The struggles of JP and the Buffalo offense

[Coach Tuesday]

On defense, the Bills will cram 8-9 in the box, using Milloy as a 4th linebacker, and dare Vick to throw it deep to the weakest receivers in the NFL. If he can, it'll be a difficult day for the Bills. If he can't (and he never has been able to), the Atlanta offense won't be doing too much. Hopefully Gray will move up the corners a bit towards the line (why he hates doing this is beyond me), which will also take away the short slant that the Bucs were able to use to stop the 9-man front. I just don't have any confidence that the Falcons' receivers can break contain and gain separation from our corners, and if it were up to me I'd challenge challenge and challenge them until they prove otherwise.

 

As for the Bills' offense - I haven't a clue. Most of the obvious has been said - McGahee needs to run straight ahead, the line needs to generate a push and actually win some battles (including in the first quarter - do they know the game starts in the first quarter?), Moulds needs to shut his mouth and actually DO something (like, get open and come back for the ball), and JP - well, you know the story.

[nero47]

 

I don't see Losman improving much this week, and indeed having the same struggles as last week, if a commitment to running the ball isn't made by Tom Clements and the bills offensive coaching staff.

452200[/snapback]

Repectfully disagree. I see JP responding extremely well this week. This is a bright QB, who learns from week to week. This week he will be looking off receivers, as well as having a fired up running back to keep the D line honest.

[Lori]

Good read, Simon. Couple of notes:

 

As previously mentioned - Brady Smith didn't play last week, and is questionable this week. Didn't see the game, but from what I've read, Kerney spent a lot of time at RE (getting beat on by Walter Jones) while Lavalais and Chauncey Davis split time at LE.

 

Also - you probably already know KMathis is done for the year and Rossum didn't suit up last week (Q again this week with a bad hamstring); that leaves Christian Morton and Chris Cash as their nickel/dimebacks. I like our chances against either one.

[BillnutinHouston]

I refuse to read a post which is that long telling me why the Bills won't score.

451330[/snapback]

 

OK, I'll keep it short then. It is rare that a QB in his first season leads his team to the playoffs. Rare = against the odds = usually does not happen. We all need to strap ourselves in cause it's gonna be a roller coaster this year.

[Simon]

that leaves Christian Morton and Chris Cash as their nickel/dimebacks. I like our chances against either one.

I also like our chances against JWebster and KCarpenter. There's no way Webster can handle either Moulds or Evans(ya gotta wonder if he might even have trouble with Aiken) without dedicated help on a significant number of downs.

I also heard somewhere that they moved Keion to the strong ( ). If that's true then at some point he's going to have to take McGahee down by himself to prevent a big gainer and the rest of the time he's likely to look like a pinball.

If we can keep JP clean there's probably be going to be some chances at bigplays, even if/when consistency does turn out to be a problem.

At the very worst, enjoy your patdown.

[Lori]

I also like our chances against JWebster and KCarpenter. There's no way Webster can handle either Moulds or Evans(ya gotta wonder if he might even have trouble with Aiken) without dedicated help on a significant number of downs.

I also heard somewhere that they moved Keion to the strong ( ). If that's true then at some point he's going to have to take McGahee down by himself to prevent a big gainer and the rest of the time he's likely to look like a pinball.

If we can keep JP clean there's probably be going to be some chances at bigplays, even if/when consistency does turn out to be a problem.

Agreed. Hall makes some plays, but takes a lot of chances - even he can be burned. And yes, the depth chart I have lists Keion at SS and former Nit Bryan Scott at free.

 

At the very worst, enjoy your patdown. 

452372[/snapback]

You know, it's funny - got an e-mail from the Bills telling me the patdown was to ensure a "safe and enjoyable game-day experience". Wonder how they define "enjoyable"...

[Kelly the Dog]

Agreed. Hall makes some plays, but takes a lot of chances - even he can be burned. And yes, the depth chart I have lists Keion at SS and former Nit Bryan Scott at free.

You know, it's funny - got an e-mail from the Bills telling me the patdown was to ensure  a "safe and enjoyable game-day experience". Wonder how they define "enjoyable"... 

452374[/snapback]

I suppose it depends on the pat-downer. I have a friend who is fond of saying when a guy grabs her ass at work and he's cute, it's a turn on, if he's not, it's sexual harrassment.

[indiragandhi'sthong]

Is this two bills drive or the website for Tolstoy's War & Peace

 

so if anybody has any sort of mental preparations to make, now might be a good time to start.

Why do I blaspheme so? Because for the second week in a row we're going to be staring into the teeth of one of the NFL's best Front4.

Yes, I can hear many of you now; "Simon you insufferable ass, keeping the ball away from DeAngelo Hall is certainly a more manageable than task than keeping it away from the likes of Ronde Barber and Brian Kelly and Derrick Brooks! And Tampa is certainly the best Front4 in the NFL, not the Falcons!"

I would not argue either of these things and agree that playing in Tampa in his second start was as nasty a task as JP is going to face for some time. But something that is less difficult can still be near impossible and I fear that is the situation we face Sunday.

When a professional defensive co-ordinator has the personell faerie wave a wand o'er his head and give him the ability to pressure the QB with just his front4, it creates one dangerous dude. Only having to rush four leaves 7 other tinkertoys to play with in coverage, which is significantly superior to 6; in addition, being able to suck up an entire passprotection scheme with just 4 guys makes your blitzes that much more effective. And while the Bucs pressure is prone to come off the edges, Atlanta is just as likely to get pressure right in the middle of the pocket with the nightmare that is Rod Coleman. All of this together is bound to make things very problematic for a green QB.

However this is some hope that we can get a couple 1stdowns by halftime.

First of all, we're at home and I think this is a tremendous boon for JP as he strikes me as a typically emotional young QB who is going to be greatly affected by road atmospheres. Not having to contend with that should allow him to focus solely on the game itself and incite him to play with a more agressive posture.

Anotehr thing worth considering is that Ed Donatel is fairly young for an NFL DCo-ordinator. So even if he's a good one, he certainly does not have the chops of Monte Kiffin and is not likely to throw nearly as much craft at Tom Clements.

Additionally, Atlanta doesn't have a 2ndcorner anywhere near the caliber of Brian Kelly. In fact I'd go so far as to say that the Bucs nickelback is better than anything the Falcons can put across from DeangleoHall, and with two good WR's that means we have ourselves a duck and Atlanta has a hole to adress that wasn't there when we played Tampa.

I also see JP's mobility being more of a factor this week than it was last week as the Bills make a concerted effort to get him out of the pocket and away from Coleman. The trouble with that will be if BigMike can't go it will be difficult to roll JP to his strength if we've got a back-up OT dealing with Pat Kearney. Maybe since Gandy should be able to handle BradySmith then the help he got against SimRice last week can be given to whoever will start at RT (who finished for MikeW last week? Please don't tell me Jerman).

Finally I envision Mike Mularkey being more directly involved with this week's gameplan and playcalling on Sunday. He used to be a qualitycontrol coach which means he's done a ton of self-scouting and should be able to help the Bills get out of the predictable ruts we saaw them in last week.

 

If Vick sits (which he would be if I was coaching the Falcons) we might be able to beat the Falcons with 17 pts. If he plays it'll take more along the lines of 23-24. Either way, with our D and ST's, all that should be asked of JP during the game is to put together a couple TD drives, protect the ball and turn a couple instances of fortunate field position into points. Can he do it? Yeah, I think he can but it's not going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination.

451315[/snapback]

[dave mcbride]

I also like our chances against JWebster and KCarpenter. There's no way Webster can handle either Moulds or Evans(ya gotta wonder if he might even have trouble with Aiken) without dedicated help on a significant number of downs.

I also heard somewhere that they moved Keion to the strong ( ). If that's true then at some point he's going to have to take McGahee down by himself to prevent a big gainer and the rest of the time he's likely to look like a pinball.

If we can keep JP clean there's probably be going to be some chances at bigplays, even if/when consistency does turn out to be a problem.

At the very worst, enjoy your patdown. 

452372[/snapback]

didn't carpenter tear an acl within the past two years? if i'm right (and i'm not sure i am), that would explain the shift, i think. but it also suggests a couple of other things: a) that atlanta is weak at the position, and b) that we should take our hats off to keion carpenter. he's an undrafted guy (identified and signed by john butler/aj smith) with negligible speed who has managed to hang around the nfl for nigh on 10 years despite suffering a major injury.

[Simon]

didn't carpenter tear an acl within the past two years? if i'm right (and i'm not sure i am), that would explain the shift, i think. but it also suggests a couple of other things: a) that atlanta is weak at the position, and b) that we should take our hats off to keion carpenter. he's an undrafted guy (identified and signed by john butler/aj smith) with negligible speed who has managed to hang around the nfl for nigh on 10 years despite suffering a major injury.

I thought I remember something concerning a neck injury, but I'd be less inclined to trust my addled memory than yours. As for your suggestion, I am on board with a) but reject out of hand b).

I wouldn't call him slow as he seemed to move all right, but I do think he was a poor FS in coverage. Attesting to this is his grand total of 4 passes defended in 3 years as a Bill, racking up an average of 1 break-up about every 10 games. But as ineffective as he was while the ball was in the air, he was even worse when somebody else already had it.

I usually find myself rooting for guys who are marginal athletes (respectively) yet still manage to stay in the game for any period of time, but Keion is an exception. I thought he was quite possibly the softest, least physical defender I have ever seen on a Bills roster and for the life of me have no idea why is still running in this league. I don't have any personal animosity for him but I admit that I am looking forward to seeing Willis get him in a phonebooth once or twice on Sunday.

Cya

 

P.S. At the start of the year he had 68 NFL games under his belt, so I would say that at nonce he is neither near nor next to nigh on 10 years.

[jarthur31]

I refuse to read a post which is that long telling me why the Bills won't score.

451330[/snapback]

 

Because changing QB's had nothing to do with improving the offense. JP is a rookie who will play worse than DB does this year. Sorry but it's true. I'm resigned to the fact that he won't do much for us until he's had two good years in the pro game. Sadly, we won't have the D we have now when he matures.

[Simon]

Because changing QB's had nothing to do with improving the offense.  JP is a rookie who will play worse than DB does this year.  Sorry but it's true.  I'm resigned to the fact that he won't do much for us until he's had two good years in the pro game.  Sadly, we won't have the D we have now when he matures.

452550[/snapback]

 

Yeah, because in a combined 20 years of running the Steelers, Eagles and Bills, neither Donahoe or Modrak have ever shown the ability to maintain great defenses over the course of a couple years.

[Coach Tuesday]

I thought he was quite possibly the softest, least physical defender I have ever seen on a Bills roster and for the life of me have no idea why is still running in this league.

452543[/snapback]

 

Softer than Kelso? Kelso would wait until the guy with the ball ran by him so he could then grab onto his legs to drag him down...

[Simon]

Softer than Kelso?  Kelso would wait until the guy with the ball ran by him so he could then grab onto his legs to drag him down...

452711[/snapback]

 

Kelso led with his head and took enough concussion damage that he eventually had to go with the additional helmet protection to prevent further damage.

Compared to Keion Carpenter, Kelso played like Ronnie Lott.

[dave mcbride]

I thought I remember something concerning a neck injury, but I'd be less inclined to trust my addled memory than yours. As for your suggestion, I am on board with a) but reject out of hand b).

I wouldn't call him slow as he seemed to move all right, but I do think he was a poor FS in coverage. Attesting to this is his grand total of 4 passes defended in 3 years as a Bill, racking up an average of 1 break-up about every 10 games. But as ineffective as he was while the ball was in the air, he was even worse when somebody else already had it.

I usually find myself rooting for guys who are marginal athletes (respectively) yet still manage to stay in the game for any period of time, but Keion is an exception. I thought he was quite possibly the softest, least physical defender I have ever seen on a Bills roster and for the life of me have no idea why is still running in this league. I don't have any personal animosity for him but I admit that I am looking forward to seeing Willis get him in a phonebooth once or twice on Sunday. 

Cya

 

P.S. At the start of the year he had 68 NFL games under his belt, so I would say that at nonce he is neither near nor next to nigh on 10 years.

452543[/snapback]

just checked - this is his seventh year. it just seems like 10! i never said he was very good (and i do realize that you've despised for years). my point was that given all the turnover in the nfl, it suprises me that a guy who isn't that great manages to hang on for so long. he must be doing something right. it's not as if he has wade phillips around anymore to protect him.

[jarthur31]

Yeah, because in a combined 20 years of running the Steelers, Eagles and Bills, neither Donahoe or Modrak have ever shown the ability to maintain great defenses over the course of a couple years. 

452710[/snapback]

 

This is the Bills we're talking about. Tell me when you think this defense will play as well as last year. At 0-4 we were shutting people down. Now we can't do a damned thing. Huge 15+ yard gains repeatedly on every freakin series. How is that improvement?

[Simon]

This is the Bills we're talking about. Tell me when you think this defense will play as well as last year. At 0-4 we were shutting people down. Now we can't do a damned thing. Huge 15+ yard gains repeatedly on every freakin series. How is that improvement?

I don't recall saying anything about improvement, but if that's what you're insisting on and you want to talk about last year, how about this?

During our 0-4 start last year when we were "shutting people down", the Bills were giving up an average of 18 pts/game.

This year so far we are giving up an average of 16 pts/game.

But yeah, we should "dump them all".

 

Me and Fez kept pointing this out last year but were continually ridiculed for it. It seems that our immobile QB had nothing to do with the crappy offensive performances after all.

So far ths year we are averaging just under 14 pts/game.

During our 0-4 start last year our offense was averaging 11 points/game.

 

Were you crying this much last year when we were giving up more points and scoring even less with our veteran QB?

 

And would you consider it the "improvement" you were looking for to have an offense who was scoring more, a defense that was allowing less and a team that was carrying a better record?

Or should we just go ahead and fire the administration, cut the players and give up on the season after 3 whole games?

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

I don't recall saying anything about improvement, but if that's what you're insisting on and you want to talk about last year, how about this?

During our 0-4 start last year when we were "shutting people down", the Bills were giving up an average of 18 pts/game.

This year so far we are giving up an average of 16 pts/game.

But yeah, we should "dump them all".

So far ths year we are averaging just under 14 pts/game.

During our 0-4 start last year our offense was averaging 11 points/game.

 

Were you crying this much last year when we were giving up more points and scoring even less with our veteran QB?

 

And would you consider it the "improvement" you were looking for to have an offense who was scoring more, a defense that was allowing less and a team that was carrying a better record?

Or should we just go ahead and fire the administration, cut the players and give up on the season after 3 whole games? 

454567[/snapback]

 

Oh my God, there is a God. THANK YOU for the sanity, Simon.

 

Buncha freekin' insane lemmigns around here.

[CoachChuckDickerson]

During our 0-4 start last year our offense was averaging 11 points/game.

 

Were you crying this much last year when we were giving up more points and scoring even less with our veteran QB?

 

That is an excellent point. We started o-4 because we had zero running game to balance our offense. What did the Bills do at that point? They changed the starting running back.....

[RuntheDamnBall]

I don't recall saying anything about improvement, but if that's what you're insisting on and you want to talk about last year, how about this?

During our 0-4 start last year when we were "shutting people down", the Bills were giving up an average of 18 pts/game.

This year so far we are giving up an average of 16 pts/game.

But yeah, we should "dump them all".

So far ths year we are averaging just under 14 pts/game.

During our 0-4 start last year our offense was averaging 11 points/game.

 

Were you crying this much last year when we were giving up more points and scoring even less with our veteran QB?

 

And would you consider it the "improvement" you were looking for to have an offense who was scoring more, a defense that was allowing less and a team that was carrying a better record?

Or should we just go ahead and fire the administration, cut the players and give up on the season after 3 whole games? 

454567[/snapback]

Thank you.