bluv

Exactly. Holding onto the ball is on him. There were no bad decisions made by him; just bad results. Besides he held on after the initial jarring pop but was held up long enough to get robbed. He should remain confident and keep the same mentality for he didn't lead the league in KO return for nothing. They didn't get chance to review it for the Pats were running the hurry up and by the time anyone realized they were given a 1st it was too late. Bell played OK being that this is his 1st start being rusty coming off a back injury. The mental mistakes can be corrected; physcially he meets the eye test. I like the mobile line as they can get to the second level and allow runs to the outside as well as screens. If they had more opportunities who knows.

Yeah I know some will say that Fewell had his D play soft in the second half and that there wasn't enough passes down the field and blah, blah, blah but the players are the ones who lost this. They played the same D in the second they did in the 1st. They tried to blitz on the Pats crucial drive but Brady read the blitz. The difference in the 1st half was that the 4 man rush was effective; in the 2nd half it slowed. Maybe the injury to Kelsay didn't allow for the proper DL rotation to keep the DE's fresh. But you can't blame Fewell for guys not making plays. They did make crucial 4th down stops as well as deny 2 point conversions to a potent offense. Look how many snaps it took for Brady and company to put up those numbers. Which leads me back to the offense. You can't blame the playcalling or the no-huddle for the Pats running all those many plays. Penalties; mainly by a young LT who hadn't played in 2 weeks as well as key drops either killed good gains, promising drives, or giving the ball right back to the Pats to put the D back on the field. If it wasn't for self inflicted plays had more opportunities to tire the Pats out and set them up for more big plays to the WR. Speaking of WR, they all had key drops as well that could have sustain drives. Who knows; if they had gotten the ball before the fumble, they might have put the game away; you can only hope! Now to McKlevin. The fact that he fumbled is definitely on him as well as the meltdown. But as he said: if he had it to do over a 100 times he would do it a 100 times. I like that attitude for everybody BEFORE he fumbled was hoping that he either got a good return or even take it to the house. Even though he hesistated, he got the ball beyond the 20 and reduced the clock under the 2 minute warning. All he had to do was hold onto the ball. But he didn't and that is his fault. Bottom line: everybody wants to find somebody blame, especially our favorite whipping boys the coaches but they can't control mental mistakes, drop catches, non playmaking, or hold on to the ball. That is what they pay the players to do. And if one of them had made one not even key but BASIC play then the talk today would be that of shaking up the world! But no moral victories; the PLAYERS have to make up for this take advantage of opportunites when the coaches put them in position to make plays.

I told my friend who is an Eagles fan when we were watching highlights of Peters making blocks yards down the field that there would be some naive Bills fans on our boards dwelling on his penalties! Typical! That is why he "sucks" so much to the blind fans on this board as they dwell so much on any anegative play he makes and ignore the great blocks that he does make. That is why his peers voted him to the Pro Bowl not naive fans. That is also why we are stuck with a 7th round project at LT who we hope is the real deal. Now Mike Williams was a poor player; I can see why anyone would bash him. But even he had a point in this link: http://www.star-telegram.com/cowboys/story/1608752.html 'While he doesn’t make excuses, Williams points out he played for two head coaches and three offensive line coaches in four seasons in Buffalo. "Let’s look at any job," Williams said. "If you continue to change bosses and managers, all of whom have different expectations what they want for you and how you need to perform for them, it’s tough to adjust to. Heck, [the Bills] just fired another offensive coordinator. There are a lot of things I could have done better, but vice versa. It’s was just one of those meshes that didn’t really work."'

Dont forget we have marketing guys acting as GM's - they know how to make a player look selfish - it really isn't that hard come to think of it. The real behind the scnes facts are (common sense rules): he asked for an upgrade and was originally told no as we just redone your contract, he threaten to hold out. After it made the Bills look bad that he was the 3rd highest paid player on the O-line when he was one of the best in football, they either made him a market offer or a marketing ploy statement to say that they did to keep good face. Regardless Peters didn't like the offer and he was branded as being selfish; wanting to be the highest paid O-lineman; whatever. After his holdout was unsuccessful, he played out the season and had an attitude that he was playing out his contract and bolting town regardless of what he was offered as he felt he was wronged and probably didn't care much for Buffalo anyway. So what? they had him under contract and since he has the ability and will only get paid when he performs at a high level, he would have bust his a$$ to get his way out of Buffalo. Then we could have franchised him after 2 years. Good franchises dont let young,elite Pro Bowl talent at hard to fill positions such as QB, LT, DE,DT, etc leave your squad easily.

Until we find a franchise QB, a flexible coaching staff, and scouts to bring in talent to either fit a scheme we will always be on the verge!

You need to go back and check! There were plenty who pointed out how well Walker stepped in the first 2 games and played so well and how Peters gave up 11 sacks to Walkers 3. Don't forget those wwho poined out how we averaged a half yard more per carry running right than left. You don't remember all those Peters was a fat lazy bum comments or how Walker and Butler were the best players on the line. It might not have been you or your friends but it was plenty of insane similar comments going on until 6 days ago! Remember how some were quick to defend Walker once Mark Sclerth called him a journeyman? Face it: fans on this board over react and jump on board to bash players they don't like; especially those who want to be paid or leave. Once they make a bad play the haters jump on it, point it out and others feed in and then they make it indictative of that players whole body of work. It goes the same way in the opposite direction as some can make one key play and it can get overhyped for days to weeks; especially if they play a position of a player who is being ganged banged!

It has happened every year and this is why this team is always on the VERGE of being a breakout sleeper team but it never happens. Every year we either start or finish strong to keep hope alive and so we bring in an overhyped Free agent or every once in a while a proven household name or two to sell tickets to keep hope alive. And the fans on this board as well as BuffaloBills always exaggerate an individual players affect on the game. They make it seem like if we replace this player then we'd be a contender or if it is a player they hate on then they go out of their way to point out every mistake they make; acting like great players can never miss a block, drop a ball, throw a bad pass, or get knock on their @$$; you get the picture! What really irks me is that everytime a player leaves; doesn't matter via trade, free agency or is cut, they go out their way to bash that players value to the team. Bruce is washed and overrated and always thinks he is worth more than he is; Pat Williams was just fat and took up space; all London Flethcer does was make tackles 10 yards down field; Peters was a lazy bum who was a sack machine; the list goes on and on. I know there will be some who will deny ever making such claims but believe I'm not making this up; you know who you are! No Walker wasn't a top quality tackle; especially one who could play either side with great success. No, he wasn't the road grinder those Peters bashers tried to play him out to be as the team averaged more runs yards running right than left. Those who truly know and watch the game would see that while he gave up few sacks he never played on an island as he always got RB/TE help. But while he wasn't a dominant player, he was a serviceable RT and wasn't a weak link. So for those who wanted to bash Peters to act like Walker was the best player on our line and was an upgrade or to those who now act like Walker was a bum player are completely out of line and clueless! Why can't more fans be rational as just except things as they are? There is no team, especially in this day of free agency that is stacked with Pro Bowl talent for aevery starter. There are Pro Bowl players who don't excel at every facet of the game but play in systems that allow them to excell at their strengths. Until the Bills get consistent QB play (I haven't given up on Trent yet), get a quality coaching staff that can establish an identity, somebody who can judge talent and bring in players to fit our system and/or coaching that is flexible to find schemes to play to the strengths of our players we will never be consistently good.

Hold up - after Peters was traded and up until Walker was let go - Walker was deemed by a lot on this board to be better than Peters and an upgrade! He was so great according to some in filling in for Peters last year and he only gave up 3 sacks last year and his long arms and footwork would negate his lack of mobility. Now he is being cast off as being on the level of Mike Williams! Help me I'm confused; did he just get bad overnight? Oh wait - the Bills staff said his play regressed - if they sign Runyan and put Butler on the bench after playing him out of position will his play regress as well? If Levitre struggles all season will his play just be deemed as he is learning and improving? Look its one thing for delusional fans to hate on player and overhype another and at the same time make excuses for players the have a liking for; it is another for Bills management to do the same! This isn't Madden folks this is the N. F. L. which stands for Not For Long - unless you want to talk about our Non Playoff Streak!

How many points did they score? 13? If that game was against the 07 Pats or the Colts the Steelrs would have been down 21-0 midway thru the 2nd quarter. The D held in the redzone and on top of that blocked a FG and a FG was missed. What if they played the Colts and they shutdown the Steelers running game the same as thge Titans did? Do you think there O-line could block Freeney and Mathis after falling behind? What if they played a Steelers clone D that would unleash the dogs; do you think the results would have been the same? The Steelers O-line sucks but Big Ben gets the best out of them. But while Ben is a good QB he is not as great as some make him out to be. He wouldn't get those chances to lead his team to 4th quarter victories if the D doesn't keep the games close. Its not like he is carying the team on his back leading a high powered offense winning shootouts. Ben played an OK game; especially statwise. But he does hold onto the ball too long. Sometimes this is a good thing for at least as someone pointed out he looks to throw the ball down the field. But if the Titans hadn't gotten soft (like the Bills vs the Pats) and played a conservative, soft zone the second half without taking mixing it up and chances then this is what you get: instead of getting killed with big plays against single coverage you get torched and picked apart in zone coverage. Either way you are getting used!

Fitz looks to throw the ball to WR over 10 yards on intermediate routes while Trent checks down to RBs and will only throw the ball deep on go routes.

The O-line didn't play that bad; Rhodes and Xmon had trouble picking up the blitz and got bowled and gave up 2 sacks. The scheme isn't as bad as it is the QB as ever since the Cards game he has lost his confidence in throwing the ball down the field to WR. The D is ggod enough to win if the offense steps it up. I think TO will make a difference as he will force Trent to try to squeeze the ball to him which could be a good thing.

Stop blaming the coaches and blame the real culprit - Trent Edwards. Until he gets the balls to throw more balls into tight coverage and attempt to get the ball down the field to the WR then we will always struggle. Trent plays too safe and if if his initial read isn't open then he checks it down way too often. Even though Fitzpatrick is playing against 2nd/3rd stringers, at least he attempts to throw the ball to WR over 10 yards downfield. The biggest thing about having T.O. back is that Trent will probably try to force the ball to him which would actually be a good thing until defenses adjust. The only thing I can fault the coaching staff for is calling shotgun plays deep inside the opponents 20 on early downs - it seems to always leads to something bad! Sack, fumble, INT was Trent's tendancy last year on similar plays as the defense doesn't respect the run and they know that Trent will check the ball down so they jump every route; either he throws the pick or he holds the ball, gets smashed and fumbles.

Why does Schonert insist on passing from shotgun deep inside the opponents 20? It has only led to fumbles/INT's the past 2 years!

I'm watching the game for the 1st time right now as we speak and I have come away so far with the same conclusion - the fans on this board overrated how bad the team played. Like you said, Lee didn't come back to the ball but it was more of a good play by the D. Our D stopped them on a short field. The next possesion Trent held the ball too long; it wasn't a jailbreak. What I didn't like was the slow tempo no-huddle that substitued too much; while they got the 1st 3rd and 1, why not run the quick no-huddle and pound the ball up in there? I like the fact they used Nelson early split out wide; I think once TO comes back the offense will be better. In the 1st 3 games I noticed that Trent sometimes (not every play now!) seems to lock on his primary WR too much whether it be TO or Lee and if they are not open settle for the dumpoff. This game was lost more to penalties, and good plays by the Packers rather than us being overmatched. The only dominace I saw was displayed by BJ Raji as he is a beast.

McKlevin's struggles are more indictive of the Bills scheme not playing to his strength. He, like Greer seems to play better when they man up close and run with WR rather than playing a soft zone. McGee plays better in a zone. McKlevin has to think, anticipate and react too much in zone coverage when in man he has the ability to shadow a WR. It is another example of coaches forcing a player to fit a scheme then allowing them to play to their strengths. Now as far as Byrd vs Brown; we will never know until 3-5 years down the road. But as of right now, it looks the Bills could have had 2 of the top 3 pass rushers in this years draft (one on the cheap) but passed Brown up for another project who will have to switch and play a position he has never manned. I feel confident with the safeties we have. Whitner while not a playmaker is solid. Scott is a better SS than Whitner if you ask me. Simpson and Wilson are decent backups. We have plenty of good YOUNG DB's; how many safeties can you have on the field at one time? If you look at edge rushers we are lacking. All our DE's look slow with no explosiveness and they all lack size and power. Why not take a chance on Brown, give him a chance to learn under Schoebel who is coming off injury. Based on last year we already know that we don't have a DE on this roster who can step in and fill Aaron passrushing load and he himself may not be able to return back to form. Brown could have been a steal and no one would have question his pick in the 2nd round. We don't know what Brown or Byrd will do but If Brown didn't pan out then oh well; no one would have said "man, why didn't those Bills take Byrd when he was on the board instead of Brown?" as Byrd was considered a late round pick. Now he has to produce or he will be considered a bust based on where he was projected and drafted. He and Maybin COULD have been a force to be reckon with the next 4-5 years.

No he did well against Kearse....as the first poster pointed out. But when Hamdan was in, the pressure around the end was quick and yes Bell was part of it. I want him to succeed but when I saw #77 get abused 2 consecutive plays, I thought that was another backup OT but then I realized that was Bell and after that I can see why the coaching staff is kind of shaky on him starting as while he has potential he isn't ready yet but who knows he may improve or was just tired and not use to playing for a long extended time as we all know Jauron practices are soft. Anybody who Tivoed the game can go back and look at Bell play when Hamdan was in and they can verify this.

Exactly for I saw him get abused 2 plays in a row - Hamdan saved him by running and getting rid of the ball. So if you want to overemphasize the few plays Levitre struggled, Bell had a few breakdowns in the second half as well.

If you play online you can simply wait until the offense picks, the personell is advertised and then matchup; I love this. But if you have to actually substitute and get players on and off the field it would bring gameplanning and playcalling to the forefront. For instance if you want to run plays with base personell and then change to a 4 WR set then you would have to hurry up and pick your play as you would have to allow time for substitution. It would also amke games go by faster as you would utilize more of the game/play clock. Why do you think scores in 5 minute games resemble actual game? The fact that you can call and run plays in multiple sets with no time alloted to those substitutions allows this. As far as in game ratings fluctuations, I don't want it to be drastic; Josh Reed on his best day couldn't outrun Lee hoping on one leg! But there are games when players seem to have a pep in their step and lacking in others. There will be some games when any QB will have an off game and miss throws he would normally make. There are times when a backup player steps his game up and performs at a high level. Or you can have games elite players step their game up in the 4th quarter. Come to think of it they can use this fluctuation feature in conjuction with a CONSITENCY rating as sometimes what seperates levels of players is their consistency. This I think would allow the on "any given Sunday a team can win or lose" aspect to become more of a factor. It's like in BBall; on some games Kobe looks human and you may feel that SHane Batier could cover him one-on-one. On others he may play like he is off the charts and then you have to triple team him. But in order to keep him elite the video game will make him play that way almost every single game and then stagnation sets in.

They were playing on All-Pro. Yeah in either Madden or 2K you could always adjust the sliders but that is not a good option as you can't always get others to agree on what settings are optimal so you have to find default gameplay at either rookie, pro, all-pro, or all-madden to play on. It can be a little scary as if running is too easy, any fool could compete. I want strategy to mean more than being simply good with controls or overemphasizing gadget plays/flaws in the game. To me if something happens all the time with almost any player then it is a flaw. I hear that the hit stick is an example of such a flaw in 2010. I hear you about games being different;I wish they would try some Tecmo aspects in that players ratings go up or down throughout the game; when Bruce mode goes into excellent watch out! They could do that on Madden. Say if T.O. doesn't get involved early enough his ratings would be affected (he still would be better than Hardy on any given Sunday though)! I also wish Madden would have different QB throwing styles like Tecmo had so some like Marino would bullet and zip every pass while Dave Krieg balls would float! Lastly I wish they would bring back the players having to run on and off the field for subsitution. In Madden 92/93 they had what they called normal, hands, fsat,big, sets, ex. While I don't want to see those type sets there should be subsitution based on personnell sets. This would really bring realism to the game and bring playcalling/gameplanning to the forefront. Don't you hate playing against a friend who on offense would foil around until you picked your defensive play and then switch from a normal 2RB set to a 4WR shotgun (thank god for online play as this isn't as big of an issue!)? Those types try to defend it by saying you are looking at their plays. I tell them no, I am trying to matchup for that is what they do in real life: the defense has to be given a chance to matchup to the offenses personell and if the offense runs too many players on and off the field they will get an illegal subsitution. They could do the same thing on Madden.

I was told the game plays much better at normal speed. Also the RB break WAY more tackles than they did on the demo; my boy played with the Bills and told me on one play it took 7 defenders to bring Lynch down; I told him that "beast mode" aint no joke! They say the running game is a little out of hand; kind of like 2K5 was. My boy said his friend ran for over 300 yards against the Eagles playing with the Panthers. The Panthers running game is nasty but not that nasty! I think NCAA has it about right. While you dont want your RB to only be able to break by the inital defender only 3% of the time like you have in past Maddens, you dont want to have situations where RBs make the spectacular run every other play and it becomes the norm. I want to have more control and have the RB fight for extra yardages, especially if they are known for running hard but I don't want to see very RB run like Bo Jackson on Tecmo Bowl!

My friends who have modded system already have it and love it! I hated the demo as the speed was too slow and the balls seem to float but according to my friends the demo has nothing on the game. NCAA is great if you ask me (this is the FIRST time I bought it in about 7 years!)

How about this group: Lee evans, Parrish, Reed, Steve Johnson, Hangartner and Walker?

BTW; what is Scott rating?

And who knows next season they may wilter! All it takes is a few key injuries, losing, and players feel they are being overworked with no results to bring a franchise down as key veterans will bolt and key free agents will not want to go to a team that overworks its players and treat them like they are Marine recruits!

So what? He may handle it professionally but he will get stiffed by the Pats unless he stands up for his self as all he will get is a PAT on the back saying you are doing a good job fellow. Let him get hurt in training camp or the last year of his contract then all those good years of playing above and beyond his contract goes for naught and are forgotten. So just let Brady pocket all that money and take credit for winning all those rings while the true ballers get stiffed, used, and cut loose. It works for the Pats so I'm sure their fans aren't complaining as they always seem to find a suitable replacement or keep the guys they truly need. Fans love this approach as long as our team wins but when players such as Big Pat jump ship for being undervalued watch out. And for all those who bash JP as he runs out the door, a lot of those same fools were calling Big Pat Fat Pat; an overrated big waste, who doesn't have great stats and all he does is takes up space in the middle!