FLFan
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Posts posted by FLFan
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LOL, think lack of depth is bad here? The Jaguars are using ball boys as wide receivers...
http://fansided.com/...ers-scout-team/
Seriously though, I don't get all of the sudden frustration and outrage regarding the backup QB. Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see one person up in arms about Tuel being our backup before the Manuel injury. The hand wringing this week on this board has been so over the top.
I've seen nothing yet that signals the Bills are not on the same track as they were in the mid-eighties. IMO, if not for the key injuries to Gilmore and Manuel, they'd be 4-1. As Bills fans I would hope that more fans would see this. I can understand the national media not bothering to look just below the surface, but I'm extremely excited for the future of this team. Once healthy, I think they are shaping up to be a Pittsburgh Steelers type of team. Strong defense, big/strong/athletic/opportunistic QB, and a great running game. I can't wait till the last seven games when the team is at full strength and we can see what we really have going on.
You are entirely too rational and positive. Try to get with it. Pitchforks are on sale at Home Depot this weekend.
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Good post Bill. I would disagree with your number 8 on the hurry up in this case. In fact, it seemed to me that before EJ went out it was the Bills who were wearing down the Cleveland D, not the other way around. As for the McGahee runs, I think the Bills simply overplayed the pass and did not expect the couple of "big" runs he made. It looked to me they were caught in pass blitzes and the Brown's OL blocked the plays extremely well.
The real issue here is QB play. The Bills were dead, and their defense began wearing down, when Tuel went into the game and went 4 series without a first down. The elephant in the room since the roster was set was the lack of experienced depth at QB. Its too bad Kolb was hurt but the failure to sign and keep a veteran QB will doom them if EJ spends any time out of the lineup. The Brown's backup QB last night was a former 1st round pick with a full year of NFL starting experience. The Bills backup was an undrafted rookie free agent. This was clearly the difference in the game. The Bills probably win if EJ plays the game.
I was really perturbed, however, at the 3rd and 18 completion. Weeden had all day. WTF Pettine! Why get conservative and play prevent there. The Bills still had a chance, albeit a small one with Tuel, until then.
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No surprise. He continues to demonstrate that he is a POS week after week.
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A career backup to Tom Brady and one year in a dysfunctional Arizona team. He's looked pretty good the past couple of weeks and now has confidence...not many things are as dangerous as a confident QB.
The Bills are good at stopping the run and Cleveland's running game is iffy with McGahee & Ogbannaya. They do have Josh Gordon back, which has been helping their passing game. If Hoyer does his job, he'll pick on the Bills secondary and we'll see a lot of catches by Gordon & Jordan Cameron. The Bills will just have to go after whoever Joe Haden isn't covering - Woods is starting to make a presence, so if Haden is on him, then Stevie might have a big game...EJ has to recognize that and capitalize. I don't think they'll be able to run the ball well enough, so we might see a lot of balls in the air tonight from both sides.
Yes he backed up Tom Brady, but unfortunately talent does not just rub off, as his career stats indicate. I can't help thinking the last two games were an aberration. He will find his level eventually, hopefully tonight. That said, I expect the Browns to try and pick on the Bills secondary and it will be necessary for Pettine to call a great game, and for the Defense to step it up like they did last week. I also agree the Bills will need to throw to loosen up the Browns defense. Hacket needs to step it up also, and I feel like this game will be an opportunity for EJ to shine. (or not) Running 55 times will not win this game I am afraid.
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He is too irrelevant to hate anymore.
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He is, and always has been, a self centered and immature jerk. Nothing new. Although, this is pretty funny.
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And their QB has had a hot hand for the past two games...May be he will struggle tonight against us.
No reason why not. Hoyer is a career back up, marginal NFL player, who is now being treated like a savior because they won a couple of games. Kind of reminds of some guy named Fitzgibbons or something a couple of years ago. There is no reason that the Bills defense should not be able to shut these guys down. On offense, they are going to need to be creative to overcome the Brown's D. A couple of turnovers from Hoyer, and this game may not even be close.
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Very nice comparison. This gives me hope that Hacket knows how to adjust. He will need to do so again to have a chance against Cleveland's D. The Bills will need to mix it up more this week to keep the Brown's off balance.
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But when else can you trade him where his value will be higher? Your not going to get anything more for him if you wait it out. At the end of the season teams can just wait til he becomes a FA
Teams can talk informally and get a "handshake agreement" from him that they will pay him what he wants when they can.
The Bills own his rights to the next negotiating period and have the threat of franchising him again. If they cannot come to agreement before the tag date, or negotiate a decent trade by then, they can franchise him again and they have until July 15 to trade him His best value would be before or during next year's draft. The bottom line is he is a valuable asset that they should not entertain letting go for the paltry mid round value they could get for him now, with uncertain future. Handshake agreements are not only worthless, but against the rules of the CBA. No negotiating, period.
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We have been getting a ton of coverage on the NFL Network today, including a nice interview with Robert Woods. It's been fun to watch. Nice perk of being the Thursday night game.
They are promoting as best they can because it is likely to be the lowest rated Thursday night game of the year.
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This would be the wrong time to trade Byrd given the receiving team's inability to lock him up. It would make the compensation much less than he is worth. I also do not see them trading picks for a guard right now. It is what is for this year.
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The Ravens are very thin at receiver and Flacco is a statue. This is about as good a matchup for the Bills banged up secondary as they will get. I could see Buffalo squeaking out a close win in a low scoring game - 20/16
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Move him to LG. Hairston at LT. Pears stays at RT
Glenn was a bruising run blocker in college. This might be a quick fix for our Colin Brown problem.
It might be an idea if Hairston was not on the PUP list. Maybe next year.
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People that can pick up on the notions of what I just replied, yes, they are more astute, or smart, or whatever you want to call it. I'll throw in less likely to be fooled and less gullible too.
I'm far from the only one, from what I see here there are plenty of fans that can see this.
But what, instead you defer to whom, people that have been categorically wrong over the years? No doubt you said similar things in years past regarding the other staffs too and those that criticized them early on.
This isn't brain science, it's largely common sense.
We're not talking about a coaching staff struggling with the intricacies of offenses or defenses here and mis-adjustments that lost games by a point or two.
What we're talking about is a staff led by someone that couldn't even figure out that his style of offense was going to lead to a miserable time-of-possession that would hinder the team. Is that going to change? No, why should it, just because you say so? Or they say so? That's ridiculous.
And what, time-of-possession is a difficult concept to manage and consider? Hardly. Any fool football fan knows that you're not going anywhere with such a lopsided time of possession. It's a tremendously trivial concept, surprised you don't realize that given your implied genius.
Do you think that it's a coincidence that Chip Kelly and Marrone coach the two teams with the worst time-of-possession in the entire league, by a wide margin even? It's not even close to the 3rd worst team.
There are a number of other things too that all fall into the fundamentals category. I won't bother with them since clearly your mind is closed, shuttered as if awaiting a hurricane.
But what, we have coaches that don't understand the fundamentals at any level but particularly the NFL level, and you think that they're going to do what, grow into their roles and become competitive coaches overnight so that next season they can compete with the top-half coaches in this league?
Who's the naive one here? It's not me and those that can see these tremendously simple, trivial, and fundamental flaws after four games of preseason and another 3 into the regular season.
If you read completely, you'll see and note that I said that I was surprised by this myself. I did not expect the assessment of this new coaching staff to be able to come so soon. Yet it has. I didn't make them coach the way that they are, not not-coach the way that they are. All I'm doing is seeing a duck and calling it the duck that it is.
But yes, despite your sarcasm you are in fact correct, the more intelligent, smarter, and less gullible people should easily be able to recognize this. You'll be on board too since those things are far too much for a staff to overcome to be even average in this league if they don't understand those things (some not even mentioned in this thread) now, at this point in time after years of coaching at lower levels. You'll be with the masses that get with the program after anyo other options have been exhausted, apparently. Then you and the laggers will consider yourselves on top of things. LOL
Fans understand it though, the smarter ones that is. I'll leave it for you to categorize those fans as you wish, which you'll do anyway.
Again, no one was expecting wins this season, and clearly with good reason, but when you have a front-4 like we have and can't even stop the run after being heralded as some kind of defensive expert, I mean honestly, you think that's a good sign for the future? Really?
I don't think that Hackett has more than a few percent support, even here, in homer central.
Who hired Hackett tho? Who thought that he was prepared for the task? Who thinks that running some caffeine hyped paced offense in the NFL was not going to have a significant impact on a D that isn't even very good to begin with?
Does it really take someone with above-average intelligence to string that stuff together? IDK, maybe it does, but I don't think it does. Apparently so though according to you.
By the way and fwiw, we're also talking about a coaching staff that had to have Manuel, but apparently failed to reconcile one of Manuel's biggest draft negatives and weaknesses by most draft pundits and analysts, namely his inaccuracy on all but shorter throws.
Then, they amass speed at the WR position to pair with those inaccuracy issues, and then they scratch their little noodles as to why we have no deep passing game.
Does this seem intelligent to you? It doesn't to a lot of us and hardly falls into the category of "Football for Budding Geniuses" in terms of comprehension. It's basic fundamental stuff and common sense. Yet ...
Somewhere there's a major disconnect, and yeah, the more astute football viewers can easily see where it is and don't need a season's worth of observation to realize that coaches that can't even manage the simplest of things are going to have much rougher going with the more complex things.
You confuse opinions with facts, and arrogance with intelligence. You purport to "know" exactly how everything will turn out, because, after all, you and other "astute" fans can see based on your vast experience, knowledge and "common sense". Well, concluding as you have that after a 3 game sample your own biased opinions have been confirmed and the whole venture is doomed to failure is neither astute nor intelligent. It is short sighted and illogical. But of course, that is just my own uninformed, ignorant opinion, not nearly as good or valued as yours.
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I think that the truly reasonable posters and the more astute ones recognize that the staff is, once again, in over their heads. The NFL is not a place for people to come to learn how to do things, it's a place where experienced and competent people succeed. Clearly Marrone and certainly not Hackett fit that mold.
Reason does not make excuses, particularly excuses that most other teams have at their disposal too, and then say that things will be better once everything's perfect, nothing's ever perfect in the NFL.
I was really hoping for more from this caste of coaches. I didn't figure that it would be obvious so soon that we've been sold a bill of goods by Brandon once again, the marketer in chief, but we have been.
It's going to be interesting to see now how long it takes everyone to catch on as it will no doubt go in waves. That's where the real entertainment bang for the buck is, watching the posters.
Yes - only smart people like you can really see the truth. The rest of the great unwashed will in time recognize your genius.
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There is a better way to fix it - make first downs. No matter how much they slow down, if the cannot stay on the filed, it is not going to help. Pace is not the problem - execution is. If they cannot fix that, it does not matter how long they do or do not take to snap the ball.
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Is this one of the dumbest TSW threads of all time?
It would have to be in the top three at least.
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In Byrd's slight defense, he was getting $7MM this year no matter what.
$7MM was his minimum this year. Whether from the Bills or somewhere else. He probably believes he earned at least that much, because that's the CBA. He's just pissy because he is making the "minimum" this year, instead of more.
I still think he should actually man-up and earn that money. Its not $7MM of a windfall. Its not a Jackpot or the Lotto or something.
Its $7MM to PLAY FOOTBALL.
Exactly. If he did not want to risk injury he could have refused to sign the tender and sat out. Instead, he took the money with no intention of earning it, trying to make his presence so unpalatable as to force a trade.. He is taking advantage of the system he is complaining about while screwing over his team mates. He is the very definition of a POS. Byrd has less and less value to the Bills or anyone else as the weeks go by. If it were my team, assuming I could do it under the cap without screwing myself, I would franchise him again next year and sit him on the bench, replaced by a new draft choice. Lets see who wants to pay him top dollars after two years of inactivity. Whatever happens, I sincerely hope the Bills stay the course and do not given in to this selfish douche and his greedy agent.
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There have been many people "patiently" waiting for the first sign of trouble to pull out these same old tired arguments. The dogs were let loose this week. Personally, while Sunday was disappointing, I am enjoying the ride.
Go Bills!
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I checked back into this thread to see if it was still being taken as a joke and actually find many people that agree. It is truly amazing.
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I don't have any evidence, but the Marrone quote combined with the fact that Byrd played well even with the injury last season and the fact that the secondary is decimated tells me that not all is happy in Bills-land. The team has to be royally pissed at Byrd for not gutting it out even just a teensy bit given the secondary situation.
That may well be. I am sure just as obvious to his coaches and his team mates that he has decided to collect a paycheck and do nothing. If he was any kind of man he would be playing.
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Stay man. We are trading spiller and we are benching EJ Manuel in tie gAmes to save his fragile psyche.
And EJ is too nice for his own good, so there's that gem
Big week of deals you don't wanna miss.
You are behind. Now we are trading EJ and CJ, moving Woods to LG, bringing back Nate Clements, firing Hacket, Whaley, and quite possibly Marone. I am sure I have missed a few gems myself, but be sure to keep up.
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So these are running grades, not just weekly grades?
There does not appear to be a similar comparison after week 2.
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One and a half drives into Sunday's game, and no less than five fans in the gameday thread were calling for Hackett's head on a stake.
That's fine. The gameday thread has never been known to be a sanctuary for balanced discourse.
I bit back, a little, then gave up when:
- It was clearly a futile effort.
- It was clearly a rough day for the offensive staff, coaches included.
That said, and while fully acknowledging Hackett's shortcomings in the loss, I'm still not ready to blame the playcalling.
Here's why:
Expectations
Rookie quarterback, rookie OC.
The moment the Bills announced Hackett would be taking over the play calling duties, a certain sect of Bills fans (and not necessarily a marginally-sized one, mind you) saw their opportunity to lambaste the front office. Couldn't blame them, really. After Ralph handing over the keys (something The Realists have been clamoring for for years), after jumping on a HC hire that was widely revered league-wide and in the media, and after stealing arguably the best coordinator available in Pettine, there wasn't a lot to B word about.
Then came Hackett.
Suddenly, a sliver of daylight for the doomers to pounce. Their jumbo-sized microscopes calibrated, they couldn't wait for this guy to give them an excuse to complain.
Suddenly, the first quarter of Sunday's game.
It. Was. On.
The way some "fans" were going bonkers, you would have thought Hackett was calling double-reverse flea flicker screen punts on first down.
They got what they wanted: our lousy, cheap, stuck-in-the-past FO screwed the pooch...AGAIN. What a bunch of !@#$ing losers the Bills are.
Meanwhile: reality.
He is a rookie OC. He is a young rookie OC. And through three games, the Jets have showed their defense is as every bit as good as it's been the last half-decade since Rexy took over.
Oh yeah.
We also have a rookie QB.
And not Andrew--kissed by Christ himself--Luck. We have a rookie QB whose size and intangibles are universally admired, but whose skills and abilities are questionable enough that not since Rex Grossman in 2002 has the first quarterback in a draft come off the board after so many picks.
E.J. Manuel is going to struggle this year. He already has, and he will continue to do so.
Week-to-week analyses have indicated that he's on a short playbook leash as it is, and as we've already acknowledged, he doesn't have an innovator like Chan (who by the way has nearly as many years coaching as Hackett does living) finding ways to hide his shortcomings.
Yet a certain pod of Bills fans expects the Hackett/Manuel duo--after 12 whole quarters of NFL football--to be perfect. And when they're not, they're failures, they're an excuse to pout and say "same Ole Bills."
Well, they're not the same Ole Bills. Fans shouldn't expect them to be, just like they shouldn't expect Brady/Bellicheat mastery, right out of the gate.
Execution
You can argue till you're blue in the fact about whether or not Nix was a good GM, whether or not Whaley is ready to have the keys, or whether or not Buffalo is any position to build a championship franchise...ever. But nothing changes the fact that--quietly--our team underwent a MASSIVE gutting this offseason, turning over players at skill-positions, on the line, practically all over the field.
And even if Hackett was calling double-reverse flea flicker screen punts on first down, the team can't afford to miss blocks and fail to find openings like it did on Sunday.
Missed throws, missed lanes, missed blocks, poorly run routes: if the game had been devoid of any of these, then the blame rests with the playcalling. Instead, we watched a game sick with these mistakes.
Hackett does need to do a better job of putting his players in a position to succeed, but that doesn't mean players don't have succeed in the positions they're put in.
I understand after 13 years of playoff football and after 10 consecutive losing seasons, "patience" is a damn-near impossible ask. But c'mon, folks. If you expected a 13-3 season with flawless execution and gameplanning, then you set yourself up for disappointment. Yes, we should all want the best team out there. But that doesn't mean the team's growing pains should be your pleasure. And if you can't live with those pains, there are 31 other bandwagons accepting new passengers.
GO BILLS!
A terrific post that will likley not register one iota with the pitchfork mob. Well done anyway.
- It was clearly a futile effort.
Thaddeus Lewis starting against Bengals
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
But Jason LaConfora said he would so it must be true.