Who was the tool? Bledsoe or Mularkey?

[jarthur31]

Sorry about pissing in the cornflakes, but as happy as I am about yesterday's win over the Jets I'm still pissed at how the Bills wasted the last 10-15 seconds or thereabouts of the 2nd half when we were on the friggin' Jets 2 yard line and then kicked a field goal. They had plenty of time to run one more play but they just stood there and let all that precious time run out and then kicked the gimmee. Mularkey said when he was leaving the field that they failed to get a play in on time. That was friggin' horrible. Thought we were fugged after that ineptness but fortunately it didn't happen.

 

Sorry, had to vent. Now back the the post game celebration.

107271[/snapback]

 

You really need to listen to post game radio or read some online sports pages. Coach took all the blame for that and admitted it freely.

[kota]

Actually Bledsoe did the only thing he could have done in that situation. He had the wrong personal on the field. He had Willis and Sheldon as his only targets to work with. The rest were just blockers. He could have tried to call another running play or he could have tried to throw a pass to Sheldon or Willis but risk a mistake that could cost them not getting any points on the board.

 

IMO, Bledsoe made the right decision to put 3 points on the board.

[MrJaimie]

This was clearly a first-year coaching blunder. Considering how well MM has otherwise been doing in game-day management this season, I would think he deserves some slack for the mistake.

107349[/snapback]

 

I say we fire Mularkey.

[stuckincincy]

Clock management by most all NFL teams leaves me scratching my head.

 

That said, how many games are lost through the years by not taking a sure three points? I appreciate the "what if" here, but consider if the score was 19 - 17 in the waning moments of the game and the Jets had the ball, got in FG range, kicked and won 20 - 19.

[obie_wan]

The fans were not happy and the boos rained down. Why did we call a run on the previous play ? Should have tried short passes into the end zone. Incomplete passes stop the clock.

 

Coaches dropped the ball there. Bledsoe wasn't at fault.

107292[/snapback]

 

the reason they couldn;t run it 3 straight times is that Drew used our last timeout while lined up to run a play.

 

Run the dam ball and let Willis fight for the score.

[Pete]

There is plenty of blame to go around. First the refs didnt set the clock back when they should have when the drive got the first down and goal. Second, IMO, Burns should have got the ball out of bounds when he had a chance with over a minute to go. Third, IMO, they should have just run the ball without a huddle three times in a row behind Sam Adams with Willis and easily could have in one minute. Fourth, they did have two plays called but they had that run package in with no WRs and I don't have any clue why they couldn't just call a tackle eligible which is without question in that package and at least TRY to score a TD. Most of the blame, IMO, goes to Clements and Mularkey for sticking that package in and then NOT running it down their throats three plays in a row, and by not having a pass called into the endzone if they are not going to run it quickly.

107287[/snapback]

 

 

Fifth Drew wasted that last TO. I beleive it was on first down- he should of spiked the ball. Any QB in football knows thats the right decision. By saving that last precious TO it gives you options- you can run a running play, you can take a sack, you can challenge a call. Burning that last TO was assinine!

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

From what I here the specific issues included play calling problems and personnel.

 

In order to efficiently use the time, the Bills called two plays in a row so as not to waste clock time in the huddle. The plays are called into Bledsoe by microphone and he translates this to the players.

 

The problem was that the first play failed to score but the personnel they had in (The Jumbo Package with Bannan that we use in the redzone) had not practiced and couldn't run the second play which was called. An effort to sort out the personnel/play call discrepancy on the fly with the clock running resulted in the team burning time until Bledsoe simply spiked the ball to give the Bills the gimme three.

 

Who was at fault? Everyone. However, this is my sense of responsibility.

 

Coaches- Ultimately (particularly in the redzone) the buck stops there. Apparently the called a play for which they did not have the appropriate personnel on the field. One can see how it happened as the OC (or MM if like Marv he makes the redzone calls) called the play he thought would get the TD and if that failed he called a play which complimented the failed call.

 

However, the mistake was not realizing that the Jumbo Package limits the plays which can be called in the redzone so in fact they called a play that was not an option.

 

Bledsoe- I think if he is going to be faulted it has to not for any limitations he has as a player (such as he doesn't run as well as Flutie for example so that some rollouts are not even in the Bills redzone playbook) but for not being able to correct the coaching error with a TD call. Yet, folks need to realize that there was very different playbook under Jim Kelly than it is in today's NFL and that the freelancing a Kelly might have done is really impossible the way the Bills operate in the current oversystematized NFL.

 

Had Bledsoe tried to run a Kellyesque play, the likely result would have been a 5 yard illegal motion pernalty on the Bills as I doubt the team would have been able to properly line up and implement the bold call required for a QB to take control of the offense after the coaches sent in a play the team was incapable of running with the personnel on the field.

 

Even worse, the potential result of running a Kellyesue play in our offense might have been a missed block and a sack of the "statue" pushing us further back to kick on a windy day where the Jets already missed a chip shot FG in this direction or burned clock after the sack so we got nothing.

 

The irony of this whole thing is that as best as I can tell Bledsoe actually did exactly the right thing which was possible for him to do with our offense given the initial mismatch between the playcall and personnel sent out. There are simply few things which he could successfully do in our oversystematized offense after a bad mismatched playcall. He got the team to the line when it became clear that players could not correct the coaches play call errors and spiked the ball the to stop the clock and at least give Lindell a relatively sure shot at 3 points.

 

Bledsoe's work pales when compared to what Jim Kelly could do with our old offense in this situation. However, from all I can see Bledsoe did the best that could be possibly be done by almost all QBs running the Bills offense after the coaches made a fundamental mistake of calling a play the personnel they sent out could not run.

 

Some folks may want to view this as the usual insane apologies of Bledsoe lovers, its not but understands indicting Bledsoe in this case is also the usual insane indictments of Bledsoe haters.

 

The unfortunate thing here is that NFL offenses have become so oversystematized that they are pretty immune to successful correction even by a more talented QB than Bledsoe under many circumstances. He did the right thing here but even the right thing unfortunately is not very good after the coaches err as they did.

[stevewin]

This is what MM said about it - they are going to look into "what to do if the situation occurred again"

 

Some shaky clock management forced the Bills to settle for a field goal instead of going for a touchdown just before halftime after having a first-and-goal at the 2-yard line. The Bills didn't have any timeouts but still had time to run a play on third down. Instead, Bledsoe let the game clock tick down to five seconds before spiking the ball.

 

"It was a little bit of a lesson," Mularkey said. "I think we got caught with not pushing the clock up, which really hurt us. It screwed up the whole formation and screwed the play up. We tried to call two plays and ran low on the clock and had to use a timeout, which we didn't want to spend right at that time.

 

"The problem with the third down is, without any timeouts left, you can't run another personnel group. We talked about it on the phones, talked about it at halftime, what to do if the situation occurred again this year."

 

BN

[BuffaloBob]

the reason they couldn;t run it 3 straight times is that Drew used our last timeout while lined up to run a play.

 

Run the dam ball and let Willis fight for the score.

107568[/snapback]

You know Opie, if you ever hope to have your posts taken seriously on this board, you may just want to consider posting something other than a shot at Drew EVERY time you post.

 

You are a freakin' joke!

 

Drew used the timeout because the damn play clock was about to run out. Of course, that may just have had something to do with the coaching staff being totally unprepared for that entire sequence down at the goal line. But nice job of finding some way to turn it, like everything else, on Drew.

 

I guess he should have let the play clock run out and taken the penalty. Or perhaps he should have just aborted the called play entirely through mental telepathy! One thing we can all be sure of: No matter how Drew handled the play, ole Opie Wonton would have been taking his shot at Drew.

 

 

Thank you once again for entertaining us with your acrobatic and death defying gyrations that you engage in on a daily basis to pursue your never ending quest to bash our QB. ROTFLMAO! You are such a joke!

[mary owen]

With who, Sam Adams split wide. There were NO wide receivers on the field on second and third down. None.

107338[/snapback]

 

 

any tightends in the lineup? they catch passes, don't they? hey, take a shot or throw it through the endzone. then kick the field goal. the only positive here is that as a team, they learned a lesson. thankfully this one didn't cost us the game.

[Buckeye Eric]

BREAKING NEWS:

 

Jets 17

Bills 22

107306[/snapback]

 

That's the fact, Jack!

 

All the end of the half issues are moot with the W.

[JÂy RÛßeÒ]

That's the fact, Jack!

 

All the end of the half issues are moot with the W.

107786[/snapback]

 

Those who do not learn from history are billsfanone to repeat it.

 

Fortunately the coaching staff realizes they screwed the pooch on that one and do seem to have learned so that it doesn't get repeated.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

any tightends in the lineup? they catch passes, don't they? hey, take a shot or throw it through the endzone. then kick the field goal. the only positive here is that as a team, they learned a lesson. thankfully this one didn't cost us the game.

107696[/snapback]

 

 

One needs to take into account that with a mismatch between the playcall and the personnel on the field (perhaps in particular if there is a TE problem) that even when attempting a quick pass into the endzone a team runs a substantial risk of a missed blocking assignment. If a good defender comes through unblocked he tries to take a shot at blocking the ball to create an INT or getting a sack to set the Bills back further on a windy day where O'Briean has already missed a chip shot in that direction.

 

Modern NFL offenses unfortunately call for too much co-ordination to work well. Though modern offenses work better (particularly against the modern defender who is bigger and quicker than the defender of just a decade ago) with this co-ordination, in this case the coaches had already screwed up by mismatching he personnel and the play call so Bledsoe seemed to do the best that could be done by spiking the ball so we got the FG shot.

 

My sense is that even a better QB (which Kelly was at his peak since he could run and throw) would have done well to do the same thing Bledsoe did running this offense. My sense is that Kelly running the K-Gun would have scored despite the coaching error on the plays. I doubt Bledsoe could have adequately run the K-Gun but maybe he could have since clearly Kelly was no brain surgeon and though he was a better runner at his peak, the K-Gun was not a QB running play offense, but if he was running the K-Gun scheme perhaps he would have scored as well.

 

Neither Kelly nor Bledsoe would have scored with out after the initial fundamental mistake of the coaches.

[Kelly the Dog]

Fifth Drew wasted that last TO.  I beleive it was on first down- he should of spiked the ball.  Any QB in football knows thats the right decision.  By saving that last precious TO it gives you options- you can run a running play, you can take a sack, you can challenge a call.  Burning that last TO was assinine!

107625[/snapback]

I agree, he shouldn't have done it, but I believe that he wouldn't have done it if Burns just stepped out of bounds when he was a yard from the sideline.

 

There was 1:30 to go and the Bills had two time-outs, but Bledsoe used one of them at that point. We would have had two left on the goal to go portion and could have done anything we wanted.

[Kelly the Dog]

any tightends in the lineup? they catch passes, don't they? hey, take a shot or throw it through the endzone. then kick the field goal. the only positive here is that as a team, they learned a lesson. thankfully this one didn't cost us the game.

107696[/snapback]

They really couldn't do that even if they wanted to. There simply wasn't a play in the playbook. You had two defensive linemen out there playing TEs in Bannan and Sam Adams. They are not going to just move over and set up a sandlot play in ten secondswithout a huddle to tell people where to go. I was furious at the ineptitude of that series but it simply was not Bledsoe's fault, it was the coaching and the play-calling.

 

Not only that, and I have said in other posts that that sequence was likely the worst and most disorganized sequence I have ever seen out there, and I was going livid in the stands at that moment, BUT... one must remember that this was a 10-7 game right then. Those three points at the end of the half were very important to get, and made the decision for the Bills to take the ball and the wind at the beginning of the third quarter a lot easier. Bledsoe did what he had to do. The coaches screwed the pooch.

[Simon]

The problem all started with taking the TO in the first place. The Bills had 1:20 to work with and 1st&G on the 2. By taking the TO, you are effectively limiting your options to pass-pass-pass (which they ended up not doing, and you saw the result). 1:20 is more than enough time for 3 plays, plus, the less time you leave the Jets with, the better. So run a play instead of taking a TO...Run or pass (keeps the defense guessing). If you throw and miss, you stop the clock with say a minute left, have a TO, and still can do anything. If you run and miss, you have the clock ticking down from 1:00, and can either run a pass play or call the timeout. Either way, once you're at 2nd down, you're under no time pressure, and have plenty of options in the play calling arena.

 

Exactly. I was really pissed when they stopped the clock for no reason wahtsoever and adversely affected the rest of the series by doing it.

They didn't even have to hurry to the line at the point(in fact they should have been taking their time bleeding clock), much less piss away a valuable timeout.

Cya

[Guest Guest_dan_*]

I love this.... first (as in last year) Drew audibles out of plays; gets sacked; no chance for field goal. Result: everyone screams the coaches need to control Drew more and he should stick to the called play and play it smart.

 

Now... Drew does what the coaches tell him; a problem arises and Drew does the safe thing to assure 3 points and not make a mistake. Result: everyone screams Drew should take a chance and audible to his own play and take a shot at it.

 

Seems like some people can't win for losing.

[BuffaloBob]

Result: everyone screams the coaches need to control Drew more and he should stick to the called play and play it smart.

 

Result: everyone screams Drew should take a chance and audible to his own play and take a shot at it.

107982[/snapback]

 

Not EVERYONE screams at Drew no matter what he does. Just certain people on this board whose only purpose to be here is to take a shot at him.

 

Seems like some people can't win for losing.

107982[/snapback]

More like some people just can't shut the phuck up and give the guy some credit where it's due. I guess it's an obsession. These were probably the same guys who had lifesized Flutie posters on the wall in their bedroom.