Florida Bills Fanatic

We should not under estimate the impact of an injured John Brown. Every good passing offense has at least one speed receiver that forces the pass defense to guard against the deep ball. It was obvious that when Brown was missing or playing when unhealthy, pass defenses could sit on the short routes, put a safety in the box, and attack the line of scrimmage. It is normal for people to jump to the conclusion that everything falls on the QB and much of it does. In the four games in question, the receivers were not winning and were not making plays in key situations. The drops and tipped balls were drive killers. IMHO the absence of the long ball threat is a major contributing factor to the offensive struggles.

I agree. Most importantly, we had subpar ownership that wasn't about to solve any of the organizational problems. Bills were a real dumpster fire back then.

I seem to remember him hitting the ground a few times. He looked poor out there.

The defense performance against the run was generally horrible. With that being said, why the heck were they in nickel coverage for almost the entire game? The answer: no actual linebacker depth. It's great to have some guys that excel in special teams but when you populate that group to such an extent that you don't have enough capable position players, you have gone too far. Much of special teams is based on effort, ability to run, and desire. Teams need to have at least four LB's that can actually play LB. Buffalo has two and one of them probably shouldn't be playing until he is healthy. If Beane is looking to make a trade, he should be looking to get a LB because that lack of depth is killing the defense.

I understand exactly how you feel. They have faced a lot of zone pass coverage and that makes screen passes harder to pull off. They did have a nice wide receiver screen to John Brown that went for 21 yards but they never tried another one after that. I guess since NE played seven DB's for most of the game, Dabol wanted to push the running game.

Maybe, but the Cheatriots would have had to rely on a poor group of receivers. When they ran the ball on third and long on multiple occasions, that said a lot about what their coaching staff thought about the passing game, In addition, their RPO plays made their run game effective. With Brady in the game, RPO's are nonexistent. Newton was under a fair amount of pressure and had to escape the pocket several times. Brady would have been taking hits or be throwing the ball away. I doubt that the Bills would have run such a conservative offense knowing that they had to compete with Brady. It would have been a different game. Frankly, it would have been a much better game to watch.

Bad tackling has been a problem in most games this year. There are several reasons like slow reaction to the play, failure to breakdown into a good tackling position, trying to tackle with their head behind the runner, arm tackling, trying to strip the ball instead of bringing the runner down, failure to wrap up, taking a bad angle to the runner, and tackling too high. The best defenses limit the number of missed tackles. This week, the Bills missed tackles on various runners that would have resulted in tackles for a loss. The one that was the worst was Burkhead on third down that resulted in a first down (Klein missed him). They really need to clean this up.

You raise an excellent point and I like your humor. I don't believe everything I read. Most fans only look at sacks. Hits, hurries, tipped passes, runs from the pocket, throw aways, some other incomplete passes, and o-line penalties are all part of it. Even with this recognition, I would like to see more from the DE position on running plays. As fans, we're just greedy...lol.

Exactly, these bad calls had a significant impact on the game. It isn't unusual for a team to have one a game but three is really poor. Teams don't generally go public with their officiating complaints but they do direct complaints internally to the league offices. Even so, I doubt the Bills complained due to the outcome of the game. It just doesn't seem like McD's style.

I don't think so but he could be on IR because the o-line has been bad. Newton has been taking a lot of big hits.

I thought Roberts was excellent again this week. He flipped field position a couple of times. Sometimes his contributions are easy to overlook.

It isn't. I was just pointing out two separate things that may impact the game this coming week.

Breer is pretty legit. Some good teams like Seattle, Indy and 49ers could use the secondary help. NE may even be willing to eat some of the cap hit this year, if the draft pick trade package is good enough. I believe Gillmore will be traded to a team trying to make a SB run.

Newton's throwing motion looks like it did last season when he was playing with a right shoulder injury. Maybe all the running in the first few weeks has him injured again. He was routinely bouncing passes in front of open receivers. Nothing about his performance yesterday has me worried about the upcoming game. The only thing that bothers me right now is Dabol's play selection in the red zone. Beasley was open at the goal line repeatedly with no targets. Running Singletary into the weak side of the formation with no lead block failed repeatedly also. It was one of his worse games as a play caller. Hopefully, he sees the need to change things up to play Bellicheat.

As much as we spend time focused on CB, I'm more concerned about the play of Micah Hyde. He seems to be slow to react to passes over the middle in front of him. He's missing tackles and appears to be out of position. Maybe he has to play deeper because of concern about the play of the corners but whatever it is, it isn't delivering good results.

I don't care how much rest the Titans have had. They have had little actual practice time. Their secondary is slow and has been vulnerable. Diggs and Brown should have big days.

I'm not as concerned as many people are. When you look at the game flow, playing with a lead causes teams to change their strategy. The secondary backs off, fewer d-line stunts, less blitzing, and more deep zone coverage. It's about trading yards for time. I do think Frazier and McD have gone to it too early in some games. The Bills also seem to come out flat after halftime. This falls directly on the players. In addition, the injuries to Milano and Edmunds have had a huge impact both in run defense and pass coverage. I also think that Oliver is playing hurt (more hurt than many believe) and it has slowed him and the pass rush down.

Beane has probably already compiled a list of current free agents and practice squad guys for this situation. He may also be fielding calls from some of the losing teams that will be having a fire sale. Other than Houston, it may be a little early for teams to start dumping guys into the trade market but there are at least four other dumpster fire teams out there.

Darren Waller is no joke. Hyde, Poyer and Edmunds better play a lot better than last week. I expect Gruden to pound Jacobs until the defense shows that they can stop him.

I heard it would be Hoyer.

His ego drives him to do things to remain relevant. He has created some good music but it has been a while. A lot of musicians don't know when it is time to go away gracefully. The usual tip off is when their music starts being played as elevator background music or as a jingle in advertising. Really, someone from the so called garden state should take a drive around their community before taking shots at Buffalo. Just sayin'

Not necessarily

In most states, worker's compensation laws protect employers from many types of legal actions. I doubt any law suit will deliver the response that most of us would like to see. It will take internal action by the league. In addition, the players are ultimately responsible for doing the things on the field. It will take some fines or suspensions to get players to speak out about the type of direction that Williams is giving to his players. A responsible owner would send Williams to the unemployment line but as we all know, the JESTS have no such owner.

Just talked to a friend of mine that has been a life long JESTS fan. He works in sports media. He lives about half way between New York and Philly. He declared that he lives in the septic tank of professional football (LOL). As some have pointed out, the fans are apoplectic over the front office and coaching staff but have now focused on the poor ownership. They also believe that there will be a fire sale, much like Miami did and will be aiming to draft a new QB (Lawrence). He also believes that both Gase and Douglas are goners at the end of the season.

You could be correct about this. Some teams are only interested in a DB that can play excellent press man to man coverage. There are not many of them around, so they have to pay them a lot to keep them. McD doesn't depend on strict man to man defense and can get good use out of other skills. I think he places a high value on smart players that don't make mistakes and guys that are willing tacklers. As you say, Norman was a good example.