If 'managing the game' is your best chance @ winning

[Chandler#81]

We 'managed' to steal road wins last year @ Jets, Miami & Washington with this format, but when the margin for error is so tight, you'll die by the sword as well (ie. Denver, Cleveland) The Bills have upgraded additional areas this offseason to mesh with a budding group of young talent -the likes of which we haven't seen in quite some time. IMO, the Bills are now strong enough that the next objective should be to utilize the teams' strengths to attack the opposition from both sides and attempt to dictate tempo. This seems to go against DJ's career philosophy but it just may be he's never had the horses to run this race. If we try to 'manage' against the Seahawks, Jags, Chargers and Pats*, I think the outcome will be a foregone conclusion.

 

Mike Lombardi has an interesting spin on this in his SI column today. WARNING: His Bills reference will give you heartburn.

 

 

 

 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writ...ball/index.html

[keepthefaith]

We 'managed' to steal road wins last year @ Jets, Miami & Washington with this format, but when the margin for error is so tight, you'll die by the sword as well (ie. Denver, Cleveland) The Bills have upgraded additional areas this offseason to mesh with a budding group of young talent -the likes of which we haven't seen in quite some time. IMO, the Bills are now strong enough that the next objective should be to utilize the teams' strengths to attack the opposition from both sides and attempt to dictate tempo. This seems to go against DJ's career philosophy but it just may be he's never had the horses to run this race. If we try to 'manage' against the Seahawks, Jags, Chargers and Pats*, I think the outcome will be a foregone conclusion.

 

Mike Lombardi has an interesting spin on this in his SI column today. WARNING: His Bills reference will give you heartburn.

 

 

 

 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writ...ball/index.html

 

Jauron would field 22 DBs all wearing full body condoms if the rules allowed it.

[OCinBuffalo]

IMO, the Bills are now strong enough that the next objective should be to utilize the teams' strengths to attack the opposition from both sides and attempt to dictate tempo. This seems to go against DJ's career philosophy but it just may be he's never had the horses to run this race.

What's exciting and daunting, at the same time, is the additions and players we get back from injury. This is a whole new team. Similar to last year, and that means we really have no idea what to expect. At this point, saying we will do well or saying we will do poorly is more about the personality of the speaker than it is about the reality of this team. Negative people will find the bad, Positive people will find the good. And what do you know? As I was writing this, this guy comes along and proves my point:

Jauron would field 22 DBs all wearing full body condoms if the rules allowed it.

....thank you, keepthefaith. Moving on....

 

The trouble is: most of the arguments I am hearing here and around town, are based on INDIVIDUAL players vs. other individual players. I.E., Poz is better than Digiorgio, has had a year to learn, and is gonna come in and dominate. I would say that's got about a 75% chance of being true.

 

However, what that doesn't take into account is: how much will the MLB position in general benefit from guys like Stroud, Mitchell, Johnson, and if McCargo continues, etc.? It's really impossible to say at this point, and until we see everybody on the field it's kinda pointless to speculate.

 

It seems obvious that the main reason that we had such conservative, and therefore a lot of times bad, game management and play calling, is that DJ, and especially Fairchild, didn't trust these young players to get it done on pure effort alone. He wanted to take the path of least resistance and hope that the other team screwed up and beat themselves, rather than taking any risk and trying to have our guys beat them. The best example of this is the Dallas game. It only got worse as the season went on, and more were injured, and once the QB thing was settled.

 

What we don't know is: do the additions and returning injured players really mean we can take more chances? and, even if that's true, will DJ recognize it and take more chances/trust his team more? Chandler's is the best question: Is this about DJ, or about not having the players/bad play calls from Fairchild, thereby forcing DJ's hand?

[The Big Cat]

What's exciting and daunting, at the same time, is the additions and players we get back from injury. This is a whole new team. Similar to last year, and that means we really have no idea what to expect. At this point, saying we will do well or saying we will do poorly is more about the personality of the speaker than it is about the reality of this team. Negative people will find the bad, Positive people will find the good. And what do you know? As I was writing this, this guy comes along and proves my point:

 

....thank you, keepthefaith. Moving on....

 

The trouble is: most of the arguments I am hearing here and around town, are based on INDIVIDUAL players vs. other individual players. I.E., Poz is better than Digiorgio, has had a year to learn, and is gonna come in and dominate. I would say that's got about a 75% chance of being true.

 

However, what that doesn't take into account is: how much will the MLB position in general benefit from guys like Stroud, Mitchell, Johnson, and if McCargo continues, etc.? It's really impossible to say at this point, and until we see everybody on the field it's kinda pointless to speculate.

 

It seems obvious that the main reason that we had such conservative, and therefore a lot of times bad, game management and play calling, is that DJ, and especially Fairchild, didn't trust these young players to get it done on pure effort alone. He wanted to take the path of least resistance and hope that the other team screwed up and beat themselves, rather than taking any risk and trying to have our guys beat them. The best example of this is the Dallas game. It only got worse as the season went on, and more were injured, and once the QB thing was settled.

 

What we don't know is: do the additions and returning injured players really mean we can take more chances? and, even if that's true, will DJ recognize it and take more chances/trust his team more? Chandler's is the best question: Is this about DJ, or about not having the players/bad play calls from Fairchild, thereby forcing DJ's hand?

 

I would say a better example would be the 2006 game against Indy, in Indy. They went on to win the Super Bowl and only eeked out by one point (IIRC). That was also the game Willis was down and we had to start the A-Train.

 

Now I know the path of least resistance gives everyone here stomach ulcers, but IMO, it was a strategy that wielded relative success, amd a strategy (oh how this pains me to say), that if utilized with this year's personel, could actually spur a 10-6 season.

 

I suppose the question is whether the gloves will come off with the added personel (and Dear God, I hope they do), but even if they don't, might start seeing some ACTUAL success. I'm talking winng games 13-10 with games lasting (with commercials) an hour forty five!

[colin]

all we need (if our D and ST are on point) is to control games and put the ball in the zone. this is what pitts does (and has done). they intend to control and play smash mouth, but mix it up and go pass crazy once in a while.

 

a great open O can be spectacular, but at some point you tend to take more risk than is ideal. with a couple of strong backs, a giant O line, and hopefully a couple WRs who can go deep (evans, parish) or short (reed, hardy) we really are best off being in ball control mode the majority of the time.

 

if we turn a few 3's into 7s, and on D a few 7's into 3s, and long drives into punts, we can be a team that no one wants to play.

[MDH]

Now I know the path of least resistance gives everyone here stomach ulcers, but IMO, it was a strategy that wielded relative success, amd a strategy (oh how this pains me to say), that if utilized with this year's personel, could actually spur a 10-6 season.

 

It's a strategy that has success when you are facing teams who are more talented/better than your team. It keeps the games close and gives your team a chance to win it late (usually when the opposing team makes a mistake.)

 

The problem with the strategy is when you have a talented/good team because it allows lesser teams to stay close and perhaps pull out a win late. If your team is loaded with talent (and I'm not saying the Bills are) then playing this type of style gets a coach fired. Right now the Bills are somewhere in between, I'd like to see them drop the conservative game plans against lesser teams but still use it when faced with the better teams in the league.