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

[Best Player Available]

I am glad I am not the only one that noticed that sending Hughes into coverage was nothing short of insane. We pay this guy to rush the quarterback, not to drop into pass protection. The DL play in the last two games is making me grow increasingly concerned that Rex is forcing talent to fit into his system rather than building the system around his players' talent.

 

And wtf - I don't want to see any Bills jerseys on defense beginning with the number '5' playing like they are safeties. You will get beat each and every time by the WR, particularly when the deflator is throwing the ball. This was an 'exotic' defense for all the wrong reasons.

 

I think this is the first time I have ever seen three penalties called on a single play against a single team.

 

The offensive line needs to shape up, and fast. McCoy had no holes up the middle and in pass protection they were awful. But, when you are a greenhorn quarterback and you score 32 points against NE*, that's not horrible. That's all you can expect out of Taylor. This one falls squarely on the defensive line with their inability to pressure the QB, and the boneheaded penalties we took on nearly every special teams play.

yes, hard to blame that cluster **ck on tyrod alone. 2nd start. IMO,ALL blame goes to REX first and foremost, Roman next. Then the defense? WTF Brady 466 yards in the air? it was painful to watch. The O-line was laughable at times. A lot of times.

Back too defense there were two pass plays that Brady never looked at Gronk, he should have there wasn't a defender within 10 yards of him. there was zero pressure on Brady part of it was his 2 second release. part of it was the D-line/ scheme.

rex's honeymoon is over. he owns a nice truck and still owns a career losing record as a HC. being a personality has benefits, but ya better back them up with W's. I Don't know if this guy has the skill to out coach superbowl caliber teams? Bellicheck owns him. Watching it seemed like Jauron/ Maroon coached teams at times Aside from the opening drive, and the 3 and out by the Pats*** It was a stunning failure.

Maronne did better in the homegame coaching last year against the pats***!!

[BuffaloMatt]

1) I try to keep personalities out of this, but I think that Edelman turns my stomach even more than Brady.

 

2) My prayers go out to Aaron Williams, and it was great to see the team praying for him.

 

3) The special teams coach lost control of his players early on and it really hurt us. That said, Rex deserves blame as well. More on Rex to come.

 

4) I know he gave up some passes, but Darby impressed me today once again. The 36 yard td to Gronk in the 1st quarter was a simply great pass. The coverage was spot on and there seemed to be little chance to complete that throw. It was just perfect.

 

5) Cordy Glenn was beyond awful today and he was pissing me off. He looked out of shape, lethargic and generally indifferent as to what was happening on the field.

 

6) I want to toss out some kudos to Felton. As Tyrod was rolling out on the 2nd quarter td pass to Clay, Felton held off a defender to give TT room and time to make the play.

 

7) How did it happen? How did Rex Ryan suddenly morph into Dick Jauron? Look, we don't have great coverage linebackers. Bradham is a pass rusher (and a good one), and Brown is a top run stuffer. Putting them in the secondary didn't work. And please remind me why we gave Hughes millions of dollars. Never mind, I remember...because he is a pass rusher!!!!! Today Rex reminded me of Dumbo Jauron sending Schobel out on coverage. We had the crowd noise and should have sent the kitchen sink after Brady!

 

8) It all rolls into one,

and nothing comes for free.

There's nothing you can hold,

for very long.

And when you hear that song,

come crying like the wind,

it seems like all this life,

was just a dream.

Stella Blue

 

9) Gotta love Tyrod, no? The kid can truly get out of trouble and he has a nice spin on his passes. He never never quit. I know it's risky but I want to see him on more called running plays. It will loosen up opposing defenses.

 

10) Speaking of out of control, even Bradham got lured in. Edelman got in his face and he shoved the little runt pretty hard. I was waiting for a flag but I suppose the refs didn't see it. We can't have this. We lost too much field position today with unnecessary penalties.

 

11) Percy Harvin has a ton of talent, but in the 3rd quarter he short armed that long sideline pass. Hey, he would have got hammered but he could have caught it and didn't extend his arms. Please watch the replay and see if you disagree.

 

12) Is there any such thing as a perfect opening drive? The Bill mixed things up, beat them up, and ate 5 minutes of the clock.

 

13) Is anyone still concerned about Watkins and his numbers? If this kid stays healthy he will make plays. Period.

 

14) Bottom line is that Rex has to take control and straighten things out. It looks like he has a lot to work with.

 

15) GO BILLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for this post. Spot on. Hopefully we will learn to talk with our play on the field and less with our mouths.

[BuffaninATL]

I think this is a fair point but it's going to stir up trouble around here. Watching Taylor double clutch and drift into sacks today, while missing numerous open reads, left me wondering whether he really gives us the best chance to win right now. EJ might've been a better option today in all honesty.

 

not doubting you Coach, but did you actually see TT miss numerous open reads? I can honestly say I wasn't focused on that.

I loved the comeback but Rex has a lot of work to do with this group.

 

NE's defense sucks. It is bad and to get 40+ put up on our D is inexcusable.

 

However, I don't want to win this one. I want the one in November when we are vying for the division.

 

Don't get too high or too low. Bring on the Fish.

 

a voice of reason, well-done !

[SoulMan]

 

 

Rex can coach a veteran team but can he coach a younger one? The lack of leadership in the locker room showed today. Cutting a guy like Fred hurts you on days like today - no one else has stepped up to provide leadership and it results in escalating undisciplined play.

Yep !

[ganesh]

Rex completely outsmarted himself on defense today I am afraid. His need to disguise everything rather than just matching up is suicide against a team that relies on exploiting match ups. We spent all week talking about a plan to contain Gronk and the plan basically seemed to come down to "confuse Brady" when that didn't work and he was able to get the ball out he just picked on some frankly bizarre match ups.

 

People criticised Schwartz last year in the first Patriots game for being too vanilla and relying on our talent to trouble the Pats.... well today Rex nullified our talent and put all the pressure on his scheme and it failed miserably. Tom Brady and Bill Belichick were cleverer than him. At different points today I saw Hughes, Bradham and Robey on Gronk. All good players, all do good things, but none are going to win that match up 1v1. Suicide. Rex's defense sucked today.

 

The penalties then were an obvious failure, as was the offensive game plan which after the scripted plays seemed to be pot luck.

 

The positives?

 

- we kept fighting

- McCoy looked good

- we don't have to play Brady every week.

+1

[BillnutinHouston]

Brady reads the defense and gets the ball out so fast that the D-Line has no impact. The Bills either need to play press coverage at the line of scrimmage or rush everyone. Sitting back and watching Brady carve them up all day with 10 yards outs to wide open receivers is nauseating.

This. This is it in a nutshell.

[Ralonzo]

1) I try to keep personalities out of this, but I think that Edelman turns my stomach even more than Brady.

 

It's the difference between Massengill and Summer's Eve.

[BuffaninATL]

seems to me that the Pats recipe for dominance has one common denominator: Belli's ability to adjust in-game and make the necessary changes. I could not believe how fast this happened after the Bills opening drive TD, which seemed to be done with surgical precision. Everything was working; I was thinking to myself, "this is too easy". Then the Pats made their adjustments and the Bills decided to lose their minds led by AW.

 

So after a 1st half of not blitzing and trusting the Bills 4 man rush to make it happen, do you think it would have made sense to blitz from all angles? It seemed to me that this was a Bills defensive game plan redux, which relied on soft coverage, playing off the line, & allowing the short passes underneath. Was it not apparent to Rex & Dennis this was not working? Why did we not mix things up and make the necessary halftime adjustments? Or is Rex not a good game-day coach?

 

Other observations:

 

• we all agreed upon learning TT would be the starter that he would be a work in progress. Today was no different; a mixed bag. The onus is on GRo to put TT in positions to succeed and maximize his talents/instincts.
• while it's true Rex seems to be a good fit with our cultural ethos, it was nowhere more evident that today's complete lack of discipline & self-control: a team truly as a reflection of its HC. After the game. Rex took ownership of the loss and put it squarely on his shoulders; this will mean nothing to me unless I see a demonstrable reduction in penalties, esp. the stupid, avoidable ones
• Rex's predilection for disguising everything left some horrendous resulting mismatches. This might work vs. less potent offenses but obviously Brady is a master at identifying these. News flash Rex: it might be better to let our D talent perform in its natural state as opposed to your version of trickeration;
• I have never seen 3 penalties called on 1 team on a ST play, and I hope I never see it again. It was embarrassing and looked very Pop Warner-like.
• Leave it to the hubris of the Pats to keep throwing while up 37-13, which almost came back to bite them
• There is an obvious opportunity for a Bills vet to assume more of a leadership role in the absence of FedEX. That leadership could have come in handy today as the Bills were self-imploding
• Another missed PAT by Carp; will he be put on notice again by Rex and/or have to fight for his job?

[Nihilarian]

There was quite a bit of fail all over the Bills team today.

 

Coaching was bad in so many ways with lame play calls on both sides of the ball. It was like Rex Ryan played scared to blitz or even send his front four, and the penalties are now past the ridiculous point all over the team. Bills OC Greg Roman started asking Taylor to air out the ball in the second series, and forgot about the ground, and pound attack. McCoy had 15 rushes for 89 yards = a 5.9 YPC avg. So why didn't the Bills get him 25 plus carries?

 

The Patriots with 500+ yards of offense, and Brady with 59 passes 466 yards passing, 3 TD's!! Wow, so much for the #4 overall defense from last year.

 

This years slogan was "Feel the rush"! Was that feel the rush of Julian Edleman catching first downs, TD passes or the rush of Patriots defenders blowing by the Bills offensive linemen?

 

A lot of us knew the Bills might be in trouble with a QB like Tyrod once the team started playing from behind. Now I gotta wonder if the Patriots started playing it safe after the 3rd quarter, and their defense stopped what they were doing in the first 3 quarters thus allowing the Bills to make that 18 point comeback. Did the Patriots move to a prevent type defense late in the game?

 

8 sacks is way to many and not all were on the O line as Taylor held the ball far to long waiting for someone to come open. By the time he decided to run it was usually to late, and he should have thrown it away. Then the few airballs didn't help. Sammy is good but he shouldn't* need to jump five feet above the ground to try and catch a pass, some were saying that EJ was leaving his receivers vulnerable.

 

The Bills have 4 guys on that defensive on their line that are making 250 million between them, and today were out played by a Patriot offensive line with three rookies on it.

Edited September 21, 2015 by Nihilarian

[Prickly Pete]

Anyone know where to find a graph, or some kind of charting, of every play of each drive? I think the penalties were the single biggest factor in the game. They killed drives, ruined field position, and set the team reeling emotionally. They have to get that under control.

Edited September 21, 2015 by HoF Watkins

[truth on hold]

Vick got sacked a ton too. Avoiding a sack is about the line and getting rid of the ball. Not about speed.

Peyton is the biggest statue in history and consistently posts the lowest sack totals. As with Brady it's about pre-snap reads, recognizing blitz's, seeing the entire field, sensing where the pressure is coming from, and a quick and accurate release that makes the defense pay for blitzing Edited September 21, 2015 by JTSP

[Bad Things]

Ugh, what a game.

 

• Although the final score didn't really show it... the Bills were soundly beaten.
• Our offense line was a total mess today. Barely any time to throw and very few running lanes.
• Surprisingly, the defensive live was also a big mess today. They generated barely any pressure on Brady and the tackle was sub-par. VERY disappointing.
• Gilmore has shown flashes but is way overrated. Shut down corner? Not yet.
• The penalties just killed this game. (Not only killed it for the play on the field, but was made it bad to watch.)
• I still have a lot of faith in TT. The man has a good head and a helluva lot of skill.
• Very poor play calling after our opening score.
• It was good to see McCoy and Watkins have decent games.
• Squish the fish!!

 

Let's go Buffalo!!

Edited September 21, 2015 by Bad Things

[boyst]

Just getting in. Tremendous dy sans Bills.

 

Carpenter's !@#$ up gonna get him cut tomorrow. Me thinks

[stevewin]

Just getting in. Tremendous dy sans Bills.

Carpenter's !@#$ up gonna get him cut tomorrow. Me thinks

Rex trying to make carp a scapegoat will not be a good look, esp when so many others including him ( by his own admission) had a lot to do with losing the game Edited September 21, 2015 by stevewin

[ExWNYer]

Just getting in. Tremendous dy sans Bills.

 

Carpenter's !@#$ up gonna get him cut tomorrow. Me thinks

 

 

Rex trying to make carp a scapegoat will not be a good look, esp when so many others including him ( by his own admission) had a lot to do with losing the game

 

I doubt it. Rex actually stuck up for Carpenter in the post-game presser and said the miss was because of a bad spot on the snap and not Carpenter's fault.

[Peter]

 

 

 

I doubt it. Rex actually stuck up for Carpenter in the post-game presser and said the miss was because of a bad spot on the snap and not Carpenter's fault.

This.

[Agent 91]

Because he got out of trouble at least 8 times. OL looked lost.

He did too

[Webster Guy]

Rex can coach a veteran team but can he coach a younger one? The lack of leadership in the locker room showed today. Cutting a guy like Fred hurts you on days like today - no one else has stepped up to provide leadership and it results in escalating undisciplined play.

 

I dont think Fred would have seen the field much at all today if we had kept him. McCoy and Karlos are the entrenched 1 and 2. Felt bad for Freddy losing the fumble to end the game, but Seattle wasn't going to win it anyway.

[Formerly Allan in MD]

An out of control truck moving at high speed has up ramps to stop it on super highways. An out of control football team is supposed to have a coaching staff that makes adjustments to stop it. Dumb penalties game after game can cost you a season. We're certainly working on it and could use a good dose of coaching, understanding, and executing before we completely fly off the ramp.

[Bill from NYC]

Maybe not but he could have pulled Taylor's numbers today.

What makes you think that?