AKC

With the change at RB I won't be surprised at all to see our team move up before the end of the season to become a top rushing team. I believe that will happen with the OLinemen we have on the roster. The reason I think that will happen is that in watching the two different styles between Henry and McGahee I see our "former" starter who wants to hit a hole and run, take it off the exchange and dash into a hole. We both know that's not been an "ideally" fruitful style, in fact I'm leaning towards the opinion that it might just be making our line look less competent than they may really be. I base that on when McGahee gets the ball behind the same guys running the same scheme- I keep noticing his patience in letting the blocking mature before he makes his move. It's an interesting trait for a guy McGahee's size- a 240 pounder with some of the blocking instincts of Thurman Thomas? It's intriguing and too long in coming this season. From this I believe with Willis in the starting role the line will look better than they do with Travis as starter (in my opinion it's already evident). I also think if Travis can keep his juvenile sensitivities in check he'll excel as the change-up back who hits holes quickly in spot duty. He can therefore increase his off-season value becasue his fuble number will be reduced by his more limited opportunities to fumble and that will hopefully allow some team manager to covet him going into 2005. And before we COMPLETELY give up Big Mike remember one stat from this season that we might be paying a lot more attention to with this starting RB change- Willis is averaging a full 4.9 yards per carry over the right side at this time. When he gets a chance to pound on a team like Arizona all day long and go into the 4th with the lead I wonder if he might not just extend that average a bit higher?

Strike while the iron is hot :-) Seeing that Sunday we'll face Arizona and Willis is slated to go end to end here's one voice who says you will not be able to say the same thing next week.

You can't possibly be serious. A fabricated formula that has been exposed since the introduction of the West Coast offense to be fatally flawed? Do you honestly believe that Steve Young was the best QB of all time as the "Passer Ratings" suggest? You honestly would rest your reputation on TBD stating that Dante Culpepper and Jeff Garcia are among the top 10 Quarterbacks of ALL TIME? Please stop with your obvious attempt at humor- you can't in any lifetime be suggesting that Brad Johnson and Brian Griese are the 15th and 16th best QB in the History of The NFL?!!! Here, let's explore your theorum- Are Brad Johnson and Brian Griese even the 15th and 16th best QBs in the NFL TODAY? You've got them at 15 and 16 ALL-TIME, where do they rate among the league's best in their own era? I'm ANXIOUS to hear your answer!!!!

Kurt Warner, Brad Johnson, Trent Dilfer and Jim Plunkett know how to "move a little"?

Check out the Streaks and Notes Section here- it might be helpful to know that Bledsoe threw for 203 yards Sunday ;-) Facts So Crystal Clear Even A Pat's Fan Can Grasp Them!

I see flaws in his play the same way I recognize flaws in every QBs play simply becasue of their visibility. But here's a guy being asked to do less, having some of the weight shifted to his running attack, and making adjustments for the better. His first 5 games this season he was even showing some good touch in the short game, or at least better than I remember from him. Fans tend to want to blame players instead of teams for losses, and if you want to take a checklist through this season's losses the name Bledsoe should not top the list on any game, although there is at least a supportable argument for having him atop the Raven's loss. This isn't really a post about whether he should be starting, more fundamentally it's about how fixated some portion of every fan base gets aboutthe positon when in reality there's 10 other guys out there that on any play can make or break the effectiveness. Are there better QBs in the league I'd rather see running our O, that's affirmative. Are there better QBs on our bench to go out in this climate- not for my money. It's simpy that typiccal fan reaction, it's historically documented, "Our Team Is Losing- Change The QB!". Let 'em scream for the QBs head. As I said before, this fan will continue to offer his screams in the positive support of his team.

I've read some classic columns the make the same arguments, the funny thing is they're from the 1930s, 40s and 50s. Bascially the same ones heard when Jim Plunkett was thrown on the scrap heap (just prior to his 2 Super Bowl wins). Maybe some day they'll come true, but in the meantime they're simply the "the usual" in any market where a team is struggling. No one in Tampa Bay said it when Brad Johnson was at the helm of a Super Bowl winner, or in St. Louis when Warner was leading them to the big win. Heck, among Giant fans you won't hear a peep about mobiole QBs! And how did that pesky Trent Dilfer...... Has the game of football made Peyton Manning a has been? If you truly believe the "mobile QB" is the way the game has to be won "in the years to come" would you care to make a guess as to how many Super Bowls Mr. Vick will win?

I can't imagine anyone calling Green Bay a "big city market" and if I'm not mistaken KC is only about 35th (population) in the U.S., another I assume most would consider a "small market" team.

Bill’s fans have been recognized over history as one of the best fan bases in the game. Often there are examples that support this presumption, instances like the Orchard Park reception given Takeo Spikes in his last game in tiger stripes. Pride and loyalty are the keystones of many Bill’s fans foundation in the team. It is this same pride and loyalty that allow us to display our allegiance at all times, in better or worse seasons, to emphasize the difference between us and the hollow fan bases of teams in other markets. Big City markets offer different appeals to their sports teams. As a former resident of South Florida, Atlanta, Chicago and Houston who has spent the past 20 years in the fan vacuum of Los Angeles there has been much opportunity to observe the types of sports “fans” to which I do not aspire. In football there is one simple rule about the general fan that holds true within any fan base- there is a pre-occupation with the Quarterback position that bears little or no correlation to the actual influence the Quarterback has on the outcome of games. It is perfectly understandable that most fans spend Sundays watching the ball- and hence the Quarterback- for the majority of the game. One of those things that has long separated Bill’s fans from many others though is the healthy percentage of our fans who actually pay attention to the other aspects of the game, the aspects that on far more Sundays than simply the play of the Quarterback actually make the difference in the game outcome. Take for instance the naïve fan base of the New York Jets. The papers in New York have fed the ignorant fan base into buying Chad Pennington as the Gunslinger in Chief, the Savior of the Franchise, the Player Most Responsible for their fast start. Funny thing is, you don’t have to watch a lot of Jet’s ball this year to realize that the Jets offense is being carried along predominantly on the play of Kevin Mawae, their center. Now for naïve fans it’s impossible to beleive that the center on a team could be more important than the Quarterback, but the simple truth is, ( and you can get on their chat sites to ask Curtis Martin is he agrees <he will>) that Mawae IS carrying their offense. But you’d have to watch the play on the field to recognize that, and that’s something that is just too involved for the big market sports fan. One thing that separates us from fan bases like the Jets is that we have more students of the game on a per fan basis. Many of the most knowledgeable fans on TBD have and do support a change at our own QB position while other equally informed fans do not. There are surely things that can be brought up to support both sides of the issue— we start a QB who’s production can not be ignored- he’s the 11th leading passer in the history of professional football. You might not like Eric Dickerson as a person but he was a productive player. Beldsoe, it could be argued, is past his prime. There’s a long list for both arguments. My own biggest complaint about Drew is that he doesn’t seem to motivate the playmakers around him to make big plays- I remember when I played ball as a WR it was the best QBs who came into the huddle and looked me in the eye with a “MAKE A PLAY HERE” that I knew my number was up and it was time to go high, low, over or under to make something happen. I don’t see that with Drew. He's not getting our playmakers up and they're not doing it on their own either. Our failures to date in 2004 highlight a season in which the playmakers on our offense have been LESS rather than MORE likely to make the big play when it makes a difference. The 2004 season has played out with a new staff asking our old offensive roster to play a different game. We’ve seen blocking breakdowns game after game from our running backs. Our WRs continue to lead the league in dropped balls. The play from our QB spot has been one of the more steady and even positive spots on our offense. Surely there have been those vampires waiting through this early struggle to blame everything on the QB, and they’ve picked a 3 tipped ball game to do so. It’s very convenient to ignore the balls bouncing off our “star” WR’s chest in the end zone and focusing on the QB. That’s certainly what the big market fan always thinks- the QB must play perfectly to make up for the likelihood that everyone else will fail at times. But football doesn’t work that way. Every player will fail at times; the QB has ample opportunities to fail and has the highest visibility. So the QB consumes the frustration of some. The simple reality is that the biggest improvements we can make on our offense to win games right now have nothing to do with the QB position. It’s clear that Mularkey has finally decided that coddling Henry is not in the team’s best interest and that a back who can actually USE his blockers will result in improved rushing performances. That in turn will improve our pass blocking. It’s Football 101, and the change to start Willis is a positive addressing one of our biggest problems- we were leaving our best running back on the bench to avoid frustrating the other back. Now the key is to get our best formation up and use our talent, and in doing so we could see more one-back sets with Evans getting more field time. Moving DBs away from the box will open up the way for Mr. McGahee to power into the second level. Our offense has improved with the simple decision to start Willis. Our front 6 blockers and backfield blocker will benefit by spreading the field and reducing the effective blitzers. Our QB will benefit by the speed of the rookie, especially if he’s allowed more underneath routes instead of simply having him run Flys and Posts. Clements has shown signs he understands this. It would be a very good to see 3 WR sets right away against the Cards and let our front 6 block try to pound out the room for McGahee to get to the second level and then break away. Let’s get our best talent on the field- Damien Shelton hardly fits in that category. I am a proud and loyal Bill’s fan; I’ve watched/listened (the old AM console radio in the 60s)/attended games every year of their existence from the AFL to last week. As a fan I believe that Tom Donahoe knows a hell of a lot more about football than I do. If we were a team being routed regularly by bad football teams I’d have a lot tougher questions for him, but the continued improvement of this team is what I expect from his forces. Did we help two teams reach the undefeated ranks or were we beaten by two much better football team? I’ll go with the latter. Effectively our ’05 season starts Sunday- and this fan is getting ready for the opener. There won’t be anyone in Cabo this weekend cheering louder for their team than this fan. And that’s one football guarantee this Bill’s fan can make and keep.

Trust your strengths my brother ;-)

They're the subjective numbers of Stats Inc., which include their analysis of all receivers league-wide. They do NOT include balls lost because of QB error (in the opinion of their analysts). That is to say, if Stats "credits" Reed with 3 drops he has had at MINIMUM three catchable balls thrown to him that ended up on the ground or in the hands of a defender. Considering his limited opportunities it's clear Reed is right now one of the league "leaders", if not #1 league-wide, in dropping catchable passes per opportunity.

It's hardly complete to project our receivers numbers for the season while ignoring the most critical stat affecting our W/L record- here's the extrapolations with that stat included: Moulds: 99 rec, 1264 yds, 10 TD 10 Dropped Passes Evans: 32 rec, 794 yds, 3 TD 3 Dropped Passes Reed: 16 rec, 195 yds, 0 TD 10 Dropped Passes Aiken: 6 rec, 38 yds, 0 TD 3 Dropped Passes Might go a long way also in explaining some of the fan dissatisfaction with Mr. Reed, who isn't having his first season with dropped pass issues. While I personally like his tangibles, the fact that our #1 has a history of losing easy grabs is exacerbated when receivers down the totem pole have as bad (or in this case worse) problems. With even one of the "Dropnamic Duo" having even a "decent" season in this area this is likely a 3-2 football team right now at worst.

1. WM reminds me a little bit of a more physical Thurman Thomas. His ability to gain extra yardage by contorting his body or finding a small crack is the largest similarity. Of course, he has a long way to go to reach such lofty heights. He has the patience of our former star without a doubt, and apparently the physical tools to make a D shudder as the game goes on-something Thurman lacked. He's got a long way to go in pass blocking but he's already ahead of the more experienced Henry. He's averaging over 7 yards per carry over the right side of our OLine, which is almost 4 yards a carry more than Travis. Did I mention he's a plus in the passing game over Henry because he doesn't automatically give up a sack if he's asked to pick up a risher? He hasn't shown any signs of horrible ball handling characteristics- like the kind that have made Travis one of the least reliable ball carriers in the league over the course of his career. 2. Travis is a douche bag. I just needed to say that. I really don't care if you disagree. I'll sign on to "mentally frail". 4. Our defense continues down the road of overrated and poorly prepared. It was painfully obvious to me that Fiedler wasn't completing a pass into the wind if it had to travel more than 15 yards from the LOS, yet we continued to allow their underneath receivers to faux block and then release to the flat for big gains. They only thing that saved snatching another defeat from sure victory was the fact that our offense actually executed when it mattered. Another box score showing a TE as our opponent's leading receiver. Hardly a coincidence and hardly insignificant. 5. Drew can still unleash the beast. Some of those passes were breathtaking in those elements. Of course, he still made some remarkably stupid decisions (Zack Thomas' dropped pic in the red zone being the most glaring). Shane Matthews would have made Fiedler look brilliant in those conditions. Trust me. He's doing what he's been asked to do while taking the naive public scorn for the worst WR corps int he league at dropping throws this season. A big plus on a team that could use three or four more. 6. The Dolphins OLine makes ours look "Hog-like". Schobel's sacks were the result of the same pathetic "around rush" that has been so pathetic all year. The first time the tackle simply missed him, the second the responsible party NEVER EVEN LOOKED AT HIM. Amazingly, we didn't fall on either fumble. I agree with Bill below- if the middle continues to get a little more push he gets to double digits in sacks quickly this year. 9. The holding penalty on Campbell was a terrible call. Taylor wasn't making that play no matter what, considering there were THREE players blocking him and Bledsoe was already running forward when NOTHING actually happened. Drew diving forward was a VERY smart play. Had no idea he was still capable of such endeavors. What holding penalty? Haven't had a chance to review the film yet but on first look it was non-existent. 10. Mooreman's late 2nd quarter punt may very well have been his greatest kick ever. 47 yards into that wind in that situation was AMAZING. Of course, our defense played the ensuing series holding their collective Johnson's, so it was for naught. And yet old faithful Lindell still put the opening kick on the 5 yard line- with all that wind at his back. 11. Shelton actually showed me something yesterday. It wasn't much, but it was a huge step up from the previous 4 weeks. All he has shown me all year is that he doesn't really like physical play. And he's in the worst spot for a player who doesn't like a dirty uniform, especially next week. Physical FBs can eliminate Ray Lewis from a game, Shelton will guarantee Lewis has a shot at their game ball.

The stats for our WR corps this year support your position- While Shaw has only caught 41% of the balls thrown his way this year he has not been credited (or debited as it were) with a drop, while Reed has dropped three of the 13 balls thrown his way, bringing in only 31%. Moulds has dropped 3 also but his total catches (38) and percentage of caught balls is much higher at 68%. For some perspective on Moulds underachieving season so far, Hines Ward has had the same number of balls thown his way this year but he hasn't dropped one, putting him up around 90% in caught balls thrown to him. With Hines Ward on our roster instead of EMoulds it would seem fair to argue we're no worse than a 2-2 team right now. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the Shaw thing as a culmination of read problems, attitude and the fact that the balance of our WR corps needs a serious wake up call. RING RING RING

Winning has to start somewhere, and with a rookie HC and new offense being implemented 0-4 should not be a major surprise to Bill's fans. Even considering that, if our dropped passes number was not the highest in the league that same record could very likely read 3-1 or 4-0. With a rookie HC there's a learning curve about handling personell, and this staff is sorting out our weakest links and at the same time discovering some surprises along the way. As much as Miami wants to get off the snide this game appears to be the Bill's game to use as a springboard to learning how to get in front of a team and staying there.

My reference is to giving Willis more looks at RB, especially early in games. I can't help but beleive the insistence on giving Travis the carries is in some part to pacify his fragile ego. That's not a factor I want interfering with game strategy.

It's our week. Against the spread and straight up the Bills win in convincing fashion against a Jets team who is geting a lot of NY media hype for beating the Bengals, Chargers and Fish- all within a touchdown at the end. It would be nice to see the coaching staff give the more deliberate of our runners more reps in the game than he's seen. What a lot of fans are reporting as "looks slow" appears a lot more to me like Thurman Thomas style running- giving the blocking scheme a chance to develop the play and making something happen because of the play design, not simply hitting the hole as fast as possible for a 2-yard gain. The loss of Teague will not help running on the edge where he was making his living this year, but it might go far in controling Mawae at the LOS and running away from their DLine strength.

Dr. Peter Liu of Los Angeles?

Merely by the numbers Willis has a higher whiff per play average than Shelton in pass blocking.

I'd include our Oline play along with our QB play as two highlights of the season so far. Givens (among others like Fauria) bailed Brady out of a couple of poorly thrown balls, one on third and long, where he went up and brought the ball home. It's exactly the kind of play our receivers have NOT been making this season. I haven't watched the game again yet but I recall at least one TE drop and I believe a third WR drop. Brady might have had a first down ball sail through a WRs hands but when it came time to make plays on third downs his guys made him look good even though we were applying pressure and the throws were in some cases well off the mark. On our side that hasn't happened this year- yet. But I do expect someone the worm to begin to turn because of the positive things happening from the QB spot and the OLine. Bledsoe is doing the things the offensive brain trust is asking him to do and making plays along the way. If we become better able to take advantage of 6 yard per carry days from the RB spot we should be a very dangerous team in the late season.

The Bills lead the NFL in dropped balls. The Pats WRs, like the Raiders the game before, went up on third downs multiple times to bring in poorly thrown Brady passes on critical downs. That's not happening for us. We're fighting to get ANY receiver to make a play on third down, and Moulds has been an overall dissapointment this season so far.

For our third game in a row I watched as our opponent's receivers went up for and made difficult catches on clutch downs while our remained perhaps the worst in the league at digging up catchable passes. The stat offered by the annoucing team was interesting- without the 13 (?) dropped passes entering the game Bledsoe would be the highest rated QB in the NFL right now, not to mention we'd have entered the game 2-0. And the guys from Stats who consider balls catchable are watching every other game, it's not like they use a different standard for Bledsoe. The truth is if you're inclined like a minority of Bills fans and a couple of blowhard radio personalities to ignore every other player on the field by assigning all things good or evil on the QB then you can somehow make a tortured and false argument that a QB change in Buffalo would improve the team. On the other hand, if you watch all the facets of the game and recognize the advances we've made in many areas of our team including the solid play at the QB position all year you can find positives across the board with the exclusion, as I said two weeks ago, of running back blocking/blitz pick-ups and safety coverage. We're fighting to get this offense flowing and all that is required is for our WRs to MAKE PLAYS on third downs instead of being part of the problem. The good news is that we can expect Moulds to get his act together as he has in past seasons and Evans might already be more reliable than Josh Reed. Two plays to the positve by our WRs and we'd be looking at an attractive record even with our liabilities in RB blocking and safety coverage. Milloy's return will go a good distance in helping with one, the other appears to be a weakenss we'll have to work around.

Interesting that retired NFL Pro-Bowl OTackle Lincoln Kennedy said today on the NFL Network that Bills fans were morons for blaming Bledsoe for the 0-2 start- "I've watched their film and anybody with any sense realizes the problems stem from blocking- Bledsoe is a very good QB who stands too long in the pocket some times- who cares? He's big enough to do it". My, my Lincoln. Why interject so much of your onfield football knowledge into a debate being directed by a few fans who have drafted 14 quarterbacks for their fantasy teams and can't understand why they lose every week?

It's hard for me to imagine watching our first two game this year and arriving at the conclusion that Bledsoe is the "problem"; instead he looks to be performing his job in the offense he's been handed. Now on the offensive side I HAVE seen some awful work out of our backfield in picking up blitzes and I also noticed last week that the QB who threw the worst passes in the game ended up winning anyway- for the simple fact that his receivers appeared to want it far more by going hard after those poor balls he threw. As bad as Bledsoe appeared to be throwing the ball post head shot Sunday on first look, a second view showed that there were 5 of those "bad" passes of his that were hardly tough catches to make. In fact they all would fall into the category of balls that SHOULD have been caught IMO.

Some of your assumptions are borne out by the game film. The OLine did an effective enough job on the road in Oakland, playing a new scheme for all of them and with basically a rookie at one gaurd spot, to win the game. Where the majorty of the breakdowns occurred were with Henry/Shelton and McGahee missing blitz pickups altogether or making pansy ass attempts on others. To be fair there were sacks given up by both our OTackles but for the most part the blitz schemes used by Ryan Jr. called for running back pick ups. Henry is awful at pass blocking and McGahee's whiff in the second half does little to inspire confidence. On TEs Euhus is too small to be an effective blocker but Cambell is having a strong year for us. He's blocking better than he has since he arrived.