Dan

Coaching definitely matters and you're absolutely right... Gailey blows balls this year - there is no doubt. This loss is squarely on his shoulders. He refuses to try a long FG. Why? He completely gave up before the half and didn't even try to score a TD. Why? Calls a timeout before a punt from the 35? Why? and he completely forgot the great game Spiller and Jackson had last week and literally took the ball out of there hands... all while the line had 2 new starters and was getting blown up all day. WTF!?! He's coaching scared and passive and the team is playing with exactly that attitude. I honestly don't see how anyone can have confidence in his game plans or situational game calls. This team is clearly underperforming and looks deflated.

I'm guessing you've never seen the show? Because if you had you'd know it went more like this: Bobo: Its a proven scientific fact that Squatches and I have the same preferences in food. So if we put these donuts out, we should attract some Squatch. Other person, next morning: Wow! all the donuts are gone from the treet we put them in and left over night. But, maybe it was racoon? Bobo: No way. That's definitely a Squatch. Nothing else makes sense. Show conclusion: This place is crawling with Bigfoot activity. It's an awesome show. I love it.

This game was a microcosm of the Bills last 3yrs... well decade I guess. At one point, Nix talked about showing us the baby. Well, here we are nearly 3 years later with a pretty ugly baby. I was never in favor of Gailey being the HC and defacto OC. After some initial success, hopes were high. But, here we are with an offense that is more often than not out of rythym and allowing the defense to dictate the flow of the game. And there's no one to make the calls that need to be made, because the HC is too close to the offensive play calling to see what the problems are. I was cautiously optimistic about Fitz as our QB, and he showed competence and at times got our hopes up. But, here we are with a guy that struggles to make basic NFL caliber throws. He's peaked and seems to have lost all the confidence he once had. I was never a fan of Edwards as our DC, and after 2 years he was let go in favor of DW. Nix has invested far more resources into the defense than the offense. But, here we are with a defense that still can't get off the field on 3rd down. No emotion, missed tackles, blown coverages all point to continued bad coaching. What I saw today was a team that once again lacked emotion, failed to make the impact plays, and sat back allowing the game to be dictated to them - all in a game that everyone said was a playoff type game. How can this team continue year after year to come out completely flat in its biggest games? This team is passive from the top down and it shows on the field. They have no confidence, no fire, lackluster game plans, and another year with a losing record with zero reason to think that the coaching staff and QB will ever become anything more than they currently are. As much as I hate to say it... time to clean house and start again.

My sister teaches an online GIS course at Penn State. In many ways its just like a traditional "in class" program - syllabus, homework, lectures, etc. Its all just... online. She has regularly scheduled chat room times and a message board she answers. So, there's plenty of student contact time. Its all pretty structured and well laid out actually. I'd recommend it for anyone looking to advance their education level.

IMO, the way Chan has used Fred and CJ all season is the absolute wrong way to use 2 backs. I love Fred, but the reality is he's older and slower than CJ. Since week 1, CJ should be the starter and get the majority of snaps and Freddie comes in to spell him as needed. In that way, your young, fast back is on the field and then you rest him with a hard hitting, more than capable, fresh set of legs. Freddie's wear and tear is minimized and CJ's speed is maximized as he can get into a good flow for the game.

I see your point, but the Pats* took the field with just over 8minutes to go in the game and ahead by 3. The entire game changes if the Bills defense can stop them. But the Pats* rather methodically drove down the field, took 6 minutes off the clock, and kicked a FG. Thus, the Bills O was forced to score a TD with just over 2 minutes, on the road. The Bills defense has continually come up lacking. They start the game giving up TD after TD. They fail to stop the other team when the Offense needs it the absolute most. And yet all people do is sit and talking about how Fitz and the Offense lost a game because they couldn't score 5 touchdowns and a FG? The fact that they were even in position to win that game at the end is a testament to how good a game the offense had, overall.

The single biggest problem with the Bills offense, with Chan's play calling, with Fitz? ...They have to be near perfect. Look at yesterday's game: Pats* 1st half drive results were FG, TD, TD, TD, Halftime. Pats* 2nd half drive results were Punt, TD, FG, Punt, FG So, they had the ball for 9 drives (the one that ended the half, they only had 30 secs on the clock, so lets discount that one), and scored on 7 of them. In essence, the defense is allowing opposing offenses to score at will; thereby, the offense has to play mistake free ball and feels the pressure to score on every drive. There aren't many QBs that can direct 4-5 scoring drives per game. But, that is exactly what our defense is asking Fitz to do. Fitz, IMO, is a completely aaverage QB - he's not horrible, he's not great - and our defense continually puts the offense in a position where he needs to be elite. You just can't expect a team to win with any consistency when their defense is giving up scores on 7 out of 9 drives, even if that team is lead by the best QB in the game. My conclusion, Fitz bashing and any discussion of the offense is completely misguided. Our defense blows epically.

So you're suggested that Williams, Dareus, Williams, Anderson ( when he was healthy), Glimore, Byrd, Barnett, and Wilson would not be starters on other teams? You have the same argument that we've heard for years... player so and so sucks cut him. Well, look a round the league there's former Bills' players all over that are playing well and contributing to their team winning. Last year Mario had 5 sacks in 5 games before being injured. This year with our coaching he's got 2.5. Anderson had a 10 sack year, a year later what's he got? You're absolutely right, its playing out on the field each week for all to see. The Bills are a poorly coached team defensively and they are getting abused because of it.

Here's how I look at that Int... If Fitz throws it incomplete, we punt. Maybe, maybe the punter doesn't suck and he gets an average punt off and doesn't shank it again. So, the Titans start that drive at the ..30? not the 48. Does anyone really think that 18yds would have matterd? That's like 2 run plays with the way the defense was playing. So, yes, the interception sucked. But, it in no way is what led to the loss. Fitz also threw 3 TDs and led the Bills to 34 points total, that everyone forgets. I'm not saying Fitz is a great QB. I'm just saying he is not why we lost that game.

The real problem revolves around how the talent is being utilized. As Bill pointed out, they dropped Kyle into coverage on 3rd and long. Our coaching staff is continually putting our players in bad positions to make bad plays. You said it yourself, its about how the defensive unit plays together, that's all on coaching. Its the coaches job to get these guys to play together as a unit. Period. To sit here and say we can't win because we don't have enough talent is to misunderstand the game completely. Every team has a few weaker players, but the good teams find ways to minimize their impact and maximize their potential. For proof, just look at the laundry list of bad players that have left the Bills only to be solid contributers on other teams.

Yes because Jackson will amazingly enable the defense to stop the run and keep the opposing offense from scoring touchdowns on 4 of their first 5 drives. Anyone that says the Bills have the best, most knowledgable fans in the world obviously doesn't read this board.

I disagree. The Bills have enough talent on Defense. They're just being coached entirely wrong. No team has probowlers at every position. It's an unrealistic expectation that too many people have. We have M. Williams, who nay be underperforming, but he was the #1 FA because everyone knows he has talent. K. Williams has plenty of talent. Darius was the #3 pick and Anderson had 10sacks just last year when properly coached in NE. We have a top pick in Gilmore and Byrd has plenty of talent, and a defensive player of the week award to verify it. Barnett, although not Ray Lewis, is a capably talented LB. Those players are more than enough to be the core of a competent defense. Yet, week in and week out, the defense looks lost, confused and uninspired. That's coaching. Plain and simple.

exactly! :-)

You. Honestly a fan from the stands couldn't do worse than ...the worst defense in the league.

I agree. A change has to be made. The offense just can't be expected to score on every possesion; lie the defense lets opposing teams do. It's absolutely horrendous. The Titans are not a premier offense, and our defense made them look like one.

I'm not even sure what that means. Really. Exactly What if I had a billion dollars... I could buy the team and trade for Drew Brees and all the world would be sunshine and rainbows.

The Bills are currently 3-3. They are tied with the division lead, and nearly half the other teams in the AFC. Chan has been steadfast behind Fitz since he began starting. Fitz just helped us beat the Cards on the road. If anyone truly thinks Fitz is going to get benched anytime soon, you're delusional.

Brady goes down for the season, and the Pats* still get 11 wins. Manning goes down for the season, and the Colts get the number 1pick in the draft. Enough for me

I agree. The game was by no means ideal. But, after 2 embarassingly horrible losses, the team needed to stop the trainwreck. They did that. They played hard and got a road win against a good team. It wasn't pretty. But, it should give them a little confidence. And, with luck, be a key game in turning this season around!

Excellent point, as well. The Bills were lucky, yeah. But, they also made some plays and beat a good team. Carrington's tip of the ball was huge!! Just as were Byrd's ints and Spiller's play. The Bills finally played a full game with some intensity and won! and yet people still wanna dump all over the game. I just don't get it. All I can figure is people would rather be right than watch the Bills win. And too many people have declared the Bills losers and Fitz blows. So, by all means, they have to find fault any way they can.

So you're arguement is based on Vegas lines? I take it you lost money betting on the Cards then. Sorry. But, yeah, the Bills tried to screw the game in the end. But, why do they not get any credit for being in the lead in the 4th quarter? guess what... they actually had to score throughout the game to be in that situation. Shocking. What about in the 3rd quarter after the Cards scored to go up 13-9; and the Bills answered with an 80 play TD drive to take the lead? What about Byrd's 2ints? I guess he was lucky. Funny, how its all about the Bills just being lucky and never actually doing something good to get a win.

I'm sorry, I thought this thread was about the Cardinals game? Weren't they 4-1 and on an 8 game win streak at home?

TBD rule number 2: Anyone the Bills beat is an inferior opponent; we were lucky; it hurts the team because we think we're better than we really are.

There's so much wrong with this post and line of thinking.. I'm not evern sure where to begin. But, I'll take a shot. So, if Fitz wins the next 2 games, we go into the Bye week lacking confidence. But, if Thigpen wins those games, we suddenly have all sorts of new found confidence. Because a career backup won 2 games, not our starter. Because Fitz winning is luck and anyone else winning is skill? So, if Fitz wins this week ... a big game, on the road.. there's no way he can win against NE or Houston on the road because those are somehow bigger games more on the road than this week's road game. So, no other team is gonna have flim on Thigpen and will not know how to prepare, i.e. advantage us. So, I guess teams can't view film from the 2 most previous weeks? Because apparently, the 2 games Thiggie played so well in and won, no one will be able to watch and prepare for him. Brilliant! We should just switch QBs every 2 weeks. What if Thigpen has an arm? What if he proves he's actually starting quality first? You do realize that the only way the Bills have success this year and in the next couple of years is if Fitz and the defense pull their collective heads out of their asses and start playing, right? Few.. few.. a small few QBs come to a team and make them an immediate winner. Denver just picked up Peyton Fricken Manning and what's their record? So, your plan is for Fitz to bomb and then we get a better QB than Peyton Fricken Manning to magically turn this team around. I swear this is exactly why I dislike fantasy football and Madden video games. Sure, it gets more people interested in football, but they don't have a clue what it takes to win. They totally forget that football players and coaches aren't interchangeable pieces that you can plug in and out of lineups and see instant results. Ding... lunch is done!

So you're saying the spirits travel ...with.. the team. Niiiiiice.