timba

Nice report! We all appreciate the updates

Very nice of you!

If I were to choose my WR's right now based off of the preseason I'd go with Evans, Johnson, Parrish, Jackson, Roosevelt, Nelson and PS Easley. However, we still have 2 preseason games left to watch. I want to see Hardy get in and get some decent reps. I want him to be good and not have been a waste of a 2nd round pick.

With the Bills luck it is a possibility that we have to play a few games without our starters. They did play BAD BAD BAD without all of the starters in. It's just an observation. They were significantly improved in the second preseason game when the whole unit was in, but the play calling in game 2 seemed to show much more of an awareness of the O-Line weakness. A lot of 3 step quick passes were called and the ball was often out by the 2 to 2.5s mark.

You're welcome! I may have a problem!

Had a couple not so outstanding plays (most notably the the big hit Edwards took on the goal line). I was harsh on Meredith for the Redskins game, and he did well tonight. It may have been Greens first game (and against a pro bowl de), so we'll have to see how he does next time.

Buffalo went 1/10 for 3rd down conversions in the first game. Game two Brohm had three 3rd down conversions on one drive. One of them was the 3rd and 15 fumble play, so if you don't want to count that one fine. The second 3rd down was overcoming a 1st and 20. The third 3rd down (3rd and 9) was an obvious pass situation where he hooked up with Jackson along the sideline for 26 or so. None of those things did I see from Fitz in the first game. Brohm kept the O on the field and our D able to rest. I don't think his performance warrants giving him the starting position, but I would like to see him get some reps with the first unit.

Here are line observations from the rest of the first half FROM BUF 16 1-10 – Run by CJ Spiller 5 yds – Good head up blocking, wasn’t touched until he was 4 yds downfield 2-5 –Run by CJ Spiller 12 yds - Designed run to the right but no lanes were open, cut back to the left around Freeny 1-10 – NEUTRAL ZONE INFRACTION DEFENSE 1-5 – Run CJ Spiller 5 yds – Run to the left side behind Meredith – Freeny took Meredith a bit upfield and made a hole but was filled by a LB – Spiller bounces outside of Merediths block and gets the corner 1-10 – Scramble by Edwards 3yds – Pressure came from the outside at ~2.5s – Edwards stepped up into the pocket but had nobody open and some field in front of him.(Schouman gets injured in a 1v1 vs Mathis) 2-7 – Edwards to Parrish 9 yds – The ball was out of Edwards hands in 2 secnds – No pressure 1-10 – Run by Spiller -2yds – Set to go behind Wood – Wood double teams DT with Hangartner and slides off to hit one LB – all other linemen are man up – McKintyre is responsible for Bracket – Bracket meets and beats McKintyre in the backfield directly in front of Spiller 2-12 – Incomplete pass Edwards to Johnson – Ball was out by 2 seconds – 6 man rush 7 blockers with a TE and RB – would have been bad if the ball was held as Mathis was pushed by Green to Spiller – illegal contact wasn’t called on the pass 3-12 – Edwards to Spiller screen pass 2yds – untouched safety blitz caused Edwards to have to get rid of the ball sooner – this caused wood and hangartner to be 2 steps too late FROM BUF 28 1-10 – Brohm SACKED -5yds – Went down at 3seconds - Stupar was beat on an inside spin by the DE, when Simpson came in low the DE lunged over him and dragged Brohm down – Meredith handled the other DE well and kept him an armslength away from the speed rush – the other 4 lineman were up against the 2 DTs. 2-15 – Brohm incomplete to Jackson – Delayed blitz – good protection and the line picked up the blitzer, no pressure 3-15 – Brohm to Jones FUMBLED forward and recovered by buf – DE dropped off into coverage while a LB and DB blitzed from the opposite side, left Hennessey not blocking anybody and unable to move over in time to pick of the extra man coming from the right. 1-10 –HOLDING on Howard (bs call it was solid blocking) Run by Simpson for 9yds – Up the middle, had good blocking – Chambers and 62 put a couple guys on their rears 1-20 – Brohm quick pass to Jackson 8yds – Ball out before 2 seconds – Meredith cut block to clear the passing lane 2-12 – Brohm to Roosevelt 3yds – Ball was out in 2.5s - Blocking was good, both the FB and RB were able to go out to the flats instead of block 3-9 – Brohm to Roosevelt 10yds – Ball out at 3s – 4 man rush picked up, no pressure 1-10 – 2 minute warning – Brohm to Stupar 4yds– Ball out at 2s – No defensive penetration 2 – 6 – Run by Simpson -1yd – Pitch to the right side – trips right with stupar, roosevelt, jones – Jones and Howard pull, Hennessey got pushed down so Howard had a DT trailing him, Stupar cracks down on the DE but can’t sustain the block, DT lined up on Howard mirrors his movement behind the stupar block and Chambers misses him, Jones moves on the LB but gets beat 3-7 – Brohm to Jackson 26yds – Ball out at 2s – Safety blitz picked up and no pressure on Brohm – very nice ball by Brohm over the top and on the outside shoulder 1-Goal(from 7) – Run by Simpson 2yds – Stupar motions right, Hennessey pulls right, FB goes right – Stupar gets pushed back a step by the DE, FB pulls around the block, Hennessey runs into Stupar and bumps him off his block, and Simpson goes left behind the guard and is grabbed from behind by the DE Stupar was blocking 2-Goal (from 5) – Brohm incomplete screen pass to Simpson – Ball out at 3s - Pass was too high and while catchable was a difficult catch – Line handled the screen well, bumped their men a couple times then let them slip by, if this was caught there were 3 lineman in front and 3 defenders in the way 3-Goal (from 5) – Brohm incomplete pass to Jackson – Ball out at 1s – Indy has 7 at the line, 6 rush – lineman and simpson stay in to block, DE comes off the line free but simpson cuts him just in time

Early on I thought the Defense was weak around the corner. I'll have a better evaluation after I watch the game again.

I played all through HS but was too small for college ball. The line did significantly better against Indy's front 4 than I thought they would. I didn't expect much of an improvement with our starters coming back and I was pleasantly surprised. Bell already looks better than he did last year. Once i'm out of work I'll keep going with this. I'll try to clean up the formatting a bit.

It certainly got there a lot faster than i'm used to see from Trent! Makes all the difference as it doesn't give DB's as much of an opportunity to react.

Is that due to the Indy backups or our starters?

FROM BUF 48 1 – 10 –Freeny and Mathis both attack to the inside removing any pocket, Edwards rolls out to the right, pass complete for first down – Edwards to Parrish 11yds. 1-10 – Reverse to Parrish 6 yds 2-4 – 3 wide set, Johson motions in from the left, pitch to the left, Levitre pulls, McKintyre cracks down on Freeny, CJ outruns the pulling Levitre (FB block got in the way), 4yds 1-10 – D-Line stunt by Mathis and DT, Mathis goes inside and is not picked up while Green picks up the DT, Spiller hit in the backfield by Mathis, breaks the tackle and then shows why he’s a top 10 pick- TD FROM INSIDE BUF 10 1-10 – spiller run -1yd – Brackett not picked up – either levitre should have slid off of the double of the DT or McKintyre (who went after Freeny who was bearing down on Bell despite the blocking of the DT) should have picked up the LB. 2-11 – incomplete pass – bad pass by trent that should have been intercepted– wood got caught blocking both a DT and LB, Levitre and Bell concentrated on Freeny but no help was needed 3-11 – trent actually steps up to avoid the rush by freeny, mathis beats green to the inside and crushes his face – mathis started with a speed rush on the outside but cut it short and went inside, green couldn’t keep up FROM BUF 20 1-10 – 7 indy players at the line - run to spiller – mathis off the corner was faster than levitre pulling for the block -5yds 2-15 – WR screen pass to Steve Johnson 1 yd 3-14 – Wood and Stupar pull - cj spiller run – no gain – Wood picked up Freeny, Stupar went inside of that, CJ went outside of the Wood block FROM BUF 27 1-10 – run by spiller – 4 yds – designed to the left side, mathis left open, no lane on the left, went to the middle and mathis tackled from behind. 2-6 – Trent to Lee for TD! Had a full three seconds and nobody was near touching Edwards to Evans 70yds

"I never thought anything less would happen to be honest with you." Is what I see up there. Did it change?

I'm in the same situation... I'm leaving now to pick up my alcoholic beverage for the evening.

It mostly has to do with taking hits on each of those carries. It was the sports science show that determined getting a good hit in the NFL is like getting hit by a car moving at 30mph. We're talking being tackled ~400 times over the course of the season just from running the ball. That definitely adds up.

I'm ready for the start! Yeah it's only preseason, but it's BUFFALO BILLS FOOTBALL! GAME ON!

I'm gonna try to be kind of positive about this. [blindoptimism]Our starters will perform better this game and when they are still out there against the Indy second string will get us enough points to pull out a close win. [/blindoptimism] The important thing is that we see improvement. Less mental mistakes (false starts, late hits, etc), keep the QB on his feet more often than not, more passes to WRs than RBs, more effective plugging of holes by our 3 of the 3-4, and some more pressure on the QB. So not much.

If the quarterback is running for his life, then he cannot throw the ball. The quarterback is running for his life.

I couldn't help but burst out laughing in my office at this. I do like Leonidas though

I like the optimism! This is 'kind of' happening at the right time. Better now when people can recover some before the regular season than say week 1. This kind of injury bug isn't going to stick around all season... right.... RIGHT?! Hmmm that comment may be getting a "-"

Another option is to have the discussion like an adult and just not attack other people. Critique the opinion all you want, just don't start cursing somebody out because they said what they think. Try to enlighten!

If only you could get points from punters!

I think i'm interpreting this a bit different than most other people. The '...I'd rather Trent make the right read. And I have to give him enough opportunities' to me means that if he's checking down when other guys are open, the problem is on Trent. If he's always throwing those under 4 yard passes because nobody is open, then the offensive scheme we're running is not effective enough. ”So I want him to make the right reads and go to the right place. And if we’re not getting people open, then we either have to get different people or we have to create better schemes to get those guys open.” I think this sums it up pretty well. To me this is his clarification of what he had said before. “Nobody can throw it laying on their back or running around for their life back there. So our protection has to get better.” You gotta have the whole quote for this as the 'our protection has to get better' isn't specifically for Trent, it's for everybody. It also happens to be 100% true. Nobody can throw it laying on their back or running around for their life.

I'm glad Chan is seeing the same things that we criticize the team for. Admission of where the problems lie is the first step to getting them addressed.