A Few Thoughts About The Game, in no particular order.....

[ChevyVanMiller]

12. Except for those who were leaving when only down six. IMO, before you head to the gates, the Bills bill better be down at least three scores with less that two minutes left. Otherwise, inexcusable and you should not be allowed back in.

 

I was at the game and a group of 4 guys - who were totally into the game throughout - got up and left just before the final drive. I told them they'd be kicking themselves when EJ drove the Bills to his first-ever 4th quarter comeback.

 

Hey, I tried.

 

All great moments like yesterday can only happen when the team is down in the 4th quarter. To leave just to get a jump on traffic s inexcuseable. Glad I stayed ( and thanks to all of the great people in Section 101 that shared that great moment with me and my oldest son).

[alias]

Bill from NYC -- Your post-game comments have became a TBD tradition, for which we are grateful. Keep 'em coming!

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

12. Except for those who were leaving when only down six. IMO, before you head to the gates, the Bills bill better be down at least three scores with less that two minutes left. Otherwise, inexcusable and you should not be allowed back in.

 

I couldn't believe how empty the seats were before the kitties kicked their last field goal.

 

Bummer for those that left missing a great comeback

[Beerball]

 

 

Really? Think about it. It's as if the ball is going into a body of water. It's wet as soon as the point hits the water, but it isn't dry until it's fully out.

I've thought about it. Do you think I called it odd for no reason?

[bowery4]

1) Kyle Williams impressed the hell out of me. Coming into this game, I viewed him as a player who was all but finished. Want to talk about effort? The man gave everything he had in this football game.

 

Kyle is maybe my favorite Bill and still so under appreciated by ppl on this board.

 

2) Speaking of "Williams," Aaron Williams played very well imo in spite of that one incredibly stupid out of bounds hit.

 

Yeah that hit, I thought he was going to stop but maybe he couldn't. Maybe he could but thought he had room. IDK but his play the rest of the game was pretty good. I like him at safety. Good move to move him there, the FO gets credit for that.

 

3) There are just so many posters on this great site who do more work on the draft than I do. That said, Robert Woods was my favorite wide receiver in this draft. This kid is going to be great. He loves playing football and is SMART. I am thrilled by his performance today. Aside from his 68 yards receiving, he made no mistakes on special teams. We are going to have fun watching this kid.

 

Woods as advertised, we were lucky to get the kid. They ought to try Easley on the other side, TJ isn't getting it done.

 

4) Mario Williams earned his money today. He played at a superstar level, and is my favorite NFL player due to what he does off of the football field. He donates huge dollars to the Houston Police Department. That's enough for me.

 

I think the money is what most ppls problem really is but I have always thought he is good. Not everybody has a good game every week, the game yesterday will probably disappoint ppl when he doesn't do that every game.

 

5) I must say, I am furious about the play calling at the end of the second quarter. They RAN the football in a hurry up, and gave the Panthers the football with 2:07 left. This was idiotic. There is NO FREAKING WAY they should have afforded them an extra time out (the deuce). This cost us points, and almost the game. So who do we blame? The OC or Marrone? Either way, this was totally unacceptable.

 

The idiocy didn't stop there; we went cover 2 after that on D, I had flashbacks man, it was 4 years ago and I was watching DJs break and don't win D.

 

6)Wake up to find out

that you are the eyes of the world.

The heart has its beaches,

its homeland and thoughts of its own.

Wake now discover that YOU are the song,

that the morning brings.

The heart has its seasons,

its evenings and songs, of its own

 

7) OK, I was seriously pissed off when the Bills attempted a 55 yard field goal. Especially after the miss from 42. What do I know lol? And not for nothing, the last one he made was insane. Watching it, I thought it was 8 or 10 yards short.

 

Unlike Chan, HCDM has big brass ones (and faith, takes a boatload to go for 2 too) refreshing isn't it?

 

8) Hey, I never complain about announcers, nor much else about telecasts. But today, I think that the camera man was on drugs. He was missing key shots. Am I the only one who noticed this?

 

I was happy on the Woods catch on the sideline (there glass is half full again)

 

9) EJ? His numbers were very good, and his potential is beyond limit. That said, count me as one who believes that he will need to run it himself to achieve his full potential, which imo is good enough to win a superbowl.

 

EJ really was impressive and he avoids sacks Still a rook but hey! yeah!

 

10) The OL played well today. Imo, the player who did the best work on this unit was Urbik. He looks to be in great physical shape, and he kicked some ass in this football game. Again, the camera work was bad; I welcome opinions on this comment.

 

He was middling last week but the line all looked good all day (Brown not getting many complaints this week ).

 

11) Spiller did his job today. He gave us long gains, key first downs and didn't cough up the football.

 

So are you saying he was the right pick that year?

 

12) Bills Fans are the best fans of any team in any sport.

 

Amen

 

13) Kiko is going to be a flat out star.

 

Amen

14) GO BILLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Good post and great thread everyone nice to read this today, feels good don't it? It was a soso game in a bunch of ways but hey young team learning how to execute and win, pardon our dust.

[CodeMonkey]

To me it was like watching the Bills play the Bills. Two young, strong, but not very accurate QBs. Both defensive backfields were crippled with injuries. Defensive lines and LBs about equal (except Mario who was a beast). And both teams making waaaay too many mistakes. In fact at halftime when they switched to the talking heads reporting on all the games, the first thing that was said about our game was "boring".

 

Any win is a good win. And the last drive should go a long way building the teams (particularly Manuels) confidence.

Now on to the Jests!

Edited September 16, 2013 by CodeMonkey

[microscopes]

Great post as usual.

 

I still don't understand that rhyme crap you do in the middle of all of them, it kind of interrupts the post and literally has nothing to do with anything.

 

That being said, it's your thread and I'll shut up.

[bladiebla]

To me it was like watching the Bills play the Bills. Two young, strong, but not very accurate QBs. Both defensive backfields were crippled with injuries. Defensive lines and LBs about equal (except Mario who was a beast). And both teams making waaaay too many mistakes. In fact at halftime when they switched to the talking heads reporting on all the games, the first thing that was said about our game was "boring".

 

Any win is a good win. And the last drive should go a long way building the teams (particularly Manuels) confidence.

Now on to the Jests!

 

Honestly the game was far from boring, it was a great defense battle with good adjustments on both sides.

[microscopes]

 

I find it "odd" that for a TD any portion of the ball has to break the goal line but for a safety the entire ball must cross the line. Not disagreeing, you are 100% correct, just one of those football oddities.

 

I agree.

 

It's incredibly not uniform.

 

Keep endzone rules consistant.

Edited September 16, 2013 by microscopes

[CodeMonkey]

Honestly the game was far from boring, it was a great defense battle with good adjustments on both sides.

I wasn't bored because I am a Bills fan. But I can see where if you were not a Bills or Panthers fan it would have been boring (except the last 5 minutes).

I would call it more of a mistake-fest than defensive battle myself, but there were good defensive moments as well.

[bowery4]

A few thoughts just to finish up. The D was awesome, gameball to them and EJ and our other 2 top 3 picks.

Frank Summers and a few other players that had up and downish games, hey it happens especially to young guys with little experience (might add "at their position" to this point) in a new scheme early in the year.

 

I also think the new NFLPA agreement with cut back practice and TC time stuff might make the later 2/3rds of the season look different this year, that could be a good thing for us.

 

​I like the hurry up, agree with the aggressive nature of it, I hope they are learning it and tweaking still (the staff and players) stuff like this takes time and endurance.

That was a good game against a Chan like team, they also can be better will be interesting to see when they replace that coach. Personally, I would give the job to the DC (not ours please, god, I hope we keep ours for a long time!).

 

The JESTS worry me a bit, they will be hungry, Geno is not Sanchez, Rex had our number the last few years and that D is at least good. We can get a division win next week, another important game. Also Miami looked good against the Colts. Our AFCE looks a bit tougher this year in my opinion.

Edited September 16, 2013 by bowery4

[ColdBlueNorth]

As always Bill, great work with the thread. My observations:

 

1) Dareus continues to play at a near-Pro Bowl level. He takes a lot of unnecessary heat on this board. He's a baller.

I agree. He is a clean player (no Suh issues) that can push the pocket and shut down the run. He does a lot of heavy lifting that Kyle and Mario benefit from - they owe the big boy a steak dinner.

 

2) Moats - this guy is a surviver. He has switched positions like 18 times over his bungled career here and has finally morphed into a very solid contributor.

Players will find a way to make a positive impact - Moats is a player with pretty good versatility. He is not a coverage backer, but he has decent closing speed and squeezes all he can out of it.

 

3) Carrington, on the other hand, disappoints me. I'm not sure what he's being asked to do - perhaps he's playing the traditional 3-4 LDE role where he's being asked to tie up blockers and not much else. I just don't see the explosion and playmaking ability I was expecting from him this year.

Go easy on this guy - I watched Carrington and it was apparent to me that he was asked to play a two-gap containment role on Cam. He easily shook off the initial blocks and had pursuit lanes upfield (Cam is elusive and if Carrington came free to the left of his blocker Cam would have taken the right path upfield, etc...), but he stayed put and mirrored Cam whenever he shifted left or right. A tough, non-glory role that he shared with Dareus (who arguably has a bit more push, but he is a hoss) on passing plays that forced Newton to have to choose between rolling into the pressure right or left, or stay put and get dumped. We all saw the results. We need to give it up to the unsung heros of that defensive line who play those role assignments that do not get the glory, but free others to clean house and bask in the sun.

 

4) Justin Rogers does not belong on an NFL roster. Putting aside getting toasted because he was watching Cam like he was in the stands, he also is absolutely horrible in run support. I despise him.

Had some hopes for this kid, but now think of him as a warm body that may be able to play zone. Pettine needs ballers who can play man in his scheme.

 

5) Graham is not a football player. He does not fight, as a blocker or a receiver. Easley, by contrast, fights like mad whenever he is on the field and is one of the better blocking WRs in the entire league. I don't know what is going on in practice but eventually they need to make the switch. Just imagine having Woods, Stevie and Easley on the field together. It's baffling to me that it hasn't happened yet.

I think that Easley has earned his shot, but the offensive scheme calls for one speedster to stretch the defense. I would rather have a playmaker on the field than a speedster that does not seem to be able to make plays, but not our call right?

 

6) Is Gragg hurt? This team needs a TE playmaker sooooo badly... time to get him on the field.

DB and TE, are my top draft or FA needs for next year. Safety is a concern, but we have some young guys that have room to grow.

 

7) I don't know what it is but the special teams kick and punt return units just don't look organized or confident to me. Not sure if the problem is the coaching but it's something to keep an eye on.

There was a lot of turnover in our personnel, including losing some role players who were special teams captains and studs...just going to take a while for this group to work as a unit. You also got to factor in that many of the Special Teams players are also offensive and defensive contributers and with Marrone and Pettine implementing new offensive and defensive schemes, the time devoted to Special Teams practice has probably gotten the shorter end of the stick.

 

8) Lots has been said about Pettine and rightfully so. Makes me hate Wanny even more, seeing how simple it is to just switch things up a bit with these good players in the front seven. On one play, Mario faked like he was dropping into a zone blitz, then rushed Cam; Cam was so confused watching Mario that he didn't see the DB blitzing from the other side and it resulted in a negative play for the offense. It's the little things - attacking the ball, disguising where the attack is coming from.

Yes - this.

 

I could not believe with all the high draft picks and FA talent how our defense could be performing so terribly over the years. To say that the game has passed Wanny is an understatement - the game has lapped him. We would argue on this board about scheme vs coaching. Answer is pretty clear - having a coach that effectively game plans and makes game-day adjustments. A coach that has situational awareness, who understands and can coach up players to effectively execute a variety of schemes and disguise the looks. A coach who knows how to assess players abilities and match those to the defense called to maximize the impact on opposing offenses:)

 

Pettine can flat-out coach - dad should be proud.

 

9) I can't wait for the Jets game. Should be a real war.

 

Bet the under.

[3rdand12]

Great post as usual.

 

I still don't understand that rhyme crap you do in the middle of all of them, it kind of interrupts the post and literally has nothing to do with anything.

 

That being said, it's your thread and I'll shut up.

That called Bill style ! He loves Robert Hunter .

 

Thanks for the Thread Bill.

The game ..,

was the most fun i have had on Sunday afternoon in a rather long while . love the heart of this team again !!

Marrone has turned the mentality around the proverbial corner.

Go Bills !!

[GG]

Is CBS hiring newbies to produce these games? Camera shot often late coming into the play. It's like they are not aware there is a hurry up offense on the field.

 

This was a Fox game.

[yungmack]

As for AW, us old-timers (sort of) remember Leonard Smith. 46 hit hard, early, late and often and though there were times I wished he would have played the ball and not the man, he definitely had receivers hearing footsteps. That's the kind of safety you need. It was a dumb and costly play but you know what? Given the dumb and costly plays this team has made over the years that didn't even get the other guy's jersey dirty, I can live with it once in awhile.

One of my alltime favorite Bills defenders. His absence was a huge factor in the SBs.

[CodeMonkey]

This was a Fox game.

And it was obviously not their top tier talent either working the cameras, in the booth, or in front of the camera.

It was Buffalo and Carolina after all. Not many areas even got the game.

[Hplarrm]

This was a Fox game.

Fox does seem to do a worse job than CBS and by far ESPN in their game day shots and camera work. In addition to the penny pinching ways of boss Rupert Murdoch, I attribute a lot of this to Fox simply having less history of this type of work than the other nets and also for evening or high profile games getting assigned the A team and more cameras than less desirable games like losers such as Bills/Panthers. As long as they are going to use replay and the # of cameras as part of determining the actual play in the games they should have a minimum # of cameras assigned to each game. They do not need the many cameras and glitzy swinging cameras on guywires they have for high profile games but they really need more cameras and better quality camera work than what we saw for this weekend's Bills game.

[5 Wide]

I'll admit I left the game with 5 minutes left.... but that was planned. The wife is 8 months pregnant with our first and we didn't want to have to deal with the masses at the end of the game. What I took away from the game yesterday is the defensive scheme. So much more active in presnap, and there is a difference with the way the pursue and hit this year. Just like the Patriots game, even when there isn't a sack or QB hit, the pocket is collapsing.

[RuntheDamnBall]

This was a Fox game.

Which means CBS really screwed up if they were broadcasting it.

[Luxy312]

This game had its positives and negatives. On the positive side of things, the defense played much better against the run this week than they did last. But for his one breakout play, DeAngelo Williams carried the ball 21 times for 64 yards. The defense also played pretty well against the pass. Let's not forget that this team is without Gilmore, Brooks, and Byrd and they still look pretty good. Williams/Williams/Dareus were fantastic in bringing pressure all day, and they made plays when needed on third and longs. This was one of the biggest problems this team had last year, and appears to be remedied. The Bills are even right now in net turnovers. This was also a problem last year. You will lose 95% of games where you turn the ball over 2 more times than your opponent. History doesn't lie that this is the biggest factor to winning games. In that regard, they were lucky to pull this game out. Two deep in your own territory turnovers were only worth 6 points. EJ wasn't trying to force his passes either. Lots of drop off/outlet passes to keep the ball moving down field. Some could say that that's a negative, but I don't think so. As he gets more comfortable, I think he'll start stretching the field a bit more. I wasn't a fan of long drawn out screens to Chandler. Seems pretty pointless getting the ball to a guy that can't break one. I would rather see them try to use Graham in that capacity. After all, they didn't get him to be a possession guy. The Jests should be interesting next week. Two rookie QB's and our first game of the year on the road. Hopefully we can make it count.