2020 Our Year For Sure

Careful, this thread title could draw the "don't look past this week or the players will read your mind and lose because of it" crowd.

If only someone had posted this earlier

You're seriously gonna turn on the guy for that? Show some loyalty.

:lol:

McKelvin is a half-decent dimeback/4th CB. If he is any higher than that on your depth chart, I consider your CB depth troublesome. Corner I'm not sure belongs on a roster at all, although that was a tremendous reaction on his part. When the ball was tipped into the air he actually had his back turned to it. He put his head back and picked up the ball behind him, then turned 180 degrees before laying out and getting full extension to make the pick just before the ball hit the ground. Impressive reactionary/athletic play from a poor cover corner.

If you look at the 10-15 players that went after Spiller on draft day, there aren't a ton of legitimate candidates for the Bills at 9. I wish we had gone with Jason Pierre-Paul, but I dont remember anyone at the time having him tabbed as a top-10 prospect. The way the top 8 shook out left our options limited. This likely takes away any chance of a trade-down, and makes it easier to understand their gambling on the upside of Spiller to become a Chris Johnson or a Jamaal Charles. I don't believe Spiller will ever live up to those lofty expectations coming out of college. With that said, my answer to the thread title is yes; the kid's improvement seems obvious to me. His sense for where to go and how quickly to go there is immeasurably better. He probably won't do us much good while Captain Jackson is performing as one of the top halfbacks in the league, but he can be a useful player.

Neither Jim Kelly nor Roger Goodell seem to think there's much chance at all of the Bills leaving Buffalo. Be at peace, Bills nation. This team is staying right where it is.

couldn't agree more, Rico. I read someone this week call him the best player on our defense so far-- pure lunacy. We lost NOTHING with 90 out of the lineup.

Dumbass

Troup is also out. Kelsay will be replaced by a rotation depending on personnel groups. This from buffalobills.com, I'd link it but from my phone I can only get on the mobile site.

Not by a long shot, it's Nick Barnett. The two tackles have also been more impressive. Kelsay still gets caught inside, and generally has disappeared on runs to his side. Most of his pass rushes still go wide around the quarterback. I'll give him this, he's been significantly better than last year's debacle, but this team needs help at OLB more than anywhere else.

When you sit through 11 seasons without a postseason, you win the right to say "we."

Gailey looks like a hell of a hire.

He's been beaten cleanly plenty of times this year.

Peyton Manning's spectacular line got crappy in a hurry once Manning wasn't around to make them look good.

Williams played every bit as well as Dareus in the first three games. Didn't have his best game against Cincy. The first three weeks though K-Weezy got penetration against the run and did a good job of moving down the line laterally in pursuit several times. He must be one of the best 300-pounders in the league at the latter. If we could do a better job of setting the edge we would have a strong run defense, and both stud DTs would get more opportunity to make plays on the ballcarrier. Merriman has been alright in this regard, but Kelsay continues to disappear on running plays outside that go his way. In my opinion Barnett and Davis are solid in the middle but OLB and Leodis McKelvin are the problems with the defense right now.

You are not allowed to hit anyone hard anymore, ever. Even if they have the ball (just ask Jairus Byrd).

My thought as well. I'd love to see Merriman or Kelsay rip off 3 sacks with a backup lineman getting the start, yet somehow I'm not expecting it...

Hairston has held up well at every opportunity-- late in the preseason, the 4th quarter against KC, and again yesterday. I do hope that Urbik is back, he seems better than Rinehart.

Don't line up in shotgun on 80% of your snaps. Frank Gore went into Philly averaging around 2.5 yards per carry and averaged over 8.0 in yesterday's game. Their LB unit gets called out constantly, and their best LB Trent Cole may miss the ballgame. I know it's not Gailey's usual plan; change your plan. Adapt. Run the football and utilize play action. It just doesnt work out of the shotgun with 4 wide receivers. We all think our defense will struggle to contain Vick and McCoy. Run the ball, use play action, chew up the clock and limit Vick and Reid's possessions.

McGee and Williams can't get healthy soon enough. McKelvin does have this problem with the ball in the air which is causing some posters to overlook the instances where he's beat cleanly. It happened on yet another deep ball today, but Dalton overthrew Green. Useless McKelvin will be off this roster by opening day 2012.

Can we outlaw the term "playing not to lose." so !@#$ing sick of it. Not losing = winning. Absolutely meaningless

I have to disagree here, SJ. During Gailey's post game, a reporter mentions that Cincy stayed in Nickel often today regardless of how we lined up, and faced our running game with those 6 guys up front. Gailey appears to agree with that assessment. In my opinion they focused on our passing game while daring us to win the battles up front and run on them. Jackson, who came into the game with an absurd ypc mark, was held under 4 per attempt for the first time this season. With Cincy playing defense this way, I agree with many posters saying we should have lined up with McIntyre and put more focus on a power running game. As Wagon Circler mentions, there's only so much you can do with the running game out of the shotgun. It got predictable at a certain point.

This play hurt but you can't say it cost us the game. I do agree we likely win if we get that catch. However, we still let them march down for a tying touchdown, then we did nothing on offense, then let them march right down for a field goal. Three separate possessions after that call forced a punt and we failed on all of them. THAT is why we lost today

I think the offense comes back and lights up the eagles next week, and these threads disappear as quickly as they appeared.