TDO'Kearney

I was going to gripe about the Mangini>Jauron post too, but reading what you put here, it's correct.

Maybe coulda had Rex Ryan. He's not looking too bad.

I hate to say this, and go ahead and flame me, but the pressure seemed to diminish the moment, how do I put this, *ahem* Kelsay left the field. I don't know if he reads this board or not but he was playing like he did for that first quarter or so.

It's the battle of the franchises that fired their OC one week before the season.

They don't know that by what he says, they only find that out on gameday. Why are some of us kissing Ryan's ass for talking tough, and comparing it to Jauron's antiseptic press conferences to prove that Jauron sucks? Someone else said it before me: you have testimony to Jauron's gameday coaching on the field, in his .424 win%, etc. I have one question. How much chest pounding does Belicheck do? Jauron and Belicheck may not put comparable products on the field, but they are alike in one sense: the type of interviews they do. Vanilla, devoid of information, and boring.

The NFC pro bowl team would not be able to defend against it. And there was absolutely nothing wrong with the system. You have to understand that Tom Brady and his offense are not stoppable consistently. They are too good. You have to make them use 15 play drives to score, because the more plays they have to run, the more likely they are to make a mistake. That is what the Bills did, and frankly it surprises me how many of you seem to have forgotten that we had the Pats bent over a barrel taking up the 455 until a fluke fumble by a single player cost us the game. I know not many here like Jauron-ball most of the time, but I agree, it WAS the thing to do against that offense once Brady got his groove back. Make them go down the field in 6-10 yard chunks, pray for more opportunities for a mistake or a turnover. The only thing worse than a 3:26 TD drive when you're nursing an 11 point lead with 5 minutes left is a 7 second TD drive. I know we could say don't let them score at all, but easier said than done. Only the Giants have shown that they have a defensive line that is so ridiculously talented and deep that they could get in Brady's face every play with just their front 4, and even their backups get pressure with 4. No one else has a D line that good. The Pats under Brady did that to EVERYONE in 2007. No one was able to stop them except NY in the SuperBowl. If McKelvin doesn't fumble, the offense had a very good chance of closing that game out, if not putting the Pats 75 yards away with almost no time left. You can't play conservative AND commit turnovers, the game plan is not to make those mistakes.

That Wawrow character that was on this board for a while really spun it as though T.O. didn't say "No, it's alright." right after that and as if T.O. left you wondering what he meant by that or whether he was joking. If that's the kind of reporting he's doing, I'm not sorry he had his little temper tantrum and left the board.

I'll admit no one wanted Dick LeBeau to leave.

We had Gilbride, and everyone hated him for calling passes on 3rd and 1, and he's got a Super Bowl ring somewhere else. We had Dan Henning too, he of the Wildcat, and BillsNation hated him too. I don't even want to hear it from Bills fans on coordinators, we make sure we hate every single one of them for some reason.

Just reinforces the old adage, "The most popular football player in town is the backup quarterback!"

Or, how bout Kenyon Coleman, Robaire Smith, and Corey Williams, Cleveland Browns. Sheesh, let's at least wait until the Pats* win the first game 49-7 before we give up on the season. The spread is only 10 points. Who's got the Bills!?!

Alphonso Boone, Turk McBride, Tamba Hali, KC Chiefs.....

Just because Allen Wilson knows some details about Rhodes's contract doesn't make him right. The Bills have more young depth at DE than RB and as more than a few people pointed out before me, Kelsay is still here. Rhodes didn't impress in preseason, he got in a fight at camp, and he put the ball on the ground a couple of times. Hell, Michael Pittman is out there, maybe he's better. Rhodes didn't seem to have it anymore. I could be wrong about this but I don't even think AVP got a raise, so firing Schonert didn't cost a dime (other than the Bills won't get anything out of him).

True, from 89-94 how many times did you see Thurman run a counter trey to the right. Seems like it was 40% of the running plays back then, but with those players it always seemed to get between 8 and 15 yards every time.

The no-huddle Kelly ran worked because he had a feel for what to run against a defense when, but that said, it seems like Jimbo wouldn't want to sign up for the kind of hours he'd be working as a coach and taking time away from his family and Hunter's foundation. Enough million$ thrown in his direction might change his mind a la Brett Favre, but we're talking Ralph Wilson here.

It probably doesn't matter who "starts", so I'm sure Kelsay would be in on 1st down. I'd be surprised if Maybin wasn't in right away in passing situations against the Pats. My guess on the CB is Florence will start at the beginning of the season, and Corner will take over the starting nickel spot by the end of the season. As for the WR's, someone else said it before me, Bills might keep more receivers because chances are good T.O. is a one year experiment.

For those of us under 40, that means all we'd have to look back on with fondness would be the "Wade Phillips era".

That's why I just couldn't go for the SuperFan package this year. I'll call and complain about something 2 weeks into the season and see if I can get upgraded for free.....

I'm as disgusted as anyone, BUT, the most significant change to the offense wasn't on the field the last 3 games. I think TO makes a big difference.

One thing I noticed is that a lot of people act like the Bills offense was just sprinting to the line and snapping the ball on every offensive play. They didn't. I just watched the Chicago game, and they were snapping the ball with single digits on the play clock most of the time, they just weren't "huddling". From what Tasker was saying, there were a couple of wrinkles: 1) On the first 3 plays you get to the line fast to keep the D from substituting (you could snap the ball while D players were out of position if you wanted, but you didn't snap the ball until single digits on the clock. 2) You played slow like this until you got a first down, then speed up to try to take advantage of tiring out their D line. I guess this gives the offense a temporary advantage by getting the D tired without putting your own D on the field in 40 seconds after a 3 and out like the K-Gun sometimes did.

Since we're all agreed Ralph won't hire a Cowher / Gruden / Shanahan, Bobby April is probably the only untested head coach I would support - his record coaching NFL special teams says he deserves a shot.

Mathison got jobbed. He was WAY better than Ferragamo, but he didn't get a good look.....

He wouldn't be a first tier player like Brees or Manning, but I think he'd compare well enough to the second tier players like Carson Palmer and guys like him. Someone here said he was a good decision maker, I was young when I watched him but I thought decisions were his downfall at times. I remember him trying to throw a ball from his knees during a game on Monday night against Dallas, which was picked off of course. Also, supposedly olne of the things that caused the Bills to change their helmets from white to red was to differentiate Bills receivers from the other white helmets in the AFC East (Pats*, Miami, Colts), this was the year after he'd thrown 25 INTs. Fergy's decision making didn't always come into play because the line was usually great at pass blocking. We still had Reggie McKenzie, and if talent wasn't enough Conrad Dobler would leg whip someone or poke him in the eye. There was a muddy game at Foxboro where the Bills were wearing the white uniforms and in the 3rd quarter the announcer pointed out that every Bill had a muddy jersey except Ferguson.

Am I the only one who doesn't think a huge ego for a QB is a problem? Let's face it, you have to have the cojones to tell a receiver what he did wrong on his 7 cut in the huddle in a game you've thrown 3 INTs in. There has to be a little bit of "prick" in you to do that. Nice guys would still feel bad about letting their team down with the INTs. And yea, if I was Trent Edwards (not the Internet couch potato I REALLY am...) I'd feel good about TO. I'm glad he gets on camera and starts freaking out when the team is losing. I'm glad he thinks every ball should go to him even if he's triple covered. And Trent will have to have the stones to tell him to STFU and play, even though he's got 10 years less in the league and has done relatively little in the NFL by comparison. You have to have that mentality to be a QB, IMHO.