rstencel

Good point. Let him learn on the field, as he held his own blocking for most part, and is by far the best receiving TE on the roster. Giving him the first team reps in practice will go a long way in helping him on the field as well. Getting out of the no-huddle would go a long way as well.

Came out both please and worried honestly. Please in that the line had its moments, and the defense played well for most of the game. Mostly good decisions by the QB and the screen/draw game was awesome. Worried in that the usual problem of the defense being on the field for over 60 percent of game. They run a very small defense overall, and they need to hold on to the ball longer early in game, if expect the defense to be there for end of game. If they don't fix the time of possession disparity, don't see them winning allot of games, honestly. Think getting Lynch back will help some there, as they will be able to run more of the traditional run plays, rather than misdirection plays. Worried that the No-Huddle will offset this however. Basically think they look like have some good young talent, and there is a lot of potential there, but they are too small on defense to play the types of game plans they seem to keep rolling out.

Very true. We haven't had a very consistent offense for years.

Think they just wore out. Early in game they played good, and had a good rush. As game went along the rush slowed down, and they started missing some tackles. Then by end of 3rd, they had something like 62 plays run to 29 for bills offense. The wears on you. Don't think it was as much on the defense as it was on the entire team. Offense didn't hold on to ball long enough, and the miscue at the end put the defense right back on field after a fairly long hectic passed drive they just got off field from. Although think part of it was due to them giving up the short pass too easy as well. The cover 2 is designed to take away the big plays and wait for offense to take itself off field. Patriots played the high percentage plays for most part, and just wore them out it looked to me. One of disadvantages have when playing a bunch of undersized players, and running a no-huddle attack. Don't think this will be last team that moved the ball at will in 4th quarter, since the defense most likely will be playing a disproportionate amount of time on field with this type of offense. The 3rd down percentage wasn't very good for Patriots in first half compared to 2nd if I remember right. So think the adjustments made by Patriots, along with the defense getting tired has allot to do with the end numbers looking so good for Patriots.

If defense isn't on the field so much for first 3 quarters, they may still have had a pass rush in the 4th. If they had more of a pass rush at end of game, think the long passes to TE over middle are disrupted and things are different. While offense had some success they didn't hold on to the ball long enough IMO, to help their defense. The defense just plain ran out of gas, and NE took advantage of it. Of course if the return game does its job, we would have had a chance to finish game off, and defense may have had a change to catch their breath, at very least.

They did call allot of draws and screens for sure. Most of Jackson's yards came on these plays. He didn't look as good on the more conventional plays, that we will have to run in order to be more consistent at moving the chains and allowing our defense to get some rest. Feel sorry for Bills defenders till Lynch is back, they sure are going to earn their paychecks.

I liked what Jackson did last night, but don't feel like the Bills could do well in long term with him as a feature back, for allot of same reasons they lost this game. While made some awesome plays, the time of possession was horrendous. They only had really 2 drives the whole game. The screen passes were only plays that moved the chains with any consistency, and since the Bills never were able to run them well in past, that was a surprise to the Pats, but wont be to next team we play. We need someone who can run between the tackles to complement Jackson, who is more of a 3rd down back IMO. And we really need more sustained drives or our whole defense will be on IR by the end of the season, since they will have played 3 seasons worth of plays on the field by then.

It's not like they ran allot of offensive plays, or even looked to throw down field more than a couple of times till the end, that they would need to use reserves on offense. On defense, they could have used some fresh bodies by the end for sure, as the defense was very winded and pass rush dead by end of 3rd quarter.

Wasn't all the happy with the offense to be honest with you. The other team had almost 2x as many plays, and other than 2 drives, they didn't look very good, IMO. Could see our defense was exhausted by start of 4th quarter, when Patriots had more completions than bills had plays, and had already been on the field for 4 quarters worth of play for most teams. By the 4th the pass rush was almost non existent since they were too tired already. They need to find a way to get more consistent on offense and allow their defense to rest. Screen pass game did look good though.

He made comments about rating A. Peterson lower than Lynch as well, before the draft. Not saying Lynch isnt good, but Peterson is amazing.

Its a bit of both, but cant say what he was offered was chump change.

If they can get him in the 4th round, heck yea Maybe they can get a good year out of him before he holds out for more money and can trade him for a 2nd and 5th

Honestly doubt he gets drafted before 3rd round, if not later, if he really is dumb enough to go into next years draft. Not only will he have sat out a year, but they will have to worry about him still wanting to get paid like top 5 pick. If doesn't get him money up front, odds are he will be holding out after he has any kind of success at all for more money.

They wanted LB's that were good in coverage, over the run stuffers, or in Londons case, the run chasers.

Fletcher, why do people like the stats guys so much. Yes he gets lots of tackles, and can be good if keep him clean, but most of his tackles are in the same area that the safety's are making tackles, since he runs around the blockers and only gets near the line on plays that are strung out and the guy stops to change directions and dances awhile. Redskins have a pretty good DT to tie up bodies off him, to keep him clean, and play a much different style of defense than we do. If your playing a bend but don't break type of defense, he is not a bad option, as long as don't depend on him for coverage much. The MLB in the cover 2 is the key for middle of field coverage, not something he is very good at. So while he may be a sure tackler after the back gets 4-8 yards, he will give up allot of easy completions in his zone. He's just not a good fit for cover 2 defense I do not believe. Poz isnt as good a tackler, but is better in coverage IMO, so would rather have Poz between the two.

Some good points on the OC calling plays. Yes having the OC on the sideline does allow him to see and react to items, but he can only communicate with the QB, and until the QB goes under center. So even though he can radio in, once the QB either puts his hand under center, or lines up like is going to receive snap from center, even if he backs off the microphone has been disabled, so he cant use the info on how defense lines up to change things after that point. But that is a good point, if there is something he sees or one of other coaches then can call something to take advantage of it. He doesn't necessarily see everything, and doesn't necessarily have as much incite as to what defenders are doing as the players on the field, but is an improvement over QB having to see everything for sure. Colts only run a hand full of pass and run plays when they go into the no huddle. Allot of teams only run a handful of runs even when huddling. The key to keeping the defenses at bay before the snap isn't necessarily having hundreds of plays, as it is not tipping off what the play is. Good receivers run all their routes the same till the break for most part. If you have plays designed that work with many formations, and are well designed with different options depending on what the defenders do its not very easy to stop them. Execution of the plays is allot easier to do when have small set of key plays that can execute extremely well than having hundreds of plays that run OK. Doesn't mean they dint have additional plays that use for specific situations, and for each week/opponent, just that the core set of plays is small but adaptable and well executed, since no huddle attack requires the players be more comfortable with all the plays.

Was thinking about another possible reason Bills may be running the no-huddle. One thing that TO's past QB's all complained about would be that when he is not getting allot of balls thrown his way, he is in the huddle pressuring the QB to go to him, and if they don't, he keeps stepping up pressure. Maybe they just want to keep TO out of TE's ear. Weird thought I know, but possible bonus of it.

They have been on low end of pay scale for LT for several years. Not like anything has changed there.

Tried it myself, and seems to work fine for me. Couldn't find anything to invert the controls either. Sorry.

Most of the teams that have run the no huddle as a major portion of their offense have seems to cut down significantly on the number of plays they run compared to teams that don't, and seem to rely more on execution. I think running the no huddle does change the play calling, as you need to run plays that everyone on the field can execute against every type of defense they may see and know all the possible adjustments and responsibilities for all the situations. Most no huddle teams that I am familiar with, which isn't a lot i admit, seem to run around 6-8 run plays, and 8-12 pass plays out of multiple different formations/personnel groupings. But they run them very well, and don't give reads for the defense to figure out what the play is till play is in motion. That is why fell that no huddle does affect the play calling, if want to run a efficient, high powered no huddle attack.

Yes you can stand over the ball for a long time rather than hike it quick, but there is no real advantage to running the no huddle unless you spend at least part of the time hiking it quick. Also while your standing over the ball the defensive players can adjust and share note, while the offense is stuck in their stance, and cant compare notes, or tell the QB, that my guys winded, or biting on the stop and go, until they go off the field and give the defensive coordinator a chance to correct the issue. Rookie lineman can verify responsibilities for situations with call if need to. Rookie TE cant verify with lineman next to him who is going to pick up the blitzing LB if he comes for a play. Etc... As you can tell, I am not a fan of this team running the no huddle. At Least they have a fairly athletic line now, so that will help some what, but till they can master the execution and can get on the same page well enough to know what everyone around the will do for adjustments in different situations, they are going to struggle somewhat more in no huddle than would in huddle. I do agree its a little late to change the offense at this point, but huddling doesn't change the calls or responsibilities, it just gives them ability to run larger set of plays, since have a bit more time to correct things. Now mixing in No-Huddle with huddle for situations for for portion of the game, I do like. Having put this much time into practicing it, would allow them to use it fairly well as a change of pace.

I agree, the no huddle is used if you feel your team can win the one on one issues, and out execute/score the other team. Not sure anyone want to get into a scoring match with the patriots, with the possible exception of the Colts.

Hows that a blast on the Bills, his main reason for not reporting are he didn't want to uproot his family. Any where but Boston would require that. Being that Oakland isn't rated very highly as a destination was probably part of it as well, and Buffalo is rated about the same as Oakland, even though they have nicer whether. Your delusional if you think players would pick Buffalo over New England however. No matter how well the season starts, we are tied with Detroit for success in the 90's. Not exactly big ring of endorsement for free agents or all pros being traded for a perennial division favorite, and recent Superbowl participant with a few rings.

Yeah, Like he would report to the Bills any faster than Raiders. Guess would be a way to save some money, since could suspend him for the year without pay, and drop a few salary's at same time.

Yes I am partially tying them together. When people are vocal about not being happy about doing something, it usually shows in their performance. And watching his performance didn't look to me like he was finishing plays or hustling. It is true could be reading to much into it, but that it sure looked that way to me.