Dan

I don't think I am. I don't expect a win. I expect to see NFL level competence from a coaching staff. If the players don't execute, that's one thing.. they're young and all. But, leaving Rogers one on one? Calling a 3rd and 1play that has guards and tackles pulling. That's putting your players in a position to lose.

For me, its the same thing I've been wanting to see for years... Play with some attitude and fire in their bellies, hitting hard for the entire game. Add to that, improved game day coaching. Better clock management and adjustments in the game plan. If you try a play and it's not working; they need to stop trying it! Don't leave inexperienced corners on an island with the other teams #1 WR. Find some way to get pressure on the QB. FInd some way to limit the pressure on ours. In other words, it would be nice to see the coaching staff show a level of comptence in and understanding of the game that's being played. I really don't want to sit on my couch in Idaho and feel like I know more about the game than our coaching staff.

Actually you did: You suggest that others read the entire thread, perhaps you should as well? You're contradicting yourself, repeatedly. All in a rather poor attempt at objectivity. Just admit you dislike Gailey and all he did and think nothing he did here was good. Hence, Hacket should ignore any postives that Gailey was able to achieve from Stevie or Spiller, or the O line or Chandler. That would be a more convincing argument and perhaps easier for you to defend than your current line of rambling.

You're right. I apologize. I'm being totally childish... hell even immature and absurd to think, or hope actually, that a professional individual with $100s of millions of dollar at stake as well as his and others professional career at stake would ever consider something other than his own experiences and personal knowledge to run a team or design a system. Again, forgive me. Gailey sucks! We're way better without his loser plans anymore!!

Just because everyone does it, that doesn't make it right or the best approach. Not to mention, our OC is drawing on his vast experience... in college! And it shows quite frequently. Not to mention, I recall Marrone talking about he had been studying offense for some time going back to the K-Gun to put together a hybrid offense that is best. If so, why not look at Gailey's last year? I'll say this one last time, because you're obviously not getting it. I'll even put it in its own paragraph so perhaps you actually read it... I'm not saying use all of Gailey's offense. I'm saying adapt SOME of the plays/formations/etc. for use in the new offense. Not everything Gailey did was bad. Just like not everything they're doing now is bad. Take the best of the best and incorporate them together.

Gailey, because he was here just last year. His system, his offense was designed with many of these players in mind. Not to mention, because it was the Bills offense, the playbook stays with the Bills and the players here know the plays. So it should be a much easier and efficient way to incorporate these few plays. Just because Gailey's tenure was overall a losing one, that doesn't mean everything he did was bad. Why not take the best of the stuff and add it to the best of the new stuff? No, lets be blinded by our dislikeof all things Gailey and dismiss the fact that he actually had a decent offense.

Why does it have to be either or? There were some good things in Gailey's offense. Why not try to incorporate some of them into the new offense? Stack formations, screens, running from 4WR sets are all things Gailey did to put his players in a position to win. And they're not bad ideas at all. Continuing to run Spiller into the teeth of a stout defensive line and going no where is a bad idea. Unless... I was wondering if I was the only one to think this way. It almost seems at times that they're workingon things for the future... knowing they may not be successful now. The no huddle, for ex, yeah it's not clicking just yet, but if they want to be good at it in 1 or 2 years, then you stick with it now and take your lumps. Same with some of the running plays. It's kinda like they're trying to build an identity, even though they know they're not there yet. I'm not yet sure if its a good approach or not.

The truth is often confusing once you've been raised with so many lies and deceptions. Just open your eyes and the truth shall set you free!

I can't disagree with anything you've said. I wish I could. I wish I could say.. yeah it all makes sense. But, I fail to have that resolve anymore. Seeing this organization continue to make the same mistakes over and over that part time fans can see, just has taken its toll on me I guess.

With all these players hurting, not being 100%, and still trying their best to play for the team; how the hell does Byrd even show his face in the locker room?

True. Its more like "fumble around in the dark put some stuff together, turn the lights on... nope. turn the lights off and keep stumbling" mode. Maybe its easier for the players and coaches because they're all new and whatever. But as was just said, for us fans... seeing the same old Bills get run all over yesterday just punched me in the gut. It flat out sucks. Seeing the way this team continues to play, especially against division teams, you have to wonder at times do they even care? Do they? The only 2 players that ever seem to really care are Freddie and Stevie. All the others, just go into shut down mode and go back to looking at film.

Ya know what sucks most about a post like this and your attitude?? Just a few short years ago, I would have completely dismissed these thoughts as being overly cynical and pessimistic. Sadly, today, I can find almost no way to disagree with you. This franchise seems completely lost. My biggest concern this entire off season continues upon considering this game... it's the coaching staff. Not only do we have rookies on the field, but we have rookie coaches in the NFL that seem clueless. We can all rant back and forth about this player or that, but this loss falls squarely on the coaches. The Jets blitzed Manuel like crazy, and did little to even disguise it at times. What was our adjustment? None. That's what we did. Nothing. Just called the same predictable plays into the same predictable defense. After Kiko's intereception, I told my sister.. here we go - run, run, blitz the pass, field goal. That's how predictable we were. Seeing the Jets line up, knowing the blitz was on and we made zero adjustments. Even, on defense, Pettine just said last week... the key to good coverage is make sure they don't have to cover for long (i.e. pass rush). So, what did he do all day to adjust to the Jets? nothing. He let Gino stand tall and throw the ball all over the place hanging the injured secondary out to dry. It was unbelievable how little pressure we got on Gino. This coaching staff has to realize this isn't college. Game plans that work in week 1, don't work in week 2. And if a play doesn't work the first time you run it, or the 2nd, or 3rd, or 4th, or 5th... stop calling that play! Bottomline, despite the injuries and rookie player concerns, my biggest concern after yesterday is that we were severly out-coached.

I agree. Stevie did what half the players in the league do all the time... get up and jaw a bit. And it had no affect on the out come of the game, other than maybe piss #20 off and get under his skin causing him to get benched. Of all the crap the Bills out on the field today... Stevie is no where in that list, IMO.

Honestly, that's how I felt. It was painfully obviousnhe was being outclassed and there was nothing he or the team could do about it.

I could see how some might see it as snippy, but IMO she was factual. People would start talking BS about this play or that and she'd just back up the argument with all the facts to completely shut the BS down. Having intellegent, knowledgeable members like her is what made this THE place for Bills information. We still have excellent information and posters here, but there's far more BS and idiocy you have to sift through to find it.

Those were great. I'm not sure what would take more time... writing a detailed pregame article or finding all those pictures! I concur. If she does, I'm sure she just lurks. Posts with her smarts and sense are few, if at all.

Lori's articles each week breaking down the upcoming game and teams. I used to feel so much better prepared for games, and it was part of my weekly routine. Sometimes I wonder if we've lost more than we've gained. Go Bills!

Its this thinking that got the Colts only one SuperBowl win with perhaps the best QB to ever play. Having a defense that can just hold their own will not get them through the playoffs.

The single best thing the coaches appear to be doing with EJ is not having designed runs for him. Maybe its his knee, maybe its their plan. I don't know but I do know, the sooner EJ learns to read defenses and take advantage of that with accurate passes, the better he and the offense will be. Running QBs like RGIII make great highlights and get the networks all abuzz, but in the end they have relatively few truly productive careers. Either defenses stop them from running and then they never develop the ability to be a good passer or they get injured. The league is currently skewed for passing offenses... develop a passing QB not a runnign QB.

I agree. I kinda understand why people don't like dozens of threads and duplicate threads and all, but is it really better to have these mega long, scrolling threads that go on forever and make it a pain to get through all the crap to get to good posts? Also, given what Simon said about long multipage posts being harder to load on the server, it would seem the mods wouldn't want too many of these long, mega threads. This thread, for example, I guess it was just merged with a n one?? So, I go to read it and I'm thrown back to post 1 and have to look and look for new information. I say, if someone starts a new, duplicate thread.. just delete it or lock it.

I said it when he was hired, and I still contend, Gailey's biggest problem was he never hired a competent OC. Then he coupled that mistake by hiring weak DCs, as well. There have been few, if any, HCs that were the defacto OC or DC and had successful teams. It's just too much for one person to do. In today's NFL you need a strong staff and Gailey never built that. So, yeah, he could get the offense moving. But, his in game adjustments were poor, his defensive teams were poor, and his in game clock mgmt type decisions were poor. IMO, all indicative of a guy that failed to surround himself with a strong supporting staff.

I would agree... if someone they really felt was really the answer was available, e.g. Newton, then they would have taken him. However, in the absence of a Newton-type QB falling to them, it seems they may have chosen to build the team first. Then get the QB to fit that team. And.. I'm not sure that's a bad approach. It kinda goes back to the idea that there's more than one way to build a winner. Of course, if EJ ends up sucking... I reserve the right to change my last statement. :-)

I'm not disagreeing, but asking... could this have been part of Nix's long term plan he continually referred to? (Not so much the HC. Let's face it, he was probably stuck with Gailey as no one else seemed to want the job. Although I still think he could have done better on the coaching front.) But, with regards to the QB, is it better to build the line up, have a decent WR and stud RB, then just add a rookie QB. That way, he's being added to a team that's set up and ready to succeed. All too often, it seems teams draft a top notch QB prospect but have no line to protect him or no weapons. The result is he gets beat up and struggles, and by the time you get a line in place he's shell-shocked, lost his confidence and developed bad habits. So, now you're stuck starting all over again. Another way to look at it: Imagine had we drafted EJ In 2010, how would he look without our current line in front of him? Without CJ running all over the place? So, is it possible Nix did have a plan for the QB position, but he wanted to make sure the team had a solid foundation first?

fStevie dropped that pass with 8 minutes and 50 seconds left in the game. It was by no means a game winner, nor a guarantee that we win the game if he catches it. There was still a lot of football to be played. The Bills got the ball back with 5:51 left in the game. We still had the same 4pt lead that we had when Stevie dropped the ball. It was the inability on THIS drive to get a single first down, giving Brady the ball back with 4 and half minutes that contributed more to the loss than a single dropped pass mid-way throught the 4th quarter. During the final drive of the Panthers game, Stevie was clutch adding to his 100+ yd receiving day.

Agreed. You have summed up my feelings of this young season thus far. I'm still not ready to think they'll win 8 games, let alone make the playoffs. I still expect rookie mistakes all around from the coaches on down. But, there IS a different feeling about this team. They seem to care more; they seem to want it more. The overall team attitude truly seems different. For the first time in forever, the players seemed geniunely pissed that they lost to the Pats. They didn't have to review film to see what happened. They didn't need to execute better. They were pissed... they let them win. They took that feeling and rolled it up into a passion on the field last Sunday, hitting hard and playing fast. Yet, amidst the euphoria of a good win, there's the Coach quick to remind us all they have a long way to go and lots of mistakes to fix. I love that. They're pissed they lost and concerned because they eeked out a close win. That's how all good teams think. Maybe they are turning the corner, maybe they still have a couple years. But, a few things seem apparent - EJ is an NFL QB, he's not a retread here to fill a few years. How could he becomes remains to be seen, but you can see the potential oozing out of this guy. We have a legitimate Offensive line! We have a star running back. We have probowlers on the Defensive line. And Kiko has all the looks of a star in the making. The rest of the world may not see it yet. But, the Bills are on their way back to contender status! That's what I'm seeing. Now go kick the snot out of that Jets team and make them know it!!!