Rockinon

I was shocked when he came right back in to play. Hope he can hold on to the ball this time around. He was effective. If he can protect the ball better, he could very well be a good QB in this league.

Everyone wants shiny new toys to help with their fantasy football numbers. I just want a RG, LG and RT. We have enough skill players.

Amen, brother.

That is part of it too. There is inexperience in a lot of areas and not just QB. I like Wood and Glenn too. The other 3 OL men are boys in a man's league though.

I agree. I do think however we have been run over by the negative Nancies. People talk about the losing and that's fine, but the fans have lost that positive vibe too. Fans can be real boneheaded about it too. Seems every time someone has something positive to say, someone with a different opinion not only voices that opinion, but also wants to fart in their face about it.

You sound surprised. How can the DBs not look better when the DL is on a record breaking sack season?

I only have a couple of small complaints. Throw the red flag only when the chance of a reversal is high percentage. Beginning of the year he was awful at this. Lately he has been better. I don't agree with all of the criticism of about poor play calling. I do however think the coaches could do more to get CJ and Fred for that matter in space. That's about it. I think the coaches generally have a good game plan each week though the 1st game against the Jets and the game against Pittsburgh were real stinkers. I think they will get better with experience, however. The second game against the NYJ seems to support that. What a lot of people don't understand here is the offense is designed to have a higher percentage of runs than most teams and that is in an effort to open up the vertical game. That's a good strategy when you have CJ an Fred on your team. It's a bad decision when you have Tom Brady(Which BTW, we don't!). This team can be real good with better support from the OL. This has been the greatest challenge for the coaching staff IMHO. Otherwise, I like Marone and even Hackett. A lot of criticism has floated toward Hackett, but I think his youth and high energy are good for this team. I have no doubt, he will get better. You cannot keep a man with this much enthusiasm down for long. As for Marone, I think he was perfect for this team. I like his no nonsense demeanor and he appears to be a good leader. Being a player in this league, a coach in this league and a winner in this league gives him an advantage that many coaches don't have. Marone is in his 1st yr as a head coach in the NFL and I was sure he would have some struggles to begin with. Even the best coaches have them. How they are able to deal with them is the crucial and deciding factor. I am looking forward to seeing what these coaches come up with next year. I think they have the stuff. They don't have the experience yet, but you have to start somewhere. I wouldn't be too quick to start lopping off heads just yet.

I'm not buying this at all. No offense, but it is easy to sit in an arm chair and criticize play call when things don't work. Have you noticed how effective EJ is with play action? There is a reason for that. The Bills run the ball a lot on 1st down to open up that game up. This is not a flawed game plan. It is flawed execution. The Bills know they have 2 very good backs and it makes a lot of sense to lean on that talent. The problem is the offensive line is not making things easy. Both of these backs should easily have hundreds more yards this season but they often have no hole to run through. I can't tell you how many times the ball carrier has gotten a hand off only to be immediately dropped before they even have a chance to plant their feet to take off. This is a major problem. Even the pass game suffers. Out of a shotgun formation our line can't hold up long enough for a play to develop. Even when EJ does pass on 1st down, he can't get enough time to do more than dump off a quick screen. His success rate would be better if he just had another second to get rid of it. Look how many times EJ has to throw the ball before a receiver even knows the ball is in the air. It's not just the 43 sacks. There are one heck of a lot of QB hurries too. The OL is weak at the point of attack and that is a understatement. The coach even knows this. When CJ told the coach he was pissed, Marone told CJ to voice his opinion to the OL. I know we all want to see big passing numbers. Now a days it's the only way to keep up. The thing is, you have to put the offense in a position to succeed. That does not mean that we should pass more on 1st down. It means we need to lean on what talent we have, suck it up and start executing. Passing more on 1st down won't fix the problem when the line fails to block, so running is the smart call. At least get a positive play on 1st down. We had a great draft this year. Picked up some promising talent. Nothing was added to the OL perhaps because there was hope that Marone, a former OL man himself could whip them into shape. Trouble is, you can't polish a turd.

43 sacks is still 43 sacks. Everyone wants the QB to be the hero. Football is not all about the QB, though. Yes, this is more of a QB league than it used to be, but ignoring the foundation of your team is bad. Very bad. The foundation is not the QB, it's your offensive and defensive lines. That's how it has always been and will remain, no matter how much the NFL tries to tinker with the rules of the game. Listen to the QBs and RBs in this league when they are asked why they are successful. The answer? The line kept them clean. Watch what happens when a defense knows it's going to be a pass. You have to be able to pick up a blitz and this line is utterly over matched even against some of the weakest defensive fronts in the league. Watch what happens when CJ is in the backfield. This offensive line is blown up by some of the weakest defenses in the league and quite quickly too I might add. So yea, the OL needs a lot of work. You can argue 'till your blue in the face about this being "the new NFL" or "it's a QB driven league". What a bunch of hogwash. What this team needs is a line that can do it's job. So far they have failed miserably. It's football and the fundamentals of the game never change regardless of how rule changes effect the game. Ej has been pretty effective with play action and seems to get better as a game progresses. I don't have a problem with him except I wish he would get things going in the 1st Qtr for a change. Seems to start slow. Give him a bit of time and he might even start hitting our receivers with world class speed. This offense is designed to make big plays but the line is crippling it. I'm excited about seeing how Lewis does this week. Being at home should help him out quite a bit. I really like the kid's moxie. You never now how a career will play out. Maybe EJ doesn't meet expectations and he gets a shot or perhaps injury gives him a chance. Or he could go somewhere else and get a shot. Maybe he plays soooo good that EJ never gets back on the field. That's what happened when Brady got his chance.

That is a really great article. I've always liked Fred. There is something about him that just inspires everyone around him. I hope his agelessness lasts a while longer.

That game was played on January 3rd. I'm not sure I would make it to a game just after the holidays either. Usually after Christmas, I may have just enough to go out for New Years, but a football game after that? To broke. Nice post OP. I do think that winning cures a lot of problems. In your case, you have to remember that this is a business. It's incredibly rare for any business to succeed without putting some money into it first, like your mention of spending some money on talent. Marketing needs to be strong too. I think Buffalo does a nice job of that and I think Bills are very grateful for the number of Canadians that show up at the games. It also helps to have a great tailgating experience too and Buffalo has that. Just wish the drunk and disorderly would settle a bit. I like my beer as much as the next guy, but I don't ruin the game time experience for someone else. There is a lot to building a successful football team. A team that wins though will always have a better bottom line

All of this blame for QBs and coaches is ridiculous. Can no one else see how miserably the offensive line is playing? The Bills have allowed 43 sacks so far this year. Only 3 teams have more(Miami, Jacksonville and the Jets). We have 2 top tier running backs who struggle mightily to find running lanes. We all ready have a lot of talent on offense but the foundation of that offense was never completed. Build up the trenches and we will suddenly see the offense clicking. I like Glenn and Woods, but the rest of the OL is incredibly weak. I really think EJ and Thad can be real good if they are not continuously running for their lives. Fortunately, they both have some wheels, but that is no way to run an offense.

He has been playing LT very well for the last 2 years. I like him right where he is at. I would much rather see a good LG drafted.

You don't think Cordy is a good LT?

The thing that bothers me most about EJ is he never comes out firing on all cylinders in the 1st qtr of a game. The guy has got to learn how to fire on his first throw. Every game it seems to take forever before he gets rolling. I saw this at the beginning of the season, and I am still seeing it now. Maybe he needs to warm up more before a game. For crying out loud, I have never seen anyone start so slow.

I think you nailed it. Our OL is pitiful. With all of the fire power we all ready have in skill positions, we really need to fix the trenches. Not only do we have Chandler and Gragg, we also just picked up a promising 6'3" 254lb TE(Moeaki). People just don't see the break downs of the OL. Why is Manual getting sacked 4 times a game? Why can't CJ find a hole to run through? How can people not see this? Having a good center and a good LT is nice, but they can't do everything. The other three players on that line need to produce too.

It's about time. He has been around a long time.

I think a lot of people on this board go overboard with opinions regarding Stevie. I agree he has questionable leadership abilities and is sometimes immature. What I do not agree with is all of the assumptions about his character. Young men who are growing into high character individuals get there taking different paths. Just because Stevie's personality is a bit over the top for my taste, I really don't think he has is a low character guy. I believe in him and support him even though I don't always agree with him.

This. To have a winning record in the division would be sweet!

I have noticed EJ is slow getting into a rhythm. I can't remember a single game where he has hit on his first throw of the game. It's almost like he can't get fired up until he is pissed off or something. Anyone else notice how slow he starts a game?

Better add a little extra whiskey to that.

I think the coach spoke to him because he was angry and frustrated, not necessarily because he's on the s*** list. Now CJ may be one that is on the s*** list, and a couple of offensive linemen may be on the s*** list. This team is struggling to run the ball after leading the league. EJ is not getting time to even go to the 2nd receiver in his progressions. The common denominator in the both run game and the pass game points to the offensive line. Marone has not had much to work with but that isn't stopping him from tinkering with the rotation. Unga is getting reps to replace Urbik and the LG position, he has not been satisfied with all season. It's easy to look at the skill positions and assume it's the skill player. Or you can look at the whole picture and determine the root cause of the problems. He may not even be satisfied with the RT position but doesn't have anyone healthy who can take over. Skill players can make things happen, but you have to at least put them in a position to succeed. I agree with Chris Brown's take. I just don't think Stevie needs to be the scapegoat. Personally, I am turned off by his antics. He has moved into a leadership role and for a young guy who has some maturity issues, that's easier said than done. He is still excellent at getting open and this last game I saw some very heads up runs after the catch. I have noticed that EJ is targeting Stevie a lot recently, but he needs to find his other receivers too. Stevie is a good receiver but he is not Megatron, a guy who can carry the offense Too often, EJ has been locking on to his primary receiver(Stevie) and simply not looking at other options. There are a lot of things going on. Inexperience at QB, poor protection by the OL, poor run blocking, running backs missing holes to name a few. Narrowing the focus to just one player is dangerous, although a lot can be said about focusing on QB. Players like Stevie, CJ, Fred and Scott are role players in a system. If the system is not right, the players are not going to be in a position to succeed. At the beginning of the year, the coaches said they wanted to run a lot. I don't see the production from the run game recently and with 2 very good backs. I really think the offense needs more studs on the line and that will be focused on in the off season next year. For now, hopefully the line can hold up well enough to give the rest of the offense a chance to succeed. In this business, you have to be aware of a lot of things. Simply focusing on a dropped pass at a critical point in a game is not the answer. These things happen to all NFL teams. I would think that the coach is focused on individual players based on how they improve the team as a whole and not just one play that sticks in your craw. At least, I hope so.

Nitpicking over job titles. That is all.

That one had me screaming at the TV too. Agree with this. Woods was hammered but the play Revis made was legit. Welcome to the NFL Woods.

Got my vote.