Shaw66

I agree. And further to Taylor running, last night the announcers said Cam Newton went to the coaches during the off-season and told them they have let him be the player he is. They were trying to protect him by not calling running plays. He's running again this season, and the results are obvious. His rushing yards are back up where they used to be, and his passer rating has gone up, too.

Happy - I won't quote your long post, but I want to respond, mostly to say I agree. You see this all the time - coach comes in and replaces a system that's working because he likes his system better. One problem with your review of the offense is that Dennison's offense has had several excellent games this season. Now, it may be that the Jets and the Saints have developed the blue print for stopping that offense. Denver Atlanta Denver Oakland were among the best games in Taylor's career. We'll see in the next few weeks. Where I really agree is on how they're using Taylor. Anthony Lynn DID get Tyrod going by putting him on the move. And it drives me nuts to watch Brees particularly, but Wilson and Smith, too, throwing from BEHIND the line, not INSIDE the pocket. Those guys get to throw with the line in front of them, which gives them a good view of escape routes AND assures them that they always can retreat, because they don't have to worry about the DEs coming around the backside. That's critically important, because unlike most QBs, you don't worry so much about those guys getting 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Why? Because if they're back that far, they're in open field, which allows them to use their speed and elusiveness to escape, return to the line of scrimmage and find a receiver. Sticking Taylor INSIDE the pocket takes away his ability to avoid tacklers.

This says what I couldn't find words for. It was bewildering to see a team that had been so sound in all aspects of the game become completely clueless. And, no, I have no explanation.

I seriously considered doing exactly that. I really meant it when I said there's nothing to say that's why I wrote some of the stupid stuff I wrote.

I left early and didn't see his TD drive. I agree about this. He looked good. In charge, good decisions. Good throws.

Of course, we don't know what Dennison is thinking or trying to do, but I agree with your point of view. I've often thought that Brees is a good model for Taylor. Yesterday was a good example. The Saints don't form a pocket for Brees, so that he is free to move around back there. I think Taylor needs deeper drops, so the DEs can't loop around him and contain him.

The Rockpile Review – by Shaw66 Horrible No words adequately describe the Bills’ loss to the Saints. Embarrassing. Ugly. Amateurish. Outclassed isn’t nearly strong enough. The Saints aren’t in a different class; they are in a different galaxy from where the Bills have been loitering lately. I’d like to write a column about what the Bills did well on Sunday, but there isn’t a column’s worth of material. I mean, besides having the correct number of players on the field for most plays, what did the Bills do out there for three hours?. Breaking news: Our sources tell us Kelvin Benjamin filed an emergency appeal with the NFL office on Sunday night, asking to have his trade to the Bills rescinded. Benjamin explained that the trade must be voided because he lied to the Bills’ doctors during his physical. He claims he failed to disclose that he has a rare genetic disorder that will cause him to be unable to run or jump after his 27th birthday in February. The response was brief: “Dear Benjie – Your nose is growing. Sorry, you’ve gotta stay in Buffalo. Yours, Roger” Careful observers understood that the game was over after the Saints first play in the first quarter. Brees noticed the Bills’ defense had not yet taken the field, demanded the ball and threw a slant pass to a WIDE OPEN Michael Thomas for 13 yards. Okay, the Bills were actually on the field, but it didn’t look that way to Brees. And so it went, all afternoon. The Bills gave the Saints openings, big openings, really big openings, and Brees took them. First downs were the candy, and the Bills were the baby. I suppose some assistant assistant coach, some little lizard stayed up late Sunday night, studying the film and cataloging every way the Saints took apart the Bills, play by play, position by position, but to what end? GEICO totals your car when the cost of repairing all of the damage exceeds the value of the car before the accident. All the Bills’ gecko could do Sunday night was examine the heap and shake his head. I mean, really, what is there to say when you’re looking at a total wreck? Fun Fact: Nick O’Leary is Tom Watson’s brother. I look back at the game, and all I can think is no one did anything. They sprang Shady on one long run. Yay. Taylor did nothing. I can’t complain about Taylor much. Fans near me said he had Benjamin open deep up the left sideline in the second quarter and dumped the ball off short. I didn’t see it. But when I was watching receivers, no one was open. The Bills take what the defense gives them, and all they were given all day was the 6-yard dump off over the middle once in a while. He could have thrown better to Clay, but it was good enough that the interception wasn’t on him. The Saints say they kept Taylor in the pocket all game. They can take credit if they want, but so far as I could tell, the Bills didn’t try to get Taylor outside the pocket. Some passes, like slants, don’t require much timing or familiarity between passer and receiver. Some, like fades, back shoulder throws and out patterns, do. Taylor targeted his brand new receiver, the guy Taylor has had the least amount of time to work with, three times. One slant for a completion. One out and one deep fade. Result: one completion and two incompletions where the timing was clearly off. Whose idea was that? It was remarkably stupid play selection. It wasn’t so much that Taylor was bad; it was that nothing he did was good. Let’s see now. The Bills had no business being on the same field with the Saints. The Bills beat Denver and Atlanta soundly, and Denver and Atlanta beat Dallas. So does that mean the Browns can beat the Cowboys? I’m dead serious: does anyone think the Bills would have beaten the Browns on Sunday? “PLAYOFFS!!!??!!! PLAYOFFS!!!!??!??” Then, of course, there was the defense. I was really glad to be at New Era on Sunday, because I got to see NFL history. The ten-play 94-yard drive was one of the most amazing things I’ve seen on a football field. Do the math – that’s 9.4 yards per carry in a sustained drive. That’s incredible. How did it happen? The cliché is a warm knife through butter. That’s as good an explanation as any. I was SO glad that Brees didn’t throw it on that last play. It was special when he ran for the TD. Of course, from the Bills point of view, it wasn’t special. It was total humiliation. Maybe it was the right long-term move, but unloading Dareus left the Bills powerless to stop runs up the middle. Preston Brown was useless against the run on Sunday, solidly blocked time and again by linemen who weren’t needed to double-team anyone on the Bills’ defensive line. The pass defense wasn’t much better, but it didn’t need to be. Brees took enough of what he wanted, and he let his running backs do the best. I rarely leave games early. I did on Sunday. I stayed to watch Peterman’s debut. After his five and out, I’d seen enough and headed for home. After all, what could be left to see? Six or seven New Orleans runs as the clock ran out, right? (Plus, in the car I could listen to Robert Woods, Sammy Watkins and Nickell Robey Coleman beat the Texans.) So I missed the Peterman fireworks. How was I to know that the Saints would score on two plays? (Oh, I guess I should have known. Or did the Bills let them score to give Peterman another chance?) So did Peterman actually look good, or was he just taking what the Saints were giving him? I have to believe that he was throwing against a soft defense, but whatever it was, he got the touchdown. Peterman would have done nothing to change the beat down in the first 58 minutes. It was inevitable that the Peterman drumbeat would begin seconds after the final whistle. And it was inevitable that McDermott would say on Monday that Taylor is his starter. The NFL is said to be considering a long-overdue realignment of divisions to take advantage of natural rivalries. Although the plan isn’t complete, sources say one of the divisions will include the Browns, 49ers, Giants and Bills. Two weeks ago, Sean McDermott was a front runner for NFL coach of the year. If he can turn this around, he’s the coach of the century. GO BILLS!!! The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were everyday people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full day’s hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

Umm, do Atlanta, Denver and Oakland not count as big gsmes?

So the decision the Court cites says that in order to get an order lifting the suspension pending his court case he has to show (1) whether the movant will suffer irreparable injury absent a stay, (2) whether a party will suffer substantial injury if a stay is issued, (3) whether the movant has demonstrated a substantial possibility, although less than a likelihood, of success on appeal, and (4) the public interests that may be affected. Here's what it means: (1) Zeke does suffer irreparable injury, because if he misses games he'll never get them back if he wins. (2) The NFL probably argued that they suffer substantial injury if the stay is issued, because stays like that undercut their authority to enforce their player contracts. (3) This decision may mean that the Court already has decided that there isn't a substantial possibility that Zeke will win. After all, Brady already lost his appeal, and he had better facts. (4) There's no public interest in letting Zeke play. In legal terms, that doesn't mean if the public is interested - it means are your rights and mine affected negatively if he doesn't play. The answer to that is no. So this decision probably means Zeke loses his appeal, but that won't be decided until an expedited hearing and decision. As someone said, Zeke has to be careful - if the Second Circuit takes four or five weeks, Zeke could miss playoff games.

I would LOVE to know what is going on here, because Kroy never seems to be a problem when he fills in. What underlies what I'm saying is that what goes into these decisions is so far beyond what we actually know that it's hard to question the decision. For example: Some coaches have a philosophy that says you have to practice well before you play. Maybe that's it. Maybe Kroy doesn't have the footspeed to play the position consistently. Maybe when the coaches grade his performance in games he doesn't grade out as well as the guys who play ahead of him. Maybe he's in the doghouse for some reason. Maybe it's one of ten other things I can't think of. I'm sure there's a reason he isn't a starter. I have enough confidence in the coaches to trust their reasoning. Yes, I'd love to know the reason, just like I'd like to know their reasons for their decisions at the back-up running back spot. But no, that isn't the kind of information coaches divulge, because they don't want to give opponents a competitive advantage and because it violates personnel policies.

Thanks for the informative post. What was not 100% accurate? I said there's a reason he doesn't start. That's 100% accurate. There IS a reason. I don't know and you don't know what it is, but there IS a reason. You actually think there's NO reason he doesn't start. You think that for the past 20 weeks the coaches NEVER discussed who should start at right guard? NEVER talked about it? I think you need to explain yourself.

Crazy idea ... Bills coaches probably already asked themselves this question. There's a reason Groy doesn't start. It's the same reason anyone else doesn't start - he isn't performing as well as the guy who does start.

I thought the same thing. It's interesting how guys just run out of gas like that.

There's defenitely a lot of planning that goes into decisions like this. One other thing: I'm starting to think that deep speed is overrated. Now, if you have a Tyreek Hill, that's different, because he's a threat all over the field. But there's only one of him. If you think about it, it's much important to be able to stop the other team from hurting you with deep speed than having it yourself. Someone will say year, but deep speed makes you commit a safety to the guy. I"d say that isn't always true - deep speed doesn't always get doubled. All you need is a #3 who can get deep, and he can put the pressure on the defense to keep them honest. Obviously, you'd always rather have a good receiver who's fast than one who's not, but I think you can have a pretty formidable attack with Ben and Matt.

I think it's an audition in a broad sense. The coaches are going to be looking at the offense with the two of them on the field, and with Tyrod throwing. Beane and McD will have to decide whether that's the core passing personnel they want going forward. If they think they're going to replace Tyrod with a rookie or other inexperienced QB, they may very well want to keep both receivers, because they are excellent security blankets for a young guy - good route runners, dependable, etc. If they want to keep Tyrod, then they have to decide whether they think they can compete in the NFL without a serious deep threat in the passing lineup. Maybe they think it's good enough to have the speed guy be the number 3 man, and the number 4. Since neither Benjamin nor Matthews is a premier number 1 guy, they probably won't need to pay franchise type money to either to keep them. Mid to high number 1 money and high number 2 money may not be too much to spend on the position.

No, but only because I'm not good at imagining things. And I haven't seen Kamara. To Brown's credit, he's coachable, and the team gets him prepared every week. That limits the damage that gets done in the middle. He was drafted where he was because he didn't have good speed for the position. We're seeing it now.

I might agree with your point, but not your examples. Flacco's had one good year since 2010. Eli's had 3. They just haven't been very good for several years. There might be a tier between the elites and the decent QBs, but Flacco and Manning are no longer in it.

Yeah, I agree with this completely. McD knows he isn't likely to get another Keuchly, but he needs someone who moves better than Brown. That position is almost as important to his defense as QB is to the offense. I know absolutely nothing about Conor McDermott - don't even recognize the name, but you make a good point. I think Glenn and Wood will stay, and probably Richie. Th right side of the line will be changing.

Personally, I think that's an overdone concept. I don't think his height is much of a disadvantage. If, and I think it's a big IF, he knows where his receivers are going and who should be open, he should be able to slide to find a sight line to the receiver or spot he's interested in. I still can't argue with people who say he doesn't make those decisions fast enough. I can't argue because I just don't know if he's slow or not. The reason I question whether he's slow is that when he's completing 65-75% of his passes, he's being as efficient as the other good QBs in the league. If he really was so slow at scanning the field and making decision, he'd be nearer 50%. And that argument goes to the height issue, too. If he can't see, how come he's completing all those passes? How many passes a game is he missing because he can't see? Two? Three? I doubt it's five. What about the sacks? Most of the sacks Thursday were on the d-line. How many could he have avoided by throwing it away or completing a pass if he were four inches taller? One? Two? And the most important question, for the long term, is if you have a QB who's doing all the things right that he's doing, are you going to burn a bunch of draft picks on a rookie who's taller, who doesn't run as well and may never learn to be a quality starter? People have their list of flaws for Taylor: Height, slow decision maker, lousy footwork, doesn't scan the field, probably a few others. But when you look at the CAREER passer rating list, the leaders in order are Rodgers, Wilson, Brady, Romo, Young, Brees, Manning, Cousins, Rivers, Warner, Roethlisberger, Ryan. If Taylor had enough attempts, he'd be next on that list. I just have to keep asking, myself and everyone else, if he's passing that well, how real, or how important, can those flaws be?

Anomaly, yes, but I think there's more to it than that. Maybe Hughes's complaint was correct, and they just had a lot of trouble preparing on a short week. Whatever, a lot of things were uncharacteristic. But I also think the Bills' talent on the offensive and defensive lines is below average and susceptible to getting pushed around. We haven't seen that exploited until the Jets game, and I think we will see more of it. It makes sense that one guy or another might not be mentally prepared, but for both lines to get manhandled like that suggests that talent has something to do with it.

I agree. Halfway through I'm thinking the Bills are an average to slightly above average team. They play hard, they're well prepared, which allows them to compete every week. But you can say that about a lot of teams. I'm thinking that the problem with the Bills is that they're a little short of talent, which results from two things: Players on board don't fit the schemes (the typical problem when you change coaches) (I think Preston Brown is one of those) and players McDermott and Beane unload who didn't have the attitude they wanted (Watkins, Dareus, maybe one or two more). McD and Beane undertand this - that's why they loaded up on picks for 2018, and traded one of those picks for Benjamin. Bottom line, I'm not prepared to finish 8-8. I'm not predicting that, but if they go 8-8 I'm okay. I think next year's Bills will have 4 or 5 starters who fit the system better, and 100% of the team will be on board with the process. That's when I expect 10 wins or more. Ten this season would be a nice surprise.

Nine wins almost always means you're relying on tie-breakers. It also means only 4 or sometimes 5 teams win 10. It means a lot of teams have to go 8-8 and 7-9. It happens, but I think the history has been 9 wins isn't a very good way to make the playoffs or, more importantly, to win in the playoffs.

Agreeable to you! That's great! Stats then eyeballs. Four games with a passer rating over 100, six games over 90, two below 80. One might argue that's inconsistent, I think it's what you get from most QBs. Rodgers was under 80 for three games last season. QBs have bad statisctical games from time to time because (1) they have bad days and/or (2) their teams get outplayed, outplanned, outschemed. I think it's unrealistic to expect that your QB is over 90 in passer rating every game. Matt Ryan was under 80 only once last season, but he was the player of the year. He was under 80 five times in 2015. Brady was under 80 once in 12 games last season, three times in 16 games in 2015. So Taylor over 90 in 6 of 8 and under 80 in 2 of 8 isn't dramatically more inconsistent than the very best in the league. Eyeballs: He had one game this season that I saw where he missed a lot of throws. I didn't see Cincy, and he might have had that problem then, too; I don't know. But in the other games I've been struck by how consistent, how accurate he's been on his throws. My eyeballs would have agreed with you last season, but not this season. I was hoping that Taylor would take a step forward this season, and it looks to me like he has. Let's see what the second half brings.

I think it's easier than you might think when it's a guy like Benjamin. You're not necessarily throwing to Benjamin as he makes his cut. For example, end zone fade routes. It doesn't take a lot of time for the QB and a big receiver to refine this route. Line up as the left end, split out, get a release of the line, and when you cross the goal line, look for the ball up. QB watches the release of the line, determines that there's no double coverage, delivers the ball. Will they do that better after a season of practice? Sure. Can they do it well enough to have it in the game plan on Sunday? Sure. I do agree that his biggest effect on the game will be as someone who is drawing the attention of the defense. However, for that work, the Bills need to throw it to him some. The Saints won't play the entire game focused on Benjamin if he isn't catching a few balls. I say four catches for 48 yards, maybe a score.

Not wanting to get involved in another Taylor thread, at least not today, I've been ignoring this thread. Came on just now to take a look. Saw Old Time's post and just shook my head. Then I saw this. Beautifully done. I'm not a big believable in the eyeball test, but I have to say that in the past few weeks Taylor has LOOKED to me like a real NFL QB. Comfortable and in command in the pocket, delivering the ball on target with the right touch, throwing balls away. My only concern has been the sacks. Particularly against the Jets, the sacks looked not to be primarily his fault. He had nowhere to go and often no time to unload it. But I'd like to know what the coaches are telling him about those plays. Did they see something different?