A Few Thoughts About The Game

[BLZFAN4LIFE]

Agreed many posters look forward to Bill's "thoughts on the Game".

I resemble that remark.

[JinVA]

Ok name me one specific play before the Royal fumble that JP cost us with?? just one play??

He's not saying JP cost them the game. He was refering to his childish antics on the sideline.

[sullim4]

Personally I was expecting to come out of this game with a loss. Anyone who was actually expecting a win was kidding themselves given the Cards' recent circumstances.

 

It seemed like every pass Warner threw, no one in the secondary was within 20 ft of the receiver. Perhaps the Cardinal WRs are that good, but it happened over and over and over again. Losing McGee seemed to have caused a lot more pain in this area than I think a lot of people had anticipated. It's like we couldn't cover slants. Tackling, as in other games, was exceptionally poor imo. You can get away with these things when playing against a team missing its core WRs, or two poor offenses, but against a decent team like Arizona, you're going to get burned and they did get burned, quite badly.

 

Losing the game was not JP's fault, but man what a horrible quarterback. He still hasn't learned to throw the ball away, leading to sacks, fumbles, and interceptions. If you watch his head, he's still locking into receivers as he has done for the past several years. The fact that he was mismanaged so badly by this franchise has, imo, led to his poor attitude toward the coaching staff (i.e. walking away from Schonert while he's in essence chewing him out) and overall bad attitude.

 

The true test will come in two weeks. San Diego at home after a bye is not a cakewalk, but it's definitely winnable. Heading into divisional play, it will be somewhat important to get a win and guarantee at least a tie for the division lead. Hopefully they will learn from what happened today and will seek redemption.

 

One thing worries me though... how will Trent's sense of timing in the pocket be affected by this injury? Will he be more cautious, will he be a bit jumpy back there, or will he be just fine?

[Chilly]

2) It was due to confusion after the non-penalty call for an illegal receiver. (the costly delay of game penalty).

 

No excuse.

 

7) I agreed with Jauron on the non-challenge. Royal once again reminded us of why the Skins let him walk. We need a tight end folks.

 

The ground can't cause a fumble, eh? Why not challenge it?

 

3) Jabari Greer had a particularly rough outing, despite making a play or 2.

 

I left this till the end, because I wanted to talk about it in detail.

 

To me, the bigegst problem the Bills have had all year is with the pass defense, particularly the linebackers. It isn't just Jabari, its the whole team.

 

The defense in the middle of the field wasn't great in games 2-4, and again in this week it was bad. They need to work on the defensive scheme, because teams are having success passing in the middle-length routes against the Bills.

 

If they don't get this fixed, it will kill us.

[Bmwolf21]

If it's the situation I saw, Turk was yelling at JP. JP responded, and Turk continued. Turk had a few more things to say as JP was walking away. As I am not psychic, I didn't make any sort of judgment about this. Turk may have just told him to go sit down, and then barked a few more pieces of advice, of instruction. JP may have thought the berating was over, and Turk had another thing or two to say.

 

If Turk walked over and grabbed JP and make it seem like he was insulted by JP's behavior, then I may have given it a second thought. As it way, I think you guys are reading what you want into the situation. Let it go. Watch Rashomon and get back to me.

Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I just didn't think there was that much to the "Turk is ripping him a new one" angle some were posting. I had walked away from the TV at the time it happened, but after reading some of the posts in the GDT I thought I was going to rewind the DVR to find that Turk chased him all over the sidelines and someone had to step between them. I'm not saying that it wasn't an animated conversation, but I just didn't read much more into it than a coach ticked off about a bad throw and/or read by his QB and letting him know about it.

 

I agree that seeing 10 seconds of footage of a predictable argument after an interception - without sound - and trying to interpret what was said is a futile effort at best.

[The Dean]

Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I just didn't think there was that much to the "Turk is ripping him a new one" angle some were posting. I had walked away from the TV at the time it happened, but after reading some of the posts in the GDT I thought I was going to rewind the DVR to find that Turk chased him all over the sidelines and someone had to step between them. I'm not saying that it wasn't an animated conversation, but I just didn't read much more into it than a coach ticked off about a bad throw and/or read by his QB and letting him know about it.

 

I agree that seeing 10 seconds of footage of a predictable argument after an interception - without sound - and trying to interpret what was said is a futile effort at best.

 

 

I agree 100%

[Heitz]

No Pass rush, Turnovers and Inability to get off the field on 3rd down are the reasons why we lost this game.

 

I'm very concerned about our inability to rush the passer. Someone mentioned a stat that our D-Line has a total of 2 sacks in 5 games. That's terrible production. Schobel and Kelsay need to get their sh-- figure out.

Spot on - I couldn't agree more!

 

That said, I was scared by the inefficiency of the O with JP at the the helm. Say what you will, but Trent can convert third downs, get our D some rest and put points on the board. That *may* have made a difference in this game.

 

The lack of a pass rush is also really disturbing. Putting pressure on Warner was the ONLY way we were going to win this game. We didn't and we got eaten up. Better figure that out for the rest of the year...

 

Let's hope for a good week off, that some lessons were learned, that some work is put in and that some people brought back to earth. The SD game after the bye is gonna be HUGE - I can't wait!! And even though we lost, there were only a few teams that really shined today. Just remember, it ain't always about the wins in Sept. and Oct. (though they help), it's about the wins in November and December that are going to put us in the playoffs!

[Trader]

1) It was good to see Hardy getting involved. Trent went to him in a clutch situation despite the problems last week.

 

2) It was due to confusion after the non-penalty call for an illegal receiver. (the costly delay of game penalty).

 

3) Jabari Greer had a particularly rough outing, despite making a play or 2.

 

4) It was entirely Fowler's fault. (1st fumble).

 

5) Any complaints about Peters today? He certainly made progress, and had the blind side sealed off for most of the game.

 

6) The play calling was too conservative. (Having to settle for A 48 yard field goal).

 

7) I agreed with Jauron on the non-challenge. Royal once again reminded us of why the Skins let him walk. We need a tight end folks.

 

8) After all, it is hard to come from behind. it makes it harder to get a pass off under any and all circumstances. (4th quarter sack/fumble despite having a calendar month to throw).

 

9) When McKelvin stops hesitating, he is going to return kickoffs for touchdowns. Seriously, if he returns 5 for touchdowns this season alone, it wouldn't surprise me. This kid is explosive. Speaking of DBs, don't ask me why but I like Whitner and Youboty more, not less after this game. Again, don't ask me why, but I am dead serious.

 

10) Coming off the bench is never easy. It is also demoralizing. (lack of any game sense at all, and walking away from Schonert when he is talking to you).

 

11) Thanks Buffalo Bills, for 4 weeks of elation. Come on....can one person here deny being on top of the world during this streak? I for one believe that we will come back and defeat San Diego.

 

12. The right defensive end made the play, so it HAD to be the fault of Peters. (Running back to the 2 yard line on a screen and getting sacked depite having perhaps twice the amount of time neccessary to get the pass away).

 

13. GET WELL TRENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

14) GO BILLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hardy Agreed

 

Royal Agreed

 

Entire OL not good

 

Entire DL not good

 

D in General looked really bad, although Mitchell came to play. Secondary looked worse that it played because the Defensive front got absolutely no pressure. Blitz not used or executed effectively.

 

Coaches on Offense and Defense were badly outcoached

 

Losman Advocates can stop now. He has not progressed at all.

 

Peters will not get a new contract.

 

Bills are not going anywhere until they improve play at center and guard. Tight End is awful but some ok teams don't have a TE.

 

This is not yet a great team. On a scale of 1 to 5 they are a 3.5. They beat 3 bad teams and 1 good team so far. There is some promise here but they are 6-7 players away From making a serious run. They have a good shot at a playoff berth if Edwards stays healthy but that is a big if.

 

 

 

Edwards has taken a pounding in the first 5 games. He will not finsh the season if they do not protect him better than they have.

 

No Edwards - no playoffs.

 

We will know when they play San Diego if they are ready to competa against the really good teams in the NFL.

 

They have too weeks to heal their wounds hopefully Edward's Concussion is a mild one if there is such a thing.

[BuffinATL]

Here are my thoughts, although they'll probably be deleted. Again.

 

Paper Tigers....this defense is a total fraud. Their first time facing a potent offense, and they cannot get off the field.

 

You'd think that the staff watched clips from last week's Jets-Cards game, and saw how Warner crumbled when pressured. As usual, though, the defense (especially the DEs) was unable to create consistent pressure. Is there a worse DE in the NFL than Copeland Bryan?

 

Where was Posluszny today?

 

What was particularly embarrassing was making Arrington, a 3rd string RB, look like a HOFer on one of the Cards' scoring drives (can't remember which one - there were so many).

 

I can't see how a team with such poor fundamentals - poor blocking, horrendouds tackling, and repeating the same mind-numbing mistakes (how many times did the Bills line up offsides this week? I believe that Ko Simpson did the same thing last week) - won their first four games. I guess that the joke of a schedule helped.

 

Why has the team come out so flat for 3 consecutive weeks?

 

The "Special" Teams have been quite mediocre as well. Seems now that getting past the 25 on KO returns has become the exception, rather than the rule.

 

The SD game figures to be pretty ugly....

 

Also, did anyone really expect Edwards to actually play 16 games (garbage time excluded)? He's shown an inability to stay healthy, both in college and the pros.

 

correction - it's not that the Bills failed to apply consistent pressure on Warner......they applied NO PRESSURE at all. We made Warner look like the second coming of that Arena League gunslinger who had recently been seen stocking grocery shelves.

[rockpile]

Deano, you know what concerned me the most about JP today? When he turned his back on Schonert (who was talking to him) and walked away. If he does this again, I am going to join these lunatics and call for Hamdan to be the number 2.

 

People, did anybody else see this? I saw it as plain as day.

 

I missed it, but it was pointed out on the chat room.

[BADOLBILZ]

Bill, I actually didn't think Greer played poorly. He was beaten repeatedly by a very accurate QB who saw no pressure. Once again we see just how valuable those cb's are when you can't get to the QB. Worthless. The Bills are lacking athletes in the front 7, and that really is the result of tradeoffs made by Levy and Jauron. The decision to change so much personnel, lead to drafting to fill self inflicted wounds at RB/MLB/S/CB instead of building upon their roster. The upside is that the Bills replaced some talented veteran players with younger talented players and the attitude of the team is good. The downside is that they are neither stout nor explosive on defense and teams have identified these weaknesses and attacked them.

 

Regarding Robert Royal, as I've said many times, he's awful. He's clumsy and makes critical mental errors, but he is just good enough to fend off the low pedigree pretenders the Bills bring in on day two of the draft every year. While I would argue that his fumble today should have been blown dead for forward progress, the truth is the fumble was a result of his awkwardness and lack of athleticism. The team is dying for a good TE. They really should get on the phone with KC and see if they can work out a deal for Gonzalez. Edwards badly needs a reliable TE. Gonzalez is old, but he's just better in all phases of the game than Royal. I don't want to see Edwards get 3-4 concussions this season and become a throwaway, because without Edwards this team is back to playing "not to lose" football to stay alive. I also think fans would be surprised how much the run game would improve if those LB's and safeties had to respect the tight end position.

 

How much of a dog in practice must Chris Ellis be for Copeland Bryan to be active every week? They really need Ellis earn some playing time, there have been a number of big plays that teams have made at the expense of Bryan that Ellis has the athletic ability to have prevented.

 

And yeah, it was good to see Hardy catch a few passes. He was terrible versus the Rams, so his modest performance today was encouraging. It would be great if he were playing like Eddie Royal of DeSean Jackson, but all things considered, he's on target to become a good player. They miss the threat of Roscoe Parrish, but Parrish seems to miss a chunk of time every season and can never really put together a full season, so it's important that Hardy keep developing and turn into the big play complement to Evans.

 

Regarding McKelvin, picking a cb/kr #1 will look better on paper if the Bills are able to bolster their front 7 and fix the TE position in the next year. I still contend that you don't need to draft a cb early in round 1 if you are going to play your corners 10 yards off the ball and allow everything underneath to be completed like the Bills routinely do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1) It was good to see Hardy getting involved. Trent went to him in a clutch situation despite the problems last week.

 

2) It was due to confusion after the non-penalty call for an illegal receiver. (the costly delay of game penalty).

 

3) Jabari Greer had a particularly rough outing, despite making a play or 2.

 

4) It was entirely Fowler's fault. (1st fumble).

 

5) Any complaints about Peters today? He certainly made progress, and had the blind side sealed off for most of the game.

 

6) The play calling was too conservative. (Having to settle for A 48 yard field goal).

 

7) I agreed with Jauron on the non-challenge. Royal once again reminded us of why the Skins let him walk. We need a tight end folks.

 

8) After all, it is hard to come from behind. it makes it harder to get a pass off under any and all circumstances. (4th quarter sack/fumble despite having a calendar month to throw).

 

9) When McKelvin stops hesitating, he is going to return kickoffs for touchdowns. Seriously, if he returns 5 for touchdowns this season alone, it wouldn't surprise me. This kid is explosive. Speaking of DBs, don't ask me why but I like Whitner and Youboty more, not less after this game. Again, don't ask me why, but I am dead serious.

 

10) Coming off the bench is never easy. It is also demoralizing. (lack of any game sense at all, and walking away from Schonert when he is talking to you).

 

11) Thanks Buffalo Bills, for 4 weeks of elation. Come on....can one person here deny being on top of the world during this streak? I for one believe that we will come back and defeat San Diego.

 

12. The right defensive end made the play, so it HAD to be the fault of Peters. (Running back to the 2 yard line on a screen and getting sacked depite having perhaps twice the amount of time neccessary to get the pass away).

 

13. GET WELL TRENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

14) GO BILLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Trader]

After JP's play today. the respect for TE in that huddle went up a notch. The OL knows that Trent will deliver and bail them out. JP repeatedly has shown a penchant for holding on to the ball too long and looking for Lee Evans. Was Turk held in check because of JP or vice versa...It is hard to tell.

 

If the Bills don't fumble the ball and throw those interceptions. then going into the 4th qtr the game could have been tied or just a score behind....something that the Bills have overcome.

 

Overall, a big whipping...Hope the Bills learned a good lesson going into the Bye...

 

And the most important of all.......Edwards please get well soon in the next two weeks....WE NEED YOU.

 

Hopefully they respect Edwards enough to keep him off his back. Edward has taken a lot of punisment this year. The OL has not blocked well in the run game either.

[The Dean]

How much of a dog in practice must Chris Ellis be for Copeland Bryan to be active every week? They really need Ellis earn some playing time, there have been a number of big plays that teams have made at the expense of Bryan that Ellis has the athletic ability to have prevented.

 

I was thinking the same thing, today. I find myself wondering "WTF?" every time I see Bryan in the game. I always expect every game to be his last, for the Bills.

[billsfanmiami(oh)]

They miss the threat of Roscoe Parrish, but Parrish seems to miss a chunk of time every season and can never really put together a full season, so it's important that Hardy keep developing and turn into the big play complement to Evans.

 

I could be mistaken, but until this recent injury I don't think Roscoe has missed a game since his rookie year when he broke his wrist in camp.

[Dan]

How much of a dog in practice must Chris Ellis be for Copeland Bryan to be active every week? They really need Ellis earn some playing time, there have been a number of big plays that teams have made at the expense of Bryan that Ellis has the athletic ability to have prevented.

Glad to see someone else post this. I posted a thread early and it was deleted (no biggie), but Bryan, #96, pretty much gets beat every time he's on the field. I'm guessing the offense sees him come on the field and they call a run right at him. The guy was by far the weakest link of a weak defensive effort.

 

Please, bench #96.

[BuffOrange]

I don't know, but there doesn't seem to be a lack of people willing to launder the sheets. Tho, you can still see the brown streaks where it didn't quite come out despite the bleach and OxyClean.

 

The argument has been that if JP had the current OL, and Fairchild was replaced (with a guy that has called some good games), then we'd be able to make an evaluation. Well, there you go. Same results.

 

It just doesn't occur to the JP fanboys that the infrequent long ball, tho nice when it works once every two games, combined with taking sack after sack, fumbles, and bad reads just isn't good enough. People will still line up to lick his ---- b/c they so desperately want that 1st round pick not to have been a waste. JP ain't a bad guy. I don't wish him ill. He's just not a good QB in the NFL.

 

JP FANBOYS!!

 

I don't like JP as a QB. Honestly, if you guys want to rip JP fanboys you're better off searching the archives after the Pittsburgh game last year. The running game was uncharacteristically productive in picking up 4 yards on 1st down, the protection gave him all day to throw, and JP couldn't convert a 3rd&5 to save his life. After the game JP blamed playcalling and penalties even though we had like 3 penalties the whole game. Meanwhile the TBD cliq ridiculed Holcomb's Arm, myself, and anyone who thought JP was more responsible than Fairchild or the defense which gave up FG drives.

 

The guy playing QB today wearing Losman's uniform kept us in the game in the 1st half; and this game is not on him unless Trent's pass-rushing skills are better than I think.

[billfan63]

 

That said, I was scared by the inefficiency of the O with JP at the the helm. Say what you will, but Trent can convert third downs, get our D some rest and put points on the board. That *may* have made a difference in this game.

 

The Bills 3rd down efficiency this year: Seattle 4-16, Jack. 6-11, Oakland 5-12, St Louis 3-13, today 5-9

say what you want but what the H are you talking about

[bills44]

Haha. Nothing like facts to get in the way of random JP-bashing.

[rockpile]

Bill,

 

Do you take notes during the game thinking that we are just waiting for your "thoughts"? Get over yourself.

 

And yes, Robert Royal is a "barometer" for this team - as long as he's the starter we know how good we are going to be.

 

Actually I look for Bill's post game threads because they are intended to start a conversation about the game. They are his opinions and he is entitled to them (as you are entitled to yours). I do not think he is offering them as gospel.

 

Did you have a particular reason for taking a shot at him? I am just curious.

[Orton's Arm]

Bill,

 

Do you take notes during the game thinking that we are just waiting for your "thoughts"? Get over yourself.

If you're not interested in hearing Bill's thoughts, please find some other thread to post in. Bill's posts tend to be insightful and well worth hearing, IMO.