Do you feel the Bills are heading in the right direction?

[San-O]

with how many starters out again ? Going not two deep but three deep at how many spots? Nobody can over come those type of depleting injuries- pretty simple

 

 

The losing streak started with 0 offensive starters out.

 

Fred Jackson wasn't IR'd until the 25th of November.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

I would say we have some nice pieces for sure. Love FJ,SJ,CJ,Dareus, Nelson, Barnett, Sheppard, All of the secondary (including McKelvin).

 

Mr Fitzpatrick unfortunately has the ability to ruin all of this.......Prove me wrong Fitz...I have seen a few good moments but a ton of bad ones...

 

So I would have to say except for the QB issue we are headed in the right direction.....A play for Kyle Orton or some other average veteran is the move until we can draft or find a good one....Fitz I love ya man....but I just do not see the starting qb tag on ya....

 

Kyle Orton? Seriously? Orton?

 

C'mon Man. I get that you don't like Fitz, but that's going a yard too far.

 

The losing streak started with 0 offensive starters out.

 

Fred Jackson wasn't IR'd until the 25th of November.

 

Any team can have a bad game, or two bad games. I think the point is we lost so many starters we never turned around from them.

 

I'm not sure it's the correct reason, overall. I'd like to believe that it is.

I'm concerned that lack of preparation, poor coaching, and poor personnel decisions played significant roles.

 

Put another way, I'm not sure we know what it takes to win all season and I'm not sure there's anyone in the organization who is able to show us how it's done

 

If you watch all the games, I think it's pretty obvious that Gailey dials up way too many pass plays.

This includes when the Bills are ahead, within a few points either way, or moderately behind with plenty of time left in the game.

Also, you can only run so many draw plays out of a one-back formation.

He makes the defenses job way too easy with his over reliance on one-back and empty sets.

 

This.

 

I like the job that Nix, Whaley, Cook and Gibbons are doing in personnel.

 

I have concerns about the coaching of Gailey and Edwards.

 

This too. I don't know why I bother to post sometimes I could just let SJBF speak 4 me.

[San Jose Bills Fan]

This too. I don't know why I bother to post sometimes I could just let SJBF speak 4 me.

Metallica?

 

 

 

You can play music for me anytime, Hopeful.

 

 

 

 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

You don't think we concentrate on running the ball? We are 4th in the NFL in yards, 6Th in yds/carry, and 9th in attempts.

 

Psycho-chicken? Linky?

 

NFL.com team stats, offense, rushing, shows us 26th in the league in attempts, 4th in yds per carry, and 11th in overall rushing yards.

 

What I get out of those stats is we can run the ball pretty durn well when we try, but we don't try very often.

 

But that's all been in decline since Fred Jackson and Wood went down. It started declining when both Bell and Hairston went down and Levitre was shuffeled all over the place.

 

Freddy was leading the league in rushing before he was hurt. Based on however many carries, you can't possibly have a problem with that stat.

 

I do have a problem with that, Bob, because I've been following it all season and our rushing attempts per game were not that much higher when we had the league's leading rusher on our team.

[Bufcomments]

Personally I feel we are. This season is a let down after such a great start, but we had a lot of injuries this year, more than most teams deal with in 2 years. I'm encouraged with improvement. If Jackson and Johnson are both back next year and we draft well this year, I think we will see a very competitive team take the field next year. And if not, well that's why you drink beer before and during the game.

We are but its painful to watch.

 

Dareus, Sheppard, A. Williams, Justin Rodgers can play. We had a strong draft this year.

 

I think CJ is the perfect compliment to Action Jackson. Chandler at TE is ok but we need one more. They got lock down Stevie and get Easley on the field and get D. Bowe from KC and Nelson in the slot we should have little problem scoring.

 

gotta play 4-3 straight up next yr hope they do it. need another CB and some pass rushers. the secondary is good but they need some help from the front seven.

[thewildrabbit]

The losing streak started with 0 offensive starters out.

 

Fred Jackson wasn't IR'd until the 25th of November.

Good point.

 

Let me reiterate about how lame some of the play calling has been this year. The real reason this team stopped moving the ball and scoring points.

 

Gailey seemed hellbent of passing the ball all game long, and even more so once the Bills are down by as little as 7 points, and even when his QB was not playing his best.

 

Gailey has the right idea of utilizing a spread formation for both running and passing as that is the same formation that Thurman Thomas had so much success with in the JK era. The Bills would run Thurman gaining yards after yards to setup the pass. As soon as the LB's started to cheat up Kelly would open up. For the life of me I don't understand why Scott Chandler isn't more involved in the passing game. the man should be the designated the primary or secondary target all game long. Just like the Patriots do. What DB is big enough to jam Chandler at the line? What DB is tall enough to out jump Chandler for the ball?

 

The next thing is running the old Redskin "counter trey" out of that spread formation just like the 90"s Bills did. Make the opposing defense commit to a wrong first step and then have the RB either hit the hole or cut it back.

 

Chan Gailey is supposedly some sort of offensive guru, and yet he does the most inexplicable moronic things game after game.

 

 

CJ Spiller, the only bad game the kid had was against the Jets & Chargers. Jets, 19 for 55 yds. Against Tenn 14-83, 5.9 YPC and Gailey stopped running him in the 2nd half. Against SD 12 for 46 But again, the Bills get behind and Gailey goes nut calling shotgun passing plays most of that game. So Spiller never even had a chance to get his game going

 

Look at the drive chart, its a joke http://www.cbssports...20111211_BUF@SD

 

Against Miami 12 for 91, and again Gailey stop using him in the second half, this time in his presser after the game the media asked Gailey about it and he stated some nonsense about not wanting to over work the smaller RB. Funny how Jamaal Charles and Chris Johnson all have identical builds.

 

Against Denver, 16 for 111. Spiller finally gets to see action the entire game, mostly because the bills had the lead and ran their "normal" offense all game long.

 

 

I have no doubt that once the Patriots get the lead on the Bills this upcoming Sunday that Gailey will revert to his pass happy self.

 

 

Another thought, Fitz has been good in the fact that he played the entire year ( injured or not?) So we never did get a chance to see what a regular QB in Thigpen looks like behind that line. I'm thinking that the current awesome stats for sacks allowed would skyrocket.

[Buffalo Barbarian]

Personally I feel we are. This season is a let down after such a great start, but we had a lot of injuries this year, more than most teams deal with in 2 years. I'm encouraged with improvement. If Jackson and Johnson are both back next year and we draft well this year, I think we will see a very competitive team take the field next year. And if not, well that's why you drink beer before and during the game.

Depends on this off-season.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

Depends on this off-season.

 

This is perhaps the best answer. How the Bills handle/treat their impending free agents and otherwise conduct themselves in the Draft and FA will tell us a lot.

 

If they draft another RB or a CB in the 1st round it will NOT be good news.

[BillsVet]

An indicator for me that a rebuild isn't working occurs when a HC has to fire a coordinator. That's a huge step in the wrong direction, and Gailey himself may have demonstrated this for Todd Haley.

 

Oh, and an ownership change. This team hasn't escaped the 4-7 win range since 2004. Multiple GM's, HC's, coordinators, and players haven't taken this team out of that range in 7 years.

[Maury Ballstein]

Kyle Orton? Seriously? Orton?

 

C'mon Man. I get that you don't like Fitz, but that's going a yard too far.

 

Orton crushed it last year w Brandon Lloyd.....Denver's d was brutal ..... So yea Orton over Fitz all day... Sign me up... And yes I do think Fitz is terrible 60% of the time

 

Any team can have a bad game, or two bad games. I think the point is we lost so many starters we never turned around from them.

 

I'm not sure it's the correct reason, overall. I'd like to believe that it is.

I'm concerned that lack of preparation, poor coaching, and poor personnel decisions played significant roles.

 

Put another way, I'm not sure we know what it takes to win all season and I'm not sure there's anyone in the organization who is able to show us how it's done

 

 

 

This.

 

 

 

This too. I don't know why I bother to post sometimes I could just let SJBF speak 4 me.

[LynchMob23]

I think they are heading in the right direction, but they need to build on this season with more players stacked on players and some playmakers at OLB.

[todd]

The issue was whether the Bills run the ball enough or not.

 

The fact that they average 4.8 yards per carry (4th in the NFL) shows that they still run the ball effectively.

 

The fact that they run the ball only 24.7 times per game (27th in the NFL) shows that they don't run the ball often enough.

 

Or it shows they are playing from behind quite often.

[todd]

An indicator for me that a rebuild isn't working occurs when a HC has to fire a coordinator. That's a huge step in the wrong direction, and Gailey himself may have demonstrated this for Todd Haley.

 

Oh, and an ownership change. This team hasn't escaped the 4-7 win range since 2004. Multiple GM's, HC's, coordinators, and players haven't taken this team out of that range in 7 years.

I'm kind of thinking that cycling through gm an coaches may play a role in that. You can't rebuild every 3 years with a new coach and gm. The constant among those years has been poor drafting and an endless cycle of coaches and coordinators.

[xsoldier54]

Personally I feel we are. This season is a let down after such a great start, but we had a lot of injuries this year, more than most teams deal with in 2 years. I'm encouraged with improvement. If Jackson and Johnson are both back next year and we draft well this year, I think we will see a very competitive team take the field next year. And if not, well that's why you drink beer before and during the game.

Funny how a few weeks can change your perspective. I agree with those that say that Chan has not adjusted his play calling as defenses caught on to what the Bills were doing early in the year. As long as Fitz is the QB and Gailey is calling the plays, I can't say that I feel they are headed in the right direction. I felt otherwise earlier in the year, but it is a long season and I believe they both have been exposed. Where we go from here is anyone's guess, but what we have now on both sides of the ball and on the coaching staff is just not good enough.

[FGD]

As a Bills fan since 1972 with the attendant nightmares of Norm Bulach (sp?) rolling up the middle for Dolphins my answer is a big fat NO. Organizations win and currently the Bills are headed by a man from winning would be nice, but by his actions have demonstrated that his #1 concern is positioning the Bills as an asset whose value is maximize upon his death. Does that mean I think RW doesn't care if the Bills move or are terrible, no.

 

An organization that puts winning first would have a fully empowered GM able to spend the budget provided by ownership. It would have gotten rid of Modrak ages ago because with a limited payroll the draft is the biggest day of the year. A winning team would not have kept a player like Kelsey for 9 years. The damning sin is not draft Kelsey its extending him. A winning organization would compete for and sometimes win the battle for front office talent. But who would want to work to mannage an asset as opposed to winning. On a granular note a winning organization would not have such gastly offensive and defensive lines. Maybe one but certainly not both

 

Notice I am not saying Ralph is a villian. Terry Pegula has done many things we wish RW would do for the Bills, but its clear to me that what Sabres need is a new front office to frreshly the appraise the team and the league they play in

 

I follow the Bills pretty closely and often want to post here, but to me the answer is the direction set by the owner and at that point what else is there to say.

 

Sorry about the typos and weak grammer

[nbash]

We are three defensive starters away from being a wild card caliber team, provided we handle our free agents wisely.

[Mr_Blizzard]

Personally I feel we are. This season is a let down after such a great start, but we had a lot of injuries this year, more than most teams deal with in 2 years. I'm encouraged with improvement. If Jackson and Johnson are both back next year and we draft well this year, I think we will see a very competitive team take the field next year. And if not, well that's why you drink beer before and during the game.

 

I feel like the Bills are a much better team than they were last year, but frankly - they almost HAD to be better this year. We had a good 2011 draft, and some of the lower level free agents we signed have shown they are worthy of being on an NFL roster.

 

I'll tell you after I see how they handle their upcoming FAs

 

This is where I think Buffalo failed this past offseason. For instance: The Bills did not retain Geoff Hangartner. Do you think we could have used him this season?? I do. Here's a recent quote regarding Hangman's 2011 on-field performance: Dec 28 OL Geoff Hangartner has done a terrific job filling in at right guard for Geoff Schwartz this season. It will be interesting to see if the Panthers re-sign Hangartner, a free agent, in the offseason or simply go with Schwartz when he comes back. We should have gotten some FA help for the O-line in the offseason.

 

The Nick Barnett signing was a good one, but we really could have used a pass-rushing specialist or proven defensive end. I suppose if Kyle Williams had stayed healthy, DE performance would have been better, but we don't have any DE that strikes fear into opposing offenses. I almost hate to say it, BUT - I wonder how Maybin would have done this year if he was given one more season with the Bills. Obviously we will never know.

 

Here's to hopin' the the Bills front office knocks it outta the park between now and next training camp!

[Dr. K]

I think they have moved in the right direction. But this off-season and draft are going to be crucial on deciding whether they continue. We can argue about the coaching and strategies, but the fact is they need more depth and better starters. If they don't draft well and make at least a few credible moves in free agency, then whatever progress they have made means little.

 

I think it's all about personnel evaluation and roster building. After that, it's development of players and coaching. I think they ahve shown signs of improvement in all of these areas, but I am not totally convinced yet.

[San-O]

Good point.

 

Let me reiterate about how lame some of the play calling has been this year. The real reason this team stopped moving the ball and scoring points.

 

Gailey seemed hellbent of passing the ball all game long, and even more so once the Bills are down by as little as 7 points, and even when his QB was not playing his best.

 

Gailey has the right idea of utilizing a spread formation for both running and passing as that is the same formation that Thurman Thomas had so much success with in the JK era. The Bills would run Thurman gaining yards after yards to setup the pass. As soon as the LB's started to cheat up Kelly would open up. For the life of me I don't understand why Scott Chandler isn't more involved in the passing game. the man should be the designated the primary or secondary target all game long. Just like the Patriots do. What DB is big enough to jam Chandler at the line? What DB is tall enough to out jump Chandler for the ball?

 

The next thing is running the old Redskin "counter trey" out of that spread formation just like the 90"s Bills did. Make the opposing defense commit to a wrong first step and then have the RB either hit the hole or cut it back.

 

Chan Gailey is supposedly some sort of offensive guru, and yet he does the most inexplicable moronic things game after game.

 

 

CJ Spiller, the only bad game the kid had was against the Jets & Chargers. Jets, 19 for 55 yds. Against Tenn 14-83, 5.9 YPC and Gailey stopped running him in the 2nd half. Against SD 12 for 46 But again, the Bills get behind and Gailey goes nut calling shotgun passing plays most of that game. So Spiller never even had a chance to get his game going

 

Look at the drive chart, its a joke http://www.cbssports...20111211_BUF@SD

 

Against Miami 12 for 91, and again Gailey stop using him in the second half, this time in his presser after the game the media asked Gailey about it and he stated some nonsense about not wanting to over work the smaller RB. Funny how Jamaal Charles and Chris Johnson all have identical builds.

 

Against Denver, 16 for 111. Spiller finally gets to see action the entire game, mostly because the bills had the lead and ran their "normal" offense all game long.

 

 

I have no doubt that once the Patriots get the lead on the Bills this upcoming Sunday that Gailey will revert to his pass happy self.

 

 

Another thought, Fitz has been good in the fact that he played the entire year ( injured or not?) So we never did get a chance to see what a regular QB in Thigpen looks like behind that line. I'm thinking that the current awesome stats for sacks allowed would skyrocket.

 

Nice, the link to CBSSPORTS was really funny when you see it like that. SH*TGUN.

 

I complained about Gaileys pass-happy ways early in the season, but was told he wasn't pass-happy.

 

I don't really see him lasting beyond this year anyhow, as I said teams seem to have figured him out and he doesn't seem to have the

abililty to adjust or show game situational awareness.

[Bob in STL]

Personally I feel we are. This season is a let down after such a great start, but we had a lot of injuries this year, more than most teams deal with in 2 years. I'm encouraged with improvement. If Jackson and Johnson are both back next year and we draft well this year, I think we will see a very competitive team take the field next year. And if not, well that's why you drink beer before and during the game.

 

We are improving the personell but the pace is very slow to me.

 

The 2010 draft has not given us much. Spiller is starting to look like a player but Troup and Carrington are not producing. No starters out of this group is shameful.

 

The 2011 draft looks more promising already.

 

We have not done much in free agency either (Barnett is the best so far) but we have picked up some good players in the bargain bins (Pears, Urbik, Rhinhart, and Chandler).

 

The coaching is more questionable. The defense has been putrid for two years and it looks like poor coaching and game calling more than anything else. The transition to the 3-4 has been a disaster.

 

On offense we see shades of improvement. It all depends on which Fitz we get on any given week. I think Chan gets pass happy and I wish we had the players that could pick up a 3rd and 1 the old fashioned way.

 

I will give it another year but this project is moving very slow IMO.

Edited December 30, 2011 by Bob in STL