A Few Thoughts About The Game And The Team

[JDG]

1) Running the football on 3rd and long was cute the first 90 times. After that, it left me scratching my head as to how our little head coach was able to graduate from an Ivy League school.

 

Oh yeah, and everyone here is convinced that the Coaches still love Losman and have full confidence in him....

 

Maybe its just me, but don't all the 3rd and long draw plays in fact speak volumes about their confidence in Losman? It seems to me that they think that the draw play is at least a lot better than a sack.

 

2) Pennington is going to be a problem because he a a deficiency. He plays next to CV who is perhaps a worse deficiency. NFL teams are able to exploit deficiencies. Hurry up Grandpa Marv....draft a 1st round corner!

 

The "grandpa" comment is a ridiculous ad hominem. People accuse me of "hating" JP Losman, but I don't toss out ad hominems like that....

 

BTW - the last time that the Bills drafted a CB in the 1st round, or even so much as the 2nd round, was Nate Clements in 2001.

 

 

5) I didn't want it to happen, but Jauron is starting to sicken me.

 

That's because he just went into Indianapolis and lost by one point, right???

 

Good grief!!!!

 

8) I want to tackle the "JP has a cannon" issue. He does, but NOT in the traditional sense. He has a friggin explosive arm when throwing short to mid range passes.  That said, he really could use a tall possession receiver. JP CAN thread the needle. He is a modern day Joe Theisman. Take from this what you wish.

 

Sure, he has a cannon for an arm - and all the accuracy of a cannon on a deep ball as well....

 

And you also forgot the following observations:

 

11 plays in the red zone, -8 yards of total offense.

 

JP Losman, 18 NFL games, 6 of which with less than 105 meaningful passing yards. (33% of the time)

 

We are now officially in contention with the Raiders for the most incompetent offense in the NFL....

 

JDG

[34-78-83]

Absolutely. Unfortunately, his career looks like it's on the demise from the achilles injury. It's sad because he was once a great playmaker.

834160[/snapback]

 

Want a Hot Pocket?

[nucci]

As long as Grandpa Al Lewis is the GM of the Buffalo Bills, I do not expect anything other than 1st round DBs, incoherence, senility, and idiocy.

834097[/snapback]

Stop with the childish name calling of Marv - He is not incoherent, senile or an idiot - if you do not like the job he is doing fine, but the personal attacks against him are uncalled for - keep it about football.

[Orton's Arm]

2 questions...

 

1. Why is A-train's 3.9 YPC respectable, but Willis's 3.9 YPC sh-------?

 

2. (this isnt a comment on his skills, nor my opinion) If our coaching staff has so little faith in Losman, why the hell are they still starting him?

834239[/snapback]

1. A 3.9 YPC is pretty reasonable. Emmitt Smith's career average is 4.2 yards a carry; and that's with much better circumstances than any Buffalo RB can expect to enjoy.

 

2. An excellent question. It's probably a combination of things. There's no earthly reason why the coaches should trust the OL to provide more than 3 - 3.5 seconds of pass protection, even on a "good" play. So do they trust Losman and his receivers to make something happen within the 2 - 3 seconds he'll usually have to throw? Apparently they don't.

 

The passing game was on a very short leash. It's not just the quantity of pass attempts, which was quite low. It was also the fact that these were usually quick, safe, simple throws. While I don't mind that stuff on occassion, at some point I want to see the Bills start to look like they have a real offense. I want to see the offense put more than six points on the scoreboard.

 

This is a rebuilding season, so there's no sense in going with an older player like Holcomb. Maybe the Bills' coaching staff doesn't have much confidence in Losman, but feels even less confidence in Nall. I really don't know.

[Orton's Arm]

Want a Hot Pocket?

834382[/snapback]

Look at other great linebackers who've suffered devastating injuries. Bryce Paup wasn't the same player after he got hurt. The same was true of Sam Cowart. Why should we expect Takeo to fully recover, when those two were merely shadows of their former selves?

[RuntheDamnBall]

Look at other great linebackers who've suffered devastating injuries. Bryce Paup wasn't the same player after he got hurt. The same was true of Sam Cowart. Why should we expect Takeo to fully recover, when those two were merely shadows of their former selves?

834428[/snapback]

Julian Peterson is playing pretty well right now. It takes about two seasons to come all the way back from some of these really devastating injuries, but it is happening with more regularity, and if there's one I wouldn't doubt, it's TKO. He just had a setback with the hammy earlier in the year. I trust he'll be back in full force in '08.

 

Meanwhile, and this one's for VA, but Crowell was everywhere today. I think he is learning a lot from playing alongside Fletcher.

[34-78-83]

Look at other great linebackers who've suffered devastating injuries. Bryce Paup wasn't the same player after he got hurt. The same was true of Sam Cowart. Why should we expect Takeo to fully recover, when those two were merely shadows of their former selves?

834428[/snapback]

 

We shouldn't necessarily. But we also shouldn't rule him out after what 3 1/2 games? These guys (Julian Peterson) usually start to resemble their pre-injury selves in the season following their return instead of "magically" reaching fan expectations of a full return immediately. Did you really not think of that?

[Orton's Arm]

We shouldn't necessarily. But we also shouldn't rule him out after what 3 1/2 games? These guys (Julian Peterson) usually start to resemble their pre-injury selves in the season following their return instead of "magically" reaching fan expectations of a full return immediately. Did you really not think of that?

834442[/snapback]

Fair enough.

[CFLstyle]

The draft we just had was brilliant.

 

We have solidified a lot of different positions with the biggest being at safetly, Whitner is outstanding and Simpson is going to be very solid.

 

Our linebackers are fine and when Spikes is done we'll still have Ellison. Crowell it outstanding and he'll be a lock at linebacker on this team for many years. We do need to draft a MLB though, Fletcher is great right now but he's getting up in age, which is sad

 

My only concern on defene is the line, the verdict is still out on McCargo but Marv more than made up for it with a steal in Kyle Williams. I don't like Triplett though, he's too small and he's just not getting the job done, does he even have a single sack this season? We need a big DT in his place, if we had either Sam Adams OR Pat Williams in his place alongside McCargo/K.Williams, we'd be set.

 

I love the core of young players on the defense and as soon as they get the cover 2 thing down, this unit will be amongst the best in the league.

 

As for offense well Losman is a big question mark but I think we need to put an offensive line in front of him before we throw him under the bus, also it would be nice if he could throw more than 13 passes in a game. We NEED to draft an offensive lineman in the first round, forget another QB and forget skill positions. A FA addition is needed as well.

 

The only other thing we need, is a possession receiver. The only receivers on our roster that are over 6 feet tall (correct me if I'm wrong) are Andre Davis, and Sam Aiken, who are both used primarily for special teams.

[East Brady]

Draw plays on 3rd and long = no confidence in off. line......

[macdaddy]

'Top shelf where momma hides the cookies'

[rockpile]

1) Running the football on 3rd and long was cute the first 90 times. After that, it left me scratching my head as to how our little head coach was able to graduate from an Ivy League school.

833892[/snapback]

 

I was listening to the game on the radio. After several consecutive running plays I was thinking the same thing. Throw downfield, if only to keep the defense honest!

 

On the very next play, Fat-Ass-Double-Bacon-Cheeseburger-Eating-I-Was-Built-For-Comfort-Not-For-Speed Pennington got blown away on his imitation pass protection and JP took a sack.

 

I am not absolving Jauron, but it seems like it is hard to formulate a very creative game plan with such poor players.

[MarkyMannn]

I agree with everything except that our management is losing us games. We are losing now but we werent supposed to win. THIS IS A REBUILDING SEASON.

834182[/snapback]

Geez, do you know we are the only NFL team this decade to not make the playoffs? Enough with the re-building and lets start winning now. Maybe in "rebuilding" years tickets should be half price, and in competitive years the full regular price. That's a joke, but after reading that, I kind of like that theory.

 

And why are we re-building? In the Buff News Friday or Saturday, it was mentioned the Bills are like $8 million under the cap. That could get you two pretty decent OL men, and maybe we wouldn't struggle like this

[MDH]

JP Losman, 18 NFL games, 6 of which with less than 105 meaningful passing yards.  (33% of the time)   

 

834323[/snapback]

 

This is the most ridiculous comment that people seem to continually make. They keep looking at total passing yards and then attempt to soley blame the QB for it. Do you think it might have something to do with the playcalling? How many yards can a QB rack up if he's only throwing a handful of times per game?

 

I'm not claiming that JP is lighting it up even with his limited attempts. He's struggled mightily at times. That being said his YPA, while not great, isn't as pathetic as people want to make it sound with their continual comments about his YPG. Losman is averaging 6.67 YPA. The QBs that surround him in the rankings of YPA? Brady (6.74), Carr (6.75), A. Smith (6.66), Vick (6.61), Delhomme (6.41)and Plummer (6.38).

 

So while Losman isn't lighting it up his passing yards would look much better if he actually got to throw the ball on 1st down (or 3rd down for that matter). I'm not going to critique the coaching staff when they devised a game plan that kept this game within 1 point but you have to realize that the game plan is what prevents Losman from putting up decent yardage totals. Of all the QBs that have started every single game only Vick has fewer attempts than Losman.

[BADOLBILZ]

Because the Bills ONLY drafted DB's in the 1st round under Levy.

834121[/snapback]

 

They drafted 5 first round DB's under Polian/Marv and 8 total the past 20 years. That's kind of a lot and doesn't do much for you at the LOS.

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

They drafted 5 first round DB's under Polian/Marv and 8 total the past 20 years.  That's kind of a lot and doesn't do much for you at the LOS.

834800[/snapback]

 

I think that's the smartest thing you can do. Rookie corners can start right away and don't have much of a learning curve and cost about 200% less than a free agent corner. Plus, it's rare to get busts at corner in the 1st round. And nearly all the starting corners in the league are 1st rounders.

 

By contrast, you can get serviceable and even star linemen late in the draft or in free agency for not a whole lot of money. Plus, from my own observation, a lot of 1st round linemen seem to be busts (more so than other positions)

 

If I were a GM, I'd never re-sign a FA corner and use the draft (1st round pick) to pick a corner instead.

[MadBuffaloDisease]

They drafted 5 first round DB's under Polian/Marv and 8 total the past 20 years.  That's kind of a lot and doesn't do much for you at the LOS.

Doesn't mean they'll continue to draft DB's.

[JDG]

This is the most ridiculous comment that people seem to continually make.  They keep looking at total passing yards and then attempt to soley blame the QB for it.  Do you think it might have something to do with the playcalling? 

834797[/snapback]

 

And do you think that the playcalling might have something to do with the coaching staff's assessment of Losman's abilities, or lack thereof?

 

JDG

[East Brady]

This is the most ridiculous comment that people seem to continually make.  They keep looking at total passing yards and then attempt to soley blame the QB for it.  Do you think it might have something to do with the playcalling?  How many yards can a QB rack up if he's only throwing a handful of times per game?

 

I'm not claiming that JP is lighting it up even with his limited attempts.  He's struggled mightily at times.  That being said his YPA, while not great, isn't as pathetic as people want to make it sound with their continual comments about his YPG.  Losman is averaging 6.67 YPA.  The QBs that surround him in the rankings of YPA?  Brady (6.74), Carr (6.75), A. Smith (6.66), Vick (6.61), Delhomme (6.41)and Plummer (6.38).

 

So while Losman isn't lighting it up his passing yards would look much better if he actually got to throw the ball on 1st down (or 3rd down for that matter).  I'm not going to critique the coaching staff when they devised a game plan that kept this game within 1 point but you have to realize that the game plan is what prevents Losman from putting up decent yardage totals.  Of all the QBs that have started every single game only Vick has fewer attempts than Losman.

834797[/snapback]

Great comments and I would add that this coaching staff is trying too win, the only way they can, with what little talent they have on offense.JP is going nowhere and next year they will build the offense after they sit back and review the tapes this off season with clear heads and an objective frame of mind...They will decide who can help and who must go......The defense is coming along real nice, I like their progress.......After a week of listening to most everyone predicting a huge blowout, I have trouble finding fault with the coaching staff as there isn't much to work with.....Its real tuff to throw on any down with the talent and experience we have.......Get used to it people, JP isn't going anywhere, fact of the matter is, he had them in postion to beat Indy on the road....

[JDG]

They drafted 5 first round DB's under Polian/Marv and 8 total the past 20 years.  That's kind of a lot and doesn't do much for you at the LOS.

834800[/snapback]

 

Well, one of the most successful NFL teams since 2000 (Eagles) famously spent a 1st round and *two* 2nd round picks in the same draft 2002 - despite already having some highly rater secondary players at the time.

 

In fact, since 2000 (six drafts), the Eagles have spent all of two first day picks on the offensive line - and one of those has yet to dress for an NFL game.

 

In fact, another very successful NFL team since 2000 (Colts) have spent exactly *one* first day draft pick on an offensive lineman since drafting Peyton Manning in 1998 - some game named Brandon Burlsworth.

 

JDG