dubs

Haha. I like it. In all seriousness it's very difficult to focus on work today with all the incredible news and recent Bills win.

0. I read the title, make quick assumptions and fill in the blanks, and go immediately to posting. Kidding

Heard that on the post game interview. It's was awesome. He also made the point other Bills teams he was on would have used that as a crutch or an excuse. Was just awesome. Great win.

EJ has to get a game ball.

Run, Spiller, 4 Yards

I think Marrone is on the right track. Going into the season I had a fair amount of hope. After the draft, my hope evolved into confidence that the Bills were going to make positive strides this year and push for the playoffs. Then in the pre-season the confidence quickly devolved into realistic optimism, then then realistic expectations, then faint hope, and now... I am in full blown pray and hope for a mircale mode. No confidence, no hope. Just pray that beginning on Sunday something snaps in these guys and they come out like gangbusters and keep it going for the season. That's all I have left now, irrational prayers being answered. Not a good way to go into the season.

24-23 Bills. Carp hits a 44 yarder as time expires.

You are 100% correct. Rogers Rules Hogan Drools.

Hogan has? How many catches does he have I the NFL?? 10?? Chris Hogan has shown he can get open and get where he needs to with his 10 total catches. Nice.

If people spent less time and effort worrying about what other people think, felt, did, and just worried about themselves, this world would be a lot less complicated.

Dump the entire team and go 0-16 the year of the Andrew Luck draft.

Haha. Good point!

This is great! Haven't been through them completely but this line is exactly what I was saying. "This is not about taking more risks and punting less often. That could cost you games depending on when you decided to punt and when you decided not to. The key is to never punt. Never punting takes away the risk because it allows the averages to work in your favor. It also opens you up to different play calling opportunities, primarily on third down. The two go together and are dependent on each other in order to make this work." For the Bills, I believe this is even more critical, since we are terrible in passing situations. Turing one obvious passing situation into a run or a pass is a big deal for a team like Buffalo. Except I'd disagree with the idea that you should NEVER punt. Some situations make it a prudent choice. 4th and 20, 4th and 6 from our own 15, up 21 with 5 minutes left and at our 35. Things like that.

Totally agree. My title was probably a little misleading in that some folks might think I mean we should never punt under any circumstances. What I mean in reality is what you've suggested. Once we cross our own 40 (situation dictated), we should start calling plays like we have 4 downs to get a first. It allows us to focus more on our running game, keeps the defense guessing more on 3rd and 4th downs, and keeps their defense out there longer.

I agree. Mostly because we simply can't throw the ball. Someone else commented that the increase in defensive penalties means teams should throw, and that's true. But that assumes the team has a capable QB. We don't. Ground em and pound em. That's not ideal, but likely our best chance for success.

Uh...no dean. You wouldn't. That would fall into th category of doing it smartly. As I said earlier, punt when you are pinned back in your own side of the field or it's a long conversion.

They don't? Numbers and statistics matter in many other sports and industries. Baseball has been doing this for years and it's worked to some degree. In business, it works. But for football it can't? I don't agree. Like everything, you have to use it smartly. You can't just go for it on every 4th down but rather know when the advantage is to go for it. It's like the QB sneak. It works 99% of the time on short yardage, yet for some reason Buffalo never runs it. Instead we turn around, bring the ball backwards and hand it to a guy hoping he can get three yards (2 behind the line) against a stacked line of scrimmage instead of spreading out th defense and running a sneak for a yard.

I know it's pretty unconventional and sounds crazy, but there is definitely a school of thought that's pretty well articulated that supports the idea. For Buffalo, we'd run 3 WR sets with Watkins, Williams, and Woods. Chandler as TE and Spiller as the lone back. Spread out the field a bit and create some space. On Third down and 4 - 7 yards, we'd bring the run back as an option. We'd also keep the defense on their toes a bit more and hopefully wear them out.

It's not just Schoop. It's actually advanced analytics that suggest punting from anywhere beyond your own 40 is a bad decision. Gregg Easterbrook from TMQ says the same thing. If you're pinned deep, obviously you punt. Or if you're 4th and 7, punt. But in many other, common situations, if you know that you have 4 downs to get a first, it changes the play calling and makes runs possible on downs like 3rd and 5 or 6. Or we could just keep doing what we've been doing instead of trying to innovate. That usually works.

Time to get nuts. I heard Schoop talking about this the other day and kind of agree. In most situations, why punt? Analytics suggest going for it on fourth down is a better play than punting. For the Bills, it makes even more sense. If they know they have 4 downs to get 10 yards, it makes more sense to run the ball more. Can we just average 2.6 yards a carry? Throw in a play fake now and then. Slow down the game. Basically everything we don't do. At this point, anything different would be a welcome and likely positive change.

He looks worse than Bortles, much much worse

Um. Show up, put 11 guys on the field. Get ready for week 2

When you think about it, he's the root of all these problems. Todd was supposed to be the heir apparent to Jimbo. Didn't work out that way and been terrible ever since.

Haha! When you think about it, it's pretty incredible that we could be witnessing 15 years and counting of really bad football. Think about that. 14 years ago 9/11 didn't happen, saved by the bell was still on, and Pam Anderson was still hot.

This is really bad. I'm hoping they somehow turn it on opening day, but it's highly unlikely. The streak of ineptitude is staggering.