GaryPinC

If you believe it was a Wilson conspiracy, that's fine. I just don't understand why some folks find it so hard to believe that Gailey was willing to give Edwards another chance under new tutelage? Chan looked at Edwards' game films, couldn't distinguish Trent's ineptitude from Jauron's and decided to wipe the slate clean for Trent. Trent came in, did well in OTA's, training camp, and preseason. In preseason, I thought he looked a lot more confident and was making more throws downfield. Regular season came and same old Trent. Gailey coached him up for a couple weeks (he has had success with marginal Qb's in the past) realized Trent wasn't going to change and cut him promptly. I thought Gailey did a good job of making sure it wasn't a mistake to let Trent go. Why does there have to be more to it than this?

I've learned in my years of following football that when a team brings in a new coaching staff it usually takes at least half a season for the players to get comfortable with the offensive and defensive schemes so they can not think so much and "play fast." Usually the defense tends to settle in a couple games before the midway point and the offense a couple games after the midway point, but if you've got an experienced O-line, or a QB like Fitz who can help determine assignments it helps the process. When you've got a defensive coordinator who doesn't settle on a scheme until a few weeks into the season, well, that's where the Bills D is now. Win or lose (but hopefully wins) it should be fun watching the talent develop on this "talentless" roster.

I'd prefer to see Merriman at that spot, but who knows if he ever steps on the playing field for us.

After this weekend, Cleveland may be more beatable for Buffalo. Their defense is really missing Fujita at ILB, Steinbach's (LG) gimpy ankle is really affecting his play and Womack being out is hurting the other side of their OL. Now Colt McCoy's got an ankle sprain and their young receiving corps just isn't developing yet. Cribbs being out really hurts them too. Some or many of these guys will be back for the Buffalo game, nobody's saying much about Fujita and I suspect his injury will keep him down most of the remaining season. As for Fitz, the coaches and team believe in him. We'll see how it plays out at year's end.

+1 Beat me to it, he should give Lee some pointers. It was great to see a receiver taking out DB's on a running play. I hope he gets more playing time.

Cleveland's not very possible. They are strong on both sides of the ball, Peyton Hillis is a strong runner and their TE's are very involved in the offense, everything our defense is weak at. Cleve's starting to shake off that losing mentality and believe in themselves. They're my dark horse to make a run and get in as a wildcard. Oh yea, Colt McCoy looks like the accurate version of Fitzy too. You know, any given Sunday..., but I'd be very surprised if Buff can pull it off on Cleve. Hope they can though...

One thing's for sure: the last 7 should be a whole lot more fun than the first 7, especially since both defense and offense are getting comfortable in their schemes and starting to "play fast".

Wow, Maybin sounds delusional. I can only hope Merrimen sets him straight and Maybin takes it to heart.

Ok, thanks. I'll try to reupload later, otherwise I'll figure something else out. No biggie, I do like the speed of the new server.

I clicked on the link, got internal server error. Went up to the URL, changed # to 10350 (right after "av-") and it says web page not found. Still had my avatar pic on my computer and tried to upload but says it's too large. Previously, I thought the image was automatically resized upon upload. Appreciate some help on which/what to do next. Thanks a lot.

Great article, thanks for posting this.

Better yet, look at Cleveland. Even at the beginning of the year it was obvious they could compete with anybody but found a way to lose. Now they've cast off that losing mentality and the players believe they're a good team. And they are. Sadly, I could see Luck staying in school if the Bills draft first but deciding to declare if the Cowboys get the first pick. We'll see.

I think Fitz could cut into his interceptions if he put a little more arc on the ball for intermediate post-route type plays over the middle. It's one thing to zip the ball in there on an out route, but to do it when your receiver is running 15 yds downfield through the middle is asking for deflections/INTs. In my mind at least part of his accuracy problems are due to the fact that he's about to get creamed and doesn't get to make a perfect throw on the ball. He should get at least 3 more games before they even consider working Brohm in. I like Ryan and he deserves more than his fair chance to prove himself, especially as the O-line continues to gain confidence. He's already impressed me in many ways, let's see if he can step up his game as he continues in the starter role. I think the final answer will be clear if we remain patient till the end of the season.

Agree completely and just wanted to add that said fuktard also decided to shift back to the 4-3 instead of sticking with one defensive plan. So as bad as our talent is on defense, they also spend time trying to figure out what they're supposed to be doing. Saw more than one play today where Puz was trying to get players lined up correctly.

Saw the game from the second quarter on and I agree he struggles with his accuracy at times. He also was crunched in a very small pocket or about to get nailed before he threw. He had little to no time today to set up and throw the midrange/long ball and he did a fantastic job of just getting the ball away and I think he gets some slack with the accuracy because of all this. A lot of other QB's would have taken a ton of sacks or throw-away passes today. With that being said, I realized what Fitzy's problem is that causes the INT's. He needs to put more arc on the ball for some of his intermediate post routes over the middle. Most of the time he does ok with arcing the sideline routes but he always throws a low, direct ball over the middle. That's fine for the slants and outs but any type of post pattern is just asking for a deflection/INT. He still gets at least 3 more games to show he can be the man in my book. If he's plateaued out, give Brohm a chance in the last 4-5 games. If Luck doesn't come out I'm ok with Fitzy till the team improves and we find a franchise QB.

Chicago's at 28, this must mean certain victory Sunday!

We've got so many holes to fill on this team, especially linebacker, here's a guy who's still young and has done some good things in the past. It is just wrong for the Bills NOT to take a chance on this guy. Cut him if he sucks, he may leave anyways but why not take a chance?

This whole thing is just shameful. Maybin's young and he may or may not be able to play in the NFL. Coaches haven't given up on him. I don't think much of his efforts to this point but to have a contest to call him the worst football player in the NFL and have the national media run with it is just wrong. The only reason it went national is because the Bills are such a laughing stock this was an opportunity to annoint a poster child. As a Bills fan I'm disgusted and it doesn't matter to me if Maybin never sees the field again. It reflects poorly on Buffalo and the Bills. Sullivan should do an apology for going too far on this.

There are a few other anecdotal things I can add about Jauron and his conservatism. You've got Schonert's comment about Jauron's "Pop Warner" offense after Schonert was fired. Jauron went through 3 offensive coordinators, 2 of them ex-QB's. When I watched the odd game for each of the different OC's, I thought I could see a difference in their style of attack between the 20's. Inside the redzone or when backed up near our goal line the playcalling seemed different, horribly conservative. Then there was all the timeouts we wasted down in or near the red zone. To me, that was Jauron and his OC debating about the playcalling, but I believe Jauron called the shots in the critical areas. Also, Trent's quotes about hearing different things from different coaches. I think this was Jauron's philosophical differences with his OC. Also, before Schonert and Van Pelt got hired people like Lee Evans and Jim Kelly had the odd quote that they liked what each of these OC's was saying they would do with the playcalling. But once these guys got the position there offense wasn't very aggressive. Finally, at one point last year when people were being critical of Edward's checkdowns he had a quote saying that's the way he'd been coached. Sadly, I don't think anyone will ever set the record straight about what really went on there, so we're left to speculate. And when Gailey proved Trent was incompetent I thought the same thing as you, maybe Jauron wasn't that bad a coach. I really don't know but for all the reasons I've posted I think Jauron's incompetence still largely overshadows Trent's (though slightly less). I respect your opinion on the matter though and thought I'd share mine. Thanks for the great discussion!

You're right, TE's utter failure vindicates Jauron to a small extent but let's not forget Jauron's "play not to lose" conservatism which was infuriating late in close games. Also, Jauron should have been the one to yank Edwards. He looked at all the game films. Anybody who watched Trent play could see the guy wouldn't throw downfield unless the receiver was wide open and Jauron was ok with that. Fewell took care of the problem as soon as he took over. Finally, seems like Jauron got canned in Chicago for pretty much the same reasons he got canned here. It's a shame a decent, intelligent man like Jauron can't learn from his mistakes but that's who he is. The fact that he got fired from here mid-season and couldn't get a coordinator job tells you what the league thought of his head coaching abilities also.

Actually, he didn't fool too many people on the inside. After he made it to the pro bowl, there were anonymous rumblings from within the Browns camp that Anderson really wasn't that good. Players nor coaches came out and talked about Anderson being a potential franchise quarterback. I thought it was odd considering the banner year he had, but he proved all the naysayers right the following year. Anderson never had the support and confidence of all his receivers like Fitzy does. Anderson never had O-linemen talking about how much he knows and helps the offense like Fitzy does. There was almost none of the buzz that Fitzy is getting right now. We need to let the season play out, but if Fitz continues to perform I'll be confident he won't turn into a Derek Anderson.

I like your thinking and hope you're right, but let's see how the offense performs as the season plays out. The good thing about our tough schedule is we'll know what this team is made of by the end of the year. You're right about Gailey also, he definitely deserves kudos. Our offense is finally settling in to the new system and now Chan can really go to work on opposing defenses.

I think there are a ton of people on here who subscribe to your viewpoint, including myself. At least we have most of the season to adjust our viewpoint, if needed.

I didn't focus on Cordero individually yesterday so I can't say how he played. After listening to Gailey's PC from today he said Cordero held his own but didn't grade out that well, so I'd say you're correct in your assessments Thoner. Howard seemed pretty decent when he played at the guard position, hopefully he can adjust more to playing tackle and be reasonably solid there. At least yesterday he wasn't a blaring liability like Green.

Put it on another thread, but during the bye week I think the coaches worked with the o-linemen to keep their feet moving and give up more ground to stay in front of their assignment. In past games, seems like O-linemen stopped moving after they engaged their blocks and the pocket was wide and close to the line of scrimmage. Yesterday the pocket was narrower and the tackles dropped way off the line of scrimmage but didn't let their guy get by them. The o-line definitely seemed more mobile with their pass protection to me.