BillsVet

New England scored 35 points in less than 35 minutes of clock. This team has made an art form out of getting people excited and then dropping them off the mountain. This season it became Everest after years of the Himalayas.

Cue the circus music. Thanks for playing Chan.

It wasn't if, but when. How many times does that feeling deep in your gut become reality?

I think Buffalo is just off the radar for coaching jobs. Their current staff of coordinators and assistants, not to mention the HC suggests it's not a place to go if you want a chance to win. I think Nix's frustration at the Gailey PC 2 years ago was borne of his not knowing how far the Bills had fallen and his inability to even get interviews. Welcome to the dark side Seriously, Buffalo has had a lot of injuries, but it's not a catch-all to excuse losing 7 of 8. Teams don't go on 7 game losing streaks because the league is so even now.

If the Bills have so many key injuries, how did they manage to hang 21 on the Patriots in the first quarter and keep the lead deep into the 3rd? Does the injury excuse really carry as much weight as some want it to be?

Can Buffalo surrender a 21 point lead in one quarter?

Fitzpatrick is feast or famine.

I can't imagine there are many DL in the NFL who weigh 320+ and move like Dareus. Way to lay out Welker. All for nought though.

Weren't the Patriots supposed to be done about 2 years ago?

And now they'll be lining up against each other on Sunday

Fitz not being able to throw deep sorely limits the ability to keep defenses honest. This AFCE Blog post on ESPN is probably a big part of the reason Gailey doesn't call more intermediate or deep passes with his QB. Not surprisingly, when Gailey needed Fitzpatrick to make a play against the Giants in Week 7, Fitz tossed 2 picks. He knows it puts his QB in a position to fail, because his QB lacks touch on the intermediate to deep throws. It's harder to keep defenses on edge with nothing more than a short passing game and running the ball. I think Charlie Casserly said something about how stopping the Bills can be done by pressing their receivers, thereby disrupting their route running and timing of the QB. This makes Fitzpatrick take more time, which isn't available because the pass protection, at least from the OT's, isn't all that great. The OL gets a lot of misguided credit because he doesn't get sacked. Well, opponents don't have to sack the QB to stop the Bills either, as evidenced by the last 8 games. For all the talk about Gailey being an offensive guru, he doesn't adapt when people figure him out. It happened at GT and it's happening in Buffalo. Sure, everything looked good in the first 6 weeks of the season, but when teams figured them out as Casserly mentioned, he couldn't respond. Some will point to the injuries, or lack of talent, but if the coach is unwilling to make changes and simply say they need better execution, isn't that a HC who isn't very creative and too wedded to his system? I know so.

An indicator for me that a rebuild isn't working occurs when a HC has to fire a coordinator. That's a huge step in the wrong direction, and Gailey himself may have demonstrated this for Todd Haley. Oh, and an ownership change. This team hasn't escaped the 4-7 win range since 2004. Multiple GM's, HC's, coordinators, and players haven't taken this team out of that range in 7 years.

I doubt Nix has final say in who to re-sign when money like this involved. We've seen he wasn't involved much with the Evans trade, so it stands to reason he isn't empowered enough to make decisions that would affect the bottom line like a long term deal worth say, 40M with 20M guaranteed. I also wouldn't be surprised if the team claims they can't come to agreement, then point to K. Williams and Fitzpatrick as evidence they're committed to winning when the heat comes down for not retaining their only go-to receiver.

His achilles, knees, and calves say otherwise.

That would be apt in this case. I'm sure someone keeps records of targets where a catch is possible and the ball is dropped. Roddy White's total surprised me a little given his reputation for big plays.

SJ isn't in the top (bottom 25) for dropped passes. His just tend to be more noticeable (PIT '10 and @NYJ '11) Passes Dropped

Corrected myself with the Saints in a previous post. Brees is an exception, being that he was allowed to hit UFA after that terrible injury. Not many teams roll from one good QB to another, GB being another example. I just don't see franchise QB's, injured or otherwise, hitting free agency. Of course, Peyton Manning might...

I wouldn't go so far as to put words into my mouth, and if you're alleging this is directed at anyone in particular, you're flat wrong. Go on being self-righteous and defending an organization mired in a 12 year slump that apparently is on the verge of greatness if it weren't for another season of massive injuries. I just have a hard time rationalizing failure year in and year out.

Here's the thing, and it's a nuanced argument so it typically goes over the head of big homers, but you don't let top players get to the season before they hit UFA unsigned. It should be noted for the one millionth time that the deal was closer to 7 years and 64M with about 25M guaranteed. Not exactly the 80M his agent probably reported to the press, but would not have been as high if Buffalo made a decision on the player during the early part of 2006. But I digress. GM's and Pro Personnel types get paid to manage and anticipate issues before they become obvious. A good front office would have made a decision to either re-sign NC during the 06 off-season or franchise and then trade him if they deemed him not part of their future plans. Marv and the rest of management did neither, lost the player, and went about blowing more picks on DB's. Buffalo's motive for all of these player departures is simple: money. I didn't expect for one minute they'd retain all 9 of those departed players, but with their cap situation it's reasonable they could have retained 3 or 4. Not so, and the product never seems to escape the 4-7 win territory while homers rejoice when RW saves money and buy into the maligning talk spewing from OBD.

And how do you replace 80 catches and 1000+ yards next year? No WR on the roster can provide that production and using a top pick takes away from the other positions that need an influx of talent. The marginalization of Stevie continues. More like rationalizing not having to spend on their best receiving threat.

It never gets hard for some to rationalize getting rid of players. In the last five years Fletcher, Clements, Spikes, McGahee, Greer, Peters, Lynch, Posluszny, Evans, and probably Stevie will be allowed to leave for little or no compensation with top draft picks used to replace them. And not surprisingly they'll be a group of homers there to applaud every departure. The more things change...

Baltimore fell to 5-11 in 2007, took Flacco in the 08 draft and have made the playoffs ever since. It's a debate whether that qualifies as a rebuild, but they did grab a QB early. New England hasn't rebuilt since the 2000 season, and I'm sure that Brady wasn't thought of as their franchise guy in April 2000 or a suitable replacement for Bledsoe. They are probably the only team that's not used a high pick on a QB, i.e. a first or second, at the outset of rebuilding. NO didn't draft one high, choosing to sign Drew Brees and Houston traded for Matt Schaub. Having said all of this, Ryan Fitzpatrick is not your long term answer at QB. At least if you want to be better than 8-8, which with a supporting cast is what I think he's topping out as. And right now it's debatable if the Bills will keep enough talent, owing to the financial requirement, to surround him and mask his deficiencies.

A rookie QB with 21 TD passes, albeit in a pass happy league, is nothing to run down. Were it not for Cam Newton, Dalton has had the best rookie season for a QB in years and he was a second round pick. His numbers, again for a QB, are on par with Green's as a rookie WR picked top 5. Rebuilding a team means finding your long term answer at QB. The Bills haven't been in prime position to take one, but you can't go 3 drafts without doing something for the future. Perhaps Nix leaves this one to Whaley when the younger man takes over. Still, I don't know of one successful rebuild where the front office eschewed taking a QB in the draft.

Why the Bills converted to a 3-4 in 2010 remains one of the biggest obstacles to rebuilding that defense and the team. Buddy Nix and his staff forced that upon the coaches and after so many draft picks and UFA dollars, appear no closer to a good defense than the DJ/Fewell unit in 2009. Kyle Williams is best served as a 1 or 3 tech in a 43, not as a 1 gap 34 NT.

Depends on his contract demands. If he's a core player, and I think most agree he is, then re-sign him before he begins his final season. If they let him get close to UFA, the cost goes up and the Bills will say he costs too much. Buffalo has some big decisions to make with Byrd, Levitre, and Johnson. All of them should have new deals within the next 6-8 months.