Nihilarian

From what I surmise is that they grade individuals rather than how the entire unit is playing and thus they grade each player and then add the totals. Richie Incognito graded so highly last season he really made up for the right side of that Bills line as they graded at #10 overall and we all saw how bad that right side was at times. It is rather dubious that the three worst graded lines this year are the Rams, Seahawks, and Vikings. Yet all three teams have a winning record. However, we do see the Seahawks is the worst just by watching the games and should Wilson miss a game we would really see just how bad that line really is playing. Minnesota is last in the NFL in rushing and the Rams are 28th. Plus the Rams are last in the league in three and out percentage.

Actually, the Bills are currently ranked 5th in points allowed and 15th in yards allowed. #4 in sacks and have the #1 sacker in the league. 6th in INT's, 8th in tackles

That nickname is a perfect fit! I'm a Bills fan but I don't allow it to blind me to what's happening on the field.

Sure they did as the 2015 Bills defense got a whopping 21 sacks in 16 games Rex didn't ruin one player as he ruined an entire defensive line of all pro players in 2015. Dunno why some fans simply can't be happy that this year's defense is doing so well without Mario and the Phins with Mario are falling on their face. I'm crazy happy the Bills are currently #4 in sacks this year! Let...it...go!

The only Todd Bowles fan boys I know of are wearing Green on Sundays. We all knew is was only a matter of time before Gailey and Fitzpasspick showed themselves. What is kinda strange is how bad that defense is this year. but then I suppose when the QB turns the ball over 6x in a game than things will get ugly fast.

That's still pretty good out of 64 players. I don't think you could honestly expect much more from a 3rd round player. I think the Bills line has been playing better than PFF is currently stating. I suppose they are also looking at the first two games in which the Bills run game was nonexistent. The current ranking should improve if they continue to play as well as they have in the last three games. "20. Buffalo Bills (10)Starters: LT Cordy Glenn, LG Richie Incognito, C Eric Wood, RG John Miller, RT Jordan Mills The Bills’ line has been impressively average across the board. RT Jordan Mills probably strays the furthest from average when it comes to his run blocking, but he has actually been relatively solid as a pass blocker to balance that, allowing only six total pressures and no sacks or hits yet this year. Strangely, only LG Richie Incognito has actually surrendered a sack amongst the starters, and he has coughed up three on his own." https://www.profootballfocus.com/pro-ranking-all-32-nfl-offensive-lines-entering-week-5-2/

Rex isn't calling the defensive plays this year as Dennis Thurman is! Rex managed to make not one, but three all pro's look bad last year! I dunno about the rest of the Bills fans out there, but I'm happy the Dolphins defense stinks and one player no matter how good isn't going to make a bad coach or bad scheme look great. Be happy he is gone and the Bills defense is doing well without him. The Dolphins entire team stinks! Their offense 28th in PF, 29th in YDS. Their defense 18th in Points allowed, 28th in yards allowed. From the looks of things, the Bills should sweep the smelly fish again this year and beat the Jets in the season finale again.

Same! I picked the Bills to win this game so....

Exactly right! Plus, he is a perfect fit for Ryan's defense in that he helps keep the run game going and doesn't turn the ball over. The reason Rex Ryan fired Greg Roman was because the run game wasn't working and it was killing his defense. Yes, this style of winning games is sometimes unsustainable as one-dimensional teams don't go far over the course of the season or usually do well in the playoffs if they make it that far. However, the 2009-2010 NY Jets made it to the AFC Championship game with this formula and the 2008 Baltimore Ravens made it to the AFC Championship game in 2008 while developing rookie QB Joe Flacco along the way. That year the Ravens had 433 yards passing vs 592 yards rushing! The very next year the Ravens managed to beat the Patriots in New England in the 2009 playoffs with Joe Flacco throwing for 4 of 10 for 34 yards and one INT, All game! The Ravens beat the Patriots with 52 rushes for 242 yards and 4 TDs. The Ravens defense also intercepted Brady 3x and sacked him 3x. It can be done! And like the Ravens developed Joe Flacco with this same system! So, how about we wait to see what Tyrod looks like at the end of the season.

That may well be true. All I know is if we saw this playcalling last year I know I wouldn't have complained as much or as often. The sacks alone tells me the current playcalling is like night and day in that Lorenzo Alexander (**who?)is the leading sack leader with 7.0. Last year Jerry Hughes who played in 16 games finished the entire season with only 5.0 sacks all year and we know what a monster the guy is, as he currently leads the NFL in QB pressures with 9 and he already has 4 sacks!! Marcell Dareus who played in 15 games last year only had 2.0 sacks. Think of this! After only 5 games this year the Bills already have 17 sacks and only had 21 for the entire 2015 season. At this rate, the Bills should finish in the top 5 in sacks, QB pressures or better and so far it certainly has switched me from bitching to cheering! Night and Day! **The guy has played in the NFL 6 years for Washington (92 games, 13 starts), 2 years for Arizona (19 games, 3 starts), one year for Oakland (16 games, 0 starts) and in all those years had a total of 9 sacks!

Exactly! Sammy Watkins went on IR and threads popped up everywhere wanting Whaley fired. I can recall the 2008 season when the Patriots lost Brady for the year in their first game of the season. Then the Bills start the season 5-1 with talk of playoffs and how Trent Edwards looked like another Joe Montana in beating the Seahawks, the Jags, the Raiders, the Rams. Had a concussion in Arizona which I suspect was far more serious than anyone thought as it ended Edwards career. Still, after that Arizona game the Bills won against the Chargers to get to 5-1. Ralph Wilson was so happy he gave Dick Jauron an extension with the thought he might lose him. We were all thinking the Bills take the division and are on their way!!!! Yeah, on their way alright...right into the crapper as the team went 3-8 the rest of the season and ended the season 7-9. Somebody wrote a post about how the way the Bills were winning was unsustainable and he was right! Jauron was fired halfway through the next season. In 2011 the Bills started out 5-2 and the talk of playoffs started up again all the way up until Fitz got hammered in Washington and ended up playing the rest of the year with broken ribs. The next game the center goes down for the year and the backups couldn't snap the ball properly to save their lives. The Bills went on a 7 game losing streak to finish 6-10. In 2014 all the team needed to do to make the playoffs was to beat the 2-12 Oakland Raiders who had the worst defense in the league and suddenly the Bills can't figure out how to run the ball at all. 13 rushes for 13 yards all game. Spiller had 4 rushes for -4 yards meaning he kept getting hit behind the line of scrimmage. The #4 overall defense gets unbelievably unlucky to allow a first down on 4th and 22 to a rookie QB after shutting down Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning in recent weeks. Only Buffalo could lose to a 2-12 scrub team! When this team actually makes the playoffs I'll believe it and then perhaps Whaley might deserve Exec of the year!

Not at all. It's for 100% certain it's his defense but he is no longer calling the plays. I equate that change to around the same thing that happened in firing Greg Roman on the offensive side. He fired himself and he should have done that at some point last year too. I think the difference is that being the head coach and the defensive coordinator while taking on the duties of running the entire team and the entire defense was simply too much to handle. As it would for any head coach to also task himself with an entire side of a team to run while being the head coach. Dennis Thurman is doing a brilliant job so far and all Bills fans should be happy about the improvement! The Bills are #4 in QB pressures and #4 in sacks!!! Jerry Hughes is #5 in the NFL with 9 defensive hurries. Buffalo is currently 5th in the NFL in total defense. Cheers to Rex for being smart enough to delegate the DC job to Thurman.

Mike McCoy had the Chargers in the playoffs in his first year as HC after Norv Turner destroyed a Marty Schottenheimer built playoff team. Anyway, what to me is incredible is the way Phillip Rivers can win some games all by himself with a bad defense and a non-existent run game. (last year) Last years stats, 667 passing attempts vs 393 rushing attempts. Yikes! This season it's not as bad with 173 passing vs 124 rushing and the offense under SD OC Ken Whisenhunt is #2 in points and #8 in yards. Meanwhile, another Pagano like the Colts HC that should be fired is John Pagano the Chargers DC! That Charger defense is ranked 28 in points allowed and 23 in yards allowed. Another thing is half the team is on IR already and one-third of the remaining players look to be questionable. Right now Mike McCoy is 23-30 and won't have a job much longer if he doesn't fix that defense. He should start by firing Pagano. JMO

Yep! Things made of glass tend to break easily... Seriously, though, the guy should be running fly patterns every other play to keep the defense from crowding the line and all it would take is one deep ball being caught to put the fear of god in opposing secondaries. Taylor has an excellent deep ball and I can only think he needs to throw a few each game to get in sync. At 5'9'' 179 Goodwin is not the player I would want to see running around in heavy traffic most plays. Kinda surprising this run first team doesn't have that bruising, over the middle tough guy to move the chains all game long. Even Woods is kinda slight at 6'0'' 190 compared to a receiver like Panthers WR Kelvin Benjamin at 6'5'' 255.

This is exactly right! Teams don't get to the SB 4x times in a row with just a handful of star players. It's a team game and a QB is only as good as his supporting cast. The Bills the last few years also proved a few star players on the defense isn't going to get it done either. What screwed the Bills after 1992 was Buffalo OC Ted Marchibroda leaving to become the Colts HC again and the game plan for the Redskins (I think) went with him. It was well known that Marchibroda was being courted by the Colts before that SB and they hired him right after. SB 26 on Jan 26th- Colts hire Marchibroda Jan 28th

To be honest I'm greatly surprised in how well the entire unit has been playing since Lynn was named OC. Holy crap, a 7.1 yard per carry average against the Rams and McCoy was unstoppable with an 8.3 YPC AVG

Bills LBer Lorenzo Alexander is currently the leading sacker in the NFL with 7 sacks! The defense works great when the run game works and the team gets the lead.

I agree to an extent. This team has been successful the last few games but the way this team wins is unsustainable against the really good teams. No NFL team can be one dimensional and get to the playoffs. This team is predicated on being able to run the ball and they did that very effectively in those last three wins. Cardinals 32 rushes for 208 yards, 3 TD's. Buffalo averaging 6.5 YPC rushing. The Bills get the lead and then the defense pins it's ears back. Patriots 32 rushes for 134, 0 TD's The Bills get the lead and the defense shuts out an injured rookie Patriots QB. LA Rams 27 rushes for 193 yards, 1 TD. McCoy was killing the Rams with an 8.3 YPC AVG. The Bills finished the day with an average of 7.1 yards per rush. The Bills get the lead and pressure on the opposing QB gets a pick 6! Right now the Bills are playing great because they can run the ball and manage to get the lead which allows the defense to get great pressure on the passer. The Bills are currently #4 in the NFL in sacks and the leading sacker is Bills LBer Lorenzo Alexander with 7 sacks! Tyrod is doing enough to win games with his legs and arm and most importantly he is not turning the ball over which kills teams. Hopefully, as the season progresses he will continue to develop and get better at his job. The Bills offensive line has done a really good job and the only real drawback to the offense is the limited receiving corps. Cheers to Rex Ryan in firing Greg Roman and allowing Dennis Thurman to call the defensive plays

Correction Bills headed for 10-6 right now!

It would be different if the entire team hadn't fallen off the face of the earth in sacks last year! Rex Ryan still managed to piss off alienate his two best players on his defense so much that they went public to complain about how they were being used! This year with Thurman calling the plays the Bills are #4 in sacks and Alexander leads the NFL with 7 sacks. Cheers to Dennis Thurman

What a bum the guy is...as he only had an 8.3 YPC AVG against that Rams defense

Man, I knew this was coming as the guy just doesn't think the run game is worth the effort. 217 passes, 112 rushes and the offense is around 23rd in the league. The Ravens fix that offense and they are playoff bound for sure!

This is exactly the style of QB that Rex Ryan wants to play for him because he doesn't make stupid mistakes to kill the team and he makes enough plays to help the team win games. So Taylor is a near perfect fit for this team at this point in time and given more playing experience Taylor could eventually develop into a better passing QB that can win games with just his arm. Considering the receiving corps on the team I'd say the Bills are doing very well at this point in being 3-2. It did help they didn't face Brady though!

What's great is that Rex passed the play calling on to Thurman and he is doing a brilliant job so far compared to Rex last year. Right now Buffalo is #4 in sacks with 17 and the league leader is Denver with 19! Sacks matter and always will as it as also keeps pressures on the QB and causes mistakes...like a pick 6 EDIT: BTW, Bills LB Lorenzo Alexander had 3 sacks in that game and currently leads the league with 7!!!! What a difference a year can make and also the play calling!

Tyrod was a big part of that win despite the not so great passing yards. Although he did throw two TD passes and didn't turn it over like the opposing QB. Taylor back there keeps the defense honest because they need to account for his running on every play. He struggled a bit but also made some big plays. I'll take Tyrod over Case Keenum any day.