The Big Cat

Is it fair to say that between the officiating and between this demonstrative play which has only wielded negative results this year, that this team has been bashed over the head with Murphy's law? That through 13 games if there were two outcomes to every scenario, that it came up negative every time? I sometimes get the feeling that it could not have gotten any worse than it was this year. Somehow 2015 may have actually been the most unlucky season of the entire damn drought, and that's saying something.

It was the wrong call on the field but there wasn't enough to overturn it.

I have never said that. In fact, I acknowledged the coach's have an impact. I don't think the accounted for the massive drop off in Mario's play.

Yep! Nobody is talking about this enough! Nobody! The premise of this article is completely off: http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/189925/nfl-officiating-slump-coincides-with-personnel-turnover But the important takeaway: 75 of the NFL's 120 officials have 10-27 years experience. And 10 (10!!!) of those have 21-27 years. It's way past time to reevaluate the apparent lifetime appointment that becoming an NFL referee is. OR it's time to significantly strengthen the rigors for annual assessment. We have senior citizens chasing world class athletes. How...HOW!?...did the referee yesterday call Sammy out of bounds on the long TD. He was standing RIGHT THERE. There was no contact. It was NOT CLOSE. ABSURD!

Was this the same bozo who called Sammy out at the three yard line because he couldn't see--from 30 inches away--that Sammy missed the sideline by nearly a foot? That bozo?

Extreme? Ha. Okay. Consider yourselves bludgeoned then. All of you. May be this should more like PPP wherein only a singular perspective exists.

He asked me a question. I answered it. You're being an ass.

My buddy and I talked about this during the game too. When the RE jumps and the tackle on the opposite site of the oline jerks, that's a setup. It's now gotten to the point where DLines can basically have false starts.

It wasn't funny the second third or fourth times you tried to insult me either, tough guy. How about you grow up and stop being a jerk? Everyone is operating on the assumption that nothing happened to Boobie. Where is the evidence of this?

Or am I just doggedly consistent in not blaming coaches like Bills fans on the Internet ALWAYS DO.

So we're critiquing Rex for shrugging and saying 'oh well.' That's been his response?

Would love to share a cold one, but with the playoffs more or less off the table, I think I'll entertain mom's request to watch with her in her living room! Exactly. Rex's seeming inattention to details was my biggest concern upon his hire. But at some point the players HAVE to get on board. http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/183698-do-we-blow-it-up-how-does-the-reload-look/page-3?do=findComment&comment=3806418

Yes. In fact, we were all pretty certain during the offseason that our safeties were dubious. Losing Williams on top of that was brutal. Re: Darby, he was OK, yes, until the last three weeks when he's gotten beat, repeatedly.

I'll repeat this as many times as it takes: the defense is not the same. both starting safeties: gone. spikes (who i fully !@#$ing understand is unemloyed): gone. the fact that he doesn't have a job now does not in any way shape or form change how much he impacted this defense last year. also: @ChrisTrapasso Perspective: In 2014: #Bills D starters missed total of 13 games due to injury. In 2015 thru Week 14: #Bills D starters have missed 29 games http://twitter.com/ChrisTrapasso/status/676445403626115073 THIS DEFENSE IS NOT THE SAME PERSONNEL AS IT WAS IN 2014 PLEASE STOP REPEATING THIS FALLACY TO MAKE A NON-POINT

I am a bit conflicted about this. But I'd rather we churn players into his scheme rather than have to keep having to tweak a scheme to account for players lost to FA, etc.

So we're back to making the GOAT HC with the GOAT QB the standard for coaching and success in the NFL? Which players--other than Hughes--have been repeat offenders the entire season? I'll hang up and take my answer off air.

It's sort of weird watching you dance around the same point I've been making for nine years and only to find bizarre things to pick at rather than offer any kind of counter point, whatsoever.

Steam sang that nah nah nah nah hey hey goodbye song. that's all i know

Whether or not they're right doesn't take away from how they feel about things. Ross Tucker said of his time in the NFL: there are two things that matter in an NFL locker room: how much money you make and how violent you're willing to be.

Also, about the defense being the same: http://twitter.com/ChrisTrapasso/status/676445403626115073 @ChrisTrapasso Perspective: In 2014: #Bills D starters missed total of 13 games due to injury. In 2015 thru Week 14: #Bills D starters have missed 29 games

Based on everything I've heard from former players on NFLN, etc., how much money you make is very well known in the locker room and very much shapes your team mate's perception of you. I could care less. The point was that his team mates know and his team mates see the same effort we do. I didn't mean to imply it has NOTHING to do with it. The message that comes up on this board time and time again, however,r is that it has EVERYTHIGN to do with it. And that's flat wrong.

May be I don't view fandom as being driven by the necessity to blame someone.

Were your teams successful? I started on a state championship team. That year our coach one Pennsylvania coach of the year. His philosophy that year was to let the players who had been together for three years take the reigns and lead themselves. And we did. So I ask again: were your teams successful? Did you have players that were leaders? Or were you completely at the mercy of whatever mood your coach was in on any given day? Did you have playmakers? Did big players make big plays? Or did the coaches micromanage you to success? Did you commit infractions? Were you able to recover from them by making plays? Or did you coach just keep benching players who did bonehead things? They never had a chance to redeem themselves? Well that completely obliterates your own original point. And the one that follows!

Which players are holding eachother accountable? Everyone wants to talk about Bellichick. You think Tom Terrific might have some sway in that locker room? How about Pittsburgh, ever hear those guys talk about what James Harrison meant to those teams? You hear what guys say about Earl Thomas out in Seattle? What kind of message does it send when $100Million Mario loafs? Everyone wants to pin leadership exclusively on coaches. Even if you pin the MAJORITY of it on coaches, you mean to deny the utter VACCUM of leadership this team has at the player level? I've shifted nothing. Not in this thread, nor in the nine years of threads I've been saying the same !@#$ing thing since Dick Jauron was here. You're not following.

In a game decided by three points in which a 53 yard TD was thrown on 2nd and 26 and in which a 41 yard catch and run enabled by a NON call set up the go ahead FG, I'm hard pressed to identify specifically which penalties you think changed the outcome of the game mores so than these two plays?