BuffOrange

I'm a Cuse guy so wanted him to work; would've been a cool story. He's done/said a zillion things in the last 1.5yrs to convince me he's mostly incompetent. Starting with responding to Buscalia's 4th down/analytics question last year with [paraphrasing] "those #'s Brian Burke has don't factor in lost field position for turnover on downs" - which is of course laughably wrong. Don't think I actually hated him until he leaked the contract clause on Monday though. That's all you need to know how much of a politician he is, how he can't wait to use his plants in the media. The whole political process and power play attempt bothers me way more than the opt-out itself (which doesn't really bother me at all) if that makes sense.

Ya not a nominee for best post of the thread, but outside of that I was actually impressed... They seem to 'get it' wrt the OL sucking & the D carrying the load; which seems like it should be painfully obvious, but it's more than the national media can grasp.

All I heard in the buildup to this was how good it was for FSU to be the underdog. Which was odd since they're 27-0 as a favorite the last two years and 0-0 as a dog.

Fair points but Rex brought a lot of it on himself. It's hard to say since modern social media has only been around a handful of years, but I don't ever remember anyone on espn really caring about the Jets when they haven't had a coach who gives them golden sound bites.

As long as "everyone " doesn't include Colin Cowherd, the guests on his football show, Mike Schopp, me, and people in Vegas who bet the line down to 3.5.... Sure.

I said this before anyone knew about DM's opt-out clause (nobody wanted to hear it then) but 2015 was always shaping up to be a rough year. Given the QB problem and the fact that Defense/Special Teams would almost certainly have to regress (plexiglass principle) and the lack of 1st rounder...plus week 17 opponent won't lay down & we won't play a team that will miss 3 FG's and we'll probably have more injuries compared to this yr where we got off relatively easy. It's just going to be doubly frustrating when simpleton schmucks (both in the media and the web) attribute the decline to the Head Coach. DM is a great politician. He picks the right spots to leave. Especially if the reports of him picking EJ is true. This love affair the national media has for him will continue for at least another year or two. But you can only fool people for so long. It may be 2016 or later but time will eventually uncover the truth. He will be a failure. As for the Bills I don't know but if they fail it won't be because they didn't get on their knees for this self aggrandizing fraud.

Actually think Buffalo media pressure is underrated in a fishbowl sort of way. So what if NY is a much bigger market. Not sure who their Schopp is. It's not Francesca who is from the old "punt/kick" school and he likes guys who are never interesting (DM is way better than Rex at being uninteresting).

+1.

The HC who specializes in OL play is a far lesser issue than the OL coach... Not the dumbest thing I've heard in 2014 but you only have 4.5 hours to beat it.

You don't have to like him but at least he's not collecting a check off his last name like his brother. His defense overachieved nearly every year in NJ considering they never had a great pass-rusher. The questions about offense with him are justified; but with a decent QB like ATL (a rare job opening with a good QB in place), it'd be interesting to see. I mean, I wouldn't break the bank but I'd take him over Andrew Gaze aka the guy who happens to be the OC for Peyton Manning, a job your 10yr old daughter could do.

Was that Collins or Van Pelt? 13-10 & 10-7. A couple shootouts.

Really, I think he's a way better fit in ATL. Get out of Matty Ice & the offense's way and manufacture a pass-rush without a great pass-rusher, which he's obviously done before. Kaepernick might be a disaster under him.

There's lots of turnover year to year with special teams...and also with home/road splits. Dallas would be likely be an underdog if they played either Philly or KC on the road in week 1 fwiw.

Captain Equivocation "That's not to say that..." "I wouldn't necessarily go as far..." Hearing him just now talk about "not being overly impressed" with Bryce Petty is so him in a nutshell. +1. Philly is brutal as well.

I cannot speak for the Frank Reich/Bill Polian people. Not sure what Marrone skeptics are "overreacting" too. Sunday's glorified preseason game is the cause of all this "winning record!" & "4-2!" junk. That's the stuff that is shortsighted when you look at all of the bad coaches in the history of the league that had decent records in a single season (some of them were just fired). I hope 2015 turns out better than 2005 - when a great D/Specials took us to 9-7 with an up&coming offensive coach the year before. As D/ST is less reliable than offense from a consistency standpoint, I am not optimistic. But I'm sure all those brilliant "people in the business" like Russ Brandon also loved Mike Mularkey on 12/29/04 as much as Schefter is saying they like Marrone now.

I realize the math is complex, but I think 10-6 is vaguely comparable to 20-12.

What a bunch of drivel, proving once again, that overachieving in Year #1 is one of the worst things a coach can do. 20-12 with Foles/Sanchez and a worse defense. Horray for preseason predictions, the end all be all of a team's talent level.

You're omitting the 60yard TD part of the equation, which is kind of important. 80 vs 60 discrepancy >>> 4th&1 %

The point is positively not who the better player is. It's you can have Julio or Dez - I'll take the other guy and a 1st Rd pick. Pretty sure you know this but hear what you want to hear.

I normally like Collinsworth but him being the team mvp is rubbish.

Lol deluded. "Hey Ian (or Mort or Laconfora or whoever), as I'm sure you recall I helped with your story in August. Can you drop my name in that Michigan report? It'd help my perceived value quite a bit." Thanks, Doug Ya I'm gonna say the idea that he'd walk away from this gig is in fact hilarious.

It's like you're formulating an argument against a team that traded up for Beckham, thinking that he is the only great WR in the draft. Unfortunately here on planet earth, team with known commodity of crap at QB did that for Sammy. So ya know, quibbling about schedules is incredibly weak.

I guess I hate CBB refs just for different reasons than everyone else. Didn't really see Cooney get shoved that bad tbh. Wrong time to try and get a call. Now any of the 800 times Pinkston/Ochefu lowered their shoulders with the sole objective of creating contact would've been a better time to hit the deck. But that's not really in Xmas/Mc's dna and I respect that. It just sucks that there are all these weak charges/flops in every game but you can get away with murder if the defender doesn't do the pathetic soccer flop (which other than Fab Melo, our guys hardly ever do). Nova looks like a fraud as per usual.

The guy is getting a ton of mileage out of Dave Wandsteadt sucking.

Cards D too good. Only change I'd consider is Crowell for Evans.