Gray Beard

Who's this mysterious "they" team that successfully blitzes the quarterback?

My take: Cornerbacks aren't very good. Linebackers just a little too small to stop the run. No imagination to create confusion and open up blitzing lanes to rush the quarterback (in other words, mediocre coaching).

I would love to see the Jets lose, but I don't think it will happen. Shutting up the loudmouth Ryans is a good thing. I was almost glad that the Cowboys lost just to see the look on Rob Ryan's face.

It sure would be great to see Spiller turn a short pass into a long gain. Kind of like Roosevelt. You know, that UDFA from the practice squad who took a short pass 60 yards to the house. Maybe with more practice Spiller can do that.

That "stunt double" is actually a very good player. Reliable. Paid peanuts by NFL standards. In on plenty of special team tackles. Glad to see him get a little publicity, in a backwards sort of way.

It doesn't say why he is suspended. I wonder if he can appeal and still play for a week or two.

The pass rush, and Cruz versus the Bills cornerbacks are concerns. Otherwise, there doesn't seem to be too much to worry about. Except that it's hard to win in the NFL.

This is an important point. I think they will have to go without a replacement for a week and decide what to do over the bye week. They may wait for somebody else to go on IR before they do anything. I hope it's not McGee but I have this sinking feeling that he may not last long once he comes back.

Immediately what came to mind for me. The Bills have a habit of tanking on nationally televised games. This game is HUGE in central NY because I would guess that the fan base is about 60% Giants, 30% Jets and 10% Bills (in other words, mostly bandwagon fans, and the Giants have a better tradition of success in recent years). The Giants fans are salivating at the thought of humiliating the Bills. The jinx of national TV is REALLY making me nervous.

I used to get so mad when Whitner would "tackle" somebody by bumping him with his shoulder rather than wrap him up or take out his legs (Winfield was excellent at taking out the legs). I will be curious to see if Wilson continues to tackle well or will he start doing that bump with the shoulder thing. I hope he doesn't start doing that.

The top tackler is some guy who had delusions of being a wide receiver but had to switch positions to get more playing time.

I'd rather see them give Kamar Aiken a shot. He is big and had good hands in preseason. I don't think he's a speed guy though. But with this offense, you can't have too many possession receivers.

Wilson ain't too shabby, either

back acted up again in practice

If the Bills lose this game ant it can be blamed on some of the same things that happened last week, then the media (and all the experts on this board) will go wild with the negativity. I think this game is critical to either show that last week was a fluke, or to show that the Bills aren't much better than they were last year. I know it is still early in the season, but this is a "what have you done lately" situation.

Excellent post. I want to see more people respond to his. I think Nix and Gailey are the best GM and coach combination that the Bills have had in over a decade, but I question some of their decisions. The vanilla defense and the long passes on third down are two things that many people have been writing about on this board since last week. The lack of touches for Smith and Spiller when the game plan wasn't working is another question people have been asking. Based on very little data, it seems as though Roosevelt has better hands than Smith. He's been active for two games and I think the only time he got the ball was on that pass deflection that came his way. Fred has had a great season so far, they could have used him more to grind out the yardage and use up the clock, but they went to long passes instead. If anyone actually remembers the original "circle the wagons" comeback game, the reasons the Bills were able to come back is because the Oilers kept throwing the ball and the incomplete passes gave the Bills time to come back. History repeats itself.

Roosevelt is quickly loosing his practice squad eligibility by appearing in a few games recently. I wish Fitz would throw him a few balls so he can show what he can do. Otherwise he won't be eligible for a practice squad, and he won't have sufficient game experience for anybody to want him. That would be too bad, since he seems to have good hands and isn't afraid to go across the middle. He isn't fast enough to be a deep threat, but he could be a good possession receiver. No receiver on this team is a big, fast, fight for the ball kind of player, which is a shortcoming.

Syracuse gets Seattle at Giants, or Tennessee at Pittsburgh. I can't believe those games are considered to be more compelling than Philadelphia at Buffalo. I would watch the Giants game in hopes of seeing the Giants get their butts kicked, but Seattle won't be capable of doing that. I could watch NASCAR, but it's at Kansas which is probably going to end up being a fuel mileage race. Sounds like a nice autumn hike in the woods for me!

and when it is obvious that he isn't going to get the ball, he is out of position to make a quick tackle, so the receiver gets away for a long ground gain.

Those long passes on third down were just plain stupid. I find it very frustrating to watch a game and realize that bad play calling is going to result in a loss. I thought the Bills were beyond that. I guess not.

I read somewhere that the plan against NE was to stay in front of Brady, make him nervous and block his passing lanes. If you rush hard you will likely get pushed behind him which takes you out of the play. The interceptions are partly due to the fact that the defense stayed in front and blocked his view. He mostly completed short passes, which is what he would do if he was blitzed. They also had no run success, which is a side effect of staying in front and not over committing. Not the conventional wisdom and it worked.

In Utica, the Fox game is Giants-Seahawks. The CBS game is TBD. At least that is what it says now.

I agree with both points from the OP. The media attention is getting scary, and when (if?) the Bills lose, that attention will flip to being just as negative. Fitz has demonstrated for as long as he was in a Bills uniform that he is a starting caliber NFL quarterback. These days, a combination of ability and intelligence from the likes of P. Manning, Brady, Aaron Rogers, Drew Brees and a few others make them potential MVPs. Fitz may be a notch lower in terms of passing ability but he is right up there in terms of intelligence (I mean football intelligence, not the Harvard intelligence). In terms of being negative on Marv Levy as GM, I feel that some people are forgetting some Bills history. In my opinion, the guy who is responsible for a decade of mediocrity is Tom Donahoe. He came with a great pedigree, but he soon became arrogant and unapproachable. When Ralph finally realized that he had to go, he ended up turning to Marv as a familiar and reliable old friend. I have no problem with that. I feel that now with Nix and Gailey, the Bills are finally on the right track in terms of getting the right people in place to move things forward.

Darrelle Revis over Marshawn Lynch

To add insult to injury, a quote from TMQ (who is nowhere near as funny as he used to be)... "And no, I don't know what "Bills" are, either. This has been lost to the mists of history. Perhaps the team was originally called the Buffalo Williams." How can he not know how the Bills got their name? Is he just playing stupid to try to be funny? If that is the case, then he is just being stupid.