BackInDaDay

our talent and depth is above average.. i'm very concerned that Rex's inability to coordinate his LBs and DBs secondary in the face of a fast-paced spread offensive attack, has been exposed in 2 of our first 4 games by QBs savvy enough to adjust the play at the LOS. Eli put up modest numbers, but they moved the ball enough to play field position for 3 quarters. 'll wait until i see the all-22 before forming a strong opinion on what Rex was trying to accomplish in exposing the middle of our D to the run - by lining KW up over their OT in some 1st half schemes. not sure who we had on the field at the time, and where he was rolling his strength to, but it seems like Eli changed his call to a run through the box each time. yes.. just said the same thing.

was that Jerry Hughes trying to fold fitted sheet?

been trying to stay positive with Rex.. this is what Jet fans learned.. that his D too often comes up small in big spots.. Undisciplined football is losing football

if you have an offensive system that's built on the strengths of the O line, and limits how often they're asked to do things they're not good at doing - your offense can be productive. if you add skill position players who complement that system - it can be dynamic if you add a QB who can execute your offense - it can be dangerous if you build an efficient defense and special teams unit to support your O - it can win the tourney success in the pros is never attained by one player. all the pieces need to fit. teams who hope they'll fall in place by sheer dumb luck are doomed to squander high draft picks and some very gifted players, year after year. the time it takes to build a championship team is related to how competent the team's owners/managers/coaches are in setting a plan and coordinating their efforts to achieving their goals. outside of one finite era - where a number of very talented players 'fell in place' - the Buffalo Bills have spent most of their existence languishing as the victims of bad luck. it appears the franchise may have turned a corner with competent leadership.

is it cruelty, generosity, or merely indifference that compels gods to transform yesterday's villain into today's hero, and today's hero into tomorrow's fool? i'm enjoying watching Roman work, but reactions such as this topic, remind me of this Warren Buffett quote ~ "Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked." of course the flip side to this, is that when the tide's in - no one cares.. see K. Gilbride.

Bills pitch a shutout.. 24-0

Watched the Pats all 22.. concentrated on their possesions and our D. Honestly, we looked prepared.. but some very nice play design really challenged our LBs and DBs to play mistake free. When one guy broke down, Brady was all over it.. although he did miss a couple plays, too. So, my concern is our pass defense, only because of we weren't coordinated well enough to stand up to a polished attack by the defending champs. I think it may be this week's weakest link, but I also expect our guys will turn Miami over 3 or 4 times.. which is why I think we're going to dominate them to the tune of a 3 TD margin of victory.

high school and college players' mothers and girlfriends sometimes wear their loved one's home or away jersey in the stands. i know it's very common for grown men to do the same for their pro favorites.. just never understood why

i'm surprised by your response to this. a couple nights back you posted the following link to my "Belichick's new monster" topic discussing the AR schemes Ryan had to prepare for - http://smartfootball.com/offense/the-air-raid-offense-history-evolution-weirdness-from-mumme-to-leach-to-franklin-to-holgorsen-and-beyond so i would think you'd understand how elementary Stephen White's analysis is.

Ryan put his trust in his players' physical abilities and in their ability to remain disciplined enough to execute the coordinated defense he prepared for them.. He owned up to his failure to prepare them well enough to stop what came at them. How much of this failure was actually his, and how much was actually the failure of his players to implement what they were taught, is only relevant in terms of how he can defend this or a similar attack down the road. Maybe his game plan isn't such a cluster f*ck in week 6, because by then his guys are getting used to talking to one another, and can match the offensive tempo by recognizing and communicating their assignments quickly. Or maybe he fails anyway, because he's not capable of preparing a disciplined game plan. Or maybe he fails anyway, because his players lack what it takes to execute such a game plan. Personally, i think it would be the first scenario. I agree that the Pats are the best at this attack, and that our coach and players were out of their element last Sunday... and i don't think we'll be the last team to feel that way on Monday after facing this.. but i do think the coach and players will be in a much better position to push back the next time

i bought a Cassel jersey

wonder if the price was too high for EJ?

it might be hard for us to believe that any alternative could be worse than what was happening, but Rex may have felt that if his players could execute the plan, it remained the best way to defend this attack. Rex may be a lot of things, but he's a very good defensive coach.. i doubt that he refused to take a more aggressive tact out of stubbornness.. in fact, sitting back watching Brady rip off completion after completion must have been pretty painful. it's just an opinion, but i don't see many teams slowing this down. The Seahawks and Jets may have a shot by throwing more press man at it - but by nature the system's designed to help receivers scrape 'man' defenders off when that presents itself.. at least that's what advocates of AR claim. it'll be interesting to see if this monster was just the right fit last Sunday, or if the Pats view this as their base offense going forward.

you're very welcome Rev.. i enjoy getting enough pieces together, so the rest of the gang can add to the subject.. like many of us, i was bewildered by how Rex defended - or attempted to defend - the Pats attack.. at least now i know he wasn't knitting socks when he should have been looking at tape i get a feeling that the Pats surprised us with staying in the up tempo so long.. not that that should dissuade the occasional pressure a blitzer could bring.. but at some point in their preparations, it must have been decided that taking a man or two out of coverage was too risky.. i'm sure there'll be a lot of re-thinking on that

Get your point, but we are talking about a Rex Ryan team, here.

absolutely.. consider the plight of RG3.. Shanahan may have temporarily destroyed him physically, but at least he ran AR concepts he knew the kid understood from his time with Briles.. rookie QBs usally don't shine the way he did, unless they have a little head start on the job. honestly, i don't know what style offense Gruden's running, but it's obvious that it's not the same fit.

Excellent points all around, especially regarding communication. Regardless of what D you're running, there's always gonna be a lapse in focus, so you have to have guys talking/reminding each other where their responsibility is. It must be crucial in defending this system. The AR you describe regarding receivers altering the routes/route depths sounds a lot like the Mouse Davis run&shoot that Rex's dad was so fond of. From that link 'Pete' sent early this morning, it looks like this system's got a big family.

Rex knew what to expect, but defending this system requires patience - and that isn't how Rex wants to defend. i give the guy credit with getting his DC and players on board NOW with this, because they will be seeing it in bits and pieces elsewhere - not to the degree they saw it Sunday, at least until we play again - and when they do, there'll be less mistakes.

Duke wasn't the only one getting lost, or falling a step behind a man passing through his zone.. i recall one exhibition game where Rex was going to challenge his defense with complex assignments to test their ability to communicate with one another. that "3-2" coverage Duke blew on the Gronk TD was a good example of two defenders recognizing their responsibilities, while the third did not. i think Rex could live with that, but when Duke failed to react to the direction he was getting from Gilmore and Bradham - it tears a hole in the net.

thanks for keeping me up even later.. great history! I have to admire Belichick's use of the double TE within the system.. not sure if that began with him, or like everything else in this offense - was an adaptation of another coach's scheme.. I'm sure he and Brady have picked up concepts from all the AR guys in their building. That Pats team that eventually lost to the Giants in the SB was scorching most opponents that year, but I don't recall them executing at a high tempo.. this seems to be Kelly's influence on Belichick.. don't let em come up for air..

Yeah, thanks - me too. I should be sleeping, but I love this stuff.. guess who Gronk played for at Arizona.. AR coach Sonny Dykes as his OC.. Ione of Dyke's old assistants is running AR at Kansas with - you guessed it - two big athletic TEs! I wonder if the O line play in this system has some specificity to it, considering the number of young guys Belichick now has. Somebody send up the Bandit signal.. he'd probably know. if you play man, you're gonna get washed out, but I hear ya.. we were horrible passing guys off. Aaron Williams appeared to trip over his own two feet - or got tripped by a teammate rolling left - before giving late chase to Edelman's 'against the grain' route to his right for the TD

fair enough, bbb.

After reading an article on the Air Raid offense and it's assimilation into NFL offenses, i believe Rex 's defense just fell prey to the longest duration of AR concepts ever implemented in the pros. Belichick and Brady have been blending AR into their O since the days of Texas Tech (Air Raid system) receiver Wes Welker. When they let him go, they signed fellow Texas Tech receiver Danny Amendola. A couple years ago they draft Jimmy Garoppolo who ran an Air Raid offense at Eastern Illinois. I'm not going to research their entire roster, but i think this stockpiling of skill position players familiar with AR offenses is no coincidence. While all the attention's been on ex-Oregon coach Chip Kelly's Eagles, Belichick and Brady have been refining a high tempo passing offense of their own - based on AR. If our game was any indication - this doesn't appear to be a sometime thing. This looks like a commitment's been made to run this out of spread formations the majority of their snaps. It'll be interesting to see if that's the case. Read this article, if such things interest you. It's from 2013, but i think you'll recognize much of what it describes. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1850629-is-the-nfl-ready-for-the-air-raid-offense. Personally, it's helped me better understand what Rex may have been trying to do defensively in his coverage schemes this Sunday. What i thought was a lot of man under zone, was more than likely mostly zone - implemented with everyone but his D line. We obviously executed like crap, but at least now i'm not as bewildered by his defensive approach to what he thought was coming.

yeah, i can see the younger guys getting pulled so close into Rex's orbit that they began spinning out of control.. but this is a professional coaching staff that should be able to put aside the hyperbole they save for players and media, and get down to the serious business of identifying how the next opponent will attack and defend. i'm very disappointed - and very, very surprised at their lack of preparation. the lack of discipline is something we'll learn to tolerate if Rex wins .