Fake-Fat Sunny Posted July 5, 2005 Share Posted July 5, 2005 Its been fun for counting downs the days until the start of pre-season camp even in these dog days of summer which are really the football calm before the party (football is really too trivial to call it a storm). At any rate, I have been thinking about what is it that the Bills have to do (besides get lucky which is the key to any championship really happening) to win it all. Some folks get focused on a particular player which is exactly whatthe NFL wants because start power and celebrity sell tickets so they encourage folks to focus on one or so players as though any one player (be it Elway, Kelly or Brady) us the reason a team wins (the individual is not, the TEAM is). However, in my ramblings I think a good way to think about this is to divide things up into the 3 tams, D, ST and O. This is my sense of the 3 major challenges and I will also bow to the NFL and give my sense of a critical player to watch (watch not because he is responsible for it working or not but because how he performs will determine how much his teammates have to do to build on or make-up for his play. D- I think that D wins and losses games unlike ever before in the NFL and from the 85 Bears to the 02 Ravens these teams have shown that a great D can carry a middlin to not-so-good O. The najor challenge for the Bills will be to build on a performance which saw this squad finish 2nd in the league statistically after finishing in the top 5 the year before. This team needs to at least keep up that level of performance and actually will only be great if it is ruly the #1 D in the league and becomes a force. I actually doubt this will happen nut it can with the team returning 10 of 11 starters. The really good news is that for the missing guy, Phat Pat (a good player but getting up there in age), they have reasonable plan B (Edwards) and a plan C (Anderson) to replace him but all of this will be on a plan A that the run blitz scheme is the reason why Phat Pat was the DT on less than 60% of the D snaps last year and will provide a base from which we should not miss a beat regardless of wteps up betweem Edwards and Anderson. It also bodes well that our game against the pass was quite strong last year despite the fact that our secondary was hit with major injuries leading to significant lost PT for Vincent and Milloy. Both these players are back and recovered to be productive at the end of last season so I think the prospects are good unless we get some really bad injury breaks. If one or more players improves to have a year like the improvement Bryce Paup had in his best year for the Bills, this D could be outstanding and there are several players of the proper age, dempgaphics. room to imporve and/or contract status to be that player. Watch: DL- The Bills would improve with a solid pass rusher and Kelsay has shown the talent that there may be more there in his 3rd year. LB- Posey gets a lot of grief because he is not as good as Spikes or Fletcher. However, he is a player entering his prime who had a very good year for Texas that attracted our attention and despite our whining as fans has never been a victim of big plays and he has just done his job though he has not repeated his Texas 3-4 performance. This may be the year that Posey steps it up to his old performance and if so watch out. DB- Clements is in his contract year and has the potential to go over the top to be the shut down big play corner we desire. Jerry Gray and his coordination of this bumch of talented players is going to be a key. ST- Last year was really quite phenomenal and amazingly for us it was the return unit where <cGee. Clements and even Fast Freddy Smith were all threats to put up 6 on any kick which led the way. Add to that the coverage unit not giving up any TDs or even long returns, the occaisional extraordinary effort like the block and TD of Jason Peters and the phenomenal punting of Moorman (its hard to imagine him not deserving the Pro Bowl) and the bad news for me is that it is unreasonable to expect the same production. Yet, along with this, the PK game and Lindell can clearly do better because the place-kincking game was not a threat at all (Lindell did a couple of nice onside kicks). Add to that the addition of Roscoe Parrish and the resume of Rashard Lee and there is even more return talent on this team. I do not expect our production to get better (it would seem that merely through dumb luck we will have a long return against us or not chalk up as many KO TDs). However, there is a chance that this #1 ST may be even better this year. Watch: We seemed to have cast our lot with Ryan Lindell. He has not had the production we wanted, but all he needs to do is be adequate and produce at the level he already has accomplished in Seattle and if the ST does not take a step back (and it does have a faie chance at being better) this could be the key to our season and many Ws). O- The O finished statistically among the worst in the NFL and the good news is that it will be near impossible for it to do worse. The key to doing better to me is to take it easy and try to be more like the SB Ravens than the SB Pats. JP will not make as good a choices as the vet Brady does now so why demand that he do that. This team needs to run on first down (only varying it so opopnents do not sit on the run) and then virtually regardless of the success of that first run run again on 2nd down. I don't care if JP turns out to be a winner of games because I think the key to us winning is for him no to make mistakes and lose games. Watch: WM will be obviously key but it is Tom Clements putting out players into the best position for them to make plays that strikes me as the key. One certainly needs to noe JMac and the OL due to the uncertainty there as a key to watch. Gandy's development will mean a lot because though Teague is a reasonable plan B for him, if we go to Teague the chain reaction so impacts the OL it simply will be waiting an praying as a fan that sets the course. Perhaps, this is the way MM wanted it, but Gray, April and TCs are the Bills who need to most do their jobs to get us a shot at the playoffs and thus at a ring even though it is incredibly unlikely to end up that way. The journey to whatever happens will be interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drnykterstein Posted July 5, 2005 Share Posted July 5, 2005 not to complain, but maybe using MS Word to write these things up would help you. sometimes i write my posts in word just to make sure my grammar is ok. ok i'll (try) to continue reading Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fake-Fat Sunny Posted July 5, 2005 Author Share Posted July 5, 2005 not to complain, but maybe using MS Word to write these things up would help you. sometimes i write my posts in word just to make sure my grammar is ok. ok i'll (try) to continue reading 374955[/snapback] My apologies, the concession I make to myself to compensate in my overinvestment in the Bills and TSW is simply spout my flows of unconciousness without taking the extra time from my work to proofread. However, it probably adds little time to write them in Word (or WodPerfect which I still use) which automagically correst misspellings and simply paste in the results. We'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drnykterstein Posted July 5, 2005 Share Posted July 5, 2005 My apologies, the concession I make to myself to compensate in my overinvestment in the Bills and TSW is simply spout my flows of unconciousness without taking the extra time from my work to proofread. However, it probably adds little time to write them in Word (or WodPerfect which I still use) which automagically correst misspellings and simply paste in the results. We'll see. 374995[/snapback] Oh the troubles of being Fake-Fat Sunny, your pain is a unique one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chalkie Gerzowski Posted July 5, 2005 Share Posted July 5, 2005 Oh the troubles of being Fake-Fat Sunny, your pain is a unique one. 375076[/snapback] Tibbs, would you be so kind as to pull the Bentley round...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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