articles they're writing. Now, you have the tweets. Why? Because I have to know every waking thought in someone's head? What's next a direct live feed to a writer's brain? Am I the only one that would prefer fewer, better written/researched articles over daily useless tweets that have little redeeming value whatsoever?

Agreed. And therein lies the rub... as fans, we don't know what the Bills are offering nor what Maybin may have asked. Hence, we don't really know if he's being low balled or if he's being stupid. And probably never will.