Rubes

QB Ratings #5. Trent Edwards (104.9) RUSHING YARDS #5. Fred Jackson (220 yds) TACKLES #3. Keith Ellison (27) yeah, yeah, it's only week 2. It's still nice to see.

We're not at full strength anymore, why should they be?

Damn, those are sweet. Nice work, whoever designed those.

This is the best idea I've heard all week.

Wow, except for Butler these would all be welcome updates.

Bad weather can only help us, I would imagine.

Right, so if we did that then the Bucs would have the ball back with plenty of time to try and score. I'd prefer the runs to take time off the clock.

That would be the 2010 list, no?

Beats me, but he was the deep safety on the play. The Pats* effectively froze him for an instant by sending one receiver short in front of him, in addition to sending Watson deep. Byrd couldn't tell which receiver Brady was throwing to, so he ended up hesitating for an instant -- enough to leave a gap for the ball to get through. I remember seeing his number a few times in the game, but I don't know why he was on the field for the final drive.

I've not only considered it, but I'm also concerned about it.

Sorry, it doesn't matter if he did see the ball coming. He was in perfect position for the kind of throw that most QBs would make, leading the receiver. Brady threw it behind and above the receiver, in a place nobody except Watson could catch it...and only if Watson made a great catch.

Sorry, he was right. Ellison had good positioning on the play. Brady put his throw in an absolutely perfect spot over Watson's shoulder, and he made a fantastic catch. If anything, Byrd (he's #31, right?) hesitated slightly on the play and wasn't available to provide help. Had ne not hesitated, he might have been in position to break it up.

Thanks, although this wasn't necessarily intended as a "dont worry, they'll get better" post. It was more to talk about how offensive strategy evolves over time. People are worried about why we didn't do this or do that, but it will come. Defenses adjust to the things you did well, but those adjustments then open up other opportunities. And the point is that we did a number of things well that future defenses are going to have to take into account, and this will allow AVP to evolve the offense to do other things (like throw downfield more). It will come.

Bills don't move, stay at #21 Apparently, an inspired performance, on the road, on Monday night, in Tom Brady's magical return, that ended up nearly knocking off the #2 overall ranked team, did nothing to improve the Bills' standing. Not only that, but they still have us as the lowest ranked team in the AFC East, below even the Dolphins, who laid a brick in Atlanta. Yay ESPN! (Sorry if already posted.)

I'm just as exasperated as everyone else after this debacle, but I think despite the loss this game will go a long way toward helping to establish an offensive strategy that can work well against many defenses. Assuming that we keep everyone healthy and that AVP builds on the successes from this game (which I think he will). I think everyone recognizes that the offensive line did a man's job in that game and held up fairly well, with only a few exceptions. Despite the few bad sacks, Trent generally had good time and space to move around and get the ball where he wanted it. And when they asked the linemen to giddy up, they giddy upped really well and got out in front to the second level. I doubt AVP asked the line to hold up for some of the longer balls and played it safe, but the line showed that they have the skills needed to operate the short to medium passing game. The longer passing game will come as they try it out more. But really, as others have pointed out, the offense showed that it can be reasonably effective at moving the ball even when the defense "takes away" the longer strikes to Owens and Evans. That includes both running the ball and throwing it with short strikes and screens. This is key. Even the well-coached and talented New England defense had trouble stopping the short game. This serves notice to other teams that this offense is talented enough to run the short game/running game effectively, and you're going to have to stop that. That means defenses are going to have to come up with strategies to stop that, and that means committing more LBs and safeties. It will be interesting to see if AVP can get the offense to recognize when this is happening, because when it does, that means things are going to open up in the medium and long passing games. The three receiver/single TE/Jackson alone in the backfield set could end up giving defenses fits. A lot of it depends on how the offensive line can hold up to the pressure. The line passed the first test in this game. Now it's up to AVP to build off of that, and I think he will. But it's a process, and it will take some time. By game 4, I think the O-line will have become very comfortable with each other, and that will help gradually open up the offense.

Love the first comment after the article:

I just liked how these guys finally showed some attitude. Even Bell was out there mixing it up with guys after the play. That's what I like to see, a little nastiness out of this group. And hell yeah, they can run.

+1

He didn't get burned on the second TD. He actually had pretty good position on the play, but Brady purposely threw it in the perfect spot on his outside shoulder instead of leading him. If he had led him with the ball, Ellison would have been in good position to break it up. But in this case it was an amazing throw, and an equally amazing catch. Now excuse me while I go throw up a little more.

Holy crap, I didn't see anything about an injury. Two starting LBs in one game? Damn...

So why hasn't that worked for us? Oh, I guess it's predicated on actually getting first downs as part of it. Now that's what I'm talking about.

Cheers, Bill. Good to have you around.

Nice!

The 2009 Buffalo Bills: If Only They Would Let Us Play On Fridays