Falsehoods, lies and the new Stadium Wall

[Coach Tuesday]

And I've just posted factual statistics that irrefutably show a number of posters here to either be unbelievably misinformed or just plain Stojaned.

 

But I'm waiting patiently for the first refutation of the FACT that our D skated almost the whole season while our O played the far tougher schedule- know anyone who might make the mistake of engaging me? ;-)

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Actually, that's already been refuted by the fellas at http://www.footballoutsiders.com/ . Their offense/defense/ST rankings are weighted, meaning that they take into account strength of opponent. And, not surprisingly, even taking those factors into account, the Bills' D and ST still rank NUMBER 1 OVERALL, while the Bills' offense ranks 23rd overall. So your theory is totally bunk, thanks for playing.

[Simon]

But I'm waiting patiently for the first refutation of the FACT that our D skated almost the whole season while our O played the far tougher schedule- know anyone who might make the mistake of engaging me? ;-)

 

It's a fine point for certain arguments and one I wouldn't attempt to refute.

However, it is not the schedule which is responsible for Drew's continuing struggle with decision-making. Nor is it the schedule's fault that Drew continues to show an unacceptably cavalier attitude toward taking care of the ball. And one can't blame the schedule-makers for Drew's tendency to abandon mechanics and fundamentals when things on the gridiron get a little too sporty for him. None of these thigns are a result of external factors and all of them are well within the purview of Drew's responsibility.

If I thought ofr a second that any of this was going to change next year, I'd continue to be supportive of the Bills maintaining the status quo and taking a run at the big prize under the leadership of their veteran QB. But these troubles have been plaguing Bledsoe's game for nearly 10 years now and I simply can't find a single reason why that trend is suddeny going to reverse itself.

I acknowledge and laud Drew (as well as Mularkey/Clements/Wyche) for his improvement this year, yet at the same time I can't dispell the feeling that he's hit his ceiling and that this was simply as good as he's ever going to get. And unfortunately that's just not good enough. I think we both know that in order to claim the prize which we ultimately seek, we just cannot afford for the QB position to have so many troubles with decision-making, ball security, field recognition and fundamental execution.

[Mark VI]

I'm no fan of Bledsoe but multiple positions needs better production from the current roster or an upgrade, heading into 2005. In addition to QB, the Bills need improved play from the following positions

 

1. LT - Jennings probably leaving. Our biggest need

2. LG - Can Tucker play solid or is he just a good versatile backup for multiple OL positions ?

3. WR - Identify a good #3 ( It's not Reed or Aiken ). Can Moulds stop dropping the ball ? Has a 2005 cap figure of 8.75 Mil. Reducing his salary doesn't improve his hands.

4. TE - Campbell is OK. Euhus needs blocking work but can catch. Will they return healthy from knee injuries ?

5. Kicker - Lindell started squibbing way too many kickoffs, costing us valuable field position. His FG ability/range is terrible. Upgrade needed.

6. DE - Why is Schobel lining up so wide and trying the same wide pass rush move ? RB's just run off-tackle and gain 5 or more yards to his side. Better run support from our ends.

7. DB - Unless we sign Clements now, CB will be on the shopping list, either Free Agency or the Draft.

 

Coaching - Offensive gameplanning terrible until mid-October. Then it slowly got better. Choked against the Steelers. A first year Coach will learn. Seems like a very bright guy.

Defense needs to stop depending on LB/Secondary blitzes for their pass rush. McGee was left hanging out to dry too often, when safety help was needed. Tough to watch so many 3rd and longs being converted at crucial times. Sometimes, I wonder about Gray. In fairness, Milloy and Vincent missed a great deal of time.

 

I'm certainly not blaming it all on Bledsoe, since I understand the team game concept. Still, his mechanics, pocket awareness, delivery and overall poise deserve to be scrutinized heavily by the Coaches this week, while they watch the film evaluating players. He will be entering year 13 in the NFL and his skills are starting to deteriorate rapidly. Good defenses make him look WORSE than a rookie. I realize Losman is NOT ready as of this minute but the next regular season game is 8 months away. Much CAN be accomplished in the meantime. A transition is taking place for him to eventually get his shot. Whether that's opening day 2005 or a few games in, it should happen.

 

The QB position must improve but so must multiple other positions, if the Bills wish to win 10 games and snag a playoff spot in 2005.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

I should say that I agree with this. And to be honest, although no one wants to actually listen to the other side, I believe that almost everyone was excited about the trade for Drew Bledsoe in 2001. 

 

No one is blaming Donahoe for bringing Bledsoe here in the first place. It helped a lot  , in many different ways.

 

Actually there is a whole lotof blame being cast on this point such as posts which claim the Pats "raped" (to use the specific phrase bandied about) the Bills and declaring the trade a bust,  I think resigning him was a bad move but the trade itself had one good (great if you want to add the turnout and reaction at the first Buffalo Bledsoe rally and probabl financial effects good if you only want to talk on field) effects the first year and bad effects the second.  I think that objective measurement of the trade has it as a wash, the problem is that extremism on the Bledsoe issue takes us out of the objective.

 

198239[/snapback]

 

The main problem is that there may not be many alternatives in free agency who could provide a helping Veteran hand that would be servicable as starters and could compete with Losman for the job, as well as simply providing a fresh start.

I disagree with this, too, and although this is a point you've brought up numerous times, I think it's one of your weakest points.

 

198239[/snapback]

 

The main problem here I would say is that folks are taking the time to whine about Bledsoe (he doesn't have nearly the skill he once had because shockingly he has gotten older- tell me something I don't know) but are not taking the time to say in nearly enough clarity or detail what they realitically think the Bills should do about it.

 

We can all have legitimiate (or at least some what rational) difference of opinion as to the reality of the cap implications of cutting or trading Bledsoe. I argue that the implications of an accelerated cap hit from letting Bledsoe go would leave us with this QB threesome:

 

JP- Possibilities but a young player who almost all agree will need some work who may lead this team to glory but whose development can also be hurt if he is rushed a long.

Matthews- who may retire and whom most see as a disaster QB talent at best.

Unknown- who will quite likely have to at least be a credible #2 and if JP develops badly will need to be the #1 the Bills depend on.

 

The problem is that from the best information we have on the cap (which is all we got and actually thanks to Clumpy and Bill's Daily I think is pretty good) the accelerated cap hit from moving Bledsoe will be $4.3 million and we have around $5.4 million allocated to paying Bledsoe (his 2005 salary plus the prorated bonus) this year. Thus, the proposal to trade him to Dallas or cut him immediately (as some proposed back in his worst moments after the NE debacle) means we would have to find a quality back-up QB and a potential starter for a cap allocation (essentially a salary) of a bit over a million a year. The NFL minimum salary is a bit below half a million and QBs tend to get a bit of a premium, but suffice to say that this amount of money likely brings us another player not much better than a Steve Matthews level player to lead us if JP is not ready (quite possible) or gets hurt (we've seenh that before as well).

 

Its fine with me if folks want to blather on about Bledsoe sucks this way and Bledsoe sucks that way. Its the internet and we all have the right to blather on. However, if a comment purports to be serious, then it should have some realistic description of how and or who makes their proposal rationale. The proposals to get rid of Bledsoe before June 1st simply make no sense that this feeble mind can see and even the proposals to wait until after June 1st need a lot splaining and even a nod toward real world alternatives to be rational.

 

Players change over the course of their NFL careers, especially when it comes to the twilight of their career.  I can't tell you exactly what, but it's very obvious that the Drew Bledsoe that plays for us is not the same player that took the Patriots to the Super Bowl under Parcells.  The sacks have cought up to him or something, I don't know; but he certainly doesn't have the awareness that he showed in his early career in New England.

 

198239[/snapback]

 

Certainly players change because if we are lucky we continue to get older (you prefer to the alternative?) This is all theoretical but ironically, I think that one o the lead factors in Bledsoe's lack of success in various games and seasons in the past have occured because he and the OC fell in love with what the young Bledsoe and his arm could do. The true irony is that like a baseball pitcher who learns not to rely only on the heat and to control his pitches after Tommy John surgery and he becomes more effective, it certainly seems a possible theory to me that Bledsoe MIGHT actually end up being judged a more effective QB when teams rely on hiss extraordinary arm less as he gets older and rely on surprising skills (to me) he showed under Clements and MM.

 

If you had asked me at the beginning of the season whether Bledsoe could throw on the rollout, I woulda said naahhh. If you askd me how he was against the rush the word statue probably would have escaped my lips. If you asked me about him running, I probably would have laughed.

 

Yet, while I would not build a gameplan around an expectation of Bledsoe becoming Elway, Jake Plummer or even Bobby Douglas, there he was this season throwing a TD on the rollout to Evans against SF, doing some nifty side-stepping and getting a few passes off amidst a sack total that thanks to a better OL and a little movement by him was reduced from a number in the 50s to a number below 40 and there he was making a couple of runs on draw plays for 5 yards or more after he read the safety not filling the middle.

 

While stats do not conclude anything they can indicate some things. I think there may well be a reason why Bledsoe's QB rating has remained about the same in his career seemingly regardless of the ebbs and flows of his athletic ability as he matured into his prime and now is on the backside of his career. While the repetitive hitsundoubtedly slow him down, the repetition and years of practice and experience means he has seen quite a bit. There CAN BE some balance here and the lord giveth and the lord taketh away before we all eventually die and get planted.

 

I think one key to the Bill's improved production (more Ws with Bledsoe as QB) actually is that 1. The Bills limited the audibles he could call which took a lot of his own egotism and self belief out of the game so he audibled less to passes and 2. better playcalling used Bledsoe as a threat and change-up while the basic offense ran WM and ran him again.

 

This thought is all theory and I think the better chance for us winning is that JP will develop and make the future now, but I don't feel totally bad about Bledsoe getting older if it means we do more with less.

 

Also, I'm not one to rely on numbers, but they don't lie when you're talking about Bledsoe in big games, especially when comparing them to other contemporary successful quarterbacks. You can deny the quarterback's importance all you want, but when you need to move 70 yards in under two minutes, your quarterback is the most important player on your team. Bledsoe has shown through out his career, especially the latter half, that he simply folds more often than not in pressure games and situations.

 

198239[/snapback]

 

The numbers do not lie in that the fact remains Bledsoe has won big games early in his career under Parcells and late in his career under Belicheck. I'm sorry, but though I was deeply disappointed to see the Bills come up with no points when Lindell missed the chip shot FG, I think it defies reality to claim that Bledsoe had nothing to do with the Bills driving the ball from the shadow of the own goalposts after the D stopped the Steelers who were knocking on our door and the Bills drove to the shadow of their goalposts (only to have a crtical gain reversed by an offensive interference call to Reed away from the play). Maybe we would have lost anyway if Lindell had made the chipshot FG because Pitts would still have been within 7? Maybe yiu wabt to discount the relevance of this drive or the one afterward when Bledsoe successfully tossed a long pass to Evans because they took more than the 2 minutes you gave.

 

However, it simply undermines arguments against Bledsoe when folks falsely descibe the situation as a no-brainer because the statue can do nothing right and he has never won anywhere. Even your statement that he folds more often than not in pressure situations stretches the truth. More often than not he is not in an alleged pressure situation because the Bills played like a TEAM and blew the opponent out or the opposing team ran us over and blew us out.

 

The more true indictment of Bledsoe is that in the couple a times a season where championship teams need the QB to stand-up and will the team to victory pretty much on their own Bledsoe has not been able to do that. I think that is true, but the fact is almost all players are not able to do that. The key for the Bills is to get go enough in other facets of the game where players are available, we have the cap room and realistically we can make changes so that like Brad Johnson, Brady to some extent in 2001 and Trent Dilfer we don't need the QB to lift the team on their shoulders alone to win it all.

 

I don't know. I don't want to take anything away from the offense, but they were saved a lot from the special teams and defense. The Cincinatti game, the San Francisco game, the Seahawks game all come to mind immediately.

Reading between the lines of Donahoe's statement, you can be assured of one thing:  Bledsoe is not as safe as he once was.

 

 

 

198239[/snapback]

 

If you are saying cut or trade Bledsoe now (or even after June 1st) I say no that makes no sense for the Bills. If you are saying lets go into the off-season and everyone has to earn their job that sounds fine to me. If you are saying that Bledsoe will not be anointed the starter with JP having no chance that sounds fine to me. If you are saying JP should be given the starters job without earning it on the field I disagree with that.

 

I think TD and MM have handled this just right this season. I would not have resigned Bledsoe but given that they did, get the best replacement for Matthews we can (it is to be hoped a credible #2) and go from there.

[Coach Tuesday]

FFS, I told you what I think we should do about our QB situation - draft yet another QB in the middle rounds of this year's draft, essentially hedging our JPL bet, and let that QB and JPL compete for the job either with or without Bledsoe.

 

You didn't like that idea.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

FFS, I told you what I think we should do about our QB situation - draft yet another QB in the middle rounds of this year's draft, essentially hedging our JPL bet, and let that QB and JPL compete for the job either with or without Bledsoe. 

 

You didn't like that idea.

198459[/snapback]

 

A lot of this stems from my sense of the future is now. I hope JP develops this off-season and can lead us to the promised land. However, I wouldn't expect that or bet on that (still I like others would not have expected a second year pro like Brady to lead NE to an SB victory so lets hope I'm wrong again).

 

Since I see it as not a good chance that a second year pro will lead us to the promised land, I think it is even a worse bet that a drafted rookie will do this be it your fave Campbell or whomever. Is this that rediculous?

 

As far as Bledsoe, it is also quite unlikely he will lead us to the SB. However, 30 teams won't make it there so this fact is not a disqualifier in and of itself for JP or even the draftee.

 

I think the issue for us is ranking the likelihood. Until JP proves something or anything on the field or in the eyes of the Bills braintrust, Bledsoe is still the man in my eyes. Again, I'm not saying that the chances are good, but after racking up a winning season for the first time in years and having some fun watching us go on a streak of blowing out tier 3 and tier 2 teams I feel much much better about this team than I felt about the 2003 Bills.

 

I find it strange that folks disagree.

[IDBillzFan]

Find me just one post where someone has said that Drew Bledsoe, and Drew Bledsoe alone, cost us the season.  Please, find just one.  I expect crap like that from some here, but now you too?  There are many here who have seen enough of Drew Bledsoe to last a lifetime, and that group, myself included, have been vocal.  Do we exagerate to make a point?  Probably, but not to the extent that you have.

198144[/snapback]

Man, I had no idea this would trigger such a response.

 

First, I'm not going searching for people's posts just because you don't read the board as much as I do. Second, when someone says...over and over and over...that Drew Bledsoe can't win the big games, and if we just get rid of Bledsoe and get some other slightly more serviceable QB, we could make a run...then YES, to me, that equates to "Drew cost us our season." After all, their thinking is simply that by replacing ONLY Drew, we could have made it.

 

How many people have stated that Drew was the reason we lost to Pittsburgh? Please...you can barely COUNT the number of people who said that because you would ultimately lose count. And what happened when we lost to Pittsburgh? It cost us our season. And WHO cost us our season?

 

Zactly.

 

If anyone thinks this makes me a Bledsoe apologist, then they can kiss my ass. The quarterback position needs to be upgraded, but it is FAR from being the ONLY thing wrong with our team. You would never know it from the people on this board.

 

Sometimes I think the ONLY one who gets it is Mark VI. Unlike the countless people who find another way to say Drew sucks, he not only identifies all the problems, but offers ways to fix them beyond "Let's sign John Kitna. Let's get Steve McNair. Let's see if San Diego will give us Brees."

[Coach Tuesday]

"Let's sign John Kitna. Let's get Steve McNair. Let's see if San Diego will give us Brees."

198495[/snapback]

 

Well let's be honest, if we had McNair we would've been 12-4 or so this season. Do you disagree?

 

Also, LA, it's not just "the people around here" - sportswriters all over the country, ranging from the stupid to the highly-qualified, have been pointing out all season and last week especially that an upgrade at the QB position ALONE would make this team a playoff team.

[stuckincincy]

I don't give a hoot about talk if DB still has skills, needs some coaching, others let him down, or whatever.

 

What he is, is a lousy leader in an emotional sport.

 

I bristle at his hang-dog, devoid of emotion saunter to the sideline. In '03, seeing the inanity going on with the GW/KG regime, he should have flung is helmet off, screamed at that comedy duo, and left the field.

 

It's a crying shame that the Con Man signed him to that contract. But's that's water over the dam.

 

Announce Losman as starter now, and give him the camp and pre-season reps.

 

It's time to move on...

[GG]

a fantastic example of this is certain posters' refusal to criticize the bills' "elite" defense for their 4th quarter collapses in four of the bills close losses this season (see bills v. jags, bills v. jets, bills v. pats I, bills v. steelers).  if they do the job in any one of those games, the discussion on this board is about a playoff game today or tomorrow...despite bledsoe's admittedly mediocre year.

 

it's a team game.  do the bills have to get better at the QB position?  you betcha.  they have to get better on defense as well.

198270[/snapback]

 

To address your's and AKC's points about the effectiveness of our D, you have to take it in the proper context. No one should have any illusions that we have a dominant run stuffing D that can force its will on the opponent. It is however, a solid unit that will keep scoring down, will force lots of turnovers and provide a score or two on its own. The lack of pass rush has left this defense vulnerable to the vertical game, and Milloy's and Vincent's absenses were the difference early in the season.

 

However, even without the two key players in the lineup, Bills lost 3 of first games by giving up 13, 13, and 16 points. The D gave up 13 vs Ravens, plus Deion's INT return. That's 4 losses that could - should have been at least two wins, if the offense simply managed to get 2 TDs in each game.

 

Similarly in the Pitt game, while the D is getting the blame for allowing Pitt to drive down the field in 4Q, people aren't giving it credit for keeping it close in the 1st half, when the score could have easily been 28-10 after 30 mins. AKC can't have it both ways in arguing that Pitt kept its starting OL in the game, then not crediting it for wearing down Bills D with the 35 minutes of TPOS.

 

Thus, while the D should be faced with criticism for individual drive collapses, they did their job in keeping the total scoring down in those losses.

 

As we move to the offense, it is foolish to assign all blame on Bledsoe. The output picked up greatly when Henry was sent to the bench, refs calls took some points off the board for us, and Moulds choked in many instances.

 

But all the known issues with the offense were addressed. Henry was benched, more balls were thrown to Lee Evans and the TEs. But when Bledsoe reverted to bad habits against a very tough Pitt D, we're supposed to believe that the whole team let us down again.

[IDBillzFan]

Well let's be honest, if we had McNair we would've been 12-4 or so this season.  Do you disagree?

 

Also, LA, it's not just "the people around here" - sportswriters all over the country, ranging from the stupid to the highly-qualified, have been pointing out all season and last week especially that an upgrade at the QB position ALONE would make this team a playoff team.

198504[/snapback]

Like I said; we need an upgrade at quarterback. I've never disputed that. What I've disputed is the idea that it is the one and only thing we need and it would have made a difference in the season.

 

And no...I can't imagine that McNair would have given us two more wins if for no other reason than because there is no way in this world that you can hypothetically change one aspect of a game without it affecting some other aspect of the game. Would McNair have done better than Bledsoe? Maybe. If he could stay healthy long enough. See what I'm saying?

 

I also think that if Nate doesn't try to pick off a Leftwich pass, and if Villarial didn't get called for holding on a crucial, successful 3rd and 1 play that would have let us run out the clock, and if people took a closer look at TH's touchdown in Oakland, then yes, we'd be 12-4 and even 13-3.

 

Again. Upgrade the QB position, but don't think that is all you have to do. And that is what I am contending.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

Well let's be honest, if we had McNair we would've been 12-4 or so this season.  Do you disagree?

 

Also, LA, it's not just "the people around here" - sportswriters all over the country, ranging from the stupid to the highly-qualified, have been pointing out all season and last week especially that an upgrade at the QB position ALONE would make this team a playoff team.

198504[/snapback]

 

What in reality were the opportunites to upgrade the QB situation after the fait accompli of re-signing Bledsoe. They were there but it revolved around getting a @2 who was a likely upgrade over Travis Brown (Kordell Stewart?) or after the Brown injury an upgrade over Shane Matthews.

 

The key question going into the 2005 season will be IN REALITY who would upgarde our QB situation.

 

With Bledsoe it is rough because any QB coming in will need to get Shane Matthews money (pretty low amount) and will likely be #3 certainly in terms of emphasis and importance to the team if not on the deptj chart.

 

Without Bledsoe, getting a newcomer would be a far more attractive job because he would now be a #2 with a reasonable shot at being our #1 if JP demonstrates o the field that he is not the man for the job or if he suffer an injury similar in gravity to what he suffered this year. The tough thing is that this potential #1 would have to settle for a bit over a million in annual salary as that is all that will be left in the budget we can see after you subtract the $4.3 million accelerated Bledsoe cap hit from the $5.4 million he will receive to play.

 

The FA QB list is:

 

Player Status 2004 Team 2005 Team

Shane Matthews UFA Bills

Jim Miller UFA Patriots

Sage Rosenfels UFA Dolphins

Josh Harris ERFA Ravens

Kordell Stewart UFA Ravens

Kelly Holcomb UFA Browns

Charlie Batch UFA Steelers

Tony Banks UFA Texans

Matt Mauck ERFA Broncos

Bradlee Van Pelt ERFA Broncos

Todd Collins UFA Chiefs

Damon Huard UFA Chiefs

David Rivers ERFA Raiders

Drew Brees UFA Chargers

Mike McMahon UFA Lions

Rick Mirer UFA Lions

Craig Nall RFA Packers

Doug Pederson UFA Packers

Gus Frerotte UFA Vikings

Shaun Hill ERFA Vikings

Josh McCown RFA Cardinals

Matt Hasselbeck UFA Seahawks

Brock Huard UFA Seahawks

Ty Detmer UFA Falcons

Rod Rutherford ERFA Panthers

Vinny Testaverde UFA Cowboys

Jesse Palmer UFA Giants

Jeff Blake UFA Eagles

Tim Hasselbeck ERFA Redskin

 

One can add likely cuts such as Mcnair to the list, but judging from salaries former NFL starters will command more than the million cap hit.

 

The bottomline as Amazing Grant likes to refer to is that I think it is incredibly very incredibly unlikely that the Bills can cut or trade Bledsoe before June 1st and get even a credible back-up for JP with the cap room we have left. Further, if we were to get somebody part of his job would be to be as graceful helpful to Tom Brady as Bledsoe was when Brady took his job.

 

Getting rid of Bledsoe after the June 1st deadline gives the Bills a bit more wiggle room as his accelerated cap hit would be distributed over 2 years. Howevr, raising our payout to $2+ million instead of 1+ million makes no difference in attracting the best FA QBs and no reasonable #2 I see on the list. Even worse this player would come to us on the eve of pre-season and not be part of the :xoluntary" camps and our planning at all.

 

Face it, the reality is that Bledsoe will remain a Bill and actually after a winning season but with the understanding that JP can take his job if his on field performance merits it this sounds good enough to me.

[GG]

............

 

The key question going into the 2005 season will be IN REALITY who would upgarde our QB situation.

 

............

 

The FA QB list is:

 

Todd Collins UFA Chiefs 

198527[/snapback]

 

 

This is the start of my official, "Bring Back Todd Collins" campaign.

 

I am serious.

[Gavin in Va Beach]

This is the start of my official, "Bring Back Todd Collins" campaign.

 

I am serious.

198533[/snapback]

 

He's tan, rested, and ready!!!

 

I'll join the campaign. He never got a fair shake in Buffalo and I've seen him do some good work for KC in the preseason. No doubt he's much more experienced now. Might be had cheap.

[GG]

He's tan, rested, and ready!!!

 

I'll join the campaign. He never got a fair shake in Buffalo and I've seen him do some good work for KC in the preseason. No doubt he's much more experienced now. Might be had cheap.

198541[/snapback]

 

For what it's worth, he was probably the most polished QB coming out of Michigan and was thrown into a buzzsaw here. At the very least he'd be a vast upgrade over Matthews, but I wouldn't discount having him compete for the starting job, as I doubt he'd leave KC to be a backup elsewhere.

[Coach Tuesday]

What in reality were the opportunites to upgrade the QB situation after the fait accompli of re-signing Bledsoe.  They were there but it revolved around getting a @2 who was a likely upgrade over Travis Brown (Kordell Stewart?) or after the Brown injury an upgrade over Shane Matthews.

198527[/snapback]

 

Drew Brees was available - he's not anymore. I don't think we're really disagreeing here...

[JP-era]

The Stadium Wall has experienced an evolution over the course of its life, from its beginnings as a football board to its unfortunate metamorphosis today as merely another style board in which facts and considered analysis and debate have been replaced by unfounded whims and compulsive obsessions. It’s surely no surprise since this has paralleled a like evolution in sports radio, where we’ve seen thorough analysis trumped by Jim Rome and the Jungle.

 

Looking at The Stadium Wall today a new fan of football just discovering a message board community would be led to believe that the 2004 Buffalo Bills offense, quarterbacked by a blind handicapped walk-on who played in shackles, forced us to suffer through a wholly end-to-end dreadful season during which we faced the worst competition in the NFL and failed to live up to even the expectations of being led by a blind handicapped walk-on in shackles.

 

On the other hand, the same new fan of football just discovering this message board community would be confused by the promotion of the idea that our defense played the cream of the crop in the NFL and showed up huge every Sunday, kicking the snot out of the best the NFL could put up and ultimately being dragged down by our blind handicapped quarterback playing in shackles.

 

So the new fan could only come away with the idea that our offense and defense competed each week against different opponents! And oddly enough that would be the one correct conclusion that the new fan might garner- but not for the way it's portrayed by many on The Stadium Wall.

 

We surely did face different competition each week this season, but it was our offense that far and away faced the indisputably tougher assignments over the course of the season. We saw 8 top 10 defenses while our defense saw only 4 top 10 offenses all season. We faced top half of the league defenses 11 times this season while our defense saw only 7 of the upper half offenses. That means our offense more weeks than not faced a top half defense while exactly the opposite was true of our defense. The fact is that the defenses we faced, based upon the final rankings of the regular season, prove our offense faced defenses that were 29% tougher than the offenses our defense played over the same span.

 

One lesson that the new fan might learn is to believe none of what you hear but instead believe what you see. If you watched the Buffalo Bills this season you can draw different conclusions about the appropriate direction for next season, but you can not accurately say that any one unit of this team kept us in every game single-handedly every week. We played as a team this year and when you do no single player and no single unit is “responsible” for our “awful” 9-7 rebirth as a team moving in the right direction according to most outside observers. The 2004 Bills won as a team- and we lost as a team.

 

There are many positives to find for our football team, although they might be almost impossible to uncover with some trying to achieve the “style” post of the day whining on and on over and over about how many times they paid attention to nothing but the football all season long. There’s a lot more fallacies than this big whopper being spread by these Jim Rome disciples and it’s clear they will not allow their licorice whistles to be silenced by reason and fact. So we’ll do what used to be the provenance of lesser fan bases- we’ll observe what is expected of the casual fans in New York City with their Jets and Giants, or the Miami and San Fran fans- we’ll watch as our fan base becomes more like those fan bases screaming about the QB position whenever the team loses a game and less like the Green Bay fan base we were more typically compared to in the immediate past.  We’ll sit by while the “style” fans squawk on with unfounded opinion and a disregard of history. But we should not sit by idly ;-)

197890[/snapback]

 

My take is going to be a new post.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

Drew Brees was available - he's not anymore.  I don't think we're really disagreeing here...

198564[/snapback]

 

Actually seemed to be advocating cutting or trading Bledsoe now or even before the 2005 season in order to allow JP and a mid-round drafted QB compete for the job.

 

I think the facts are that doing this would be devastating to the Bills because of the contract he is under. My apologies if this wasn;t what you were advocating. For those who do advocate this course of action, they are being irrational in this suggestion unless they have some specific plan or alternative for acquiring a #2 QB from the FA list I provided for the money we have left after the acceleration of the Bledsoe bonus.

 

I doubt folks have any real thoughts and are just whining about Bledsoe.

[DC Tom]

My take is going to be a new post.

198571[/snapback]

 

Oh, thank you...because we don't have nearly enough "Bledsoe sucks" threads...

[Coach Tuesday]

Actually seemed to be advocating cutting or trading Bledsoe now or even before the 2005 season in order to allow JP and a mid-round drafted QB compete for the job.

 

I think the facts are that doing this would be devastating to the Bills because of the contract he is under.  My apologies if this wasn;t what you were advocating. For those who do advocate this course of action, they are being irrational in this suggestion unless they have some specific plan or alternative for acquiring a #2 QB from the FA list I provided for the money we have left after the acceleration of the Bledsoe bonus.

 

I doubt folks have any real thoughts and are just whining about Bledsoe.

198572[/snapback]

 

No - I don't think you can do anything with Bledsoe because of his contract. My suggestion is to keep him and have TWO young QBs on the roster to compete with him, given the lack of FA vets out there.