Dorkington Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 The team is the 3rd worst team in the league. Worse than last year, and the year before. And will probably be even worse next year. I'm thinking a winless team in 2012 and beyond. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gugny Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Excellent points. I just don't see Spiller as a impact running back in the NFL. Catching short passes is a great idea for him because he can clearly do some damage when he gets some open space. Maybe a slot receiver? Overall I think we are more than a couple of players away from being competitive. 3-4 seasons if the current regime doesn't !@#$ up. From what we saw of him this year, I can't argue with your assessment of Spiller. He didn't make a very strong case for himself. I do like the way Gailey handled it, and basically red-shirted him. I don't know if he's ever going to be the kind of back that can make holes when they're not there. If nothing else, he learned that there's no bouncing back and running to the outside to make something happen. There was only one Barry Sanders! Hopefully he works his tail off this offseason and maybe adds a little bulk. If he can run on the inside enough to make the opposing defenses respect him, he'll be a killer receiver out of the backfield, or in the slot. Hopefully Fred Jackson can stay healthy for another few years and, as you pointed out, the current regime drafts well and finds good free agents. I still have hope for Merriman, too. That could be the steal of a lifetime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cage Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 The team is the 3rd worst team in the league. Worse than last year, and the year before. And will probably be even worse next year. I'm thinking a winless team in 2012 and beyond. I don't think we need to go that far, but the rising team persona that they built up through the Pittsburgh game has been stripped. I don't think we should deny that. For the optimists, how many cornerstone pieces do we have in place? Offense: Seems to be: Wood, Levitre, Bell, Johnson (2nd WR) Maybe/Too soon to tell: Spiller, Fitzpatrick, Nelson Defense: Seems to be: Williams, Byrd Maybe/Too soon to tell: McKelvin, Moats That's half the starters if all the maybes come in. Man that's really thin... who is missing from this list? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buftex Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Overreact much? All it takes is one or two bad games to erase all memory of what went right this year. What's worse is people don't take into account the injuries that occur. This last game with Brohm should not even matter. Can anyone even name who our WRs were in that game? Sometimes I feel like we all prefer failure and go looking for it in the good. Its the worst part of being a Bills fan. PTR Promo, I don't always agree with you, but this post nails it! I have been pretty pessimistic about this team, really for, about 3 years (my pessimism entered a new low when Jauron was extended)...going into this season, I was not particualarly happy with the selection of Nix and Gailey to direct the fortunes of the franchise (and mine). I predicted the Bills would win anywhere from 2 to 4 games. By week 10, or so, I was thinking, this team is better than I thought...maybe they win 6 or 7, with arrows going up! So, in the end, I was right about the record way back, but, I feel, despite the two awful last games (I was at the Pats game, what a dud!), I feel much better about this team than I thought I would, at seasons end...the record is worse, but, I feel, for the first time in a while, things are getting better. Gailey has impressed me. I am still not completely sold on Buddy Nix as a GM (the Spiller pick was pretty arrogant, though I haven't written the kid off, like so many here), but I am willing to reserve judgement there, for now. This coming draft is big for this franchise...they need to get a first round pick who can make some sort of immediate contribution (unless they go QB). I wish the Bills had given a better effort the last two weeks of the season, but I couldn't really question their effort most of the first 15 weeks of the season. They could have "run for the bus" long beofre that, and then, I would feel worse. I am not even completely sure the Bills went all out ot beat the Jets...and a drubbing from New England is par for the course...I think our Bills are better, but they still have a ways to go. Call me crazy, but I think there is way too much gripping going on, after the Pats and Jets games... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heitz Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 The team is the 3rd worst team in the league. Worse than last year, and the year before. And will probably be even worse next year. I'm thinking a winless team in 2012 and beyond. Holy dude, do you ever stop? As you may remember we were supposed to be the worst team in the league this year, we were not supposed to win ONE game, some called us the worst team in the history of the NFL. Our huge problems were LT and QB (ironically not many were calling out our potential run D, or lack thereof) How did all that work out? Not quite like everyone predicted. I'm not saying we're going to win the Superbowl, but damn can we at least have a draft, FA and maybe training camp before saying we're going winless in 2012 and beyond? Put away your Jump To Conclusions mat and let it all play out... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodeMonkey Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 (edited) Overreact much? All it takes is one or two bad games to erase all memory of what went right this year. Or one or two good games to start seeing playoffs looming on the horizon. This season was what it was. And thank God it's over. What's worse is people don't take into account the injuries that occur. This last game with Brohm should not even matter. Can anyone even name who our WRs were in that game? You don't think that was more than counterbalanced by the fact that the Jets didn't even dress their starting corners or safeties? And gave the Bills worst-run-in-the-league defense a present as well by not dressing either starting running back? And after putting their "Sanchise" starting QB in briefly to hand off a couple times, put their second, and then the third string QBs (who both managed TD drives on the Bills starting Defense) in as well? The entire Bills organization has a lot of work to do the next few years. That much is clear. Edited January 4, 2011 by CodeMonkey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bills_fan_in_raleigh Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 One thing to think about suppose Luck doesnt come out, we than draft the trenches and fix the D and RT and TE, according to some will we still suck so likely could get Luck on 2012 draft Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob's House Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 I don't take much away from the last 2 games one way or the other. NE shut down dirty Mark "Sanchise" in similar fashion, and we were moving the ball early before Fitz got hurt. The last game, with Brohm starting, was about as meaningful as a preseason game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cage Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 Or one or two good games to start seeing playoffs looming on the horizon. This season was what it was. And thank God it's over. You don't think that was more than counterbalanced by the fact that the Jets didn't even dress their starting corners or safeties? And gave the Bills worst-run-in-the-league defense a present as well by not dressing either starting running back? And after putting their "Sanchise" starting QB in briefly to hand off a couple times, put their second, and then the third string QBs (who both managed TD drives on the Bills starting Defense) in as well? The entire Bills organization has a lot of work to do the next few years. That much is clear. You hit the nail on the head! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1billsfan Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 The week before the Miami game, I started a topic stating that the next three games will be critical to either validating or dismissing the optimism about the team and about Fitzpatrick as our long term starter. Those games have now come and gone and I'll say that the optimism is gone. Leo Roth's 2nd comment on this piece says it all: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20110104/SPORTS03/101040314/tbd This team still has an awful long way to go. We need to find a bonafide long-term starter somewhere or we'll continue to flounder and it will be impossible to build a contending team. We cannot afford to trade up to get Luck, it will cost too much for a team that can't afford to give anything and has too many needs. Our skill position big three Fitz, Fred and Stevie are closer to Frank Reich, Kenneth Davis and Don Beebe than they are to Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas and Andre Reed. Hardly the players that an ascending future can be built around... ... massively depressed! First off, the Bills beat Miami on the road and with them still alive for a playoff birth. Exactly how does that win kill anything???? Secondly, do you know what the following numbers represent?…39, 31, 45, 45, 36, 31, 34, 38…Cutting to the chase, they're Pats scoring totals since they lost to the Browns. They have rolled over EVERYBODY since the Browns game. Lastly, I was at the season ender against the Jets and that game was a farce. A glorified preseason game that had ZERO intensity. I've been to a lot of NFL games and this one was NOT a real game fella. I started a thread about how this team and this year was at the very beginning of becoming a very good team. The signs are there. I'm laughing at all of the pessimism. I do understand it considering the last ten years, but I'm still laughing. With a few key additions, we've finally have a solid group of guys to have a winning record and a possible wildcard in 2011. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cage Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 (edited) First off, the Bills beat Miami on the road and with them still alive for a playoff birth. Exactly how does that win kill anything???? Secondly, do you know what the following numbers represent?…39, 31, 45, 45, 36, 31, 34, 38…Cutting to the chase, they're Pats scoring totals since they lost to the Browns. They have rolled over EVERYBODY since the Browns game. Lastly, I was at the season ender against the Jets and that game was a farce. A glorified preseason game that had ZERO intensity. I've been to a lot of NFL games and this one was NOT a real game fella. I started a thread about how this team and this year was at the very beginning of becoming a very good team. The signs are there. I'm laughing at all of the pessimism. I do understand it considering the last ten years, but I'm still laughing. With a few key additions, we've finally have a solid group of guys to have a winning record and a possible wildcard in 2011. Isn't this an overwhelming problem? We're getting owned by a division rival that treated the game like it was preseason. The Bills had no cause to do that. If we were any kind of improving team, we should have knocked them on their asses. The players on our team should have had everything to play for. Let them be the ones to explain that this wasn't a real game to their fans/media. Teams that demonstrated improvement and can go into the off-season feeling better about next season all went out fighting... Raider, Lions, Bucs, Broncos (since Tebow's been starting). None of them laid down in Week 17 against division rivals. Edited January 4, 2011 by cage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flmike Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 If you have been a Bills fan for any length of time, you can take this. Time to forget about football for a few months and look forward to baseball spring training (or hope that the Sabres can reach .500). For those that can't have any positive self esteem unless their football team wins the Super Bowl, I feel badly for you. I love watching football and cheering on the Bills, but if you are going to follow this franchise, you better be able to move on after the season or you will go crazy. In a couple of years--or maybe less, who knows?--the team will have a new owner or maybe cease to be in Buffalo. Let's hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John from Riverside Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Wow.....also in the last three games - Lee Evans did not play - We played the patriots - Fitz did not play in the last game - Brian Brohm did - Our defense was bad.....real bad Need i go on? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffOrange Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 (edited) Prior to the season every NFL analyst predicted the Bills would be near the bottom of the team rankings. They were right. The Bills this year did not beat one team with a winning record. Their defensive rankings were at the bottom. The offensive rankings were mediocre. Using the excuse of injuries for the team's 4-12 record is laughable. All teams have injuries in this brutal collision sport. The Bills consistently lose for the simple fact that they lack talent. You can delude yourself into believing whatever you want to believe about the Bills. For people like you a generation of excuses is not enough. As Parcells has wisely stated: You are what your record is. Excuses are for losers. The above quote is another example of your peculiar perspective on the Bills. No one prefers failure; they are lamenting it. Just because you are one of the many "true believing" clones doesn't mean that you can alter the reality of the product. Finally a voice of reason. The only part of the OP I disagree with is the idea that it was a good season before the NE game. With respect to fan reaction this was definitely the best 4-12 season in NFL history (or even 4-10 if you want to ignore the last two games). You would think our offense ranked in the top 5-10 or at least top half if you just read this board - it doesn't. You would think we lost the KC game 38-35 because of our atrocious defense not picking up the slack for Ryan Jesus Fitz in a 16-13 game. You would think the Pittsburgh game was the first game in 10 years we almost beat a good team - I guess nobody remembers the zillion close NE losses, or Gregg Williams taking a bunch of scrubs into NJ and beating a playoff team in '01, or that game the refs hosed us vs. the Chargers a few years ago. Fitz exceeded expectations and that's cool - he's not the first journeyman to do that for one season. With respect to optimism towards the future, I like the flashes S. Johnson and the OL showed. Otherwise it's the same old crappy team on both sides of the ball that still needs a franchise QB; and if you hate the term "franchise QB", well too bad. It's also too bad we still don't have one and doesn't look like we're getting one next year. Edited January 4, 2011 by BuffOrange Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1billsfan Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Isn't this an overwhelming problem? We're getting owned by a division rival that treated the game like it was preseason. The Bills had no cause to do that. If we were any kind of improving team, we should have knocked them on their asses. The players on our team should have had everything to play for. Let them be the ones to explain that this wasn't a real game to their fans/media. Teams that demonstrated improvement and can go into the off-season feeling better about next season all went out fighting... Raider, Lions, Bucs, Broncos (since Tebow's been starting). None of them laid down in Week 17 against division rivals. Both Brohm and Brown played. What else do you need to know? Once the Jets had clinched their playoff birth and the Bills knew the Jets were going to treat this one like pre season, their brains had turned off and checked out of this season. You can't create the drama of a real game when there was none to begin with. I can't believe that any fan would try to sell that this was a real game in which the Bills were into playing. The Bills were into not getting hurt in a meaningless game with backups playing in it, that's what they were into. They did not play hard at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cage Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 Both Brohm and Brown played. What else do you need to know? Once the Jets had clinched their playoff birth and the Bills knew the Jets were going to treat this one like pre season, their brains had turned off and checked out of this season. You can't create the drama of a real game when there was none to begin with. I can't believe that any fan would try to sell that this was a real game in which the Bills were into playing. The Bills were into not getting hurt in a meaningless game with backups playing in it, that's what they were into. They did not play hard at all. All I can say to that is that the Bronco's have been going all out the last 3 weeks, Tebow's been driving them. Nobody was running for the bus or riding out the string or trying to get the number 1 pick overall. They won their last two. The pathetic Raiders, finished 8-8. They beat 2 division rivals and took the Colts to the wire in a must-win for them. The Lions improved to 6-10, winning their last 3 with a 3rd string QB including 10-6 Bucs and come from behind against Dolphins. Its as simple as this, the Bills needed to finish strong. People are absolutely playing for their jobs not only w/ the Bills, but with whatever future organization they may need to entice to sign them. Bruce Smith and Cornelius Bennett might have loafed through a game like this without raising questions, but nobody on the current team can afford that... I'm also not just talking about the last game, but the last 5 as a group! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1billsfan Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 All I can say to that is that the Bronco's have been going all out the last 3 weeks, Tebow's been driving them. Nobody was running for the bus or riding out the string or trying to get the number 1 pick overall. They won their last two. The pathetic Raiders, finished 8-8. They beat 2 division rivals and took the Colts to the wire in a must-win for them. The Lions improved to 6-10, winning their last 3 with a 3rd string QB including 10-6 Bucs and come from behind against Dolphins. Its as simple as this, the Bills needed to finish strong. People are absolutely playing for their jobs not only w/ the Bills, but with whatever future organization they may need to entice to sign them. Bruce Smith and Cornelius Bennett might have loafed through a game like this without raising questions, but nobody on the current team can afford that... I'm also not just talking about the last game, but the last 5 as a group! What you're not getting is that in all of those games the teams were playing it for real. Both teams were all playing their starters. Playing for keeps. Once the Bills knew that the Jets were playing Brunell and a bunch of backups, they treated this one like a pre season game. And considering it was the last game of the year and it was on the road, they obviously didn't give the same effort as they would in a real game. Brohm was probably trying as hard as he could, but the receivers weren't going to lay it on the line in a meaningless game only to get nailed and be injured for the next three or four months. They beat Miami, they got trounced by this year's Superbowl winner, then they packed it in for the fake game finally. There's really no need to over-think it or make it something it's not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buftex Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 All I can say to that is that the Bronco's have been going all out the last 3 weeks, Tebow's been driving them. Nobody was running for the bus or riding out the string or trying to get the number 1 pick overall. They won their last two. The pathetic Raiders, finished 8-8. They beat 2 division rivals and took the Colts to the wire in a must-win for them. The Lions improved to 6-10, winning their last 3 with a 3rd string QB including 10-6 Bucs and come from behind against Dolphins. Its as simple as this, the Bills needed to finish strong. People are absolutely playing for their jobs not only w/ the Bills, but with whatever future organization they may need to entice to sign them. Bruce Smith and Cornelius Bennett might have loafed through a game like this without raising questions, but nobody on the current team can afford that... I'm also not just talking about the last game, but the last 5 as a group! Every football season, every team has its' ups and downs...stretches where they play their worse football...the Bills came in weeks 16 & 17, their seasons hopes snuffed out months earlier...all the teams you mentioned still had an outside chance of making something of their seasons (like the Seahawks)...the Broncos were playing for a new coach, and "shaking things up", the Raiders were still alive in the race...only the Lions, of the bunch, really did anything surprising...and they seemed to be spurred on, in part, by losing to the "lowly Bills". The Lions may finally be turning the corner...between weeks 3 and 15 of this season, I didn't have a huge issue with the Bills effort, just their talent. Just as some may have made "too much" of playing 4 or 5 playoff caliber teams to the wire, and winning games over the likes of the Begals and Lions, so too, people are making much too big a deal over the last two games of the season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mousetrap08 Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 The week before the Miami game, I started a topic stating that the next three games will be critical to either validating or dismissing the optimism about the team and about Fitzpatrick as our long term starter. Those games have now come and gone and I'll say that the optimism is gone. Leo Roth's 2nd comment on this piece says it all: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20110104/SPORTS03/101040314/tbd This team still has an awful long way to go. We need to find a bonafide long-term starter somewhere or we'll continue to flounder and it will be impossible to build a contending team. We cannot afford to trade up to get Luck, it will cost too much for a team that can't afford to give anything and has too many needs. Our skill position big three Fitz, Fred and Stevie are closer to Frank Reich, Kenneth Davis and Don Beebe than they are to Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas and Andre Reed. Hardly the players that an ascending future can be built around... ... massively depressed! Iam not going to say that Iam massively depressed or overly excited because the team did start 0 and 8 and finished 4 and 4 so Iam kinda 40% depressed. But I do agree that this team has a ways to go before they can start to contend with the top teams. I guess it's going to be a long few months for free agency and the draft to come along and hopefully we won't be disappointed again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikey98277 Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 While I dont know what CJ will be in a couple years, just look at what happened to the Saints when Bush went down, while they still could move the ball, they were having issues moving it as well. Bush is not an every down back, but when used properly he does effect the outcome of the game. While they didn't need him when they got him, the Saints now have many weapons and Bush is an important part of them. They can win without him, it is just much harder for them to do. so you never know maybe with a couple right moves and a year or 2 more we could be very glad we wasted that pick on the spiller guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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