JESSEFEFFER

Any defense that complements a high scoring, no-huddle offense is going to give up yards when playing with a lead, which, by-the -way, is the dumbest way possible to rank a defense.

The Bills have invested mostly in their defense in the last 4 drafts and their poor defensive rankings = generally poor opinions on their overall talent. The collective opinion on Gillmore, Dareus, Carrington, Troupe, Bradham, Alonso, Searcy, 2 Williams, Bradham, Brooks, etc. are tied directly to that. If Mike Pettine can do what Wade Phillips did with the Texan's defense, the consensus opinions on the Bills' young talent and NIx's drafts will swing dramatically.

Here's a link to a BN story about what he had been working on. He may have shaved .2 sec off his 40 time. If true, I think he will stick as his sure hands will be a big asset to the Browns. As I recall, Little is very suspect in that area and the fans were on him alot. His hands are top notch and I think he was more of an asset to the offense in 2010 and 2011 than TJ was last year. http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121029/SPORTS/121029088/1004

If you know your Shawshank: Andy Dufresne: [in letter to Red] Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

It wasn't long ago that the Texan's defense was described by Aaron Schatz of Football Outsiders as "historically bad." This reality changed the day Wade Philips took over as DC. That same scenario is the one the Bills need to be considered in the "worst to first" conversation. As for the fumbles lost, they seemed to have an inordinate amount of fumbles in the passing game after successful plays in the open field. The odds are against the offense for recovering these as the defenders rally to the ball. I recall Chandler, Dickerson, SJ, Spiller, FJax multiple times.

The numbers from Pro Football Reference. Specifically the NY/A category (Net Yards per Attempt) defined as ((Passing yards - sack yards)/ (pass attempts + sacks)) Jay Cutler 2012...5.90 2011....6.41 2010.....6.04 Ryan Fitz 2012....6.05 2011....6.23 2010....6.14 So where's the big difference between them? It's pretty much nonexistent is the answer. http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/ Is this from the "the other 51 men on the roster are irrelevant--It's all on the QB" line of thinking?

You seem to be infatuated with ypa but when you consider sacks as part of the equation what happens to the numbers? The difference pretty much disappears, that's what. Getting rid of the ball to avoid a sack hurts comp% and ypa. Take the sack and both stats are unaffected. This was the Rob Johnson method to effective QB stat production. I'd rather have Fitz QB my team over Cutler because they produce about the same and Fitz is not a jerk.

This brings up the question of which man Buffalo lost to Philly was the more devastating. Jason Peters or this guy. http://www.buffalobroadcasters.com/photos/rocketship7withdavethomas.html What say you Promo?

1) Pettine was offered an extension which he, of course, did not sign. He probably had good reasons for not doing so. 2) He was always going to be under the shadow of Rex Ryan. 3) The coaching future of Rex Ryan in New York is tenuous at best. This could be his last year and the Sanchez/Smith tandem does not look capable of saving his bacon. 4) He was being criticized for being the source of stories about the Jets locker room that tended to make the organization look bad but give Rex some cover His "lateral move" is consistent with all of this. Also, if you send a corner or safety but drop a down lineman into coverage, this does not count as a blitz because there are still only 4 involved. The article said 5 or more pass rushers. Hence the need for hybrid players that are versatile enough for different parts of the field.

It happens nearly every year that a team will go from last to first in their division. This is mostly a matter of luck and hidden talent, that, under new circumstances, reveals itself and reaches a critical mass. Since this is a matter of historical record, there is no reason that we as Bills fans would not be entitled to try to look for evidence that this year it could be our team. The realists (pessimists) think that since it hasn't happened in the last 13 seasons that it can't happen this year. Any true realist (optimist) would see that this happens with regular occurrence in the NFL and say "Why not the Bills this year?"

There are two PI plays that rankle me. Third and 10+ do not draw a flag on an underneath route and on a throw deep down the field do not make contact with the receiver without looking back for the ball. Both of these are clueless signs of overmatched CB play. Most of the rest come with good, aggressive CB play that contests the route, the ball and the man attempting the catch. I am of the opinion that the pass will be completed unless the CB successfully defeats some part of the process so I was very pleased with his rookie season. He competed very well. As to the article, I respect any analyst that will go beyond the consensus beliefs and actually do some in-depth analysis. it's all the better when the end up agreeing with me.

The way I remember it, Boldin had as much to do with their late season run as did Flacco. Once a super Bowl winning QB gets their big payday the chances of their team winning another have to go down. Maybe way down.

Likely DROY candidates: DE (Ansah, Werner, D Jones, Hunt) LB (Jordan, Mingo, J Jones, Ogletree, Minter, Teo, Alonso, Bostic, Brown, Collins) DB (Milliner, Hayden, Trufant, Rhodes, Vaccaro, Reid, Slay, Banks) DT (Richardson, Lotulelei, Floyd, Williams) The DROY award favors sacks, tackles, and interceptions. That's why DEs, OLBs, and MLBs are the historically favored winners. Situational and/or rotational players are not the favored candidates and that's usually DTs and DBs. If Alonso manages to play all three downs for the entire season, his chances of winning get much better as he will rack up the stats that matter.

Likely OROY Candidates: QB (Manuel, Smith) RB (Bernard, Bell, Ball, Lacy) WR (Austin, Hopkins, Patterson, Hunter, Woods, Dobson, Williams, Allen) .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Follow the logic here. 1) Not all positions are equally favored. Some have zero chance based on the history. 2) To win the award, a candidate has to play. Not only play but be a starter for the entire season or nearly so. This shrinks the pool of probable winners way down.

Pears was injured all of training camp and tried to play on one good leg. Assuming a return to better health, I would not write him off just yet. He was pretty good in 2011.

Trying to play Solomon here but if you were to look at the history of the award and limit the field of potential candidates to those most likely to win by position and draft slot, the Bills are among a small group of teams that have any realistic chance of winning BOTH awards. As it is, I put it at ~ 1/100 chance of winning both. Other teams with a chance to do it are the Rams, Steelers, Vikings, Packers and Jets. Bills (Manuel, Woods / Alonso) Rams (Austin / Ogletree) Vikes (Patterson / Floyd, Rhodes) Steelers (Bell / Jones) Packers (Lacy / Jones) Jets (Smith / Milliner, Richardson) So I agree with the OP that the Bills could do this given the positions they drafted and their opportunities to make an impact but 1/100 is not consistent with "could very well" as some have based their derision on.

Haslett and Conlan were the two Bills defenders to win the AP award. Alonso looks to be cut from the same cloth as a 3 down defender that is likely to make a lot of tackles as a rookie starter. LBs and DEs are the favored choices over DTs and DBs and I'd put the probability at ~ 1/12. QBs and WRs seem more likely to win the award in today's NFL and there really aren't that many RB candidates this year anyways. There are more RB by committee approaches now , especially for rookies. O-line has never won the AP award and when you consider that the winners are usually top of the draft talents (makes sense--they are more talented and more likely to play from day 1) the field of potential winners is much smaller. My guess is that Manuel and Woods give the Bills 2 chances out of 16 or so. Without a calculator, that gives the Bills an ~ 20% chance to win one award and ~1% chance to win both.

Maybe. It looks like a good year for a 3-down linebacker and a WR to win the awards. The offensive award has been won most often by RBs and, of late, QBs and the defensive award by DEs and LBs. This draft did not produce all that many of the traditional candidates.

Teams are likely to have drastically different ejection and/or arrest policies. I'd say that as long as you limited your ticket purchase to those areas populated by season ticket holders that you'd be fine in the Ralph or most anywhere else. Sit in the endzone and you're likely to rub elbows with an angry, intoxicated single game ticket buyers that have decided to forgo the rules of common decency. I can't imagine that the Bills' crowd is any worse than the Raiders', for one.

I wonder what Derrick Burroughs thinks about every time he sees Chris Collingsworth on the air.

Some of my opinions on things I've read in this thread. 1) Chan's failing was not about his ego it was more about loyalty which is not really that much of a character flaw at all. 2) Buddy Nix' Legacy is yet to be defined. It hinges largely on EJ Manuel and how his picks perform in the Mike Pettine defense and less so on Doug Marrone. So its silly to dump crap on his tenure as the history is yet to be written.

Factor in an aging, weaker legged kicker attempting into the wind, a defense that had been historically bad at times but was succeeding this particular day (would not want to give the Rams a jump start with a missed kick and would later fail in the clutch--again) and a patch work offensive line that was having protection issues and had been characteristically poor at the short yardage run game. Add to that the chance that said punt might get downed inside the 5 (and it was) and you get a decision that, no matter what the consensus of opinion wants to make of it, had little negative impact on the game.

In defense of idiot Mayock, he did put EJ @ #2 in his revised rankings after not having had him in his top 5. Said something to the effect that if he was going to make a mistake on a QB, it might as well be the be the one with the best combination of size, speed and arm talent and having the most upside. He really liked him more after his FSU pro day which he attended. The other idiot you were thinking of was McShay, I do believe.

Add Oliver, Neutz and maybe Carlson and that could be 2 or 3 more from the offense that get drafted next year.