BillsFan4

Well... after 1 period, they look MUCH better than last game. It really looks like Housley got through to them because they are playing with much more structure in all 3 zones. They are also keeping things more simple and taking what the NYR are giving. They actually look like they’re playing like a team so far. I love the fire and effort level I am seeing from just about every single Sabre, too. Especially the main guys like Eichel, Reinhart, Skinner, Sheary, Risto etc. I am still seeing a few things to clean up, like breakdowns in coverage and dumb decisions with the puck. But that is fully expected. Everything isn’t going to be fixed overnight. I just want to see continued progress... The real test will be to see if this team can maintain this structure and effort level for an entire game. And even more so when they hit some adversity.

I used to sell Toyota vehicles when I lived in Florida. Ive sold numerous different makes of cars/trucks/motorcycles etc. The two I would recommend most highly and without any hesitation - Toyota and Honda. Both are high quality and build to last. If you take care of them properly and do the maintenance, they can last you forever. I had a customer that used to come into the dealership. He had a Honda with well over 300,000 miles on it and it still ran perfectly. I dont know that I would buy a new American made car, to be perfectly honest.

Very curious to see if the Sabres can rebound tonight. There are fewer excuses against the Rangers. They don’t have an experienced veteran team anymore. They are a young rebuilding team just like us. They have a new coach fresh from the college ranks. New system. New faces in the lineup (not sure if they’ve had quite the turnover we have though). This should be a game we win. But at the absolute bare minimum I want to see guys playing the right way.

Same here. I didn’t even know there was a comment section until I read through this thread. Of course I let curiosity get the better of me. Just awful. Unfortunately, racism seems to be on the rise here in recent years.

https://www.nhl.com/sabres/video/phil-housley-postgame-10418/t-277437090/c-61606303 I thought Housley was dead on in his post game presser (he usually is...). I had many of the same observations during the game. Getting too cute/fancy, over passing, refusing to take what the other team is giving you. Refusing to dump and chase. Refusing to backcheck properly. Blowing their assignments. He’s right that these veterans need to make a choice to play the way the coaches are asking them to. Sadly, our main guys seem to be the biggest problem as far as that’s concerned. Like Eichel trying to skate through FOUR Bruins at the blue line. Sometimes you just have to take what the other team is giving you. That’s why our 4th line was our most effective much of the night. What good is a coaching change going to do if these players simply refuse to follow a game plan? It was an issue with bylsma and it’s still an issue now. We could have the best coach in the world, but if the players simply refuse to do what the coach is asking, it won’t matter who the coach is. Remember when everyone was convinced that firing bylsma would solve the Sabres problems? Honestly, IMO they probably shouldn’t have fired bylsma when they did because I feel like it sent a bad message to the players. They wouldn’t follow bylsma’s game plan, didn’t seem to like him much and didn’t listen to him. In the end, they were rewarded for it. I am not saying Housley is the answer at head coach. He sure hasn’t shown that he is. But I guess I am still of the opinion that it’s more of a player issue than a coaching one. We’ve seen them play well when they stick to the game plan. But it just hasn’t happened enough over the last 3+ years. If this was a new issue under Housley, I would totally be on the “fire the coach” bandwagon. But it’s not a new issue. It has been an issue through 2 different coaches now. When you are seeing a lot of the same mistakes, from the same guys, under multiple different coaches, that to me says it’s a player issue. I think some of theee players have been given free reign from day 1, didn’t have to earn anything and have been rewarded for it.

I don’t know... those first 2 periods I didn’t really see them playing much of a system out there. More than anything I see guys scrambling around out of position, just chasing pucks. I saw too many “just playing” and doing their own thing, completely disregarding the system. That’s been an issue for Buffalo for years. If they would actually stick to the system and cover who they’re supposed to be covering, it could have prevented a couple goals tonight. These last 5 minutes they’ve been doing what I just mentioned - keeping it simple and cycling the puck and this is about the best they’ve looked all game.

The Sabres need to settle down here and simplify? Guys look jittery out there. Too many bobbled pucks and passes. Guys tripping over their own skates. Too many cute/fancy plays, too. Everyone trying the fancy play instead of the simple one. Sometimes you just need to do what our 4th line is doing - dump and chase, cycle down low and along the boards and create some scoring chances.

Hey, our goalie made a save on a breakaway. Is that allowed?

Well... not the start I was hoping for. I thought they looked good at times to start the period. But after that 1st goal form Boston it put the Sabres back on their heels. I knew Boston would come out with a big push after last night, though. Lets see how Buffalo responds in the 2nd and 3rd here. Hopefully now everyone should have their feet under them. Some of those opening night jitters should be passing. The young guys should hopefully be settling in, too. And Buffalo should have the advantage as the game goes on. Boston is playing back to back in the 2nd game of the season. I expect them to show some fatigue. Hey, On a positive note, Eichel looked good in the face off circle. He was actually using his body and his power instead of just trying to finesse it like the past few seasons.

So excited for the season to start. I really hope this is the year Buffalo takes a legit step forward. They have the deepest lineup that they’ve had in many years. Guys seem to have the right attitude. I just hope they put it all together on th ice. They are playing a pissed off bruins team tonight that just got badly embarrassed last night. I hope buffalo is just as fired up as the bruins will likely be. The Sabres better come ready to play... We have a few young guys playing their first games here, so I expect some nerves to start the game. I just hope they start out fast and with energy. They need to show up from puck drop. They started games out slow way too often last season. Lets go Sabres!

Was just going to say the same thing...

Last night was the first time I had a chance to sit down and watch a Chiefs game this season. I thought Mahomes played very well, but I wasn’t as blown away by him as some of you. I was more more impressed with their offense as a whole, their skill positions and above all their coaching. Mahomes executed their offense very well. But he has a ridiculous amount of help around him. Wide receiver, tight end, running back, offensive line... The skilled players they have in that offense are unreal, and Andy Reid does So Much to help Mahomes. I was really impressed with Reid’s game plan and play calling. You can tell that is a very, very well coached team on offense.

I don’t have quite the range of motion that I used to, but it’s not too bad all things considered. It took a long time to get it back though. Yes. Thanks for asking. It gets stiff and sore, and I can’t really play the sports I used to (especially higher impact stuff like skiing etc), but it doesn’t really have any effect on my day to day life anymore.

Somewhere around 15 (ish) years ago. I want to say ‘02 or ‘03.

Interesting waiver claim. I was wondering if someone would take a chance on Remi Elie. Glad it was Buffalo. Some info and highlights - From what I read, I guess he was he was pretty well liked by all his teammates.

This is going to be a long winded story, so I apologize in advance... I completely destroyed my knee riding a motocross bike (dirt bike) I used to have. I was out riding with a bunch of guys from the motorcycle shop I worked at (at the time). It was a nice week at the end of winter. Everything had melted so it was very muddy. The knobs on my tires were pretty worn down and since I hadn’t planned on riding anymore that season I was just going to replace them come spring. But I didn’t want to miss out on the fun and figured I’d be ok to get one last ride in. So, as I said, it was just total mud. I rode for a couple hours and laid my bike down in the mud probably 10 times. The tires were way too shot for the conditions and my bike just didn’t want to stay upright. The last time I laid it down, I landed in this huge mud puddle and was soaked head to toe. The mud also gummed up my throttle, so when I’d twist it, it was kind of sticking open at times. So I said enough is enough and decided I better call it a day. I was headed back to where we parked with a couple of friends. My buddy was out in front of me and kept “roosting” me (spinning your back tire to kick mud/dirt up at the guy behind you). So I rode past him and decided to return the favor. I roosted him a couple times... And the last time I did it, I suddenly hit this small dry patch of dirt (probably the only dry patch of ground the entire damn day...) and instead of spinning, my tire gripped the dirt. It shot my dirt bike up into the air, kind of cartwheeling out from under me. I actually landed on my feet. It really wasn’t even a bad spill, but... I was wearing these riding boots that had this steel “L” insert in the boot to protect your foot/ankle etc. from breaking. My feet planted and sunk into the mud and because those boots wouldn’t allow my foot to bend back, it totally blew out my knee. In hindsight I’d have been much better of wearing those boots and just breaking my damn ankle/foot.... What ended up happening is my knee bent 90 degrees in the wrong direction (it bent straight forward and off to the left as well) Oh man.... I have NEVER felt pain like that in my life, and I’ve had some pretty bad injuries from playing all sorts of contact sports, as well as extreme sports (like riding ramps, half pipes, jumps etc). I’ve also raced motocross and crashed off of 70 foot triple jumps. I have a high pain threshold as well. But I cant even describe the level of pain from that knee injury though. Eventually a friend helped me up to my feet, and I knew something was seriously wrong. I very gingerly tried to put a tiny bit of weight on my (right) leg and my knee bent straight to the left, hitting my left leg. Obviously, your knee is not supposed to be able to bend that way. My co-worker drove me to the hospital. By the time I got there and they cut my pant leg off, my knee was the size of a balloon. It was some tiny country hospital. They kept me for a while, gave me a bunch of IV pain meds (which did nothing for the pain, or so I thought until I woke up the next morning when they had worn off...) and told me to go to my local hospital in the morning. I went to the hospital the next morning, and because of the severity they ended up calling in one of the doctors that does surgeries for UB football and even some Bills players. He had to drain the fluid off my knee because it was so swollen it looked ready to pop. This doctor told me that he had never drained that much fluid from anyone knee before. About a week or two later when the swelling had finally started to go down, I was able to get an MRI. I tore my MCL, my ACL (grade 3 which is the worst kind) and I ripped a big chunk of my meniscus (padding between the knee bones) which also chipped off a good size chunk of my knee bone with it. Needless to say my knee has never been the same. That injury changed my life in multiple ways. Oh man... and then the rehab was just brutal. I was laid up on the couch for well over 6 months and it was damn near a year before I was able to even start walking again. I almost had to learn to walk on the leg all over again. Because I was only in my 20’s at the time, the doctor wanted me to regain flexibility in my knee before surgery (which took over a year). I could only bend my knee about 10-15 degrees because of the injury and then all of the scar tissue that formed (which is Extremely painful) . The physical therapy was legit torture. They would have me lay on my stomach and they would try to bend my knee toward my butt. Because it wouldn’t bend, the therapist would have to put all his body weight on my knee. I would literally scream in pain from that. It gives me chills just thinking about it....

Through the first 3 weeks of the season, I believe Arizona’s offensive line was graded dead last by PFF. They did look better yesterday, but I have to wonder how much of that had to do with Rosen. It looked to me like he was identifying prsssure and checking in to the right coverages at the line. He was stepping up into the pocket instead of rolling into pressure. He played well in the pocket all game. Wasn’t getting happy feet, and he hung tough in the face of prsssure numerous times to make nice throws. He was going through his reads quickly and finding the open man. He looked like he knew where to go with the ball to exploit the defensive coverage on a given play. He had a very good command of that offense, especially for a rookie in his first start. I said before the game that it’ll be interesting to see how Rosen does because he is the QB with the most similar circumstances to Allen in Buffalo. Both he and Allen probably have the worst teams around them out of all the young NFL QBs. Rosen doesn’t have a strong receiving corps (outside of Fitzgerald, who had 3 drops yesterday). He doesn’t have a strong running game. He doesn’t have a strong offensive line. Arizona is one of the bottom tier teams in the NFL, and I thought Rosen impressed under less than ideal circumstances. But I think everyone knew that Rosen would be better than Allen out of the gate. Allen is much more of a raw project. I’m hoping that in the coming years Allen makes the Bills look smart for passing on Rosen.

I thought Rosen looked very good in that game. His accuracy was on full display. He was good recognizing pressure. He looked to be progressing through his reads. Had great understanding, and command, of the offense. It was an impressive first start for a rookie QB. I was on the Rosen bandwagon pre-draft. I’ve moved on since then and haven’t brought up Rosen since days after the draft. But man, I am sorry to say that game did nothing to quell my fears we drafted the wrong Josh. Its way too soon to judge though. Rosen is much more polished and further along in his development. Allen is a lot more raw. I said post-draft that I fully expected Rosen to be better right out of the gate (which is why I thought the Bills might draft him - he was more ready to play and we had no real starter on the roster). So it’ll be no surprise if he is the better QB this season. But it’s not just about this season. It’s about who is the better QB in the coming years. Only time will tell. I sure hope our Josh is better. He was definitely more of the “swing for the fences” pick. His ceiling is sky high, if he gets there the Bills are sitting pretty. I am fully on board with our Josh. But I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t sting a little to see Rosen doing the things I thought he would in the NFL.

https://buffalonews.com/2018/09/29/twenty-years-later-cup-winner-steve-smith-rejoins-housley-to-run-sabres-defense/ Good article on Steve Smith. I was excited when buffalo hired him. I think he is a big add to this coaching staff. He did a good job with carolina’s defense.

Wish they would assign Tennyson to Rochester... hopefully soon.

Going to be interesting to see how Rosen does today. His o line has played worse than the Bills (according to PFF I believe they are rated as the worst in the NFL through 3 weeks) and outside of 1 guy they don’t have much at WR. Their defense is playing terrible too.

Yes I realize that. They chose to get rid of those guys. And They chose to get get all the dead cap off the books this year instead of spread it out. Only time will tell if it was the right move. They are clearly focused on the long term plan and not this season.

How is this kid supposed to learn anything behind this !@#$ing o line?

I legitimately feel bad for Josh Allen.

No, not at all. There are are going to be lots of ups and downs + growing pains this season. And lots of issues from the huge amount of dead cap space.