nick in* england

at least it can't be returned...

I think if we win on Sunday with any kind of offense the whole of Bills nation will go wild and proclaim us a playoff team. The media will lament the demise of the Falcons D and continue to speculate whether Vick is as good as most people have him pegged at and our D will be saying they are back on track to the the greatest ever. Of course all that IF we win. If we lose, Leo and Sal will write a column that say's we're done and the season is a bust.

I don't think he's been so off that it's a problem. But even Coach Mularky has noted the problem and said Brian is aware that he needs to get more consistent. He'll turn it around. It would be nice if a couple of the boomed punts near the endzone could have been caught by one of our guys, but that's the way the ball bounces. IIRC he's had one shank, one short-ish and the rest have been loooong and accurate.

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The Falcons Seahawks game was shown on TV over here on Sunday - so I got a good look at the Falcons and what we can expect this week. First things first, if Vick is in the game then we'll have a LB tied up spying him the whole game. It's really the only way to play him and the Seahawks did a good job of containing him to a point. We need to be really balanced and patient - sending too many on a Blitz just tempts Vick to look for gaps to run in. The DE's and OLBs need to stick to their assignments (which will be contain first and foremost) to the letter. Second, the Falcons can really run the ball - and I will not be surprised to see them institute the Ron Edwards plan as well. Their OL can move and get down field so it's going to be essential to have Fletcher back in the middle but if we can stop Warrick Dunn getting to the outside or running off tackle (i.e. force them into the middle of the field) then we can mop up with the pursuit. Dunn didn't have loads of success taking it inside against the Seahawks. TJ Duckett will come in near the goalline, and with a back like that we just need to get to him hard and fast, but I don't think we'll see him between the 20s. On D their skill lies at DL and LB, particularly on the left side (2 probowlers on the LDL). That said Patrick Kerney really was neutralised by Walter Jones by getting his arms out and being in good position. Kerney gets to the outside and doesn't show too much of an inside move at all, so Gandy will have to play big and wide. The Seahawks had success in the first half getting Matt Hasselbeck moving laterally to just outside where the tackle lines up and their OL managed to get a really nice moving pocket for him to throw from. The soft spots in the Falcons D are going to be to the oustide/flats and down the seams. They will want to tempt JP into dropping some long. I also noticed they like to over pursue a little, only the DE on the backside has any type of contain, so some misdirection and playaction bootlegs might be a good weapon. The main success for the Seahawks was running the ball over the guards. Their OL opened some big holes for Alexander who was really patient all day and hit the holes hard when they opened. Willis does not need to be timid against this D - they will start to wilt if we smack them in the mouth hard. The Sehawks really let the Falcons back in the game by going too cute...

Agree - he's been flat this year so far and I've started calling for the coaches to spread the field out a little more to make defences have to defend the pass more honestly.

I'm calling out the coaches for using the 2 TE set too much - not Ryan himself.

angry i got drink afterwards.

Well take this for example - we sometimes went 4 wide, but 2 WR either side of the formation with no motion. The D can balace itself and just play - giving them the edge if we run... If we get more creative, running 3 wide to the strong and 1 to the weak and we then run/pass weakside we can up our %ages of success. I liked the Willis/Shaud backfield set - but obviously it is a pass... Let's do this with Willis split out wide and run with Shaud. Lets get some scissors plays going to twin WRs on the strong side - let's just mix it up a whole lot more and give the O a cnace to do something unexpected from various formations.

Hmm well they sure are a victim of their own mouths this week. I like our D - but I'd respect them a whole lot more if they shut up and just played football. All of this talk of being the greatest ever should be for meetings and the locker room only. Ray Lewis is an ass - don't follow his example.

Well we don't normally rotate our coverage too much. Remember last week NC was switching sides? That's a new things for us. Maybe Gray felt like we needed to show a different look this week... Also - we only gave up 130 odd yars in the air - which is not bad at all. Yeah we needed more pressure from the front 4, but with the Bucs running the ball so well the DEs would be kind of flat footed looking to cover up the run... Don;t forget too - the WCO hits those underneath routes fast, so the DL doesn't have much time to get to the QB...

I started to get entirely pissed listening to the Bills game Sunday with Ryan Neufelds name being called so much. We ran way too many 2 TE sets which just lets the Bucs D crowd the LOS. Neufeld hardly gives us a credible receiving threat, so any time he steps in the game the Bucs can crowd the line and force JP to do something if we select a pass. Also - I'm not convinced we're egtting enough action running the football from different formations. We seemed to go to I or Offset-I formations often to run the football or go playaction. We could help ourselves by mixing up the formations, running from a single TB formation on 1st down and mixing in some counter/misdirection plays... We seemed to be so one dimensional so far this season...

Shelton is a cause for concern - he wasn't great against the Texans either...

Yup - we got stuffed by a better team on the day. It happens in football. I breathed easier on the safety when I realised it was only 2-0 and JP didn't do anything too dumb. It was dumb, but could easily have been 6 for the Bucs. We SHOULD have handed the ball off to Willis a lot more, but let's not go nuts. He's not untouchable and our OL had done nothing to prove they could bear down on the Bucs D.

i think he's probably still adjucting to Schneck, and he's not bee that bad anyway... He's shanked 2 punts so far, the rest have boomed for 6 yards... He's not an issue

I asked him if the decision to go away from power running on sunday is down to having JP in running the O or just the fact that the coaches figured that running would be tough against tampa... I also asked if we are now less focused on power running now that JP has the ball in his hands.

Now THAT was a hell of a prediction.

Sure but all that matters is that he's got a donut in the INT column for now. He's a kid after all and needs sheltering from the harsh realities of stuff like picks.

Sheee it. Yeah I did. Crap. Hey ho- that's 2 weeks without an INT. Week 3 could be ugly. Actually - I am watching the Falcons now - Seattle are doing a number on them... Running hard at the Falcons is gonna wear them down. Matt Hasselbeck is looking good against them, and he's sure got problems. Still- I like what Holmgren is doing in Seattle - their play calling is smart - they get the OL moving and MH moving about. OK so they have 2 pro-bowl OL, but c'mon, we got JMac...

I was praying in the 4th that JP would stay INT free. Regardless of whether he should have been picked by Peek last week or by the Bucs this week - JP still hasn't tossed an INT yet. This is good confidence for a young Qb - yeah he stunk it up today, but he did it without being dumb about his throws... Keep plugging JP

bump

Well said. Power running. Lets quit being a kitty and hit someone. Note to Willis. You got schooled by a rook. Grow a sack.

Other: ALL of the OL Guys have just got to do a heck of a lot more than just stand in the way. No holes opened up today, regardless of how good the Bucs D is. Tampa showed us how to do it, now we gotta go out and do the same. Ball control needs an OL that can grind out holes regardless of opponent. Just not good enough. Pass pro - not so bad, their saving grace really. JP just needed to get some of those balls on target. (JP survives my vote because growing pains are expected)

J=E=T=S Beat. The. Fags.