Luxy312

People are too funny and too stupid to remember history. Does anyone remember the name of the running back that was caught in the backfield for negative yards more than any other in the history of the NFL? His name was Barry Sanders. You still give a guy like that carries. When you don't get a guy like that more touches, he's not going to be as productive and have those breakout games. Spiller is the same. 8 carries for him and 12 for Jackson when it's too windy to go downfield in the air? Yet you give Manuel 39 pass attempts? The stupidity of the offensive play calling is mind boggling.

I don't think that anyone would disagree with the "babied" comments. Here's the thing and it's pretty simple. If the coaches didn't want him checking down to Jackson or Chandler on third and long, then those routes would not be run. That should tell us two things really. The coaching staff hasn't taken the training wheels off yet. We don't know the reason. Maybe he's just not ready to have full command of the offense at this point. Second and more important though is that Manuel himself by virtue of the fact that he IS checking down clearly isn't comfortable. When all is said and done, it has to start somewhere.

Daunte Culpepper.

If anyone looks at the remaining schedule and believes there's a snowball's chance that they could run the table, they're seriously fooling themselves. The Jets beat the crap out of Manuel in the first game. 8 sacks. Do we have any reason to believe that thee O-line is any better? Our defense probably gets after Geno Smith a little better, but it still probably doesn't matter. The Jets had 182 yards with Bilal Powell running the ball. I don't see that changing. Miami is a trap/revenge game given our close win the first time around. Then add NE at home, where they will likely be playing for homefield advantage. Zero chance. Less than zero.

Take away the junk drive at the end of the game and EJ was 11 for 25 and just 42 yards passing. The drive that didn't matter added 11 completions more and another 14 attempts. That is absolutely atrocious. The defense didn't lose this game for the Bills. It's all squarely on an inept offense.

My thoughts in no order of importance: 1 - EJ is not playing scared or shell shocked. He is playing to not make mistakes though and teams know this. If I see another 2 yard checkdown pass on 3rd and 7, I'm going to puke. 2 - The defense is for real on this team. Pittsburgh didn't real off many big plays at all. Mario was doubled on practically every play and was still disruptive. 3 - Roethlisberger didn't have much better of a day than Manuel. However, he at least took some deep shots. 100 of his 204 yards came on 3 plays. I guess maybe check that. 80 of EJ's yards came in garbage time when the game was essentially over. 4 - The play calling on offense wasn't very good at all. While I don't like that EJ's checking down on 3rd and long, I also don't like that the offense is even giving that option on the field. I ask myself over and over again why an OC would have anyone running a 2 yard curl to Jackson or Chandler on 3rd and 7, and I come up with no answer that makes any sense, other than ineptitude. 5 - I reflect to the preseason comment that "we're going to give CJ the ball until he pukes". Then I look at the game yesterday and see a team basically taking turns between backs running the ball for a total of 20 carries for the entire game. CJ has 8 carries on the day. 6 - Down 2 TD's in the 4th quarter and it's 4th and 5 on the Steelers 36 yard line, and they punt. Ridiculous decision making by this young coaching staff, and more playing to not make mistakes than playing to win.

Telling me that the run game was bad because of run blitzing is like pissing in the wind and trying to convince me that it's raining. People make excuses for EJ's constant checkdowns (i.e. the "wind"), but fail to explain away his 39 pass attempts compared to just 20 combined carries for Jackson and Spiller. This team is young and the coaching staff are young no doubt. However, playing passive when you come into the week with 3 wins and 6 losses makes no sense. Unless of course you've already given up on the season. The Patriots had over 600 yards of offense on this Pittsburgh defense last week. The Bills barely topped 200. Pathetic effort.

Simple answer is my father. He was a red/white/blue Bills fan his whole life. Now that he's passed on, it's hard not to root for the team that never won the big game. Lots of nostalgia for me at the beginning of every season. None the less at this point in the season, I could care less about the games. I'll watch maybe the first half of a game (if that) and then do something else.

The way I see it, we appear to have captain checkdown 2.0 at the helm. Except for the ONE play where Stevie was wide open, what did we see yesterday? I saw play after play of 2 and 3 yard passes to the third or fourth option. Take away that one play and what's left? 38 pass attempts for 132 yards. He barely glanced at the WR's down the field before simply dumping the ball off. Playing against one of the worst performing secondaries in the NFL, we took virtually no shots deep at all. Sure it was windy, but please tell my why Ben was still able to sling it around. At the same time they only run Freddy 12 times and CJ 8 times? If it was so windy, how come these guys combined for just 20 attempts while EJ is throwing it almost 40 times? What was even worse for me is that they seemed to swap out backs every other running play. How is a guy supposed to generate any momentum running the ball if he's getting a carry every 3-5 minutes? This team is done for this year. I don't blame the defense at all. 4 sacks on the day and a ton of pressure on rape-less-burger. Byrd's pick was pretty darn good too. EJ thus far has been pretty average. I'll believe in him more when I see him make some plays.

My problem with this team right now is that they haven't adjusted their play calling for the personnel that they have on the field. These guys are not completely interchangeable. If Freddy and CJ are dinged up, you don't just tote out Choice and give him the ball 25 times. That's exactly what's going on in the passing game unfortunately. They're throwing the ball 32 times a game no matter what happens. Neither Tuel nor Lewis can make the throws. It makes no sense to put the burden on them to make a play, when you got other more talented football players that could potentially make plays. That third down play was a panicked throw at best into coverage when he had an open guy in the end zone. The result is a 14 point swing of the game. Sorry to say, but when teams are -3 in the turnover battle, they lose almost 98% of the time. Bills offense clearly blew the game by virtue of poor play calling and poor execution. I would rather have seen them run the ball twice more and NOT get in the end zone, then let Tuel try to get it in through the air. It's a continuing case of finding ways to lose.

I'm with Utah John here and don't get exactly WHY this team isn't very good against the run, but then would also add that they're bad against the pass as well. 29th in run defense and 26th versus the pass. 23rd over all. 26th in first downs per game. If they don't win the turnover battle, I don't think they can beat the Saints.

I don't think it matters how many games the Bills win. The biggest point there is that I'm talking about games the TEAM wins. In the last two weeks, they've netted 178 and 192 passing yards. But for the Bills defense and take aways, that game would have been a loss. Thaddeus clearly isn't the defining reason why they won yesterday. As such, there will be ZERO controversy when EJ is ready to return. He's the starter, period.

The next two games will be difficult for the Bills to win. The Saints have are coming off of a bye week and get an extra week of rest after their only loss to the Patriots. They're a solid football team particularly on the defensive side. Can't say enough on the Chiefs. They've been playing lights out defensively. The only saving grace is that they at least get to play them at home. After that they get the Steelers, who don't really scare me all that much. Their offense has been absolutely pathetic. Home against the Jets before our bye week, but for some reason this team always makes Jets QB's look like Joe Montana. Atlanta at home doesn't bother me either. Julio Jones is gone for the season, and Roddy White is catching about 2 balls a game. To boot, they have almost no running game. Speaking of which, then they got to Tampa Bay, who just lost their best offensive player for the season. They follow up playing that 0-6 team with an 0-7 team in the Jags. Jacksonville may seriously not win a single game this season. Finish that off with the Fish and the Pats. I seriously think this team could win 6 more games. Will come down to whether the defense can continue to take the ball away and whether the offense holds onto their own. 9-7 could easily make the Bills a wild card and a dangerous team to have to play in the first round of the playoffs.

He's not top 5 or top 10. He's a solid back though.

Fans have a healthy dose of skepticism. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. Should we expect any different? This is a team that has given us hope and then crapped all over it. I would have to say that I've been impressed with Lewis. He's been poised and has made some plays. Still, the team has been in every game. When's the last time we could say that?

There is no way I would want to see this team sign and start another journeyman reject that lacks the skills necessary to compete at the NFL level. Terrible idea. I would start Thadeus until Manuel is ready to come back. Win or lose, it really doesn't matter.

I didn't find much to be positive about in this game. Once again, we lose time of possession and it's by a landslide. The team is +2 in the turnover battle, which suggests that they should win the game about 95% of the time, yet they don't. The most dynamic offensive player on the team gets just 10 carries on the ground and they're all up the middle. The play calling was just awful. I see Manuel doesn't want to make mistakes, but his reads are mostly short dump offs to safety receivers. 182 yards on the ground for the Jests is far too much.

Spiller is not the issue. Hackett's play calling is the issue. I hate to say it, but this is very similar to Wanny calling plays defensively. He was so stubborn that he was going to call the plays he wanted to regardless of who's on the field. Same thing here with CJ/Fred. CJ needs space to truly excel. Fred is pretty much a pound it up the middle guy for 4 yards a carry. Hackett treats the two as if they're the same skill set. They simply are not. Hackett has turned a 6+ YPC running back into a 3.5 YPC running back.

I'm not sure what games you're watching, but it's not even close right now. Geno Smith has completed 53.4% of his passes with 1 TD to 4 INT's. His QBR is a paltry 55.2 and he's taken 9 sacks already. By comparison, EJ has completed 68.2% of his passes with 3 TD's and 1 INT. His QBR is a stellar 95.9 and he's only been sacked 1 time. Geno isn't even in the conversation at this point.

Mine in a nutshell: 1 - Winning is the most important thing, so that's pretty obviously. 2 - Spiller has to get the ball more. It should be 75-25 Spiller in the running game and 50-50 in the passing game. The team's best weapon has to get the ball more. 3 - Continue getting pressure on the quarterback. They did it to Brady the week before. 4 - Better use of receivers and TE's. Why were they throwing 2-3 yard bubble screens to Chandler? Makes no sense. Should be Graham. 5 - More shots down field. EJ had a couple throws down field, but really didn't make any. I don't want him to be reckless, but would like to see the passing attack be a bit more aggressive. 6 - Convincing victory. They need to slobber knock someone to show me that they're ready for the next level.

You have to give huge credit to the whole offensive line. So many naysayers were complaining about letting Levitre walk and how bad the line was going to be. So far in two games against two pretty good defenses, they've allowed a grand total of 1 sack. That's a sack rate of 1.5% folks. Compare that to Tom Brady's 3.2% or Peyton Manning's 3.4% and you can see just how good it is. Cordy Glenn has been an absolute stud at LT. We have a team that's competing, which is more than I can say for a long long time.

I have to give some extra credit here to the coaching staff. Personally, I thought the secondary was going to be a mess without Gilmore, Byrd, and Brooks. Prior to the start of the season, I (like many) had no faith that McKelvin was going to be any good or live up to any of the expectations that we had for him coming out of school. Guess what? I was dead wrong. He looks at this point like a legitimate #1 or #1A cornerback.

This game had its positives and negatives. On the positive side of things, the defense played much better against the run this week than they did last. But for his one breakout play, DeAngelo Williams carried the ball 21 times for 64 yards. The defense also played pretty well against the pass. Let's not forget that this team is without Gilmore, Brooks, and Byrd and they still look pretty good. Williams/Williams/Dareus were fantastic in bringing pressure all day, and they made plays when needed on third and longs. This was one of the biggest problems this team had last year, and appears to be remedied. The Bills are even right now in net turnovers. This was also a problem last year. You will lose 95% of games where you turn the ball over 2 more times than your opponent. History doesn't lie that this is the biggest factor to winning games. In that regard, they were lucky to pull this game out. Two deep in your own territory turnovers were only worth 6 points. EJ wasn't trying to force his passes either. Lots of drop off/outlet passes to keep the ball moving down field. Some could say that that's a negative, but I don't think so. As he gets more comfortable, I think he'll start stretching the field a bit more. I wasn't a fan of long drawn out screens to Chandler. Seems pretty pointless getting the ball to a guy that can't break one. I would rather see them try to use Graham in that capacity. After all, they didn't get him to be a possession guy. The Jests should be interesting next week. Two rookie QB's and our first game of the year on the road. Hopefully we can make it count.

Mario was just awesome out there yesterday. He simply couldn't be stopped one on one. People want to call last year a bust, but it really wasn't. He played injured for basically half a season and still put up 11.5 sacks. That may have been the quietest 11.5 sack season we've ever seen. At 100%, I have to say that he looks pretty darn good this year.

This team can't stop the run. Sucks!