Sullivan Article

[Orton's Arm]

TD has had some bad luck.  He tried to prepare for the loss of Pat Williams by betting on Ron Edwards coming to play (he's out for the year) and drafting Tim Anderson. 

Edwards was playing poorly before he got hurt.

 

Also, Fat Sam has not played up to his abilities. 

TD had to know age would catch up to Adams sooner or later.

But the key was losing Spikes.  The defense was great last year, and now it's a joke. 

Last year's defense was good, but not as good as its #2 yardage rating would seem to indicate. I remember the game-deciding nine minute drive allowed to the Steelers, the last minute comebacks allowed to the Jets and the Jaguars, and the poor performances with respect to the Patriots. The defense's pretty stats came because the Bills faced a lot of lousy offenses last year, and the style of defense was best suited to making an already bad offense look absolutely terrible.

 

As for this year, it was clear the defense was deeply flawed even before we lost Spikes. Cadillac Williams was running through the defense like a hot knife through butter even before Spikes left the field on a cart.

San Fran paid top dollar for Jonas, and there is no way the Bills could afford to keep him.  He thought he addressed the line, and Williams came up lame, and played poorly.  Bennie Anderson can't pass block.

Gandy was clearly a step down from a healthy Jennings, so I wish TD had addressed that position relatively early in the draft. Ever since TD got here, one of the Bills' OG spots has always been the source of flux and uncertainty, with no one player able to establish himself as the bona fide starter over the long term. TD had to know Anderson wasn't going to put an end to this situation.

 

Parrish missed a lot of games, Everett out for the year.  I know injuries are part of the game, but what happened all but eliminated the first 3 rounds of this year's draft.

 

Typically, it's hard for rookie WRs and TEs to come in and contribute right away anyway. They say a WR doesn't really hit his stride until his third year. Besides that, Josh Reed's surprisingly good showing early in the year meant that the #3 receiver position wasn't a problem anyway--at least not early on. Everett is more of a pass-catching TE than a blocker, but problems with the offensive line have forced the coaches to keep the TE in to block.

People trash TD for picking Williams, but at the time that looked like a great pick.  I personally was against the pick, because I thought they should've traded down....way down....and gotten a few picks for it.  At the time, one tackle wasn't going to make that big a difference.

No GM has a perfect draft record, and many first round picks fail. The problem with TD is his failure to adequately deal with the three core areas: QB, offensive line, defensive line. He gets an incomplete at QB, an F for the offensive line, and a C-/D+ for the defensive line.

[Adam]

Thank You! Our record is crap right now but I also do not think we are as bad as some make us out to be. We have a young core, we have had some major injury's (I know, every team does..but Spikes was HUGE for us) and have a young QB getting better each week. I think we upgrade the lines a little and we can be a contender.

 

Also, we have been in the division that has had a 3 time super bowl champ the past 4 years as well.

 

Finally, Sullivan has a right to write whatever he wants and I have a right to ignore him. PERSONALLY, HE SEEMS JUST TO GLEEFUL TO WRITE THESE ARTICLES.

515524[/snapback]

Has a right? how so?

[Lori]

Sully's a columnist, not a beat reporter.  He'll tell you that every chance he gets, like it elevates him to demigod status.       

 

I guess it does actually--he don't have to be factual or even right most of the time...just stir the pot to collect all those quarters for Warren Buffet.

515625[/snapback]

Disagree - while columnists do have the freedom to express their opinions instead of sticking to straight "reporting", they should still be held accountable for getting the facts they're basing said opinions on correct. For a good example, witness the brouhaha over Mitch Albom's Final Four piece last April.

 

Everyone here can make up his/her own mind as to whether they like/hate/ignore Sullivan's work, but in this case, his stats WERE correct. (Unfortunately for us Bills fans...)