KOKBILLS Posted September 12, 2004 Posted September 12, 2004 Heres why 1) Our D is every bit as good as last year. 2) We capatalized on turnovers (coundt do it last year) 3) Drew, at least in this game, is a new QB. The ball was out quick, accurate, only 1 sack. Very effecient and productive. 4) our O-line opened holes for a productive running game and played VERY well against a STRONG d-line 5) We ran more than we threw, even against a top run D 6) We showed good play calling and clock management 7) Our DB's looked good, Reese and Clements with INTS 8) Good game management with Mularkey punting rather than going for a long, and probable miss FG. 9) Mularkey showed what I wanted to see, good playcalling, good game day management. 10) DB's up on the line jamming receivers 11) Vincent hits BETTER than Winfield and looks better overall as far as i am concerned 12) Moulds is back, got open, and I believe will do it all year! Now for the bad: 1) I would have every single receiver spend monday through wednesday at the jug machine. Whats up with all the dropsy's? 2) Crucial holding penalty on Villarial may have cost us the game! 3) 4th down twice and we blow our coverage to lose the game. 4) McGahee is good but he is absolutely NOT as good as Henry at this point 5) Good teams put games away in our position today. All in all, I am pissed at the loss but I cannot point directly at any serious problem in the staff or players. I think this was a game that was played like a playoff game, could have gone either way, and we just plain lost. It EASILY could have been the other way. I refuse to say its the same old Bills, thats irresponsible, anyone who looks at the whole picture sees lots and lots of differences from last years team and lots and lost better. If feel Mularkey deserves ZERO blame for this and if anything deserves a pat on the back for being MUCH MUCH better than what we had last year. Yes, a win is a win and a loss is a loss. BUT, I now KNOW this team is headed in a great direction and finally has the coaching they need to win it all. I saw great things today, which gives me great hope for this year. I just wish we could have had a win, but with THIS team and with THIS staff they will come!!! Go Bills!!!! 27607[/snapback] I don't know...Don't get me wrong, I hope you're right...but... At the risk of oversimplifying what we all witnessed today, the Bills lost a Home Game because they only scored 10 Points. Sound just a little familiar? Missed FG, turnovers, one big drive let up by the Defense, a key holding penalty, etc., etc. Still, sure looks a lot like the Games that led to a 6-10 Season last year. I just don't see how we can take much positive out of what we saw today. Yes the Defense is good, but when it really counted they get beat by 2 jump balls. The D was Ranked #2 Overall in the NFL in 2003, and we still finished 6-10...Yes J-Ville has a good Defense, but this year we scored 10 points at home vs. J-Ville, last year we scored 38 on the Road...What I saw today was proof positive that, for whatever reason, the Bills have a poor mix on Offense and I just don't see how that has changed much. Yes the Coaching philosopy is different, and hopefully much better. But we still turned the Ball over on a Backwards Pass vs. a Defense everyone knows is pretty fast and swarming. Not exactly what I call smash mouth football...Like last year we turn the Ball over too much. Sure it's not Bledsoe getting Sacked, fumbling, or throwing an INT this time, but it's turnovers nonetheless...I don't know, maybe it's just the hangover from a tough loss, but it still looked too much like 2003 to me... I mean, look at it this way, if the Bills were determined to play Smash Mouth Football under MM, and you knew they were going to take an Offensive Player in the 1st Round of the Draft, is it possible that OG Shawn Andrews should have been that player instead of WR Lee Evans. Nothing against Evans, I hope he's the next great Bills WR, but he's not exactly going to help push the Ball in the End Zone on 1st and Goal from the 3...Like I said, it still seems like a bad mix of Talent vs. scheme... I hope I'm wrong and this was still just rust from implementing a new Offensive system, but I have my doubts. My gut tells me this is an Offensive system that is absolutely screaming for a QB who can make plays with his feet. Nothing against Drew, because he did exactly what was expected of him today, and he did play well enough to win. But remember, Drew himself said if the Bills just wanted him to hand the Ball off and throw short passes, why did they bring him here in the 1st place? There is a reason he stated that, and the reason is, it's just not his Game. And Drew knows it better than anyone. To his credit he's done what has been asked of him, and I commend him for it. But this Offense simply does not have the talent on the O-Line to dominate a Game, and when that is the case a QB who can make Plays with his feet either Running or buying time so a Receiver can get open is seemingly essential. I don't want it to sound like I'm blaming DB, because for once I'm definitely not. I'm just saying I have doubts that the Bills have the mix of talent to play any style of Offense well for an extended period of time. And I believe that makes the Playoffs a pipe dream... Like I've said a million times over the last year or so...I hope I'm wrong...
KOKBILLS Posted September 12, 2004 Posted September 12, 2004 You can't win in this league by scoring 10 points. 27804[/snapback] Insert sound of nail being hit squarely on the head...
Spiderweb Posted September 12, 2004 Posted September 12, 2004 I don't know...Don't get me wrong, I hope you're right...but... At the risk of oversimplifying what we all witnessed today, the Bills lost a Home Game because they only scored 10 Points. Sound just a little familiar? Missed FG, turnovers, one big drive let up by the Defense, a key holding penalty, etc., etc. Still, sure looks a lot like the Games that led to a 6-10 Season last year. I just don't see how we can take much positive out of what we saw today. Yes the Defense is good, but when it really counted they get beat by 2 jump balls. The D was Ranked #2 Overall in the NFL in 2003, and we still finished 6-10...Yes J-Ville has a good Defense, but this year we scored 10 points at home vs. J-Ville, last year we scored 38 on the Road...What I saw today was proof positive that, for whatever reason, the Bills have a poor mix on Offense and I just don't see how that has changed much. Yes the Coaching philosopy is different, and hopefully much better. But we still turned the Ball over on a Backwards Pass vs. a Defense everyone knows is pretty fast and swarming. Not exactly what I call smash mouth football...Like last year we turn the Ball over too much. Sure it's not Bledsoe getting Sacked, fumbling, or throwing an INT this time, but it's turnovers nonetheless...I don't know, maybe it's just the hangover from a tough loss, but it still looked too much like 2003 to me... I mean, look at it this way, if the Bills were determined to play Smash Mouth Football under MM, and you knew they were going to take an Offensive Player in the 1st Round of the Draft, is it possible that OG Shawn Andrews should have been that player instead of WR Lee Evans. Nothing against Evans, I hope he's the next great Bills WR, but he's not exactly going to help push the Ball in the End Zone on 1st and Goal from the 3...Like I said, it still seems like a bad mix of Talent vs. scheme... I hope I'm wrong and this was still just rust from implementing a new Offensive system, but I have my doubts. My gut tells me this is an Offensive system that is absolutely screaming for a QB who can make plays with his feet. Nothing against Drew, because he did exactly what was expected of him today, and he did play well enough to win. But remember, Drew himself said if the Bills just wanted him to hand the Ball off and throw short passes, why did they bring him here in the 1st place? There is a reason he stated that, and the reason is, it's just not his Game. And Drew knows it better than anyone. To his credit he's done what has been asked of him, and I commend him for it. But this Offense simply does not have the talent on the O-Line to dominate a Game, and when that is the case a QB who can make Plays with his feet either Running or buying time so a Receiver can get open is seemingly essential. I don't want it to sound like I'm blaming DB, because for once I'm definitely not. I'm just saying I have doubts that the Bills have the mix of talent to play any style of Offense well for an extended period of time. And I believe that makes the Playoffs a pipe dream... Like I've said a million times over the last year or so...I hope I'm wrong... 27869[/snapback] I like seeing some balance brought to Bledsoe's game, but I agree that if you're not gonna take your shots downfield, then Bledsoe is underutilized and becomes irrelevent.
KOKBILLS Posted September 12, 2004 Posted September 12, 2004 I like seeing some balance brought to Bledsoe's game, but I agree that if you're not gonna take your shots downfield, then Bledsoe is underutilized and becomes irrelevent. 27922[/snapback] That's all I'm saying, and I don't want to make this into a Bledsoe Bashing deal because Drew has done exactly what has been asked of him. What has to be questioned (I believe) is how exactly do you change an entire Offensive Coaching Staff and philosopy yet still only score 10 points in your Home Opener? Nevermind that the Offensive system you ran out of town scored 38 points vs. the same Team on the Road last Season... It's still a bad mix...It was a worse mix last year, but it's still a bad mix today...
MattyT Posted September 12, 2004 Posted September 12, 2004 I can't agree that the playcalling was good. We had at least one "throw away" play every 4 downs. The theme for today was 2 steps forward - 3 steps back. The good news is that I am optimistic that these poor plays will work themselves out of the playbook soon and we will continue to gel.
4everBills Posted September 12, 2004 Author Posted September 12, 2004 First of all, we all could simply make a post with the statement, "we could have drafted (insert name here) instead of Lee Evans" and try to say that if we had drafted that player instead we would have won or would have played better. Talk about your pipe dreams! We all could do that because ims ure we all had a favorite player that we wanted the Bills to draft. Didnt go that way, get over it. I personally wanted a trade up for Roy Williams. Im over it. The meat of your statement on Andrews has flawed logic. You seem to imply that we were lacking on the o-line today and that it cost us plays. The strongest unit on the field was the offensive line today, IMO. L Smith pulled a great lead block, we gave up no sacks (because of the line), had few penalties, and ran basically at will for many first downs. What we DID have was a huge penalty at the worst possible time. One play doesnt mean we should gut the line and start over. Using your logic, we should have moved up and got L Fitzgerald or R Williams! I mean that our biggest drive killers were dropped balls and fumbles by WR's, so does that mean we should can them all? I think not. If you feel we lost because of lack of scoring, I would agree but would place the blame on fumbles, not the o-line. I even felt that last years nemesis with not converting 3rd downs wasnt a real problem today, again I feel we moved the ball well. Hang on to the damn ball more and we would have had more points. As far as a QB who plays with his feet, thats a nice thing to have but not necessary. Jake Delhomme? Tom Brady? Peyton Manning? come on, you can put uo plenty of points by getting the ball out quicker and throwing accurate short to mid range passes. Guess what we did that today. One more item on 1st and goal from the 3. I have NEVER been a fan of successive runs up the middle in that situation. Spice it up...fade passes, TE roll outs, swing runs, pitches, all seem like better plays than the obvious run up the middle. I screamed at that play too because it looked like Shelton was open and Drew should have thrown. They showed another angle and the S had him covered. Drew did the right thing by eating it and not forcing it. I see your comment about not having the o-line talent to dominate a game. Who are the first rounders on Denvers starting line again? Who is that stud, franchised-every-year, LT on Denver? They have had a gazillion 1000+ rushers and have NO 1st rounders. The lien I saw today, against a great run defense, would play well enough to win any game against any competition. Where are all the sacks if the line is that bad? We ran for over 100 yards aganist a great run D. We had I think 2 line penalties all game. I fear that your opinion on the Bills is more of an attitude that you have merely carried over from previous long hard seasons. Too bad, I think with a fresh mind and another review of the game, you may see an entirely new team here.
Dawgg Posted September 13, 2004 Posted September 13, 2004 Vincent hits better than Winfield? Crack or Heroin?
BillsGuyInMalta Posted September 13, 2004 Posted September 13, 2004 I have zero confidence in this team at the moment. This team just cannot win in the clutch, so therefore no playoffs. We should have won this game, instead it was like a bullet to the head of this team's spirit. My only hope is that we have a turnaround like the Patriots had after their crushing opening loss last year that caused them to unite together. But I doubt it.
c-biscut Posted September 13, 2004 Posted September 13, 2004 Maybe Drew should be out there coaching Moulds on how to hang onto the ball or Rien how to kick. He did everything that we've been clamoring for him to do. Be patient, acurate, don't make mistakes. We want to pound the ball and play great d. Stay with in the game and gave our D a chance to win it at the end. Maybe Drew should have changed some calls at the line and gone down field more?
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