Preseason is Meaningless, History Shows

[Unforgiven]

24 minutes ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

Agreed some fans get wigged out about bad play in the preseason, and its understandable to a point. But as it was stated by another poster Pittsburgh game planned for this game and I think in part because of the whooping we put on them last year.  The OL wasn't as bad as some made it out to be and the only 2 concerns I had was Josh not seeing a wide open Diggs again and the penalties.  I believe this will be shored up and much better by the opener. 

I'm wigged out over barely beating miami and get punched out by the bengals.

[GunnerBill]

Of course I agree, pre-season doesn't really matter. But worth reflecting during the period we have been contenders under this regime we had won 11 of our last 12 pre-season games. 

 

So a blow out like that is cause for people to just take pause on where we are at. Because penalty laden, sloppy perfomances have not been the pre-season norm here.

[theRalph]

16 minutes ago, Herb Nightly said:

Funny how Greg Cosell just told this story on OneBills Live

That was me...not Cosell. I was on right after.

[ngbills]

You look at the pieces of preseason games not the results. Who cares if your team wins, but you want your starters to look good in the few drives they have. You want the rookie to impress you. The battle for a position watch. You dont want dumb mistakes. A rookie to look lost. The new player not looking like an upgrade. A player returning from an injury looking slow. 

Dalton Kincaid has looked the part. So has Torrence.

The false starts and penalties are concerning. The lack of preparation as well.

Gabe Davis looks healthy. 

Cook does not look ready to carry the load. At least we have a decent RB room.

Our new WR additions have not stood out. Harty and Sherfield have a few plays here and there but expected more. 

OL troubles have become more alarming than eased. 

We have a lot of capable guys on DL. 

MLB is a huge concern. Especially when our DB's look slow. 

The special teams game has not be stellar. 

And so forth. Scores dont matter, but that stuff does. 

[FilthyBeast]

I think most people understand that you can't get too high or low of a preseason game, but the valid concerns I would have are as follows:

 

1) It still seems like this team has an attitude/arrogance that they can simply put it altogether when they need to even though that's been proven false, in a big way last year in the playoffs. If you have accomplished what the Chiefs have it's one thing to not take preseason seriously are put out a performance like that.

2) This team was fundamentally bad across the board on Saturday, both offense and defense, starters and backups. This is a reflection of coaching no matter what way you spin it and it's apparent this team is obviously running soft mickey mouse practices if anything to avoid injuries.

3) All the holes on the roster that critics have identified were on full display in the worst possibly way (MLB, RT, backup QB, etc). This if anything is the big takeaway everyone should be honing in on because it does matter what we are seeing in preseason against other legit NFL players.

 

With that said, everyone should not be ready to jump off the ledge yet until this team starts playing games that actually count and still plenty of time to right the ship (and hopefully find adequate veteran help at certain positions).

[SoonerBillsFan]

6 minutes ago, Unforgiven said:

I'm wigged out over barely beating miami and get punched out by the bengals.

That was regular season after this team went through possibly the toughtest season mentally that a team has ever faced. The playoff result wasn't unexpected to me.

[ngbills]

3 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

Of course I agree, pre-season doesn't really matter. But worth reflecting during the period we have been contenders under this regime we had won 11 of our last 12 pre-season games. 

 

So a blow out like that is cause for people to just take pause on where we are at. Because penalty laden, sloppy perfomances have not been the pre-season norm here.

Worse preseason performance in quite a number of years. And game 2 is when starters play the most so you expect some solid play. Last year it was the 42-15 win vs DEN when Josh led a 70 yd TD drive and was done. Bills led 28-6 at half with TD's on all 4 drives. 

[Airseven]

The game was meaningful. Not to draw conclusions in isolation, but in the sense it added to the greater story. It was yet another example justifying ongoing concerns about, for example, OL, MLB, and Elam. That’s where the frustration comes from.

[dorquemada]

It's the malaise that's frustrating.  We have to trust that they'll be sharp on opening night but it's a coin flip with this crew, which is 100% coaching. 

[Buffalo_Stampede]

I just noticed the Bills had 10 players on offense to start the preseason game vs Pittsburgh. That should tell you everything about the Bills preparedness for the game.

[ColoradoBills]

2 minutes ago, dorquemada said:

It's the malaise that's frustrating.  We have to trust that they'll be sharp on opening night but it's a coin flip with this crew, which is 100% coaching. 

 

McDermott really needs to "coach" these vets about false starts, Offside and grabbing jerseys are against the rules.

It's really puzzling that none of the peewee, high school and college coaches went over that with them.

 

Maybe the coaches should implement daily "suicide sprints" for anyone flagged from the previous week.  Worked for me in freshman basketball.

LOL.

[BillsfaninSB]

[ddaryl]

I think the preseason with starters just showed that we need a lot of work before the season.

Without preseason do they even realize they need a wakeup call ?

 

Preseason don't count but how can the team actually realize what is working and what is not without some action against someone else besides the same ol same ol every practice.

Preseason serves a very important purpose IMO

 

[dorquemada]

13 minutes ago, ColoradoBills said:

 

McDermott really needs to "coach" these vets about false starts, Offside and grabbing jerseys are against the rules.

It's really puzzling that none of the peewee, high school and college coaches went over that with them.

 

Maybe the coaches should implement daily "suicide sprints" for anyone flagged from the previous week.  Worked for me in freshman basketball.

LOL.

 

You're so close to getting the point

 

Obviously certain players aren't worried about getting penalized over and over again.  Maybe some of those same players would benefit from a few days of suicide sprints.

 

[SoonerBillsFan]

39 minutes ago, ColoradoBills said:

 

McDermott really needs to "coach" these vets about false starts, Offside and grabbing jerseys are against the rules.

It's really puzzling that none of the peewee, high school and college coaches went over that with them.

 

Maybe the coaches should implement daily "suicide sprints" for anyone flagged from the previous week.  Worked for me in freshman basketball.

LOL.

I have to believe the Vets would just laugh at Sean and say nope. Then call the NFLPA and report him. THEN we get to see what a national media crap storm against the Organization looks like.

[jwhit34]

The 1990 Bills went 0-4 in the preseason. We all know what happened that year...

 

Maybe we should check to see how Norwood kicked in the preseason.

 

 

[That's No Moon]

5 hours ago, Doc Brown said:

The main reason people are freaking out is all the concerns we had going into the season proved true on Saturday.  MLB and RT are a huge liability.  Dawkins play may be slipping and our defense looked old and slow on that long run play.

But I'm told the fans don't know anything and the front office always knows best.

[Eastport bills]

This is a characteristic of this message board that is contradictory to the incredibly loyal fan base we have. There is a smoldering undercurrent of negativity waiting to swoop down on the smallest crack in what has been a great run albeit lacking a ring. I noticed a disorganized and undisciplined performance by our O -line and missed tackles by our defense, but isn’t that to be expected early in the preseason? I don’t believe there’s a carryover from the Bengals game. It’s a new season. You have to believe these coaches will get these guys ready for the Jets. They’ve been money in the regular season for the last several years.