Got_Wood

I agree. I think part of the problem is that the offense almost always knows which players are rushing the passer. It's about as vanilla as it gets with our scheme. We line up 4 or 5 guys, and they're all trying to get to the passer. We're hardly ever mixing it up. It's very easy as an offensive lineman to know your assignments when the defense telegraphs their moves. If you watch the Jets or Steelers play defense, they sometimes have 7 guys lined up on the line of scrimmage and you have NO IDEA which guys are rushing the passer or dropping into coverage. And you see corners and safeties blitzing. We're just not doing that this year.

I definitely agree with you that this is one of the reasons we're struggling. Should be one of the top priorities in the offseason. However, take a look at the Bucs for instance. Lowest sack total in the league at 5, yet they have 10 Ints. Something needs to change with this scheme and these players. We only have ONE interception in 6 games. And it was made by Andra Davis, not a DB. And it's funny that our OLB's, who are supposed to be the pass rushers, have only one sack as well. And it was a fluke that Kelsay even got full credit for the sack. A lot to improve on with this unit.

I think it was to teach him a lesson. Just because you were the 11th overall pick in the draft, doesn't mean you're guaranteed to play on this team. Even if it's in your hometown of Baltimore with your family watching. You need to dedicate yourself to this team and being a great player, and not the fame and fortune that come along with being a pro athlete.

PTR, I'm not trying to personally attack your stance on this. But, no you don't have to be a coach or scout to see that mistakes are being made by the safeties. Sorry. If you've played the game and have been around the game your entire life, you understand how it works. This isn't quantum physics or anything you need a graduate degree from MIT to understand. You can watch the game and see a player take a bad angle, react late, get caught out of position, overpursue, miss a tackle, or flat out get outplayed. And that is a fact.

I don't think you need to be a coach or scout to recognize the problems our safeties are having. I do think it's a little tougher on the safeties when there is no pass rush and QB's have a long time to throw the ball. We need to address the pass rush in the offseason as well. But you can see the mistakes these guys are making out there. The safeties are contributing to these losses, and it's painfully obvious.

I don't think this is accurate actually. You consistently see Byrd playing 15-20 yards back from the line of scrimmage, and playing a center fielder type of role. Yet he somehow can't make plays. And Donte gets caught making terrible angles and overpursuing consistently. Watch the first Randy Moss TD against us. Donte for some reason decided to sprint towards the line of scrimmage as Moss runs right by him over the middle for a 7 yard TD. Same thing happened against Dustin Keller when we played the Jets. It's consistent plays like this that contribute to losing games.

In my opinion, this is one of the big reasons we continue to lose. Our safeties have terrible pass coverage abilities. Donte is consistently late to react, he takes bad angles, and doesn't know how to read the quarterback's eyes. Byrd plays too deep, doesn't look for the hit, and appears to be a bit slower after his injuries. This is, in my opinion, one of the weakest positions on the team. We give up deep passes up the middle far too often, and it has cost us the game on several occasions. Just ask Todd Heap, Mercedes Lewis, Dustin Keller, Randy Moss, Jermichael Finley, and Anthony Fasano what they think of our coverage deep up the middle. It's pathetic. This offseason would be a good time to let Donte hit the open market, and find ourselves another safety. We may even get a compensatory draft pick for him considering he was a top 10 pick, and may sign a decent contract somewhere else due to his big tackle numbers. Just an observation that I believe needed some attention.

And how would this make the Ravens look if we won this Sunday? Hmmm... What a bunch of !@#$s at ESPN.

I think he's a Daunte Culpepper / Donovan McNabb type of player with even more athleticism. He's got a couple inches in height and 40 pounds in weight over Vick and Cunningham. I don't know if the league has ever seen a QB this big and athletic. And he's got the leadership and intelligence you look for in a QB as well. Pretty exciting to watch.

I would love to see the Bills at least look at this guy. He seems to have a good head on his shoulders, he's a great leader for Auburn, and he is literally making a legend of himself in the south. I don't see him becoming a Jemarcus Russell type of guy. He made a mistake early in his career at Florida, and has learned from it. He has the tools to become a star.

There is a video on the left hand side of the screen. Pretty fun to watch. He doesn't enter the game until half time, as he is a young sophomore QB getting ready to become Harvard's starter. "In 2002, 'The Game' went to Harvard. The Crimson football team-getting a spark from sophomore quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick-erupted for three touchdowns in a 6:48 span of the third quarter, fueling a 20-13 decision over Yale in the 119th meeting of these storied rivals." http://athome.harvard.edu/programs/football/#

Sorry, first guys that came to mind. That, to me, is the ideal situation when rebuilding. Sanchez has Brunell, Flacco has Bulger, Henne has Pennington, Young has Collins, etc. But I guess you have "Fitz-like" guys in St. Louis (Feely), Atlanta (Redman), and Detroit (Hill). I think ideally you have one of those older "proven" vets like the first guys I mentioned.

You're actually right. Either way, we're missing a piece there. I think Fitz could manage this offense until the young guy is ready, but we do need that prototypical big armed, tough young QB to be groomed for the future. That is when hope will be restored in Buffalo. And to be honest, Fitz isn't the type of veteran I was thinking. I still consider him a young guy, because he never started for a team for multiple seasons and had the experience of being the number one guy for a franchise. When I think of veterans, I think of Brunell, Garcia, Collins, etc.

I think the only area they're better than the Bills at is their O-line. We need one big time offensive tackle and maybe a guard to get this unit stacked up. Otherwise, I think we've got good building blocks in Spiller, Evans, Wood, Bell (yes I said it), McIntyre (tough guy), Nelson (WR), Williams, Troup, Poz, McKelvin, and Byrd.

Yes, we DID play this last game. And we still couldn't stop the run. And I'll tell you why. We had Stroud and Edwards playing the DE positions, and they weren't fast enough to hold the edge against quick RB's and WR's coming out on end arounds. We stacked 5 guys on the line of scrimmage and had only 2 linebackers. If a RB made it to the second level up the middle, there was basically no LB support. Whitner would either take a bad angle or overpursue, and Byrd was 30 yards down field trying to make a clean up tackle on 20-30 yard runs. This scheme is absolutely terrible. If we're going to play a 4-3, play guys where they should be playing. Play a Stroud/Troup/Johnson/Edwards rotation in the middle, use a Williams/Kelsay/Maybin at DE (I think Williams is the most athletic lineman we've got and he can play end in this "heavy" scheme). Use Poz-Davis-Ellison at linebacker. And if we can sub Moats and Torbor in there at LB that will help also. MAYBE try Maybin at OLB to see what he's got, but that's just a maybe. We need to see what he can do, and getting him on the field is important.

I know, it's really funny. Watch him lose contain over and over this weekend, and trip over himself as he tries to cover Todd Heap and Ray Rice in the flats. Great idea Edwards!

The two remaining winless teams in the NFL have several similarities. Four areas strike me as the most important: No Pass Rush: Like the Bills, the Panthers are close to the bottom of the league in sacks with 7. Losing a guy like Julius Peppers is huge, just like losing Aaron Schobel was huge for the Bills (although Schobel wasn't quite as elite as Peppers, he was an effective threat). Carolina has two young guys in Everette Brown and Greg Hardy that are struggling to get to the QB and are losing playing time to average skilled veterans due to their inexperience. The Bills have young guys in Maybin, Coleman, and Moats that don't have experience and aren't sure what their role is in the current defensive system they employ. Both teams need to address this need in the offseason to better attack opposing QB's. No QB: Like the Bills, the Panthers have two young, unproven QB's that are expected to lead the team. No veterans remain on the roster to mentor Moore or Clausen, and the burden is on them to lead the offense this season. While the talent might be there, the experience and leadership haven't yet sunken in. Both of these teams need veteran backups to help lessen the burden on these young guys. Strong RB's, but only one Receiving threat: Like the Bills Lee Evans, Steve Smith is the only star receiving threat on the roster. Opposing defenses can double up coverage on these guys, and stack up against the run because of the lack of additional threats out there. Now the difference between these two teams is that Carolina will have a stronger O-Line once Jeff Otah comes back from injury. I expect to see them win a couple more games than the Bills because of this fact alone. But the fact remains that each of these teams need additional WR/TE threats in order to better attack opposing defenses. Trouble at LB: Due to injuries, Buffalo and Carolina have very weak linebacking cores this season. Thomas Davis was lost to another ACL injury, and Kawika Mitchell of the Bills was lost to a knee injury as well. The loss of these second level tacklers, hurts both teams badly against the run. Paul Posluszny and Andra Davis, like John Beason and Dan Connor are the only effective tacklers on each team. The bottom line is, there is a common thread among losing teams. Above all, you have to have a quality Passer/Leader and you have to have a quality Pass Rush. Both of these teams are lacking in these areas. You can't expect rookies and 2nd year players to lead your team in these critical areas unless you have a superstar cast around them (i.e.: Jets). Carolina might get a couple wins when Jeff Otah returns, but they will still be in the bottom of the league like the Bills until they fill in these two areas. That's just my observation. Take it for what it's worth.

So, you think Stroud is athletic enough to play end and not Williams??? Williams is fast, he's actually got a good spin move, and he can bull rush. He would be good at DE. He's the most athletic lineman on the team. And as for Dwan Edwards, he has been OK. I've made sure to keep an eye on him in rewatching the games. He tends to lose contain on run plays, and gets overpowered quite a bit when pass rushing. He's as good as Spencer Johnson in my mind. Rotational DT/DE at best. And no one knows if Maybin can cover TE's, but I sure hope he can do SOMETHING for this team. We need to experiment with him. What we do know is that he is an athletic guy. I trust him out in open space more than Kelsay. Kelsay has very little athleticism, and most of his ability is based on strength. Watching him change direction and adjust for open field tackling is really painful to watch. These coaches need to see what they have in Maybin. Practice is one thing, but if he never sees the field then it's a waste.

This is completely idiotic. It makes me think that Edwards has no idea what he's doing. Kelsay is a DE. If we're playing the 4-3, put him at left DE. He's a HUGE liability as an outside linebacker, and it's hilarious that they think this is the best alignment. If anything, I would think our 4-3 should look like this: Defensive Line: Kelsay - Stroud - Troup - Williams (athletic and fast enough to play end) Linebackers: Poz - Davis - Ellison/Maybin (Maybin is athletic enough to cover TE's)

We gave up a 3rd and a 5th. And that was in 2008. Not very long ago. We could still get a 4th or 5th, or even potentially a player. He's worth that salary on a team that matters. We aren't trying to win this year, and that makes him a waste of money.

I hated the McGahee pick in the draft. Made no sense at all to me.

The team is going nowhere, and we have a big contract guy sitting as dead weight on this roster. Don't give me this "he's a team leader" stuff. Because the team leaders have led us into a giant ditch. We need to acquire as many draft picks as we can, and I'm sure there is a team out there contending for a playoff spot that can use Stroud's services (Texans, Colts, Eagles, Bears, Cardinals, etc).

There is no looking back on the Lynch trade anymore. He's gone, and this is where we stand. But yes, he made that team look more complete yesterday on the field. And the fans already love the guy. They have a couple "beast mode" threads going in their forums already. We need to worry about our own team now. This defense is DEAD LAST in the league in almost every category. What do we plan to do about that?

Lynch is an easy player to root for. He gives his full effort every down, he's a funny character, and he loves the game. I'm glad he found success in Seattle.

Yeah, I think people get caught up in all the negativity and start to think everyone is a bad player. That's not the case. We don't want to fill 3 linebacker positions in the offseason. We've got a guy that has talent and can fill a need for us for at least the next few years. It would be a big mistake to let him hit the open market.