Give me an E-G-O

[The Big Cat]

Back in September, comfortably aboard the gravy train, the company line at One Bills Drive was "nobody here has an ego." You heard it from the players, from the coaches and from the media who entered the locker room. Nobody would take credit for the wins. They'd hear praise for a job-well-done and quickly wave it off, or spout off some cliche, straight from the script of Bull Durham, that "we're all in this together" and "God willing" "if we continue to work hard" "we'll continue to get things done."

 

Mmmmkay.

 

That worked well then, and was an easy thing to say with the media crammed so far up our team's collective ass, but things took a turn. We got punched in the face--at home--against The Jets. Then, The Jets, the sportsmen that they are, gave us a swift kick in the psychological nuts for good measure.

 

Now our team, devoid of egos, and with nobody there to pound as chest or two during the good days, has struggled the last two weeks to get its tail out from between its legs.

 

Yes, we've suffered injuries. Big deal. So has every other NFL team. But so long as our players are playing scared, they'll continue to get injured. That's what happens when you get out of sync. And right now our squad is out of sync BIG TIME.

 

If you look at teams that are perennial winners, there is an identifiable ego in each one of those locker rooms. At least ONE guy who will stand up, say the wrong thing at the right time, piss a bunch of people off and simply not give a !@#$.

 

Our clubhouse, meanwhile, is just what it sounds like, a place where a bunch of friends go and act kind to one another in the name of teamwork.

 

Now, I played a lot of sports growing up and I played a team sport at the Division One level, but I never played football. However, the nature of the game--particularly at the NFL level--strikes me as such that if you're not playing with a kill-or-be-killed mentality...you'll get killed...literally.

 

Numerous reports have sprung up following yesterday's bizzaro-world stink fest that this team has lost its guts. But I'd argue that we never had any to begin with. The turnovers were nice, the last minute heroics exhilarating, but we simply haven't seen a team that takes the field ready to crush the opponent's wind pipe with the heel of their boot. Now that we've gotten behind the 8-ball, unless such a "hero" emerges, we can try and point the finger all we want. But the problem that plagues this team has nothing to do with talent, with coaching, FO moves or playcalling.

 

It's all about ego. We never had one. And since the Jets have called our bluff, having shoulders-sans-chips has given us nothing to fight for.

[CBD]

May have been the one thing that Merriman did bring to the team, a rally the troops type of guy.

[The Big Cat]

May have been the one thing that Merriman did bring to the team, a rally the troops type of guy.

 

Yeah, that and the ability to set the edge...

[dpberr]

I see ego being part of the problem.

 

Not for the players, but Gailey. What teams get blown out three games in a row? Predictable ones.

 

Gailey's belief in his coaches and his schemes are beyond what they've delivered the past couple weeks and this is what started happening in his Dallas and GT stops. Refusal or slow to adapt to changing conditions and opponent strategies. Get game tape on Gailey and you are set.

 

You need to fire or demote Edwards immediately, get a true free agent center and some replacement WRs, and switch up your play calling. The NFL game is about out-adjusting your opponent and that's on him to do. The Bills are predictable. If we as fans know what plays are coming, you know for sure the experienced coordinators and coaches on the other side of the field have game planned for every move.

[The Big Cat]

I see ego being part of the problem.

 

Not for the players, but Gailey. What teams get blown out three games in a row? Predictable ones.

 

Gailey's belief in his coaches and his schemes are beyond what they've delivered the past couple weeks and this is what started happening in his Dallas and GT stops. Refusal or slow to adapt to changing conditions and opponent strategies. Get game tape on Gailey and you are set.

 

You need to fire or demote Edwards immediately, get a true free agent center and some replacement WRs, and switch up your play calling. The NFL game is about out-adjusting your opponent and that's on him to do. The Bills are predictable. If we as fans know what plays are coming, you know for sure the experienced coordinators and coaches on the other side of the field have game planned for every move.

 

The Dolphins predicted two passes would bounce off receivers' chests allowing them get the interceptions and takeover in the redzone? Fitz is no stranger to throwing the ball into crowded areas, having defenders in the areas where we pass into is not a recent revelation. Lately, though our receivers haven't come down with the ball, or worse yet, they keep the ball alive for the defenders in the vicinity to pounce.

 

Our execution has been piss poor. And largely because our players aren't ATTACKING. They're passive.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

I see ego being part of the problem.

 

Not for the players, but Gailey. What teams get blown out three games in a row? Predictable ones.

 

Gailey's belief in his coaches and his schemes are beyond what they've delivered the past couple weeks and this is what started happening in his Dallas and GT stops. Refusal or slow to adapt to changing conditions and opponent strategies. Get game tape on Gailey and you are set.

 

You need to fire or demote Edwards immediately, get a true free agent center and some replacement WRs, and switch up your play calling. The NFL game is about out-adjusting your opponent and that's on him to do. The Bills are predictable. If we as fans know what plays are coming, you know for sure the experienced coordinators and coaches on the other side of the field have game planned for every move.

 

 

THIS. Giant red flag: "we're using the same schemes we used successfully, we're just not executing now"

 

GEE, might that be because other teams have film on you now, you have become predictable, and the book is out there on how to shut you down?

Might that be because a few injured players were critical to the successful execution, and without them, it's time to try something else?

 

I think Gailey needs 2 weeks to prepare for every game. The team looked GREAT against the Ravens (lost, but fought hard) after the bye last year. Looked great against the Redskins.

Without an offensive coordinator or the boundless energy of youth, he just can't "get it done" week in and week out. (Cue Led Zepplin "Dazed and Confused")

[The Big Cat]

THIS. Giant red flag: "we're using the same schemes we used successfully, we're just not executing now"

 

GEE, might that be because other teams have film on you now, you have become predictable, and the book is out there on how to shut you down?

Might that be because a few injured players were critical to the successful execution, and without them, it's time to try something else?

 

I think Gailey needs 2 weeks to prepare for every game. The team looked GREAT against the Ravens (lost, but fought hard) after the bye last year. Looked great against the Redskins.

Without an offensive coordinator or the boundless energy of youth, he just can't "get it done" week in and week out. (Cue Led Zepplin "Dazed and Confused")

 

By your logic, NOBODY has figured out the Green Bay Packers scheme, or the Niners scheme, etc etc etc.

 

FALSE. It's not about fooling your opponent with play calls and schemes. It's about EXECUTION.

 

To paraphrase a quote from the legendary coach Pete Bell: "I can send the entire playbook over to Bobby Knight, I can tell him exactly what we're gonna run and who's gonna run it. Because it ain't what you do...it's how you do it."

[dpberr]

It was one of the biggest criticisms when he was at Tech and I'm convinced that the problem has resurfaced in Buffalo. He violates one of the larger nuggets of wisdom from the Most Interesting Man in the World when it comes to play calling.

 

Find out what it is in life that you don't do well....and then don't do that thing."

[Joe Miner]

It was one of the biggest criticisms when he was at Tech and I'm convinced that the problem has resurfaced in Buffalo. He violates one of the larger nuggets of wisdom from the Most Interesting Man in the World when it comes to play calling.

 

Find out what it is in life that you don't do well....and then don't do that thing."

 

It's a bit tricky when that thing you don't do well is 'play football'.

[sllib olaffub]

I have to agree here - and I've said it on numurous posts - when a team is getting beat as badly as we've been beat these past three weeks, if that team has players that care more about who they are as a football team than how much they're getting paid, if those players are there to play football, then they won't take getting beat, even once, like we have recently, and act as if it isn't personal.

 

This team has no heart. It has no toughness. Watching this team's defense - I can't be the only one who sees it - there just isn't any of that fire, or meanness, that teams like Baltimore, Oakland, Jets, San Fran has - those defensive players are out there to pummel, to hurt the opposition. They want to make it so that team doesn't want to play no more. Our guys? We get run over, and over, and over - and like the Dolphins said - WE LAID DOWN.

 

There are problems a plenty if Gailey and Nix don't see this and feel as if they need to fix it. Because, you punch a team like ours in the mouth hard, and they don't have the fight to respond.

[The Big Cat]

I have to agree here - and I've said it on numurous posts - when a team is getting beat as badly as we've been beat these past three weeks, if that team has players that care more about who they are as a football team than how much they're getting paid, if those players are there to play football, then they won't take getting beat, even once, like we have recently, and act as if it isn't personal.

 

This team has no heart. It has no toughness. Watching this team's defense - I can't be the only one who sees it - there just isn't any of that fire, or meanness, that teams like Baltimore, Oakland, Jets, San Fran has - those defensive players are out there to pummel, to hurt the opposition. They want to make it so that team doesn't want to play no more. Our guys? We get run over, and over, and over - and like the Dolphins said - WE LAID DOWN.

 

There are problems a plenty if Gailey and Nix don't see this and feel as if they need to fix it. Because, you punch a team like ours in the mouth hard, and they don't have the fight to respond.

 

I was coming more from the angle that they need to care more about who they are as an individual vs. who they are as a Buffalo Bill--i.e. I, Marcel Dareus refuse to let me Marcel Dareus be a part of ANYBODY'S laughing stock. This is now personal for ME Marcel Dareus.

 

As opposed to, I, Marcel Dareus, as a representative of the Buffalo Bills football team don't want to see this organization, its great history and its great fans get mugged out there. It seems as though that's what we have now. They won that way, now they're losing that way. And if it was more of a PERSONAL triumph as well as a PERSONAL affront, then we wouldn't be looking like a bag full of wet ones running around on Sundays.