BobChalmers

I will say this much - losing to the Fish again would vault the Bills "ahead" of one of three teams they might be competing with to draft a top QB. The Colts are a no brainer to take Luck. The Bills beat the 'Skins and I doubt they'll win two more, so there's no way 'Skins and Colts don't grab the first two. Barkley and Griffin are next in either order, and the Dolphins and Redskins are the two teams who need a QB. Maybe Seattle or Philly or the Browns are in the mix.

Fill in the name "Rivers" with any QB the Bills have played against since John Beck. It's been like this every week. It is nearly impossible to look good on defense with a passrush this bad. I think the secondary has some tools - they were great against the Jets in NY - and the run defense is better than the last few years, but all that is being obscured by absolutely zero pressure on opposing QB's. For all the complaints about Merriman not at 100% and with Kyle Williams playing hurt every week - they had a credible pass rush with those two in the lineup. Without them it's the worst pass rush I've ever seen. And yes - it's ridiculous they are starting a DT at OLB. I have no clue what that is meant to prove. It's not Spencer Johnson's fault - he's a fine backup D-lineman and an asset to the team at his actual position. Next thing you know, they'll be taking our fine young OLG and messing with his development by moving him around to OLT and C... Sheesh! Can you imagine? Oh wait...

Pretty sure Fitz was heavily involved with half of the 16-0. The first INT was a fluke??? He hit the Charger in the back. Sure - could have just been a long incomplete on a 3rd and 2. Would it really make you feel better if he threw that pathetic and stupid pass to end the drive on an incomplete??? No - they don't want to cut him yet - but it's pretty clear he's no "franchise" guy and they need to be drafting that guy.

Correct - which is why I get so annoyed with the "injuries don't matter" blowhards here. Sure - teams overcome injuries, but not to their 3 best players. Chiefs went through that, are starting to recover a little bit, but also have a pretty soft schedule. They also have a top WR and a top 2nd year D-lineman. Levitre goes in there too - close if he isn't. This team starting falling apart when we lost both 1st and 2nd string OLT's, and it's collapsed completely w/o Freddy. Losing Merriman and Williams at the start of the year eliminated what little pass-rush (and swagger) they had on defense. The national TV folks were all specifically highlighting Levitre as "having a pro-bowl season" during the early part of ther season. He was there until they messed him up playing OLT and C. Not future - this season. He was The MVPOTR* - not much question really. *Most Valuable Player Other Than Rodgers

Fitz doesn't "suck". He's totally mediocre. They need to draft a real franchise QB at some point. Just depends whether they address that or the 100% lack of a passrush first. After that - healthy, this team isn't bad at all.

Right - and 3rd and 2, why the hell doesn't Fitz tuck it in for a lousy 2 yards instead of try a deep ball to a covered WR?

Right - that's the only way anyone stops the Chargers. You have to get Rivers to make mistakes - same as Sanchez only with more talent. We don't force any QB to work hard.

We miss having a decent QB - I hate to say it - but unless we find out he's playing hurt, I'm giving up on Fitz. Instead of progressing, he's regressing back to his inaccurate self. He's hard to watch when he's like this.

Speed is what our WR corps lacks right now. We've got a bunch of nice big guys with hands but no serious deep threat to stretch the field. I don't see OT as a priority unless we're thinking Bell is going to get hurt every year.

Oh yes - that's it. It's not that we've lost Fred Jackson and Eric Wood and George Wilson and Kyle Williams, or that we have a DT (Spencer Johnson) playing one OLB spot and a DE (Kalsay) playing the other. It's not that the Bills have ONE SACK over the losing streak or that Fitz has been all over the place with his passes. Nope, you've zeroed in on it - it's because they are giving their rookie 3rd round ILB pick a chance to play at the position they drafted him for, that's why they've been losing.

Exactly - because the Redskins drafted Orakpo and now Kerrigan for the two OLB spots. The Bills drafted Maybin and picked up a broken Merriman to man the other spot, while trying to wedge Kelsay and now Spencer Johnson (a Defensive Tackle, for heaven's sake) into the all-important OLB positions. With Troup looking very much a bust, we really don't have a proper NT either. I would be all for bailing on the 3-4 - it's too trendy. I didn't want them switching in the first place. As I argued from the beginning - you want to use the base formation that teams haven't moved to - not the one everyone is flocking to (and competing with you for the same talent). It's much like trading stocks - the Bills had it backwards and were "selling low" on the Tampa-2 and "buying high" on the 3-4. You don't have to go small Tampa-2 (ala Dick Jauron) to play 4-3 - there's the bigger "base" 4-3 that the Giants and Lions use, for example - it works just fine. The Tampa-2 works too - for the Bears and others, but it can be tough to get the right players to handle power running and very tough to get the right MLB who can stuff the run AND drop back in coverage. Every time Urlacher gets hurt, the Bears defense turns to crap.

If you haven't noticed, we have a converted DE (Kelsay) and a converted DT (Johnson) playing the the two OLB spots - the most important position in a 3-4 defense - including the primary source of the 3-4 pass rush, of which we have absolutely none. The Bills MUST upgrade the OLB positions. Having said that, they could use a better WR#1 too. I'll take WR, OLB, OLB in any order if it's the first 3 picks - and also depending on FA, of course. I could imagine Nix (with Merriman's help) reeling in Vincent Jackson this off-season.

That maps to absolutely nothing I've seen. He's at NT and is getting doubled every time I look for him. The few time he isn't I see him winning.

Prior to the OL injuries and the loss of Freddy, the Bills were at or near the top of the league in running the ball - and their OL is massive and Freddy is a violent runner between the tackles, so I don't really see what "power running" game you were looking for and not finding? Is it really that big a deal to you how often they use a FB or go spread when the results were so good??? They added some good pieces to the defense this off-season, but lost their best player from the previous season (and KW was injured the whole time and never really himself). They still needed OLB/pass-rush help - particularly w/o Merriman working out. KW comes back healthy (hopefully) and they add two OLBs who can get after a QB and this team looks good - perfectly capable of playing Jets/Ravens level of defense, of not yet consistently, since they will be very young. What in Hades is wrong with their last draft class in your mind? Dareus looks good - you can't expect a lot of stats out of him while he's filling in at NT. Williams has looked very good when healthy. Sheppard is coming along well. Justin Rodgers looks like a great late add. The "White brothers" have both played well in situations. In what possible sense was this a "blown" draft??

This. We have the worst PASS RUSH in the league - BY FAR. How many games does this team win with a healthy Kyle Williams, and a couple of actual OLB's next season?? SIX SACKS in 11 games against teams not named the Redskins, folks. YOU CANNOT WIN LIKE THAT. All they have to do is get Williams back healthy, and draft the next Kerrigan or similar next season and you won't recognize them they'll be so good.

This all by itself is a non-sequitor. If we have "too many" holes, we shouldn't be drafting depth. Do we want depth at Center? Do we want to be 3-Deep at OLT? I am unaware of any other NFL team that is. We really don't have that many holes. A better WR#1 and a pair of OLB who can actually rush the passer, and a little better injury luck (Bills have 13 on IR, Ravens have 3) and this team has all it needed to compete. On the other hand, I do sgree with those who say if there's a QB stud he's still worth taking though. Fitz' accuracy seems to be returning to previous form - multiple huge misses on deep balls to open WRs that would be TD's. That there aren't enough open WRs is a seperate issue.

Uh huh. So that explains why Wood, Kyle Williams, and Fred Jackson were lost for the year? Yeah, "simple as that". Whatever. There's an awful lot of complainers here who want to find new excuses to whine about the front office. If that's your entertainment, go for it, but can anyone bring some actual facts that line up with reality? And yet more depth comments, but still no answer to my question about all the other teams and their 3rd string OLTs. Btw - I was watching some of the Ravens today - guess what one of the main themes was: They have been lucky this year to have very few injuries. Only 3. Guess maybe that's why they're 9-3, huh? Injuries are "no excuse" - except that they have a lot to do with who wins and loses in the NFL - and it's often just bad luck.

Merriman actually was helping a lot. He was creating some pressure, even without getting sacks. Their pass-rush has gotten even worse since he (and KW) have been out. Hard to believe - because it wasn't great before - but they are record-setting bad now. The last few games they haven't even gotten close to the opposing QB - it's actually bizzarre - far and away the worst I can ever remember seeing.

Still waiting on another thread for someone to name me the NFL franchise that is THREE-DEEP at OLT. The losing streak began when they started moving Levitre around. They've looked better since getting Hairston back - but then they were missing Freddy and Wood, and a lot of the defense.

The reason the Bills offense looked bad the three weeks prior to the Jets road game was the loss of BOTH OLT's People complaining here about Nix and the lack of OL depth??? PLEASE NAME ME A TEAM THAT IS THREE-DEEP AT OLT. Anyone? I thought the offense looked pretty good on the road against a tough Jets defense. I'm not surprised - Hairston is a solid OLT and Levitre finally got to play his proper position again. If Stevie catches that ball in his chest at the 15 the Bills win 31-28 and noone is complaining about Gailey's offense, RIGHT? We need more than 31 at the Jets? The defense struggles because they have one of the worst pass rushes ever. Losing Merriman and Williams ruined an already suspect unit. Having to play a 300# DT (Spencer Johnson - though in a 3-4, I suppose he's a DE) as an OLB is not surprisingly a real problem. They have 16 sacks. Only KC has fewer. 10 of the Bills' were against a horrible Redskins offense. That means 6 sacks for the other 10 games. When Merriman was playing, they were getting some pressure at least - now they don't even get that. If they add TWO OLB's next year, they will look like a completely different team. They also sucked at OLB last year, and decided to fix other issues while seeing if Kelsay/Merriman/Moats/Batten could step up. I think it would be fair to say except for some improvement from experience by Kelsay (who also has been hurt) the experiment failed. Now they will almost certainly find new personnel for both OLB slots. If they can find the next Kerrigan when they draft next year the defense will be night and day better - even with the uninspiring Edwards as the DC.

I think this is an idiotic post. Dallas before Gailey was HC 6-10 Dallas when Gailey was HC 10-6 8-8 Dallas for the three seasons after Gailey was fired by Jerry Jones - in what he later called "one of [his] worst mistakes as Cowboys owner": 5-11 5-11 5-11 Dallas was "stacked" alright - with a broken down Smith and Irvin, and a fully concussed Aikman. Honestly - why does noone ever look this up before saying it?

Agreed. OLB and WR are like 1 and 1A. Could argue we need 2 OLB unless we think Merriman will more fully recover next year - which is conceivable. With Williams back healthy and playing fairly well, I'm less concerned about CB going into next year. Honestly - can anyone have a serious complaint about the secondary after last week? They were playing amazing. Searcy blew a coverage for Keller's score. He's a rookie with very little playing time - it happens.

I guess I'm in the group who thinks the OL is pretty sound when healthy. You can't succeed w/o an OLT, but we had both our starter and the backup both out at once - so of course the OL struggled for those 4 weeks. I don't think we need a starter ther nearly as much as we need help elsewhere. Only one OLB?? Who's the other guy you think we have? Merriman? Kelsay? We need a WR stud for the offense that can stretch a defense. A full-sized WR with speed. Roscoe's fast but at 165# just can't hold up. Stevie has a nice suite of tools, but not special speed to force a defense back. Nelson has great size and hands, as does Chandler, but again, they aren't going to burn too many DB's on a fly pattern. I'd go WR, OLB, OLB in that order - depending on what quality is there when they pick, of course. I like it. Especially since I'm an FSU alum myself!

Side topic - but I disagree - given the Bills' improvement this season, particularly on the offensive side of the ball, I expect they'll be on a few night games next year. I suppose if they don't win another game it might hurt - on the other hand, for good or ill, Stevie's "showmanship" helps this too. It's pretty good, but last I checked the quality is still better on my dish/box, so I haven't checked in a while. My college son is usually using my account to watch the games in his dorm on his iPad anyway, so I can't get on without knocking him off. Again, the quality is better on the dish, but he's been happy with it. The quality of your internet connection has a big impact too. We've got the Verizon FiOS 30MB plan, if I remember right - it's very good.

Agreed - except from central Maryland. Interesting that not only are the out-of-towners somewhat more optimistic, but they are overwhelmingly the majority of respondents.