MDH

It's pretty much impossible to tell this from the broadcast tape unless for some reason they show an extreme wide of the field on a replay...so there could be more blame to go around to the WRs as well...though I can't imagine with the amount of blitzing that Oakland was doing that the WRs wouldn't catch on and cut their routes off.

I didn't realize I was blaming "one" person for everything...in fact I broke it down on who I felt was responsible for each of the sacks...I guess that "one" person you speak of is beyond any reproach and none of the sacks were his fault... Who is that "one" person btw, Shelton?

So I finally got off my ass today and watched the tape of the Oakland game as I wanted to see for myself who was responsible for the sacks...I was intrigued by Mularky's claim that only 1 of the 7 could be put on the O-line. I only watched the Bills offensive plays and took some notes on the sacks and other things...I'll keep this post to just the sacks though because it's pretty long. 1st Sack – Shelton runs RIGHT by the blitzing LB and goes into his route instead of giving a chip on his way out or staying in to block. 2nd Sack – Henry whiffs on a blitz pickup. He makes the correct read but just misses the block. 3rd Sack – Shelton decides to help double team a DE and realizes too late there’s a blitzing LB that’s his responsibility. Tag this one on Shelton. 4th Sack – Mike Williams gets beat for the sack. However, it takes 3.1 seconds for the man to get to Bledsoe and this comes from Bledsoe’s front side on a 3rd and 10 from the 29-yard line…HE HAS TO GET RID OF THE BALL HERE TO AVOID GETTING KNOCKED OUT OF FG RANGE. I’m not sure who I’d tag this sack on, probably both Williams and Bledsoe, but GD Bledsoe can’t make these kinds of rookie QB mistakes…getting knocked out of FG range on 3rd and 10 from a front-side rusher when he has 3 seconds to get rid of the ball is a huge mistake. Throw the ball away and let Lindell come in and miss the FG. 5th Sack – Jonas Jennings gets beat pretty cleanly, he gets shoved off balance and back and the DE then goes inside to get the sack. However, Drew is in the shotgun and it takes 4 seconds for the DE to get to Bledsoe…he had plenty of time to get rid of the ball. I’d put this one on Bledsoe, he’s got to get rid of the ball when he gets that much time to throw and can’t find a receiver. 6th Sack – This is a complicated sack. Ross Tucker is at RG. He engages the DL in front of him (a shifting DE) but then sees a blitzing LB coming inside and tries to hand his man off to Mike Williams. Williams, however, sees another blitzing LB coming on his outside and moves out to pick him up thinking Tucker has the DE that shifted in. Willis McGahee is in the backfield and sees the blitzing LB and picks him up too…so what you end up with is WM and MW on one blitzing LB, Tucker leaving his man to pick up a blitzing LB and the DE that Tucker originally engages ends up getting the sack. At the same time on the left side of the field the nickel corner blitzes from the side and gets in cleanly. The DL and CB meet at Bledsoe at the same time to share the sack. The defense sent 6 guys in and Drew has 3 seconds to get rid of the ball. It looks like a Mike William’s mistake (though it could have been a Teague and Tucker mistake…with Teague being the guy who was supposed to pick up the blitzing LB). However, with 6 guys coming on the blitz a QB shouldn’t be holding the ball 3 seconds, throw it away or dump it off to your outlet. I put this one on Drew. 7th Sack – Blitzing Woodson comes in totally unaccounted for from the left side. Not sure who’s responsibility this is. McGahee is in the backfield but he’s lined up on the right side and he picks up a blitzing LB from that side…so he’s not at fault. Took 1 second to get to Bledsoe…not much he could do about it. It might have been Jennings man, but he was engaged one on one with the DE with no help, so had he left the DE to pick up Woodson his man would have come free. This one just looks like a good D call at the right time. They overloaded the left side and there were one too many defenders to block. Without knowing the blocking scheme it’s impossible to know whose guy this is. So of the 7 sacks here’s how I’d break it down: 2 - Shelton 1 - Henry 1 - Mike Williams – Though Bledsoe shares this one and should get rid of the ball 2 - Bledsoe – Jonas got beat on one but Drew had 3.9 seconds to get rid of it and the 6th sack…he’s got to get rid of the ball when the D all out blitzes and he’s got 3 seconds to throw it…his penchant for trying to hard to make plays costs us in situations like this. 1 – Not sure without knowing the blocking scheme. It appears it was just a solid D play-call that overloaded the left side. So when Mularky said that only 1 of those sacks was on the o-line he wasn’t bullshitting, it looked that way to me as well. Though you could take one of those sacks away from Bledsoe and put it on Williams…but at the same time the sack I tagged on Williams could be put on Bledsoe as well. If you give ‘em each a half for both of those it adds up to the same thing. It all comes down to pickups and reads on blitzes. Only twice did an O-linemen get beat cleanly for a sack (one by Williams and one by Jennings, though he held his man off for 4 seconds)…everything else was a miscue on a blitz. We're going to keep seeing this until we get it right. That being said I didn't see WM make one mistake when it came to blitz pickups. Pretty good job for essentially a rook. And btw, whoever that poster was last week who counted how many seconds drew had to get rid of the ball was just out and out wrong with his 2 second counts…I used a stop watch from the time the ball was snapped and only on a few of the sacks did the D get there in 2 seconds or less. Also, damn I feel like Barry Brady (or Fake Fat Sunny as it is now)...how the hell do you have time for all those monster posts!?!

That's not really the point though, the Bills lack of success has nothing to do with the salary cap. You can be glad that the cap came in when it did, because the NFL would look like MLB if it didn't and the Bills would be the Expos of the league (hell, the Bills would be in LA right now). The salary cap doesn't guarantee the Bills success, it just guarantees them equal footing to have success.

I always hear Yankee fans talk about how "classy" they are...yet, after just about every win there's someone on the board gloating about the victory. Maybe it's just that I have a different definition of "classy" than these Yankee fans, but "classy" people don't gloat in victory, they're humble. It’d be like a Bills fan going to a Pats board on Sunday night if the Bills won and rubbing it in…real “classy” (or more likely Pats fans coming here to do it to us…). And to NJSue, for someone who started a thread about how the board “just isn’t the same” and people aren’t acting like “family” I find it ironic that you’d make personal attacks against people in this thread. Calling someone an “IDIOT” and saying to another poster, “maybe you’re still in your teens”. I guess you only mean that when it’s a poster attacking somebody you like. Whatever, pot meet kettle.

The way I see it, the main thing the Bills need to do offensively is make the Pats pay for bringing a Safety up to the line to support the run. I don't care if the Oline only gives Drew 2 seconds when the Pats blitz, I want to see the Bills take shots down field on occassion. We'll get at LEAST a pass interferience call or two...I'd like to see Bledsoe go deep to Moulds or Evans (as long as they're single covered)and purposely throw behind the WR making them come back to the ball. I see other teams do this all the time, but never the Bills. It's an easy way to get a PI call. The main problem with our offense is that we've dinked and dunked the entire time. The problem with this philosphy is that a team has to have 10+ play drives to score and they are bound to make mistakes somewhere along the way. We need to have some scoring drives that only take 6-7 plays, which means along the way we need a big chunk of yardage from a play or two. I'm not saying we need to Gilbride it and keep looking downfield, but 4-5 shots down the field during the game is a must. Other than that I think we just need to pound the interior of the Pats D into submission. Power running and play action (even though Drew's play action sucks...). It's going to take 20+ points to win this game, the pats have a much better O than the Jags or Oak. Also, I don't think Milloy can play this week, if I'm not mistaken the Bills have him listed as "OUT" and I'm pretty sure they can't pull a fast one like that on the injury report.

He was on the field plenty; he just wasn't catching any balls. And if he's a "secret" weapon, why would the Bills announce he's the starter this week ahead of time... I just hope Evans has earned the position and isn't being put in there because there's pressure to fiddle with an offence that's been sucking hind-tit. Then again, everybody else seems to take the blame and the same QB keeps lining up behind center.

What a surprise, somebody who doesn't watch debates or pay attention to politics but somehow has an opinion about it. Unfortunately you represent the majority of America.

I had thought about surprising the Pats and starting with a 4WR no huddle attack...it sounded like a good idea but then I realized that Drew would be sacked 2 times and we'd go 3 and out to start the game. =/

I'd rather him stevestojan on us than pick us to win Super Bowls 4 years straight...

Never said he was a great writer or a great humorist...I said he was one of the best journalists out there when it comes to understanding the game they are covering. I'll take a "football' guy over a "writer" anyday.

I wouldn't say that the Pats game is "everything" but we HAVE to win 2 or our next 3 and that would be a whole lot easier if we beat the Pats. We "should" be able to beat the Phins at home, so we basically need to split with the Pats/Jets. That would put us at 2-3 but with 2 wins within the division.

You guys can rip Dr. Z all you want, the guy has forgotten more about football than most on this board will ever know. I'm not saying he's always right, but he's one of the better football minds out there when it comes to journalists. He understands the game completely, he breaks down something like 6-7 games a week, looking at teams as a whole and at individual players. The guy knows his stuff (if he'd just stop with that whole "flaming redhead" bit...) Peter King on the other hand...

Until proven otherwise the best team in the leauge is the New England Patriots. Which will make the Bills victory that much sweeter this weekend!

I'd also add to that I have no problem with him coming in this season if the season gets out of hand and it's obvious we're not going to the playoffs (which an 0-2 start isn't that time). Once we've lost 8 games and JP is fully healed it's time to prepare for next year, but not before then.

That site is hilarious, the best part was Beck where it says "$cientolgist (this is disputed)"...like all of their other information is factual!

Given the constant flip-flopping of your opinions I'd have to question your tenuous hold on REALITY. You keep typing the word in caps as if the louder you say your opinion the more likely it is to be REAL! The REALITY is that you're always going to be wrong and always going to be right, because you'll always be on both sides of an issue...it all depends on what day/week it is. People might start listening to your opinions on football more if you had the same one for at least 4 straight weeks…

What you're forgetting is that there are 50 other guys on the roster and the organization and coaching staff owe it to those guys to put the best players on the field to give them the best chance of winning. When the best guy is Losman, he should start, not until then. Maybe that day is this year, maybe its next year, but you don't put him on the field until he earns it. Of course I'm not going to preach about REALITY...because this is just my opinion...

Try turning on CNN...the ratio is 100% hot chicks and almost 0% good looking guys...and this is supposed to be "reality" And no, I didn't watch Lost...then again, unless it's sports, a movie, or an HBO series I don't watch TV. The last primetime network show I watched was the last episode of Seinfeld...

Can't...wait...for...baseball...season...to...end...

This might be his most accurate statement...but don't tell that to people on this board who think he's on the verge of the Pro-Bowl...

Whatever, every team has guys like him on it, whether you know it or or care to admit it. If you have to have a guy like that on your team, I'll take Randy Moss!

That was a mistake...I drafted him, but not till the 7th round. I did manage to pick up Heap though, when someone in my league cut him thinking his injury would last most of the year...he's out 2 more weeks.

Heh, this was my first thought as well...was pissed off that neither of the first two were.

Here are a few more from the past few years...was going to give a comment to all of 'em then decided that took too much time... 2004 Before Sunset - Linklater's sequel to Before Sunrise is even better than the original. One of the best films of the year (I'd place it right behind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind thus far) The Return Goodbye, Dragon Inn Who Killed Bambi? The Five Obstructions Touching the Void 2003 Gerry - Got overshadowed by Van Sant's other film from last year, Elephant, but I preferred this one…though it works much better on the big screen. All the Real Girls Demonlover Friday Night Pistol Opera 2002 Spirited Away - Anyone who hasn't seen any Miyazaki anime needs to check it out. This might be his best though Princess Mononoke is spectacular too. Ten - Any cinephile out there who've never seen an Abbas Kiarostami film should check a few of 'em out (there are many who consider him the greatest filmmaker working today). This isn't as good as The Wind Will Carry Us or Taste of Cherry, but it's pretty damn good. 8 Women - Saw some mentions of Emmanuelle Berte above...she's in this as well for any fans who've missed it (as are Isabelle Hupert and Catherine Denuve). The Piano Teacher Heaven Sunshine State