JESSEFEFFER

Nice pictures Bangarang. For some reason I can't repost the particular ones I was interested in seeing; the 3 photos of Sammy's crossing route. EJ has released the ball (I think it's at the blur at the 31) and Sammy is at the 45 and just about ready to trip across the back of the defenders legs which causes him to stumble to regain his balance. The throw ends up going off his outstretched hand. How much time and distance did the stumble cost Sammy? Did it effect his angle across the field? An inaccurate throw or a play where the timing was disrupted by inadvertent contact between Sammy and a defender? A stride and a half and a slightly different angle could have gotten him to the 41 instead of the 43 and he'd be ready to YAC and Roll. Much like the dig route to Sammy in the SD game that everyone complained about. "Worm burner," "Dirt dart," etc. That ball was actually tipped by Kendall Reyes but not so much as to be blatantly obvious to everyone watching. EJs game has crumbled under pressure. It's all he can do to avoid sacks and turnovers while being pressured by 16 or 18 hits. Consistently making positive plays under these circumstances is beyond his capability at this point. It's good to sit him down. I hope Kyle's game has an answer.

The defender had to dive to make the pick. That tells me that Woods catching the ball while upright would have happened in space. That penalty no call wasn't fleeting. It happened over an extended distance for an extended time to a player that the throw went to so there's no way it was "missed." It was calculated decision to ignore it, imo. Often times I think that they wait for the result of the play. "No Harm- no foul." Except in this case it ended the game.

Three points. 1) Using a game played in 30+ mph winds where the protection fails on nearly 40% of dropbacks is a not a good barometer of a QBs accuracy. Add in the mystery of apparent missed route adjustments and you have very shakey conditions on which to judge EJs accuracy. 2) The "poor" pass to Sammy that came in at his shoe tops was actually slightly tipped by Kendall Reyes. He drove Pears deep into the backfield and had closed to within a few feet of EJ as he swiped his hand right at the release point of the pass. If you have it on high definition, take a look and see if you agree. That's why the flight of the ball looked odd and Tasker mistakenly blamed it on the wind and Buerlein correctly pointed out that the throw was with the wind but incorrectly thought it was just a ball that EJ let get away but without any other cause. 3) I've seen lots of windy, run dominated games at the Ralph where the downfield passing game was greatly affected. What Rivers did on his deep throws was rather unprecedented. I thought there was no way that a QB used to playing and practicing in San Diego, probably the best weather anywhere in the continental US, would be able to handle a blustery day at RWS. Maybe Rivers was lucky or just really good or maybe Frank Reich was able to add some actual, game experience wisdom to the equation.

To me "game manager" is all about how agressively a coaching staff thinks about their offensive play calling. Run first, patient teams with defenses and special teams units that are succeeding and that are developing a young QB want a game manager performance. It means their game plan has worked. If their plans work then there is no reason for their still developing QB to make 40 pass attempts. When things are going well in all three phases, as they have so far, EJ will look like a game manager and the Bills will likely win. If not then circumstances will dictate that they need him to play more agressively. So, the difference is between what they ask of a QB while the game is going well and what he is actually capable of doing when things aren't going well. True game managers typically have no upside and are limited by their talent. I think Murph is right in that EJ is limited by design and circumstance but he can do more when circumstances change. It will be interesting to see just how much he can do and how soon he will show us.

Statistics are like words in that they only reveal the truth when viewed in their proper context. The Bible is full of truth but there are far too many in this world that are willing to remove the words from their context to serve some other agenda. Wars have been fought over the misinterpretation of words but at least with statistics in the sports world, our disagreements don't really matter. That's the beauty in it. Passionate discourse without life or death consequences.

It was always my opinion that Ralph valued loyalty as a virtue above most everything else, even above and beyond winning. Many of his decisions make more sense if you have that opinion. Ultimately, he was loyal to WNY and he stacked the deck in our favor.

This is not just a consideration for the first game of the 2014 season but is pretty much the true for all of 2013 as well. If you think of franchise QB as a "marriage" between an NFL team and their QB, then Fitz was like a living arrangement with an out clause but Eli and his $20 million against the cap this year and next might be headed to divorce court.

I was wanting to listen for a whistle on the rewatch. Often the officials are lazy with calling the play dead and then want to hold the players accountable to knnowing when to stop their play. I'll give Chandler credit for finishing his block as of now.

1. The Bills will be eliminated from playoff contention... F. the Bills will make the playoffs! 2. EJ Manuel's passer rating will be... C. in the 80s. 3. Who will lead the team in tackles? B. Aaron Williams. 4. The Bills Divisional Record will be... B. 4-2. 5. Who will lead the Bills in receiving yards? B. Mike Williams. 6. Will Doug Marrone be the head coach of Bills in week 16? Will Manuel be QB1? A. Yes and Yes. 7. How many of the Bills 8 home games will be blacked out? D. 1. 8. Will the Bills have an offensive player in the pro bowl? A. Yes. 9. (In total yards) the Bills Defense will be... F. Top 18 in the NFL. 10. Mario Williams will have how many sacks in 2014? F. 10-11. 11. The 2015 first-round draft pick traded to Cleveland will be: I. In the top 28. The way 9 and 11 are worded, answers (F) and (I) have the greatest probability of being correct (>60% and > 95%, respectively.) So, yes, I am pretty smart but I have no claim to great prognostication skills. The season will be better than most are predicting. I just see no reason to think they are in worse shape now than at the start of the 2013 season.

I think we should go on record as to whom from the 2014 draft we would nominate to have more of an impact as a WR than Sammy. Evans? Benjamin? Beckham? I'll even throw in Ebron. I did like Jordan Matthews as a 2nd round talent if the Bills had gone OT in the first. The Bills think Sammy was the best offensive talent in the draft and the closest to a sure thing to improve the team. I can accept their move.

View the trade in terms of the price to pay to get the best player on their draft board. It's not like that if they move on from EJ that Sammy gets left behind too. If Sammy has a HoF type career, it was more than worth the price. I do not see how this team is worse than last years as it starts the season. The statement that Orton is needed to get them to .500 is plain stupid. EJ was .500 last year if SJ or Chandler protect the ball. Yes, with the steep rookie learning curve and injuries and lost practice time, EJ still did enough last year to be a .500 QB.

Three of his last four starts (NJJ II, Atl, Jax) were well played and the Bills should have won all three. In six of his ten starts he had a total QBR higher than that of their opponents' QB (includes Brady, Newton, Weeden, Roethlisburger, Smith and Henne.) In nine of his starts, he threw only five picks. Yes, he was playing a cautious game that attempted to not "throw wins away." He had a 10 game rookie season and played much like Joe Flacco's 16 game rookie season.

The cost of mediocrity has gone up. At least Joe Flacco was been above average most of his career and actually was on a Super Bowl winner.

I booed the team as they left the field because I believed that they had played like crap, I wasn't happy with them and I needed to express that much as I did two decades ago when a team with multiple Pro Bowlers and future HoF'ers was losing at home to a terrible team (Colts? Bengals?) after 3 first half picks from Jim Kelly. The throws by EJ that I thought were horrible really weren't so upon further review. Woods stumbled from his break, Fred stopped his route when a defender got between him and the ball and EJ lost his grip on the downfield duck to Woods. The 2nd and goal from the 7 was a strict read option run all the way. Woods was blocking and Wood had gone to the 3 before EJ took 4 steps. Yeah, he could have thrown it out of bounds and risked intentional grounding (tough to square up while running left) or an inelligible receiver down field. But, he tried to make the best of a bad play and avoid taking an unnecessary hit. Can't fault him for being unable to predict that they'd lose 7 instead of 2 or 3. EJ was not as bad as I thought while watching in the stadium but the whole team deserved the boos that I gave them. If there weren't so many prepubescent butts in the seats, the booing would have sounded much worse.

I am of the opinion that he lost his grip on the ball just prior to release. It was fluttering almost immediately and was way under powered. This thing happens but it still bugs me that Fitz had two like this in 2012 that were ruled fumbles (Cle and Titans?) Sir Isaac Newton says no way.

I have a hard time believing that a QB that finishes games better than he starts them is anything worthy of criticism. For all the crap EJ is taking I do not recall him losing any games late the way Fitz had a tendency to do. EJ was a cautious and injured rookie who played better late in close games.

I have the opinion that the Bills would have drafted Ponder but were stunned to see him taken by the Vikings that high. Gailey recruited when at Georgia Tech and stories I read had the Bills with some interest in him.

As I recall, Hackett eliminated plays from the playbook when EJ returned from the 2nd knee injury. The reason was that EJ had missed too much practice time and that they could not get enough new reps on all the plays that had been installed previously.

What I saw tonight was a guy that when pressured and trapped in the pocket, not only doesn't step into throws but actually makes them while backpedalling. This throw can work to a RB on a screen but not to a receiver beyond the line. He better correct that fast or he will get abused by the speed of NFL defenders reacting to his softer throws.

Joint practices vs. scrimmages, not the same thing. Probably not going to allow much hitting except maybe line drills. It would be nice for EJ and the offense to get many more reps against a defense that is not so familiar to them. I think Fred is overstating it bit by presenting them as 3 games in 4 days but he is probably speaking up for the sentiment in their locker room.

The truth of the matter is that most of WNY has more in common with the residents of Southern Ontario than we do with our own countrymen that live in places like California, Texas or Florida. Climate dictates much of that but it's also a hyper sensitivity to being treated as an afterthought because we often are.

A good nickname because we expect him to be a "Special Weapon" invovvled in many tactics and it comes complete with it's own funky theme song:

Erie is actually in the Bills broadcast market which causes quite a backlash when a Bills game is televised rather than a Steelers/Browns contest. I think there is a significant fan base there, although still #3, and the Erie media do try to provide coverage of the Bills' goings on. In a business sense, one of Ralph's biggest mistakes was to cling to the traditional AFC East opponents instead of realigning to a division with the Steelers and Browns. That's two guaranteed home sellouts and the basis of two potentially very strong rivalries.

When considering a "QB situation" I think you have to consider both the short term and long term prospects that any team's QB roster presents. Houston is a popular choice but I think Fitz is fine in the role some call a "bridge to the future" QB. I would call Fitz a good "template" QB--a guy that can make all the surrounding parts of the offense function enough to allow the coaching staff to properly evaluate them in the new offense that they are installing. Their long term answer at QB probably comes next year. I think the Jets Smith/Vick combo has the least short/long term upside of all those listed. Both can only be relied upon to produce turnovers and I think the Jets won't be able to sustain any offense with either guy, this year or any year.

EJ can be as good as or better than Joe Flacco or Eli Manning. In fact last year he was better than both of them.