Nihilarian

Like I stated in an earlier post the Patriots only had three players that started in all 16 games last year and still went to the AFC Championship. Injuries happen to every team and if Bills fans will look at the offseason many fans were saying the biggest problem with the team was depth at several positions. It's like Bills fans can't stop making excuses for bad coaching year after year. Jauron's teams were also always injured and he got to 7-9 with Edwards and JP at QB. My post was more about what the heck is up with the defense that failed to fully utilize the all pro D-line last year and this year it's making the secondary look inept. These things are easily understandable as last year the defense ran mostly a two-gap defense to stop the run and is the biggest reason for the lack of sacks. Conversely, this year the team is running more of a one-gap scheme that is more of a quick penetrating style like Denver runs and now we see the team leading the league in sacks. Also, the secondary playing poorly at times can be explained as the team is leaving the CB's in man coverage while the safeties cheat up to help stop the run. This leaves the CB's on an island and not many CB's can play man in coverage all game and survive it. Even if you don't care to believe this is it really doesn't matter as the main point is defense isn't playing anywhere near the level it was playing just two short years ago with mostly the very same players. In actuality that 2014 defense had less talent at the CB position. Now go back to 2014 and look at all the injuries and only 7 starters out of 22 played in all 16 games. Coaching is the problem and most Bills fans can't see that because the last time this team had a head coach and coaching staff that made the playoffs was in 1999!

I think the entire reason as to why Rex Ryan was hired in the first place was to bring all that talent on defense into being the best they could be. Now that hasn't happened and it's not even close! To see the defense go from #4 overall in 2014 to middling for two years in a row now. Last season the excuse was that missing Kyle Williams after 6 games was the biggest reason for the drop-off and yet the defense was bad before then. Aaron Williams played in five games this season and the team still lost to the NY Jets by giving up 374 yards in the air to Fitz and almost 500 yards total. The defense was bad even with Williams. Missing one player or two players shouldn't cause the entire defense to decline as much as it has for two years now. The Patriots lose half their starters to injury and still compete for the AFC Championship. Last season an all pro D-line was made to look ineffective and the entire line failed to get to the QB all season while being 31st in sacks! Now, this year two of the best corners in the league are made to look ineffective and lost? Suddenly after half a year the team realizes that they might need WR & Saftey help? Now, this is just an excuse, after excuse as injuries do happen every year to every team! How many years of using the first few picks on defense will it take this coaching staff to get to #4 overall, if ever? One of the largest defensive coaching staffs in the league with the addition of an ex DC in Rob Ryan to and an all pro / future HoF S in Ed Reed and the latter looks to be making things worse on the field. PROS- Rex Ryan helped bring in LG Richie Incognito and QB Tyrod Taylor because the current GM failed to find a decent LG or starting QB for the future. The offense has improved. So many things have changed as the loudmouth blowhard that kept making promises from the first year is gone and has been replaced by a head coach with a solid personality I really like. Game management has been better. Last years late incoming defensive play calls and player substitutions have improved considerably, save the NE game with Brady under center. The 2016 Buffalo Bills lead the league in sacks as opposed to 31st last year! Lorenzo Alexander is tired with Vonn Miller for the most sacks in the NFL and Buffalo has two more sacks then Denver to lead the league with 30! CONS-The penalty problem from last year looked to be improved after the first few games and yet the team is again the #2 team in the league. This defense has a difficult time against average to really good QB's and for the past two years has done really well against the rookies or bad QB's. This was not the case in 2014 as the team faced the league MVP in Aaron Rodgers and shut him down(17 of 42 for 185, 2 INT's). Then faced a Peyton Manning that threw for almost 5000 yards and 39 TD's and held him to 14 of 20 for 173 yards, no TD's! and that was with McKelvin at CB! Don't get me wrong here because I really like this year's version of Rex Ryan and would be delighted if the team was winning more games. But then I liked Chan Gailey too. What stinks is the defense that most fans said would improve this year with the addition of the new coaches and after having a year in such a complex system didn't improve very much. Come to find out it looks like it isn't the system at all but rather the coaching and schemes. The simple fact is this defensive scheme looks to have great difficulty in stopping even average QB's. The Bills still face Andy Dalton, Blake Bortles, Derek Carr, Ben Rothlisberger, Josh McCown, and two QB's that already beat the Bills once in Ryan Tannehill, Ryan Fitzpatrick. So, it's no given that the Bills will beat any of these upcoming teams. My take is that Rex Ryan's future in Buffalo depends on how well his team plays in the next seven games. We all want to see this team in the playoffs and with 8-8 or less would tell me that no matter how many years you give Ryan it just won't happen. I've been around long enough to see that if you hire the right head coach he could have this team in the playoffs and contending for the division very quickly. $http://www.nflpenalties.com/index.php?view=total&year=2016

The Bills are currently 1-4 in the AFC and 1-3 in the division. Right now the Buffalo Bills are 12th and behind Miami-Pittsburgh-San Diego-Indy-Tenn to even get a playoff berth! NE-Oakland-Houston-Baltimore-KC- Denver would all be in the playoffs if the season ended now. @ Cincy 3-4-1 Jacksonville 2-6 @ Oakland 7-2 Pittsburgh 4-4 Cleveland 0-9 Miami 4-4 @ NY Jets 3-6 Considering the quality of the QB's in the draft it wouldn't even help to tank the rest of the year.

Beat me to it. Ryan's defense plays well against bad QB's and poorly against the better QB's and this showed last year too. The only big name the team beat was Andrew Luck who was clearly injured and went 2-5 in 2015. This year the Bills beat the Cardinals in Buffalo and for some reason, the Arizona coaches had a brainfart and attempted to emulate the Jets with constant deep passes instead of simply attempting to move the chains and make first downs. The other two wins came against the 1-7 49ers and the 3-5 rams. The Bills managed to beat the Patriots in New England when they were forced to start a 3rd string rookie QB who was injured because they had no other QB on the roster.

Coaching matters!

However, that bad line also caused some injuries to Russell Wilson that he managed to play through and overcome. He may just suffer an injury he can't overcome and be lost for some games or the rest of the year. The Seahawks are 5-2-1 and have played mostly bad teams along the way. In order to actually compete in the playoffs and SB they will need to upgrade that line. That right side of the Bills line is still very suspect and things could get really bad with no Eric Woods at center. The Bills should have addressed RT and WR in the 2016 draft. Alas, they needed to draft for the defense to help Ryan build his 3-4 and this next draft they will probably need to go CB, S with those first two picks. The Cowboys are running the same style of run first offense with a rookie QB and the best O-line in the league with solid backup depth for that line. That Dallas O-line, run game is not only allowing that rookie QB to develop quickly, build the best run game in the league. It's also helping the defense stay fresh and on the bench watching the run game control the clock. Tyrod Taylor should have an offense as good to play in.

I think what we are seeing is an effort to bolster the run game by having the safeties cheat up against the run and this leaves the corners in man coverage. Once Dareus gets back in there 100% healthy to help stop the run the team might be able to play more zone and give the CB's a hand. Clearly, the defense has moved away from a constant two-gap scheme and moved towards a one-gap this year and thus the improvement in sacks. While this year the team is leading the NFL in sacks the Bills are not quite getting the pass pressure on the QB as they are 11th in defensive hurries. Current total defense in yards 21st, pass defense19th, run defense 23rd. Currently #4 in turnover differential +7.

Replace him with someone who can win more than 8 games in a season. The starting CB's had less talent in 2014 and yet played better. Last year these same two CB's played better because they weren't in man coverage so often. The GM was forced to use the first two picks on defense because of the different scheme and now they will probably need to draft some new DB's. Even if the Bills had won against Seattle and went into the bye week 5-4 it's still not a given the team finishes with a winning record considering the defense is only average and was supposed to be great. With the talent on last years roster the team should have been in the playoffs and this year it's no different as the defense that was supposed to be elite under Ryan is again only mediocre. I for one am not afraid of change because if this new owner hires the right people to run the football side of the team they just might be able to hire the right HC! Someone who could have the team contending for the division. I've seen it before when the team hired a winning HC in Chuck Knox. I've seen it before when a brilliant young man was hired as GM and the team was built to contend for a super bowl in three short years. This team has far too much talent to keep going nowhere every year.

Strange, because I read it was the best game all year. Perhaps everyone was so caught up in the election

This is just one big excuse. Good NFL coaches should know what they have in training camp and plan accordingly. It shouldn't take a year and a half to see what they "have" or what the players are capable of doing. Man coverage puts Gilmore and Darby on an island and that is why most teams don't run it unless they have a Revis or two. As it is, that Rex Ryan defense in NY was really only great and #1 for two years and then fell off in points allowed to 20th! Ryan still had Cromartie and Revis in that third year. Gilmore and Darby aren't those guys and clearly play better in a different scheme. That is 100% coaching. So now the team will need to spend more draft / FA resources on DB's to fit Ryan's defensive scheme even though another coach came in and made use of the players on the roster (with McKelvin at CB) and that defense was #4 overall, points, yards! The man had six seasons in NY and never got back to that lofty #1 overall he attained in his first year. It's looking a lot like 8-8 or worse this year. Let's just face facts here. Rex Ryan is not a very good head coach and perhaps not a very good defensive coordinator anymore.

Did you ever stop to think that either Woods gave up on his route or it was a miscommunication between the WR-QB and that is usually the WR's fault! We don't know what the call was but I'd siding with the QB on this one as he threw to a spot and the WR wasn't there.

It really is odd that the two years previous (2014 & 2015) the defensive secondary wasn't a problem at all and in particular last season in which the CB's looked like the some of the very best in the league! Yes, folks, it is the coaching and therefore the scheme in which the players are put into that make the difference in their play. Leaving Darby and Gilmore all alone in man coverage sure as hell didn't work in the Jets game, the Patriots game or even against Miami and now in Seattle. You would think that the added run support by the safeties would have a major impact and it did to a degree in some games. A defense loaded with talent and the best this team can be is below average? Kinda strange that Philly is #6 in points, yards in the league with less talent.

It really is ridiculous that some fans can't unfocus from the QB position long enough to think there might be other issues with the team. Robert Woods had a great game but it also looks like he is the one that caused that INT by not finishing his route or by miscommunication with the play. Taylor threw it to a spot and woods wasn't there and Richard Sherman was. That INT took away a possibleTD and at the least a FG. The error there looked to be on Woods. The last play of the game Tyrod was again throwing to a spot and Woods was bumped by Earl Thomas while attempting to get to the ball. Stuff happens! Seattle rushed only three and had 6 in the backfield and saying some other QB could have made that play is baloney because nobody was open in the end zone. Thomas doesn't bump him and it's probably a catch. TE Jimmy Graham regains his Saints form and catches two TD's with one hand on separate instances. Like I said, I have more problems with that supposed elite Bills secondary giving up big plays than I do with the Bills QB! Tyrod Taylor didn't embarrass me as a Bills fan and that supposed Rex Ryan defense was an embarrassment.

Robert Woods, 10 rec for 162 yards. Still, was it Woods that ran the wrong route or stopped running his route that caused that INT? The Bills 12 of 17 on 3rd down. ToP Bills 40:17- Sea 19:43

Not only this but the scheme that Ryan runs puts these players in man coverage a lot so they are on an island a lot. So, the question is, what happened between this year and last year when the Bills had arguably the best CB duo in the league and this year they look like the worst? My take is this man coverage is killing these guys and they are really missing Baccari Rambo.

I think half the teams in the NFL wish they had him as their starting QB to play like he did with no elite receiver at one of most difficult stadiums in the NFL to play in. NVM that Woods broke his leg and someone by the name of Groy was snapping the ball. Again, I'm more upset with all that talent on that defense and it plays that poorly.

Oh no!!

the dreaded cart GDI

54 yarder, NG jeez screwed many ways Refs stand over the ball until 5 sec left on the play clock

OH WTF, delay of game...

I'll say. should have been a 15 yard roughing

Shady almost got it!

The thing is those two are very close and Thompson may just want to leave if McCarthy is fired or choose to leave rather than fire him. Either way, McCarthy is a super bowl winning head coach who knows how to win and if he is fired he won't be unemployed for very long.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/if-packers-miss-playoffs-could-major-changes-be-coming-013224354.html The Packers are now .500. They’re a third-place team. They might be a game out of first place, but it doesn’t feel like that right now. The NFL is a results-based business, and unless the Packers turn things around in the second half of the season, head coach Mike McCarthy could be in some trouble.

Eagles D just intercepted Manning to give them a chance to win the game 23-28 and now Manning has 2 INT's Wentz had a bad game