RuntheDamnBall

Pretty sure Jerry had to squeegee his TV after this one.

Which is the same defense, even though we just installed a new one and have different personnel, and which is the same Fitz, even though his mistakes were not forced mistakes like they more generally are.

They were getting shoved to the ground!

Killing the coffee table ain't wrong, dude.

You're right. Same exact team, running the exact same 3-4/4-3 George Edwards defense, with rookies who weren't here last year starting. If there is anything to be thankful for in the midst of this great football tragedy, it's that people on this board are not running this team. Bench Fitz and play... whom exactly? TT? TJ and his whole 10 days with the Bills playbook? "Lemme teach you guys a lesson: suck this badly, and I'm going to put someone even worse on the field! Good luck winning that way!" I thought Fitz played poorly enough to get benched, but not in the season opener, given the current roster situation. It would look even worse than it already did. As it stands Fitz played a less mistake-ridden final 20 minutes and they put points on the board, and yes, they were garbage time points, but at least they didn't lay down. This week is going to be another test and I'm sure this board will chart a course to points unreasonable one way or the other after we know the result.

I'm sure he's not. But I'm also sure he is used to seeing it called at least once if it's happening all game. The guy clearly didn't get as far as he's gotten by resting on his laurels and being a complainer. Obviously he'll have to work on a response tactic if this is the kind of thing that's not getting called all of a sudden, but I'm inclined to trust him for being stunned about it.

2 years ago this was true. He has improved. I saw him pick up the few blitzes that came his way yesterday. And the Jets weren't calling many because they were sitting back and waiting for Fitz to make mistakes (which were plentiful). Unless you want to cite plays where CJ missed (which I welcome) it's on you to substantiate this claim.

To add to this, and, even worse, when the Bills DBs weren't giving 10-15 yard cushions, they were getting knocked to the ground by Jets receivers at the snap. Conversely, our receivers are not physical and imposing enough to get in the game, much less to abuse opposing DBs.

Did not bode well. It definitely brought me back down to earth after celebrating the early Sanchez INT.

True. Plus the Jets got 14 points without our defense even being on the field. The defense was horrendous, but you're talking about points on top of the 34 the Jets offense scored "on their own" (often aided by great field position courtesy of our other turnovers and poor offensive play).

Nobody died, that we know of. That's a positive.

Complain about the pass rush, but there was really not a ton of time to pressure Sanchez. Our shot at disrupting his quick timing would have been up the middle, but you've got one of the best in the biz in Mangold anchoring that line. The secondary was in complete disarray yesterday. They had no idea where to be, were leaving tons of cushion in front of them, and to make matters worse, they were falling down or losing footing with regularity (seems like a constant Bills problem!).

So, he's in good company with his teammates.

Substitute preparation for effort. Actually, had they been more prepared, they probably would not have had to work so hard. The timing and assignment issues suggest the coaches have a lot of work to do so that this team is not so exposed in the future.

My sentiments exactly.

You're gonna get lots of people blasting you with "woulda, shouldas," but I agree. These games can turn on a dime in the early goings. It's part of why we watch - we just don't know why and when things will happen. The Spiller fumble could as easily have been ruled a drop, and if it had been ruled that initially, you can imagine it would have remained the call. As for the refs - you tell me. Did the Jets really play a 100% clean game until the fourth quarter when they finally had their first penalty called, or is it more likely they were holding at some point? (They were. And there were numerous missed hands-to-the-face calls. And you will keep doing these things as long as you can get away with them). No bias, but refs afraid to make too many game-changing calls, I think.

So football is now sort of like futures trading? I didn't realize this actually meant that we lost more games already. Dammit. I quit.

Yep. Bad first matchup, and new surroundings. FAs typically do have a harder time adjusting to a new team. It takes awhile. I'd love for him to have come in and be dominant right away, but really all I want to see him do is play his game. Kyle and Marcel are going to free things up for him eventually, but we can't have our entire secondary and LB corps sucking wind all day and expect Mario to be a big presence. Not with a QB who can get it off as quickly as Sanchez did today. TEAM. GAME. They sucked out loud, as a team.

More like Fitz-BAD-trick or Fitz-HAT-TRICK...of INTs. AMIRITE?

No, Howard more likely has a career in pro wrestling awaiting him, but "he was on the practice squad" isn't really an indicator of anything. Remember when the Bills got run all over by "scrub" 3rd stringer Willie Parker? Good players come from everywhere. We'll see what Howard does, and we'll see if he ever gets a penalty called on him, too. But yeah, basically what I said is "he's the next Peters." Good luck finding a job with those reading skills. Williams has produced over enough time that I'm not as worried as the dunderheads around here that he's a waste of money yet.

You know who else spent time on the Practice Squad, is Jason Peters, but carry on.

They definitely got punched in the mouth, let's put it that way. I am not sure that they could have beaten this Jets team (a much-maligned one, facing a Bills team being talked up - total red meat) in the home opener with rookies starting at LT, LCB, and possibly OLB. They got owned, no doubt. The onus is on them to improve, quickly. It'll be a test of the character of everyone on the team, and if you don't see better from them over the haul someone else will be coaching them and quarterbacking them, not necessarily in that order. I think the one thing they really did reveal is how quickly turnovers can cause a game to get out of hand. They weren't necessarily out of it at the end of the first half or beginning of the second, but the Fitz turnovers just sapped the energy from the team. He knows this and if he can't control it, he'll be out of a job sooner rather than later. As for BarkLess' quote, is this team a continuation of what we saw in the first seven weeks before injuries destroyed them last year? Because it certainly didn't remind me of them. "It's only 0-1" is for everyone who cares enough to hope they'll get on the right track - and that includes the coaches who need to perform and evaluate and prepare their team better. It's a hell of a tall order. But if people want to whine about this being the same old Bills and suggest that none of the improvements the team made have any chance at being actual improvements, I suggest they look in the mirror and ask themselves what that's really going to accomplish. Yep, yep, yep.

McKelvin also let that punt down at the 5 instead of grabbing it when he clearly had time. Total "run for the bus" moment. He sucks. Did have a nice return late but I do not want "talented" players who choose when to have their head in the game on my team.

JUMP!

I didn't disqualify it - I qualified it. The point is that each of these teams are in some sense in the same boat and it won't matter if the Bills win 11 one-point games and lose 5 blowouts. And realistically, each of these teams might find that one loss meaning more in what is called a tougher conference. If the Bills suck this bad through more than a couple of games, it'll be obvious that some changes need to be made. What I can't understand is how the same people who went through 5-1 Trent and last year's start know by the same token that this year's inauspicious start automatically speaks for the whole season. It's not baseball, but it's a long enough season that you can write off a bad opener and go back to the drawing board. I am much more intrigued to see how Gailey and this team in general responds to this ass-whupping than I am to hear people hear complain about it. Tom Brady and the 2003 Patriots.