8 years ago today

[Captain Caveman]

https://www.upi.com/Sports_News/2014/09/14/Bills-blast-Dolphins-in-home-opener/3011410726366/

 

We thumped in the Dolphins in the first game after the agreement was reached for the Pegulas to buy the team.  I bought tickets last minute and flew in from NJ for the game (I think I sat with Beerball?)

 

https://www.democratandchronicle.com/picture-gallery/sports/football/nfl/bills/2014/09/14/week-2-buffalo-bills-29-miami-dolphins-10/15626805/

 

Edited September 14, 2022 by Captain Caveman

[Rampage]

Kyle Williams….what a stud.

[GunnerBill]

Remember it well. That 2-0 start under Marrone in 2014 where we won in Chicago the weekend the deal was announced and then squished the fish a week later. I really, really thought that was going to be the year the broke the drought. Oh well. It was worth waiting the extra 3 years. 

[Royale with Cheese]

15 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

Remember it well. That 2-0 start under Marrone in 2014 where we won in Chicago the weekend the deal was announced and then squished the fish a week later. I really, really thought that was going to be the year the broke the drought. Oh well. It was worth waiting the extra 3 years. 

 

I remember one play in particular.  EJ Manuel hit Mike Williams over the middle for a first down.  He floated it for whatever reason and it prevented Williams from being able to catch and run to get some YAC.  Yeah we got the first down but I never understood why he floated it.  Williams had the whole middle of the field open....

[Charles Romes]

The saint was easy to pick on, but the 2014 coaching performance that he put on with Hackett in retrospect may be the most underrated in team history. Recognizing correctly in camp that they were going nowhere with a QB forced on them by the GM, recruiting Orton right off the couch with a week to go before the season, and getting him playable. The unforgivable sin was losing by 2 on a cross country road trip to an improving raiders team with Carr and Mack on the roster. 

[Cash]

Ah, Saint Doug!  Fond memories.  We put on a real clinic in poor leadership during those years.  Some highlights from memory:

• EJ Manuel probably shouldn't have been a first-rounder, but St. Doug did him no favors.  (Stark contrast to the current regime's handling & development of Josh Allen.)  One example: I remember reading a breakdown of our 1st down run/pass % with EJ vs. with Orton.  With EJ, we were running something like 80% of the time on first down, whereas with Orton it was closer to 50/50.  There's a mountain of data suggesting that 1st and 10 is one of the best times to pass and lowest risk for a QB.  God forbid we get the young guy some easy 5 yard completions on 1st down to build his confidence and set up manageable 3rd downs.
• When Marrone (an SU alum) was hired at Syracuse, he proclaimed it his "dream job".  As an SU fan, I was excited!  I figured that if he makes it, we'll have our football version of Jim Boeheim.  Whoops!  Turns out his dream was to work there for a few years, then get hired by the Bills.  At his intro press conference, Marrone even had the audacity to declare that coaching the Bills was his "dream job".  Marrone is a man of many dreams.
• Also at his intro press conference, Marrone made a big deal of saying he needed to hire experienced coordinators.  That worked out fine on the defensive side, but didn't really line up with bringing his henchman Nate Hackett over from SU.  Hackett only had something like 2 years of coordinator experience at the time, and only at the college level.  And SU's offense was more sturdy than worldbeating - it's not like Hackett was a hot commodity at the time.
• Hackett's performance as a HC may change my mind on this.  But for now, I still think that the offense might have been okay if Marrone had left Hackett alone.  For example, in our first(?) preseason game under Marrone/Hackett, our O looked great.  Bill Barnwell wrote an article breaking down our offense, and raved about a few of the innovative play designs.  Did we run any of those plays ever again?  Nope.  Did we show any of that creativity or innovation in the regular season?  Nope.  We pretty much went with a bad run up the gut on first down, then a bad play on second down, then 4 verts on third down.  Seriously, I think we called 4 verticals at least half of our pass plays.
• And finally, the infamous New Year's Eve opt-out.  Marrone had a clause in his contract allowing him to opt out if ownership changed, and still collect his $4 million salary for the following year.  (He had a good agent apparently!)  The deadline was Dec 31, and the announcement came that night.  I remember seeing the news while out at the bar.  I announced it to my friend (also a Bills fan), and we both just shrugged and said ok.  I hadn't been actively rooting for Marrone to opt out, but I didn't feel an iota of upset when the news broke.  It worked out great for us!  It didn't work quite as well for Saint Doug, though.  I think Marrone thought he'd be a hot commodity on the coaching market - his agent kept planting stories alleging that the Jets would snap him up.  Instead, Marrone had to settle for being O-line coach of the Jaguars.  No word on whether that qualified as Marrone's "dream job" or not.

[mushypeaches]

Yep, that squad had enough horses to be a playoff team once we put EJ Manuel on the bench'

 

That road loss to a putrid Raiders team was definitely one low point

 

I think I felt worse when I was at the KC game and sitting in that end zone when Bryce Freaking Brown fumbled through the end zone and then Alex Smith bootlegging a fourth down TD when all 11 guys didn't realize that the QB could actually keep the ball

 

Rant over.  2014 was a mirage

[Low Positive]

It's so weird because i was just going through this season on Pro Football Reference. I remember the Fred Jackson stiff arm in week 1 and that Dolphins game. I also remember that Leodis McKelvin muffed punt in the KC game after the bye week. What I didn't remember was that Raiders' game. When I looked at the boxscore, what stood out to me was that the BIlls were favored by 6.5 on the road. 

3 minutes ago, mushypeaches said:

Yep, that squad had enough horses to be a playoff team once we put EJ Manuel on the bench'

 

That road loss to a putrid Raiders team was definitely one low point

 

I think I felt worse when I was at the KC game and sitting in that end zone when Bryce Freaking Brown fumbled through the end zone and then Alex Smith bootlegging a fourth down TD when all 11 guys didn't realize that the QB could actually keep the ball

 

Rant over.  2014 was a mirage

All I remember is the McKelvin muffed punt. 

[wppete]

1 hour ago, Rampage said:

Kyle Williams….what a stud.

Stud

[uninja]

4 minutes ago, FrenchConnection said:

It's so weird because i was just going through this season on Pro Football Reference. I remember the Fred Jackson stiff arm in week 1 and that Dolphins game. I also remember that Leodis McKelvin muffed punt in the KC game after the bye week. What I didn't remember was that Raiders' game. When I looked at the boxscore, what stood out to me was that the BIlls were favored by 6.5 on the road. 

 

I remember being so excited because that Raiders squad stunk and we had just completely shut down A-a-ron in Orchard Park the week before. A wildcard spot looked so tantalizingly close and was extremely likely if we beat the Raiders.

 

Narrator: They did not beat the Raiders.

[BuffaloBill]

1 hour ago, Captain Caveman said:

https://www.upi.com/Sports_News/2014/09/14/Bills-blast-Dolphins-in-home-opener/3011410726366/

 

We thumped in the Dolphins in the first game after the agreement was reached for the Pegulas to buy the team.  I bought tickets last minute and flew in from NJ for the game (I think I sat with Beerball?)

 

https://www.democratandchronicle.com/picture-gallery/sports/football/nfl/bills/2014/09/14/week-2-buffalo-bills-29-miami-dolphins-10/15626805/

 

 

 

Sorry you had to sit with @Beerball - it must have ruined an otherwise spectacular day. 

 

It’s hard to believe that was 8 years ago.  

[Beerball]

2 hours ago, Captain Caveman said:

https://www.upi.com/Sports_News/2014/09/14/Bills-blast-Dolphins-in-home-opener/3011410726366/

 

We thumped in the Dolphins in the first game after the agreement was reached for the Pegulas to buy the team.  I bought tickets last minute and flew in from NJ for the game (I think I sat with Beerball?)

 

https://www.democratandchronicle.com/picture-gallery/sports/football/nfl/bills/2014/09/14/week-2-buffalo-bills-29-miami-dolphins-10/15626805/

 

👍

27 minutes ago, BuffaloBill said:

 

 

Sorry you had to sit with @Beerball - it must have ruined an otherwise spectacular day. 

🤫

[Beast]

2 hours ago, Charles Romes said:

The saint was easy to pick on, but the 2014 coaching performance that he put on with Hackett in retrospect may be the most underrated in team history. Recognizing correctly in camp that they were going nowhere with a QB forced on them by the GM, recruiting Orton right off the couch with a week to go before the season, and getting him playable. The unforgivable sin was losing by 2 on a cross country road trip to an improving raiders team with Carr and Mack on the roster. 

 

No, it really wasn't.

 

Doug Marrone sucked as a football coach. His whole entire time here.

[Dat]

Obviously