Sucky start to the season

[Ronin]

How do you know they'll never create it? Maybe they're experimenting to see how the team reacts, or how the other team reacts.

 

What would you prefer? For them to game plan and blow their load in the preseason? To show teams the type of offense they're going to use in a meaningless game? To appease paranoid fans no less? By the way for the last half of the season there was a key piece of the offense missing.

 

If the coaching staff is smart which I believe they are, they have a good idea of what they have and they don't need to show it off to appease the fan base or the media in a meaningless game. That's why I have no respect for ESPN, they have programming to fill so they burn a segment on the teams who haven't scored an offensive touchdown...in the preseason...

 

And this is said every preseason so forgive me for this Buffalo cliche...How well did the Super Bowl teams look in the preseason?

 

I don't know that they won't use it, but given how they did use it, abysmally, on top of the fact that it would be stupid to play like that routinesly, would you first of all, consider it competence if they did, and second of all, were you even remotely convinced that they would ever be able to do it effectively?

 

We've all seen spread offenses before, but not with receivers ranging from 2nd to 5th types on the depth chart. Teams that run those have receivers like Green Bay, New Orleans, the old Oilers (that we beat in the comeback game era), Patriots, etc. In essence, receivers any of which are capable of posting a thousdand yard season in their own right. We don't have that here.

 

To address the questions in your second paragraph, it's not really what I prefer, it's more what's wise for them to do. This isn't the Patriots who lead the league in scoring every season or close to it. It's a team that struggled mightly just to put points on the board for most of last season and easily the last two-thirds of it. So wouldn't it make sense to try to figure out why and correct those issues? That's not going to happen in camp. If we go by camp reports, then every team will finish between 8-8 and 14-2, a veritable impossibility. Either way, they seem to be taking the preseason quite cavalierly. If they're so worried about injuries, then just play the precious offensive starters, most of whom after Johnson and Jackson wouldn't have a chance at starting on any truly playoff caliber team, then just play 'em for a series and yank 'em.

 

I mean imagine Donald Jones on the Pats, Saints, or Packers; would he even have a remote chance of starting?

 

How about Graham, Hagan (who's had his chances and flopped), even Nelson, Easeley, or Roosevelt?

 

Your third paragraph is kinda funny. If they're so smart, then they've massively underachieved the past two seasons, so what would be the reason for that then?

 

Either way, I beg to differ, as coaches go, I think most would argue that they're low end. So far we're not getting any more from them than we got from Jauron. We know, we know, this year will be different as the horse finally catches up to the carrot dangling off the string in front of him. That whole exercise is like Groundhog Day, the movie.

 

Otherwise, they don't have to expose their entire playbook simply by trying to run an offense competently. This whole "vanilla" thing is one big cliched excuse usually. And honestly, let's say that the first team O runs 50 plays in the preseason, which is about right for most teams, maybe a few more, that's merely a fraction of the playbook anyway.

 

As to the Super Bowl teams, they had nothing to prove. They also had talent.

 

Are you really comparing Kelly, Reed, Lofton, Thurman, Wolford, Ballard, Hull, Ritcher, Bruce, Hanson, Wright, Smerlas,Biscuit, Talley, Odomes, Jones, Kelso to this team? Particularly on offense. Really?

 

Does the above really need explaining like that?

[White Linen]

No he didn't, OP is spamming us. She wrote the piece linked, and her pic is at the bottom of the article. Keep up, would ya, geesh!!??!!

 

And..... no, I wouldn't.

 

I am so sorry. Do you think you could ever forgive me or at least forget what I've done?

[BuffBill]

Penalties and issues on the offense crippled the Bills their opener. Hope they can turn it around.

yea they stunk beyond stinking, but it was just the first preseason game. If they look like that in preseason game #3 when the starters play about 3 quarters, then it is time to start worrying. Don't get too frustrated over that game, if this team sticks true to form, they will give you more then a few occasions during the season to get your man panties in a wad.

[NobesBLO13]

I don't know that they won't use it, but given how they did use it, abysmally, on top of the fact that it would be stupid to play like that routinesly, would you first of all, consider it competence if they did, and second of all, were you even remotely convinced that they would ever be able to do it effectively?

 

We've all seen spread offenses before, but not with receivers ranging from 2nd to 5th types on the depth chart. Teams that run those have receivers like Green Bay, New Orleans, the old Oilers (that we beat in the comeback game era), Patriots, etc. In essence, receivers any of which are capable of posting a thousdand yard season in their own right. We don't have that here.

 

To address the questions in your second paragraph, it's not really what I prefer, it's more what's wise for them to do. This isn't the Patriots who lead the league in scoring every season or close to it. It's a team that struggled mightly just to put points on the board for most of last season and easily the last two-thirds of it. So wouldn't it make sense to try to figure out why and correct those issues? That's not going to happen in camp. If we go by camp reports, then every team will finish between 8-8 and 14-2, a veritable impossibility. Either way, they seem to be taking the preseason quite cavalierly. If they're so worried about injuries, then just play the precious offensive starters, most of whom after Johnson and Jackson wouldn't have a chance at starting on any truly playoff caliber team, then just play 'em for a series and yank 'em.

 

I mean imagine Donald Jones on the Pats, Saints, or Packers; would he even have a remote chance of starting?

 

How about Graham, Hagan (who's had his chances and flopped), even Nelson, Easeley, or Roosevelt?

 

Your third paragraph is kinda funny. If they're so smart, then they've massively underachieved the past two seasons, so what would be the reason for that then?

 

Either way, I beg to differ, as coaches go, I think most would argue that they're low end. So far we're not getting any more from them than we got from Jauron. We know, we know, this year will be different as the horse finally catches up to the carrot dangling off the string in front of him. That whole exercise is like Groundhog Day, the movie.

 

Otherwise, they don't have to expose their entire playbook simply by trying to run an offense competently. This whole "vanilla" thing is one big cliched excuse usually. And honestly, let's say that the first team O runs 50 plays in the preseason, which is about right for most teams, maybe a few more, that's merely a fraction of the playbook anyway.

 

As to the Super Bowl teams, they had nothing to prove. They also had talent.

 

Are you really comparing Kelly, Reed, Lofton, Thurman, Wolford, Ballard, Hull, Ritcher, Bruce, Hanson, Wright, Smerlas,Biscuit, Talley, Odomes, Jones, Kelso to this team? Particularly on offense. Really?

 

Does the above really need explaining like that?

The whole point with Fitz calling the plays is, let's give it a shot and see how it works. If it doesn't they move on. Hindsight is 20/20.

I'm not comparing to the super bowl teams, just making the point that those were great teams and most smart people learn from history. Aspire to be great

 

I do think those players would have a remote chance at starting, especially for the Patriots. The Patriots have a great coach great quarterback and a great system and they plug in different people all the time.

 

To your point about Chan's record, under achieved? keep in mind he was hired to turn around a perennial loser, a franchise where nobody wanted to coach, even Stevie has said as much. And when you're a perennial loser it's not just about X's and O's and puzzle pieces, It's about changing a mind set. It doesn't just turn around in a season or two when you're as bad as we've been and we've flubbed on so many drafts especially 1st rounders.

The mad genius himself 'the professor' John Clayton (who doesn't even look like he could lift a football let alone play the game) tagged us last preseason as possibly the worst team in the NFL going into the 2011 season. We weren't, preseason is a joke.

 

Last year the Bills had a terrible D which put all the pressure on the O, then Freddy was out and Fitz had broken ribs. The offense will be fine, especially if the defense improves.

 

Rex Ryan has a brand new wild cat QB and Marvin Lewis asked him not to use the Wild Cat. If the preseason mattered so much why did he comply? Their offense wasn't stunning and they finished 8-8 last year.

 

Not a personal attack on you but you sound like a lawyer, my friend . It's not all black and white and stats and numbers. If so we all coach be head coaches in the NFL.

 

It's just the first game in the preseason. If it mattered so much why only 15 or so plays.

[Ronin]

The whole point with Fitz calling the plays is, let's give it a shot and see how it works. If it doesn't they move on. Hindsight is 20/20.

I'm not comparing to the super bowl teams, just making the point that those were great teams and most smart people learn from history. Aspire to be great

 

I do think those players would have a remote chance at starting, especially for the Patriots. The Patriots have a great coach great quarterback and a great system and they plug in different people all the time.

 

To your point about Chan's record, under achieved? keep in mind he was hired to turn around a perennial loser, a franchise where nobody wanted to coach, even Stevie has said as much. And when you're a perennial loser it's not just about X's and O's and puzzle pieces, It's about changing a mind set. It doesn't just turn around in a season or two when you're as bad as we've been and we've flubbed on so many drafts especially 1st rounders.

The mad genius himself 'the professor' John Clayton (who doesn't even look like he could lift a football let alone play the game) tagged us last preseason as possibly the worst team in the NFL going into the 2011 season. We weren't, preseason is a joke.

 

Last year the Bills had a terrible D which put all the pressure on the O, then Freddy was out and Fitz had broken ribs. The offense will be fine, especially if the defense improves.

 

Rex Ryan has a brand new wild cat QB and Marvin Lewis asked him not to use the Wild Cat. If the preseason mattered so much why did he comply? Their offense wasn't stunning and they finished 8-8 last year.

 

Not a personal attack on you but you sound like a lawyer, my friend . It's not all black and white and stats and numbers. If so we all coach be head coaches in the NFL.

 

It's just the first game in the preseason. If it mattered so much why only 15 or so plays.

 

Well, to your first paragraph, I think that they should focus on the meat-and-potatoes of what their offense is going to be. They have Fred Jackson, who led the NFL in yards-from-scrimmage a couple years ago and was on pace to do it again before suffering an easy to recover from injury last season. How about building the O around him? Doesn't that make a ton more sense? Then Spiller who might do something this year too as a backup, or having them both on the field.

 

Instead, they spread out five WRs, four of which wouldn't be starting for any decent NFL team with playoff asperations. They can reach for the sky, but it's not going to happen with that unit. Steve Johnson doesn't even command double coverages. The next best WR we have is a backup on most other teams.

 

You play to your strength, you don't just fiddle around with things as if just hoping for them to happen makes them happen, despite the fact that that's how they've coached in Buffalo for years.

 

As to your comments on Chan, he's got more talent on this team, last season and the one before it too, than all of his predecessors going back to pre-Williams ever had, but he's posted far worse records. He's never successfully coached a pro-set/style offense, ever, in college or in the NFL. So why is he going to do it now?

 

He sure has a better QB than any of his recent predecessors had. I'm not saying that Fitz is Brady, he's obviously not, and IMO he's below average, but he's better than Edwards, Holcomb, Losman, Van Pelt. Bledsoe was by far the best but he sucked too. In fact, IMO he wasn't much better than Fitzpatrick is but comparable nonetheless. Both were below average QBs that couldn't play against good defenses.

 

To answer your question about Ryan and Lewis, Lewis wanted his players to go up against what they would typically see, not against something that they might see on 50 plays all season if even that. Come on, you didn't really need someone to answer that for you, right?

 

LOL, no, no personal attacks, and I'm enjoying this exchange, but I could say the same thing about you on your lawyer comment. Lawyers constantly ignore facts and tend towards procedure and using "methods" rather than actual data, facts, trends, patterns, and analyses.

 

Again, preseason games are meaningless, in terms of score/outcome. But they're not meaningless in terms of how players and units play.

 

It's much better to have your first team O score twice against a first team D on two of three drives, have them come out and lose the game 56-14, than it is to screw the pooch and demonstrate play-calling and an approach to a game that makes everyone scratch their noggin and start lining up the excuses for why it appears that their hopes are on the cusp of being shattered. Wouldn't you say?

 

We'll see how they do against Minnesota with the first team O.

 

On another note, how do you think that Mario's going to play this season? How many sacks, etc.?

 

: )

Edited August 15, 2012 by TaskersGhost