Virgil

OJ Howard hasn't been used in the passing game all season. Brate's been the man. Lorax hurt us, but when the 2nd string TE is hurting us, I'll say it was more of a surprise

The stadium started to clear out at 27-20. Everyone was pretty convinced we would lose. Unfortunately, TT and the team earned this. Fortunately, they scored in 3 plays to keep people around. The stadium was deafening when White created that fumble. It was a nice, different feeling

Sorry for the lateness everyone, but I attended the game in person and had a lot of driving to do afterwards. That, plus an early flight to a work function in Orlando, and I'm beat. Being at the game provided me with a much different perspective on a bunch of things and I'm sorry to say that these thoughts might be a bit more negative than I try to be. I know that a win is a win and that this was only one game, but I'm still trying to figure out who we are as a team, coaching staff, and everything else right now; so it's hard to not try to evaluate as part of the big picture. 1 - Defensive Line - It was halfway through the 3rd quarter and my seats were right on the line of scrimmage. I was frustrated all day by how little pass rush we were able to generate and rarely sent more than our front 4. In this moment, I looked across the field and saw Dareus, Kyle, and Shaq all standing on the sidelines beside each other. In that moment, I was beside myself with anger. While I understand about keeping guys fresh and rotating guys based upon situation, there is absolutely no excuse to have 3 of our top 4 player on the sideline at one time. This is probably the one thing about the new regime that I'm not a fan of. Buy-in to your system or not, these guys have proven themselves as a talent and it can't just be your way or the highway. Maybe you need to bend a little and be a coach to your players to see what motivates them. Professionals or not, that end result just shouldn't happen. 2 - Defensive Coverage - To get lit up through the air like that was very scary for me. I'm really hoping this was a one game fluke as we have Carr, Brees, and Brady all coming to see us soon. I understand that the Howard TD's were blown coverages by Lorax, but that still doesn't excuse 350+ passing yards. We seem to be going more man coverage, which is another issue I have. Didn't we get rid of guys because they couldn't play zone well and are not really thin in the secondary? And with playing man, we are not sending more than 4, which gave Jameis all day to throw. Yes, we created turnovers and yes, we won, but 27 points and those yards at home after a bye week? I'm more than a little concerned about the blueprint shown to the rest of the league about our defense. Give the Bucs credit all you want, but they were 2-3 for a reason. Oakland looked incredible last week and I'm really nervous to see how next weeks game goes. 3 - Bye Week Prep - Like second half adjustments, I've liked what this team has done so far from a coaching and prep standpoint. With that, having a defensive performance like this, at home, after a bye week, to a sub .500 team is alarming. Yes, any given Sunday and it's a weird league. But we made the Bucs look like a solid playoff team when they haven't all year so far. I don't have anything else specific about this other than the end result, but just a worry going forward. 4 - I knew you before the west was won And I heard you say the past was much more fun You go your way, I go mine But I'll see you next time 5 - Milano - His interception is one of the better defensive plays I've seen this year, let alone by a rookie. It was even more impressive when I saw the replay when I got home. While White and Jones have 1st and 2nd round expectations, I'm starting to think he could be our diamond in the rough from the draft. I'm really looking forward to seeing what this kid can turn into. 6 - The Unknowns - I could state the obvious about our newest stars from the island of misfit toys, but I'm going to focus on the negatives here. How is it that a kid off the street was our first WR with over 100 yards this season. How does Jones do that off the bench on 3rd down but hasn't earned a sniff of the field before then? While I'm happy with how these guys performed, I'm really hoping to see them both get some more opportunities on the field. And like others said, I'm okay with Zay dropping to the 3rd receiver slot until he figures things out. 7 - Last play before half - I've never seen a team look so confused about what to do with 30 seconds left. McDermott can take the blame all he wants, and he should take a lot, but it was a team effort. TT never should have made that throw, the WR should have gotten the ball back quicker, the whole team should have lined up quicker. I think the WR thought we had a Time Out left. Other than that, just a complete waste of a turnover and possible 3 valuable points. For a team that supposedly practices situations all the time, maybe they should work on 60 second drills. 8 - Tolbert - I have been negative to him every week, so I need to give credit where it's due. This was his best performance by far. Saw some burst, some cuts, and some quality runs. I still don't believe he should be our #2, but he did the job this past week. Props to him. Now give Taiwan some more carries. 9 - Shady - Good to see Shady get some tosses and sweeps from the shotgun. This is where he excelled last year and I hope we see more of the same coming up. I'm hoping the success was more because of scheme and plays, and not because we were up against a porous defensive line. Either way, I hope to see more of this in weeks to come. 10 - Tyrod - This is going to be hard for me to say, but I think I'm finally ready to say that I'm ready to move on from Tyrod as our quarterback of the future. I know this is probably a weird week to say this, with a comeback win, most passing yards, and a couple of deep throws. But being at the game really showed me some things about Tyrod that I can't see on TV. Tyrod is very late on his throws, and I mean LATE. In the first quarter alone, there were a few quite a few plays where, if he threw it before their break, the WR would have an easy reception. But Tyrod had to let the play develop before making the throw, and subsequently, let the coverage back break on it too. Right after the first fumble recovery, Tyrod had Zay deep on twice in one play, but just didn't pull the trigger. He wasn't wide open, but it was a ball that absolutely should've been thrown. And yes, Zay was the only WR he was looking at. There's no excuse for that ball to not be thrown while making other endzone throws later that had no chance of being called. On the drive with the missed field goal, he also had a clear first down if he had only walked forward the 5 yards, but threw a crap pass to the endzone. For a guy who likes to run, I was really surprised he didn't. Granted, there were some great plays where he moved around in the pocket to extend a play and a few escapes for first downs. However, on those plays, I think another quarterback gets the ball out quicker and doesn't need to escape. I agree with the assessment that Tyrod needs WR's to be "college open." Watching the plays develop as slowly as they did, I have to believe other qb's take better advantage of this offense. TT will get the job done, but I now believe he caps this offense. Bonus - New Deep Ball Method - On many of our deep plays, we seemed to run delayed deep routes. One WR runs a streak to pull the safey with him, then another one runs a delayed streak behind him, usually forcing a LB to cover him. It worked on the final deep ball and I saw them run it a few times. It was an interesting play to watch, but takes some time to develop. Overall, I apologize for the negative tone as a win is a win. 4-2 feels good. 6-2 will feel a lot better. I think these next two weeks are crucial being at home and against a division opponent. Even in the chaos of some really bad football, teams are starting to turn it on and the Pats are still 5-2. It's still early, but ever win matters. Here's hoping our defense calms down before Oakland and the offense keeps this going. Go Bills!

This actually makes it more enticing. The Bills seem to be all about the salary cap dump

I dont want him gone at all. I dont want half the guys gone whove been cut or traded. But its the world we are in now

I agree. But I think Graham has less years left on his deal. With the cap hit for Glenn and Dareus, I think a contract swap may come into play.

Glenn for Graham straight up. Both have cap hits, but not being utilized. Both make immediate impacts for each team. Would you?

All it what you want, but they both make me sick. I would not watch while either team is on the roster. I was terrified with the Vick rumors. I just cant support them. Brady coming here and winning a Super Bowl is my first nightmare. It would just ruin it for me.

Listening to Vick is like listening to Arod. I dont

1 - Relocation 2 - Brady/Vick on our team. Id leave until they were off the roster. It wouldnt be the same though if/when I came back

You have championships and make the playoffs almost every single year. You know nothing of our pain

I see him just getting cut. Fits in with the current regime moves

I agree with this to a degree. You bring in a deep threat who can run vertical or just crossing routes and he can make a difference. I understand the whole route tree and timing for everything else, but that speed guy can still make the defenses need to respect him. Percy Harvin was the perfect example. There was no timing there, just WR screens and deep routes.

History would show that the OP is probably right. But thats if you believe that history is an accurate representation of things to come. After so many 3-2, even 5-2 starts, over the past 17 years that ended in failure, you cant comoletely dismiss it. Do things feel different this time? A little. Are we benching players that earned large contracts and made probowls? Yes. If Julio Jones doesnt get hurt, we probably lose to Atlanta. If our receivers arent hurt, we maybe beat Cinny. Its tough to say what team we are. Like anyone with BBFS, its easy to be cautiously pessimistic. Truth is, we just dont know yet

No. We are the Bills. We do Billsy things

Considering he didn't get hired until after the draft and the start of FA, I'd say probably not a lot. What would you like him to do in that amount of time? Also, when did job security start coming into question by week? At which, we are 3-2 and 2nd place in the AFC btw

You have to credit the Bengals D as they contained him well. He didnt have a lot of opportunity to run

Thank you. I genuinely laughed out loud

Crusaders always looking for something to support their cause. We get it, you dont like Tyrod. But if you think the All-22 is going to show you wide receivers running free all over the field, I think youll be disappointed. TT has his issues, but without a running game and these amateur hour WRs out there, how much can you expect?

All 22 doesnt show read progressions nor pressure

This was another week where I needed to take some time to let the emotions run their course from another disheartening loss. I wish I could say I am surprised by all the threads after the game with people jumping ship, even though we are still tied for 1st place heading into the bye, but those with an agenda just can't wait for their negative reinforcement. 1 - Running Game - There was talk pre-game about Buffalo running a lot of stacked, 2 TE formations and rushing to that side and that's what we saw. The problem is, once Clay went down, we don't have great blocking tight ends and the running game got blown up at the line. I do not understand how Miller goes from being our starter to inactive, the same as Decasse goes from inactive to starter. Also, while we have a new offensive coordinator and you can't expect the same plays to carry over from the previous year, but it's frustrating to see what's happened to our run game. Unlike the previous few weeks, the Bengals didn't really stack the box and simply got penetration with their front 4. I saw quite a few comments at BillsDaily.com regarding Shady looking slow, but I can't agree with that. Shady just doesn't have the space to make his cuts and doesn't get much momentum going. On a positive note, Tolbert made the best of his carries in probably his best game. 2 - Penalties - This is one of the two biggest contributors to our loss, in my humble opinion. Whether they were justified or not, we had crucial penalties like the Bills of 2016 that either killed our drives or extended theirs. Hughes had a roughing the passer for old times sake and a few rookies just got outmatched and did what they had to in order to survice the play. Either way, this wasn't the same clean team we saw in the first four weeks and it hurt us. 3 - Defensive Line - I was happy to see Dareus get some more playing time and disrupt a few plays. His first sack was all him. However, against a banged up offensive line, I am concerned about the lack of pressure generated by our front 4. On the Bengals last touchdown drive, we were very close to bringing down Dalton in the backfield, but just couldn't complete the play. Positive notes around their ability to shut down the running game, until the last touchdown, where they broke contain. Overall, good, not great game by them, just needed a little bit more. 4 - I have learned to live with livin' with Every choice we made But I would love to live with giving this Shaky voice some shade 5 - Tyrod - This was easily his worst game of the season. I'm not going to talk about missed players, because I don't know his read progression. However, he missed quite a few passes today, which was abnormal for him. The Bengals did a good job of keeping him in the pocket, which probably led to him holding the ball longer than we are used to seeing. In the first half, replays showed a lot of players covered down field, so props to the Bengals again. But as the game went on. Tyrod was as Miss as he was Hit. I don't know what happened on that last INT, but my confidence level in him driving us to a game winning TD after his showing all day was minimal. As for the multiple anti-Tyrod posters that came out today; We are 3-2 and tied for first in our division. He played great last week and good the week before. Tyrod is still the same QB he was last week as he is this week, but minus his top 2 targets and less of a running game. I would hate to have some of you as a Coach, because the confidence from job security would be rattling. Big Ben threw 5 int's today and I'm sure many of you would take him as your started in a heartbeat. He has Bell, Brown, and Bryant btw. 6 - Front Office - Someone made a post that I agree with about our roster today. Yes, we've had injuries that can't be controlled. However, this team made trades, cuts, and decisions that led to our lack of depth at the WR position. I understand that we are trying to find a balance of re-build, culture change, and competitive play; but that bit us hard today. The drop off in talent when certain guys went down today, which is alarming on an NFL field. I'm not saying that Sammy wins this game for us or anyone in particular and I'm excited to see how we use our 6 picks in the first 3 rounds next year. But today was hard to stomach knowing that we could have made other choices this offseason to maybe prevent today's result. 7 - Secondary - Our safeties keep being the MVP's of this season. What more can you say about Hyde and Poyer? They keep creating big turnovers and putting our offense in a position to win. I would love to know more about the coverage on the first AJ touchdown, as I don't believe we weren't supposed to have anyone helping over the top. Outside of that, besides them returning their turnovers for touchdowns, I don't know what more we can ask of them. 8 - Offensive Scheme/Wide Receivers - I put these two together because I don't know where to focus our attention. Are the WR's in capable of getting open or are they running uninspired routes due to the scheme? Holmes had pretty good production in Oakland, but is non-existent here. Zay clearly has some mental blocks affecting him, but still isn't exactly demanding passes out there. Like I said earlier, replay showed these guys covered a lot downfield, but we've seen other teams do more with less talent. I personally think our offensive production is the combination of talent, scheme, lack of rushing game, and a quarterback that just isn't built to throw is over 30 times a game. Unfortunately, I don't see this getting fixed over our bye week and requiring us to continue to lean on our defense. 9 - AJ Green/Julio Jones - While I recognize that these are elite receivers, I am still concerned with how easily they are hurting our defense. It's no secret that the opposing offenses run through them, yet they both had great games against us. I'm convinced that we lose last week if Julio doesn't get hurt. Between the way these guys found success against us, as well as other gaps in our zone, and running the ball while spreading us out, I'm worried that our defense is going to break more and more, while our offense doesn't adapt to offset it. 10 - McDermott - We saw some things stay the same from previous weeks and we saw some changes. We saw the same slow start on offense and overall lack of identity and rhythm. On defense, we saw a lot more man coverage that left players on an island. We also saw more penalties. McDermott was great so far with his halftime adjustments, but today we actually got worse. I'm not sure what happened today, but this bye week needs to get us healthy and fix some scheme issues. Unimportant, but I don't believe coaches owe the media anything in post game pressers. However, I do believe the support of the media and subsequently the fans, can make like easier for a coach. His post-game didn't really answer any questions and you could feel the frustration of the reporters. At the end of the day, we are still 3-2 and tied for 1st in the division. Many good teams lost today and we are heading into a much needed bye week. Tampa and Oakland are beatable coming up at home and we were in this one the entire game. The sky is not falling. Tyrod isn't getting benched. We have issues yes, but we are still in better shape than anyone thought going into the season. Go Bills

It's slowly changing. Our defense is getting exposed in certain areas and I'm concerned with how that will grow as the season continues

Is it possible that Vlad is a better run blocker? They know its going to be a trenches game. Thats all I got.....

This.

Wait a second. Hes not hurt? Hes a healthy scratch? What the !@#$ is going on?!